Topic: Elemental: War of Magic (new game from Stardock!)

[idolminds]

Woo!
More infos

Beta this spring, release scheduled for Feb 2010. So...we have some time.

[Quemaqua]

It's been quite a while since we've had a really good fantasy strategy game.  Could be interesting.  I'm more concerned with Disciples III, and if either one sucks, I can always just go back to playing the greatest fantasy strategy game ever made, Disciples II.  But still... I find the weird, low-fi art style oddly compelling.  I'll keep my eye on it.

[MysterD]

GameSpot preview

[idolminds]

Official site with screens and art to look at. Oooh!

Looks like they are going for a painterly cel-shaded look.

But you have to go and read the journals. This game sounds awesome. You don't just build a "knight" unit. You take a man, give him armor, a helmet, a sword, and a horse and you can name it a knight if you want. So you more produce "stuff" that you give to your "units" to make them into whatever you want.

[Quemaqua]

I'm looking more forward to it the more I hear and read about it.

[idolminds]

A cool bit of info. From Frogboy/Wardell:

One of the things that has been driving Demigod beta testers crazy is that they aren't used to how Stardock does betas. A lot of them came from the Gas Powered Games community so they don't realize that Stardock betas tend to be very primitive.

With Elemental, we may drive the point home by having the first beta of the game only use the cloth map instead of the actual game engine for game play.  The idea is, if it's a good game, it should be reasonably fun even without fancy graphics. Then for once we could get people to fixate on the key features of the game rather than piddly details.

The other benefit it would have is if we could make the whole game play on the cloth map too, people with insanely low end systems could actually play the game. Imagine people playing Elemental on a netbook for instance?

So that's what's going through our crazy minds today.

Heh, thanks to all these "beta demos" that are way past the actual beta phase people are confused when they join an actual beta. Hilarious.

Having a game scale back and be playable on a freaking netbook? Hell yeah. Go go, Stardock!

[Quemaqua]

Awesome!

[Ghandi]

The other benefit it would have is if we could make the whole game play on the cloth map too, people with insanely low end systems could actually play the game. Imagine people playing Elemental on a netbook for instance?

<3

[MysterD]

Here's a VERY EARLY Beta gameplay vid showing off gameplay for Elemental: War of Magic at GDC 09.

IMPORTANT NOTE on the video:

To begin with, Wardell reiterated his commitment to getting the game into a testable, playable state earlier than usual. Stardock plans to run a "beta zero" phase, where a working prototype of the game, using extremely simple art assets, will be made available to a small group of beta testers to thoroughly test gameplay--pretty art assets, such as the oil portrait-like textured characters you've seen in screenshots, will be added later during subsequent phases of beta, which will test the game many, many times to ensure that it ends up being a highly polished, well-balanced, and enjoyable finished product.

Gameplay

Currently, most of the major gameplay aspects are locked down, though Wardell confides that he and his team still occasionally come up with "Hey, what if we did this?" inspirations that the team then tosses against the proverbial wall to see if it sticks. There's a great deal of implementation and content-building yet left to do, but Wardell is adamant about certain aspects of gameplay, such as having resource-related buildings appear outside of your castle keep, rather than in it. Your castle keep, the base of your operations, will exist in the world as a 3D structure, and you'll build all your farms and barracks and other buildings around your keep over time to eventually end up with a thriving medieval metropolis.

When asked what he most wanted to see in his own Master of Magic-like game, Wardell replied that he'd always enjoyed the global spells of Microprose's classic, and confessed that he was extremely excited by the prospect of using modern computer graphics technology to create some truly spectacular large-scale magic effects.

In addition, the team already knows that content customization, which was very popular among players of Stardocks' Galactic Civilizations series, will definitely be in the game. The GalCiv games let you meticulously design your fleet of spaceships with whatever weapons and accoutrements you wanted; Elemental will let you do the same to army battalions as well as to buildings.

Some of the Content:

Though the initial game will ship only with two playable races, the humans and the sinister Fallen, the team expects that elves, dwarves, and other fantastical creatures will appear more or less immediately as a result of the fan community's efforts with the editing tools, which will let you upload your content to a centralized database. And it's also likely that Stardock will add more playable character races later to the game, since the studio has a longstanding tradition of supporting games post-launch, and also since the game's lore is apparently so extensive that Wardell himself is chronicling it all in a book he's writing concurrently with his game development duties.

Sounds good to me.

Elemental's FUTURE

When asked about the future plans for this game, Wardell admitted he was uncertain as to whether Elemental would grow by way of full-on $30 expansion packs, or through "microexpansions," which Stardock has released for Sins of a Solar Empire. A larger expansion, explains Wardell, will take longer to make and keep players waiting, but microexpansions don't seem well understood by customers and press just yet, either.

[idolminds]

Weigh in on complexity!

