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Elemental: April FAQ

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Elemental: April FAQ

from JoeUser Forums

Greetings!

First, thank you everyone who in previous journal entries who have submitted questions to be answered. Anything that reduces my work load makes me happy. Frankly, eating and breathing on my own is a continuing resentment.

So let’s dive right in:

Q: Does the Gamestop acqusition of Impulse affect the free expansions to the Elemental universe customers of War of Magic were promised?

A: Not in the slightest. Stardock Entertainment is a separate business (Stardock Entertainment, Inc.) from Impulse (Impulse, Inc.).

Q: Where does War of Magic stand?

A: We’re still working on v1.2 of it. Without getting too technical, the memory issues that the game has boil down to what is called heap fragmentation. Sins of a Solar Empire pre-allocates its memory and then dishes it out from there.  Elemental: War of Magic grows and shrinks in real-time.  Over time, memory becomes fragmented and eventually a block can’t be allocated.  There are differences between Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 on how this is handled as well as very different effects based on how much memory is on a given video card and the driver model in question.  Suffice to say, that’s why v1.2 is taking awhile is that we really want to do it right.

Q: What happens to War of Magic after v1.2?

A: v1.3 is being developed concurrently with v1.2.  That’s because v1.3 is pure features so v1.2’s delays don’t affect that.  It just means that v1.3 will come out a lot closer after v1.2 than originally planned.

Q: If Fallen Enchantress is in development, why continue with War of Magic?

A: There’s a lot of mundane reasons. But when the beta program for Fallen Enchantress starts, users are going to quickly realize that Fallen Enchantress isn’t an expansion pack. It’s like like Dark Avatar was to GalCiv II.  It’s radically different.  The second reason is that War of Magic has a lot of potential to continue into the future on its own track. The third reason is just because we like working on it. Our games are labors of love. Smile

Q: When will Fallen Enchantress be done?

A: We don’t have a set complete time.  The full team is working on FE right now other than myself and my mini team which is working on v1.2/v1.3.  We are not going to have an early public beta of Fallen Enchantress.  Its beta will come out largely feature complete. So right now, it’s likely to be a Fall 2011 thing but it could be later.  The requirement for Fallen Enchantress is it won’t be released until we are certain it be an overwhelmingly positive experience for our customers. To that end, we have eliminated as many conflicts to that objective such as sacrificing a retail date for it.

Q: Are the hardware requirements for Fallen Enchantress going to be the same as War of Magic?

A: Fallen Enchantress will use Pixel Shader 3 instead of Pixel Shader 2. One of the reasons for this is because Pixel Shader 2 drastically restricted the amount of environmental texturing we could do (i.e. brown brown brown) in Elemental: War of Magic.  In Fallen Enchantress, we want the world to be visually much more enchanting and interesting and not be restricted by a hardware requirement (the current pixel shader version is v5.0 to put things in perspective).  DirectX 9c is still the standard used here.

Q: Any news on the modding front?

A: Yes.  Jon Shafer and I have been working on the mini-campaigns for Elemental: Destiny’s Embers. And so as we work on those we uncover weaknesses in the modding tools that we have been trying to get addressed which in turn should make modding even easier in the future.

459,432 views 118 replies
Reply #26 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting CariElf, reply 6

Quoting Alstein, reply 2One question re: Gamestop and Impulse. 

Will you still have control over when you patch?  So if you wanted to patch the game at 2am like you did one time, or on a Saturday or Sunday, would you still be able to do that?

I don't have an official answer, but putting up updates at 2 AM or on weekends is generally not desired behavior.  We're trying to avoid situations that necessitate that sort of thing.

 

I know, I want you guys to get sleep- you do your best work that way  ^_^   Crunch is the biggest enemy of game quality in the industry.  I know what it's like from the military where we always got crunched around Christmas in weather.  It's hard to do good quality work on your 6th straight 14-hr day, and weather forecasting is easier then game making I'm sure.

 

I just have concerns about Gamestop not putting patches up as quick as you guys would like, as they're no longer Stardock employees.

 

Note: that's not a criticism of Brad, or the reasoning behind the sale.   That three-legged donkey belongs in another thread.  ^_^

Reply #27 from Elemental Forums Top

Q: Are the hardware requirements for Fallen Enchantress going to be the same as War of Magic?

