“Expansion Packs”
In the time before digital distribution, you had “expansion packs”. It is a concept that has survived well into the digital distribution age.
You’d release say Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar as an expansion for people who had the game and then Galactic Civilizations II: Gold Edition for new buyers. Similarly, we released Sins of a Solar Empire: Diplomacy and Sins of a solar Empire: Trinity for new buyers.
So why was that done? The answer is, in the old days, there was no sure fire way to tell if someone had the original game. So you had to offer a second SCU just for those people. On the business software side, all kinds of efforts have been made to try to get new editions down to a single SCU including installers that sniffed for the original version, send in a copy of your manual, you name it.
A New Team
Fallen Enchantress gives us the opportunity to have a very different fantasy strategy game than War of Magic. While the original intent was simply to eliminate an unnecessary SCU (we can simply have Fallen Enchantress with an upgrade price for people who have War of Magic), in this case, it lets us make an even bigger break from War of Magic because it has a new Lead Designer (Kael instead of myself) with Jon Shafer helping as well as we begin pre-production of Jon’s new game along with many other changes. It’s still Stardock but it’s a very different Stardock than what made War of Magic (or GalCiv II for that matter).
I’m still filling the role of studio lead developer and Executive Producer but we’re actively seeking out industry veterans to take over the role of lead developer of Stardock Entertainment.
A New Game
There is also another advantage to Fallen Enchantress being its own game rather than an “expansion pack”. And that is, it frees the team to make radical changes to the basics of the game while allowing War of Magic to still be updated on its own source tree. A user of Fallen Enchantress won’t have to have War of Magic to play it and can treat War of Magic as a separate game.
This will be the same case for the third entry in the Elemental world which won’t be out for a long time still (but will be free for people who got War of Magic before the end of October 2010). It’ll be its own game as well not requiring War of Magic and Fallen Enchantress but be available at a sharp discount to those who have the previous entries in the game world.
The Changing Market
A few years ago, this wouldn’t be possible. Retailers would have refused to carry just stand-alone expansion. There were exceptions and the Company of Heroes series did a lot of good for our industry by paving the way here. Supreme Commander’s “stand alone” expansion helps as well.
Of course, no one has brought more attention to the changing digital model of PC games more than Blizzard with its recent release of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty which will have two additional stand-alone games in the Starcraft 2 universe.
Will this be a good thing for PC gamers? I think it depends on how it’s handled. Personally, I’d like to see people get discounts if they have other chapters in the series. That’s going to be our model for the foreseeable future but part of that is because we have our own digital distribution platform (Impulse).
But politics is an illusion.
Everybody knows that.
i dont care if its stand alone or a expansion or micro expansion
i just want to enjoy the game more then i did with war of magic , for me personal its a second chance i give to SD how goes the saying
fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me lets hope it wont come to that
good luck SD with the new expansion for now iam your loyal customer (dont let us donw with fallen enchantress plz)
Well, for myself, the point wasn't to understand the text. I was asking if there will be expansion for EWoM IF FE and the other are stand alone game OR we will only have EWoM and the other 2 expansions like 3 games OR will we be able to incorporate all of the content of the two other "expansions" with EWoM. Like Frogboy said, FE will be a stand-alone expansions meaning you don't need to have EWoM to play BUT if you have EWoM, will it blend? That is the question
Indeed, that is the question.
To me that sounds like: "We know EWOM was/is not that great, so instead of radically changing it were going to release FE as standalone new version, with new game-play. But we will continue to update EWOM while we make the expansion (standalone game) and until everyone moves on FE after release. Instead of us just building upon EWOM, you can just let it collect dust if you have FE. Plus we don't want new buyers to have to buy EWOM just to play FE, which will be the better game."
I still like SD a lot, but that is what that post sounded like to me...
I can play Dread Lords (Galactic Civilizations II).
Or I can play Dark Avatar (not standalone if memory serves), which alters stuff of Dread Lords (like spionage) in addition to add new stuff.
Or I can play Twilight of the Arnor (not standalone if memory serves), which alters even more stuff from Dark Avatar and/or Dread Lords (like spionage, again) in addition to add new stuff.
3 different games. I personally fell unable to play anything that isn't Twilight of the Arnor but back in the day, Dread Lords was awesome.
