[1.10] Scorecard for Elemental

from Elemental Forums

Thought I'd resurrect the 1.09 scorecard for 1.10 as a way of isolating the various concepts in Elemental and seeing what people like or dislike.

Feel free to make your own. Just allocate 1000 points anyway you want in any category or subcategory you like then score the game out of those 1000 points.

I'm just going to use the same allocation from 1.09.

Feel free to copy the following and add or adapt your own scoring system.

Before I fill in the sheet I would rate version 1.10 around 80% now which is heaps more than 1.09 (which I think I rated around 55%). The nature of dividing it up will most likely produce a low overall score and I do want to point out that I am now really enjoying playing the game.

Version 1.10

Game World (46/90)

  • Resource placement (15/20)
  • Random generation (12/20)
  • Environment Graphics (7/20)
  • Ambient Sound (2/10)
  • Start positions (5/10)
  • Lore (5/10)

Comment: The start positions seem a little close to neighbours now. Ambient sounds are still very poor. In this version I'm finding the lore better than version 1.09.

Sovereigns (62/80)

  • Perks and Penalties (25/30)
  • Graphics (12/15)
  • Voices sound effects (3/10)
  • Balance (22/25)

Comment: 1.10 is an improvement over 1.09. I think this aspect of the game is good. Sound is the main problem.

Races (73/170)

  • RPG immersion (10/25)
  • Units (15/40)
  • Graphics (15/30)
  • Sound (5/15)
  • Differences (15/40)
  • Balance (13/20)

Comment: Massive improvement over 1.09 but still got a lot of room to make heaps heaps better. Races/factions/allegiances need a lot of love. There should be race-specific units for different factions. And they all need an injection of personality. Sound is incredibly poor and adds nothing to the flavour of each race. When The Sims came out they managed to communicate so much through the random noises of the Sim characters. Elemental needs something like that along with unique units.

Heroes (26/50)

  • Perks (8/15)
  • RPG (3/10)
  • Graphics (8/10)
  • Sound (2/5)
  • Balance (5/10)

Comment: Not really any improvement over 1.09. The old game Jagged Alliance did so much with their characters yet in Elemental they have zero personality and are just a convenient way to deliver damage around the map. There is so much that can be done here with things like some heroes not liking other heroes and causing issues if in the same stack. Or certain heroes going beserk on the battle field and you lose control of them. etc etc etc.

Dynasties (13/30)

  • RPG (10/25)
  • Balance (3/5)

Comment: Seems a little more immersive than in 1.09 but not really an important area for me.

Tech Tree (39/80)

  • Strategic choice (13/20)
  • Unique racial trees (0/20)
  • integration with game world (8/10)
  • Balance (18/30)

Comment: I like what has been done with the tech trees in 1.10 but would like to see some race-specific items added. It would also be good to have a bit more random choices delivered like the way Advanced Archery only appears sometimes. As has been mentioned the Adventure and Diplomacy tech trees are very counter-intuitive and it is just pure guess-work as to what you will get out of these.

You know, thinking about it, I would prefer not to have a tech tree at all in this sort of game. I would prefer to simply have different buildings that can be built at different level cities that allow you to do certain things. Eg. An Archery Range can be constructed in level 3 cities which gives you the crude bow. If you build an Archery Trainer building you get short bows. At level 4 you can build a Master Archer and get longbows. And so on. This would make the game a lot more immersive with the world and give even more reason for city specialisation.

Spells (64/120)

  • Differences between spell books (20/30)
  • Unique racial books (0/30)
  • Integration with game world (23/30)
  • Balance (21/30)

Comment: I really like that the spells are now all in separate books and that you need to unlock them. I don't really like unlocking them via the tech tree though and think there should be a way of unlocking these via the magic tree or via quests. The spells themselves have improved a lot. I really have a problem with unlocking the levels, then unlocking a book, and then being able to immediately research high level spells. I would much prefer not having levels that can be unlocked directly but rather have available spells appear randomly from all levels with a much higher percentage for the low levels rather than the high levels - and that as you research the low level spells from a book, the chance of high level spells in the same book also increases. So specialisation by proxy rather than by design if you will.

Quests (13/40)

  • RPG (2/10)
  • Randomised outcomes (0/5)
  • Integration with game world (5/10)
  • Different quests (2/10)
  • Balance (4/5)

Comment: Boring and one dimensional. No improvement over 1.09.

Cities (51/70)

  • Management (8/10)
  • Buildings (8/10)
  • Graphics (8/10)
  • Ambient sound (2/5)
  • Integrations with game world (8/10)
  • User interface (6/10)
  • Balance (11/15)

Comment: I like the way population and mana has been designed and also like that you can specialise cities to an extent. Would love to be able to see city statistics when placing buildings!!!! - Please!!!!