A: Fallen Enchantress will use Pixel Shader 3 instead of Pixel Shader 2.

 

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Reply #28 from Elemental Forums Top

i think that the buy out is good for impulse.  i am wary, but gamestop has the marketing muscle to take impulse to the next level and i'm for that. 

and as for FE, well as long as you get it out before the end of 2012. i wanna play it before the world ends :grin:

Reply #29 from Elemental Forums Top

I understand why you sold it. And I'm also glad there's a viable alternative to Steam out there. It's just that I'd feel alot better if Stardock still handled digital distribution of their own games. Even if it wasn't Gamestop that bought Impulse, the fact is I really don't trust anyone else not to screw me over at some point in the future.

Digital distribution is a daunting prospect for the consumer. We're expected to shell over (usually) the same amount of money as if we're buying the physical media itself. In addition, we're subjecting ourselves to nebulous ToS agreements which basically boil down to it being the distributors good graces that allow you the continued download and usage of the games you purchase. It all boils down to trust. Tomorrow Stardock could decide to completely rewrite the ToS with the standard "By your continued usage of Impulse, you are agreeing to the new terms" type nonsense and there'd be little I could do about it. I was never worried that would happen thought, because Stardock isn't that type of company. No matter who you sold Impulse to, the same trust wouldn't be there for me....

Reply #30 from Stardock Forums Top

Glad you chimed in with your bluntness Brad. I understand now lol, your one of the few that dont give a damn about money. You just want a great product because you know that will make you a hell of a lot more money and make you feel good at the same time. Oh btw 100k a year and i would have moved out to michigan to approve promotions and weekend impulse buys =)

Reply #31 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Campaigner, reply 27
Q: Are the hardware requirements for Fallen Enchantress going to be the same as War of Magic?

A: Fallen Enchantress will use Pixel Shader 3 instead of Pixel Shader 2.

Passed time, considering most of the world is simply skipping Pixel Shader 3 and going to DirectX 10 and above.

With good reason too, the extra sales from supporting the older systems no longer justifies the agony of dealing with the exta compatability issues.

Reply #32 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting mbaron888, reply 25



Quoting Frogboy,
reply 15
Sorry to ramble but hopefully this helps.


It does. Thank you.

Absolutely - one of the great reasons to hang about round here is that people are real. (now back to stochastic modelling for me!)

Reply #33 from Elemental Forums Top

So long as Stardock remains Stardock, I'm cool with whatever. If yet another company that I love loses its passion.. I'd be a sad panda. Not that I'm actually a panda, or at least I haven't been called that yet.. Anywho, looking forward to 1.2-1.3 and FE.

Reply #34 from Elemental Forums Top

Wait??... what??... the impulse purchase things wasn't an April fools prank!? .. all the news pieces I saw were April 1, and I dismissed it as a poor joke. Oh dear.

Reply #35 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 14



Quoting Lord Xia,
reply 8
Yea, don't fuck up the launch of FE, becasue then we might not get more Elemental games, and I want more.


LOL.  Well, it's safe to say that FE will have had a ridiculous amount of energy and time put into it.  From a "metacritic" point of view, anything less than an 90 will be considered a disappointment by me.  That's how high the threshold has been set on that.

We all know the things about WOM that didn't go right. I don't think there's much disagreement in that either.  That's one reason why I want to still spend *my* time on WOM. 

Some people don't understand. I want WOM to redeem itself. I know FE will be excellent. But I want WOM to get a lot better too. And it really can too. 

 

For what it’s worth I totally admire you continued commitment to war of magic, I’m sure the 1.3 patch will be brilliant, keep up the good work

Reply #36 from Elemental Forums Top

Q: Any news on the modding front?
A: Yes.  Jon Shafer and I have been working on the mini-campaigns for Elemental: Destiny’s Embers. And so as we work on those we uncover weaknesses in the modding tools that we have been trying to get addressed which in turn should make modding even easier in the future.

I sincerely hope this doesn't mean you'll waste time on modding additions to make building campaigns easier, and will focus on what us modders have requested instead. Yes, it is my opinion that building a better campaign editor should be the lowest of your priorities at this point (as far as modding goes).

