Reply With QuoteGood idea to start a new thread. Can't wait to see how this turns out!
Rather than continue to post in the War of Magic thread I’m starting a new thread for Fallen Enchantress.
What is Fallen Enchantress?
Fallen Enchantress is a 4x game set in a role playing game world and inspired by Master of Magic. The player explores the world, founds cities, produces armies, researches techs and builds buildings. But they also recruit champions, send those champions on quests, level up their units (and picks traits for them as they level up), cast spells and clear monster lairs.
How is it different than Elemental: War of Magic?
Fallen Enchantress is a new game. It is set in the same world (Elemental) but every system has been reviewed to create a more focused game. Some features were removed (Dynasties), some were replaced with other systems (Growth replaces Prestige) and many were redone from the ground up (Tech research, Tactical combat, etc).
The concept of war of Magic is still very true. It is still a very customizable game, players can design their own sovereigns, factions and units. But the implementation of that concept is much more focused. In particular the following 3 areas have received the bulk of our implementations time:
1. Tactical Combat- Units and enemies have more strategic abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Every monster has been reviewed to be as strategically (and conceptually) interesting as possible. Elemental Lords are huge multi-tile monsters that are devastating to all but the most powerful champions and armies. Some monsters are unique in the world, setting up boss type battles that give the game an RPG feel. A Ritualist takes a long time to get his first action, but when he does he will summon a death demon, so he needs to be killed quickly. A Haunter does damage based on the amount of damage he has taken, so they are dangerous to leave wounded. Stalkers get +3 movement and attack on the first round of combat, allowing them to charge across the field and attack enemies immediately.
2. The World- The world is full of things to find. Monster lairs release their monsters if your empires borders spread over them (so be careful founding cities to close to hills full of ogres). There are many more quests and they offer a variety of magical items, weapons and armor for those that complete them (btw: the distance you travel for a quest is dramatically reduced, quests are about picking options, fighting battles and the weird things that can happen from them, not walking across the map). There are unique features like the Flooded Graveyard and the Temple of the Dragon and wild land areas like the Burning Lands they provide significant advantage to the player that conquers or controls them.
3. Magic- More spells available earlier (from the start of the game), and more interesting spells. I’m not interested in 5 variations of the same damage spell, instead we get spells like Touch of Entropy, that does some damage but if it kills an opponent it raises a demon in their place that is under your control. Or Barbs that does damage to the caster and the victim (Troll Shamans love Barbs since they can regen the damage). Magic should be as effective a path to victory as creating armies. A player that is sitting on a large supply of mana and has invested in magic should be able to change the course of the game, much as a player sitting on a nuclear weapon stockpile can in modern games.
Are some people getting Fallen Enchantress for free?
Yes. If you purchased Elemental: War of Magic before 12/31/2010 you will be receiving Fallen Enchantress for free. People that own Elemental: War of Magic will receive a discount on Fallen Enchantress.
Were steroids/enhancement creams used in the production of Fallen Enchantress?
Probably.
Animal cruelty?
No, all mistreatment is reserved for the associate producer.
What Qt3 folks are working on Fallen Enchantress?
Brad Wardell is the executive producer and AI programmer. He also helped out a lot with the UI design, which is completely redone for Fallen Enchantress. Jon Shafer is working on the campaign with author Dave Stern (as well as providing a lot of design feedback).
When will Fallen Enchantress be available?
The release date hasn’t been announced yet.
Are there any interesting stories from development?
We have a lot of fun with bugs, especially graphical ones. My favorite was a camera problem in the dialog window. Sometimes monsters will say things to you. In this case it was an Ogre saying the very un-ogrelike phrase: "There is something disturbing in the wilds." Except the camera was at the normal height for a human unit so it was a window full of Ogre crotch. Something disturbing indeed.
We also had an armor transparency issue where you could see the nipples of the men through their armor. Which is amusing on its own, but especially after I had directed the art team to "Make the armor sexier!"
Links?
