JMiddleton

Reply to Increasing the Sovereign's Power in FE Beta Elemental Forums

Sovereign's start with a one level advantage and the ability to lose a fight without permanent damage. Low level champions are so fragile that the permanent damage has always been a frustation for me - I'd much rather see a loss of XP they can gain back over time, but it means the sovereign will tend to widen the gap over the course of the game. I've never been able to build my sovereign to the point where he/she could take on a major opponent alone - they must always be supported

Reply to Are the non-domination victory conditions redundant? in FE Beta Elemental Forums

Bear in mind that some of us enjoy the eXplore, eXpand and eXploit elements of the game far more than the eXterminate! I'm hopng that diplomacy and influence play a larger role in the final game and that careful management of diplomatic resources will allow the player to enjoy peaceful relations with the AI factions while pursuing a non-domination victory. My perfect game will have non combat champions who follow diplomatic and administrative paths with specialized quests they c

Reply to Norton Categorizes FE update as Unsafe and Removes it From My Computer in FE Beta Elemental Forums

There are several excellent security products offered free of charge for personal, non-commercial use. The trade press reviews and ranks them periodically - do a search. Ad-Aware, AVG, Avast, even Microsoft Security Essentials does a pretty good job. I'm not opposed to paying for security software but I expect better performance and less obtrusive operation compared to the free products

Reply to [Suggestion] Ability to Re-train and Re-Equip troops? in FE Beta Elemental Forums

Upgrading allows you to preserve the units experience which can be worth the cost if they've survived a few battles. There are also improvements you can research & build that reduce the cost of armor & weapons. By mid game, you should be rolling in money - the hard part is finding enough metal and crystal. GalCiv2 lets you upgrade all units of the same type in a single operation - that would be a useful option.

Reply to [0.915] First Playthrough - Feature Requests in Fallen Enchantress Elemental Forums

Another vote for some level of control over the Order of Battle. If it's too late in the development cycle, then at least put ranged units in the rear!

Reply to [.915][Suggestion] QoL request: In-game clock in Fallen Enchantress Elemental Forums

GalCiv II has an on screen clock - unobtrusive and very useful - especially if your plans for the next day require being awake and alert!

Reply to Discussions on Starting Location Characteristics and City Booster Spells, ie. Making the Start Less Rigid. =) in FE Beta Elemental Forums

I've seen lots of maps where the starting location had nowhere to build, and others with one or two poor tiles in an otherwise barren landscape. Experienced players may appreciate the extra challenge but newer players, on levels normal or below, should be presented with a decent starting location. A good starting location is a force multiplier and the developers could easily use this, instead of crippling the AI, to adjust the game for lower levels - with the bonus that a

Reply to Informal Poll: On what level(s) of difficulty are you playing Elemental:Fallen Enchantress ? in FE Beta Elemental Forums

It's a pity OrionM42 didn't ask for insight on which faction people were playing and their style of play - I suspect that will have considerable influence on the difficulty level chosen. I play Altair on Easy - that was the default and I still find it challenging. My style of play is to expand slowly from a strong base - clearing the wildlife as I go. Probably not the most effective style for this game but, it's the way I like to play and the final game will be a lot more su

Reply to Possible solution for the Path of the Governor issues in Fallen Enchantress Elemental Forums

I'm not sure it's practical at this stage of development, but it is possible to create challenges - or quests - for administrators that impact income/production/research/unrest in the target city (or globally for the kingdom) depending on choices the governor makes. Good choices are rewarded with XP and a more productive city/kingdom. I'd base it on the old Hammurabi game. This is what happened last year, what changes do you want to make for next year?

Reply to [0.915] [Discission] Zero tax at game start: Cheese or Strategy? in Fallen Enchantress Elemental Forums

New players are going to accept the defaults - whatever they happen to be - and should be rewarded with a challenging but enjoyable game. If the only way to succeed is mimicking the AI strategy, the developers have work to do.

Reply to [.915][SUGGESTION] Would allowing Monsters to target outposts and/or cities be Fun? in FE Beta Elemental Forums

The AI isn't an issue for me. After 4 years playing GalCiv2, I know the AI will outproduce me in the early game. If I survive the early game, I will catch up and move to the front during the midgame. I also know how the AI does it and am not interested in playing it's game in an effort to match it's early growth. The solution I found for GalCiv2, that seems to be working in FE, is large map - small number of opponents. Having some space between neighbors means you have time to exp

Reply to [.915][SUGGESTION] Would allowing Monsters to target outposts and/or cities be Fun? in FE Beta Elemental Forums

Alas my heavy armor was at the other end of the map trying to clear a hoarder spider so I could establish another settlement - that job required all the muscle I could muster. It still wouldn't be enough to stop this beast but might have softened him up enough so the city defenders could deal with him. (The city has a hedge and 3 squads of Defenders - it's hard to come up with the cash to defend them better than that at this stage of the game). This is extreme but I find .91

Reply to [.915][SUGGESTION] Would allowing Monsters to target outposts and/or cities be Fun? in FE Beta Elemental Forums

Who says monsters don't target cities? And no, it isn't fun!