Tough call. I like the idea of the complexity in Camp 1. Town mines ore, sends to town that makes swords, swords are sent to towns that make troops or further refine and specializes the swords, etc. Would be a very interesting dynamic where your opponent might have some awesome swordsmen army but if you can disrupt his supply chain (take the ore mine, capture his sword producing towns) you can cripple him. But...is it going to be too complex? I don't know. I think Camp 2 is a little too simple and removes that supply line dynamic.

[wizall]

There's now a third option which may be a decent compromise. I, too, like the idea of a sophisticated/complex economy, but from a design stand-point it may run too many people off. But, then again, I doubt this is a game that will be targeted to the masses anyway.

Tough call.

[idolminds]

I like that 3rd option. Building more "shops" in a town creates a priority for resources to be sent there. So you can still create the neat production chains of items getting processed and further refined, but its not totally complex and micromanagey.

[idolminds]

Elemental: The Book

Will be interesting to see how that turns out.

Also, alpha invites went out to select people. Beta should be kicking off around PAX. Preorders get you in to beta, but shortly after PAX they will close that off.

[Quemaqua]

Preorder is tempting...

[idolminds]

Especially after you read this.

[wizall]

These guys know how to post updates.

[idolminds]

Quck look at the alpha.

[Quemaqua]

Damn it.  I may have to just bite the bullet and preorder this.

[idolminds]

This game is going to be so awesome.

Shacknews Q&A with Brad Wardell part 1

Brad Wardell: Yeah, so games like X-Com, and Star Control 2, and of course Master of Magic, we love those games. And so we take bits and pieces, and we take our own ideas of things we wanted to see in games. I think the family tree feature of Elemental is pretty much something that we're bringing to the genre that's fairly unique.

Shack: Talk about that tree.

Brad Wardell: Well the idea is that, in these games, it's pretty normal to have heroes, and you can recruit heroes in this game as well. But we wanted the player to have more diplomatic tools than the usual treaties or tribute or whatever. And instead, while you are immortal, you can get married, have children, grow old and die. And you can actually arrange marriages and that kind of thing, and they'll have offspring that are a genetic blend of the two.

As an example, lets say I'm playing as the Altar, and we have an AI player, and their daughter is married to my son. She becomes a part of my family; I can control her, she's a unit in the game. Royalty in the game are actual units that you just get. Well, now she's my unit. Alright, I have her in my capitol city, and [she] just has babies or something. Or what do you know, she gives a 25% morale boost to any army she's in. Maybe I'll send her off with the army. Uh oh, she died. Well guess what, the other player's going to declare war on me because I killed their daughter.

Shack: There's the potential for some very twisted scenarios there.

Brad Wardell: Or how about this. The AI player's sovereign gets killed. He's out of the game. What happens to his kingdom? Well, his daughter is in my family, but what if his son was married off to some other family? Now there's a civil war in his kingdom. Some of his cities join my side, some of the cities join the other side.

One of the things in Galactic Civilizations is that people felt there was too much randomness when a civilization surrendered, who they surrendered to. Now it's not random at all. You can predict what's going to happen when someone surrenders or breaks off.

[MysterD]

Idol, I'm not big on strategy -- but holy shit, all those scenarios that could be sound fuckin' awesome.

EDIT:
The modability discussed in the article sounds pretty sweet, as well.

[Quemaqua]

Every time they talk about this game I get more excited.  Damn you, Stardock.  Stop making me want stuff that doesn't exist yet!

[MysterD]

Preview from IGN.

SDK / Mod Support

Stardock's saying mod support will be a big part of what keeps this game going, and is including editors not only for terrain, towns and maps but also for items and even spell effects.

I would assume that means we'll see someone create a version of Middle-earth soon after this game is released, along with all the appropriate weapons, armors and locations. The game's scheduled to be released later this summer, and I'm certainly looking forward to getting some hands-on time with the title to see how it all plays.

[Quemaqua]

This is one game I might actually play.  I say that now... but I'm hopeful, god damn it.

[MysterD]

New FAQ up.
Coming August 24th, even though that date could be subject to change.

[idolminds]

Video thingy!

[MysterD]

Elemental Beta4 includes Modding Tools, so here's Modding Tools Guide from Stardock.

[idolminds]

Interesting quote from Wardell

For what it's worth, Elemental has sufficient pre-orders such that it'll break even on August 24th.

Break even on release day? Thats pretty crazy.

[MysterD]

Interesting quote from Wardell
Break even on release day? Thats pretty crazy.

Well...any clue how much did they spend to actually make this game?

I bet it's chump-change, when compared to most Triple-A titles that WAY, WAY OVERSPEND in so many areas....

[idolminds]

Man, this game comes out in less than two weeks. Shouldn't it go gold right about now?

Plymouth, MI - August 13, 2010 - Sharpen your world domination skills, prepare your spell book and get your wizarding robes on: the anticipated PC fantasy strategy title Elemental: War of Magic  from independent publisher and developer Stardock has gone gold! The Limited Edition ($69.95) and the standard edition ($49.95) will hit national retail stores on August 24 and can be pre-ordered at Stardock's digital distribution platform, Impulse (www.impulsedriven.com) or via the game's web site (www.elementalgame.com).

