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Shacknews Interview with Brad Wardell on Elemental

Shacknews.com has a fantastic, and very informative interview with Stardock CEO, Brad Wardell, on the upcoming PC game Elemental: War of Magic . “Shack: [laughs] We should cover Elemental before we get into that. Now, there aren't many companies that are still making these kinds of games anymore. Do you take a conservative approach in figuring out whether your audience can support a game like this, or do you just make what you think is fun and go from there? Brad Wardell: ... [read more]

9/24/2009 By Island Dog in Elemental News

Sins of a Solar Empire v1.18 | Entrenchment v1.04 Change Logs

Coming soon for registered Sins and Entrenchment customers is a major balance update in the form of Sins of a Solar Empire v1.18 and Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment: v1.04.  For a full list of the changes, just click-through below: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/364878/ [read more]

9/23/2009 By Yarlen in Sins News

Sins: Diplomacy Pre-Orders Begin

Ironclad Games and Stardock Entertainment are pleased to announce pre-orders for the upcoming Sins of a Solar Empire micro-expansion, Diplomacy. After 25 years of war, some elements of the TEC, Vasari and Advent have grown weary of conflict and desperately seek a respite. The decision is made to attempt peaceful negotiations to end the wars, but others view this new effort at diplomacy as the perfect means to destroy their enemies from within. Sins of a Solar Empire: Diplomacy will add a new ... [read more]

9/15/2009 By Yarlen in Sins News

Shacknews Takes a Look at Elemental Screenshots

The fine folks at Shacknews.com grabbed some screenshots of Elemental: War of Magic and gave them a thorough look. “While the art style for Stardock's Elemental: War of Magic is pretty snazzy, screenshots are really only showing half of the story. During a live demonstration at PAX, the other half became immediately apparent: it's all about the zoom.” Read the full article at Shacknews.com . [read more]

9/11/2009 By Island Dog in Elemental News

Colony of Gamers Look at Elemental

Ghostbear from Colony of Gamers was in attendance at PAX, and got a walkthrough of Elemental: War of Magic from Stardock’s Paul Boyer. “Exploration is a large part of the game as well, you'll find dungeons, random encounters, treasure. What you really want to find are the elemental shards, once found you'll want to build an outpost and shrine, so that you'll be able to channel the magic it possesses. Once you have multiple elements you can cast spells that combine those ... [read more]

9/10/2009 By Island Dog in Elemental News

Big Download Has Impressions of Elemental from PAX

Without a doubt one of the biggest hits for Stardock at this years Penny Arcade Expo was the upcoming Elemental: War of Magic.  Previews and impressions are starting to come out, and today we have one from Big Download. “Your character is basically a very powerful magic user who wants to rule the land. There are several ways he can do this. One is by keeping his power inside him and having that power grow so he can use more and more powerful spells. We got an example of that in ... [read more]

9/9/2009 By Island Dog in Elemental News

Ready to Play beta sign up now live

Stardock is pleased to announce that the Ready to Play beta is about to begin.  Ready to Play is a revolutionary new program that enables gamers to create an on-line gaming profile of themselves after which Ready to Play will produce a “recommended friends” list.  Then, when the player is ready to play a particular game, they can broadcast to any available friends or recommended friends that they are about to launch a particular game and join in. “If you’ve ... [read more]

9/9/2009 By Island Dog in Sins News

Sins Limits

We have no idea why, but support has recently been bombarded by requests for the limits of various systems in the Iron Engine. Thus, I have taken the time to compile a list of as many as a I could within my breakfast and lunch timeframe. I will add more as requested as this is certainly not comprehensive. I hope it helps enum { MaxNumWeaponBanks = 4 }; enum { MAX_NUM_MESHES = 400 }; enum { MAX_NUM_FILE_TEXTURES = 1000 }; enum { MAX_NUM_FILE_CUBE_TEXTURES = 10 }; enum { MAX_SOUNDDATA =... [read more]

