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The world of The Fallen Enchantress

The world of The Fallen Enchantress

If you’re just joining us, welcome to the second strategy game in the Elemental universe – Fallen Enchantress.  Like War of Magic, Fallen Enchantress is a turn-based strategy game set in the world of Elemental.

Unlike War of Magic, Fallen Enchantress takes place in a much less…civilized part of the world.  The beta for Fallen Enchantress is expected to begin this Fall but in the meantime, we’ll start showing you some bits and pieces of what we’re working on.

Setting up your world…

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Relias, the narrator from The War of Magic told his story from the point of view of men. From his vantage point, there were only two types of beings – Men and Fallen. And “The Fallen” were simply a bunch of monstrous humanoids of unknown origin.   In addition, Relias, being a man of the west, was very concerned with ideology. Specifically, whether one respected concept of royalty (Kingdoms) or whether one embraced random chaos (Empire). Random chaos, being from the point of view of men.

One of the Kingdoms of men, Kraxis, did not agree with the concept of royal succession. And they, unlike the other kingdoms of men, joined the “Empires”.

This matters in our story because Fallen Enchantress is told from the point of view of Ceresa, the beautiful but deadly enchantress of Resoln.  Ancient beyond any other channeler (even Procipinee), Ceresa has a much broader view of the world than Relias had.

A dangerous world

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We won’t be giving out a lot of details until just before the Fallen Enchantress beta is made publicly available. One reason for this is that we don’t want to “hype” Fallen Enchantress. We want its excellence to speak for itself. Or put another way, we want the game to be so good that the beta group themselves will see that their hopes have manifested.

That said, here are..

a few…details…

#1 Research Paths.  You can queue up research.

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#2 Cleaner city management and no more “random” naming for anything with names based on the lore of each of the unique factions.

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#3 The world is much much more interesting

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#4 Way…way way way more spells

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This is just what I start with on turn one and the spellbook button is always present. Players are encouraged to be enchanting often. Researching new spells is part of the tech tree.

#5 Champions and resources must be earned.

 

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#6 Designing Units much more interesting

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#7 The world is far more vibrant and distinct

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#8 Lots of new modding options

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This is a seemingly little thing but for those of you who like to create really cool areas with the map editor, now you can save them and they’ll be inserted as part of randomly generated worlds.

 

These aren’t, by far, the biggest changes, just a sampling.  Fallen Enchantress is less a sequel to War of Magic and more of a new take on a TBS game in the Elemental universe.  We hope you like what you’re seeing and can’t wait to get you guys playing this Fall.

140,691 views 76 replies
Reply #26 Top

Quoting Sarudak, reply 23
The new selection reticule is gorgeous.

 

I have to say I very much agree. The design and color are so pretty that if I were Captain Kirk.. I'd..er uh. Two thumbs up. Looking forward to units having the option to upgrade and no more 8 syllable names. :w00t:

Reply #27 Top

Great update! Fun bite-sized looks at a wide breadth of topics.

 

I love the idea of different Champions having different recuitment requirements. Very curious to see what sorts of requirements are possible.

 

One thing that is weird to me so far...all of the UI and Menus look great, but the actual gameworld looks kinda off to me. Not sure why.

 

Can we PLEASE get a 'strategic level' dev journal at some point? That is one of the biggest holes in our knowledge right now. We have heard rumors of certain things like city happiness. Can we get a journal that focuses on managing the realm and cities?

 

Thanks! You guys are awesome!

Reply #28 Top

I'm not a modder, but I really like the map stamping thing. Getting a random map with non-randomly planned parts sounds very good.

Reply #29 Top

I'm excited.

 

The trait add-in option looks like a lot of fun when designing/building units.

Reply #30 Top

I like the stamp system, too.

How do you make sure stamps don't get mixed in absurd ways, such as having a stamp with green fields surrounded by desolate wasteland?

EDIT:
By the way, from the kingdom founding shot: "the legions who will flock to you in the days and weeks to come". Days and weeks? I thought Rome wasn't built in a day. Wouldn't "ages" be a bit more appropriate?

Reply #31 Top

This is looking better then I've already hoped. I love WOM as it is now, it has matured a lot, but FE looks beyond awesome. Can you give us an idea on how much FE will cost and the discount WOM owners will get? I have to start saving up :)

 

Thank you Brad!

Reply #32 Top

Quoting Sarudak, reply 23
The new selection reticule is gorgeous.
Wait till you see it animated :)  Very subtle, but very effective!

Reply #33 Top

 Everything being done is pretty much exactly what's required. Very encouraging.

The changes to unit design are interesting. Is this the alternative to being able to upgrade old types on units into new ones, that they are automatically re-equipped? Do the upgrades come free or do we pay the difference as new weapons become available? Can we defer upgrading if we don’t have the funds? Can we specify that archers never need better than leather armour, but knights should get plate when available?