Elemental: War of Magic opens a world of magic and ancient lore as players begin the game as one of the few beings in the world still able to channel power from shards of magic - a series of mystical artifacts left over from a great cataclysm. You must decide how much of your power to imbue into your heroes as you build cities, explore dungeons, learn spells of ever-increasing power and negotiate with friends and foes.

The game also includes integrated modding tools that allow players to create their own fantasy maps, monsters, tiles, effects and much more. The game's story-driven campaign, written by Random House's writing team, was made exclusively with the built-in modding tools.

"We wanted to make a game that players would be able to keep adding into for years to come," said Brad Wardell, president & CEO of Stardock and the game's lead designer. "With the built-in tools, players can create whole new worlds and share them with others players seamlessly from within the game."

Besides including the sand box game and campaign, Elemental also includes a multiplayer mode in which up to 16 players can play online while taking simultaneous turns. Players can save their multiplayer games online and return to them to continue in order to support players who wish to play more epic-sized games.

In addition to the PC title hitting stores on August 24, the novel ELEMENTAL: DESTINY'S EMBERS, written by Elemental: War of Magic Executive Producer Brad Wardell, will also be available at bookstores nationwide from Random House's Del Rey publishing division. Customers who purchase a copy of the book ELEMENTAL: DESTINY'S EMBERS will be able to download the additional, exclusive video game campaign, Elemental: Destiny's Embers. The campaign will release in four stages, with the first component being released in September.

"Elemental has been a labor of love; a project we've wanted to do for many years at Stardock. Since we began development, our artists, developers, programmers and support staff have been incredible and I couldn't be prouder of what we've accomplished," said Wardell. "This project has defined our company as a seamless team of dedicated, creative professionals. Elemental is by far our finest project to date and one we've had an incredible amount of fun creating."

Interesting, buying the novel gives you a code for an extra campaign (apparently based on the book). Hmmm...

[angrykeebler]

Man i am sold. I'm buying this

[idolminds]

Wow

No Copy Protection

Elemental, out of the box, like all of Stardock’s other games, has no copy protection whatsoever.  However, you obviously need Internet access to get updates.  But then, why should this be necessary?

Because Elemental, unlike our previous games, has really been designed to be a game that people can play for decades, this is something that has concerned us. Because we want to encourage people to have the latest version but at the same time, we are aware that some people are worried that 10 years from now, they won’t be able to get the “better” version.

So here is what we’re going to start doing on our developed titles: We’re going to start making archival DVD versions of the game that can be sent to customers.  We already do this with Object Desktop (our most popular non-game product).  This archival version would have no copy protection whatsoever. It would just be a DVD you can put into your machine.

So starting in October, what we will do is make archival DVD editions of our games starting with Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition and Elemental.  Roughly every year or so, if there have been updates, we’ll create a new archival version of the game that people can have sent to them (it’ll just be a DVD).

I wonder how much those will cost. But thats pretty awesome to have fully updated archive versions mailed to you. Its fairly easy to offer since I can't imagine there would be tons of people clamoring for it since you can create your own backups if you can update the game yourself. But still its kind of a nice thing to offer.

[MysterD]

Yeah - you can always back-up/archive your entire game in its most patched-up state via Impulse.

But, these DVD archival back-up things they can mail to you - how much are they charging? Wait - are they even charging owners?

[idolminds]

I would imagine they would charge for it. But maybe just the cost of shipping? Which for Stardock seems to be $10. Don't know, they havent actually said.

[Quemaqua]

That's still pretty awesome.  I do love this company.

[MysterD]

You know, when Stardock does awesome stuff like this - it's a damn shame Impulse ain't as popular as Steam.

[MysterD]

Elemental: War of Magic - "Launch" Trailer and "Intro" Video.

[MysterD]

Demo coming in Early September.

[idolminds]

We are getting reports that the street date for Elemental has been broken. This is one of the downsides of being an indie, we lack sufficient retail clout to get retailers to take our street dates seriously apparently (same thing happened for Demigod).

As a result, we plan to make Elemental available to beta testers TOMORROW (Sunday) as well to pre-order customers ASAP (either tomorrow or first thing Monday).

However, because I have to re-task the IT team to do this, I'm going to have to have us delay the multiplayer server availability until later this week - Tuesday - the original release date - or Wednesday in all likelihood). It won't affect the single player, campaign, or modding.

Sucks that apparently retail is fucking up their plans AGAIN...but yay, get it early.

[MysterD]

Link to Frogboy's post on Broken Street date that Idol quoted and mentioned above.

Idol - you may edit your post and toss this link from Impulse's forums in there, if you like.

[idolminds]

Version 1.0 (aka retail box version) is now up on Impulse for people that preordered. The Elemental IRC channel went nuts.