Elemental: War of Magic (Stardock's spiritual successor to Master of Magic)

[Martok]

Link


I've always wanted to play a true 4x fantasy strategy title, which I've never really done -- for me, the Age of Wonders series is about the only thing that's every really come close -- and Elemental looks like it will fulfill many of the things I've long wished for. At this point, my only gripe is that we'll have to wait over a bloody year before it comes out.

So is anyone else here looking forward to this game?

[zaei]

Wow. The art style rocks my world. Looks like they are painting the game =0

[Tom_Violence]

This does indeed look balls-out brilliant. Kinda like a fantasy Total War kinda thing (I admit, I never played the original MoM).

My favourite part of the website so far is this bit:

Q: What version of SecuROM will be used?
A: It's using a combination of SecuROM and Starforce so that the game will require a CD in the drive, a USB key to be inserted and the reading of a particular word on a particular page of the user manual (which won't be hard since it'll only have a 2 page manual naturally).

The docs, which we expect to be written by fans, will be online only which will be fine since the game will require players to be on-line at all times due to the by-the-hour activation checks the game makes to the single player mode.

Also, the game won't work if you have any CD-ROM burning software including the built in media player software (users will naturally need to uninstall any media players including iTunes in order to play).

All of this will be integrated into the game by our eastern-european CD manufacturer (the copy we send there will be completely clean of course) so we're confident that no pirates will get it...

[RPGuru1331]

Wow. Stardock stabbed us in the back and decided to use Securom? **** it, I'm stealing it.

[Martok]

Wow. Stardock stabbed us in the back and decided to use Securom? **** it, I'm stealing it.

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not. (Incidentally, Brad was very much joking when he said that about the game using SecuCRAP.)

[Tom_Violence]

Proof once again that no matter how blatantly sarcastic one can be over the internet, some people still won't get it. Oh well. There was actually a little bit on the website after the piece that I quoted saying "This is totally a joke", but I figured it so completely unnecessary that I omitted it. How wrong I was.

[Destro_Yersul]

Stardock? Fantasy game? I want it already.

*spends a few minutes reading some of the website*

Ok, now I want it MORE. This looks awesome.

[RPGuru1331]

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not. (Incidentally, Brad was very much joking when he said that about the game using SecuCRAP.)

Yeah, I checked in with my other Stardock-lovin' friend who cleared my rage enough to read it myself. I get it, he's making DRM for other people that won't drive folks to piracy, even if he's not going to use it himself. I don't need to pirate a game just to prove a point now, so that makes me glad :P

[warty goblin]

The first announcement of this game didn't excite me overmuch for some reason, but I've been picking around the previews and forums, and am now eagerly anticipating it. The things they're doing with the economy sound like a dream come true, I've been wishing for a strategy game with localized resources for quite a while, and I personally love designing my own units. If done right, this could very well be one of the most interesting strategy titles yet.

Oddly the tactical battles aren't thrillling me. They're not not thrillling me, but that's not what is making me giddy with glee.

[Om]

I've always wanted to play a true 4x fantasy strategy title, which I've never really done -- for me, the Age of Wonders series is about the only thing that's every really come close -- and Elemental looks like it will fulfill many of the things I've long wished for

To be honest it looks like it will be a carbon copy of AoW but with worse graphics

[Martok]

To be honest it looks like it will be a carbon copy of AoW but with worse graphics

The screenshots are only pre-alpha, and will be subject to much improving and tweaking between now and February 2010. Brad (Wardell) has said they'll look "100 times" better than they do right now. While doubtless that's an exaggeration, it should be of some comfort to you.


Personally, I don't care that much about what the game looks like, so long as the graphics are at least functional. As long as EWOM's gameplay is solid, I'll be quite content.

[warty goblin]

To be honest it looks like it will be a carbon copy of AoW but with worse graphics

Having played an amount of Age of Wonders that is best defined as 'unholy*' I really don't see where you are getting this. AoW was really about the tactical battles, with a very, very limited economic and strategic model. E:WoM looks really much more geared towards the economic and the strategic, which lends itself to a completely different sort of gameplay and general dynamic.

