That's very nice to know.

I know you don't like the comparison (since you probably had the idea before it) but Elemental sounds like it has as much customization as Spore, but with an actual game behind it.

ahmen to that brother

I think he just means that you can build your own buildings like you can build your own ships in GC2.  A lot of people never even bothered playing the game, they just built their own cool looking ships in GC2.  I know I spent a lot of time making cool looking ships using their in-game ship builder.  I expect the same thing with buildings now.  You can probably pick what kind of building it will be, then make it look any way you want it to.  Sounds pretty cool, actually.  I am suprised this isn't a feature that was trumpeted before, or if it was, I am surprised that I don't remember hearing about it.

Customizeable buildings?Y ou kill me.

In a good way.

I like the cool look. Runes written on the top of the buldings. Made me think of the Death Gate Cycles. Like the buildings are protected by magic

Since it's all customizable I see no problem what so ever.

Hail the frog

I suspect that some dev trumpeting impulses were inhibited by the fact that Spoor has a buzz-claim on their Creature Creator even though the concept is not new to games in general and an implementation of it was already on the NotMoM design boards at Stardock long, long ago.

I've been expecting the ability to twiddle the looks of buildings from the git-go, but some other talk around here has left me wondering if there might be a way to make the Building Builder for Elemental a strong analog to the GC2 Shipyards, i.e. we can choose to mix (or even stack?) functional elements as well as appearance elements.

I'd like to be able to build something like a simple Smithy and then later expand that design to include substantial ore-processing, basic blacksmithing, and fine weapons production all under 'the same roof.' But maybe I'm hoping for a bit too much SimCity-type stuff. That wacky idea of taking a tile-based approach to population centers has me a bit worked up.

If they run it like they did GC2, form is free, function costs money.  You won't have to worry about having a functional building that looks like crap because you can make it look good without spending extra and ruining your effectiveness. 

Although I have to admit, some of the lasers were so fugly it hurt to put them on good looking ships...

long time no see psychoak.  *waves*

I sometimes hid my lasers inside my ship when I could.   By butting down a large block, then putting down the laser, then putting another block down on a nearby 'hook' OVER the laser.   (i don't know what else to call them.  the little bits that let you attach different parts)

maybe to have several different laser designs, but that is a discussion for a different thread.

Yep I did the same. Couple of other techniques which were useful were ...

(i) Shrinking the component really small then using the angle buttons to put it inside the surface.

(ii) Often, if you zoomed 'inside' the model you can see attachment points that are already hidden and use those.

(iii) I often hid nearly all the components as they interfered with the aesthetic, particularly if I was trying to do a sleek organic craft.

Other than aesthetics, does hiding your components serve any purpose?

Some of the lasers *are* pretty ugly, and I'd never thought of hiding them before.

No, just aesthetic. As a suggestion for Brad, for Galciv III, I often thought they should dispense with 'functional' components entirely and just have jewellery and maybe points to attach effects. (e.g. emission points for guns, and lights for engines etc.)

They are spent money on buying art for ugly functional components. Instead they could have spent that money on offering a greater variety of jewellery with things like organic or crystalline components. They could have offered more animation options or texturing options like the ones in Spore.

With the present GCII system, if I want to design a ship like (say the Vorlons) I have to fit lots of tech-looking 'functional' parts, I cannot specify a single ray and I cannot do the 'petals' animation.

Interesting

I want to be able to be able to kill a giant by burrowing into its brain. Then found a town using his skeletal remains as structural supports. This IS a dream world after all

the bone city thing is probebly going to be easy once we get our mod tools.  Burrowing into a giant's brain though?  that would be interesting, how do you propose it?

(now, I want a city that is IN a giant's brain.  Like you have a living being and the people chain it down, then burrow their city into its living flesh, harvesting food and such just to feed it and keep it alive)

That's... so disturbing.

Very much so!