My voice at least is added to those in the "waiting on a demo before I buy" camp. Obviously, you don't want to release a demo until: You have the core game at a place that feels reasonable and decent to the customers who bought the game; and You have the demo at a place where it accurately represents the strengths and actual playing experience of the game The longer it takes to come out with a demo, the less en
Wow, this thread has taken some twists & turns! In terms of the "Good vs Evil" question, fantasy games have taken 2 basic tacks on that in recent years. Most follow the Tolkien approach: Fantasy settings are ideal for portraying a true good versus evil conflict. In these scenarios, good represents knights in shining armor and the Men of Gondor, while evil represents smelly goblins abducting innocent maidens and demons slaughtering harmless virgin
I'm in. Whether it be from a computer gaming perspective, a software development perspective, a client relations perspective, or just a plain, "These games are fun and the company actually values transparency in dealing with its customers", I'm happy to chime in. So long as nobody asks me too many questions about Midkemia, because it's been too long since I read any of those books... :)
[quote who="keithLamothe" reply="13" id="1934421"]My personal opinion: please, no guns, not in the un-modded game.[/quote] I guess that means that mono-filament vibroblades are out, too? [e digicons]:D[/e]
I think the trick is to build different factions, and different strategies, so that the same approach doesn't work best for every faction. Heroes of Might & Magic was a great gameplay system, but you were almost NEVER rewarded for focusing on creating lots of small units before moving on to the larger units. Dominions did a much better job of balancing this across different factions, but they used very tightly scripted units with very specific abilities. I ho
Yeah, in MoM , there were varying levels of "badness", with some variability, so you had an idea what you were getting into. I think folks who are really into the Single-Player experience really like a strong Player-vs-Environment component to a game (this was where MoM excelled, IMHO) while folks who are really into the Multi-Player experience really like a strong Player-vs-Player component and worry that "random neutrals" can unbalance that and/or pose real problems
Awakeneing the Balrog from the depths of Moria, anybody? [e digicons]:grin:[/e]
I actually like the idea of having a "wildness slider" which allows you to set just how rowdy your Neutrals are. I also like the idea of having certain types of things (structures, characters, etc.) that might decrease (or even increase?) the wildness of a countryside. Spawning monsters is the most obvious and easy way to do it, but even having some terrain features that can be a bit of a mixed bag makes for some very interesting possibilities. One game that does an intere
I'm so jazzed about this game, but I do want to put one major plea into this game that would be a bit of a departure from the GalCiv games: Can we please have a major Player vs. Environment component to this game? One of the things that was so great about Mom was the constant need to balance my competition with the other players versus my competition with the "neutrals" around me. Having Elemental Nodes and Wizardry towers that remained unconquered--and churned out raiders
Getting back to the original post, I think Tradeoffs are key in any gap. Managing around weaknesses and gaps in my abilities as a player is one of the most fun parts of any wargame, but most games have abandoned this largely by the late mid-game at best. Leaving a hole in my unit selection and/or kingdom abilities enhances replayability, and makes me work to discover different ways to win the game.
I definitely hope they steal a page from the Dominions book and make lots of spells dependent on more than one school. That enhances replayability infinitely more than a "more or less single path" tech tree for magic. Adding "alignment" as an axis to your spell research tree does sound cool--I'd love to have a difference between "needfire" (extra damage to demons & undead) and "balefire" (causes rotting burns to survivors), but if you aren't careful, you just end up
Why do I feel like I just got a joke that's been right in front of my nose for... about 5 years now? So long as we don't have any planets in GalCiv that are named "Jimmy the Hand", I think we'll be OK.[e digicons]:zoomba:[/e]
Yeah, what he said! It sometimes also works if you go to planets that have just been attacked by the Dominators, but it's more likely if they've just been liberated.
I'm pretty sure this isn't a patch formally developed by the game's original design team (Elemental Games filed for bankruptcy a while back)--it's an ad hoc programming effort from a few former devs who worked on the game and some passionate fans. Because of this, I doubt Stardock has any kind of contractual access to the code or the use of the code. I could be wrong. Let's wait for a StarDock employee to chime in... <img src="http://images.stardock.com/sd_com/smiles/Smile.gif" borde
If you want a whole different kind of bad guys--bad guys that make most of the other sci-fi bad guys look kind of timid and whimpy--go with Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series. To get it started off right, you might as well begin with his prequel to all the others, Bersker Prime . You might not view humanity quite so unsympathetically after you read some of those books. StarHammer is an oldie but a goody. David Brin's original Uplift works were great-- S
I don't yet have DA, so I'll have to see how it plays out. However, from a gameplay standpoint, it does seem to do an end-run on the whole purpose of having environments. Arguing "reality considerations" in a science-fiction computer game is a bit far-fetched in any event, so the way it affects gameplay should really be key. Given that a planetary invasion force tends to be 1M people or more, I find it a little difficult to believe that you could logistically support s
Good to know. Thanks for the explanation--that's a lot more research than I was ever able to do. One of the things I love about the game is how you're left to puzzle out how the various pieces fit together. But on the research, it's a shame that a little more of that wasn't explained, or at least hinted at, in the game. Or maybe it was and I just plain missed it? In any event, it's good to have some idea what's going on!
That makes sense to me. StarDock only acquired the online distribution rights after the initial push out to retail shelves had died down--despite much critical acclaim, that initial push wasn't very big and it's unclear to me just how many hard copies were even manufactured. It's a little unclear to me what the financial situation for this game is. The Russian developers, Elemental Games, went bankrupt a while back, but obviously Cineware Marquee is the publisher who owns the game, an
Yeah, I guess it makes sense that, one way or another, the submitted materials get "Used up" through the course of research. Still, I'm surprised at how QUICKLY they get used up. Combine that with the fact that research by different bases doesn't seem to be additive, and the research angle seems pretty weak (selling the Dominator parts still represents the best way to cover at least many of the expenses incurred in blowing up the Dominators in the first place!). I don't know
This is one of the key ways to upgrade your ship, especially later in the game!
When I sell my Dominator parts to Science stations, I see the number of "tons avaiable for research" goes up, the Research Efficiency goes up, and the Time to Complete Research comes down. Unfortunately, when I go back later on, the materials seem to be gone, and the research doesn't seem to be sped up more than a hair. Anybody else notice this? Am I missing something, or is this a bug? I can't duplicate the error every time, but I've seen it most times, even when I've dona
You can actually read the Manual (online version, identical content to the PDF) at www.SpaceRangers2.com. Just click on the "Game Info" button near the top of the screen, and it walks you through all the details. The manual has been updated in a few places, and doesn't answer EVERY question. For folks who want all the details for what's under the hood of a program, it's only vaguely satisfying. For folks who are happy to understand the high-level mechanics, and then figure ou
I've been playing it for about a month now, and I'm firmly convinced this is a GREAT game! Certainly the best turn-based role-playing game I've found in a long time (and that includes NWN, although each has its strong spots). It's just very enjoyable. My understanding from browsing various forums (mostly www.spacerangers2.com) is that the developer, Elemental Games in Russia, went belly-up and filed for bankruptcy recently. I've also read that some of the most recent patch work is be