AoW - SM is the best fantasy TBS right now, but EWoM's potential is much bigger.

 1. The development team [Stardock] is awesome. They will keep enhancing the gameplay elements, and they are listening to their fans. These are very important things.

2. Modding. It will be very powerful in EWoM. You can create whatever you want. [You can even modify the core elements in the game via Python coding.]

I didn't do the GalCiv2 original beta, but I played it from early versions and put in some beta effort on expansion pack(s?). Stardock are definitely addicted to constant fiddling and occasionally putting out major free updates, and the GC2 expansions seemed almost more substantial than some standalone games that I've accidentally wasted money on.

But I'm with PawlS in finding the last public beta to have few signs of a distinctive game world that's integrated with the mechanics.

I'd love to be happily surprised by an RTM version that has a magic system that's based in a fictional cosmology instead of feeling like a simple product of combat playtesting by hardcore gamers (I'm both/and about that, not either/or). I'd like to see something similar with mundane knowledge so that both the UI progess paths and the flavor text reflect the mature crafts (and sciences?) of the pre-Cataclysm world. Thankfully, this modern economy has been driving home life lessons re modifying my expectations, and I've had an unseemly amount of fun with these fever-inducing, bamboo-under-fingernails betas...

I'm not exactly a sky-is-falling customer, just one of those folks who had never done a primary beta before and someone who still has no clear idea what Brad means when he's talking about the difference between 'engine' and 'content.' (Or maybe I do get him on the distinction and just disagree about what share each 'side' should get of dev time & money.)

The two things that made me chime in here were Tormy invoking the Modding Will Save It All thing and Pawels reminding me that Brad's swell old thread on Integrated Physics never did get its followup for Integrated Metaphysics.

I have no idea what you're talking about 

One of the things I've been toiling away on is a heavily inspired by AOW:SM system of magic. Shards, and combinations of Shards will open up spells for research similar to the way assigning domains worked. Some of the region affecting spells will require access to all the modifiable files I can get my hands on though to even see if that's possible. I'm also looking at different ways enchantments could possibly work with each other.

I agree with _PawelS_. There are a lot of things that were talked about that we've seen tossed aside due to forum whining; a simple but living economy where trade routes meant something, and resources that affected production times got replaced with global piles. We no longer have to choose between small farming towns or bustling cities because people whined about too much clicking, and now every single city I've built is 95% identical to the one before it. Listening to the fans has really sucked a lot out of the game, even before it was released.

What I've learned from this beta is: Ignore everything Brad ever says about anything until the game actually ships. But damn it I love his enthusiasm and admire Stardock as a company.

That being said, the reason you should buy it Sheenjee is: Elemental will be a fun engrossing game it wouldn't be shipped out otherwise, and modders far more talented and skilled than I am will expound upon that 20 times over.

A development team that knows what to do from the start* and uses good ideas from games that were made before, as well as some original ideas. The beta feedback should be used only to fix bugs and polish the details, like adding a new feature that won't change the general game mechanics but it's a nice addition that makes the game more enjoyable.

* In case of Elemental the tactical combat is a good example, they changed its concepts quite a lot. The result (turn-based and tile-based) is good for me, but I think they lost a lot of time developing the realtime/continuous turns/tileless versions. So they didn't have much time to work on the turn-based version, which makes it feel a bit unpolished now.

@GW One of my ideas to eliminate the clickity click was to simply have open land tiles be used for food automagicaly as the encampment grew. Not unlike the farm creep from AOW:SM. The catch being that the more buildings you constructed the less food you would produce in that city. 

But enough with derailing the thread

Fall of heaven is too buggy in multiplayer for me to take that prize.

Nah. FFH2 is an awesome mod, but it has been created for a bad game engine. [...bad for a fantasy TBS.] 

[[PS. While we are at it -> The Third Age mod for M2: TW is the best amongst the TC mods made for strategy games imo.]]

I have to say the potential for me to mod this engine makes me wish I had never read this thread.