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Published on January 28, 2014 By Frogboy In Elemental Dev Journals

Derek (Kael) has been super busy with the general expansion of Stardock Entertainment over the past 3 years.  AS I type this, there are 7 concurrent game projects going on.  Back in 2008, I dreamt of having a second team.  Here we are, 6 years later with seven teams.  I’m writing this from the airplane on my way to visit one of the new studios (one that hasn’t been announced yet).

So what does that mean for fans of the Elemental universe?  The answer is, lots of good news.  While Galactic Civilizations III heads towards its March alpha, the Elemental team is hard at work on a new DLC pack for this Winter tentatively called “Monarchs” which will bring more channelers to the world for players to play with.  In addition, we expect to announce the third game in the Elemental fantasy universe this year.  It will be dramatically different from War of Magic or Fallen Enchantress.

Without giving too much away about the new game, which we expect to formally announce this Spring, its planned feature set includes:

  • Radically different races (players won’t design units ala WOM/FE but in exchange each unit is custom crafted and visually stunning)
  • Crafting (the player STARTS with the Forge of the Overlord and getting recipes and loot now mean being able to craft some really cool stuff)
  • The player starts by choosing their sovereign and deciding what spell book he or she has. The more spell books of a particular type, the more likely the player will be able to use their lore to research rarer spells in that category.
  • No tech tree. Instead, the available units are based on how you construct your cities.
  • Each hero has his or her own unique talent tree (there won’t be a “Defender” class for instance) that players can then use to customize their heroes.
  • Because of the stronger emphasis on magic, vastly more spells will be available strategically and tactically. Sovereign spells are available in every battle as your sovereign, thanks to the Forge of the Overlord, can “see” anything in the world that his/her units can see (as a result, your sovereign interacts with the world indirectly from the capital and doesn’t appear as a playable unit).

It’s been in development for awhile, prior to LH.  LH was originally supposed to be a minor expansion on FE but as you’ve probably gathered, we really love making these games.  The next update to LH is in the works, pathfinding improvements, performance and some other updates are scheduled.


Comments (Page 6)
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on Feb 02, 2014

Frogboy

The main problem with unit design for us were he visuals. Our animations and the detail of the units had to be genericized to allow for lots of equipment Options.  Now, we could, for instance, have non humanoid races if we want.  The visual difference is pretty massive.

It helps that the new game has a lot of the civ v art team involved. You will be able to really notice the influence when you see the maps.

But because the game is so different, we are going to continue to enhance LH separately.  We are also back porting fixes and improvements from the new game into LH. Performance in particular. I wouldn't be surprised if we get an LH 2.0 at some point.

speaking of which, would you guys be willing to give up the rotating camera in LH in exchange for a massive boost in performance and visual quality?

 

Wait frogboy, there's a rotating camera in FE:LH?

How do I do that?

 

And okay I'll give that next game a chance.

on Feb 02, 2014

I don't rotate much, and when I do it's usually just on the tactical map.

on Feb 03, 2014

add a height mechanic to the combat terrain, like the system in final fantasy tactics.  It adds a lot more variables to play with and is just more fun to play than just a simple 2d grid.  

on Feb 03, 2014

Frogboy

speaking of which, would you guys be willing to give up the rotating camera in LH in exchange for a massive boost in performance and visual quality?

Another YES here.

I've never used (except by accident) the rotating camera in FE or GalCiv2.

Always found it more of an annoyance than anything else; particularly in galciv which doesn't autoreset the camera.

on Feb 03, 2014

I could give up the rotating camera in the strategic map, but not the tactical map.

on Feb 03, 2014

Frogboy
The main problem with unit design for us were he visuals. Our animations and the detail of the units had to be genericized to allow for lots of equipment Options.  Now, we could, for instance, have non humanoid races if we want.  The visual difference is pretty massive.

It helps that the new game has a lot of the civ v art team involved. You will be able to really notice the influence when you see the maps.

But because the game is so different, we are going to continue to enhance LH separately.  We are also back porting fixes and improvements from the new game into LH. Performance in particular. I wouldn't be surprised if we get an LH 2.0 at some point.

speaking of which, would you guys be willing to give up the rotating camera in LH in exchange for a massive boost in performance and visual quality?

Woot! Woot! Possibly up to 2.0. I'm excited.

 

As for the rotating camera: With the ability to rotate building placement, I very rarely feel the need or desire to rotate the camera. If I do, I always ensure that auto-swingback is enabled because I'm OCD about the orientation of my map.

So, my vote would be: Yes, I would be willing to give up the rotating camera for a boost in performance. I would be willing to give up the rotating camera for a boost in visual quaility if you maintain the concept of art used. I really like the fantasy-styled sillhouetted-pascel art.

The only time I find myself needing to rotate a map is during tactical combat when trees get in the way of tile selection.

on Feb 03, 2014

N/A

on Feb 03, 2014

hedetet

I don't rotate much, and when I do it's usually just on the tactical map.

