Elemental: Reforged News

[h2]Let's Talk About 2010[/h2][p]I'm going to be straight with you - Elemental: War of Magic didn't look good in 2010, and Elemental: Fallen Enchantress didn’t really improve on that. Time has not been kind to it.[/p][p]The Elemental games were our first non-space game at Stardock. We'd been making Galactic Civilizations and publishing Sins of a Solar Empire, and we thought "how hard could it be to make a fantasy game?" Turns out, pretty hard. Terrain. Animation. Magic. [/p][p]The biggest challenge wasn't what you might think. It wasn't the terrain or the cities or even the spell effects. It was the units. We wanted our units to be unique and customizable by players. Many new character artists have come in and thought it easy to just make the characters and animations look better, but not so fast. There are no characters in this game, they only look like characters. [/p][p]What we think of as characters in the game are actually just heads, bodies, legs, arms and attachment points put together. They are, if you have ever played GalCiv, a fancier version of the ship designer. They are GalCiv ships that look like people.[/p][p][/p][h2]The Modular Unit System[/h2][p]Most strategy games cheat here. They have a "swordsman" unit that's one complete 3D model. Maybe they swap textures for different factions. Simple, clean, looks good.[/p][p]We couldn't do that. In Elemental, when you equip a champion with a sword, that specific sword needs to appear. When you give them plate armor, you need to see that exact armor. Design a custom unit with leather armor and a spear? Every single soldier in that unit type needs to show those exact items.[/p][p]So instead of one model, each unit is actually built from pieces:[/p]

• [p]Separate head[/p]
• [p]Separate torso[/p]
• [p]Individual arms[/p]
• [p]Individual legs[/p]
• [p]Every weapon is its own model[/p]
• [p]Every piece of armor is separate[/p]
• [p]Shields, cloaks, accessories - all separate[/p]

[p]Each piece needs attachment points that work with every other piece. A sword needs to fit in any hand. A helmet needs to fit on any head. Armor needs to work whether the unit is human-sized or ogre-sized.[/p][p][/p][h2]Why It Looked Bad[/h2][p]Here's the killer - in 2010, we were shipping a 32-bit game on DirectX 9. So, we had to make endless tough decisions on how to make this work and many of them came at the expense of the visuals. The textures and model “pieces” had to be very simple in order to keep the number of draw calls under control. We batched draw calls aggressively, but there is a cost.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Remastering the Visuals[/h2][p]If you haven’t checked out Endless Legend II, you should. It’s gorgeous. The Amplitude team really knows art and Endless Legend II, with their crafty and, dare I say, handsome lead, Derek, is working to find the right balance between visuals and gameplay. Obviously, we can’t remaster the game to that level of fidelity and our gameplay is very different (we’re more of an fantasy civ game in an RPG world), but the reality is, we have to improve the game’s looks to not outright turn people off.[/p][p]So the plan is as follows:[/p]

• [p]Remake the heads. The character heads in this game were Nintendo 64 level in detail, which was fine, if you never saw them close up, but you do and it hurts. It hurts so much. So, we’re going to have to bite the bullet and do that.[/p]
• [p]Art Direction. In 2010, we were in the GalCiv / Sins of a Solar Empire mindset of units needing to pop, so contrasts were dialed up to 11 and there’s so much garish coloring in the game. We’re addressing that.[/p]
• [p]Textures. Now, this part is easier, because we authored our assets at pretty high resolution so that we just have to update.[/p]

[h2]The Challenge[/h2][p]We have to port everything from the Havok .hkb files of 2009 to FBX so that we can use modern art tools, and that is proving very challenging and expensive.[/p][p]This game is a labor of love for us, but we have to keep the costs under control. Therefore, we have to be very careful about what we do on this. If there’s enough interest after release, we can look at making a true sequel in the future, but the first step is to see how people like Reforged first.[/p][p][/p][h2]When can you see it?[/h2][p]We hope to have some screenshots of our progress for you soon. We will also be polling to find out if people want an early access of the game with would help us gauge the real level of interest in this. Having played quite a bit of the Endless Legend II demo (which I highly recommend) and as a fan of Age of Wonders 4, I can honestly say that this game definitely has its own spot in the fantasy strategy genre that is very distinct for those who want to play a sandbox fantasy civilization style game. Ultimately, you guys will decide where things go. Let us know what you think.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p]By Brad Wardell[/p][p][/p][h2]Localization: How to double your market size[/h2][p]Here's a business truth that haunts game developers: English speakers represent only 40% of the strategy 4X gaming market. The other 60%? They're playing games in German, Chinese, French, Spanish, Polish, Russian, and so many others.[/p][p]For 15 years, Elemental was locked out of that 60%. That was because back in 2008, when we were developing the game, we were thinking mostly retail and that meant North America.[/p][p]Now, in 2025, when looking at remastering Elemental and combining FE, SK, and WOM into a single integrated game, we need to reach that other 60%. This means revisiting the way we do strings.[/p][p] [/p][h2]BEFORE: Hard-coded strings everywhere[/h2][h3]Problem 1: Hardcoded Strings in XML Data Files[/h3][p]Every piece of game text was baked directly into the data files:[/p][p][/p][p]Want to translate this to German? You'd need to maintain completely separate XML files for every language. Change Donya's abilities? Update it in 7 different places. Don’t forget, this means breaking every mod.[/p][p][/p][h3]Problem 2: Printf-Style Formatting That Crashes and Burns[/h3][p]At the same time, our UI strings used printf-style formatting:[/p][p][/p][p]The problems with this approach:[/p]