Reply to [Bug] Troops run away from combat in FE Support Elemental Forums

Actually I don't think the link will work. I need to email it to support.

[Bug] Troops run away from combat in FE Support Elemental Forums

Link to save game on SkyDrive. There are a few Gatherer Spiders left over after the main Hoarder Spider's army was defeated. Whatever troops I try to attack them with head in the opposite direction. The save game has the spiders next to a group of Defenders. Use the Defenders to attack the spiders to see the problem. Note: main battle with Hoarder Spider army was several turns ago, main battle group is about to take on another Hoarder Spider army.

Reply to Sovereign outpost trap in Fallen Enchantress Elemental Forums

The ability to analyze and adjust every detail of their empire every turn is the AI's main strength. Humans don't have the patience for this which, I'm sure, makes it a lot easier to design a challenging AI! For the human player, you need enough automation so the micro management doesn't become frustrating but, not so much that the game becomes boring. No doubt the developers will be using the Beta process to dial in the sweet spot.

Reply to [0.914 More feedback] in FE Beta Elemental Forums

I think a clear understanding of the relationship between AI and monsters is a necessity from a playability standpoint - otherwise people are going to get frustrated and quit. Many times I have discovered a nice collection of resources protected by a powerful monster and, by the time I'm strong enough to defeat that monster, the AI has built a city right next to it! I understand that the AI needs a helping hand to put up a challenge, and maybe an alliance between AI and monsters is t

Reply to "Online all the time" authentication required in FE Beta Elemental Forums

Stardock servers were down once when I tried to play the game and there were network issues (i.e. I could get to some sites but not others) a couple more times over the past few weeks so it would be nice if the Beta supported cached credentials (possibly time limited) so the game is useable when the internet isn't available. I think the game is updating in the background. One example is the restoring potions - I'm now only finding them in goody huts, a couple of

Reply to Friday Night Poll: 64-bit DLC in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

I think the question should be "will 64 bit improve the game?". The mass migration to 64 bit started 3 years ago and the commercial potential from selling a superior product to the many who have 64 bit machines far outweighs the lost sales from the few who continue to languish in the 32 bit world. I think this is reflected in the poll results thus far. A far more important question from a PC developers point of view is whether it's worth while to support Windows RT on ta

Reply to How do I? in Fallen Enchantress Elemental Forums

Based on my 1 week of experience with the game, you can significantly reduce the damage to your champions by taking the following precautions: Always allow them to recover their hit points completely between fights. Equip them with the basic items of armor you'll collect in the early stages of the game - they need the protection more than your sovereign. Include an expendable unit like spearmen in your army. Combat resolution seems to take out the

Reply to Do you specialize your planets? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Improvements like your Manufacturing Capital and Power Plants will boost production for factories on the planet where they are built by a percentage. The more factories, the greater effect they have. Research co-ordination centers and Technology capital boost the output of labs on the planets where they are built. Locating these improvements on specialized planets with a lot of factories or labs greatly enhances their value. Output from factories and labs can be further enhanced if they are i

Reply to Economy Question in Strategies GalCiv2 Forums

In ToA I build a farm on every planet except my homeworld. Once you research intensive farming, the population cap will rise to 14 billion without using a bonus tile. With one entertainment structure per planet, you can raise taxes to 79% and maintain acceptable morale as long as you fully research the morale/entertainment tree and all the morale trade goods. I will use a 2x farming bonus tile - which raises population cap to 20 billion - if (and only if) the planet has 2 or more enterta

Reply to What Size Monitors are You Using? in Personal Computing GalCiv2 Forums

I've been using a 52" DLP TV for the past 3 years. Resolution is 1280x768. Viewing distance is roughly 8 feet - from a nice comfortable La-Z-Boy. Control is a Logitech diiNovo Edge keyboard and MX Air mouse that replaced my original Gyration keyboard and mouse earlier this year. The system works well as a media center (I use SageTV), general home computing and casual gaming. The air mouse is great for games like GalCivII and SoaSE but lacks the precision you would want for most real-time game

Reply to Should people have the right to resell games as grey or secondary market material? in Personal Computing GalCiv2 Forums

There has been a secondary market for intellectual property as long as it has existed - libraries have been around for thousands of years and authors, like software developers, only get paid when a copy of their work is sold - not each time it is read! The distinction raised in this thread is that software has an ongoing support burden while movies/music/books do not. I accept that a software company might need to charge a license transfer fee to offset this burden but I don't think t

Reply to What the hell, why did I lose? in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Try reloading the game from an AutoSave - which should place you within 5-10 turns of the end and check the civilization manager to see what is about to happen. Normally the game will warn you via GNN when one of the other Civs is close to victory and, as mentioned above, the defeat screen should tell you who won and which victory condition they achieved.