I think after looking at these particle effects that won't be much of a problem..

*beams good vibes directly to Stardock hq*

Seriously, it's going to be great to have ingame tools for everything. If a simple "more food" spell looks that nice, I can just imagine what your artists will come up with for the end-game mass destruction spells!

cool update now i want to pre order

edit:

but that picture of you looks creepy, its going to follow me across the web i just know it

"Look, it's real easy to make money with this system. You just go door to door selling toothpicks, salt shakers, and cup covers at 300% mark-up! It's completely safe, okay? Why are you looking at me like that?"

One of our goals will be to make just as many 'passive' and 'defensive' spells as 'offensive' ones. If we can actually make it exciting to play the peaceful magician, healing the land and saving the weak races, then we've done our job!

Only until you pre-order

Ooh, yes. I'd like a fun-to-play peaceful empire. (Pretty seems a given with the artstyle.)

Editors galore will be nice, but my lack of artistic experience (And skill, for that matter) will probably leave me staring at them for hours while my empire crumbles.

Also, toothpicks work so much better out of the wrapper.

 

This looks awesome, though I'm not sure how I feel about the spells costing essence...Doesn't that seem counter intuitive? I thought one of the ways you could play the game was to have a bad ass soveriegn, which seems unlikely if spells cost essence every time you cast them. I'm thinking this would creat situations where if players are trying to have a powerful soveriegn they will end up only casting spells as a last resort...unless I'm misunderstanding the way you get essence.

I think the funness of a peaceful empire will depend a lot on diplomacy and the gameplay effects/consequences of remaining peaceful, but certainly the spell effects won't hinder that And, knowing SD and our beta tester legions, it'll end up happening.

Not from me, though. I'm going straight to necromancy!

How odd.  I was just thinking how much better he looks in that pic compared to real life. 

Awesome!   Remember the Channeler and civilization editor, eh? Altough I know I don't need to mention it.

Talking about editors, have you planned if we will be able to try/test during the beta? Or will they be reserved for release? Considering how you add new material trough the mod tools maybe it'd be a good idea to let the players try to "break" them.

And the Demigod team should take a very good and well deserved break. No one in their mind would complain (seriously) if Elemental had to be delayed until July (altough we know you still can release the beta 0 the 30th of JUNE... ).

*taps Zubaz on the shoulder and motions for him to duck, quickly*

BoogieBac and folks,

Thanks very much for keeping us up to date.  I hope your post-Demigod recovery goes well and you have a chance to relax and recharge.  While I look forward eagerly to the Elemental beta (even a completely non-fun engine beta), it's much more important that the team be happy (and healthy).

Very good news about the tools; the necessary data-driven programming will take longer and be less flexible in some respects, but this game has enormous modding potential.  I hope the rules and AI scripting engines (python, right?) get enough attention too.  I get the impression y'all aren't sure you'll have enough time to make the scripting as flexible as you'd like (Civ4-ish?), but there's still hope and even if not I'm sure the game will still be good for many, many hours of fun.

Thanks,
Keith

Dunno...since they're being used by the artists were getting A LOT of stability and usabilty feedback. You'll probably see them tricke out around beta 3.

Most of the editors will be used outside of the main game, though I would like to find a way to make them gameplay features (Item Editor becomes a 'Item Crafting' feature, Spell Editor for 'Spell Crafting'), but we probably wont have time for those

Not all spells cost essence, just the ones where you're 'creating' something or 'imbueing' something (at least from my understanding). You'll have MANY spells to cast that dont sap your essence, but the ones that do will be considerably more potent.

You're a jerk. I'm going to tell everyone what a jerk you are.

It's fine, I hear he's a jerk.

*leans over to the next guy* Hey, did you hear Zubaz is a jerk? It's true!

That's great to hear! One of the thing I like in some boardgames I play are spells that essentially help Rush, Boom, or Turtle macro strategies, whereas a lot of games just have combat spells.

It is nice to see some new info from the project leader after a long time of silence.

Some good stuff to be sure. Some more vids would really rock.