Ode to the old Elemental: War Of Magic

Hey guys!

So, I've been playing around with the new Fallen Enchantress build.  I know that I'm in a huge minority here at this point, but I find myself missing the original World Of Magic...

I still remember my first go rounds with my Sovereign.  I had a plethora of summoned creatures available to to my bidding, and I remember fondly the time I completed that Dragon quest, so I had my Familiar, Fire Giant, Fire Elemental and Dragon all cruising around with Janusk and I, taking on the hordes of monsters while the kingdom grew.  And each Champion had their own mana pool, so I had subordinate spellcasters with their own armies of summoned creatures, heroes, units and stuff running around with them.

I found myself actually caring about said subordinates, and working to boost their respective mana pools and combat abilities.  Oh, and the Fire Giants and such casting their own spells to boot was cool as well.

Overall, I felt that I had powerful summoners/spell casters at my fingertips, and War Of Magic seemed like a very appropriate title.

Sure, there were bugs, but I was enjoying the game.

Then the balancing began...

A lot of players were complaining about this thing being too powerful, that thing not being powerful enough, and how there was too much Mana to go around.  So, one by one, a lot of the things that I really liked about the Vanilla Elemental were being eliminated.  Fast forward to the .40 build, and summoned creatures are much harder to come by, the global mana pool is blah-zee, and I recently re-installed the original Elemental just so I could port some of the original spell lists and such over to the new build, and make my own game.

Sure, .40 may be more balanced, but I think we lost a lot in the process.  I no longer feel like I have a powerful bevy of spellcaster at my fingertips, and I feel like Champions are less distinctive, not more, because I don't have that ONE champion who is my Apprentice in Training that may soon equal or perhaps rival my own abilities, giving me incentive to boost my Sovereign's mana pool just to keep ahead.  The global mana pool makes all spellcasters more or less equal, as they all draw on the same pool rather than building their own.  Oh, and of course, I miss my Uber progeny growing up and eventially rivaling my Sovereign's abilities (they are less Uber now).

I miss the min/maxing of all the original stats.  One by one, the pool of stats became smaller and smaller, which gave you less and less options for Sovereign and Champion advancement.  I liked having a lot of choices to choose from, and as those choices narrowed, this lessened my attachment to my various Champions.

Oh, and I want Janusk back.  He was cool, and having that companion right from the start (Janusk or someone like him) just added to the ambiance of the game, and made me care just a little more about his fate.

Yeah, sure, Mr. Sand Golem is nice to have around, and Doggy, but they just aren't the same as Mr. Fire Giant, and of course Mr. Familiar who used to entertain me with his antics...

I think the original design had, at it's core, a lot of things right, and while some things could have been balanced better, and of course we always want bugs to die horrible deaths, the farther away we stray from the original design the more disappointed I am with the result.

Fallen Enchantress

I am really trying to give this new Elemental game a fair shake, but running around with a bunch of cripples (after the first few combats), with no way to repair them no less, just doesn't seem like fun to me.  And I miss Mr. Fire Giant cruising around with me at later stages of the early game, not to mention Mr. Familiar and Mr. Fire Elemental doing their part, occasionally burning my opponents with their own spells. And occasionally Mr. Dragon. And the new talent system seems too random to me. 

It feels like the fate of my Sovereign is a Magic: The Gathering game, where I'm hoping for that rare card, and have to settle for the common one.  Sure, the monster lairs give me something to do, but to be honest, I liked where Dungeons were going with Heavenfall's mod (especially if we could have had actual dungeon terrain for the dungeons at some point).  Sovereign and Champion creation/advancement shouldn't be luck of the draw IMHO.

I miss the old combat system.  One attack a turn is all fine and good, but I loved doing multiple attacks in WOM, it made my higher level champions and such seem more powerful.  And I had a reason to actually care about my stats (many of which were removed in subsequent builds of WOM btw).  In Fallen Enchantress, by comparison I feel like I'm just going through the motions.

And I'm becoming very annoyed with bears messing my champions up... Shrills maybe, but BEARS?!?

One other thing.  In the old W.O.M., I had champion stacks roaming far and wide across the country side looking for goodie huts and such.  Under the new build, just as I start getting into this, I'm losing cities left and right.  Sure, I should be focused on empire building, but for me I love exploring dungeons and such, which is why I have a PARTY of Champions cruising around so we can adventure, and if they have to stay close to home all the time, well they aren't exploring and doing glorious battle...

So, yeah, Fallen Enchantress is a beautiful upgrade for Elemental, and I'm sure as we work through the beta it will get even better.  But it isn't the game I fell in love with, and I for one find myself missing vanilla World Of Magic.

Fallen Enchantress has the makings of a good game, but it really is it's own game, and doesn't feel at all like the original.  For many this is good, for me, well I'm nostalgic that way...

Thanks Brad for making World Of Magic, I for one very much enjoyed your original design.