This is the first game i buy a game from Stardock.
I wasn't a beta tester, but i pre-ordered, primarily due to my fond childhood memories of Master of Magic and the unique art style that impressed me. I don't usually pre-order games (that's the second time ever), i prefer to wait till a game matures (at least a couple of months and at least one patch). That said here's my 10 cents from my first playthrough:
First the good stuff:
+ Unique art style, stands out from the generic fantasy artwork of other games (HOMM, King's Bounty etc.) or the gritty "realism" of the likes of Diablo. My compliments to the art team
+ Reasearch seems well thought out and deviates from the mostly linear (or sparsely branched) equivalent in other games
+ When i realized that Stardock's CEO actively participates in the forums and is the lead designer, i thought "here's a labour of love, a hand made jewel". It's a big plus for me and a telltale that the game WILL be enhanced and improved in the near future.
+ The game may be kind of rough at the moment, but it has GREAT gameplay potential. And that's the biggest plus.
The bad stuff:
- It's unpolished and looks like a beta. There are many areas to improve and correct gameplay-wise. I won't go into details as most of the things that bothered me have already been addressed in other posts, namely:
https://forums.elementalgame.com/391385
and
https://forums.elementalgame.com/391443
to name a couple.
Same goes for UI. Little annoying things like lagging menus, or unintuitive button arrangments, that add up to form a bigger frustration index.
- Lack of documentation. The pdf manual, while helpful, is lacking information to say the least. Same goes for in-game compendium (don't remember how it's called). Those of us who haven't been in the beta testing process are seriously frustrated and try to progress through trial and error. I imagine it's even harder for people that are new to turn based games.
What i would like to see is a pinned forum post maintained by a moderator that collects suggestions and criticisms that are currently dispersed in different topics. That way the developers can get a better picture of what bothers players, and players can have a single spot to post their suggestions.
Also, it would be helpful if someone from the design team could write some sort of draft that addresses things not current;y addressed in the existing documentation.
Anyway, i hope i didn't offend anyone, i'm just trying to be helpful. I hope some of the minor stuff have been already addressed in 0 day patch.
