I wanted to voice my opinion on the current state of the civilizations that we compete against in elemental.

For me the factions just lack any sort of flavour. At all.

I know absolutely nothing about the internal politics of either major faction or the backgrounds of the peoples the create them and their relationships.

Compare that to the level of background info available in galciv. There's so much of it that it largely defines the atmosphere of your entire game based on what races you end up playing against.

You KNOW the Drengin will go to war with whoever they please. you KNOW the Drath will try to create conflict and profit from the sidelines. you KNOW that annoying spy on your planet was sent by the Krynn.

You know the Iconians created the Yor and that the Drengin enslaved the Torians and all the other good stuff that adds background information on why exactly you should care who the other civilizations are.

In elemental it's just a generic opponent, they all feel exactly the same.

I've never once had any reaction to who my closest opponent is and I hate that there's just no atmosphere generated, it's almost as if that faction is just a faceless wall that's stopping me claiming resources.

Going back to galciv again, if you started next to the Drengin you knew you'd best invest in bigger guns as soon as you could (same with monty in Civ IV). If you started near the Korx you knew you could look forward to some decent trade income and quite likely a knife in the back when you weren't looking and it's just things like that which make me keep playing galciv, it gives the game a personality.

Please, please bring this to elemental when the mechanics are working properly.