elemental: war of magic how good is it now?

anyone here playing elemental?
this was one of my most anticipated games of 2010 as it seemed like the spiritual successor of one of my alltime fave- master of magic.
sadly though, it was retailed an essentially broken game (as impulse sometimes is prone to do).
just wanted to check if the game is finally complete, with all the major bugs squashed and whether it is fun?

 

I tried it a month or two ago, still infested with bugs.

 

well thats too bad. but they did come out with two additional patches since (2months ago)

 

Yeah, it was pretty much in beta when it came out.

There have been 10 MAJOR patches since then, though, and the game is significantly better as a result.

I started playing around 1.04, and they are now at 1.1.

They threw out entire game mechanics or reworked them with some serious intensity over the last few months. Elemental version 1.0 and Elemental version 1.1 are different games.

I've been enjoying it a lot lately, and I'm really looking forward to the first expansion pack, which will go even further in re-imagining the game mechanics.

 

yeah. i checked out their forum and i dont see much complaints like there a few months back.

also i think existing owners get the expansion for free.
edit:
@storm
could you give a brief review/description of how your game experience with it is so far?
much appreciated.

 

I enjoyed this game

it was broken

however if youre a fan of master of magic, that game was completely broken. It was just cool anyway.

 

I was interested in this game a while ago but I heard that it was poorly polished so I didn't buy it. But it's good to hear that the devs are actually working on the game unlock the Impulse game Demigod
But I never actually understood this game. What do you exactly do? Does it have good multiplayer features?

 

i think it has reached the point where it's fun - however, I'm not certain.

See, at some point the changes now require me to be connected to the internet (and, if this is something I've done wrong, someone please correct me) but now if I try the game away from my connection, I get a "unable to connect" message and the game closes out. (and, yes, i do have Impulse configured in offline mode...)

As I game lately mostly away from my internet, I haven't really been able to play to find out if it's fun or not yet. Very frustrating - especially when the game wasn't billed as web connection required to play (at least, as I recall - I generally don't buy anything that requires a conenction while I'm playing...)

 

It might be Impulse::Reactor which is their version of Steamworks. Not sure though since I don't have any games with it, but they could have changed something in there. Have you tried asking around the EWM/Impulse/StarDock forums?

Edit:
Apparently if you're downloading the beta patches, EWM will require an internet connection to play. Don't know if that's your case.

 

For a game that costs a minimum of $49 + Beta for me means I can't make a purchase. If it was a little cheaper then I probably would.

 

im usually critical about things like this, but i do give small developers like impulse more leeway. also judging from their past efforts, demigod and sins of a solar empire, they are a good gaming company and continually develop/patch their games and are very friendly towards the gaming community.
they probably had to release this early because of financial woes, the poor guys. from a small developer/publisher's standpoint i can very well understand this situation as long as they keep on working on the game to get it fixed.
big developers/publishers have done much worse and they dont have my sympathy.

 

It's alright, I liked it ok, nothing spectacular though.

 

Just for clarification, Impulse is only the digital distribution store and Stardock Entertainment is the developer. They also don't have financial woes because apparently, their main income is from Object Desktop, etc. Their only reason for releasing it when they did was because their CEO Brad Wardell genuinely thought the game was good to go.

Personally, I was disappointed at the state the game was released especially after the CEO stated that a successful launch would have allowed them to expand their dev team. This was their first inhouse developed game since GalCiv II while Sins and Demigod were third party. Now I'll have to wait years before GalCiv III comes out. Remember that they've got 3 expansions slated for EWM. Also, people that buy and register it before December 31st get the first expansion free.

 

Did they finally fix that "X number of turns and the game just frecking stops dead" bug? That really pissed me off. I was something like 800 turns into a massive map and I hit that magic number and BLAM, no more turns were possible.

 

i do remember some posts blaming the whole fiasco on the ceo.
but even with objectdock behind them i can still imagine financial pressure in the company. they are not a billion euro developer/publisher like ubisoft and 2 1/2 years or so in game development can put a pretty hefty financial strain, if not for the whole company then at last for their game department/operations.
like i mentioned in the previous post i would not mind helping this kind of developer at all.
the question for me now is, is the game playable and enjoyable enough for me to purchase it at its present state?

 

Ya if you go far enough back

gal civ was basically bug free. It came out competing with moo 2 and crushed it because it was so balanced..
They had a online balancing program for the races.

Gal civ is definitely a great game, not good graphics but the best of its type.

 

yeah i wonder why theyre having such a hard time with elemental

 

Ah, I guess I was - just never really paid attention to know this, as I downloaded a patch while on the net last night, and just tried it off the net, and I'm back in business.

So, looks like I'll be returning to Elemental a little to give it another shot - seems like they have a few things figured out.

I do think it's a little annoying that I'm only feeling like I can "give it another shot" now, so long after release. I really didn't feel the game was playable when it came out - well, at least, not enjoyable. I do recognize they've made some changes, and it was fun when I messed around a little with it last week, so it's certainly moved in the right direction - but, yeah, considering the hype it launched with, it's got a ways to go to get back into my good graces...

 

For anyone interested, I just got a coupon code "ELE10" for the EWM LE Box for 39.95 + Free Shipping. Disc probably isn't updated to latest version.

 

IF YOU DON'T HAVE THIS GAME DO NOT BOTHER PURCHASING IT!!!! I have a m15x and loads of experience with software and this game is a Huge mess! It wont re-install no matter what I try. I had to reinstall due to the graphical glytches I get in game. I posted on support forums and no response yet. Just the sheer number of posts about errors will scare the fire out of you. Dont buy this game unless you have lots of time on your hands. Right now, I can't even get it to reload. It keeps thinking it is still installed when I have removed everything from registry, ran cleaner, rebooted, etc.. F' this game. Wish I could get my 29.99 back now.
<edit> Got it to reload by manually searching the entire registry and deleting every entry for STARDOCK IMPULSE ELEMENTAL. Nice... Made no difference. Graphic glitch makes it impossible to play.

StevenX