What was once a verdant forest around Cyndrum has been transformed into the Asag, a diseased land with rivers of dead fish and deep, oozing scars. Though it may initially seem empty, the Asag is full of diseased, hateful and hungry creatures. It is home to some of the new creatures players will face in Fallen Enchantress.
In this creature feature, we will introduce some of those monsters and give some hints on how to fight them.
These great snakes are known for their inhuman reflexes and deadly poison. They are unlikely to miss when they attack, but players are best to use champions and experienced units if they hope to hit the Naja. Less accurate units will find themselves whittled down by the Naja's venom while Naja deftly dodges their attacks.
Plaguestlker's already considerable speed is augmented during their first action in combat, where they get an increase to movement and attack that allows them to quickly cross the battlefield and close with your units. Your archers won't be safe to sit back and pick plaguestalkers off. You are best to use heavily defended units whose armor will keep the plaguestalkers poisoned teeth and claws from finding flesh.
Said to have once been priests in Cyndrum these men are able to use life and death magic. They can heal their allies by siphoning away their injuries and inflict that pain on their enemies. Though they are cursed by the suffering of the world around them, the creatures of the Asag won't attack them and often come to their defense. When fighting a Haunter players should be careful, a nearly dead Haunter is more dangerous than one that isn't injured at all. If players are going to attack a Haunter, they are best to kill him.
Ritualist's don't want to fight you. They want to summon a Death Demon that will kill you instead. It doesn't matter what else is happening on the battlefield, if plaguestalkers are chewing on your legs, if a Dark Wizard is replacing your peasants with bonfires, if Abeix himself is eating your champions. Your first task should be to kill any Ritualist's on the battlefield or you risk making a bad situation much worse. This is what archer divisions and swarms of fireballs were made for.
At Red Spring 10,000 victims were sacrificed in a ritual to appease Curgen. A spell bound these men to the titan but he ignored the offering. Now they roam the world, trapped between death and eternal service to a titan that no longer exists. They seek to pass on their curse by killing others, in the hope that doing so will end their suffering.
Scrap Golems are relics of ancient battles. They attempt to repair themselves with makeshift parts and continue fighting a war that only they remember and where everyone else is an enemy. Scrap Golems can be dangerous enemies to starting units, but their injuries don't allow them to stand up to stronger attacks. They are also a good source of metal, and players looking to scrape some extra metal together would do well to hunt down rogue Scrap Golems for their parts.
Ignys are less powerful than fire elementals, but still pack a powerful attack. Their fire damage won't be blocked by most armor, and they are immune to fire spells. It is best to outfit your champions with items that protect from fire and weapons that do cold damage. Banishing weapons provide bonuses against elementals and make quick work of minor elementals like the Ignys.
Magic was never evenly distributed across Elemental. In some places it lay thin and worn, and in others it was deep and thick. In these most magical, most sacred, places elementals formed as guardians and grew larger than any elementals summoned by men. These elemental lords are so powerful that they survived the cataclysm and having magic bound into the shards. But their sacred homes are now empty, and the power that fed them for so long has been stripped away. Some have been driven mad by it, others continue to act as guardians, but they all hate the titans that imprisoned the magic of Elemental and the channelers that would make use of it.
Abeix is one of these elemental lords. All but the most powerful should avoid the Bhinadmi Fissure, but if you go to challenge Abeix, bring armies and your highest level champions. Bring weapons that weaken armor to get through Abeix's rocky hide and powerful damage spells. Abeix is unlikely to fall victim to spells he can resist, you cannot blind him or freeze him. But lightning and fire may cause some damage if you bring enough of it.
Beg pardon, but either you're ducking my question or I didn't put it well enough. Back in the pre-beta days, the Cataclysm seemed to be a result of conflict between a pair of faction alliances that had radically different views about how the world should be. So radical that after the Catclysm, factions from those two alliances had contradictory views of how to restore the world and rebuild civilization. Sovereigns from one side or the other got entirely different results from imbuing the land with their essence, and I really, really, liked that vague idea.