• [p]Type mismatches cause crashes: Pass a string where it expects a number? Crash.[/p]
• [p]Translation nightmare: German might need "für %d Schaden greift %s %s an" (completely different order)[/p]
• [p]Zero context for translators: What's the first %s? The second %s? Who knows![/p]

[p] [/p][h2]Why We Stopped After Sorcerer King[/h2][p]We released:[/p]

• [p]Elemental: War of Magic (2010) - English only[/p]
• [p]Fallen Enchantress (2012) - English only[/p]
• [p]Sorcerer King (2014) - English only[/p]

[p]Then we stopped. We had no choice. First, because these were 32-bit games and we could never fit the full game design into a single game because each one was a different aspect. Secondly, it became an ever increasing problem to have an “English only” game.[/p][p] [/p][h2]The 2025 Reforging: Fixing Everything[/h2][p]When we decided to create Elemental: Reforged, we knew this had to be fixed, but the scope was staggering:[/p][h3]The Archaeological Dig: What We Found[/h3]

• [p]12,000+ hardcoded strings in XML files[/p]
• [p]514 FormatSTLString calls with printf formatting[/p]
• [p]467 broken parameter replacements (missing assignments)[/p]
• [p]71 C++ files with string handling code[/p]
• [p]3 competing string systems used simultaneously[/p]

[p]Some files were museums of bad practices:[/p]

• [p]Unit.cpp: 69 broken parameter replacements[/p]
• [p]BattleEngine.cpp: All three systems in the same function[/p]
• [p]ElementalUI.cpp: Calls to put %d and %s together for tooltips.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]Step 1: Extract Everything from XML[/h3][p]Before (2010):[/p][p][/p][p]After (2025):[/p][p][/p][p]With the actual text in Strings.xml:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Step 2: Replace Printf with Named Parameters[/h3][p]Before (2010):[/p][p][/p][p]After (2025):[/p][p][/p][p] [/p][h2]The Business Impact: Finally Reaching the Other 60%[/h2][p]With these fixes complete:[/p][p]✅ Chinese localization: Now possible (1.4 billion potential players)
✅ Japanese localization: Now possible (125 million potential players)
✅ Korean localization: Now possible (75 million potential players)
✅ European languages: Germany and France and Poland are huge markets!
✅ Modding support: Community translations become feasible and modding is much more robust.[/p][p] [/p][h2]The Bottom Line[/h2][p]Fixing this for Elemental: Reforged wasn't just about clean code - it was about bringing Elemental to a worldwide audience.[/p][p]Sometimes the most important feature is invisible, but it was worth it.[/p][p]Now, finally, Elemental is for everyone.[/p]

[p]Let’s start with where things currently stand at Stardock in our remastering and reimagining of Elemental.[/p]

