OT: Starcraft II and Elemental

[HoneyBadger]

In support of 13lackgu4rd's comment: I think that many, if not most, Dom3 players can accept that game balancing is one of the responsibilities of a game's community. It's also more of a subjective "grey area" than broken features/promises.

If Elemental had come out with only balancing issues, I doubt this thread would have gone in the direction it has.

Beta's for ironing out atleast most of the major bugs, and for making sure the game is working well enough to be called Gold. "Crashes every 2 hours or so" should never, ever, be an issue in a Gold version. And this is the second Stardock game that's had this issue. I personally experienced the exact same problem with GalCiv2.

They should have just waited for a holiday release. Yeah, it's difficult to have to hold out for a payday, but look at Blizzard and their successes. They wait until a game is actually Gold, before releasing it. I'm not saying that their 1.0 versions are perfect, they've released plenty of patches (itself a good thing, rather than any mark of inferior coding), but they give quality product from day one, without any insulting "take it or leave it" garbage.

This whole idea of the community being a second or third Beta team is getting out of hand, and really starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth. People volunteer for Beta all the time, so let whoever wants to, sign up and help out, until the game works.
Games are for entertainment, enjoyment, a clean break from work. If I have to work hard just to help a game become playable, on top of my 40+ hour work week, why aren't companies like Stardock paying me, instead of the other way around?

[Doo]

After playing the game last night I don't think I have too much more to add about Elemental that has not been said here.

1) Its playable

2) It needs work to be more balanced

3) It has bugs (having said that, no CTD's for me. Also patches are being released)

4) It has great potential and I believe there will be some fantastic mods in time.

If you are a picky person and get stinky pants over bugs and games not being polished then save yourself the effort and don't get it now, but do keep following the games (and mods) development. If your a relaxed gamer and like TBS get it, have a muck around and watch it improve over time.

I personally enjoy it and especially hope Stardock can bring it up to where the potential says it can be. I do believe this will happen and I'm happy to have paid for it because I do have faith. If this comes back to bite me then I'll lament the loss of time and dollars. However if its improved upon most TBS fans will buy it and be very happy.

Overall: Watch this space.

[Ichirou]

Funny I should see this thread after arriving at these boards after being away for some time. The reason I came back here was to see what was new in the Dom3 world since I was so disappointed in Elemental and needed to find something substantial like Dom3 to scratch my MP strategy itch again.

Rather than rehash the details that others here have already so ably discussed, I will limit myself to saying that Elemental is not only an unfinished product, it also seems to be a confused design as well. The game seems to have thrown things together without a thought of how to weld them all together into a pleasing whole. From what I've read, it would seem that this stems from the devs making large changes from build to build. Was there no overall design plan for this game? It doesn't seem like there was. And the game that I first read about and got interested in over a year ago seems to be totally different from the game that they released this week.

Add to that the bugs, an unintuitive UI, an unimaginative set of starting nations, just to name a few things, and the whole thing adds up to something that certainly needed a few more months of work and polish. The only bright light I saw with the whole thing was their stance towards modding the game, and the tools that they will give to help that along.

And of course the real gem - there is no multiplayer on release. Oh there will be servers set up soon, but really, I would have thought that they would be especially careful to have their multiplayer ironed out and ready considering the much deserved flak that they received over their Demigods game.

And yes, I know like others have said that SD will support the title and that they will get things patched and cleaned up eventually. And I do have faith that this will be done. But releasing the game like this when it's not ready just isn't right. And Brad claiming that it is ready is only fooling himself and anyone else enough of a fanboy to believe him. And I think it's going to bite him pretty harshly when it comes review time. While I haven't yet seen a formal English language review on the game yet, other than the PC Gamer warning which was as stated not a review which would come later, there is already at least one brief French review that gives the game a sound 30/100 mainly siting the unfinished and unappealing nature of the game and UI...and the lack of multiplayer being enabled.

Oh well, I suppose I'll have to queue up with everyone else, my gaming buddies included, and just shelve this game for a few months to a year and then check back in with it then. A pity though to see SD waste the good vibes that could have been generated for this game by releasing a finished and polished product that would have in turn ensured a much stronger response, and sales, from the gaming community right from the get go.

[onomastikon]

Could you post a link to the French review please? thank you

[Doo]

Here is a good review of Elemental, also containing a mention of Dominions 3.

http://fidgit.com/archives/2010/08/e...the_review.php

Inscrutable?

[sector24]

Review aggregator: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/el...l-war-of-magic

[DonCorazon]

Well, i still can't get this thing to run on the old XPS 1710 so have to reserve judgment but the reviews look atrocious. Surprising the big sites like Gamespot or IGN have held off - guess they like to let the game manufacturers sell more lemons before they reveal the truth.

You know, I read an interview with Brad Wardell one time where he talked about how he made alot of money, was married to a good looking woman, and drove a nice car (something along those lines) - and I thought - what a douche. Well, I can't believe I have been dumb enough to buy more than one game from him. I won't ever be buying or supporting any Stardock drivel nor will I ever pre-order anything again. btw I pre-ordered the hard copy version so have a copy of the lousy 20+ page manual. Classic Stardock tripe:

"Urxen: Another Fallen race, they are smaller than Trogs and are less effective in battle, but more productive"

Wow, that really fires up my imagination Stardock - wtf - I mean almost anyone could write something better than that. I want my f-in $ back.

[Zeldor]

In theory you can sue them or return the product, I am sure it says "multiplayer" on the box

Class-action lawsuit would be so funny, someone should finally do it vs one of the game companies.

[Torin]

The gamespot critic must be a friend of stardock because he knows he must do a bad critic and its waiting for to see if patches change the game.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...es%3Btitle%3B1

[DonCorazon]

I almost want to volunteer to work for their company just to help. So little effort could improve the manual tenfold, for example.

"Urxen are skittish and frenetic chittering humanoids that worship the fiery monkey demon Bloodfinger (husband of the moon goddess). They dwell in large temple complexes where the braziers unrelenting flames consume the sacrificial victims of outlying villages throughout the dry season until the torrential rains fall."

Two minutes of effort for a little flavor, albeit warped.