Pardon me as I attempt to obtusely answer your question, but as I've come to understand it, the only thing that will blend EWoM with either "expansion" are
1. the main title "Elemental"
and
2. the developing company
Each "expansion" (1 and 2) will be a stand alone game in itself, where each "expansion" (including the primary game, WoM) will have their own updates, patches and over all game play.
-.-
good to hear. Maybe Stardock wanted to build off the ideas, engine, AI of E:WoM but found themselves in a unpleasant corner when it came to story,lore, game mechanics, etc. So this small free new game is an awesome idea. I like the idea.
But back to the question i asked like 20 times.... who does this amazing artwork?
Same here.
This guy I guess: Jue “Leo” Li (Artist)- Leo does most of the 2d paintings and concept art for Elemental.
So it's back to the original premise then... You have to choose to either play EWoM or FE. Personally, I think it's rather rodonculous. Instead of 1 epic game, we'll get two mediocre games, and eventually three. I wonder if it'll take FE as long to become stable and playable as EWoM has (and which we're still waiting for Brad's allegedly superior AI fixes).
Elemental is a stand alone expansion. It's like how dawn of war did it. Each game didn't require the previous games to play but it had all the new content. However in this case some of the changes that they are making are so drastic it may feel better to call it a new game. It is still elemental. And will succeed elemental war of magic. So if you have FE unless you're really attached to the originals gameplay elements then the choice will be simple. Play FE. Because FE is elemental plus but you just don't need elemental to play it.
All this means is that they're attempting at a relaunch of Elemental, so that the bad press of Elemental: War of Magic release in August 2010 won't carry over to Elemental: Fallen Enchantress. Essentially it's still just an expansion, you just don't NEED E:WoM to play it.
It's just marketing so that we don't have to think about the disaster of August 2010 after Fallen Enchantress is released. We long-time players can think of it as just and expansion. There's no practical difference to us.
I think you've hit it on the head there. I would do the same in their shoes.
This is getting stupid.
The expansion will use the same engine and have similar gameplay with more added...ala an expansion. You just don't need to buy the original and the expansion to play it. If you did buy the original you get the updated version free. HOw is t hat hard to understand.
At least now you've come to accept that premise as it is (since you are now judging it).
All currently planned expansions will be separate from each other and separate from main game.
Where you see mediocre divisions of one main game, I see 1 tremendously entertaining product (WoM) and 2 potentially tremendously entertaining by-products yet to be released.
This decision is a win-win. This not only gives us variety in a game, but it also is a smart business decision for the company.
Well, I'm really excited about it all.
I'm so excited I think I have to stop grinning so much before I hurt me-shelf...
Again I agree...
There is your source of confusion.
Had they just said, "the expansion will be called FE and can be played as a stand-alone game" there wouldn't be as much hoo-hah.
I honestly think some people would complain even if the 'expansion' came with a ball tickler attachment.
The elemental crystal ball tickler.. where do i sign up for that, and is it powered via USB?
So true.
There are a couple of people in this thread who are just too hard headed to understand the simplicity here. So I will explain as simply as I can:
Fallen enchantress is a stand alone game, in that it contains everything from EWOM plus the extra content added in Fallen enchantress. Essentially the games will be the same, but there will be new game mechanics and such in Fallen Enchantress which will enhance the game play. I don't think there is going to be anything drastically new such as a new magic system or anything like that, although Tactical combat is supposed to be changing, but that will most likely be for both games. Essentially, I think everyone will be wanting to play Fallen enchantress because it really is the same as EWOM but with more content, so why wouldn't you want to play it? I seriously doubt FE is going to completely change EWOM into something you won't be able to recognize otherwise. If you can't understand this then I don't know what else to say.
Well the game shouldn't be called an expansion, when it doesn't even expand upon the original physical game, even if FE includes EWOM features. If they want a fresh start with FE then that is fine, but I don't want to have to be trying to keep up with two different versions of Elemental. If they want to just support EWOM until FE is released then move on to that, then that is what I want to know. But right now it sounds like there trying to keep both of these game going at the same time with patches and improved content, when I just want ONE (1) game with all the content that Elemental is suppose to have. Not 2 or 3 separate games...
Exactly it's how they worded it, now if they just plan to bring FE with *everything* that's in EWOM, and NOT add any new material to EWOM that is not in FE then I'm good with it. But that is NOT how it sounded... it sounded like they want to keep them both updated with separate content.
Your not understanding what were saying what so ever...
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