1. [p]We have ported the underlying engine and code base to 64-bit.[/p]
2. [p]We have upgraded the graphics engine to DirectX 11.[/p]
3. [p]We have brought over the Dynasty system from War of Magic (yes, this game had full on families, dynasties, and magical breeding).[/p]
4. [p]We have brought over the crafting system and global inventory from Sorcerer King.[/p]
5. [p]We have reexported the original textures at much higher resolutions.[/p]
6. [p]We have updated the shaders so the terrain will look a lot better.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Here are some in-progress examples:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]There is a lot of work ahead and the size of the team we get is based on a simple formula: Wishlists x $10. So for instance, if we get 50,000 wishlists, we get $500,000 to work with. In the first 48 hours, we got 7,000 wishlists, which is pretty good. That’s $70,000 added to our budget. You can see how spreading the word on the game will be extremely helpful to us.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Now, these numbers do have an expiration date. I want to write that in case someone from the year 2043 finds this post and the game has somehow racked up wishlists made by our robot overlords. So, think of it as the wishlists we accrue before release.[/p][p][/p][p]We’ve left a number of these slots open so that the community can contribute to this list and we’ll add to it over time to keep the community informed on where things stand.[/p][p][/p][p]Now, let’s take a look at some of the things we are already working on.[/p][p] [/p][h2]Graphics Improvements[/h2][p]The graphics of this game weren’t great in 2010. Time hasn’t improved them. When we made the original game, we were in a constant conflict on visual style vs. memory cost vs. time to figure it out. We ultimately ran out of time and ended up with a visual look we didn’t love. It was, however, distinct.[/p][p][/p][p]We have already done the hardest part: Move the engine to 64-bit and DirectX 11.[/p][p][/p][p]The next hardest bit is to port our assets to FBX so that we can work with them in modern tools. Our character models were extremely low resolution and even updating the visuals, where we could mess with the textures, is challenging if you can’t work with it in a modern app. Games have changed a great deal, but the tools used to make them have changed even more.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p] [/p][h2]Localization[/h2][p]The original game was not just English only, but it was hard coded in absolutely insane ways. The actual data had the strings in them.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Has to become[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]so that we can localize the text in string tables into other languages. This is a big and unsexy task, but it is a prerequisite. We plan to support English, German, Russian, Chinese, French, Italian, and Spanish for starters and would like to make it easy to add additional languages if needed.[/p][p] [/p][h2]Modding[/h2][p]Elemental was designed for modding, but it was not good at mod management. I had a ton of mods I personally made for the game that got wiped out in a later update and it was pretty annoying. I can’t even imagine how annoying it was to others.[/p][p][/p][p]This time, we’re modernizing mod management via Steam Workshop and it will be handled in such a way that an update to the game can’t blow away mods. Or I should say, it better work that way.[/p][p][/p][p]So what kinds of mods would we expect?[/p]

1. [p]Maps (the game has a powerful map editor built in)[/p]
2. [p]Quests[/p]
3. [p]Items[/p]
4. [p]Tiles[/p]
5. [p]City Improvements[/p]
6. [p]Locations[/p]
7. [p]Units[/p]
8. [p]Campaigns[/p]

[p][/p][p]The original design for the game envisioned players being able to share (via Impulse) “modules” with full adventures to the whole community. Not to mention letting modders create their own lore and even full redesigns.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Now, how much we can do with this depends, again, on wishlists. We will keep people up to date on where we are.[/p][p] [/p][h2]Your Wish is Our Command[/h2][p]As the wishlist count grows, more features can be evaluated for inclusion. Please talk to the other gamers you know who remember these games fondly and find others who will enjoy them anew. Tell us what you’d like to see. Stay tuned![/p]

[p]In 2008, right after we released Galactic Civilizations II and Sins of a Solar Empire, we at Stardock felt pretty good about ourselves. We had assembled an amazing team of people that could make amazing games and we thought there was nothing we couldn’t do. Hubris attracts Nemesis.[/p][p]With space conquered, we set our eyes on making Fantasy Civilizations. It would be half Master of Magic and half what we had learned from making Sins and GalCiv. The game would be called Elemental. It would be the ultimate 4X fantasy strategy game.[/p][p]We dreamed big, envisioning a game packed with depth and nuance, an expansive fantasy world filled with intriguing characters, a rich lore, and quests weaving through every corner of the map. It would combine civilization-building with deep RPG elements, unique units each carrying their own backstories and stats, and a world players could truly shape through terraforming, magical dynasties, crafting, and more.[/p][p]We wanted it all, from dynasty systems where heroes could marry, have children, and pass down traits visually and statistically, to intricate city building, powerful spells, extensive tactical combat, and robust modding tools backed by a built-in social platform for sharing creations. Heck, we even had a companion book from Random House exploring the lore. The vision was ambitious, and we were excited.[/p][p]But there was one hitch. We designed Elemental to fit within the constraints of a 32-bit engine that had access to only 2GB of memory. As it turns out, trying to stuff a universe of possibilities into just 2GB is, well... challenging. We built, what we thought, was a sophisticated memory manager to deal with it. But we would still get random crashes even though we were keeping the total memory allocation well below 2GB.[/p][p][/p][p]We trimmed, cut, streamlined, and reshaped, trying desperately to fit this vast universe into a smaller memory footprint. When Elemental: War of Magic was released in 2010, it was chaos. It was heartbreaking. It simply didn’t deliver on our dream. It very unstable. And we had spent so much time trying to work around the memory issues that the game we released lacked the refinement that our players expected.[/p][p]Undaunted, we learned, iterated, and adapted. Two years later, Elemental: Fallen Enchantress emerged—a refined, streamlined take that kept much of the strategic depth and advanced AI, delivering on many of our original promises. We gave it away, free, to everyone who bought War of Magic.[/p][p]Fallen Enchantress became highly regarded among strategy fans, praised for its intelligent gameplay, engaging mechanics, and innovative features, like the ability to zoom from a richly detailed living world to an elegant, strategic cloth map—an innovation since widely adopted across the genre.[/p][p]A few years later, we delved into other aspects of our original vision with Elemental: Sorcerer King. This iteration emphasized a robust crafting system and compelling quest mechanics, finding its own niche audience despite stepping away from heavy strategic depth. This wasn’t a 4X strategy game but instead was a crafting/adventure game. Player vs. World. It was fun but not what players expected.[/p][p]Yet, Elemental remained fragmented. We had 3 different games that emphasized different aspects of the original design.[/p]