Monsters (33/50)

  • RPG (8/10)
  • Different types (8/15)
  • Graphics (7/10)
  • Sound (3/5)
  • Balance (7/10)

Comment: I like that they now band together and are more aggressive but give me more types thanks.

Tactical Battles (63/100)

  • Strategy (20/35)
  • Fun (12/20)
  • Graphics (7/10)
  • Sound (3/5)
  • User interface (10/15)
  • Balance (11/15)

Comment: Massive improvement over 1.09. It would be good to be able to place your units before entering a battle and for the battle maps to have more terrain modifiers and obstacles. Would be good for some obstacles to block archery - or at least affect the to-hit chance.

General Gameplay (80/120)

  • AI (25/40)
  • Fun factor (25/30)
  • New experience each time (15/30)
  • Balance (15/20)

Comment: Improvement over 1.09. AI is still weak but getting better.

Total (563/1000) 56%

 

elemental
11,991 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top
+1 Karma for you, sir. Excellent post!!
Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

You say there is no racial techs or spellbooks, but then what do you call COMPLETELY SEPARATE RESEARCH TREES, and the life and death spell books? Sure they are faction specific, and not racial, but only the empire has different races anyway.

 

Oh, and beyond that: Great scoreboard. I just didn't get the point of scoring racial stuff, and completely ignoring the parts of the game that does give you that.

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

So the tldr version is "I still don't like the game."

Well, thanks for your input... ;P

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Carewolf, reply 2
You say there is no racial techs or spellbooks, but then what do you call COMPLETELY SEPARATE RESEARCH TREES, and the life and death spell books? Sure they are faction specific, and not racial, but only the empire has different races anyway.

The tech tree is allegiance-specific but not faction specific which means that the tech currently doesn't cater for the nuances of each race. For example, Tarth might have its own tech 'Swamp Palace' in the Civilisation area which unlocks a unique building providing a food and materials bonus.

And similarly with spells. If some races (factions) had their own spell books that they start the game with it would be cool and help give flavour to each faction. Umber might have a spell called 'Drums of War' which spawns an ogre as an example.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top
I really have to question your objectivity here Are you seriously saying 1.1 is only 1% better?? How about posting your before and after scores side by side?
Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Uh, yeah, if 1.1 is 1% better than 1.09 then you're nuts...

 

Despite your long winded and 'precise' scoring method at 59% is far below what Elemental is at this point.  It still needs work and I would guess expansions to really get it to shine, but it's fun now... so it's  an 75-80% minimum...

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting sholland, reply 5
I really have to question your objectivity here

Are you seriously saying 1.1 is only 1% better??

How about posting your before and after scores side by side?

No. 1.10 is miles better than 1.09 and at the top of my post I express this when I would off-the-cuff rate the game at around 80%.

When I did this for 1.09 I was surprised at how poor the final score was when I would have rated it 55% as the sum of its parts. So the process really is inherently unfair on the game as purely a rating system but the benefit is that it shows what individuals consider important and where they think the game currently is. In my 1.09 scorecard the game ended up at 42% so there is a marked increase.

This really isn't about slamming the game at all. It is only a controlled feedback mechanism. For the record I was really disappointed with the early versions of the game but I'd say that even if it wasn't further improved it is now a game I see myself playing for many years to come.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

I think the OP is right on.  EWoM was a 4 out of 10.  It's now about a 6 out of 10.  Let's not kid ourselves.  There is no AI yet.  There are still many systems that are incomplete:  the UI, the quests, the champions, the items, etc.  Brad will take issue with my word "incomplete" so choose another one.  Compare the UI to Civ V.  Compare our quests to WoW.  Compare our champions to HOMM.  Compare our items to Diablo.  6 is better than 4 so we're heading in the right direction.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Lets just say its unrefined for now to be nice since they are working hard on it the past few months ;)

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

For TBS that is this modable, 7.5 out of 10.0002

 

:cylon:  :cylon: :cylon: :cylon:

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

I have to agree with your assessment, although I can't say I've spent as much time thinking about it as much as many of the people who post on these forums. I will say that in terms of being a real, actually fun, enjoyable strategy game, Elemental 1.1 isn't a whole lot different than the very first official release Stardock gave us several months ago.

I just tried a game in 1.1 a few minutes ago and the experience, while more refined with a better user interface than that initial release, isn't that much different.

In a nutshell, this is a very disappointing game. I can't tell you how sad it is that Stardock took a great premise, using Master of Magic as the inspiration, and drained it of all personality and fun. As soon as I post this I'll uninstall the game (again) and maybe revisit when 1.2 is released.