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29th Mar '13 1:22:37 PM MacronNotes

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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Try_2_1469.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[FullMetalJacket This is my Dragon. There are many like it but this one is mine.]]]]

[[http://www.elementalgame.com/ Elemental - War of Magic]] is a fantasy FourX game released in August 2010. The game is set in a [[AfterTheEnd world ravaged by a catastrophic war]] against the Titans, beings of great and powerful magic.

The player is a "Sovereign", an immortal ruler capable of reviving the land and great feats of magic. Depending on racial choice (between [[DemiHuman Fallen]] or Human), the player either turns the land into lush green plains or volcanic hell zones.

The game was almost unplayable right after release but a large number of patches have been cleaning up some of the problems.
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!!This video game provides examples of:
* AfterTheEnd - Technically the game is this. You start out in a magical wasteland, and you have to expend your "essence" to change the land to suit your people.
* AllThereInTheManual - The Hiergamenon.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation - Your sovereign can have pretty much any colour for their skin.
* BigBadassWolf - Horse-sized, even! Mount of choice for [[TheEmpire Empire]] factions.
* CanonWelding - There's sufficient shared terminology to indicate that Elemental is in fact set on [[GalacticCivilizations ancient Altaria]].
* CensorshipBureau - The ESRB forced the developers to remove "Ale" as a resource / item from the game.
* CopyProtection - As with all Stardock games, there is none. No copy protection, no DVD required.
** [[WordOfGod Brad Wardell]]'s statements suggest that the CopyProtection is really in the patches - see ObviousBeta, below. Note that this is standard practice for Stardock: no copy protection, but if you want the updates (which generally make the game better, and not just in a "tweaking" sense), you'll need to have purchased it.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive - The Financier unit, backbone of the [[TheEmpire Imperial]] economy.
* DeathWorld - An arid barren waste, filled with giant spiders, trolls and golems? Sounds good.
* DesertPunk - To a certain extent, the world of Elemental is a post-apocalyptic low magic fantasy world. The game mechanics and game style try to encourage this but the genre expectations of the players get in the way.
* ElementalPowers - Four of the magic schools your character can learn are fire, ice, air and earth.
* TheEmpire - One of the two possible political systems, a favorite with [[OurOrcsAreDifferent the Fallen]], believing in a MightMakesRight philosophy. Their armies consist of [[{{Conscription}} conscripted peasants]], led by [[TheNeidermeyer elite aristocratic officers]], their research and education is done by specifically appointed officials, and their economy is run by {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s.
* GameMod - From the dev journals, the game appears to be very, very moddable, even if the modder doesn't know Python.
* GenerationalSaga - Start out with a Sovereign, end up with an [[ASongOfIceAndFire army fielded out of your pants]].
* [[GoodRepublicEvilEmpire Good Kingdom Evil Empire]] - Used as a game mechanic. Civilizations with [[TheKingdom Kingdom]] in the name all have some concept of human rights, the importance of collective social action, and the importance of individual liberty, while civilizations with [[TheEmpire Empire]] in the name believe in a MightMakesRight philosophy. Both philosophies are reflected by their corresponding technology trees.
** In addition, Kingdom-aligned civilizations revive the land, making it lush and green. Empire-aligned civilizations corrupt the land, making it black and barren (though not as barren as the default terrain).
* HeroUnit - The sovereign, his family and any champions he picks up along the way.
* TheKingdom - The ''other'' possible political system, favored by the humans. Fond of things like public institutions and human rights. They have [[BadassArmy professional soldiers who gain experience]], and their research, education, and economy depends on civic institutions such as schools and markets.
* MundaneUtility - "I'm just going to use my near infinite power to give you guys bigger houses."
* ObviousBeta - The release version of ''Elemental'' had ''six'' patches in the first four days of release, and was accused of being a beta version by a writer at PC Gamer, among others.
** To put this in perspective, GalacticCivilizations and SinsOfASolarEmpire both shipped in somewhat-buggy states, and also received a couple patches each within the month of release. Elemental was shipped (against numerous suggestions NOT to release it as-is from the preordering beta testers) and patched more times in a shorter timespan than both of those titles.
*** It has been implied, after the release, that very few people at Stardock wanted to release the version they did, but were pressured into doing it.
*** Implied by whom? The official version is that the development team was very badly organized and that everyone was too close to the project to see the flaws. This is why Brad Wardell says that even another six or twelve months of development would not have made a difference, because they really did think the game was ready. Since then the game development side of Stardock has seen a major overhaul with many new people coming in to fill key positions, the most notable being Derek "FallFromHeaven" Paxton who has experience managing enterprise projects.
** Stardock acknowledged the difficulties and problems of the initial release, [[RuleOfCautiousEditing regardless of why those reasons existed]]. In an act of apology and thanks, Stardock allowed anyone who paid full price for ''War Of Magic'' to download the beta for the sequel ''Fallen Enchantress'', in addition to getting a free copy of the game when it is released.
* OurOrcsAreDifferent - Again, potentially the Fallen in a way.
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy - Potentially the Fallen.
* ShoutOut - According to [[WordOfGod Brad Wardell]], the player's character card is a a shout out to ''MagicTheGathering''.
* SorcerousOverlord - The player can make their sovereign this.
* SpiritualSuccessor - This game is generally considered the spiritual successor to [[MasterOfMagic Master of Magic]].
* SummonMagic - A type of magic in game. Includes, but is not limited to (it's limited to how many mods a player wants to use, technically), giants of the four elements, demons, familiars etc.
* TechnologyMarchesOn: As you explore your tech tree, new weapons and armor become available, along with new units based on those technologies. However, this trope is averted: none of your units ever become useless. They keep their experience and can upgrade their weaponry whenever you want, as long as you have the money to do so.
* ViralMarketing - [[http://www.elementalgame.com/army/ The "army" user ad campaign.]]
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair - The player's sovereign can have any colour for their hair.
* {{Zeerust}} - You can opt to play on a virtual cloth map the entire game.

