troglyte

Reply to Tactical Combat and Special Abilities in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

[quote who="Lord Xia" reply="2" id="2893064"]I like the extra abilities, and attacks, but you really need to shorten range and make units attack only once a round. That would help with speed of combat and fun factor. Bigger issues that would be added are ZOC which makes moving around units more difficult, this creates defense lines for your linebacker units like magesand archers...[/quote] Yes to one attack per turn, yes to unit ZOC with Attacks of Opportuni

Reply to Lawmakers trying to overturn FCC Internet rules in Personal Computing Elemental Forums

My biggest fear is that it's going to turn out something like this: Let's face it, companies are in it for the bottom dollar. ISPs are already profiting off the maximum amount people are willing to pay for better internet access. They can degrade access much more easily than they can improve it, then charge more for the "new" (old) improved access. I don't see this move as being beneficial anyone, exce

Reply to A Petition for the end of Good and Evil in this Game. in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote] So, the entire set of Empires in this game that destroy the land for no tangible benefit just doesn't fly for me, and I suspect many other people. [/quote] [quote]And don't get me started on why do they want a dead wasteland to live in... if they were really twisted humans, one would expect them to keep some of their cualities... like, I don't know... eating something aside from mushrooms? Having a landscape that doesn't look like the end of the w

Reply to Favorite map size? in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

[quote who="Heavenfall" reply="50" id="2888848"]I like smaller maps, because once I get up to steam there's nothing the AI can do to stop me and I don't want to spend hours just mopping up. The most interesting game is before I conquer a faction or two as it's still challenging. Once that's done, no matter how many enemies are left, the game is pretty much over because nothing the AI does will oppose me.[/quote] My thoughts too. The struggle is over by the time you're big enough to ma

Reply to Favorite map size? in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

Medium, but that's more to do with how the game plays out than something ideal. Larger would be better, I just hate the larger cleanup operations.

Reply to Dark Side of DRM in War of Magic Stardock Forums

[quote who="Delmoroth" reply="20" id="2887904"]Ummm... is there a non-darkside to drm? I mean anyone who wants to ignore it can in 99% of cases. It generally just screws legit users.[/quote] Precisely. You can't force people to obey copy-write laws, and the more a game frustrates you with its draconian protection scheme, the more likely people are to circumvent it entirely. Only MMO games can ensure you paid for a copy. A better system would be to make the player [i]want

Reply to The natives may not be friendly in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

[quote who="AbsynthMinded" reply="57" id="2887426"]Seriously, can't /just/ let a guy vent eh? Fan-Boy code of honor or something?[/quote] Frankly, I'm getting sick of hearing all the bitching. It's all been said. We all know the situation. There's nothing new here. Either pack your bags and move on, or dig yourself in for the long haul. I'm not a SD fanboi, and I never even heard of Brad W before a month ago. The AI is poor, yes I agree and so would 80% of people on this forum

Reply to The natives may not be friendly in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

[quote who="AbsynthMinded" reply="52" id="2887135"] [Blah Blah Blah] Signed, Your not-so-friendly neighborhood Troglodyte[/quote] How is that constructive in any way shape or form? Yeah they promised a good game, ya they screwed it up, ya a lot of people were made angry. We've covered this ground a million times. Stardock is going above and beyond to make ammends. What do you want, blood? If you want to play a newer game, no o

Reply to Light…is not your friend in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

I vote for Number 3.

Reply to Lua vs. Python in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

I would just like to throw it out there that I decided to try to learn C++ while waiting for a scripting language to be announced. Imagine my surprise when it turns out I already know the basics. Apparently I've been using a c-like scripting language for years. I'm still going through the tutorials but so far it's matching up quite well. The preprocessor and declaring data types are a new step, arrays look needlessly complicated... but all in all I think I might just stick to c++ (or angel sc

Reply to Light…is not your friend in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

Don't get sucked into this guys, I think Brad's just trying to leverage the hawthorne effect on us. [e digicons];)[/e] [e digicons]:P[/e]

Reply to The natives may not be friendly in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

[quote quoting="post"] Jeff Vogel has a great blog about how creators should never read their forums. It’s definitely worth a read. Now, as you guys know, I do read our forums. A lot. Why? Because I’m dumb. As in, dangerously dumb. I have to consciously remember not to swallow my tongue dumb. [/quote] Some would say you are daft... but then again they said you'd be daft to build a castle in the swamp! Personally I like the occasional outburs

Reply to The Stardock Game Roadmap 2011 in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

I find Steam invasive and overbearing. The "offline mode" is merely cosmetic. You go into offline mode and you get a little piece of text that says "offline mode", that's it. Try logging in with your buddies Steam account after they're in offline mode... surprise! Steam account is somehow still in use. Then send your buddy a message when they're in offline mode... surprise again they recieve your message. For being offline that sure seems like a lot of online activity. The advertiseme

Reply to Quests in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

[quote quoting="post"] Good quests are hard to create. I seriously considered removing quests from Elemental entirely (I still don't know which is the better design decision). [/quote] I hear you there. I find myself clicking "OK", "OK", "OK" through a majority of the quests, maybe its just me but I don't find them engaging. You can make as many "Go to location X, fetch item Y" missions as you want, and dress them up in different dialogues, but soon enough e

