right, well I mean the 'tube' style map is in theory something that goes all around whatever world it is on.  I can only imagine that would have an equator of some sort.

Of course the discussion of non-square maps that might not apply, and I'd be really interested to see how that would be setup.

im okay with traditional style, OR globe, i dont think it really matters, but i'd definately like to see an option between the two like civ4 and maybe like others have mentioned floating island maps or themed maps that replace ocean with air. totally loving the skies of arcadia legends kinda thing, airships ftw best rts idea IMO.

Hmm. Oceans of air combined with mobile shards could make for a really fun special map context. Only land masses with a Water shard would be able to generate fresh water, so stealing an enemies Water shard might be the single best way to wreck their realm, regardless of any other shards they might control.

Or, if mobile shards are not an option, maybe you'd still need a Water shard under your control before you could imbue any land with essence and get its springs flowing again. That could help 'force' players who tend to emphasize territory development to figure out how to play the early game as a high-essence channeler with a very small home turf.

Make it a Dyson Sphere map....

Of, if it were globe shaped, an interesting idea would be a planet which doesn't rotate. This would leave the side facing the sun always an extremely hot desert with little to no water where it is day all the time, and the side facing away from the sun would be an extremely cold, icy region which would always be dark. And then there would be the circular ring around the planet where it is always somewhat of a twilight, where it would be habitable. Hehe, we could even call it the twilight zone! This setup would make for a very interesting place in which day and night are constant. Or, for even more interesting gameplay, have the planet rotate once every 2000 years or so, so the habitable zone is constantly shifting, leaving any civilization which fails to adjust nothing more than ruins frozen in the icy side or buried in the desert side. Weather would also be much more stationary, since the weather patterns on Earth depend greatly on the rotation of the planet (west to east movement of weather systems).

Alway, your ideas make me more and more excited to hear about some stort of multiple world system MoM style.

Has anyone caught the least peep from the devs on this point? I know some posters really hate the idea, but I'm with Landi, in principle at least.

I don't know about a full analog to Myrror (Elemental is NotMoM, after all), but something by way of an astral plane, islands in the sky, or pocket dimensions aligned with each of the Elements would be great fun, IMO. The map could start with a few pre-cataclysm gate artifacts and channelers could potentially learn to build their own gates and/or cast spells to move units.

last peep as far as I caught it is that it will be a map, not a globe. Beyond that....

Well, really I want a wide range of terrain sets, and the ABILITY to create multiple worlds.   Like multiple solar systems in Sins, except the terrain and other factors could make the different systems feel more different than Sins did with its solar systems.  You shouldn't always be forced to use it, you could just have 1 world,

I'm trying to find a picture of the MoM ending that shows the wizard holding the two worlds and say *points*  I want a screen like that.   Either a wizard laughing over a big map(s) that shows where his empire lies, or him with the worlds spinning around him or something.   I always felt good there.  Much better than I do in other strategy games where it just shows a little pop-up that says "you won:  Keep playing Y/N" and then has a stat screen (all those are good, but it should be after the you've conquered the world(s) video(s))

Having had a good look at the UI in the currently available screenshots I can't see any obvious candidate for a button for switching between planes. With this and the fact that no dev has made any mention of extra planes at all I'm erring on the side that they're not going to be included in the game (whether they're possible to easily mod in or not I wouldn't hazard a guess). I don't wanna throw a dampner on people's hopes, but that's what I'm assuming at this point, even though I'd actually quite like them included.

I agree with Jonny's impulse to, ahem, manage our expectations re any sort of Myrror-analog or sky-islands. But the dev process is still a long way from leaving home for the public beta, and IIRC the screen shots we've had so far are more or less baby pictures, at least as far as the functional UI details go. I'm just sayin' ...

well they said the UI had long ways to go.   I mean really, look at Sins of a Solar empire.  Its early development UI looks almost nothing like its final version.

All they'd have to do is add a button and something that let you put a marker on the field so you can see where a point on 1 plane exists on another plane (I say this because I think its a feature they need, though no other game of which I am aware has done it before).

I understand what you are saying, but I like being "loud" about it because I want it to be known that I want it, and I know at least some others do too.  I do think its a unique part of Master of Magic and I don't feel any game since has done it right.  I understand the risk of getting my hopes up, but I'll take it because it doesn't really hurt.    If they don't do it:   I'll cry a little, but then get over it because the rest of the game will kick ass.  If they do:  I'll be that much more excited and spend that much more time in the map editor.

You know, one of the first dev posts on these forums said not to post the same ideas over and over again in order to bring attention to them, even if it is buried deep in an unrelated thread, because they read everything

But I agree about the whole UI thing. For one Stardock has already stated that the current UI is very preliminary. They have also stated that one of the things they're excited about is that they're using something from one of their other products (don't remember what) to be able to create lots of UIs very easily, meaning playing around with UI and making lots of different ones will be very easy compared to what they're used to.

