I for one am interested in what for people who see those visuals above, the take away is.  What makes the ones that work for you, work?  Is it atmosphere?  If so, which of the images do you find have atmosphere, and what makes them atmospheric--as opposed to the others?  Is it something other than atmosphere?

Well I like well done User Interfaces that helps me through the game, (A button to click, to grab the next available unit that havent moved, stuff like that), I dont like Interfaces that starts cluttering up with alot of icons, (Like the current interface, left side gets more crowded the more units and cities you control, should have been in a sub-menu).

I also like when the interface have style, one example is "Master of Magic" having a pile of gold as icon BEHIND the gold value, another is the small dragons that decorate "Disciples 3" (combat interface).

I hope it gets abit more efficient than the current build tho.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

For me it is how realistic it looks. If you look at the AoW:SM screenshot, the units fit perfectly into the background which creates a sense of immersion. HoMM IV does a good job as well I think, the units fit into the scenery and it looks "natural". Warlock:Master of the arcane is ok as well.

But look at the Disciples 3 screen for example. Crappy 3D models with ugly shading on a poor looking background picture... Compare that to Disciples 2 and its awesome 2D graphics.

Dom 3 would have been great if they had Tactical Combat. But instead you just watch the combat with no control which makes for a very boring game.

Not sure what CoE2 is.

Conquest of Elysium 2. They actually have a CoE3 now.

Big problem with tactical combat (and its something that Elemental will face if it ever goes down this path), is that its not very MP friendly. Dominions 3 is one of the most MP friendly games I've ever played. Perfectly designed for PBEM games or server hosted. Everyone submits their turns at their leisure. It's easy to play a turn or two a day without having to devote endless hours at a time to the game. None of this would be possible with Tactical combat.

Tactical combat is great, but not always.

Cant agree with that, a game without tactical combat would feel empty and I would never play that, there is a reason I dont play "Risk"

I think at the moment tactical combat is half of the game, while being hard to handle multiplayer, "who cares" as long as there is a PROPER autoresolve then in mp games you can go about only play tactical combats when necessary, that is when I take for granted that they get the MP part ready to go soon .

Without tactical combat games like this would fall apart, there would be little use for different units, everything goes over to the "Who have more units win" type of combat.

While most units ATM will have a bigger chance of winning, tactical combat can get you out of some messy situations.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

---

Dominions 3 handles combat nicely and how you arrange your forces matters. I don't think the game loses much of anything by me not being able to directly control my units. I wish I could arrange how my units start combat FE, by god! Why do pioneers start IN FRONT of the much more powerful units????

Well I have not had any problems with MP in AOW:SM and AOW. And if the problems you refer to is time well AOW:SM had an answer for that  "Simultaneous turns." 

And if you don't want to do TC in MP then simply Auto-resolve however I hate it when games have TC but thier MP part of the game is only Auto-resolve. Since I will never use auto-resolve then game becomes boring and not worht playing.

Never could get into PBEM but AOW does have it.

I know FE will never have PBEM, but it is probably one of the only reasons I like the Civs. Nobody I know has time to sit down for hours of gaming but everyone I know does have time to squeak out one turn or two a week. I am sure these games aren't aimed at 18-25 year olds that have plenty of time on their hands. I would guess, rather, that they are aimed at people who have full time jobs, families, and maybe 1 hour or less a night with which to "play." PBEM solves that.

Don't you know that MP is the be all end all of TBS games? It is an obvious fact that cannot be refuted. 

I agree 100%

I don't want to promote competition, but I never heard of Warlock. I took a quick look and it looks cool ... because there is hexagons (I a an hexagon worshippper). But it sincerely looks like Civ V with magic.

I hope this game would be modable, I could make a master of magic for that mod too. That could be interesting, 2 MOM mod on different games that share ressources like artwork, music and otehr stuff.

You might inquire on their Paradox forum site: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?649-Warlock-Master-of-the-Arcane

I'd like to see a full port of MoM myself with extra features into either game, though I'm not sure how well it would work.  Bear in mind, there are already a big bugfix and rebalancing patch available here: http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=56

in fact there is 2 MOM patch. One of the simple patch fix AI and prevent the computer to cheat. While the other one change the powers of all spells and abilities. I prefer the first patch.

I don't feel like typing a megapost but some of my comments on every games graphics:

Pros: Quite good, "ordered" interface

Cons: Not hightech enough

Pros: Unique artistic style, looks charming

Cons: Not hightech enough, interface is all over the place

Pros:

Cons: Abstract, ugly, low quality, REALLY cluttered interface <--- WTF were they thinking??

Pros: Hexes

Cons: Low quality, ugly, boring and spread out interface

Pros: Quite good in Tactical Combat, can see everything and really good interface

Cons: Not hightech enough

Pros:

Cons: Ugly, old, outdated and icons(!) for units

Pros:

Cons: Cold, stale and chacters look lifeless

Pros: Beatiful artistic style, well detailed units that fit in

Cons: Interface is ancient and animations aren't smooth as silk

Pros: Easy to see what's going on..?

Cons: Abstract, heavily outdated and not hightech enough

Pros: Functioning mapobjects

Cons: COMPLETELY outdated graphics, low quality animations, ancient interface and INVISIBLE Fog of War!

I've only played Age of Wonders II: Shadow Magic and Master of Magic so how the graphics are in motion I can't say except for those two games and Fallen Enchantress and CoE III.

I'm not sure which patch you mean as the "first."  There are indeed two incompatible user-made patches:

Master of Magic 2.  To quote one user: "That's a fan-made patch that re-balanced the units/spells/buildings by altering the LBX files.  For instance, magically summoned creatures were not just "meh" but you got some firepower for your trouble."

Insecticide Patch.  Per the creator, "To make the MoM game as bug-free and as AI-challenging and as user-friendly as possible without modifying the content. The patch now features more than 200 bug-fixes, AI improvements and interface changes. Enjoy!"

The one I use is Insecticide.  It's the one I've mentioned, before, as well as another upload which isn't a patch at all, but a rebalancing mod: Catnip.  I haven't used it yet, as it's in an early stage of development.

My only involvement with any of this (other than the enjoyment that comes from occasionally playing an Insecticided MoM game) is that I've offered to write up the record-of-changes for Catnip when it's finished.  I've no other disclaimer to offer.

I don't see any way to mod it in the beta version, although the dev commented they would discuss modding with Paradox. If you have IGN Prime you can see for yourself. They are giving out beta keys. So far everything I see looks good and it's only 20 bucks at Gamersgate.

Looks like it's going to be a good year for fantasy strategy games.

After getting in some more game time, combat does feel like Civ 5, but the engine feels like Elven Legacy.

MoM and the AoW series are my all time favorite strategy games period. I think FE will be a special addition to this list.