9/8/2009 By Blair Fraser in Sins Developer Journals

GamaSutra Interview About Elemental's Strategy-Centric Modding Engine

GamaSutra’s Chris Remo has another interview with Brad Wardell, this time focusing on the modding engine in the upcoming game, Elemental: War of Magic .  “Elemental makes use of a level of detail system paired to its zoom feature that swaps out different models and textures as the player moves from examining individual workers at ground level up to viewing whole continents, at which point the perspective blends into a flat 2D "cloth map." That will be available to ... [read more]

9/1/2009 By Island Dog in Elemental News

IGN Interview with Stardock’s Scott Tykoski

IGN.com has an interview with Elemental’s Producer, Scott Tykoski about the art style of Elemental: War of Magic .  I'd like to say that Elemental's visual style was chosen purely for the love of art. That the style was risky but required to properly lay fourth our grand vision of dead world refueled by magic. That the style would finally establish video games as works of art and we can all celebrate our incredible cultural triumph! Read the full interview at IGN . ... [read more]

8/28/2009 By Island Dog in Elemental News

PC World Takes a Look at Sins of a Solar Empire: Diplomacy

  PC World’s Game Blog, “ Game On ”, has a featured article about the upcoming micro-expansion Diplomacy, for the award winning PC game Sins of a Solar Empire .  “Reportedly the expansion adds a new diplomatic tech tree that'll let you bolster your deal-brokering skills, adds diplomatic envoy ships (presumably to help craft treaties or facilitate dialogue during hostilities), and allows you to craft trade treaties with other factions. The bet... [read more]

8/26/2009 By Island Dog in Sins News

Elemental: War of Magic on Facebook

We have setup a fan page on Facebook for the upcoming PC game, Elemental: War of Magic .  The fan page on Facebook is another place fans can get together and post article, links, etc. about Elemental.  We will also have some giveaways in the future as well, so you definitely don’t want to miss out on that! If you are on Facebook, just head over to the page and hit the “become a fan” button.  See you there! Link  – Elemental Facebook page ... [read more]

7/8/2009 By Island Dog in Elemental News

Sins of a Solar Empire v1.17 and Entrenchment v1.03 Released

Ironclad Games and Stardock are pleased to announce the release of Sins of a Solar Empire v1.17 and Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment v1.03 today.  The updates for both games are now available via Impulse for all registered customers. The updates include: + Rebalanced all races' carrier cruisers to help prevent "kiting" around the gravity well. + Improved pathfinding in regards to travelling between gravity wells. + Updated Marza Dreadnought's Missile Barrage ability to ... [read more]

6/11/2009 By Yarlen in Sins News

Sins of a Solar Empire & Entrenchment Updates!

The v1.17 update for Sins of a Solar Empire , and the v1.03 update for Entrenchment are now available!  These updates can be obtained via Stardock’s Impulse . Highlights of these updates include: Rebalanced all races' carrier cruisers to help prevent "kiting" around the gravity well. Improved pathfinding in regards to travelling between gravity wells. Updated Marza Dreadnought's Missile Barrage ability to last longer while doing less damage; also updated particle fx. ... [read more]

6/11/2009 By Island Dog in Sins News

Sins of a Solar Empire v1.17 and Entrenchment v1.03 Change Logs

Sins of a Solar Empire v1.17 and Sins: Entrenchment v1.03 are currently in testing, with a planned release sometime late next week if no showstoppers are found. We've posted the change logs for both games at the links below; check out the very latest. Sins Change Log: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/354826   Entrenchment Change Log: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/354827 [read more]

6/3/2009 By Yarlen in Sins News

Sins CE Boxes Sold Out!