Reply #37 from Elemental Forums Top

Ew, I'm not sure I trust Gamestop to fulfill Impulses legacy. I predict some really unfortunate decision within a year, something that will backfire to a degree that will leave the industry lost and confused. But... maybe that's what it will take!

Reply #38 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 15

Then you have the people who say "Why not just hire out for that?" We're in Michigan. I haven't even been able to find a qualified lead game developer for Stardock. Barring relocating to Dallas, Boston, Seattle, San Fran or LA, we knew what we'd need to do.

Sorry, Brad, but I don't buy it. Derek left Novell for Stardock and Jon left Firaxis. Surely you could charm other developers into joining, too. Am I missing something?

Reply #39 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 36
I sincerely hope this doesn't mean you'll waste time on modding additions to make building campaigns easier, and will focus on what us modders have requested instead. Yes, it is my opinion that building a better campaign editor should be the lowest of your priorities at this point (as far as modding goes).

From what I can tell Stardock is not the least bit concerned with the modding community, despite what little Brad and Derek have said over the past few weeks. 

Instead of immediately funneling a majority of their resources into a new 'stand-alone' game, it would have seemed wise to first improve the modability and documentation of E:WoM.  This move would have made everyone happy by giving both modders and designers tools to continually add more content to the already existing game. 

Instead those would-be modders are becoming bored with the limited tools they have available, if they can even figure out how to use any of them.  Therefore they may end up not being around if and when those tools do become available.

Reply #40 from Elemental Forums Top

They hired Jon form Firaxis to improve modding in Elemental games.  Right?  I agree, that before they made it a smaller priority, but I think they are trying to improve that.

Reply #41 from Elemental Forums Top

Pixel shader 2 is replaced by pixel shader 3.  Does this mean a PC that can run EWoM will also be able to run game using Pixel shader 3?

Reply #42 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Gaston_DAoust, reply 24
Now that Gamestop has bought Impulse, a boxed version of the game might be very viable ... and with a 300 page manual ... YES! Lord Xia would even dance the Hookie Pookie. I would even kiss everyone, except no one respects an affectionate wizard.

 

Ive actually been working on my Lady Gaga dance moves, to the horror of my girlfriend.  There is something transcendentally otherworldly in a large man dancing to "I was born this Way".

Reply #43 from Elemental Forums Top

Brad and team:

I will continue to support Stardock Entertainment but I do not wish to do business with Gamestop due to past issues. Since Impulse is no longer a viable digital distribution platform I want to avoid it. Is there a plan, or a possibility, to allow users like me to download our previously purchased and future games, as well as patches, directly from Stardock, circumventing Impulse entirely?

Reply #44 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting mqpiffle, reply 39

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 36I sincerely hope this doesn't mean you'll waste time on modding additions to make building campaigns easier, and will focus on what us modders have requested instead. Yes, it is my opinion that building a better campaign editor should be the lowest of your priorities at this point (as far as modding goes).

From what I can tell Stardock is not the least bit concerned with the modding community, despite what little Brad and Derek have said over the past few weeks. 

Instead of immediately funneling a majority of their resources into a new 'stand-alone' game, it would have seemed wise to first improve the modability and documentation of E:WoM.  This move would have made everyone happy by giving both modders and designers tools to continually add more content to the already existing game. 

Instead those would-be modders are becoming bored with the limited tools they have available, if they can even figure out how to use any of them.  Therefore they may end up not being around if and when those tools do become available.

I disagree on both points: that they are not the least bit concerned with modders and that it would have been wise to place more emphasis on modding vis-a-vis E:FE in the short term. 

Firstly, I think they have placed significant emphasis on modding.  They hired Jon Shafer specifically for that role.  In a relatively small studio hiring someone (who surely isn't working for peanuts) specifically to focus on an area IS placing emphasis on it.  Besides that, if you hang around the modding forums you'll see devs discussing what features would improve modability and implementing those features.

Secondly, I want to play a AAA fantasy strategy game (or mid-market, whatever).  As interesting as mods can be, they will rarely ever equal the greatness of a great underlying game.  I can only think of one mod that truly equaled the greatness of the game it was built on and its developer is working for Stardock on E:FE which further supports the idea that E:FE should get the lion's share of resources (and not modding E:WOM) if we want to see a great fantasy strategy game anytime in our future.

