I’m really hopeful about Elemental, though. I love what they’re doing with the maps (I’m pretty sure the names are generated, but I read that you can also custom label the maps as you play, which is awesome), the economic system sounds interesting, and the cel-shadey art style is potentially very cool.

Stardock really does need to hire a decent writer, though…

You guys manage to put the finger on some of the sore spots, which have hindered me from really enjoying the GalCiv-games (though I really wanted to like them): The enthusiastic, but less than impressive writing; the heavily exposed underlying game-model; the lack of tactical battles…

On the other hand, I think it’s fair to remember that single-player world-management games (i.e., Civ-like), have a strong tradition of just establishing a frame for a story that will unfold in the mind of the player. Of course, that still requires the game to not /hinder/ that storytelling; and in my mind, that’s what GalCiv is doing. In particular, when it persists in telling me that that Neutrality Learning Centre, brings me a yield of exactly X %, if I set property Y and Z below certain thresholds. It pushes the game too much in the arms of the I-really-wanted-to-be-a-statistician-gamers crowd.

In the end, I suspect that part of the schisma lies in different players wanting different things from their games. Some players like as many numbers and statistics as possible to evaluate exactly how splendid their creations are. In my view, these players are of the same breed as the CRPG-players, that spend the first few days calculating the best trade-off between having Wisdom bonus +1 and Strength +3.

Perhaps it’s simply the case that Stardock is run by a gamer (Mr. Wardell), who sympathizes most strongly with this bunch of players… Conspicuously enough, he seems also to be a very good business-man and a good AI-programmer. Is the role of the storyteller so much at odds with computer-game production that by natural selection the good games that get made, tend to cater most strongly for the statistician-gamers crowd?

Sorry ’bout the long post. I’ll shut up now.

Also, the anomaly investigations typically do the same thing, just on a smaller scale, instead of letting rescuing leaders, finding weird new ships you can add to your fleet, etc.

It puts the behind-the-scenes numbers in the forefront of the player’s mind, which diminishes immersion and makes it obvious that it’s a game of math problems, rather than the heuristic ones that most gamers favor. I have the same complaint about Civ, although it isn’t quite as bad and does a better job of hiding it.

Still, FFH2 does some of that now – and it’s my current favorite Civ Mod except for the glaring non-use of magic by the A.I. A magical world where you’re the only one who uses magic? Add the lack of much cool graphics FX when magic is used, and the need for Elemental: War of Magic is evident.

I have respect for what the guy’s accomplished with his company, but I think the GalCiv series is seriously overrated–and bad writing is part of the reason why.