“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).
From the news page on this topic
"Elemental: Fallen Enchantress will be released as a stand-alone game but will be free to all players who purchased Elemental: War of Magic in 2010 and will be heavily discounted for anyone who purchases Elemental: War of Magic prior to Fallen Enchantress’s anticipated Summer 2011 release."
So yes.. as far as the promised free expansions go this is the first.
Soooo my question is this. I get that fallen enchantress will be its own stand alone beast and I will happily move from war of magic to it. My question is when the game after enchantress comes out will I have to make a choice between enchantress's content and what ever the next one is called. To simplify my question will the game after enchantress still include all the content from enchantress such as the lairs, quests, spells, gameplay changes etc? Also I know war of magic and enchantress will have some large gameplay changes which again is cool but will alot of the content from war of magic still be in enchantress?
Hmm my post seems like a mess I hope you get what I am asking
Why are people complaining about this? If you bought the game before the new year, you get this expansion for free (even though it is a stand alone expansion). You can then play either game War of Magic or Fallen Enchantress WofM. They are not abandoning W of M, they are just taking it in a new direction.
I don't see any complaints.. just a few people concerned with 2 main topics.
1. Is this the free expansion early adopters were offered? Yes.
2. Does this mean development on EWoM is over with? No.
so.. those 2 concerns out of the way. leaves.. nothing lol
Some people are just dense. The journal post is very clear and easy to read and understand and yet I still see people asking questions which were already answered, if they read the first post, and/or expressing concerns about nothing because they didn't bother to read and comprehend the journal post.
Will there be a way to...uh...use content from both games at the same time?
Like with Arma 2 and Operation Arrowhead, there is a special laucher if you have both games that'll boot up Arma 2 with the content from both games. Will there be something similiar with FE?
Reading comprehension is low due to our industrial model education system. Memorizing what a person reads is put far above comprehending the material. But thats for another topic.
Can't wait to play it.
Can't... wait I mean I won't enjoy beta testing. I got a little more free time this semester too.
Stand alone games run along these lines. It a game all by itself. If you got both games you have all the content. Lets say you only buy the stand alone expansion, there will be some things you won't have from the original (maybe some original races you can't play as), but you still have a full game though. Think Dawn of War and Company of Hero games and there stand alone versions.
One reason we home-school our kids. Sorry - now totally off-topic.
Some people may be denser than others, but there is no denying that all the words make this whole thing a little more confusing than it should be.
I hope Stardock makes Elemental as fun as they possibly can, and that Fallen Enchantress is also fun. I don't know the difference between the two. I just hope that at least one of them is a fantasy strategy game I can have fun with in the, relatively, near future.
Please make the storyline and quests and monsters and heroes and city-building and and and... Please make it come together.
It is so much promising me good stuff. You might say it teases, this EWoM
The expansion will have all the content from the original game (excluding anything they decide should be cut). Think of a standalone expansion as an expansion automatically bundled with the original game and you'll get the idea.
The post mentions nothing regarding War of Magic development. FE is a new game in Elemental world, developed by a new team. I just want to know if War of Magic is done and abandoned or Frogboy continues to improve War of Magic to what players have suggested since release.
Maybe you need to read it a bit slower cause it certainly seems that it was addressed in this part of the post.
Why would one talk about updating Ewom if they were going to quit working on it?
I'm rather bothered by your claim that it makes no mention of Ewom development when as you can see in the above post it directly talks about updating it.
What I'd like to know is what exactly carries over into this expansion. Can we import our custom factions (for example), or will the expansion be somewhat /or completely incompatible with our current E:WoM mods, and other user-made content?
Frogboy,
I am actively promoting Elemental/Stardock, and I was asked if a DEMO or TRIAL version was available for this game...
Any plans on making one? If so, when?
I'd like to give them your answer on this.
Thanks!
-.-
So what's a SCU?
Yeah this is one of the things I was asking above too. I guess the Sins example was a bad one as it was 'micro'. Couldn't think of any other Stardock expansions. Maybe replace Sins with GalCiv2 in my example though I never played the game till long after the expansions came out so idk if they work well in the analogy.
This whole 'new game' idea is really confusing people...
I would like to know why this Enchantress is so clumsy? And, in game, am I able to help her back to her feet?
Looks like the winner(s) of the design a spell contest will have their ideas implemented in the first expansion.
Sounds pretty cool.
So I'll in effect be getting 2 games for the price of one.
Can't complain about that. ^^
Down the road it may even be 3 games for the price of one. That is if the second expansion is a stand alone game as well.
As long as EWOM isn't neglected when the shiny new EFE (Elemental Fallen Enchantress) comes out I'll be overjoyed.
I'd like to see EWOM reach it's full potential as well, as promised.
I'd really like to know more about what will be in EFE and not in EWOM.
Will the new areas like the chasm and the deranged nature elemental be added to EWOM as well or is this a EFE only thing? How about the new economic system or the greatly improved spellcasting?
Anyway, good news.
Murteas et all,
I think what people are questioning is the fact that FE (Fallen Enchantress) is being introduced as a new game (possibly with the removal of some WoM play rules) not as an update with additional functionality/content on top of the base WoM (War of Magic), so therefore if you prefer the gameplay of 1.20 WoM you will not be able to play that with the additional content from FE.
Then when the 2nd expansion comes out will that be a modification of WoM again or FE?
I hope that makes sense
Now I'm not that concerned as I trust Brad, Derek and Jon's ability to make the right decisions.
Maybe this Enchantress has actually fallen in love? Perhaps Stardock is going to pull a fast one on us and release this on Valentine's Day as a love tribute to all its fans!
Err...maybe not.
I think you guys miss the point
If the classify it as a second game and never make an expansion for War of Magic that means the sales pitch they gave everyoen in December that if you guy the game before the end of the year you get the first expansion free has been null envoid and you get nothing for free.
What in essence they can do is now claim this new game as a new game and re-charge everyone for what really is the expansion for War of Magic and never have to keep their promise of having an expansion. They are not very clear on this and in essence this could be clasified as fraud. I specifically purchased Elemental for Christmas even though I knew the game was buggy and unplayable because of their offer and now with this unique wording they are resinding the offer (well it appears they may try since they are not clear). I have no problem contacting the Maryland State Attorney Generals office if this is the case. Done it with LucasArts so I don't see how this will be different but it just depends on what their intentions are. If they just want literall a stand alone expansion and use it still to honor their agreement with everyone who bought the game during the holidays then I am fine with that and will be happy.
Will FE be developed to support Win7 64-bit?
Sounds cool!
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