Elemental: War of Magic

[Buio]

Well the game seems buggy, but the official release date is 24th, and there was some talk about day-0 patch, so I wont comment more until that one is released.

[Buio]

There is already a pre-day-0 patch out to fix some bugs, updating the game to v1.01. Fixes are listed here;

http://forums.elementalgame.com/391632

Also there is a bigger patch later today that will fix more things, but also update a bunch of other things. That is listed here;

http://forums.elementalgame.com/391747

Here?s a few highlights:

1. The UI is updated to be somewhat more intuitive.
   
2. The campaign is significantly updated (though only for those starting fresh).
   
3. Resources are treated more like units. This is hard to explain but essentially the game will let you know of what resources you?re not using and how to make use of them.
   
4. There?s a lot of performance improvements the day 0 build, particularly for those with lower end CPUs.
   
5. The ?day 0? AI is in it.
   
6. There?s been a polish pass to the spell books and tactical battles.
   
7. There?s been a general polish pass to the main game UI overall.
   
8. There?s been a lot of balancing to monsters, units, etc.

Anyway, I decided to not play the game until I got the second patch too.

And no, I'm not in their promotional army thingy. I just like these type of games, but to be honest, I'd rather had Galactic Civilizations III instead, because I love space strategy games. I guess I will have to do with Sword of the Stars II next year instead. :)

[Duality]

Elemental: War of Magic was released in some stores and for pre-order customers on Monday, a day ahead of schedule. It’s a mess. As PC gamers we’re used to launch day patches and bug fixes. That’s part and parcel of gaming on our platform. However, the scale of Elemental’s pre-patched problems is appalling and we’d like to warn players to stay away for the game for now.

They’re not even apologetic: CEO Brad Wardell says on the game’s site that they’re “definitely glad” people played the pre-patch version because of all the useful crash reports they got. Wanting customers to encounter crashes so that they can be fixed is pretty much the definition of a paid beta test.

In response to someone saying Elemental “plays like an early beta” on the Quarter to Three forums, Brad requests that anyone who thinks so “please stay away from our games in the future. I consider it ready for release and if others disagree, don’t buy our games.”

http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/25/elementals-disastrous-launch-stay-well-away/

These kind of shenanigans really don't do the PC as a platform any favours. To get this kind of writeup from a large publication as well could be pretty damning - and is a shame, because Stardock have made some amazing games. Sins of a Solar Empire will always be among my favourites.

[Teebor]

I will admit that I don't pay much attention to stardock games anymore, even though I liked a lot of their early offerings, but the price of this game to me seems way over the top. I would expect that much for a console release of a major game, not a game like this.

I might keep watch on it as it looks like this game appeals to me, but unless the price suddenly drops by half in a few months I won't be getting

[Tartan]

For a game that's supposedly been in development for years, their final product so far is laughbly pathetic.

[speedstr3789]

Stardock is heading int he right direction with losing the DRM crap on their games. However, some of these games should be in the $20.00 range. That and the loss of DRM would clinch their objective.

[lalalawawawa]

Its a disaster. Crashes, bugs... I can't believe this product was released. Worst of 2010. :/

[McCordRm]

Ouch.

[Island Dog]

Several updates have been made available that address most of the issues people were experiencing. If you do have the game, make sure you have the latest update via Impulse.

[Buio]

Well, I'm running v1.05 and it seems fine, I don't get any crashes or playstopping bugs after playing for several hours. The balance seems ok, but I've not really fought against a hard kingdom yet. The first one had a lot of goodies I needed, and i killed their king so the kingdom fell apart and I could grab the very nice resources he had.

[spaceelf]

http://www.pcgamer.c...stay-well-away/

These kind of shenanigans really don't do the PC as a platform any favours. To get this kind of writeup from a large publication as well could be pretty damning - and is a shame, because Stardock have made some amazing games. Sins of a Solar Empire will always be among my favourites.

It was a poor showing from Brad but he already apologized making the 'unapologetic' statement untrue.

I agree that prepatch the game was bad. 1.05 is fun but if you haven't felt the need to buy it yet I'd wait til October based on my playtime.

[Buio]

Well the only thing that annoy me currently is the very slow 3d map framerate. As it's a turnbased strategy game its still playable, but it's not good. Otherwise I've been playing a lot without problems now.

[lalalawawawa]

Several updates have been made available that address most of the issues people were experiencing. If you do have the game, make sure you have the latest update via Impulse.

Which pretty much destroys everything Brad said about their games being DRM-free. Lying to customers is not a good thing!

[_BeanZ_]

Which pretty much destroys everything Brad said about their games being DRM-free. Lying to customers is not a good thing!

Assuming it works the same way as SoaSE, then the statement is actually (99%) correct

- there is no copy protection/disk checking involved e.g. SecuROM

- there is no need to connect to an authentication server to load/play the game e.g. recent Ubisoft games

- there is no need to have additional software running in the background e.g. Steam

Rather than punishing customers by making them jump through hoops, they try to encourage them to purchase legitimate copies by only making updates available if you register your key through Impulse. There is no requirement to register the key in order to play and Impulse doesn't need to be running to play.

The only possible complaint you could have about the system is that it does potentially limit your ability to resell the game at a later date, but you'd have to be very picky or using the loosest of vague definitions to actually class it as DRM.

