Well I can understand your concern about elemental but personally I don’t have a problem with Elemental being comparable in terms of game play to the total war series key word being comparable. I don’t think however that Elemental would just be a lame rip of total war with dragons etc you can tell that just by what Brad has said thus far about the game. As for your three major concerns

I would say in regards to the first one having multiple races does not equal a large variety. I enjoy being technically correct in elemental there is only one race the human race with two variations being regular and fallen. We know there is going to be 6 factions for each variation and these have been stated as being very unique and not just mirror images of some master mold for men or fallen. The level of variety and complexity in these 12 factions will largely be based on how much time is spent developing each one and I believe (don’t quote me) that Brad said the military for faction X is largely under the control of the player and uniqueness would be totally dependant on the person playing and designing units while the Spell books for each faction is where Stardock plans to have the greatest amount of diversity and variety between the 12 factions.

As for your second concern the mere fact that Stardock is shooting for a hybrid RPG, Strategy/ RTS makes me think customizing your Channeler with unique attributes, skills, and abilities is implicitly stated. I mean when you talk about RPGs the player can typically do three things gain levels, complete quests, and choose types of augmentations be they adding points to stats or whatever.  

Your last concern is rather hard to address since we still don’t know exactly how the magic system in Elemental is going to work but I do believe players will be able to make their own spells so you can assume one of two realities playing out. A like the military spell book depth and variety is dependant on the player or B there are numerous spells already created that players can alter to be more in line with a particular idea they have for a spell. Till more info is given on the magic system in elemental we all will have to take a wait and see approach to this concern of yours but I would also point out with a game suffix like war of magic I would except the spell books to be very deep and well thought out. 

I agree with the lack of different races. I dont understand how you can have a game with dragons and magic but not have elves, faeries, orcs, dwarves, lizardmen etc. It's my only complaint thus  far. But not a game breaker for me...I'm sure everything will be modded in later on or come out in an expansion!  

They're shooting to add RTS to it? That's the first I've heard of that. Instant no-sale if so. Take look at any software store and you probably see 20-30 RTS games on the shelf and maybe 1 TBS and that's only if Civ 4 is in stock...

Stardock has a great record and I'll see what comes with high hopes. RTS would completely kill it though.

I assume you realize I’m talking about the tactical battles when it comes to the hybrid RTS portion of the game. I personally love a good RTS and would be very happy with some core RTS elements in Elemental. I believe the RPG elements come from quests and channeler development, strategy elements come from both nation management and battles, and RTS elements I would assume would be totally or almost totally confined to the tactical battle area of Elemental. Now exactly how real-time Brad’s aforementioned “real-time” is going to be remains to be seen but I’m hoping more rather than less. I would like to see Stardock create a dedicated RTS game in the future (not counting Demigod since GPG is the developer) but that most definitely won’t be Elemental.  

Until the beta comes out, all we can do is conjecture.  Even so, that can be fun in itself.  So, I'll just give my trusty magic 8-ball a spin here and throw my best guesses into the fray:

Although the OP made several points, it seems to me that his key concern is about variety.  Variety of races, variety of spells and variety of special abilities.

One of GalCiv2's strengths was the differentiation between the races (whether you played as them or against them): There are individual tech trees (which may map to spells), AI playstyles (agressive, diplomatic, etc.) and super-abilities (which may become MoM-eque abilities like alchemy, etc.) for each race.  This isn't going to be a GalCiv2 clone of course but the point is that history tells us they are a company that values differentiation and variety.

My hunch is that the lack of different *races* will actually l lead to greater variety of *gameplay* as it allows for custom unit design.  As the early unit designer showed, you can mix and match armor and weapons.  The mechanics for this mean that they need consistent base model to parent the items to and work out the physics - in this case a biped/human.  Making many different base models multiplies the work significantly.  Also, working out the combinations of dynamic animation blending for melee combat when you have many different model types/sizes interacting gives me a headache.  Still, my point is that while units are all essentially human (and therefore as you noted not as different *looking*) they have the opportunity to *play* very differently as they should be highly customizable.  If I had to make a trade off between different prefab units or have custom unit design - I'd go for the custom design myself.

Also, it seems that adding different unit types (and once again I'm just pulling these theories out of my ass) is something that is perfect for an expansion once the base engine is designed.  Then they can devote the time required to that sort of content.  Perhaps they'll make the biped model (and armor) scaleable allowing other humaniods like elves/dwarves/orcs/etc.  Maybe quadrapeds/mounts will get some loving in another add-on.  Emphasis should be on engine design & flexibility first.  It will just make the possibility of adding additional content later that much easier.

Anyway, I understand your concerns (the Total War comparisons worry me too but I'll save that for another post).  The high hopes we all have for this game is a lot of pressure for the team.  You can't please everybody all the time and in fact trying to do so can often be much worse than sticking to your vision and seeing your design decisions through to the end.  Their wonderful beta program and customer communication policies give me faith that they are particularly attentive to our concerns.  So, it's good we voice them.  If our opinions are heard (regardless of the final outcome), what more can we ask for?

Cheers, -J.

I don't think Elemental in it's default version could possibly have the amount of different stuff that Master of Magic did, because it is a multiplayer game and so will need to be reasonably balanced. Master of Magic had a number of game-breaking strategies, and that was ok because it was a single-player game. They just threw the kitchen sink into the game. By contrast, everything that Stardock puts in will need careful testing and balancing because they are essentially making the canonical version of the game: the one most likely to be the definitive multiplayer experience.

Now the good news: there will be mods to cater for your tastes. Moreover, if the game is successful, I would expect future expansions to expand the content significantly. Consider Twilight of the Arnor compared to base Galciv 2.

I’m an action oriented gamer so I enjoy having some level of stress or pressure present in games I play. I don’t have a huge problem with TBS games but I do hate the pauses they break the flow of the game for me. As for fighting multiple battles on multiple fronts I love that kind of tense do or die action in a strategy war game but I do vaguely recall a feeling of dislike when I was a kid playing RTS and getting attacked from multiple fronts. I’m use to it now and adjust my strategy as necessary during the course of the game. All that being said it sounds like Elemental’s tactical combat will have real-time combat for people like me and some semi time independent system for people like you.

See, and here comes BoogieBac to show that they do look at the forums, they do care, and reitterate my point.

More and More developers are trying to get the fan communities involved in guiding the development process.  But Stardock actually is the one that makes me feel like we matter.  I wish there were more big AAA developers like Stardock.  * is punched by a disembodied fist screaming "If your not indie F**K YOU!" *

Elemental is a turn-based game. Not an RTS.  Even the tactical battles are turn-based, they're just continuous turns (ala The Corporate Machine).

Speaking of MoM the race you pick at the start didn't really affect the endgame because you could capture other cities and produce units from other races. There were a handful of things that picking races would affect but they were invisible and most players didn't even know they existed. For example the amount of unrest in conquered cities was measured against your original race. Everyone gets along with halflings but dark elves are hated by everyone. Klackons in particular are almost impossible to use because of unrest issues unless you start with them.

I just downloaded the political machine and played a few games is that exactly how the tactical combat is going to work in Elemental? It seemed very slow to me, I had hoped for an option for something a bit more dynamic and fast paced.