Elemental: War of Magic - Catch All

Well, the graphics engine is far prettier than I expected it to be based on the screenshots, though there are a few weird zoom-in/zoom-out scaling issues that are a bit funky.

The gameplay mechanics seem to be smoother than they were in Beta 1. The economic system is a bit simpler to understand, which is good. I like my TBS fantasy games to be about exploration and adventure rather than economic micromanagment.

The game seems to be running stable but I have already found several weird bugs and interface problems. If anybody that hasn't done beta 1 is getting into beta 2, don't forget to go to the Elemental forums to get a sense of what is and is not activated in the current build as well as report bugs. There are still plenty of them out there, some of which seem to be new to the current build... judging by the beta 1 output I suspect we'll be seeing a number of updates to clean things up.

Island Dog wrote:
MrCompletely wrote:

is the beta opened to new pre-orders?

Yes, you can still pre-order now and have access to the beta. I'm not sure specifically when it will close, but it will be open for at least the next few days.

Any idea if its still available? I got paid and I'd like to get in and test this thing a bit!

I started this up over the weekend, but had to alt-tab for something and then walked away. When I came back the app had crashed and I got distracted by L4D2.

I had a lot of fun, though my starting city was next to a ridiculously powerful iron golem or something. My game eventually crashed about an hour in, but I can already tell that this will be GOTY material if they iron out all the bugs.

polypusher wrote:
Island Dog wrote:
MrCompletely wrote:

is the beta opened to new pre-orders?

Yes, you can still pre-order now and have access to the beta. I'm not sure specifically when it will close, but it will be open for at least the next few days.

Any idea if its still available? I got paid and I'd like to get in and test this thing a bit!

As of today, yes it is. It will be closed when the next update goes out, which will possibly be Thursday.

After swearing to myself not to do so (and actually, stay away from all coverage until it actually ships), I have pre-ordered this.

*shakes head sadly at the pathetic person he has become*

I played this for about 4 hours last night and really enjoyed the features that were open. It took a while to figure out the balancing of food and housing to get a city to grow but I'll start with a better foundation next time. I basically had 1 peasant in each city for a while and went to war with some dude at which point I figured out how to make better units. Fortunately I had nice stockpiles of gold, 'materials', and metal to use.

It crashed at the end. I was really just stalling to see how the tech tree would go. I like some of the building options like the slums, pretty inventive. Im looking forward to seeing how the magic stuff layers on top. Having a wizard with no spells and no spectral hounds is a little disappointing!

One area where Stardock is really good is coding wicked AI. They're one of the best.

Prediction: The 'stupid' Stardock AI may be better than many shipping games.

Nightmare wrote:

After swearing to myself not to do so (and actually, stay away from all coverage until it actually ships), I have pre-ordered this.

*shakes head sadly at the pathetic person he has become*

Noooo! Not another one!

I just need to stay strong. That's it. I'll just keep reading about the game obsessively while ignoring that little preorder button over there...

Goodjers, I bring you deals.

Everything is %15 on Impulse today if you enter in as a coupon code "Impulse-bday"

So pre-order elemental for $42? Yes, you can do that.

And this is a funny post after the previous one. I realize this now.

I love that the code works for pre-orders. Been meaning to get this ordered for awhile, glad I waited

Oh yes - this is the camel that broke my staw. Or something. Pre-order engaged!

Filthily enabled by Oily. Drat. Gonna force myself to stay out of the beta, since I want to experience this in its full glory right off the bat.

For those of you not quite sure about getting the Limited Edition, there's a new preview up for the Hiergamenon, a 160 page Encylopedia/Lore Book that will be included. That's on top of the pewter dragon and cloth map of course.

Gunner wrote:

For those of you not quite sure about getting the Limited Edition, there's a new preview up for the Hiergamenon, a 160 page Encylopedia/Lore Book that will be included. That's on top of the pewter dragon and cloth map of course. ;)

Jerk.

My credit card got charged today and sure enough, beta 3 has launched! They've gutted multiplayer out for now in favor of testing more single player stuff. Change log here.

Certis wrote:

My credit card got charged today and sure enough, beta 3 has launched!

Trying to figure out if I want to jump in and try out the beta or wait until things are all wrapped up in a pretty little bow. I'd love to hear about the experiences of those who are trying it out!

I got charged too (baffling when they said I wouldn't until August upon release). I think I'm going to wait for retail and hit it fresh.

I got the e-mail with just a serial number and a link to download Impulse but not the game. I activated the serial in Impulse, but nothing happened. I'll see if I can figure it out but help would be appreciated.

Montalban wrote:

I got the e-mail with just a serial number and a link to download Impulse but not the game. I activated the serial in Impulse, but nothing happened. I'll see if I can figure it out but help would be appreciated.

Same thing is happening to me.

Montalban wrote:

I got the e-mail with just a serial number and a link to download Impulse but not the game. I activated the serial in Impulse, but nothing happened. I'll see if I can figure it out but help would be appreciated.

Impulse program preferences need the "show pre-release version" box checked.

Certis wrote:
Montalban wrote:

I got the e-mail with just a serial number and a link to download Impulse but not the game. I activated the serial in Impulse, but nothing happened. I'll see if I can figure it out but help would be appreciated.

Impulse program preferences need the "show pre-release version" box checked.

Awesome! Top left corner drop down menu icon, Nightmare. Downloading now.

One early question I have is that a dude pops up and says if I recruit him he'll give me a tutorial. I don't see him on the map or in the interface though. A tutorial would definitely be nice!

Montalban wrote:
Certis wrote:
Montalban wrote:

I got the e-mail with just a serial number and a link to download Impulse but not the game. I activated the serial in Impulse, but nothing happened. I'll see if I can figure it out but help would be appreciated.

Impulse program preferences need the "show pre-release version" box checked.

Awesome! Top left corner drop down menu icon, Nightmare. Downloading now.

Thanks fellas! Will try that when I get home from work.

Certis wrote:
Montalban wrote:

I got the e-mail with just a serial number and a link to download Impulse but not the game. I activated the serial in Impulse, but nothing happened. I'll see if I can figure it out but help would be appreciated.

Impulse program preferences need the "show pre-release version" box checked.

Ahah! Certis: solving mysteries.

oilypenguin wrote:

Ahah! Certis: solving mysteries.

He really is awesome.

I believe the traditional term is "dreamy", Nathaniel. We have to keep the homoerotic tone going for the pervert web searches, or we'll never get new GWJers...

Certis wrote:

One early question I have is that a dude pops up and says if I recruit him he'll give me a tutorial. I don't see him on the map or in the interface though. A tutorial would definitely be nice!

He doesn't really seem to give a tutorial, he just occasionally pops up and gives you little tips. If you recruited him you should be able to find him in your empire tree on the top left. If not then he's probably wandering around the world like all the other recruitable champions. As an alternative they have added a draft of the manual, so that could be useful.

I haven't played too much of the beta, just dabbled a bit with each milestone release, but it's showing promise. Hopefully they can squash all the major bugs and tune the gameplay a bit in these last few months of development. I don't know much about the development cycles of games but I will be interested to see how well they can transform this rough beta into a professional product in two months time.

Anyone able to load games after a crash? Seems like I can never load a saved game successfully.