Videos:
Website: http://elementalgame.com/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/v/LxSJH4wsy-Q...s=1&autoplay=1
Tactical Combat: http://www.youtube.com/v/V1KB2_a5S_Q...s=1&autoplay=1
The World: http://www.youtube.com/v/XrnMWDJfBow...s=1&autoplay=1
Magic: http://www.youtube.com/v/3ArdQVqLHsI...s=1&autoplay=1
Dev Journals:
Champions: http://forums.elementalgame.com/409755
Technology: http://forums.elementalgame.com/408175
The World: http://forums.elementalgame.com/409163
Weapons: http://forums.elementalgame.com/407109
Monsters: http://forums.elementalgame.com/406147
Armies: http://forums.elementalgame.com/409834
Magic: http://forums.elementalgame.com/410595
Factions: http://forums.elementalgame.com/415163
Last edited by Kael; 04-23-2012 at 02:33 PM.
Good idea to start a new thread. Can't wait to see how this turns out!
From 0 to 10, give a score of the amount of MoM'ness Fallen Enchantress have.
So for those of us who were waiting to purchase Elemental until the smoke cleared and people pronounced it "ready", would Fallen Enchantress essentially be what we'd want to purchase at this point? Or is this more like a King's Bounty vs. Armored Princess relationship?
So when is the Beta going to be available to those who already own the game?
Probably a 6, and that may be generous (I know I'm supposed to say 11!). We aren't duplicating MoM and there are some major differences. The big one is that your sovereign isn't an abstract unit in one of your cities that casts all your spells. It is an actual unit that runs around, does quests, explores and gain levels. I know that doesn't sound like a major difference but it significantly changes the way the game feels. Its less of "I'm going to unleash my magical fury" and more of a "I'm playing an RPG from an entirely different perspective".Originally Posted by Naeblis
On the positive side there are some significant magic changes in FE that drive it toward the MoM model. Lots of spells you can unleash at the strategic map, picking starting spell books, casting spells from the beginning of the game and lots of abilities on units. World exploration is critical, enemy sovereigns are more dsitinct, magic in general is very powerful (there are some game options that make magic even more powerful, which I would recommend for those really looking for a MoM feel).
Fallen Enchantress is a very different game than War of Magic. Holding off buy War of Magic is up to you, but you will get a discount on Fallen Enchantress if you own War of Magic. The best bet was probably the folks that bought before 12/31/2010 as they get FE for free.
That date hasn't been released yet. I'll update this thread when we do.
Also interested in how much Fall From Heaven 2 influences this one.
Very excited...again. :). Outside eyes was hopefully exactly what the original needed to tear it down and then build it back up.
There, Operation Troll complete, no need for anyone else to jump in on that front.How is it different than Elemental: War of Magic?
It will (probably) not be a train wreck.
I like how the giant rock thing looks like it has a flaming vagina. "Much too perilous!"
If anyone on the team suggests a "Greater Spell of X", strap a knife to your head and attack. Unlocking exactly the same thing only more so ticks me right the hell off.3. Magic- More spells available earlier (from the start of the game), and more interesting spells. I’m not interested in 5 variations of the same damage spell, instead we get spells like Touch of Entropy, that does some damage but if it kills an opponent it raises a demon in their place that is under your control. Or Barbs that does damage to the caster and the victim (Troll Shamans love Barbs since they can regen the damage). Magic should be as effective a path to victory as creating armies. A player that is sitting on a large supply of mana and has invested in magic should be able to change the course of the game, much as a player sitting on a nuclear weapon stockpile can in modern games.
Are you going to allow for spell customization? You know, like Glyphs in Guild Wars. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Glyph
You could have a little window where a Glyph could be slotted to a spell, allowing on the fly spell modification so that players can tinker with a spell to get it to do stuff they need. It'd massively cut down on the number of necessary filler spells (aoe version of X, dot version of X, single target version of X) and make the game a little more entertainingly magical.
Add in a set penalty (eg: doubles the cost of the spell) and a set benefit (eg: affects all creatures in a 3x3 grid) and let us go to town.
Oh great, now everytime I look at Delin I'm going to think of this.
Looking forward to this :) I am hoping the tactical combat is more interesting. I did not understand why units should have so many attacks...
Yeah, combat speed being the total moves and attacks a unit gets per turn was insurmountable. In FE the higher a units combat speed the frequently that unit gets an action. In general on an action a unit can move (which uses the uinits move stat, the same thing that determines their movement on the strategic map) and then make an attack. I say in general because things like being knocked prone consume the units move action (they get up instead of moving), and there are many things a unit can do besides attack (like defend, us a special ability or cast a spell).