[lalalawawawa]

^ Every company will use the "DRM-free" phrase, when it thinks it can get away with it. You can hardly say the game is DRM-free, when the multiplayer doesn't work unless you connect to Stardock's servers, for which I assume you need to register the game to Impulse. Also, the release version is a joke, to get the game playable you must install the patches that were released zero-day, purposely done like that to force users to register their games to Impulse, so that they can update their games.

Its like saying: "Hey folks, you can buy our game DRM-free in your local store. Though, to get the game in a playable condition, you must register it online, attach it to an account and install a client software to download the patches. But don't worry, after that the game is DRM-free."

^ Do you consider this to be a DRM-free game? Seriously?

I couldn't care less how the game does after this, whether it becomes the best game in the history of gaming, but seriously, what was done, was wrong (in my standards). I'm also pretty sure they wanted the game to go out as soon as possible, because Civ V is coming soon, and we all know who will win this battle.

EDIT: Do yourself a favor. Save your money and wait for Civilization V.

[spaceelf]

^ Every company will use the "DRM-free" phrase, when it thinks it can get away with it. You can hardly say the game is DRM-free, when the multiplayer doesn't work unless you connect to Stardock's servers, for which I assume you need to register the game to Impulse. Also, the release version is a joke, to get the game playable you must install the patches that were released zero-day, purposely done like that to force users to register their games to Impulse, so that they can update their games.

Its like saying: "Hey folks, you can buy our game DRM-free in your local store. Though, to get the game in a playable condition, you must register it online, attach it to an account and install a client software to download the patches. But don't worry, after that the game is DRM-free."

You forgot the "We'll eventually be sending out the current version of our games to requesting customers which are DRM free."

Yes. It's protected. It doesn't limit activations, you don't have to log on every time you play the game, you don't have to load a client every time you play the game. It doesn't do anything people hate about current DRM solutions...except prevent pirates from getting patches.

Are you done whining yet? It just sounds like "It's better than 99% of games DRM solutions, but that's not good enough so I'm going to wait for a game that's worse off!"

[Buio]

EDIT: Do yourself a favor. Save your money and wait for Civilization V.

Personally I think Civ 5 will be just like Civ 4 with the same old gameplay and some new minor things here and there. Elemental at least is a new game, so it feels fresh although there are some bugs to patch up. I got tired fairly fast of Civ 4 just because it's just more of the same. But maybe it will be different now, with hexagons and no unit stacking.

And apparently Elemental got updated to v1.06 now, changes are here:

http://forums.elementalgame.com/393126

[Andre S. Veteran]

So apparently there's a demo coming soon. I will definitely be trying it out. Not to keen on shelling 55$CAN when I'm not sure it's good. Also, that should give them time to iron out the wrinkles. If it shipped with several show-stoppers, you can be sure there are dozens more subtler bugs lurking around.

^ Do you consider this to be a DRM-free game? Seriously?

I couldn't care less how the game does after this, whether it becomes the best game in the history of gaming, but seriously, what was done, was wrong (in my standards). I'm also pretty sure they wanted the game to go out as soon as possible, because Civ V is coming soon, and we all know who will win this battle.

DRM is not a problem in itself, what is a problem is DRM that makes the experience worse for legitimate buyers than pirates (such as Ubisoft's latest crud). That of course cannot be said of what Stardock is doing. Edited August 27, 2010 by Dr_Asik

[lalalawawawa]

My point was that Brad said there won't be any DRM in the game, but there actually is. If he just said, "we're going to do it this way, there is a little DRM in it, but I hope you won't mind." I wouldn't have written anything about DRM here. :)

I also find it very funny that gaming sites recommend that people stay away from the game for some time. :)

But never mind. Discussing DRM-free gaming on Neowin is a wrong thing. :)

[spaceelf]

Only gaming sites that take something out of context and don't mention that Froggie already apologized for what he said.

He does seem a bit hotheaded sometimes lately, which is no doubt why hes taking some time off.

[lalalawawawa]

1.06 was released today I think. :)

[Buio]

I've been playing a bunch (had to restart as my old saves became useless in 1.06), and I think there is a great turnbased game somewhere in there. But it has a lot of issues, with mainly gameplay and balancing.

With my new game I leveled my leader pretty good, and also got a nice sword. I crushed a small faction, then attacked the next one below and wiped their king (who fled to their city). Anyway, in that city there was a Drake that was extremely powerful, many times more than my leader. So I couldn't attack, it would have been suicide. Anyway, he just sat there with the Drake doing nothing. Not to mention it was extremely unbalanced as it was not that long into the game either.

Elemental has had beta testing during the spring/summer (the ones preordering got in the beta afaik), but it seems that the result of that testing is not showing in the final build or it wasn't done very well.

[Buio]

I'm gonna shelf this game for at least some months and try to come back and play again later. As it is now, it's just too annoying to play. I don't wanna do the same mistake as with Empire Total War, where I did continue to play the buggy game and got tired of it before they had patched it up to release quality level. There are some good games upcoming in September to play instead.

[lalalawawawa]

I'm gonna shelf this game for at least some months and try to come back and play again later. As it is now, it's just too annoying to play. I don't wanna do the same mistake as with Empire Total War, where I did continue to play the buggy game and got tired of it before they had patched it up to release quality level. There are some good games upcoming in September to play instead.

:laugh:

[nubs]

Yeah I'm shelving the game as well. It still feels beta to me.