• [p]War of Magic focused on the player using magic to shape a world.[/p]
• [p]Fallen Enchantress focused on leading a fantasy civilization.[/p]
• [p]Sorcerer King focused on questing and crafting.[/p]

[p]But none of them fully realized what Elemental was supposed to be.[/p][p][/p][p]…Time[/p][p]Passed…[/p][p]Stardock grew. Went on to make other games. Publish other games. We started other studios with our friends like Mohawk Games (Offworld Trading company, Old World) and Oxide (Ashes of the Singularity, Ara: History Untold). But the team didn’t forget about Elemental. We thought about it every day. Even 15 years later.[/p][p]Remarkably, even 15 years later, most of the people who worked on Elemental are still at Stardock. And scheduling has worked out that we have the opportunity to bring them all back onto a single project.[/p][p]In a normal company, what we’re doing is insane. Every person who was on Elemental back in 2008 is in a lead role now. You would have one of them on a given project, not all of them on one game. But we want to do Elemental justice.[/p][p]And so here we are. We have remastered the original engine to be natively 64-bit. We’ve updated the graphics engine to DirectX 11.[/p][p]And we’re rewriting a lot of code to bring all the pieces into a single game. The Terraforming and Royal Dynasties from War of Magic, the deep unit design and Civ building from Fallen Enchantress and the crafting and quest system from Sorcerer King.[/p][p]And to be sure, this will be a fantasy 4X strategy game. Elemental was never intended “everything to everyone”. It’s a fantasy civilization game in an RPG world.[/p][p][/p][p]So here we are, 15 years later. We’ve been working on this for a long time and we’re excited to share with you the progress we’ve made.[/p][p]This is what Elemental is:[/p]

• [p]A vast, procedurally generated fantasy world where every game feels fresh and distinct.[/p]
• [p]RPG-level depth where every unit has a unique story, stats, and place in your kingdom.[/p]
• [p]A sophisticated dynasty system originally dreamed up for War of Magic, allowing your characters to marry, produce heirs, and inherit traits dynamically.[/p]
• [p]Rich terraforming mechanics to shape the land itself according to your strategic vision.[/p]
• [p]Enhanced crafting and quests inspired by Sorcerer King, ensuring deep immersion and story-driven gameplay.[/p]
• [p]Tactical combat that's engaging, strategic, and now powered by an advanced AI that makes auto-resolve battles both practical and satisfying.[/p]
• [p]A beautifully redesigned UI optimized for modern displays, razor-sharp at any resolution, fully leveraging today’s PCs.[/p]
• [p]Integrated modding tools more robust and user-friendly than ever, empowering our incredible community to expand and personalize the world.[/p]
• [p]An immersive story-driven campaign rich with lore and meaningful decisions that shape your civilization’s destiny.[/p]

[p]Now, we can’t fully hide the fact that this was a game originally made 15 years ago. The art assets were made with tools made by companies that don’t even exist anymore. But the gameplay is quite unlike anything else out there.[/p][p]Elemental: Reforged is our love letter to you—our fans who've kept the dream alive. We can’t wait for you to finally experience Elemental as it was always meant to be.[/p][p]Thank you for joining us on this incredible journey. It’s going to be epic.[/p][p]— Brad Wardell, Lead Designer and CEO, Stardock Entertainment[/p]