Elemental is tied to Gal Civ. And until they make clear the ties (or the lack of), I think it's safe to say that I can speculate quite a lot about it. Specially after reading some threads in this same forums (Elemental Insipirations anyone?).

Just that. An opinion. Just that instead about it being related to combat system, economic model, diplomacy or AI, it's related to the Lore. Of which we know as much as about any other topic.

Oh come on! For one, that is the ancient roots of the word, not the modern definition. The modern definition is any place less than 250 mm of precipitation per year, end of story. Some places are misnamed deserts because they look like deserts but actually get too much rain to qualify - but even among actual deserts there is a huge variety. There are sandy deserts, dusty deserts, rocky deserts, icy deserts... There are totally barren deserts, there are deserts with so much vegetation that from far away you can hardly see the desert 'floor' for the plants. Hell, you can even cultivate crops in many deserts (the Judean Desert being a good example).

Also, desertification will only result in sand if there is already sand present. It will only result in dust if there is dirt. If the landscape is mostly rocky, there won't be copious amounts of dust and sand, no matter how bad the desertification. The temperature isn't really relevant, but the local geography is supremely relevant.

The latin word is not relevant. That is the etymological root. The only definition of the modern word "desert" is the one regarding rainfall. Deciding "oh this isn't a desert, it has so much more vegetation than that desert over there!" is ridiculous. If a region is 'only' desert by record of rainfall, then it is a desert because that is the only requirement. What you are used to thinking of as classic, sand-swept desert makes up a miniscule fraction of the deserts on the planet. If one desert happens to have lots more vegetation than another, or even more vegetation than some non-desert, then there are other factors at play besides the rainfall. Maybe it gets close to the maximum 250 mm per year, maybe it has excellent nutrients and just the right amount of sun. Maybe certain species managed to adapt excellently to that specific environment.

Yes - many if not most so-called deserts in North American are misnamed, but that does not change the fact that real deserts can support significant plant-life.

Here is a list of the major deserts in North America for anyone who cares.

First, elevation and the like is totally irrelevant. Desert can be mountainous, hilly, covered in dunes, and even perfectly flat. A savanna is tropical grasslands with an open tree canopy - totally different from desert. But more importantly, Stardock should not limit themselves to those kinds of rules - they are designing a fantasy game world. They should do whatever they need to do to make it look rich and interesting and good. If that means sticking cacti in every desert, so be it. Now, if they decide that doesn't give the right look to the game, that's another story all together.

Here are some images of the Northern Basin desert in North America:

Here are some pictures of the Gobi in Mongolia/China:

And here are some of the Judean desert:

And here's an image from the Colorado Plateau desert:

These are all deserts. You can yell and scream all you want - no matter how sandy, green, rocky, flat, hilly - they are all deserts and there is nothing you can do about it.

Calm down, there's no need to "yell"......

The "evolution" of the Drath would have to occur over a geologically significant span of time, say several hundred thousand years at least. In that time, the "Altarians" would have been able to advance not just from a mideaval society to a spacefaring one, but far beyond that, and they would have been able to do it several times over: it's taken us only 500 years or so from our own midaeval period to put people on the moon.....

I suppose the languages could be just.... different..... English and Mandarin certainly don't resemble each other.....

I was referring to his recitence to reveal what inspired his games. You hear about the games themselves, and about the plot, but he never really explains his motivations.

The bold text makes you look "loud".

*Puts on earmuffs*

Then why did you bring it up?

anyway, I'm not argueing the point anymore.  I feel that the name is missleading and I think the scientific community should reconsider same of the names we apply to some ecosystems.  (I got pluto removed as a planet by having a similar opinion.   The universe curves to my demands if I remain by them I say)

I'm still hoping for alternate planes, each with its own styles:

earth like world, hell like world, bizzar like world, dark and cold (distant home star?) like world,   mostly ocean with tiny patches of almost land (everglades/swamp/marsh)  and so on covered worlds.   but of course, I'm a MoM fanboy and just want that to be recreated

.

Note for the Internet: When Wintersong (aka me) uses bold text, he isn't being loud and/or yelling and/or shouting.

Your lack of 1 and one disturbs me.

OK, I admit that I basically prefer the strict, precipitation-based definition of desert, but I also believe that science advances by questioning and revising its own fundamental categories, so I don't agree about your "no point" point.

In addition, I feel obliged to note that you've got a couple of category errors in your last sentence here. The worst part of the way you use "the media" is the error of reification (which is still a big problem for me, so I'm not being holier-than-thou). Right after that is a more grammatical problem that I can't label as well, except to say that "the media," reification problems aside, is a group of entities with widely varying standards of quality and not a singular thing that deserves the definite article (the).

I just meant that there is no point changing the scientific meaning of the word desert just to make it conform to popular misconception. If someone comes along with a new, more useful/informative naming convention then by all means, go ahead. 

Yeah I realized that my last sentence there was a disaster, but I wasn't (and still am not) in the mood to fix it. I don't think there's a problem with reification - the media is not particularly abstract (it is merely the collective grouping of professional reporting) - but there are major grammatical issues that make the sentence read like it was drawn and quartered.

You don't need to be a rocket surgeon to know that if it's got cactuses in it, it's a desert.  Maybe there are deserts without cactuses.  That's fine, but let's count the number of people that care.

Done.

Either way, those so-called deserts would have no place in either a video game, or a Sergio Leone festival.  Just so you know.

If I recall correctly, the "rocket surgeon" thing came from Ted Stevens, the senator who said the internet was a series of tubes. I might be making that up, though.

EDIT: I lied, he didn't say that . I know I've seen that phrase somewhere, though. Maybe it was one of those fail pictures