Cryptomancer

Reply to 1.07 Patch - Now CTD when I attempt to launch - SOLVED! in War of Magic Elemental Forums

And let's add Stardock's CodeCritter to the Honor roster. He, also, is active in the evening. [e digicons]:grin:[/e] I have a ATI videocard, and I've updated its drivers to the very recent 10.8 version. Updating them is very good advice, indeed. (By the way, my series 5000 ATI card has never experienced any graphical problem with Elemental .) You can get the most recent ATI drivers here : <a href="http://sites.amd.com/us/game/down

Reply to 1.07 Patch - Now CTD when I attempt to launch - SOLVED! in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I hope that everybody is noticing that Stardock representatives kryo and Yarlen are actively replying during the evening. That's impressive.

Reply to Why is everyone upset the game came out "early"?!? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="45" id="2753014"] [...N]ot only did we think v1.05 was ready for everyone but we felt v1.0 was too. That's the level of disconnect/poor judgment on our part we're talking about. If the game had come out in February, it would still have been a disastrous launch because lack of time wasn't the issue. It was blindness, sheer blindness. We felt the game was finished. And I speak of v1.0, not v1.05. Blindness [...T]he game wasn

Reply to Why is everyone upset the game came out "early"?!? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="fsovercash" reply="3" id="2752590"] [A ...] I am a professional software developer, and part time game designer , and I can tell you that I wouldn't release something like this for free, much less for money. It would ruin my reputation. [...] [B] I am infuriated that it was released in a state that isn't even good enough to be classified as beta. This is an alpha release through and through . [/quote] <span style="font-s

Reply to Elemental Game Review(s) Thread in War of Magic Elemental Forums

The very beginning of the current PC Gamer issue (# 205 : October 2010) -- the first 2 pages after the magazine's cover -- is a 2-page advertisement for Elemental , paid by Stardock. Those full-page, 2-page ads are very expensive. Stardock is a regular advertiser in that monthly magazine. Let's wait and see if PC Gamer will dare publish a negative review, with a mediocre score, in its November issue (out in 3 weeks). In

Reply to What are the best TB Fantasy RPG/RTSs out there? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

You can get Heroes of Might & Magic 5 (version 3.1), on Impulse, for less than $10. An Autumn 2008 game, it is much more beautiful than Elemental ... if you play it on a 20-inch+ monitor, with all graphical features maxed-out.

Reply to This forum is better than the game ;) in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="NTJedi" reply="4" id="2749089"] I know creating GOOD maps for any games takes a very long time... which is why I wish at least the cartographers table had more features/configurations. [/quote] I agree . I've spent thousands of hours, for the past 14 years, creating & editing maps for Heroes of Might & Magic 2, 3, 4 & 5. Cartography is crucial to confer to a game a lot of challenging diversity and replay valu

Reply to Tom Chick's "review" in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="Nick-Danger" reply="70" id="2741785"] Being forced to choose between 2 bad choices (Aug was too soon, Feb is too late), they decided on Aug. (I'm tempted to say they made the wrong decision but don't have enough info on why they ruled out Feb -- there may be something that truly made that not an option) [/quote] I wonder why a February 2011 release would have been "too late". Like you, I "don't have enough info on why they ruled out Feb". On Augus

Reply to Thankyou so much for the Great Game in War of Magic Elemental Forums

You might then be interested in reading this quote from Stardock CEO & Elemental Lead designer & A.I. expert "Frogboy" : " We’re a small dev team as you can imagine so your kindness and support really puts wind in our sails. We love you guys. I think many of you love Elemental for the same reasons we do. Personally speaking, I feel like too many games come out these days to be “consumed” and then move

Reply to Braindead AI. Is there a way to make it better? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

" What’s next ? For me [Stardock CEO + Lead A.I. Designer] , it’s AI AI AI. Elemental is a lot more complex of a game than Galactic Civilizations was. I do want to emphasize that the difficulty level at the world setup is not related to AI difficulty. It has to do with how tough the monsters and such will be (crazy shrills late game type stuff). The player intelligence is set up on the opponent set up scre

Reply to Elemental - a look at the The Imperfect, the Unbalanced, the Exploit in War of Magic Elemental Forums

" I can tell you this : Regardless of whether Elemental gets good or bad reviews or sells well or sells poorly, this game is the ONLY game Stardock’s development studio will be working on for 2010 and much of 2011. One of the benefits of being a small, privately owned company is that we can focus on things for reasons besides quarterly earnings. This is a game we love and will be expanding for years to come. " Stardock

Reply to An Open Letter to Brad Wardell and the Elemental Dev Team in War of Magic Elemental Forums

Great Thread, thoughtful Original Post, exquisite Game ... with an awesome Future.

Reply to Thanks Brad and Co. in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote quoting="post"] [1] Just wanted to thank the dev team for a fun game. [2] I know you guys put a lot of work into it. [3] [.. The recent PC Gamer article is] just more proof of how the video game media, even PCG, is heavily influenced by big companies like Activision and EA that pump out massive AAA titles with production values far surpassing those of smaller companies like Stardock. [/quote] 1. I second that. 2

Reply to Thank you Stardock for all your hard work in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I, also, agree 100% with the OP. Stardock employees and the CEO himself have worked very hard and long hours, last evening + last night, to not only produce version 1.05, but additionally, to hot-fix it with extreme diligence (to 1.05.016).

