I like the game and I can see a lot of potential in where it is going.  I do have one question and one bug to report.  First, the bug to report. . .In tactical battles if I click on anything in my inventory slot, once it was a silver flute (which wouldn't have helped me) and once it was a healing potion, it kicks me out of the game.  Second, are there only two types of bows in the game, the cedar short bow and cedar (long)bow?  Will there be more variety of ranged weapons?  Admittedly, I have not gotten through all of the techs in the game so there very well could be. . .Thanks,

If you equip you archers with items that increase the attack and if you have mounts you can get impressive mounted archers that fire two times per turn with high damage, but you are right archery should be avaible earlier in the game and more ranged weapons are needed.

Currently my games develop always along the same route (a few levels of Civilization and Adventuring and many levels of Warfare until i get Squads, Light Plate Armor and Battleaxes), which is a bit boring.

Truly random maps are defiantly in the pipeline. We figure there are around 80-100 man-hours left to get them up to speed (they were working pretty well at one point, but got messed up along the way, plus we need that stamp intergration, ways to ensure players dont start in blocked sections, etc.)

No fears, we're not ignore it...just trying to get some other items hammered out first.

BoobieBac, amazing to hear. I'm glad to see a really positive response come forward on this issue.

The problem of unbalanced resources has nothing to do with random world generation. The resources are being generated now on the fixed maps. Overall balance of resources does need improvement, but if you want to play fixed maps, fixed resources, you can do that any time by selecting your map at start. For the majority of 4x players, we prefer random maps, and luckily you can have your cake, and we can have ours.

Random Maps: NOOOOO! I'm not leaving the pipeline and YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!

Sorry, that image made me giggle. I think the word you are looking for is "definitely".

I am a little disappointed with Elemental.  Especially, the balance of the game is really bad. I am setting the AI difficulty to Ridiculous, yet it is ridiculously easy to beat them. Even in tactical battle, AI always comes straight toward my units, never trying to lure in or take any advantage points in the tac map. My hero units can wear infinite numbers of amulets, rings, and other packs... In time, my one hero unit wiped out everything in the map. (the hero wears 100s of amulets and 100s or rings)

I posted several suggestions on equipment UI and equipment slot & bag system. However, you guys did not listen or even thought about the equipment system.  It should be at least 'World of Warcraft' or 'Diablo II' to limit the number of equipment you can wear so that it will give some reality, stratigic thoughts, and balance in the game.

Soverign items should be at least twice powerful to the same class of normal item if you apply my suggestion. Otherwise, heroes are useless.

Mana regeneration 1 mana / turn makes tactical magic system pretty much useless later in the game.  Most of my battles are might focused because of mana regeneration limits.  I expect to use at least one tac magic per battle, yet the current mana regeneration system makes it impossible. I believe I was able to use tac magic effectively in about 1 battle out of 90 battle fought due to this limit.

Magic defense (resistance) is not clearly shown or explained anywhere. In one case, one of my hero (intel 35, essen 41, Hit 18) died with flame touch casted by enemy (intel 15, essen 18). It seems to me intel is the only parameter related to magic defense. And this result should not be happening. The amount of time spent increase intel to 35 is huge, yet the guy died by intel 15... What's the point here ? balance, balance !!!!!!  

The ability of death worship is not working at all. Well, several building bonus and hero bonus are not working as well (some works and some don't work). I don't see any faction advantages and disadvantages working in the game.

I have still sound issues and graphic issues as well. After about 2~3 hours playing, all the music completed phase out. I have to exit out of game and re-run to correct it. Some city improvements are sometimes not displayed in the map. I normally get fixed if I exit out and re-run the game again. 

I know how hard you guys have worked, and the Elemental become improved a lot in the BETA process. However, you guys released the game even though many of users concerned about the final quality of the game due to your tight schedules.

Anyway, more smart AI coding & game balancing is urgently needed. I can only score 3 out of 10 for current Elemental, which is... not good...

Ok... here is a little idea... when you are deliberately breaking the game... it may feel a little easy.  Kinda like using the Contra code then complaining that it is too easy.

Secondly.. yeah the AI is a little dumb in tactical atm. But there are a ton of things that aren't quite finished there.

And last... no i don't need d2/wows lame equipment pane.  A better UI and definitely 2 rings/1 ammy are musts, but frankly, the whole hack/slash/action genre has been using that same weak UI forever now.

Excluding the thumb 8 rings can be seen on a hand, but I'm leaning towards a max limit of 4 rings per champion thus the rings are not touching each other.  This allows for more combinations in the game and is more logical.  I'm sure more monster levels are planned as well.

Also perhaps some of the Empire races can have different formed hands thus having a limit of only 2 or 3 rings.

• Summoning
  
  • Summoning must be done in a city that have a Summoning Circle
  • Summoning Circle can be researched from the Magic Tech tree
  • Summoning Circle requires at least one Crystal to be 'linked' to a city (within the city area of influence)
  • Can only summon creatures related to a 'linked' Crystal
• Create a high level spell that can Teleport a Crystal to the area of influence of a city with a 'Mage's tower' (should be one per faction building)

I've finally noted a correlation between zooming and crashes on my machine, which, having read this portion of your post, leads me to believe that the crashes are connected to the issue you mention above.  If I pick a zoom level and stay there, I can play for hours without a crash, but if I try to zoom to a different level, the game will crash--with the "DX error: Invalid call" message.

So, here's hoping your efforts to address this will finally end my problems.

Ah I see. So the AI is fine so long as you don't actually try to beat it? Will have to try that!

Sorry, I shouldn't be so sarcastic, we all know that the AI is weak to non-existant and obviously Stardock will continue to work on it. It is just funny because the ONLY way the AI is currently a challenge is if you deliberately avoid doing anything particularly smart or aggressive.

You guys going to release a quick fix for that building glitch? That alone should significantly increase game performance.

I just like to see them make game not crash on majority of systems out there still alot of bugs need to be fixed befor mutilplayer or any more stuff is add lets get stuff thats in game working frist.

zoooming nad gfxs are not causing the crashs for alot of people you can test it but turning the gfxs way up amont of stuff on land scape and then turning it way down till its just a cloth map all the time most people who do this run it with no visuals both cloth map still get COD dumps to the desktop where exe file just stops responding.

I actulyl get them during combat when i hit auto combat.

theres alot of people having problems on support forum that need to be fixed frist befor new stuff is added.

That's great news, BoogieBac.

Thanx for the info. This definitely restores my faith in the project and puts me back in the "supporters" group

I think the equipment restrictions of D2 are very good, but in Elemental a Sovereign or a Champion should only be able to wear one magic item of every type (ring, amulett) and the Magic tech tree should enable the player to upgrade existing magic items (2 rings with + 1 attack -> 1 ring with + 2 attack).

If a Sovereign or a Champion is killed he should return to the capital after 10 turns with 1 HP and 1 Mana and it should not be the end of the faction.