I'll pick up both eventually, but I'm more excited for Elemental. My worry is about playing Civ AFTER Elemental and it not measuring up. That may end up being the case for LOTS of games!

Most of us already bought it

Sadly, no. I've been a bit busy lately.

Jon

Buying the game now (and therefore getting access to the beta) doesn't mean you have to play it now. And it's not like you are 24/7 working, huh? Come on, the beta is not so bad as Frogboy claims. Just worse.

Now let's talk business:

• Civilization V on Impulse without regional restrictions.
• Civilization V without Steamworks* or similar... fertilizers. Could you use GOO? *points at Stardock*

I know it doesn't depend on you and the 2K forums already have threads about this but just putting some totally unnecesary pressure on a totally innocent man in a totally unrelated forum in a partially related thread. Good luck with Civ V in any case.

* Express to not buying the game. Sorry folks, but although you all deserve the recognition and money for your work, Steamworks is a no go. I wish executives were to accept DRM in their expensive cars equivalent to the DRM used in their games.

If CIV V require Steam, I will go into a huge personal crisis. I dropped Empire Total War due to Steam.

Mmm, well better have you concentrated on Civ V Btw, is the Civ team going to be in GDC?

It's not bad timing.

Elemental should just be more like King's Bounty as possible, with extensive spell system, elaborate spell effects, units that level up, outstanding animations and gear for the main character.

You really remember me to some person ¬¬

But please, no King's Bounty, that's a pretty different type of game, if you want that ask Nival or Ubi for HoMM 6.

No, it is not, tha main part of both games that gains traction among game buyers is the combat part, and that is based on the same principles, and outside of that is the RPG gameplay structure that makes those principles work even better.

I would actually be more worried about this.

I'd be way more impressed if the game was actually played like that video, wouldnt that be awesome??  interactive board games... hmm, I'm gonna be rich

yea, no KB. More like Dominions! FTW!  

They can't worry about other games in Production for crying out loud. Chris Taylor just announced Kings and Castles from GPG.

I think GPG really liked working with STARDOCK (publisher of Demigod btw), and they also liked the solid vibe of Elemental:EoW and have begun their own take on a new Fantasy RPG IP. (OK, the name would seem to indicate that thought)

I wonder if you are the same person or it's just that King's Bounty brainwash players that plays it... In King's Bounty you can only have 1 hero, while here you will be commanding several of them, each one with each own army, you will be researching technology and spells, building cities, etc.

King's Bounty is far more simpler than Elemental in scope, which doesn't mean it's worse, is just that is a totally different type of strategy game.

But it has pretty animations.

Yeah. Kings Bounty is very different. You will need your brain to be working for Kings Bounty too, as it is a game where the success is in the details. Its the battles of Kings Bounty that really excells for me. Each move is vital, and a blunder can break your army like a dry twig. Kings Bounty is in my book a GREAT game, but not comparable to Elemental.

Ther can never be bad timing for a new CIV game unless the timing is no new games

If Elemental and CIV V turn out to be great than the TBS is revieved for yet another age. If they suck, we will not see many mainstream TBS games for a very long time I believe...

There will be a few of us there, but I won't be attending.

Jon

You've never played Imperium Galactica 2 or Pax Imperia, have you?  They're both (admittedly rare) examples of a real-time 4x game that actually works pretty well. 

I'd love to see Stardock making a Civilization game, A 4000BC to 2050AD, human history game. Firaxis need some competition, and I'm sure the Frog would make the greatest Civilization-like game ever seen, and he would really love the task.

Perhaps call it Frogboy's Empires or something. It's my dream for the next Stardock game.

That said, I love Firaxis, Sid Meier, and the Civilization games, but we can't get enough of this genre. Actually we are starved to death when it comes to games like these pearls.

Nice, I have just seen there will be a tech talk about the Civ V engine, interesting

Or better yet, another version of Alpha Centauri.  Sure, Alpha Centauri didn't have the best of best gameplay (though it was still good), but it had firm philosophical and intellectual roots that made the game stand alone.  I remember my father and I made a CD of all AC's quotes and we'd listen to them to spur conversations on long car trips

  I like both games and creators.  Civilization has been fantastic.  I have Civilization Chronicles and recommend it highly.  Yea, the battles in Civ4 are frustrating when a iron age unit defeats a modern unit.  I still enjoy the game though.  Fantasy gaming is high on my list also.  I am hoping Elemental kinda becomes the next 'Unreal Engine' of modding and customization.

I enjoy real time 4X, when it's done right. In fact I enjoy it more than TBS in any kind of multiplayer because I finish most of my turns in under ten seconds. Waiting for the guy who plays at 2 minutes a turn is more difficult.

This never bothered me. Consider this:

The guy in the tank has this really slick armor system. The tank. The Iron Age guy...doesn't. But the guy in the tank can't spend his entire day in the tank, he has to eat, sleep, wash up, spend time with the girlfriend, do his taxes, etc... Once he's outside of his tank, he's just a guy. And if the Iron Age guy (who is also a guy and knows something about where to stick the pointy bits into another guy to cause death or other fatal injuries) can get to the tanker when he's not in the tank, he can "destroy" the tank by killing the guy who drives it.

Unlike what we see in the tactical viewer in GalCiv II, or the combat sequences in SoaSE, or the sometime-to-be-replaced text lines in Elemental, the Civ games have always been abstracts of the combat and not the details. Truly that's the only way they can account for the amount of time it takes one unit to destroy another unit early in the game, when turns span decades.

Thank god. No seriously. Someone that has passion for their work rather than viewing everyone as their competitors and enemies. That's a rare attitude in our ultra-super-competitive world we live in.

hmmm... i will only buy it if its on impulse  with out regional restrictions which is totaly stupid because your limited in where u can sell it.

As far as "competition" between these games goes, there is a large number of people who will buy Civ 5 who never heard of Elemental. Civilization is in its own class when it comes to brand awareness. I'm not saying that it's great for Stardock that Civ has such comparatively wide awareness but a Civ 5 purchase does not really equate to a lost sale of Elemental. Of the people interested in Elemental who are also Civ fans I suspect a fair number of people will end up getting both Civ and Elemental.

Personally, I'll probably get Civ eventually but I have no real desire to jump in on day 1. Perhaps it is due to my undying love of Heroes of Might and Magic 2&3 but I largely prefer fantasy settings to the historical setting that Civ provides. I actually think the problem I have with Civ is the fact that the "realistic" setting clashes with the idea that my ten thousand year old avatar of Ghandi is fighting spear wielding warriors with nuclear submarines in 1832. I do get over that eventually but I prefer my timescales and events to feel a little less abstract.

CIV AND ELEMENTAL can exsist in the same world together.totally different games,with 1 thing on common.both devs make fantastic games.so cant wait to preorder civ 5.Chris taylor and gpg net have lost alot of respect when it comes to there fan base after what they did with supreme commander 2..they no longer care about anything more then casual gamers so dont think they are gonna put anything out thats deeper then a kiddy pool anymore.my only fear is  that elemental wont be  done before frogboy gets his copy of civ5 and dissapears on a 'medical emergency" for 3 months ><