OT: Starcraft II and Elemental

[Baalz]

Originally Posted by WraithLord

+1

with small correction -
Plenty of married guys here (me included), see the thread that goes something along the lines of "mouse clicks when playing dom makes my girlfriend/wife/mother in low, angry/sleep deprived/lock me in basement"

Mouseclicks? I learned long ago to turn the sound off if there was any chance of elephants or starspawn being in a battle in order to preserve marital bliss...

[sector24]

My problem with Stardock's forums is mostly the suppression of negativity that makes it impossible to see a situation from multiple perspectives. When I want to learn about a game, the most valuable feedback for me is the negative feedback because it is generally the most honest. People gushing about the game is largely meaningless because you're on that game's forum, of course the people there are going to like it. For positive feedback it's better to go to metacritic/gamefaqs or a neutral board.

Even now that the negativity on their boards is overwhelming, every post must contain the caveat that "I love Stardock and I know they will support their game" before being honest. It's ridiculous and I don't see that on these forums at all. Any bashing on these forums is usually people asking questions they could answer themselves with some testing, or from experienced players who forget just how complex and daunting Dom3 is to new players. Even then it's pretty rare.

I just finished my first sandbox game of Elemental last night. Tiny map, ridiculous monsters and all ridiculous AIs. I had the game wrapped up by turn 70 but I played until turn 250 to finish the tech tree and check out quests, etc. I finally won via the quest of mastery but I did crush a few nations to get to the quest locations.

Now that I have accepted the UI flaws and the quirky behavior and crashes, the game is actually growing on me a little. I see the game's potential for fun given lots of patches or a huge balance mod (like CBM does for Dom3). That doesn't really excuse the current state of the game, but if you could pick this game up at Christmas for $30 that might not be a bad deal.

[Cosian]

I have and play both ....

Starcraft II is a good example of a very polished game. The campaign is well done and everything works as you expect. That said, it is not much different from the original. At the end of the day, despite probably one of the strongest community and MP interfaces out there, the game itself is a typical 4x RTS .... and I do like it.

Elemental has some potential but is currently an unpolished gem. Version 1.06 is still quite buggy and the AI just plain sucks... Despite its problems, I am enjoying playing it, but my jury is still out regarding whether it will have permenancy here on my hard drive.

I actually stumbled on the Dominion 3 as a result of a post in the Elemtental forums...favorite Fantasy Strategy games to play while Elemental is being fixed..... D3 got a lot of play in that thread and I ended up buying it. I am just scratching the surface, but I really like what I am seeing here despite its dated graphics. It is definetly much deeper than Elementals War of Magic

[WraithLord]

Originally Posted by Cosian

I have and play both ....

Starcraft II is a good example of a very polished game. The campaign is well done and everything works as you expect. That said, it is not much different from the original. At the end of the day, despite probably one of the strongest community and MP interfaces out there, the game itself is a typical 4x RTS .... and I do like it.

Elemental has some potential but is currently an unpolished gem. Version 1.06 is still quite buggy and the AI just plain sucks... Despite its problems, I am enjoying playing it, but my jury is still out regarding whether it will have permenancy here on my hard drive.

I actually stumbled on the Dominion 3 as a result of a post in the Elemtental forums...favorite Fantasy Strategy games to play while Elemental is being fixed..... D3 got a lot of play in that thread and I ended up buying it. I am just scratching the surface, but I really like what I am seeing here despite its dated graphics. It is definetly much deeper than Elementals War of Magic

Glad to hear you stumbled unto dominions. It has a steep learning curve and outdated gfx but it is a great game nonetheless. IMO it's the best FTBS currently available on the market. So, I encourage you to take the time to learn it and when ready join a newb MP game to get started playing it the way it's meant to.

EDIT: I forgot to say: Welcome