Dev Journal #10: Gameplay Updates

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3796960/view/517475198366122068
from Elemental Forums

This Dev Journal covers what we are doing and what we are thinking of doing with Elemental: Reforged. We want to hear your thoughts!

Change #1: There are NO premade characters

Procipinee, Relias, Verga are still in the game, but they are no longer playable characters. We want this game to lean much more heavily into the sandbox, so you start the game by creating a character.

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Change #2: You start out alone

No entourages. You are alone.

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The starting area monsters have been rebalanced with this in mind.

Change #3: Rushing

I was surprised that we didn’t have this, but yes, you can now “rush build” in your cities.

Change #4: Crafting

Elemental: Fallen Enchantress didn’t have crafting but was in Sorcerer King. Crafting allows players to not be reliant on the RNG for buffing up their units.

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Change #5: Unit design will have more depth

One of the ongoing themes of this game is that this is a sandbox game. The reality is that this game lives in a world where Age of Wonders 4 and Endless Legend 2 exist. I recommend both games and for different reasons. Contrary to what some people might say, those two games don’t compete against each other; they scratch different itches. We need to ensure Elemental: Reforged is very distinct from them. If it’s just “Endless Legend” with uglier graphics, then I might as well play Endless Legend. Similarly, if it is just Age of Wonders 4 with simpler tactical battles and I’m really into tactical battles, I might as well play AOW4.

One of the mistakes game developers make is that they think being 90% as good as some other game should get them some % of that user base. The reality is you get nothing, 0%, because people should always just get whatever is the best.

Our objective is to be the best as a “fantasy Civ-style sandbox game”.

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Change #6: Terrain and Buildings

We still have work to do on this, and it won’t be ready any time soon, but we really want individual buildings to get benefits based on where you place it in the city.

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So, pretend this screenshot has three rows of dots: Food, Materials, and Magic. Farms will produce more if you put them in tiles with more food. Studies do better if you put them on a tile with more magic. Workshops do better if you put them on a tile with more materials. We have a lot of UI work to do to make this simple.

Change #7: Free Champions are going to go away

In Fallen Enchantress, once got enough fame, Champions would just show up. This is going away. Instead, Fame is what will let you unlock the ability to recruit champions and other bosses around the map if you can pay for them.

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Would you like to try recruiting Korgon, the Lord of Ogres? Have enough fame and treasure and he will join you. Note that recruiting a champion will require imbuing them with your Essence, which you have a finite amount of. You also don’t get their minions, but if you want a giant Spider as one of your champions, then go for it.

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Change #8: BIGGER map sizes

We supported pretty big map sizes in Fallen Enchantress, but I wouldn’t call them massive either. There’s going to be a new map size: Massive. We also plan to have additional map generation options.

Change #9 Diplomacy is better

This is pretty basic currently, but now that crafting is a big deal, swapping crafting ingredients is going to matter a lot. We are going to stay away from trading units, but crafting ingredients seems like a pretty obvious win.

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Change #10 Units can get equipment

This isn’t a game with huge armies. You can equip your units with items now to make them better, even after they have been trained.

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The downside, of course is that if they are killed, you lose the item, so use carefully.

There are 10 things players will probably notice quickly, but some of these things are not in our current build. We’d love to hear from you!

elemental reforged elemental dev journals
17,974 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock.net Forums Top

and it gets better and better...

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

It's looking like Stardock's vision is pushing towards a model where pre-game choices weigh less than they do now, in return for more in-game choices?

My largest concern with this direction is that the factions/characters become generic/repetitive. For instance, the new hero system sounds like every faction gets all the same heroes? Which also means that every hero is as willing to follow any faction as any other. They don't have any particular drive that the world should be one way, and not the other?

I also have a sense that more different factions make the world seem more alive. Where later in the game, territories controlled by different factions present different threats, different opportunities, and simply look different. I have a sense that the system as currently presented causes most of the world to become generic “enemy territory” by the time the player reaches it, and all AI factions will look and interact with the player in the exact same manner.

This seems like a less moddable experience. Strong factions create a lot of levers for modders to introduce their own stories, mechanics and aesthetics, with the largest barriers to this being systems which can do stuff, noting particularly that the current random event system simply is not set up to be a load bearing system that works locally and per faction and that the AI is not set up to handle weird and somewhat arbitrary rules.

In terms of proselytizing faction unique content, per-alignment content might make sense instead? Where factions/characters choose between say, three inbuilt alignments, and arbitrary additional alignments could plausibly be modded in? Then quests/hero recruitment/etc could vary on alignment, making it easier to generate a basic new sovereign or faction that reuses more pre-existing content, but also giving room for more in depth mods?

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