Reply to Lua vs. Python in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

[quote who="kenata" reply="61" id="2881817"]...My thoughts are fairly straight forward here, as I think the mod system should eventually be a three part system. The first part, which we already have, is the XML data section, where new content is added using a data driven methodology. The second part is the scripting part, and could be done effectively in either Python or Lua. The final part would be the DLL part or the C++ part. Each part has a significantly higher learning curve than t

Reply to Lua vs. Python in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

I've only done scripting in obscure languages, so I can't compare between the two. My understanding is that Python is more geared towards larger projects, while Lua is better for smaller ones. Whichever one is used I'm going to be spending considerable time learning and using it, so I hope it's a good choice. Admittedly I have been tinkering with Python lately, but that's just in anticipation of the APIs being released. As for the whitespace - imo that's how code is supposed to be ind

Reply to The Stardock Game Roadmap 2011 in Elemental Dev Journals Stardock Forums

Wow, so much to comment on. First of all Brad there is no one else in the position you are in to make the kind of magic happen that you and your studio are capable of. I am not willing to take that for granted, and I think the way you do business is spot on and a model for the rest of the industry. If I had hundreds of people highlighting my failures (real or perceived) and filling internet posts with speculative comments about my personal abilities and accusations about my intentions, well I

Reply to <RequiresCity>False</RequiresCity> <!-- Does it do anything?? in WOM Mods Elemental Forums

[quote who="Heavenfall" reply="9" id="2880459"]I'm guessing you'll still have the issue of building another one before the first one finishes.[/quote] No, that's the beauty. It depletes your entire store of resources to build one, and it takes ~10 turns to refill. So as long as your build time is not > than your replenish time there isn't an issue. After a bit more experimenting I have found you can go as low as 5 turns after foundation, but any lower and the amount of reso

Reply to <RequiresCity>False</RequiresCity> <!-- Does it do anything?? in WOM Mods Elemental Forums

[quote who="kenata" reply="6" id="2880056"] I am a bit skeptical as to your solution. This is the negative production is the same method they use for a buildings maintenance, so thus I can not imagine that it is multiplied in the way you are thinking, as this would basically be counter to what they want from the multiplier in the first place.[/quote] [quote who="Heavenfall" reply="7" id="2880062"] Edit: The negative production was not multiplied.[/quote] Y

Reply to <RequiresCity>False</RequiresCity> <!-- Does it do anything?? in WOM Mods Elemental Forums

[quote who="kenata" reply="4" id="2879709"] I used to use this method of enforcing mutual exclusion on buildings, but as heavenfall rightly points out, the AI will get some multiple of this resource due to the difficulty settings. This is one of the reasons I put my building mod on hold.[/quote] There appears to be a work-around to this. If you set a negative production bonus in your unique improvement equal to the resource production in your cityhub, the two should cancel each o

Reply to Guide to modding in Elemental (5/8 done) in WOM Mods Elemental Forums

[quote who="Heavenfall" reply="3" id="2861525"] [code="xml"] True [/code] This tag has no apparent function. It is included in most buildings. A few have it set to false, but this doesn't appear to break them. I haven't tried not including this.[/quote] - Seems only to apply when is set to true. In

Reply to <RequiresCity>False</RequiresCity> <!-- Does it do anything?? in WOM Mods Elemental Forums

That is really too bad. As itchy as I am to start working in some of my own ideas, I realize they are not focusing on modability yet because the core game needs so much love. Ah well. While I have your attention, do you know of a way to make building one thing prevent the option to build another? Like say you have to choose either a Shrine of War or a Shrine of Commerce. (Negative prerequisite, would also be extremely useful for skill trees / tech trees.) Oh yeah, and i

<RequiresCity>False</RequiresCity> <!-- Does it do anything?? in WOM Mods Elemental Forums

I have been experimenting with building my own improvements, and they more or less work how I would expect, but with the exception that I cannot seem to make an improvement build *outside* the city. It is always confined to the little green squares which are adjacent to the rest of your city. So what does this parameter do if not that? And is there a way to accomplish what I am trying to do? thanks.

Reply to Oh bring back my [Global Events] to me, to me! in War of Magic Stardock Forums

Put my signature down for global events. I just didn't like the "random crystal found on random planet event, should we do the (insignificant effect) good thing, or the (slightly less insignificant) bad thing?". not really much of a choice anyhow when you're trying to keep with your alignment. One of the most fun games I ever had was where all the dread lords returned and absolutely spanked every single faction in the galaxy. it took a looong time for anyone to rebuild from that.

Reply to An idea for caravans and prestige (separate ideas) in War of Magic Stardock Forums

I don't think it makes sense to have trade routes within your empire in the first place. You already share resources between all cities, can you really make money delivering them back and forth? I think Inns should be used to recruit heroes ala HoMM, and if there is ever an espionage unit could be used to produce there. So basically same as your idea but instead of talking to ppl at the inn, you send a unit out to do reconnaissance.