Elemental: War of Magic

[Island Dog]

I wanted to start an "official" thread for Elemental: War of Magic since the development is really moving along.

Elemental: War of Magic

Developer/Publisher: Stardock

Release Date: 2010

Beta Releases to begin this summer

Pre-orders available via Impulse - http://www.impulsedriven.com/elemental

Official site - http://www.elementalgame.com

Twitter - http://twitter.com/teamelemental

"Elemental is a fantasy strategy game set on a world filled with magic and ancient lore. Rule a fledgling kingdom and expand it across the world through a combination of magical power, military might, diplomatic skill, technological advancement and bold adventuring.

As sovereign, you begin as the only being in your kingdom still able to channel power from the shards of magic, a series of mystical artifacts left over from the cataclysm. You must decide how much of your power to imbue into your heroes as you build new cities, explore dungeons, perfect spells of ever increasing power and negotiate with friends and foes."

Screenshots:

[rake]

Thanks spencer for the screenshots :) Looks really good :)

[LOC Veteran]

Wait, I thought this was Stardock's RPG? I r confused.

[Elessar]

This would have been a great browser-based game from the looks of it, anyway, looks interesting. I really like the interface...any word on price?

EDIT: nevermind, $50 is about...$20-30 too high for this game, in my opinion.

[_neutrino Veteran]

it is read the bottom of the home page and it says stardock right on it.

[LOC Veteran]

it is read the bottom of the home page and it says stardock right on it.

I know it's Stardock. I thought this was their RPG though, not their next Strategy game.

[Buio]

More screens are up from a few days back. The style is still very "artistic" but it's definitely looking a lot better than the early shots.

http://forums.elementalgame.com/358044

Note: Shadowing isn?t in yet so these are not representative of what the final game (or even the beta) will look like.b>

Click for bigger versions.

Image from tactical battle:

Up close in battle:

[Wanderermy]

No incentive for pre-order :no:

I'll end up "buying" it :whistle:

[Comic Book Guy]

The game looks interesting, but some of the graphics look like ****. Don't get my wrong, I am all for cell shaded graphics, but for some reason on some of the models (char, mobs, buildings) they look really bad.

Edited July 8, 2009 by Mathachew
Do not circumvent the swear filter.

[Andre S. Veteran]

I think it looks bad too. Not because it's 2D or cartoon-like, I've loved detailed 2D graphics since The Settlers aka : Life is Feudal, but this lacks color, vibrance, details, life... it's bland and uninviting.

(edit: Well actually it's obviously not 2D. :pinch: )

The gameplay could be cool though. But I'm MUCH more excited about Disciples III.

[Buio]

I think this game is made by the same in-house team that made Galaxy Civilizations II. They seem to be focused on turnbased games with deep gameplay, and less on the graphics side than for example some of the other Stardock games done by external studios like Demigod and Sins of a Solar Empire. That said, the graphics do look a bit too "arty", even so compared with GalCiv2 (which can look really good in some parts). I don't know if that is a good path for them to go. I will still keep an eye on this becase I like GalCiv2.

The Journals page has a small FAQ too which has some more info on their intent with the game.

http://forums.elementalgame.com/356722

Some interesting techical bits from that: They are using Havok, and the game will support native 64-bit. And "3D engines for doing very very nasty things to the game world when you have enough magic -- think Populous", looks like they will have some nice destroyable stuff on world scale.

Edited July 3, 2009 by Buio

[Andre S. Veteran]

I think Galactic Civilizations 2 looks pretty good, especially in Twilight of the Arnor. Not that it's very difficult to make a space sim look decent... but if these Elemental screenshots are in any way representative of final quality, all I have to say is :x Look at Heroes V, Age of Wonders 2, Disciples 2, they all looked gorgeous, and it's an essential of their appeal. I wouldn't be playing Disciples 2 if it wasn't for the superb landscape and animations.

They may say the screenshots are not representative of final quality, but then why put them up? Turn people away? I think the game will end up looking pretty much like what we're seeing now. I'm not hoping for a miracle.

I've no problem with it looking "arty", but it just looks bland. Those washed-out colors, lack of definition, generic textures...

Yeah hopefully they do some innovative things gameplay-wise, unfortunately I think good gameplay can't save a bad-looking game. Look at Alpha Centauri, it had much more interesting gameplay than Civ2, but it looked so bizarre that nobody cared.

[Buio]

Yeah I do agree, I don't think the art style they are going for is the right direction. It will turn a lot of people off. But I will still keep an eye on it, and hope graphics improves a lot until release.

[Island Dog]

Note: Shadowing isn?t in yet so these are not representative of what the final game (or even the beta) will look like.

Remember, these are very early screenshots. There is still a ways to go.:):)

b>

[Buio]

I think it's more about the style than technical aspect.

But if the game is great, I can ignore some graphical aspects anyway. And the promise of terrain changing spell effects are cool.

[Andre S. Veteran]

Remember, these are very early screenshots. There is still a ways to go. :)

Stardock has been saying that for a year, and the game is supposedly to be released in 2010. So, they're not "very early" screenshots, we have every reason to think they are pretty close to what the game will end up looking like.

One specific issue I have with them is how it's hard to pick out the important elements from the background. On the "tactical battle" screenshot for instance:

The color palette is too drab and similar between units and the background. Also there's this omnipresent haze that doesn't seem to have any depth and randomly covers parts of the screen.

Also this:

First the water is entirely unconvincing, but hopefully that can be easily fixed (hint: add ripples and specular reflections!). But I'm mainly concerned about how boring the landscape is. It's sort of a pastel grassland without any interesting detail on it, as if I had taken MSPaint, choose the least attractive green color and bucket-spilled it all over the open areas. With the difference that on the screenshot there's a gradient to grayish-brown as the view gets more distant. :huh:

[spaceelf]

There's no reason to believe it'll look like that when it's done. A whole year to add shaders, change assets, and such could change the look completely.

[Andre S. Veteran]

There's no reason to believe it'll look like that when it's done. A whole year to add shaders, change assets, and such could change the look completely.

I'd like to hope you are right, however :

1) The point of showing preview screenshots is getting people excited about what your game will look like. Hence, they are usually representative of what the final game will look like. Developers always say they're not, but that's just a safety precaution.

2) If Stardock was so unsatisfied with the current art direction I doubt they would have been showing similar screenshots for more than a year now.

3) Art direction just won't drastically change 1 year from release, it's not just about adding a few shaders here and there.

[spaceelf]

It doesn't have to be a 'drastic change' to add retouched, improved, or just plain new textures. Not to mention types of mapping have their own textures, usually.

And nobody said anything about 'a few'...considering games can have thousands of shaders, it could easily be that they aren't showing any/all of those until they're all done.

Of course it's representative of the final game, but it's not representative of the final games quality...which is a fairly important distinction in this case.

[vip]

I think it looks good, I will grab it when it's available.

[Island Dog]

With PAX coming up, we have some previews going out.

Here is the latest:

• Kotaku Elemental preview
  
• IGN Elemental preview
  

[Minifig]

It's too expensive for my blood.

[Buio]

Some more info about PAX demos and a few new screens up;

http://frogboy.impulsedriven.net/article/362888

More screens;

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/60331

[Andre S. Veteran]

The combination of a pastel color palette and hard lines around every object makes it difficult to distinguish what's important on the screen. It looks like a mess right now.

[Island Dog]

Some new Elemental dev journals have posted recently.

Elemental: The MUST HAVE 2010 TBS requirements

Elemental Multiplayer Revealed

Elemental: Quest Discussion Part 2

Understanding The Fallen, Elemental, and Middle Earth

:)