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Big Fat Pictures and Day 0 reporting

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Big Fat Pictures and Day 0 reporting

from JoeUser Forums

Finally getting to actually PLAY the game some.  I’ve got a huge list of tweaks already for the day 0 build.

I play at really high resolution so this is what my screens looked like:

2010-08-14_2025

In this game, I’m slowly wearing Kraxis down.  Which means I’m unhappy because it means I need to do more AI work. Bear in mind, when I play I play at normal where the AI gets the same resources. If I wanted to get creamed, I’d just push up the difficulty but I want the AI to be very intelligent at normal.

2010-08-14_2032

This screenshot is full of win.   The beta group pushed hard for special abilities for units and they got their way (the fire giant has 3 actually).  This is something we plan to expand on over the next few months a lot (don’t worry, these things will be free updates).

We’re just incredibly excited about how things have turned out. Though, like all the other games we’ve done, we have a long list of things we want to add and improve on over the next several months. Though, for now, we’re going to stick with polishing so that we can hear what our customers want first before we commit to anything specific.

Availability

Now, one thing I think I can say (and I’m not promising this because all things are ultimately decided by the IT gods) but it is our plan to make the “gold” version of the game available a bit early to those in the beta and those who pre-order will also likely get it a bit early.   We hope to start pre-loading Elemental onto machines early to mid next week to reduce strain.

At retail, Walmart, Best Buy, Gamestop, EB, etc. should all have it in strong supply. Just make sure you update to the day 0 version (via Impulse) because you will need the day 0 version to play multiplayer or do the mod tools stuff not to mention we’ll have a ton of new stuff in it as well. The download should be pretty small though.

What’s next

Well, for this week, I plan to have fun working on the AI and making some more quests. How much will make it into the day 0 version is hard to say.  The writing team at Random House and us have been brainstorming lots of new quests we can put into the game and I really want the AI to play “in character” (no snarky dialog like in GalCiv).

151,218 views 84 replies
Reply #27 from Elemental Forums Top

I also want to share my joy that we may be getting a chance to play the gold release early!

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #28 from Elemental Forums Top

Sweet to see morale and abilities in now. :)

Reply #29 from Elemental Forums Top

What happened to the idea of lessened city spamming...?  8C

Reply #30 from Elemental Forums Top

Awesome!  Just don't make the AI too powerful, now...

 

(This is actually a legitimate concern of mine.  Yes, the beta AI is horrible.  But all the same, I just want to be reassured that the "Normal" AI, say, will still be beatable by people who aren't devs.)

Reply #31 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Lord_Agamemnon, reply 30
Awesome!  Just don't make the AI too powerful, now...

No! I want the AI to be able to crush my feeble collection of refugees beneath their steel-toed boots of hate without receiving any AI related bonuses.

Reply #32 from Elemental Forums Top

Excellent news and excellent screenshots. Thanks guys!

Reply #33 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting TheProgress, reply 31

Quoting Lord_Agamemnon, reply 30Awesome!  Just don't make the AI too powerful, now...

No! I want the AI to be able to crush my feeble collection of refugees beneath their steel-toed boots of hate without receiving any AI related bonuses.

 

Seconded!

Reply #34 from Elemental Forums Top

Wow you can build on hills/mountains now. Thankfully I upgraded my Pre-order to the Limited edition a few days ago.

Cloth Maps and Real Manuals make it well worth the money.

 

 

Reply #35 from Elemental Forums Top

This sounds absolutely wonderful.  I love the screenshots and plan to play in high resolution.  I think I will change my mind and download Impulse.  At least I hear it will actually uninstall from the machine without losing the game easily.

Reply #36 from Elemental Forums Top

but it is our plan to make the “gold” version of the game available a bit early to those in the beta and those who pre-order will also likely get it a bit early.

This makes me excited!! I'm one of the people that thought beta was up to release, so I pre-purchased the game (boxed + download) and missed the beta boat a bit unintentionally. Glad the pre-order people are getting the same attention! :D

Reply #37 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm sorry for being a pest but I really would love to have an answer to this...