!!The sequel, Fallen Enchantress, provides examples of:

* FantasticNuke: Curgen's Volcano. Completely razes an area of the map -- including cities -- with no recourse available to your victim.
* GeoEffects: Tile Yields, which determine where you can build a city and what the city will be good at. Initial grain yields come from fertile land (with blue or green flora), while initial material yields come from rivers and woods.
* LuckBasedMission: Even a fervent expansionist is not likely to have more than 6 or 7 cities for most of the game. You have perhaps a 10% chance per city per turn for monsters far too powerful for you to stop to raze a city. This often renders the game nearly unplayable without extraordinary amounts of SaveScumming. 
* ObviousBeta: Not nearly as bad as ''Elemental'' had it, but ''Fallen Enchantress'' still shipped with numerous serious bugs, many of which have not been resolved even after Stardock released several patches in the space of a few months. 
* YouCantFightFate: Lord Relias. He was sent to find a way to stop the prophecy of the fallen enchantress. Instead, he managed to create her.

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8th Mar '13 4:03:28 PM Nathaniel

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28th Dec '12 2:13:36 PM Bobchillingworth

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Added "Obvious Beta" entry for Fallen Enchantress; I can go more in depth if someone wants, but it is widely acknowledged (including by some of the devs on Stardock's own forums) that the game still has some serious bugs, including (but not limited to) often barely-functioning AI, the AI receiving massive amounts of free research points, the inability to trade for large sums of AI cash, random crashes, missing soundfiles and an AI which casually breaks "unbreakable" peace treaties.

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6th Nov '12 4:54:17 AM infraredshirt

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Started a section for the sequel.

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2nd Nov '12 3:02:26 AM Kurtulmak

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15th Feb '12 9:53:55 AM PaladinPhoenix