Elemental Impressions on IGN

Now I'm worried. I personally think the units look awful...

The terrain is quite appealing, but the units with their uniformity, identical posing and posturing look dreadful. Instead of creating a sense of atmosphere and wonder it gives me the impression of a set of childs plastic figurines.

I implore the devs to add random posing and unit formations.... perhaps (if opposing an enemy) animation of taunts, threats, shouts and shield & sword beating!

Hm..I like the look of the units.

They need to mix up the per-instance data in their unit shader, at least on vid cards that can handle it.

Those hill trees look rather dumb, other then that it looks super

Any idea what they meant when they stated "Elemental has only 1 Resource"?

I figured it was used in a different context, but after reading I'd say it was a straight up mistake. There are definitely different resources needed to build up cities with infrastructure. 

@ John_Hughes

If I had to guess I'd say it was an uneducated comment referring to Materials... Which I always read as being wood... It is the primary resource for building up the city itself, other then gold and it could be thought of as wood, stone, and other "materials" used for building.

I agree that the screen shot looks a tad troubling but then it is just a screen shot. Your not going to get much atmosphere off of it one way or the other. I'll reserve judgment till I see it in action for myself.

Troubling?  I think it looks great!    The TW series went with the different poses for individual soldiers...and it didn't really add anything to the game.  In some ways, I would like a more "miniatures" flavor, especially for a game like this.

Can't wait for beta 3!

@CrusaderScott

Everyone has their own tastes I suppose... I think going with a miniatures feel would simply compromise the validity of the whole living world goal. Personally I feel I've tried to compromise despite going against my personal tastes.

In the beginning we were supposed to be getting a Turn-based empire builder with Role-playing elements and real time battles.

Now were getting a typical turn-based affair with some RP elements... Whatever no problem, I love MoM as much as the next guy.

That being said the battles best damn well be atmospheric. Though I wouldn't be surprised on these forums anymore to hear someone say "why bother making the units actually move or animate... I mean I'd prefer to pretend I were playing with pewter figurines or plastic table top pieces."

Stop trying to make the game less then it can be please.

*Edit* I hope they moved their units into those positions... Otherwise it looks like were getting "Monster Chess" after all.

I think it looks great - personally I don't see how varying the units would particularly add to the experience for myself, I'd rather have the extra time put into more different units, or better AI, etc.

One thing that is a bit concerning is how small the battlefield looks, I mean its only several "units" across, is this big enough for really tactical battles, or are units going to easily be in range of other units, no matter where they are, within a turn or two?

I think the key to that screen shot ends up being whether or not those "pewter figures" have ambient motion or not.  

If, now or somewhere father down the beta road, those characters do more than stand perfectly still I think that screen shot is awesome.  The dragon should be letting faint tendrils of smoke out of its nostrils or occasionally scratching it's neck or wagging it's tail.  The more general troops should be checking each other's armor every so often or even one or two of the individuals in a unit should be catching a quick nap (as anyone who's been in the military till tell you, you take a nap any chance you get because you may not get to hit the rack for a long time).  

Whether one likes the art style or not is subjective (I do), but they can certainly do a lot with ambient action to fit that art style and give you plenty of little "wow" moments.    

The picture shows some of the unit formations -- there's a 'diamond' of 9 units, a 'forward arrow' of 9 units, a 'staggered double line' of 10 units, etc.  Very interesting...

Ouu I really like the video... and animations, especially golem looked really cool. However, are we going to be able trade over the distance? Or is it just because of beta?

Also, as I thought before, some more animations, to the world itself would be nice, can not really see anything moving except earth shard, and fire, and that picking sound is a little bit annoying and does not fit well (for me)

Other then that, I am impressed.

You should post this to the dev journal section, or atleast make own topic for this video, so people will notice it easier.

Edit: Just watched it again, and saw that FOW is made like a clouds and trees do move

More, please. 

<3

That's awesome, Brad! Although way too short! (Almost any length would have been though. )

You know what'd be super awesome fun times now though?

One of those posts where you log a game, explain your turns, tell the story of your play, etc! Last one was AAAAGES ago!

Thanks for making me feel even better about my decision to pre-order with this video.  I haven't been this excited about a 4x game since Master of Magic. 

Lovin' what I'm seeing..... Thanks for that video post Brad...

When it comes to artwork though.. I do feel for the art team who doing their best, but can't please everyone... I woke up this morning thinking to myself I might have to scrap 2 weeks of illustrative work.. So I really feel like I'm in the grind right now. 

I for one support their illustrative theme... this game is designed to have legs and last a while and they are doing that well. 

Don't worry, the unit groups are not synchronized so that they all move together.
There is actually quite a bit of variety between the animations in a group of units. 
Unfortunately, you can't see that in this particular screenshot.

In Brad's video above, you can see how the units look in the game, although I don't think he shows a group of units.

Please let beta 2 start this week after that demo!

So thats the visual battle system. Which I assume will be what happens pre-tacbattle and on auto-resolve.

I like the art style, but I agree it feels slightly sparse.

Brad, you should see about hiring Paul Barnett. You sound, er. . .very enthused about the whole thing.

Don't disappoint me Thursday. Monday is already on my shit-list.

This is really awesome looking. lol  Really awesome!  I love how I'm seeing so much detail put into the game without the game focusing solely on graphical presentation.

This is good to hear, this alleviates my concern.

Thanks for the video Brad it was enjoyable to watch.

*Edit* I was referring to what he addressed in my Critique... Just wanted to make that clear in case someone thought I was bashing the graphics... Which I think look unique and perfect for the setting.

I do hope however that there is an opportunity to Place units at the start of a battle as in TW. I think that is a nice feature. Also I echo the poster who said the map was rather small... I hope this Screen-shot is after some closing has been done.

Thanks for the reply Codecritter...

I am however still concerned as that screenshot does not reflect what you say is happening ingame. Unless of course, by some freak event the person capturing them has caught them all in the same pose. I think not!

I'm just concern that perhaps the tactical element and tactical visuals may be slipping down the priority list. If that screen represents the average setup of a battle, then I am doubly worried. Apart from the disappointing gfxs, there also appears nothing tactical about it. Clumps of identical guys, thrown on a field...very much a Rock, Paper Scissors feel to it.

I suppose I should hold my judgement until Beta 2, but that screenshot doesn't fill me with confidence as yet.

Well since tact battles arn't in Beta 2... You may have to hold judgment for a little longer then that ; )

Provided your judging the tactical battles as I would deduce from your post.