A while back you (Frogboy) said that you would likely be able to implement some of the spells that were requested in that spell request thread you posted.  Were you able to implement some of those spells?

Reply #38 from Elemental Forums Top

Did have you a small update to the game between those two games?

In one screenshot, the Hit Points icon looks like the old one, and in the other one it's new (which I pointed out in a couple of journals ago :D). Glad to see it fixed! :D

Reply #39 from Elemental Forums Top

Woot!!!  Thanks so much for doing that for us.  Cant wait to play and not have all the crashes that I do now.(from that darn memory leak)

Reply #40 from Elemental Forums Top

Availability

Now, one thing I think I can say (and I’m not promising this because all things are ultimately decided by the IT gods) but it is our plan to make the “gold” version of the game available a bit early to those in the beta and those who pre-order will also likely get it a bit early. We hope to start pre-loading Elemental onto machines early to mid next week to reduce strain.

 

All hail the :frogboy: !!!

Reply #41 from Elemental Forums Top

Thank you for the Snarky-free AI.  I get enough of that from my wife.  :grin:

Early access would be appreciated.  Double if we have it in time for next weekend.

Reply #42 from Elemental Forums Top

can there be a campaign of just tactical battles? varying difficulty and units. be cool to use a variety of units!

Reply #43 from Elemental Forums Top

MAJOR. Think Beta 2 to Beta 3 level changes.
more like beta 1 to 4.

Reply #44 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Hellfirex25, reply 42
can there be a campaign of just tactical battles? varying difficulty and units. be cool to use a variety of units!

Mod it 8D 

Reply #45 from Elemental Forums Top

Brad, you are my HERO of the gaming world.  If that sounds fanboyish, so what.  I'm impressed with what you have done here and the way you keep delivering pleasant surprises to your fan base is wonderful.  A labor of love and it shows it.  If the industry was more like you, we'd have fabulous games but I'll settle for one or two standout independent developers like yourself.  You keep us old TBS gamers (I'm 62) going.

I am very much looking forward to ordering next week and to playing for a long, long time to come.  Thanks for the hard work.

Reply #46 from Elemental Forums Top

Sweet. :)

Noticed in the image that the ports still don't rotate out into water. Looks like a port at Sierasuuyi with this problem.

Reply #47 from Elemental Forums Top

Could someone explain to me..I preordered the game for digital download.. am I supposed to get some sort of confirmation email? I know it told me I preordered at impulse but after closing it I have no information whatsoever if it is done or not. So just wondering if this is normal..

Reply #48 from Elemental Forums Top

looks great looking forward to playing and reading about how the games are going for other players such as after action reports and such or what ever they are called.

Reply #49 from Elemental Forums Top

No "snarky" dialog like in GalCiv!? aw man...I kind of like the "snarky"...Big'ol Might and Magic fan here, from back in the day :thumbsup: I haven't posted much, but have been reading regularly.

 

I have, both, GalCiv2 and Sins of a Solar Empire...GalCiv2 is still a project of mine, as I've yet to beat it on normal, but I took to Sins like a fish to water because the pacing was perfect for me and I love the fact it is not a "click fest" in the "right order" to win the game.

 

I have a feeling the "sandbox" part of Elemental will kick my behind six ways from Sunday, but thats a good thing to me. I'm hoping the RPG fan in me will take to the campaign mode and center on that in my early playtime...then, hopefully someday, I'll beat the game in "sandbox" mode on normal...someday...then I'll mark that day on my calendar, and celebrate it with a personalized screenshot of my victory on my decktop every year!

 

Umm...yea, I don't get out much. ;P ...grats on a wonderful looking game so far that I hope to sneak onto my hard drive early enough before Christmas so I don't feel too guilty spending money on myself. (I'm a parent with an over active conscience...heh O:) )

Reply #50 from Elemental Forums Top

So we "might" get it early? Like how early? Wooohooooo!!! :) Sweeeeeeeet!!!!