History VideoGame / ElementalWarOfMagic

* UpdatedRerelease: ''Legendary Heroes'' was nominally an expansion, but effectively replaced the original game -- as well as containing the second story campaign, it reworked the hero leveling system by giving them fully-developed class skill trees and added a huge amount of additional content.

* 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.

* 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, ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations'' and ''VideoGame/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. Stardock acknowledged the difficulties and problems of the initial release, 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.

* ObviousBeta: Not nearly as bad as ''Elemental'', but ''Fallen Enchantress'' shipped with an astonishing number of bugs, many (but not all) of which were resolved in a flurry of hasty post-release patches.

[[http://www.elementalgame.com/ Elemental - War of Magic]] is a fantasy FourX game released in August 2010. The game is set in the planet of Elemental, [[AfterTheEnd a 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 the [[DemiHuman Fallen]] and the Humans), the player either turns the land into lush green plains or volcanic hell zones.

* 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.

* [[DistantSequel Distant Prequel]]: [[spoiler:To the Galactic Civilizations trilogy, due to Elemental being ancient Altaria. The "Humans" are Altarians, and the "Fallen" are Drath-Altarian hybrids.]]

* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: With the kingdom switched in for the republic, it's used as a game mechanic. Civilizations with 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).

* OurOrcsAreDifferent: Again, potentially the Fallen in a way.
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Potentially the Fallen.

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

* UpdatedRerelease: ''Legendary Heroes'' was nominally an expansion, but effectively replaced the original game- as well as containing the second story campaign, it reworked the hero leveling system by giving them fully-developed class skill trees and added a huge amount of additional content.
* YouCantFightFate: Lord Relias. He was sent to find a way to stop the prophecy of the fallen enchantress. Instead, he managed to create her.

* SharedUniverse: With the VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations series. [[spoiler:Elemental is Altaria, the homeworld of the Altarians and the Drath. The Elemental series is set around half a million years before the GC series.]]

* [[DistantSequel Distant Prequel]]: [[spoiler:To the Galactic Civilizations trilogy, due to Elemental being ancient Altaria. The "Humans" are Altarians, and the "Fallen" are Drath-Altairian hybrids.]]

* TheBerserker: If you are of the Trogg race, through alchemy and selective breeding you can create the Juggernaut special unit. These are giant-sized berserk Troggs that can hit for heavy damage per hit and will keep hitting until they miss. Their lack of armour makes them something of a GlassCannon, but they're still very useful especially for fighting large monsters.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: The player's sovereign can have any colour for their hair.

** The AI is just really bad at waging war in general. It builds enormous armies of low and mid-tier units in every city, at the expense of developing its economy, but rarely ever forms their huge militaries into armies that can threaten your cities. You can usually run rings around them with one or two armies of elite units that can run through their realms taking city after city like a prune through a short grandmother.

* ArtificialStupidity: The game uses extreme SpitefulAI that almost always seeks to target your weakest units in combat to inflict as many casualties on you as possible. The Raise Skeleton Horde spell creates a solid 3x3 block of single weak skeletons anywhere on the battlefield which will universally become the target of the entire enemy army until the last one is destroyed, which will distract them for several essential turns, letting your ACTUAL units run roughshod over them while the enemy becomes obsessed with destroying a pack of disposable boney flunkies that will fall apart at the end of the battle anyway.

* 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, ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations'' and ''VideoGame/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. Stardock acknowledged the difficulties and problems of the initial release, [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment 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.

* ArtificialStupidity: The game uses extreme SpitefulAI that almost always seeks to target your weakest units in combat to inflict as many casualties on you as possible. The Summon Undead Horde spells creates a solid 3x3 block of single weak skeletons anywhere on the battlefield which will universally become the target of the entire enemy army until the last one is destroyed, which will distract them for several essential turns, letting your ACTUAL units run roughshod over them while the enemy becomes obsessed with destroying a pack of disposable boney flunkies that will fall apart at the end of the battle anyway.

* TheBerserker: If you are of the Trogg race, through alchemy and selective breeding you can create the Juggernaut special unit. These are giant-sized berserk Troggs that can hit for heavy damage per hit and will keep hitting until they miss. Their lack of armour makes them something of a GlassCannon, but they're still very useful especially for fighting large monsters

* 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.

* FantasticNuke: Curgen's Volcano. Completely razes an area of the map -- including cities. Originally left your victim without recourse, but subsequent balancing gave it a ten-turn casting time, the same as the game-ending Spell of Making.

* {{Golem}}: One of the special troops that can be made if you are of the Dwarven equivalent race. Iron Golems are a bit AwesomeButImpractical. They have really good defense, but they're not that much stronger than most units and they can't stack.

** Curgen's Volcano is amazingly powerful- but costs ''1200 mana'' and takes ''10 turns'' to cast.