 

Reply #45 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Kantok, reply 44



Quoting mqpiffle,
reply 39

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 36I sincerely hope this doesn't mean you'll waste time on modding additions to make building campaigns easier, and will focus on what us modders have requested instead. Yes, it is my opinion that building a better campaign editor should be the lowest of your priorities at this point (as far as modding goes).

From what I can tell Stardock is not the least bit concerned with the modding community, despite what little Brad and Derek have said over the past few weeks. 

Instead of immediately funneling a majority of their resources into a new 'stand-alone' game, it would have seemed wise to first improve the modability and documentation of E:WoM.  This move would have made everyone happy by giving both modders and designers tools to continually add more content to the already existing game. 

Instead those would-be modders are becoming bored with the limited tools they have available, if they can even figure out how to use any of them.  Therefore they may end up not being around if and when those tools do become available.


I disagree on both points: that they are not the least bit concerned with modders and that it would have been wise to place more emphasis on modding vis-a-vis E:FE in the short term. 

Firstly, I think they have placed significant emphasis on modding.  They hired Jon Shafer specifically for that role.  In a relatively small studio hiring someone (who surely isn't working for peanuts) specifically to focus on an area IS placing emphasis on it.  Besides that, if you hang around the modding forums you'll see devs discussing what features would improve modability and implementing those features.

Secondly, I want to play a AAA fantasy strategy game (or mid-market, whatever).  As interesting as mods can be, they will rarely ever equal the greatness of a great underlying game.  I can only think of one mod that truly equaled the greatness of the game it was built on and its developer is working for Stardock on E:FE which further supports the idea that E:FE should get the lion's share of resources (and not modding E:WOM) if we want to see a great fantasy strategy game anytime in our future.

 

Agree.

Reply #46 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting marqaha, reply 43
Brad and team:

I will continue to support Stardock Entertainment but I do not wish to do business with Gamestop due to past issues. Since Impulse is no longer a viable digital distribution platform I want to avoid it. Is there a plan, or a possibility, to allow users like me to download our previously purchased and future games, as well as patches, directly from Stardock, circumventing Impulse entirely?
x2

Reply #47 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm curious if this purchase of Impulse by GameStop is going to affect the free distribution of FE, for those who purchased EWoM in 2010?  Knowing GameStop, they'll not wat to give anything away...  And for the record, I too have come to dislike GameStop pretty much over the recent years, although truth be told I still buy games from them (and Amazon)... Anything's better than Steam... ugh.

Reply #48 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Wizaerd, reply 47
I'm curious if this purchase of Impulse by GameStop is going to affect the free distribution of FE, for those who purchased EWoM in 2010?  Knowing GameStop, they'll not wat to give anything away...  And for the record, I too have come to dislike GameStop pretty much over the recent years, although truth be told I still buy games from them (and Amazon)... Anything's better than Steam... ugh.

 

Well, if Stardock release it as "free" for the already customer and "Impulse" dont want to distributed it free, my guess is Brad will find a way to share it or release it . But, if we "trust" what Gamestop have told Brad, they want to be focused on the customer, so it should be free. Now, will they keep their promise, only time will tell.

Reply #49 from Elemental Forums Top

Brad will find a way to keep his promise, there is no doubting that.  If he has to put it on a disc, send it in the mail and lick the stamps himself, he will find a way to keep his word.  I trust Brad. Will Gamestop try and find a way to fuck us, probably, but I don't think they will be able to.  They don't have any rights to what Stardock does with their games. 

Reply #50 from Elemental Forums Top

Q: Are the hardware requirements for Fallen Enchantress going to be the same as War of Magic?

A: Fallen Enchantress will use Pixel Shader 3 instead of Pixel Shader 2.

I imagine, if you don't have pixel shader 3, the game will simply not run. Can it, at least, run in cloth map?

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For the modding, we talked some times ago about scripting language and modding levels. I want to know if these improvement will be applied to both Elemental: War of Magic and Fallen Enchanteress, or only Fallen Enchanteress?

In other words, would it create situation where I create a mod where the user will be forced to have a certain expansion to make it work or will all mod works with the basic game?