Here are some screenshots we’ve taken for Legendary Heroes that I wanted to share with you guys:

In this one, we’re showing off the complex shadows. It’s really surprising how much easier it makes playing the game when you can see your units pop better.  This is still early but this is the direction we’re going.

It also shows the updated mini-map. We’re still thinking about what color the base map should be (it’s tan in this screenshot). We decided to stop showing terrain (forests/mountains) since what users mainly want to see is the relative position of units, towns and territories.

This is a fairly big game play change.  In FE, what traits you get to choose from are somewhat luck based.  Here, the player is presented with a tree that they can then choose to upgrade via different paths.

When a player’s faction gains enough fame, two champions will come forward and demand that you choose between them. The eventual goal here is to make sure every champion is very different from one another so that which ones you pick will significantly affect your overall strategy.

This is a screenshot that shows off the new lighting and shadow changes.  We’ve very much gone over to the point of view that we should focus on making the game elements obvious even if it’s at the cost of “art”. 

For example, we got rid of ground cover since it served no game play purpose.  The final game should look substantially better even still.

There are going to be riots about tactical battles. My answer is: Tough. Derek and I are doing them the way we want and not how we imagine other people want them.   They are vastly funner (IMO).  So why do I think some people will hate these? Because the tactical battles get going immediately. 

On most maps, there is melee contact in the first turn. the units aren’t spending 2+ turns trying to run to each other. If you don’t want your archers massacred, you better have melee protectors for them. They’re not going to get 4+ turns of free shots at them. Without melee guards, they’ll be getting hits within a turn or two.

Now, I think most players are going to very much like the changes to tactical battles. First, there’s a lot more strategic variety on each map.  More special abilities come into play and more of the skill will come from how you handle your units rather than feeling like you have to game the “first hit”. Initiative matters vastly more now too.

The tactical battle improvements are my personal favorite change over FE.  FE tactical battles are a form of torture now.

This screenshot is more polish than new.  It’s going to get more polish before release but the idea was to try to begin making each of the path choices more meaningful and fit a more distinct path than before.  To do that, we felt we needed to make sure players had a better understanding of the importance of that choice so that we could justify having these choices have more dramatic strengths (and weaknesses).