Reply to PCGamer warning in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="I Intrude" reply="30" id="2730638"]I don't see that article as overly harsh in any way at all. Most of what he said is true. [...] Sincerely, A loyal but concerned Stardock customer.[/quote] Not "harsh in any way at all" ?! What about the following passage, in the PC Game r article ? " But putting junk like this in a box and charging money for it is not okay, however rapidly you try and patch it

Reply to Rock Paper Shotgun: Stardock Rescind Own Bill Of Rights? in War of Magic Elemental Forums

ALL games which are released have bugs and crashes : all of them (except, perhaps, a few simplistic indie games). It's the price you have to pay, in the gaming-software industry, for increasing complexity to have richer content -- compatible with gamer systems that become more and more complex (such as : the high sophistication of recent, videocard electronics, architecture and drivers). The Big Boss of Stardock (forum nick "Frogboy") was still on the forum yesterday evening, around 1

Reply to HotFix for 1.05 posted in War of Magic Elemental Forums

ALL games which are released have bugs and crashes : all of them (except, perhaps, a few simplistic indie games). It's the price you have to pay, in the gaming software industry, for increasing complexity to have richer content. The Big Boss of Stardock (forum nick "Frogboy") was still on the forum yesterday evening, around 11:15 (my time : Eastern), when they were in the process of putting up 1.05 on Impulse. I came back here this morning to learn that 1.05 had already been p

Reply to The big fat "HELP ME" thread in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="Folcik009" reply="7" id="2723239"] I don't think you can cast any spells while garrisoned within the city (couldn't in beta).[/quote] That would explain why I had to move my Sovereign out of his capital, yesterday, to cast an enchantment on the city. What was odd, then, was that most of the city tiles were highlighted with a red color. I had to find a city tile which was highlighted green. I wonder why I couldn't cast a city enchantment on just any city tile -

Reply to Instruction Manual in War of Magic Elemental Forums

There is a quick-start manual in your Elemental installation folder : a .PDF file. But it is really not very useful to learn how to effectively play : it mostly describes game features, without educating new players on how to effectively execute procedures. For example, I found that trying to cast a strategic spell on a city could be a too complicated, not simple and obvious, procedure.

Reply to Maps not Random (vers 1.00) in WOM Support Elemental Forums

What happened to the "huge" map-size the manual mentions? At the moment, the "large" size seems to be the largest -- outside of the editor. I remember that arch-designer Frogboy mentioned somewhere, a year or so ago, that he was aiming for truly epic, gigantic maps -- their size only limited by the amount of RAM the gamer had available. Considering that many players' computers now exceed 2GB of RAM, disposing of a 64-bit OS, I wonder why we are currently limited to those so-called "la

Reply to Casting Spell on City in War of Magic Elemental Forums

I am glad, ydejin , that you started a thread on the problematic subject of casting strategic spells on a city. I reinstalled the game, yesterday, and started a new game. My capital had grown to many tiles ("squares"), on the map. My Sovereign, an enchanter who had 15 mana and who had learned 2 strategic city-enchantments, was located within the city. I opened the spell book, like the previous poster wrote, but the cast-spell button was not there!? I moved my Sovereign

Reply to A little worried about some of the articles coming out... in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="Archonsod" reply="111" id="2721277"] In general I think of Windows code in the same way I think of the Necronomicon ; it's full of things man was not meant to know and meddling with it is never a good thing to do. [/quote] Which reminds us of a deep and dark Johnny Depp movie : the one with the Delomelanicon book.

Reply to A little worried about some of the articles coming out... in War of Magic Elemental Forums

[quote who="Sinij" reply="84" id="2720822"] There is no doubt - the game is confusing when you start playing it and has very steep learning curve. Back when I started with Beta, It took me good 4+ hours playing to figure out how things work, and I am gamer with decade+ of experience. Interface, resource system, building, combat system - they are not at all intuitive, but they are learn-able. Some of it could have been solved by in-game tutorial or starter campaign where game walks you through

Reply to Full name used in game instead of username? in Demigod Demigod Forums

[quote who="kryo" reply="4" id="2146330"]The job to copy the names over was just set up yesterday to solve the issue where they weren't. I'll see if the DB guys can check that it's working. [/quote] @ kryo : I report that 24 hours later, on April 17, at 22 h. 30 (Eastern), it still does not work. I just logged in as "Sorceresss", which has been our Home Impulse Account Name for the past FOUR weeks, and once logged-in, the game still stubbornly states t

Reply to Stardock Pays The Price in Demigod Demigod Forums

[quote who="Blitz64" reply="16" id="2149230"] Yes, Stardock made mistakes. they pay the price. some sales will be loss. [/quote] Some dogmatic Grand Poobah, at Stardock or GPG, decided that the Game absolutely had to be released in April. That was The Big Mistake. (I have participated in the Beta since the very beginning, 7½ months ago.)