Elemental for 2014

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 8)

106

Edwin99

on Feb 06, 2014

I really like the concept of vastly more spells.

I wonder if one of the seven projects is a RPG - (Temple of Elemental Evil derivative). It seems to me that most of the graphics and maps could be ported to a tactical combat focused RPG game? Perhaps, the game could be based on the OGL 3.5 mechanics (that exclude the use of Product Identity) or SD's own mechanics?

An RPG would be the perfect engine for supporting a continuous stream of DLC with new adventures, quests, spells, skills, adventure maps, etc.

If SD would go this route I would like to see the character's actions affect the world around them and where characters can take the side of good or evil.

107

halmal242

on Feb 06, 2014

The one thing I want to see for spells are "cure" spells or opposite spells remove negative/positive effects. This is something that has been missing from E:WoM since it started.

108

GFireflyE

on Feb 06, 2014

Edwin99

reply 106

I really like the concept of vastly more spells.

I'm really hoping that some of the spells (within reason and balance of course) are ported back to FE:LH.

109

Wintercross

on Feb 10, 2014

Dhuran

reply 55

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 20

The only thing that I feel strongly against is that the sovereign doesn't leave his stronghold. I usually play the entire game with my sovereign, and relegate city defense to the many heroes that I find. Personally the sovereign I created is more interesting to me than the random heroes I come across, simply because I created them. It makes it more fun to develop the character as opposed to other characters. I feel like it would be better to have the choice whether or not to keep the sovereign holed up, but it would be cool to have more severe gameplay differences (consequences, pros/cons) between having them out adventuring or citing in the stronghold. You could add some interesting play style differences that way.

Anyways, this is all just my 2 cents worth... You guys already have my attention, and I can't wait to hear more about it!

I feel the same about this! I liked building my Sovereign into a powerful combat sorcerer and use them to spearhead my attacks.
Heroes usually become city governors for me apart from one or two who either lead a secondary force or join my sovereign in questing.

110

GFireflyE

on Feb 10, 2014

Wintercross

reply 109

How about this as an option: Give the player the ability to have the sovereign leave his tower, but at the cost of losing the spells he can cast in any tactical combat. His tower is a 'focal' point of sorts.

However....why would anyone then want to remove him and lose that much flexibility?

111

davrovana

on Feb 10, 2014

Frogboy

reply 71

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?

Instant, easy yes.

112

davrovana

on Feb 10, 2014

A player action is not necessarily over-powered if it has a chance of catalyzing an unexpected, equal and opposite reaction.

Wouldn't be interesting if part of the gameplay challenge is balancing your progress to dominance against its unintended consequences? How could one possibly expect to wield the power of the Gods, as a mortal, yet only get exactly what was intended?

The Master Of Magic Chaos spell that slowly destroys the entire world comes to mind...

(I'm curious where they are going with this 'let the player be OP-ed' idea, and already have some guesses)

113

Wintercross

on Feb 11, 2014

GFireflyE

reply 110

Quoting Wintercross, reply 109

I feel the same about this! I liked building my Sovereign into a powerful combat sorcerer and use them to spearhead my attacks.
Heroes usually become city governors for me apart from one or two who either lead a secondary force or join my sovereign in questing.

How about this as an option: Give the player the ability to have the sovereign leave his tower, but at the cost of losing the spells he can cast in any tactical combat. His tower is a 'focal' point of sorts.

However....why would anyone then want to remove him and lose that much flexibility?

I would prefer this. Age of Wonders worked like that. If you're Wizard lord was in a tower it expanded their casting zone, if not they make a powerful combat unit but can only cast where they are.

I can get behind an approach like that.

114

Nerhesi

on Feb 11, 2014

Wintercross

reply 113

Quoting GFireflyE, reply 110

Quoting Wintercross, reply 109

I feel the same about this! I liked building my Sovereign into a powerful combat sorcerer and use them to spearhead my attacks.
Heroes usually become city governors for me apart from one or two who either lead a secondary force or join my sovereign in questing.

How about this as an option: Give the player the ability to have the sovereign leave his tower, but at the cost of losing the spells he can cast in any tactical combat. His tower is a 'focal' point of sorts.

However....why would anyone then want to remove him and lose that much flexibility?

I would prefer this. Age of Wonders worked like that. If you're Wizard lord was in a tower it expanded their casting zone, if not they make a powerful combat unit but can only cast where they are.

I can get behind an approach like that.

If by this you mean I can only cast sovereign tactical spells in the combat he is in? Then sure! To cast spells into any combat, I should be in my tower right? Sounds good. However, only do this if ALL the best tactical spells are only available if the sovereign is present in the battle. There has to be a point to making the sovereign leave the tower, and it's not just to possible swing their cool sword or staff for null-effect.

Basically, this would differentiate from casters vs commander types vs melee types and so on. Lets use some elemental examples:

From Tower: Shadowbolt,no-range burning hands, flame dart with the usual 3 round cooldown etc

If Sovereign is present: Manablast, Kill (reduced mana cost), fireball, Horrific Wail

To be honest, keep the sovereign as it is. Tactical spells only if they are there, strategic spells all the time. This makes the most sense, adds an immense amount of flavour (your wizard has to be at least visible on the horizon to lightning bolt someone), and allows for more reply value (the commander type sits n tower, vs the adventurer type)

115

Jack Higgins

on Feb 13, 2014

Fantastic! Keep it coming.

116

RogueCaptain

on Feb 15, 2014

Exciting!

The 4X genre desperately needs a leapfrog over those incremental baby steps from other products currently in the market today.

For everybody who's confused just remember this unofficial rule in game design and balance.

"When every player is cheating the game becomes fair."

117

Replicators

on Feb 15, 2014

Let me get this straight...

You are gutting the one feature that made your game unique... (unit designer)

118

Frogboy

on Feb 15, 2014

One of my pet peeves of the fantasy 4X games that exist today (including Fallen Enchantress) is that for magic to be fun, it should be a game debalancer.

Thus, if we change the rules so that your opponents each have their own goals for victory (that you're trying to stop) that are different from yours then you're free to "exploit" the magic system as much as you can. In other words, magic gets no holds barred.

I look at LH and think how nice it would have been if there had been more victory conditions, particularly ones that the human couldn't participate in and ones the AI couldn't participate in (mainly because some things are easier for humans to do and some things are easier for computers to do).

119

Frogboy

on Feb 15, 2014

GFireflyE

reply 110

The system is going to be different than any discussed so far. Let me put it this way, EARLY in the game you won't have any tactical battles at all. So the first 20 or so minutes of the game, battles take place on the strategic map.

120

Wintercross

on Feb 15, 2014

Frogboy

reply 119

I am interested in what you guys come up with and I'm sure it will be good. However I am still on the fence about not being able to use the Sovereign directly as it was one of my favorite parts in the game to build my Sovereign into a powerful Warrior-Sorcerer

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