Reply #35 Top

The more I look at this, the more I want to have Toby and Kael's babies growing inside me!  This really looks great.  So many of the little details that made WoM bland and uninteresting seem to have been fixed in FE.  I am getting so excited!  Yippee! :D

Reply #36 Top

Did Stardock sell its copyrights to the devil?  8C

 

You got a better deal than I did...    }:)

Reply #37 Top

Looks very encouraging.

 

Not to sound like a one-trick pony, but will there be caravans and stores in FE and if so, how will they be managed?

 

 

Reply #38 Top

Quoting GodlessHeathen, reply 34
I must have this game!

That's like saying, "I must have cancer."  Relax.  Lower your expectations.  Everybody calm down.

Reply #40 Top

How many factions will be allowed on a map?  I could normally get @ 25 to 30 or so without the game crashing in E:wom.

 

 

 

Reply #41 Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 13
ASSUME it will suck and give you cancer.

If it does.....................can we get 2 more free games????? :grin:

Reply #42 Top

This is kind of a strange question, but is it even possible for this game to be a commercial success?  I mean, can it make money?  Even if it is really good, and a lot of people like it...many people are getting it free or discounted.  I really hope it's great and makes butt loads, Stardock deserves it for the work put into it and rectifying WoM failure.

Reply #43 Top

If it is great I will get my brother to buy - and maybe I will buy it as xmas pressie for a mate - if it is great. 

Reply #44 Top

Quoting Lord, reply 42
This is kind of a strange question, but is it even possible for this game to be a commercial success?  I mean, can it make money?  Even if it is really good, and a lot of people like it...many people are getting it free or discounted.  I really hope it's great and makes butt loads, Stardock deserves it for the work put into it and rectifying WoM failure.

I would say that depends on how good it is. It is certainly not inconceivable that the game is a huge success and they find lots of new buyers. But as I understand it, Stardock are ready for a short term loss so that they can boost their long-term profits through strengthening their brand. In very rare cases, it makes sense to do such things to restore faith in the studio. So Stardock are probably ready for a loss, but "hoping" for a profit.

Reply #45 Top

I've been playing Master of Magic recently (last played back in the 90s). Got to say, great game still, truely amazing. If that game was released today with a modern engine but the same concepts, content, etc and perhaps a bit better AI then I think it would easily sell at least 10% of the number of copies Civ 5 sold, potentially 20-30% despite being less main stream. Even 10% would be half a million+ sales. Sure take out those getting it for free from WoM but I'm guessing WoM was lucky to sell 100,000 so I think there is certainly potential.

Reply #46 Top

I like the building/training one thing at a time as it forces you to make a real choice - nice change. What do I do? Do I build a building or train troops? Good move.

I am looking forward to seeing how much the AI is imporved over the WOM AI at both the tactical battle level and realm specific strategic level. In WOM each fraction played alike. From other posts I gather that each fraction's AI will likely be more realm specific and that the tactical battle AI will be much improved and open for improvement by modders.

Reply #47 Top

This is the game that E:WoM should have been.

 

I'm still not buying anything until i get to play the fabled demo :/ 

Reply #48 Top

Even if E:FE is a fantastic game, how is Stardock going to overcome the negative bias that will likely cloud the release? Many gamers only know one thing about E:WoM, and that is that it was a "bad game." When your studio's latest title is most remembered for its failed launch, how do you overcome that? Other publishers/developers can deal with similar problems with sheer volume (if you produce dozens of games a year, one bad game may not damage your reputation), but Stardock is small and methodical.

I would love to see Fallen Enchantress succeed but it has to be more than great to sell, at least initially. I agree that FE seems to be what E:WoM should have been, but that isn't exactly a great sales pitch. The game looks so promising, but this will be an especially difficult sell for Brad and Co.

Reply #49 Top

Quoting Mistwraithe, reply 45
I've been playing Master of Magic recently (last played back in the 90s). Got to say, great game still, truely amazing. If that game was released today with a modern engine but the same concepts, content, etc and perhaps a bit better AI then I think it would easily sell at least 10% of the number of copies Civ 5 sold, potentially 20-30% despite being less main stream. Even 10% would be half a million+ sales. Sure take out those getting it for free from WoM but I'm guessing WoM was lucky to sell 100,000 so I think there is certainly potential.

Holy crap, QFT. Same thing for me, hadn't played it since 90's and picked it up a couple of months ago. Only difference between then and now is I wasn't married and had no kids. I was high as a kite though - despite the lack of Mary Jane's company it's as fun as I can remember.

B)

Reply #50 Top

Quoting Melamine, reply 48
Even if E:FE is a fantastic game, how is Stardock going to overcome the negative bias that will likely cloud the release?

By doing what you just said, making FE a fantastic game. The fact that it's free to people who bought War of Magic means those people who were the ones "burned" by it get to try it out for free. If those people see FE is a great game, they are going to be the ones saying "Hey guys, I know I told you Elemental sucks, but this is really awesome!!"