If the game just revolves around spellbooks, maybe you could "learn" them by trading notes.

You could flag some researches as something a race wouldn't even consider (such as ones based off necromancy for the good guys), but other than that, I think having related research be accelerated or even in the case of very compatible techs, just being able to use the research for a all-new capability would work well (but keep the second one very sparing). Plus, I'm being endlessly optimistic, and coding related techs may take way too much work. I'd say a system based off three levels of 'compatibility' would work very well if it can be done. I think that your proposal would be great if it applied to most things, but having outright impossibility of trading (who else thought that the altarians using slave pits in galciv TA was a bit odd for them?) and full trade capabilities added into the mix would help some. I'm not sure, I don't know the tech trees.

I like the notion of customizing each faction.  It hinders the "clean slate" philosophy where a player can play any style they want, but I think a very challenging part of any strategy game is to work out the strengths and weaknesses of your own side.  If your side can be any thing / all things, then there aren't so many weaknesses period.

MoMdid a great job here, because it allowed you to pick a race, and then pick your skill points to allocate across different schools of magic and different special abilities.  I hope Elemental does something similar, where you have a couple different axes to work with (e.g., Faction, alignment, etc.) to come up with a faction that plays the way you want to play that particular game.

What will be different between the factions if:

-Spells are mana dependent only

-Units are built in worlbuilder

?

Graphics?

Names?

That doesn't sound very interesting unless there are some special abilities, bonuses to production or some such.

So:

Production bonuses/penalties?

Economic bonuses/penalties?

Growth bonuses/penalties?

Special monster that can be summoned by a national summon spell that everyone has (different kind of demon/angel for instance)?

...

Apparently the technologies they can develop and the spells the Channeler can research. So I would say spells are both faction and Sphere dependant.

very interesting and I am hoping more can be added on in future expansions?

Possibly, though with the emphasis on a modding community, Stardock may not feel the need to focus on developing any 'new' factions (unless they're developing a new aspect of the game that a new faction could be used to introduce).

Will it be possible to customize / create our own faction, in a manner similar to GalCiv2? Or will we be required to play as one of your twelve pre-determined factions?

- Ash

I'm under the impression that full customization is the goal.

While I don't have anything against that, it could be different side by side. Instead of Men and Fallen have each 6 factions, Men could have 6 and Fallen just 3 but these 3 be more variable/different. It would be more in-deth, allows for better storytelling, leting things more realistic (immersive) and less symmetric. Games tends to follow these symmetrical correlations a lot, would be likeable to change.

That is precisely why that trend should be discarded. If SD goes with three factions initially then I could not help but feel I would be playing a StarCraft (SC) knock-off. This would not bold well with the release of SC2 in the near future. SD has to make as many distinctions as possible for this title to have it stand out as an innovative and progressive franchise and not be seen as a hybrid clone. Speaking of which, the expectation bar for it is very high already. In fact I'm somewhat concerned that it is getting way to high to be honest.

What about the Elves ?!

You cannot have a fantasy game without Elves ! I suppose they'll be dumped into the "Fallen" melting-pot, next to the  and the   : what a sacrilege ! At least, then, make them up as Dark Elves.

You know Spartan, you might be right... I mean idk if I've really ever been so excited for a game before but its more than a year away! I mean a lot can change between then and now... I've def seen it happen in games before, they promise something new and immersive but later they take it out because its just not possible yet... I would hate to see that happen here, I hope it just keeps building up and never falls down 

and I love these digicon smilies 

The flower-picking elves some people joke about is quite overplayed...

Brad, can you please elaborate on the name "Fallen"?

It doesn't sound like the kind of monicker any race would describe itself with, the backstory behind it should be very interesting.

NO, of course not !

I simply meant that if they decide that the "Fallen" group is to be some kind of melting-pot of "evil" & "chaotic" species, such as Orcs & Demons, they should not put Wood Elves or High Elves in there. The Dark Elf species is always considered an evil, « fallen » type of Elves.