Just a quick note that we have sold out of the Collectors' Edition boxes for Sins of a Solar Empire. Those who order the game's boxed edition direct will recieve the standard version instead. Stay tuned for more updates! [read more]

5/12/2009 By Yarlen in Sins News

GameSpot’s GDC Preview of Elemental

It seems everyone is still trying to catch up from all the news from this years GDC, and GameSpot has posted an interview with Brad Wardell with the topic being Elemental: War of Magic.  “To begin with, Wardell reiterated his commitment to getting the game into a testable, playable state earlier than usual. Stardock plans to run a "beta zero" phase, where a working prototype of the game, using extremely simple art assets, will be made available to a small group of beta testers to... [read more]

4/1/2009 By Island Dog in Elemental News

The Showdown Is On! (Round 2)

Ironclad has defeated Sony and advanced to round two! Thanks for all your support! But now the Escapist's Developer Showdown between Ironclad Games and Konami has begun and we need all the troops rallied! Help Ironclad win this contest of wills by heading over to the Escapist and casting your vote for them in the Western bracket. You will need to create and validate (via email) an account with the Escapist in order to vote and have it count. Visit the URL below to create your account - regist... [read more]

3/23/2009 By Zoomba in Sins News

Sins v1.16 and Entrenchment v1.02 Released

Ironclad Games and Stardock are pleased to announce the release of Sins of a Solar Empire v1.16 and Entrenchment v1.02 today.  These latest updates make more gameplay balance changes, bug fixes and more.  Registered customers can update their games immediately via Impulse ( http://www.impulsedriven.com ). For the latest changes to Sins of a Solar Empire, please see: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/343750 For the latest changes to Entrenchment, please see: https://forums.... [read more]

3/19/2009 By Yarlen in Sins News

The Showdown is On!

The Escapist's Developer Showdown between Ironclad Games and Sony Online Entertainment has begun! Help Ironclad win this contest of wills by heading over to the Escapist and casting your vote for them in the Western bracket. You will need to create and validate (via email) an account with the Escapist in order to vote and have it count. Vist the URL below to create your account - registration is free: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/global/registration/register.php Once yo... [read more]

3/19/2009 By Yarlen in Sins News

Escapist Developer Showdown with Ironclad

The Escapist  has announced the 2009 March Mayhem: Developer’s Showdown and Ironclad Games is in it!   Ironclad Games is one of the 64 top game developers that will be going head-to-head in a bracketed tournament to see who gamers believe the best developer is! The Escapist and game developer fan communities vote on The Escapist to see who will move to the next round until there is only one developer left standing. Last year many gamers who played Lord ... [read more]

3/16/2009 By Yarlen in Sins News

Blair Fraser Interviews with Gamers with Jobs

Gamers with Jobs has recently posted an interview with Ironclad's Blair Fraser to discuss all things Sins of a Solar Empire. This is a phone interview, so strap on your headphones or power-up your speakers and head over to the URL below: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/43967 [read more]

3/12/2009 By Yarlen in Sins News

Crispy Gamer Interviews Blair Fraser About Entrenchment

Crispy Gamer has published an interview with Ironclad Games' Blair Fraser discussing Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment. In the interview, author Tom Chick questions Blair on why the decision was made to focus on turtling and much more. Read the entire interview at: http://www.crispygamer.com/columns/2009-03-10/rush-boom-turtle-sins-of-a-sins-developer.aspx [read more]

3/11/2009 By Yarlen in Sins News

IGN Reviews Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment

IGN.com, which gave Sins of a Solar Empire the PC game of the year award in 2008, has posted their review of Sins first micro-expansion, Entrenchment. “Last year's Sins of a Solar Empire was an undeniably amazing experience; so much so, in fact, that it won our game of the year award. But that doesn't mean that the teams at Ironclad or Stardock are resting on their laurels. They've recently released the first micro-expansion for the game, Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrench... [read more]

3/4/2009 By Island Dog in Sins News

Entrenchment Unit Basics and Tips

Entrenchment Unit Basics and Tips (Reference supplement to " What's New in Entrenchment? ")   This certainly isn’t all encompassing but it’ll give you a feel for the categories of the new toys, what their function is and I give a few tips on how I like to use them. See the above link for more information.     Defensive Upgrades The first time you start up an Entrenchment game pause it and open up the research windo... [read more]

