You basically don't respect anybody do you?

Chautemoc is one of few here I'd consider to be respectful. There are much more suitable candidates for disrespect around here.

Sounds like it was released too early (if they have this many improvements for the day 0 patch, the game on the disc must be pretty unfinished). Maybe they got desperate to beat Civ V to the market.
At any rate, I'll buy it when it's available in European shops. Oh, it won't be? Too bad, then. :-/

It was released too early, by retailers. Then they decided to release the early version so the rest of us wouldn't feel ripped.

That is not enough to explain the current state of the game. Day-0 patch won't enable multiplayer, for example (even though multiplayer is mentioned in the box), "randomly generated" maps are actually seeded, and there are considerable balance issues, not to mention technical issues. And remember - what they released as an "early version" was more advanced than the version in the actual DVDs. It's undeniably clear that Elemental is an unfinished game that was rushed out of the door.
Of course, it will get fixed in time. But blaming its current state on early releases from retailers is a red herring.

I had more arguments typed but I'm tired of trying to convince people...

For some reason it really seems interesting to me right now to come up with an algorithm to randomly populate game worlds. Well, at least until I have to test it over and over again.
/off topic
On topic: I tend to be horrible at this type of game, so I won't partake. I'm sure Stardock will fix most of the errors/bugs though.

I'll consider it, once I whittle down my backlog and the price goes down. I have way too many games to buy things at full price.

I'm a habitual reroller of starting locations until I'm happy with something I like and it is not strange *at all* to end up in the same map, in the same starting location two times in a row.
I don't even want to think how often I ended up in the same map but simply a different start ing location however I can't tell that yet since I don't know the maps yet.
And the first map I actually played to a decent amount of time was horrid imo, it was a string of mountains with strips of land on the sides and a few wide spots, that was mostly it.
The 'random' map generator needs to be changed, a lot, for there to be any longevity in this game for me. First off real randomness, and secondly I'd really, really like some options for what kind of map I get.
Map balance? What do I care about that unless I'm playing a multiplayer? it makes it interesting.

I was actually interested in this game but since Stardock have banned me from buying anything from them I will have to give it a miss. I'll probably get someone to gift it to me when it's half the current price.

Haha, what'd you do?

Something to be put into the history books of amazing deeds. I physically applauded him when he told us xD

I'd like to hear the reason as well.

So, my posts about DRM in Elemental are being deleted at Neowin. And Stardock is partial owner of Neowin.
No hard feelings, Stardock. But I'm not buying a game from you ever fucking again.