Is Elemental: War of Magic playable yet?

[Decado]

I really liked Sins of a Solar Empire and Gal Civ was pretty good too, so I was really looking forward to Elemental. Of course, it ended up being a steaming pile of shit.

The good news was that Stardock realized it was a steaming pile of shit, hired some new guys to fix and went to work. I know they recently released a new patch that supposedly fixed a whole bunch of problems, but I don't want to go to their forum and ask around, as I'm sure I'll get railroaded with bullshit.

Sooooo . . . anyone play it, and did the patch fix the worst of the issues? Or is it still an unplayable mess?

 

[Konjad]

They fixed the bugs more-or-less and rebalanced the game.

It's still mediocre.

 

[Yeesh]

I've held off so far, and I guess I might as well keep holding off until the expansion gets released:

We’ll be getting into a lot of details about Fallen Enchantress as we near the beta (which we anticipate starting this Spring).

Below, are 10 random facts (amongst many) about it:

It is a stand-alone title – you don’t have to have anything previously installed.
It will be free for everyone who bought the first Elemental title (War of Magic) in 2010 and those who buy War of Magic prior to Fallen Enchantress’s release will get a discount.
The Lead Designer of Fallen Enchantress is Derek Paxton (Civilization IV: Fall from Heaven)
The campaign for Fallen Enchantress is written by fantasy author Dave Stern and is being designed by Jon Shafer (lead designer of Civilization V)
The tactical battle system is 100% new and based on initiative rather than teams taking turns.
The economic system is all new.
The food/housing/prestige mechanic is gone and replaced with something more intuitive and we think funner.
The combat system is very different with damage types, resistance types, etc.
Its user interface will be new.
It will have no boxed version, no retail version so that the release date has no outside influences other than being a great game.

 

[Zeus]

So Jon Shafer is handling the campaign? Weird. I'm glad the FFH guy is the lead designer, and the Civ V guy is only handling the campaign--something I'll never touch, give me random map any day. But did Civ V even have a campaign? Or is Jon Shafer once again completely under-qualified for his position?

 

[Zed]

Stardock. They could put turds in gameboxes and wriggle their way out of it.
EDIT: I was gonna add that wasn't a compliment like "and they'll make it good", but I guess it's still a compliment in a way.

I haven't run the game more than twice shortly after release. To me it wasn't just that the game was dull and buggy. It was more about me having the wrong conception about it. I thought it would be a lot more management/sim with diplomacy, dynasties and shit.

 

[Black Bart Charley]

I've held off so far, and I guess I might as well keep holding off until the expansion gets released:

We’ll be getting into a lot of details about Fallen Enchantress as we near the beta (which we anticipate starting this Spring).
The food/housin...ng more intuitive and we think funner. SRSLY? I CANT TELL IF SRS
It will have no boxed version, no retail version so that the release date has no outside influences other than being a great game AHAHAHHAAHAHA ELEMENTAL 1.0 READY TO SHIP!.

 

[20 Eyes]

It's very playable now.

Still, I'd hold off until Fallen Enchantress. If you're really in the mood for a fantasy 4X and are tired of all the superior alternatives, it might be worth your while.

 

[Decado]

It's very playable now.

Still, I'd hold off until Fallen Enchantress. If you're really in the mood for a fantasy 4X and are tired of all the superior alternatives, it might be worth your while.

I'm willing to forgive some shortcomings, obviously, but my first impressions of the game were that it was horribly, horribly broken and nearly unplayable. Which was a shame. Because I really like that company. They listen to the community when it comes time for expansions/patches/etc, and that really does make a huge difference in the games that then follow. If Sins of a Solar Empire could manage to fix some of the more annoying gameplay mechanics, I'd say it was easily the best space combat game ever made.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I wouldn't call it 'nearly' unplayable, it was essentially a tech demo at release.

 

[Mortmal]

Its playable, but its sill no good, IA posing no threat at all , not using much the magic, mind you in a game called elemental : war of magic. It improved but its really not a blast to play it, really not, nothing close master of magic or fall from heaven 2. We are supposed to receive the next expansion for free , it may be a complete revamp of the game, if your time is valuable wait for it.