Ugh... If there was more spreadsheet in Elemental, I'd quit. I get annoyed with everything being percentage bonuses and numbers. Good 4x games need new abilities to unlock and not new percentages. Do I want another +50% to my basket weaving ability, or do I want to nuke an enemy city by raising a volcano under it?
I've been coming through the XML files and I found two abilities that I don't think do anything. 1. A_Influence, which is used by the faction trait "Influential" (Magnar and Pariden) claims to increase the area of influence by 1 tile. This does nothing. Area of Influence/Zone of Control/Kingdom Boundaries are all tied to ZOCMinRadius/ZOCMaxRadius. 2. A_Learning is tied to the "Stupid" Sov trait. This trait is supposed to make it harder
I actually agree with him. GC2 is like playing a spreadsheet. But aren't we on the wrong forum to post this?
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Now that I have more hours under my belt, I've taken a whack at rating the traits from 1 to 10. I've yet to rate the tech, but I'll do so in an hour or so. I'd welcome anyone's opinions.
FYI: The campaign does have an auto-save. It's a different auto-save than the free world. -------------------------------------------------------------- Ok... I was too harsh in my last post. While I can't stand moving units around (can't see where they can move to/can't see how they are getting there/etc), and I hate the slow combat speed, I think the game has potential. I rated the game when it first
Thank you for the update. It was nice to have the AI pose a little bit of challenge. (See my post in the mobility thread.)
[quote who="phauren" reply="10" id="2858305"]No what I am saying is if you use that strategy multiple times a turn you will not have any mana. I tried it on rid/rid when v1.1 first came out. I started a war and was still actively defending my borders on a large map with 3000 mana. Between the proposed strategy against endless stacks of hammer boys, 13+ roaming monster stacks and teleport at the end of the war it was down to 400. Magic is weak. You
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The Green Thumb (GT) sov trait does not work properly 100% of the time when starting a game. Sometimes, when I start a game, the GT food shows up in my resources. I can immediately start building housing on turn 1. Other times, I did not have my food on turn 1 and was forced to start building the beacon. Workaround: If I saved a game w/o food and reloaded it, my food showed up. Start Game - Save - Load - Start buildi
[quote who="phauren" reply="6" id="2857121"] Well I understand your concern for normal/normal difficulty, but I would have to disagree on rid/rid difficulty. Reading your post I am going to assume you never have played rid/rid difficulty because using magic is like a bee stinging an elephant. With your proposed strategy your global mana pool would be empty real fast once you start a war. Trust me on this one because I have done it. Your startegy does wo
I did try it on Rid/Rid. See my post above.
[quote who="Corbeaubm" reply="4" id="2857042"] Quoting IBNobody, reply 3 You may deal more damage, but you also open yourself up to attacks. Teleporting around the map keeps you from being hit at all. Not that the AI really uses them, but what about archers?[/quote] You either kill them ASAP, or you bulk up in armor. If you tech up enough in magic, you get access to some expensive artifacts. EDIT:
[quote who="Gene1966" reply="1" id="2856971"]IB, Have you tried this strategy on Large/EPIC/Ridiculous AI settings? I agree on Spell immunity being OP w/o mana upkeep I wonder if that is more of an oversight (bug) than intentional though.[/quote] I never play huge maps, but this strategy should scale. (Larger maps make mana gathering easier because there are more shards, and epic pacing would also increase the mana you store because you spend more time resea
FYI: If you suspect that your AI is stuck, just check the kingdom report page. You have an uncanny ability to see how many cities they own, etc.
If you make a smart sovereign (high INT) with the combat and mobility books (and you can secure enough mana), you'll win the game. 1. Research Blink (mobility). 2. Keep increasing your spell level until you can learn Arcane Arrow (combat). 3. Amass Mana. 4. Kill any enemy sovereign of your choosing. 5. Keep increasing your spell level until you can learn Spell Blast (combat). 6. Keep increasing your spell level until you can
After more time playing the game, I've come to the conclusion that I can't stand it yet. Why? The UI gets in the way. Tactical combat is sloooow. (See previous comments.) You can't rearrange the build queues. You have to pre-spend your resources on things in the queue, which means your queues are often shallow - too much micromanaging. Managing multiple units on the map is a nightmare. You can't easily see where they are go
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Empire pioneers cost the same, and they aren't affected by the civilized trait. Here is my faction load-out for a turtle victory: 1 - Civilized 1 - Influential 2 - Educated 2 - K: Civics or Trading / E: Habitation 2 - Arcane Lore 2 - K: Exploration (or Mapping to exploit the bug) / E: Mapping Civics or Trading is a toss-up. you have to learn Civics to unlock most of the Civilization Tr
Ahh... Poor Vanilla...
On higher difficulty levels, are goodie huts defended? I've been playing on the lower settings to try and understand the game, and I was disappointed that I didn't have to fight for any of these free resources. The only way for my champions to gain EXP was to quest or fight bandits.
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[quote who="Aatxe" reply="4" id="2853782"]On civilized, I believe it lessens the cost of training Pioneers. I can't remember and not in the mood to check it out. Uneducated increases techs by 10%. Right? My assumption, but you know what happens when one assumes.[/quote] I checked. Pioneers cost 5 guildar, 1 population, 10 materials, 5 turns, 0.3 guildar/turn in wages regardless of the civilized trait.
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[quote who="Stuie_acs" reply="2" id="2853169"] quoting post(how do I delete a faction now that I’ve created 50?!?!?). Go to [your documents folder > My Games > Elemental > Races] and they should be in there. You can delete the files and they will go away. Karma for the nice break-down of faction creator stats! Thanks.[/quote] I figured that out on my own, but I was disappointed that they didn't have an in
I'm still trying to like the game. I think it's the learning curve and the information obfuscation that befuddles my longtime 4X'er mind. There's this really nice "Kingdom Report" screen, right? Does it give you a full kingdom report? No. You have to hunt for information. It doesn't show Mana income/expenditures. It doesn't show Tech Knowledge Point Income. It doesn't show Arcane Knowledge Point Income. It doesn't break down numbers in tool-tips.
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I've decided to add a discussion on Sovereign Creation... Stats Stats can start at 10 and can be raised to 15 or lowered to 5. Increasing a stat costs 3 points (or your remaining points if you are left with 1 or 2 points). Decreasing a stat yields 3 points (unless you bought one with 1 or 2 points). Stre
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In order to better appreciate/understand/like the game, I wanted to look at the faction creator to see what traits were available. Doing so was an eye-opener and uncovered some bugs (see the tech traits) and some frustrations. 12/23/10 Update: I've cleaned up the document, added comments, and left some open questions. 1/3/11 Update: I've added my opinions of the faction traits. I've also started on the sovereign traits. 1/11/11 Update: I made some minor
I spent about 5 hours with 1.1, and ... I still don't know if I'm going to like it. Stardock loves vanilla and percentages and AI. I love unique, game altering/imbalancing abilities and could care less about percentages as long as I'm crushing my opponents. I don't think that Stardock can deliver on what I want. :( Maybe it's that I just can't get IN to th
I figured it came from my sovereign, but there's nothing that tracks where that income is coming from.