Alpha is planned to start tomorrow and invites for it have already gone out. If you preorder now you will be in the beta that is shceduled to begin Sept 3-6.

Nice first post, and welcome to the forums. I'll add my thoughts.

Diplomacy. the biggest thing I find lacking in diplomacy in most games is the AI personalities are too static. The belligerent war monger is always the same, the nice helpful guy that wants to be friends is also, etc. Sure they need to be CONSISTENT, but there also needs to be some variation. Lots of things should play into specifically how they react to you. I think each individual AI needs to track things like how much they like/dislike you (like GalCiv2 does and that is visible to the player) but also some things not visible such as - do they trust you, do they respect you (it's possible to dislike someon but still respect them) and possibly other factors that all weigh in on how they react to you and there also should be a bit of randomness - maybe they are having an exceptionally good day, or maybe they just caught their spouse fooling around with their primary hero. Some real depth so you don't just get the same conversation every time you talk to them would be great.

Espionage: already a recently active thread where I have weighed in on this.

Complexity: I can't imagine there being too many spells. The important thing is balance and true variety to what they do, not just different animations that effectively do the same thing. In other areas than magic, the game needs to be DEEP but still fun and not overwhelming for the newcomer. A hard balance to find sometimes.

Hmmm... Sounds like the fat lady just sang...

Welcome Simone1977.

I am personally ignoring diplomacy in most games. I find it very boring to do. Most of those systems are either completly gameable, or completly random. I find neither very exciting.

Espionage can be well done, but i find it mostly to much efford for the return in gameplay it brings. Lets face it, you'll need some very dedicated systems to make espionage fun and rewarding, but it will always be just a very small part of the game, dwarved by combat, economy, research, magic, customisation and stuff.

Also be carefull what you wish for. Stardock makes incredible good games, but the Alphas and Betas are (mostly) not funny. In recent Betas i did, i read many posts of people who thought they just could play the game early and then got burned cause nothing was running like it should. Hell, in Demigod i was invited to Beta, but couldnt even start the game until Beta 3. Using non english Win XP never sucked more

I'd really like to see Diplomacy become an interesting way of winning.  Sure, we've always been able to make and break aggression treaties, cause our neighbors to go to/stop war with each other, but in the end just piling up the Alliances gets boring after the first time you do it.  It would be infinitely cool to be able to research different diplomatic tactics, like closed borders treaties, or perhaps even some of the more interesting galactic council events from galciv (their elemental equivalents, of course)

... really I just want to be able to translate "git off mah grass or I'll shoot ya!" into a treaty

I'm not sure that he is exactly...   But I wouldn't say its "high-quality" that is the words he's looking for.    Master of Magic is still fun today, dispite its terrible gfx.   And one of the mean reasons I attribute to that is its still fun to watch.   The animations are fun to watch, even if they are like 5 frames long at 3 frames per second (I exagerate) there is something to be contributed there.  

It SHOULD be playable entirely from the cloth map.   But the cloth map shouldn't feel like there isn't animation; it most certainly should not be boring by any means.  Even from the cloth map the game should feel crisp and fun.    Just with lower system requirements and nothing particularly flashy.

Well, what can I say, I immensely enjoyed Fallout 2 and Starcraft yet when I installed them both recently I was disgusted with their visuals and immediately uninstalled them without even trying to play them.

I just can't change the fact that my percepction has changed because the standards have been hugely upgraded.

Nicely put... For some people graphics is everything, on the other hand, there are people who are still playing pure ASCII games like Angband, Dwarf Fortress, ...

And to the OP... Welcome on board...

About the diplomacy, I think the players should have at least the same options as the AI, I hate games where the AI I have a good relation with starts complaining about a scout traveling through it's teritory, while that same AI has a few armies in close to some of my cities, but I don't have a diplomatic option to ask them to get the hell out of there...

I think Elemental could benefit from a "game of thrones" aspect added to its diplomacy. I'm not too familiar with how the channeler/sovereign mechanics work right now, so I don't know if a ruling family or feudal system could work in Elemental's context, but if there could be like a worldwide council established early on in the game (when some tech is researched or whatever) that acts like a highly sophisticated united nations from civ and has its own land like some kind of fantastical papacy a big aspect of the game (which players could choose to ignore based on their strategy) could be trying to manipulate this body to help further the goals of your kingdom. 

Personally, this is the type of game I want to see. Seizing diplomatic power and territory through assassination and intrigue should be a viable strategy, but I understand there may be other priorities to be taken care of in this stage of Elemental's development. I just hope some sophisticated diplomatic body is added at some point in the future (expansion or otherwise). 

The fantasy genre is probably the only genre I would say this about, but Espionage should be left out, and diplomacy should be relatively simple. This is a game of epic proportions, where you can have one army with a dragon in it fighting another army with an archmage in it, in a collosal battle. Having all that undermined by a petty espionage system bothers me.

Diplomacy needs to be there, perhaps even with some depth, but be realistic, it shouldn't go beyond alliances of conveniance. Perhaps 2 fallen nations joining to fight a larger nation of man. But the idea of "ill trade you some of my magic leaf for your red iron" not only sounds lame, but it even goes against the purpose of exploration and finding things on your own

My 2 cents on those topics...

What do I feel the game really needs then? Variety. In spades. Im more than a little dissapointed by how few races there are, and I fear that thier physics system as related to armor and weapons is going to limit the potential game arsenal quite a bit, even if it is cool.

I also understand that magic is going to be tied to a severely limited essence? That worries me too, where is the fantasy without hoardes of spell casters? On the other hand, if they are trying to limit spell casting to make it more meaningful, then good, just don't over-do it.

My last point to belabor is that I would really like to see a growing and evolving world spawn around you. I wan't YOU to make the history and the world as much as the game does. The whole moddifying the land around you to look happy or mean thing isn't going nearly far enough, though it is cool. We need weapons that evolve and become relics, we need some forests to become magical, some ruins to become haunted, etc etc.

endofdayz, the impression I'm getting from elemental is that it's not some overblown warcraft or HoMM-style fantasy extravaganza. I'm getting a much more subdued vibe from it similar to something like The Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire. Very human(oid)-centered and all about diplomacy and intrigue amidst a greater conflict. Espionage most certainly has a place here imo.  

endofdayz, you're right that esponiage was terrible (or at least not good) in the games you mentioned. However, I'll give you an example from Knights of Honor (you may not be familiar with it but it's fairly simple).

I was playing as Wales trying to expand off the British Isles into the mainland. However, the diplomatic nets are too tight, and declaring war on any one player in a time of relative calm would result in an immediate coalition against me. So I marry a princess to the prince of France, and send two spies to infiltrate France's royal court. In Knights of Honor, this is done by another player hiring your spy into his royal court disguised as whatever character that player was intending to hire. Depending on the position (marshall, cleric, landlord, spy etc) your spy has different espionage options. Both my spies are well trained and educated so they have a good chance of success, and are hired as spies by France. I assassinate the king's only heir and then the king, leaving me open to claim inheritance on his lands. Because France is particularly weak, all courts that are kin with France lay claim to some of France's land as well, leaving France with almost nothing and at war with its neighbors, and me with a sizable colony on the European mainland without a drop of blood being shed (until a turn later when the entire area erupted). Note: Knights of Honor is not turn based but you get the jist. 

There are of course other creative examples with this system, like once when I had a few spies hired as clerics in Pamplona (pre-Spain). I converted their populace to heresy and had the country excommunicated, leaving it open for plunder without much consequence. That is a good espionage system. That particular system may not work in Elemental's context, but good espionage has been done and can be done again.