We aren't creating new paradigms here. The magic comes from the implementation of the details, not the complexity of the systems.
It meant a lot of pointless clicking, that's for sure.
Kael, I've been extremely impressed by the dev diaries you've posted through the year. I swear you have a channel into my brain that reads all the things I'd like changed... only you come up with far better and more interesting implementations than I would have.
I'm quite excited for FE. The fact that I'm getting it for "free" is also quite nice. Its sounding like what I wanted WoM to be to begin with.
Last edited by KevinC; 06-21-2011 at 01:23 PM.
Yeah, given everything that's happened I'm certainly approaching this with an open mind. The game looks promising so far.
I have to say I'm excited about FE, it's really gaining MoMentum. ;)
I guess my big question is...will we finally have a random map generator? (I know, silly question, but I do love random maps so.)
Does this mean you're getting ready to ramp up the development schedule?
Oh, yeah! Great question. The lack of true random maps (not just random starts) really sucked in Elemental.
Very much looking forward to checking this out!
Liking the sound of what you're doing so far. Looking forward to seeing what else you have on tap for us.
Yes. And let me say that making random maps that look good is a LOT harder than it seems.
We started with purely randomized maps, had it paint land, mix up terrains, put some mountains, rivers, forests, swamps, etc. They just looked bad. Blocky, so we adjusted the brush size. Inorganic. Its hard to say what a forest should look like, but you recognize what it shouldn't look like when you see it.
So we switched to stamps. We were working on stamps for the wildland areas anyway. They are small pieces of terrain that an artist has crafted to look perfect. for the wildlands a lot have custom props and decorations. Little world pieces that we can randomly drop into an existing map. Which worked well.
But instead of just using it for the wildland areas we are now using it for world generation. So instead of randomly generating everything the map generator uses these stamp pieces to form worlds. Some are large (say a big mountain range that an artists has specifically decorated with passes and valleys), some are small (maybe a small interior lake with a river or a chasm with the desert around it).
Most importantly it is easy for our artists (and modders) to create new stamps that look good. The game will spin and put them together like an epileptic playing legos, and we get random good looking maps. Then based on monster, shard and resource frequency (all tunable in world setup) the game will decorate that land with all random stuff that goes on it.
You guys ever get rivers working? I know they were in the early beta's last year, and then gone forever because they messed up maps.
The video you posted of the world looks really good. Nice to see some bosses to take out to get special goodies and such.
Sadly the combat video leaves a lot to be desired. It still looks to be the weak point of the series. But then again its hard to say for sure with 100% certainty without trying it first hand.
Do you guys know if you'll have the budget to finish implementing MP yet? Right now there's still no LAN play, custom games, or anything above tiny/small map types supported...
On the random maps, one suggestion:
Allow players to have a ton of sliders to customize the randomness how they want it. Look at Kohan (the original series) for inspiration here. They did random maps really well, though it would be a much harder job for FE.
Gah. WANT THIS SO BADLY. I can only hope that Kael kicked this thread off because he plans to be posting more ANNOUNCEMENTS here in the very near future. Otherwise, well, ggghghhhhh, the suspense is nearly fatal, do you hear me, FATAL.
Seriously, I never played MoM nor FfH, but I was excited for Elemental, I preordered, and then... well... it's been a long year waiting for the game I paid for. I very much hope and expect Fallen Enchantress to be that game, and I can. not. wait.
Damn RepoMan, that much excitement/anticipation is only going to lead to heartbreak. :(
You can play FFH2 in the meantime then. I assure you that you won't be disappointed. Find some friends and play an epic campaign.
Just rename it 'Firebox' and it'll be fine.
Cautiously optimistic.
Soo I played Elemental's beta patch today and while it was clearly borked (fubared implementation of specialists meant Sharkweena, the underpowered channeler, was able to roast every other nation single handed) it, uh. It had something.
It didn't entirely suck.
I actually kind of feel like playing it again when the next patch drops. Maybe that's just because I've played PR0N and know what a truly terrible game feels like again, but it was definitely a lot closer to fun than at any other time I've experienced it.
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