History VideoGame / ElementalWarOfMagic

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

* AnnoyingArrows: Depending on your armor, actually. At any difficulty, if you've got the dodge for it, arrows can't really hit you. If you ''aren't'' prepared for them, they will slaughter practically everything, with their one weakness being that they reduce a character or soldier's initiative (as in, how often they can attack). The fact that they can hit from anywhere on the tactical combat map just makes them all the more deadly if you aren't prepared for them.

* DiscOneNuke: If you give your faction the Archer trait. This give you access to the Ram's Horn Longbow, a weapon with shots that ignore 50% of an enemy's defense. This is superior to even the most expensive magical bow and makes your troops that can use it a threat, even to enemies that have plate armour.

* {{Golem}}: One of the special troops that can be made if you have the faction trait. 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.

* [[DistantSequel Distant Prequel]] [[spoiler:To the Galactic Civilizations series.]]
* ElementalPowers: Four of the magic schools your character can learn are fire, ice, air and earth.

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

[[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.

* SharedUniverse: With the VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations series. [[spoiler:Elemental is in the pocket universe the Arnor sealed Draginol in.]]

* SharedUniverse: With the VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations series.

* 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, [[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.

%%* PantheraAwesome: Ascian.

* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: With TheKingdom 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.

* 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.

* SpiritualSuccessor: This game is generally considered the spiritual successor to [[MasterOfMagic Master of Magic]].

* GenerationalSaga: Start out with a Sovereign, end up with an [[ASongOfIceAndFire army fielded out of your pants]].

* 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 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, [[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.

* 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.
* CanisMajor- Horse-sized! They're the mount of choice for [[TheEmpire Empire]] factions.
* CanonWelding - There's sufficient shared terminology to indicate that Elemental is in fact set on [[VideoGame/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.

* 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.

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

* 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 with tokens representing heroes and armies the entire game. This helps with framerate.

* AwesomeButImpractical/CoolButInefficient:

* PantheraAwesome: Ascian.

* CanonWelding - There's sufficient shared terminology to indicate that Elemental is in fact set on [[GalacticCivilizations ancient Altaria]].

* 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. Stardock acknowledged the difficulties and problems of the initial release, [[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.

* AwesomeButImpractical/CoolButInefficient: Resoln's corrupted elemental units. While you get them for free from the shrines you build on elemental shards, most of the first two tiers ("Young" and no-adjective) are honestly too weak to be much use and while the third tier "Ancient" monsters are considerably more powerful, the technology needed to build tier 3 shrines takes longer to research than ''the Spell of Making victory condition'' technology (which shares its prerequisites).
** AwesomeYetPractical: On the other hand, the Crow Demons (corrupted Air Elementals) are useful right from the get-go since, even if they're not up to much in combat, they're 4-movement flyers (which means they ignore almost all terrain) which automatically respawn if they die, making them the best scouts in the game by a LONG shot. Grave Elementals also make pretty decent tanks, with Ancient Grave Elementals being [[MadeOfIron damn near indestructible]].

* {{Zeerust}} - You can opt to play on a virtual cloth map with tokens representing heroes and armies the entire game.
** Something that was required for many Day One players, who found the game horribly unoptimized and unplayable in its 3d mode. This Troper included.

* {{Zeerust}} - You can opt to play on a virtual cloth map the entire game.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[FullMetalJacket This is my Dragon. There are many like it but this one is mine.]]]]

* ShoutOut - According to [[WordOfGod Brad Wardell]], the player's character card is a a shout out to ''MagicTheGathering''.

* BigBadassWolf - Horse-sized, even! Mount of choice for [[TheEmpire Empire]] factions.

* 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 "VideoGame/FallFromHeaven" Paxton who has experience managing enterprise projects.
** Stardock acknowledged the difficulties and problems of the initial release, [[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.

*** 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.

In 2012, it received a sequel, known as ''Fallen Enchantress''.

* FantasticNuke: Curgen's Volcano. Completely razes an area of the map -- including cities -- with no recourse available to your victim.

* 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.

** 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.