I'm also in favor of other planes - as an option. Personally I don't really see myself using them. What I would like to see though is an integrated cave/limited underground level. So we can actually do things under mountains and such. This idea has been threshed out in other threads though so I'll leave it at that

That's true, but come on, if you had extra planes planned for the game at the stage those screenshots were taken why would you ever put together a UI without that facility? Surely that's a piece of core functionality too big to ever leave out, it'd be like putting together an early version of the UI with no next turn button?! You'd always know that it had to be put in at some stage, so why bother mocking up a design without it? Now I'm not saying that's definitley not what's happened, but personally it strikes me as VERY unlikely.

Another hopeful possibility that exists is that they decided to put in a multi plane system after those screenshots . If the screens were really early in development that's still conceivable so lets hope for that .. Oh yeah a third option would be that there IS a button on those shots to change plane, but it's just not graphically intuitive enough for any of us to realise that that's what it does

so that it is functional prior to you completing the feature.   There are MANY things missing from that UI.   Like a main menu button... thats a pretty core.  Its missing a ton of buttons, they just obviously haven't finalized it.   To make it really intuitive it would be an easy access hotkey on the keyboard that lets you switch planes without moving your mouse (solves my problems with old planes system again)

Again, it was the same with Sins of a Solar empire, it went many different UI appearances and button arrangements (which was ironclad more than Stardock, but still)

If something as far reaching as multiple plains isn't being tested in sync with the rest of the game at a stage where they're testing pretty much anything else in general gameplay then that sounds to me a bit like they're halfassing it. I think it's a pretty core mechanic and will have wide ramifications for the whole game so would need to be attached from very early on to come out well.

Also I still don't understand why you'd have a UI without a plane switching button? I mean what are you testing is funcitonal here with this mock up that leaves it out? Are you just checking the a button press leads to a particular feature working? If so then you could do that just as easily with more buttons? If you're talking design and looking for an intuitive, visually clean, efficient to use interface then it just strikes me there's no point testing a version of it that has no chance being in the game as it stands. Surely in that aspect you're checking that it works at the micro level, that everything is exactly in the right place and optimal for use... but why do that when you're necessarily gonna have to add in another button and shift everything around, it invalidates any testing you would have done .. but having said that I could easily be wrong, maybe there's great reasons for doing it that I don't comprehend.. I am not a game programmer

I reckon the bottom left button on the current screenshots could conceivably be a main menu button (the one that just has a crown on it) .. it's also possible that could be some sort of character page for your channeller..but I think it's generic looking enough that it could be for the menu.

Yeah if multiple planes are in they DEFINITELY need a hotkey for switching, and you're right it really does solve a lot of problems by allowing you to put your cursor somewhere and then flicking so you can see where the planes match up.. yeah that's really an elegant way of doing it. Having said that of course I wouldn't call something that relied SOLELY on a hotkey "intuitive" as to me that implies being able to figure out how to use functionality with no prior knowledge.. and unless you're blindly experiementing by mashing buttons on your keyboard that'd have to be explicitly told to you somewhere and not implied by the interface which is what we surely want. Also there is the fact that a lot of players like to play with only their mouse, so incorporating an important feature that forces them to be in reach of their keyboarrds at all time seems a bit mean

Man I can't believe I wrote so much on such a minor speculatey point.... I.. am.. an... idiot!

The screenshots we've seen so far were released something like 18 months before their projectd release date. And at the same time they opened these forums, asking for our ideas. Therefore it's safe to assume that Stardock is nowhere near being in a "test pretty much anything in general gameplay" stage yet. I doubt they're testing much at all about gameplay yet, really. They hadn't (still haven't?) even finished the engine.

Then, on top of that, the UI is almost always the last thing to be finalized. Throughout the development process they usually just hack up a UI that only includes buttons and information for features that are already put in. As the game gets more fleshed out, so does the UI. The absence of something from the UI so early on in the development process really tells you nothing at all.

Yeah, how is that contrary to what I've been saying? The only real point I've been trying to make here is that I don't think it was in the game at the time of those screenshots.. otherwise they'd have a button for it on the UI, however basic and transitory that UI is. I hope it gets put in at some point, I'm just saying that I don't think it was at that point.

Oh. I thought you were saying that because there was nothing about other planes in the UI, there were no plans, even, to put in other planes later on. The point of my post was that that conclusion is a non sequitur. If it isn't what you were saying then just ignore more

Going on at length is no sign of idiocy in its own right. Depending on whose attention most interests you, too much verbiage can get you ignored, but it's clear that several early regulars around here would not consider PowerPoint to be a writing tool.

More importantly, the Elemental Ideas area is supposed to be a pre-beta brainstorming process. I suspect you can type with enough speed that your thinking doesn't run too far ahead of your fingers. That means if you type freely and digress onto something really neat like Geoff the Slug, you can (perhaps even accidentally) give us more things that are really worth consideration. Keep it up.

Yep, this is pre-beta discussion period! The whole point of these forums is for us to sling around our thoughts in hope of the devs getting some nice inspiration from them which in the end improves the game as a whole...

and to generate early excitement and community for the game to ensure a better turn out when it is not pre-beta