Brad visited Gametrailers.com, and they have posted a walkthrough video of Elemental focusing on the story and characters of the game.
Check out the rest of the videos here.
http://www.gametrailers.com/game/elemental-war-of-magic/12076
I have checked all the videos, there is acutally alot of them, which si great... but sadly, I have to say, that UI is still very limited, and rough. It is just too small and too clicky. I do not like idea, that I own large screen to have more space on the screen and be forced to 1024x768 UI screen. Also, it seems, like you do not really think about expanding it. If people come with more races, backgrounds etc... its going to be horrible to choose them, because of clicking on one little smallish arrow...
Overall I hate those small arrows so much, because it does not allow control UI fast. I do not know, why you do not use expanding menus, for stuff like backgrounds, or poses, to make choosing them much easier. I also do not like all the scrolling in the backstories etc... Because UI is small.
I hope that you have fixed scrolling sliders, that I can actually scroll up and down, without needing to have curscor precisely on the button while holding the mouse button.
Combat UI is still horrid, and also, I do not like look of the minimap and overall skin of the UI. You had beatifull UI way back, which was a little bit crowded but it was much much nicer. Also on the left side of the screen are units, and on the right are events, and those are not used to its full potential. More color codes, and info on them, would make them much more useful.
Overall UI is still too dull and cumbersome.
Other then that, I really like what I see and can not wait for release. Other then UI I have high hopes for the game. GJ.
You're absolutely right about the UI problems. I'm especially irritated by how unwieldy it is on high-resolution monitors. Everything is shoved wayyyyyyyyy in the corners for me and it's all far too small.
I was hoping that the finalized UI would have some kind of built-in scaling where the entire UI scales up as the resolution increases (see: WoW, Starcraft 2) but I guess it's not to be.
I've even posted about this before but I don't think anyone responded.
I don't think these videos are running the "finalized" UI. A bunch of stuff Frogboy posted about it in the "last day in CA" journal isn't actually in the video, so I assume it was taken before the stuff was ready. At least, that's what I'm hoping. If this is the final, then I agree it's pretty underwhelming.
I hope you are right, but there are actually changes on the UI, if you have watched all the videos, so its not beta 4 UI. I just hope, that this is not final version of it. Because its not something what really fits 2011 with a complex game and alot of informations, which should be displayed fast and clearly.
Honestly the voice for the opening cinematic
Yep, I've noticed some changes but not others. We'll have to see and hope, I guess
I was super impressed by nearly everything I saw except for the combat.
Perhaps it would've been wiser to show a larger battle or something, because it simply did not look impressive. It looked downright boring. Only one guy attacking/defending? What's the point of assembling an army if only one guy is going to do the legwork at any given time. Even if the combat values account for the number of units, it still looks weak.
I still plan on buying it at launch because of how impressive everything else looked and knowing Stardock's commitment to improve past games and Impulse, but I really hope that combat gets overhauled. Tactical combat like this is such a good idea, but it has to look like some serious stuff is going down.
I have to agree with SumoX, the combat was extremely disappointing, when armies fight, I should see armies fighting, not one soldier detaching and hitting the enemy while the others stand in the background looking like idiots. This seems like a bastardization of the heroes of might and magic system, where only one unit actually attacks and it takes into account the stats of all the units in a stack, except here it actually shows the rest of the units laughably doing nothing. I was hoping to actually see armies clash in this game but if that part (again) has to be left up to the imagination, just show one unit with a number indicating the amount of units in the stack please.
Completely agree. It looks silly now. Either one unit to represent the stack or all of the units attack.
Some of the sadsackery I see on these forums make me think that some of you guys really aren't worth my time.
Hopefully, you guys can find a game that meets your expectations in the future. But I can tell you right now, if these forums were to become a big bag of whiney malcontents, I'll find somewhere else to spend my time. I'm really getting tired of the pettiness.
The game's final UI is good. No, it doesn't expand with resolution. But it's a good UI for managing a large, worldwide empire. The tactical combat between a handful of units isn't going to be that interesting I agree, it's just what happened to get shown during the course of playing the game. It's not Rome Total War.
We have said from the start that Master of Magic was a major inspiration for the game. If you watch MoM tactical battles, you'll find that ours are very similar in terms of game play.
I think you guys should just assume that the final game won't be good and go somewhere else and let the rest of us enjoy it. Sheesh.
Having spent some time today looking at how my friends at Blizzard are getting ragged on by their so-called "fans" despite releasing what is certainly a masterpiece (Starcraft 2) makes me thankful that we're not a publicly traded company because I don't have to put up that.
Don't think that because you purchased the game that you have an unlimited right to spend time on my forums ragging on every little detail that we didn't do for you.
Well, I was a bit worried, but I'm not anymore, thanks to Stardock's dedication and Draginol's post in this thread. I think the final game will be excellent and will evolve too.
I'd like to thank Frogboy and all the team for allowing us to be part of this process, and taking on board a lot of our ideas. Kudos, Gracious! (if I got that Mexican? word right )
So, thank you, and I look forward to the future, of all things!
Btw, I like the new colour scheme.
Best regards,Steven.
I do not understand, why you take criticism so personaly frog. I mean, there is always room to improve your game, and there will always be. If someone or me, post something what they dont like, or point out some problems, it does not mean, that the game is bad or that they attack you.
If you do not want to admit, that they are things which you could or can do better, then it is shame on you. Because, there is always room for improvement! I dont see any flaming at all, so there is no reason to be so hars at us.
It depends on how criticism is delivered.
Part of me is just outraged and disheartened at what I've seen today at the Starcraft 2 forums over at Blizzard. I didn't work on SC2 obviously but I can't help but take the endless bitching there a bit personally as a game developer and realizing that no matter how perfect something is, some people will never be satisfied.
It's always that way of course. The difference is, I don't have to participate.
So coming back over here and seeing people complaining endlessly on piddly stuff (I mean seriously guys, if anyone in the beta believed that we were going to implement some sort of scaleable UI in the last month of development they're nuts. If users had wanted that we could have made it a priority but we had a year long beta and I can't think of a single time it's come up).
The tactical UI is being refreshed for release, the main strategic UI you saw, other than the empire tree, is done. It ain't changing. We like it.
And as long as this game is my baby, I'll take it personally. Believe me, you want me to take it personally. If I didn't, we wouldn't be making multi million dollar fantasy strategy games for the PC in 2010.
Elemental is a labor of love. We love it. It matters to us. We like it. And we're open to suggestions and criticism. But calling our UI "horrid"? Please. That's being melodramatic or makes me think you haven't played many games.
Games are never finished. Nothing is ever perfect. But perfect is the enemy of good. The released version of Elemental is something we're going to be very proud of. If you don't like it, then that's certainly your prerogative. But I don't have to listen to nonconstructive criticism on my forums.
If you have ideas, post them. We love to hear them. We've implemented a lot of features from the community.
Don't enter public life if you don't have thick skin...
While I agree that some comments may just be blatant trolling others are legitimate concerns / criticisms.