 

<<Insert Dos Equis joke here>>

 

On the serious side, I agree, I only rotate on tactical, and only because sometimes you just can't see something, or more likely can't select/interact with it properly.

 

edit (added):

I take that back, kind of. I always play with preset view 2 active. Thanks to the above poster for reminding me of that! I just have a better sense of direction with that view.

on Feb 03, 2014

Primal_Savage


Quoting Ericridge,
reply 76
Wait frogboy, there's a rotating camera in FE:LH? How do I do that? ...


I never use it, but some preset views can be found on your 1-2-3-4 keys

I had no idea there were preset views.

Will have to try it next time I'm in the game.

 

on Feb 03, 2014

I would love to see a Linux port, but I doubt it will happen.

on Feb 03, 2014

Strengths: 1)  Hostile world idea: Wildlands and Boss creatures, quests, random events.

                2) Fame mechanic for hero recruitment and Sov/Hero Classes and skill trees.

                3) Shards influencing spell power/effects aside from just giving mana.

                4) Custom sovs and races.  Sandbox and random maps, the World and opponent options are perfect.

                5) The modding features while not accessible to all, have enabled the talented among us to make some great additions to the game.

 

Ideas that were implemented but not to their full potential (imo):

1) Troop traits- just all there at start of game, none earned via quests or research.  None brought by conquering other factions.  Or earned by defeating Wildland bosses or gifted by a Warrior hero upon recruitment.

2) Heroes' back stories integrated into quests and special events.  A scary demon gates into camp one night and tries to steal the soul of one of your heroes.  The "Troublesome Adventurers" quest sorta scratched this itch, but a lot more could have been done with this.  Perhaps a cool hero defects from another faction but it could cause war, etc.

3) Tactical combat- adequate, but a lot of inconsistencies with playing it out vs. auto-resolving, dumb troop movements (I click to attack a unit and it puts my unit in a square where it can suffer attacks from 2 enemy units instead of just one), and while the special attacks were great, there were just not enough different varieties to make it exciting.  Line of sight, terrain modifiers, a real siege mechanic, etc have been brought up multiple times.  If I camp my army on a swamp tile, my enemy's cavalry should suck, etc.

4) Loot drops were always a little shaky.  And defeating an enemy sov or hero should have earned me Fame and a random magic item from their inventory that fell as they were carried off the field of battle.  The injuries were all tremendously clever, and a great addition.  

5) A better/more consistent  use of magic motifs:  The ice spear should slow your enemies like a hit from an ice elemental. Lightning damage should have a chance to stun an enemy using metal armor/arms, Fire should burn a unit for a few more turns etc...

Weaknesses:

1) No creature editor to let modders easily create new monsters. Lots of peasant hair and shirt options but no tentacles?  

2) The loss of the dynasty system.

3) The loss of cross-school spells.

4) The lack of truly flying units (why are they following roads?!? can't fly over terrain blockers in combat), the lack of water/amphibious creatures.

5) The Diplomacy/Trading screens/features. 

 

All in all, a good game that has eaten 500+ hours of my spare time over the past 2 years.  The next iteration can only improve on a solid foundation.  And I learned how to do some .xml stuff!

 

And the whole response to the Elemental launch is still a high-point in personal/corporate accountability.  It should be taught in b-schools.

 

Edit:  camera rotation can go away in favor of performance

 

 

on Feb 03, 2014

Does giving up rotation necessarily mean ALL rotation, or could you create 90 deg presets? A la SIM city

 

on Feb 04, 2014

cardinaldirection


Quoting Frogboy, reply 71speaking of which, would you guys be willing to give up the rotating camera in LH in exchange for a massive boost in performance and visual quality?

 

yes!

 

+! I never use it. It's not at all needed.

on Feb 04, 2014

To be honest the new game does not sound that appealing to me, no tech tree, no unit customisation and no sovereign unit. Problem is that these aspects are things that I love about Elemental, it always bothers me when sequels in games remove features. This is one of the reasons I got so angry with Egosoft over X Rebirth, that said Stardock does do one thing exceptionally well, improvement through iteration.

I am glad to read that Legendary Heroes shall continue alongside the new game and it will get more DLC, shame it will be near a year till we will get that DLC but I will take anything I can get. A 2.0 version sounds wonderful, I just wonder what improvements and additions it will include, I know many of us have many requested features and outstanding bugs/performance issues, it will be really interesting to see what the team has prioritized and added.

 

Thank you for the update Frogboy, I can not wait to see what we get for Legendary Heroes in 2014.

 

Edit - Also scraping the rotation is fine for me, I only ever use it if a unit is hidden or not targetable due to location. (Usually at the edge of the map)

on Feb 04, 2014

Aedelric

I am glad to read that Legendary Heroes shall continue alongside the new game and it will get more DLC, shame it will be near a year till we will get that DLC but I will take anything I can get.

Why do you say a year? Isn't it coming this winter (March)?

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