I asked the same question last week, and took the plunge and bought it.

I am enjoying the game immensely, although you can see that it is almost a barebones game at the moment. When i look at the ideas within the game i get quite excited and the prospects. It is very stable on my computer, not crashing once yet. I truly believe it will become the new benchmark for fantasy turn-based strategy games. And knowing that you will get 2 expansions free it is a win-win situation. Even if you decide the game is not for you at the moment, you know that when you come back to it in 6 months time it will be even better.

Given that you like FFH2, combined with the recruitment of Kael i would definitely suggest you get it, if not for immediate satisfaction, then for the game it will become. Trust me if you don't, you will end up paying for the 'gold' edition with all the add-ons later anyway.

Depends on the game you want I guess.  I expect them to live up to fixing the messes, it's pretty much a guaranteed event.  This isn't an idiot fan that thinks they're all wonderful people either, I'm a pessimistic realist.  Even if they're all assholes that don't give a damn about you, Stardocks gaming career is over if they screw their loyal fan base.  They're not EA, they can't give an entire franchises customers the shaft because of their bottom line and do anything but sink themselves for a decade.

If you're looking for deep economic mechanics ala settlers or something, yeah...  Not really here.  Same deal on combat.  It's not going to stay a suck fest, but it's definitely not going to be Total War style real time combat either.  If you like mid 90's combat systems it's already your game.

We'll probably get something deeper, but there haven't been any indications that they're going for simulation based underpinnings like it looked early on.  If you want simpler systems, your game has already arrived.  Reading the latest rants and discussions will paint a rather accurate picture of where the game is at, particularly the dev journal postings.

On the tactical combat system:

I have to emphasize it's turn based, it isn't real time and there are no plans to make it so, at the moment it's ok but fairly shallow which is a pity. However it does seem post 1.1 stardock plan to work on that, but psychoak is correct don't expect Total War type combat they toyed with realtime early on but it was dropped long before release in favour of turn based combat which many of us (myself included) thought was more appropriate in a turn based stratergy game.

It's also fair to say at the moment the game is in need of some fleshing out but they seem to be heading in the right direction there and I would say there is more than enough to make it genuine fun at the moment.

It's certainly more Masters of Magic than total war, so it does depend what you like.

Anyway I would suggest you follow psychoak's advice read dev journals on 1.1 and beyond and then decide if you like the sound of what they have in store for the future.

Of course you can always wait and then buy the game and two expansions seperatly later if you think it's to big a risk at the moment. But as I say Stardock don't have a track record for abandoning their games after release so as long as you like turn based I don't see you can loose in the long term.

I'm going for it personally, I haven't bought it yet but have been lurking here often, and I really think once 1.1 comes out it will be a truly awesome 4X, plus getting it before the month ends and grabbing the 2 free expansions couldn't hurt.

I second that. 

The Stardock Elemental team is working hard on version 1.10 : it will be the beginning of the game's excellence.

Most games are dropped by producers once they made their initial profits.

Stardock will work on this game each & every day, for at least the next 300 days -- without any concern for profit maximization. 

Here, here!!!  Very well said, and I fully agree!

I brought the game 3 weeks ago. Honestly, when I first started playing it, I was beginning to question my purchase. The game grew on me and now I can not get enough. I love the artwork and atmosphere.

Last night I decided to play Civilization V after they recently patched it to see what was fixed. For God's sake, 2K still has not fixed the rivers! While playing I found myself missing Elemental.

While Elemental has a few bugs and did lockup once on move 202 (Grrrrr), I am excited to see developer active with the community. The forums are full of people making ideas and suggestions and Stardock is actually listening. There is a video released showing a demonstration of a multithread version of Elemental that made my jaw drop and they are still committed to a true 64 bit version. 

Get it now! Not for what the game is, but what it will become!

The only people left on the board are people who actually still play this (fanboys) and those that like watching car crashes. I'm the car crash guy. Don't bite the bullet. There are better games to spend your money on.

Its worth it. If only for the modding community and their projects. the base game is fun too.

zehdon, I would have suggested that it was an udder moron,

romantiq, as you have stated that you like this sort of game all I can suggest is that even back in the beta2 when I bought it ( and this is when it was to quote frogboy' VERY UNFUN' to play), I did get some fun, in fact enough that I tended to squeeze more time than was reasonable to play the BETA before the graphics/spells/effects improvements were added, and at present I would rate it a LOT MORE fun to play than C&C3(which to me is the LAST c&C I will ever buy) and I found that the C&C3 demo was more fun that the full game inspite of having all of the preceding versions of c&C

harpo

Thanks ZehDon for quoting this "to give .... stupidity". Ya see, Normally I don't read every post, but I usually read ones with quotes, and then search for the quoted post. Assuming they have had some thought put into them.

I appreciate you looking out for us folks who don't read all of them, if not for you I would not have seen Solidsmooky's very accurate post. Judging by your +93 karma or whatever it is, I assume you made some "cool map", or did some "lame faq/beginner guide" etc. No matter, anyone with +93 on a games website forums is DEFINITELY a fanboys. Personally I don't like car crashes, I hate watching them or driving through them, I have no patience for slow traffic... And have never been called a fanboys. (if forums were popular when MoM was out, who knows... but since they weren't my reputation is intact)

I would caution solidsmooky though, there is a 3rd category of people still "left on the board". I am one of them. A 4x strategy fan who keeps waiting for Stardock to fix the errors they made since day 1, and support a game company (such as stardock) that USUALLY turns out great games, and doesn't require DRM. (oh yeah, for the record, I never in my life stole a game, program, or even a song.... but I hate DRM, because in reality it only punishes suckers like me. Puts undue restrictions on a software program, that I am too ethical or lazy to bypass, like if I wanted to install on my second machine, make back ups, run offline etc... And the people who steal software/games will always be able to bypass ANY frikkin copyright garbage a company puts on their games. So again..... only suckers like me are hurt by DRM)

PS. I am such a sucker, and SOOOOO Lazy I tend to buy multiple copies of a game. Like Sins. I bought it when it came out, so no expansions. Played it to death, then when the "trinity" package came out, I bought it all over again. Heck, ask stardock. My impulse account still has both copies of games listed, and always wants me to update both. LOL. So not only do I not steal, I am so lazy I buy some games twice. (AOE3, Diablo2, Sins, etc...)

Personally I like the game so far.  There are a few bugs in it, and the champs are not that great (although I always take Janus, or whatever his name is, and make him a hitter not a spell caster and he does fine), and I am STILL trying to figure out the food thing, but I will eventually get it. Otherwise I like the game a lot and enjoy it a ton.

-Gizmet