*And by unholy I mean I played pretty much all the branches of the good campaign, most of the evil campaign, had two heroes at max level, and by the end viewed dragons as a sort of minor nuisance., more single-map games than I care to count, and once won an entire game by seducing lizard men.

[Om]

Having played an amount of Age of Wonders that is best defined as 'unholy*' I really don't see where you are getting this

Well from the screenshots alone you have heroes, twin researching/casting spells, mana nodes, coexisting terrain (ie grassland suddenly giving way to blight). Of course AoW in turn nicked many of these from MoM but it still doesn't impress

Now I may well be proved wrong about all this but whenever I played GalCiv2 the feeling I kept getting was that this was a complete ripoff (or 'spiritual successor' if you will) to MoO2. No bad thing of course but I actually found the latter to be the superior game

The screenshots are only pre-alpha, and will be subject to much improving and tweaking between now and February 2010

I have no problem with poor graphics (by today's standards) but its the cartoony style that puts me off in a big way. I just don't like that in games

[warty goblin]

Well from the screenshots alone you have heroes, twin researching/casting spells, mana nodes, coexisting terrain (ie grassland suddenly giving way to blight). Of course AoW in turn nicked many of these from MoM but it still doesn't impress

Now I may well be proved wrong about all this but whenever I played GalCiv2 the feeling I kept getting was that this was a complete ripoff (or 'spiritual successor' if you will) to MoO2. No bad thing of course but I actually found the latter to be the superior game

I have no problem with poor graphics (by today's standards) but its the cartoony style that puts me off in a big way. I just don't like that in games

I think that's cutting with a blunt enough knife that every FPS featuring a rocket launcher would rip off Doom, or a tech tree is ripping off Dune II. It's a consistent definition, it's just not a useful one, since it pretty much leaves you Pong and Tetris.

Personally a few similarities to other games in the genre doesn't strike me as a bad thing, a lot of those mechanics are ubiquitous because they work. Plus EWOM seems to be doing some majorly new and exciting things with the economy and unit creation. Between having resource usability tied to map location and not some giant pool, custom city expansion, and custom unit creation are all that if not new, are certainly not commonplace in X4 games.

[RPGuru1331]

Well from the screenshots alone you have heroes, twin researching/casting spells, mana nodes, coexisting terrain (ie grassland suddenly giving way to blight). Of course AoW in turn nicked many of these from MoM but it still doesn't impress.

I don't get it. Fantasy 4X staples are that annoying?

[Narkis]

I've already preordered it. I trust Stardock enough to make another great game, and what I read about the game made this certainty even more... certain

edit: Also, beta.

[Om]

I don't get it. Fantasy 4X staples are that annoying?

Not annoying, just disappointingly unoriginal. Unfortunately "Fantasy 4X" still means "MoM clone"

[Destro_Yersul]

Not annoying, just disappointingly unoriginal. Unfortunately "Fantasy 4X" still means "MoM clone"

Now with innovation!

Trust Stardock to take something awesome and make it better.

[warty goblin]

Now with innovation!

Trust Stardock to take something awesome and make it better.

There is that. I'd be just fine if it was a complete retread of Age of Wonders with some different units/spells. An interesting economic model just makes it even more interesting.

[The Valiant Turtle]

Personally I love MoM but hate AoW. I'm somewhere in the middle on the HoMM series. I'm pretty sure StarDock will get it right though.

[Lord Herman]

Oooo! I want! I want!

This looks really nifty. The economic system looks interesting, although I'm not sure if it's truly going to be that different from the traditional 'production points' system in practice. Still, if anyone can pull it off, it's Stardock.

Also, the DRM joke is brilliant.

[RPGuru1331]

Not annoying, just disappointingly unoriginal. Unfortunately "Fantasy 4X" still means "MoM clone"

Having spent the last few weekends playing MoM, I've already found a non-clone: Civ4's mod Fall From Heaven 2. Well, I found the non-clone first, but that's not the point.

Besides, who cares? MoM is ancient and doesn't even have multiplay. An update isn't the worst thing that could happen.