3/4/2009 By Blair Fraser in Sins Developer Journals

Entrenchment Feature List

Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment Feature List (Reference supplement to " What's New in Entrenchment? ") " After nearly 15 years, the war which raged across dozens of star systems is nearing a stand-still. The great fleets of the Trader Emergency Coalition, the Vasari Empire and The Advent are near stalemate. With the fronts temporarily stabilized, there is time to regroup, and entrench. Great defensive battlestations are being deployed and critical choke p... [read more]

3/4/2009 By Blair Fraser in Sins Developer Journals

What's New in Entrenchment?

Wh at's New In Entrenchment?   I’m getting non-stop questions from people wondering “What’s new in Entrenchment?” and I can’t blame them. They are justified in asking because there is no single place to find an easily digestible list of the new material. My excuse is that I felt the change logs were more than sufficient however when I was brought back to reality I realized how impossible it would be for anyone not in the b... [read more]

3/4/2009 By Blair Fraser in Sins Developer Journals

Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment Gameplay Example

Developer Ironclad Games and publisher Stardock Entertainment have teamed up to bring you the first micro-expansion pack to Sins of a Solar Empire. Right now, we plan on doing 3 of these micro expansions and then rolling them together as a single traditional expansion pack.  The intro pricing for each micro expansion is about $10 so you get a ton of new features for a tiny price. Based on sales so far, it seems gamers do like the idea of being able to pick up expansions in bite-si... [read more]

3/1/2009 By Frogboy in Sins Developer Journals

Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment Released!

Ironclad Games and Stardock Entertainment are pleased to announce the releases of both Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment v1.0 and Sins of a Solar Empire v1.15 today.  Registered customers may download the update to Sins and Entrenchment via Impulse ( http://www.impulsedriven.com ). Special thanks to all of the beta testers for helping us to make Entrenchment a truly unique addition to the game! [read more]

2/25/2009 By Yarlen in Sins News

Sins Entrenchment Beta 3 Now Available

Ironclad Games and Stardock Entertainment are pleased to announce the release of Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment Beta 3!  Sins of a Solar Empire v1.14 is also now available.  The latest updates are now available for registered customers via Impulse ( http://www.impulsedriven.com ). Please note that you must fully uninstall both Sins of a Solar Empire and Entrenchment for this build!   For more details and the latest changes, please see: https://forums.sinsofa... [read more]

2/20/2009 By Yarlen in Sins News

Entrenchment Beta 3 Change Log Posted

Beta 3 for Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment is on the way and we've got the latest changes for everyone to look over: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/340287 [read more]

2/19/2009 By Yarlen in Sins News

What do Developers Eat?

Ever wonder what fuels the developers at Ironclad? I'll start with a typical day and see what fools will follow... Breakfast: Banana, Multigrain Bagel and Cream Cheese OR Cereal & Berries Lunch:   Sandwich with Krakowska Sausage, Edam cheese, Spinach, Mayo, Onion Mustard and Tomato. Green Giant Garlic Pasta Broccoli Carrot Mix. Hazelnut & dark chocolate bar Take Out: Gyro, Greek Salad, and a donut. Supper:   Fast and dirty - Annies cheese pasta ... [read more]

2/11/2009 By Craig Fraser in Sins Developer Journals

Sins Entrenchment Set For February 25

Stardock Corporation announced today that the first micro-expansion to Ironclad’s Strategy Game of the Year, Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment , is undergoing further incorporation of beta feedback to maximize quality and will now be available February 25 for download on Stardock’s digital download platform, Impulse ( www.impulsedriven.com ).   "One of Stardock’s key strategies for success with past games has been the incorporation of player feedback from ... [read more]

2/9/2009 By Yarlen in Sins News