Is 'Kingdoms vs. Empires' totally gone? Will FE Empire factions be able to treat a river of rotting fish as a viable resource or are things like that a wasteland for all playable factions? I kind of hope for the former, but the latter could make sense. Especially if FE is Three Giant Steps ahead of WoM in terms of explaining the game world to players.
monster contest....anyone? anyone?
I hope you can stumble across baby versions of some of these creatures, like the Ignys and be able to raise them over a period of time for an awesome "pet" to have at your side!
Honestly one thing that I think needs to be in FE is new way to recruit monsters. The current system in WoM is awful. Backing up your troops with some of these new monsters would be awesome, and spice up player vs player combat.
oh yeah, loving the flavor. E:WOM is like hospital food, it will keep you body alive, and thats about it. FE is looking like thai food, sweet, spicy, and full of kick!
This was a really nice update. It's nice to see the great attention to detail that the world of Elemental is getting this time around. It looks like the battlefield is going to be significantly more varied, both visually and tactically. "Ritualist's don't want to fight you. They want to summon a Death Demon that will kill you instead. It doesn't matter what else is happening on the battlefield, if plaguestalkers are chewing on your legs, if a Dark Wizard is replacing your peasants with bonfires, if Abeix himself is eating your champions. Your first task should be to kill any Ritualist's on the battlefield or you risk making a bad situation much worse. This is what archer divisions and swarms of fireballs were made for." Just curious here: If the Ritualist is killed after summoning the Death Demon, does the summoned creature disappear? And if the Ritualist has already summoned a D.D., is he free to summon another one, or is he [The Ritualist] essentially useless to his side after that? "Though they are cursed by the suffering of the world around them, the creatures of the Asag won't attack them and often come to their defense." An interesting idea struck me as I read this Haunter excerpt. The Haunter seems to have developed some kind of strange, preternatural alliance with the creatures of the wild. I wonder if this is something that the Fallen Empires themselves may be able to accomplish. Though Fallen Enchantress is apparently moving away from the "Fallen=Bad" idea, it could be an interesting idea for the bad guys of the game to look into manipulating the corruption of the world to their own evil ends. So, corrupted creatures won't attack an empire that learned how to use corruption, and that empire can look into cultivating some of these vile creatures. Meanwhile, the good guys are trying to purify and restore the land, and maybe they gain some kind of good creatures or something from that effort. Maybe questing could play a role in this manipulation/regeneration... To the ideas board! Anyway, back on topic... "It is best to outfit your champions with items that protect from fire..." A small little point here, but I love the fact that weapons aren't the only items that get the elemental treatment. Here's hoping that elemental armor makes it into the game, and that my crystal ice helmet is just as cool as my enemy's fire sword. "(I love that the art team gave the Butcherman his sacrifical sword and left his feet bound)" I really loved that small detail, too. It's a really subtle, yet impressive way in which the lore behind the character jumps out into the game. I hope this kind of detail works its way into the rest of the characters and the game (especially the sovereigns). Quoting Derek Paxton, reply 2 The bland Minor Fire Elemental, for example, is gone and replaced with the Ignys. Very cool. The Minor Fire Elemental was bland, and the Ignys most certainly is not. This little excerpt brings up two nagging thoughts in my mind. First, I hope that we don't get Fire Ignys, Ice Ignys, Wind Ignys, Life Ignys, and etc. Variety ought to carry the day in developing all of the elemental creatures. For low-grade enemies, I'd like to run into stuff like wild polar cubs, man-strangling plants, and glowing specters instead of copies of the same unit. I think Stardock has the same idea in mind [as evidenced via this thread], but it's a thought worthy of redundant repetition. Second, the Minor Fire Elemental was a summonable unit. I wonder if the Ignys and other creatures will be summonable as well... Quoting GCFL, reply 27monster contest....anyone? anyone?
This was a really nice update. It's nice to see the great attention to detail that the world of Elemental is getting this time around. It looks like the battlefield is going to be significantly more varied, both visually and tactically. "Ritualist's don't want to fight you. They want to summon a Death Demon that will kill you instead. It doesn't matter what else is happening on the battlefield, if plaguestalkers are chewing on your legs, if a Dark Wizard is replacing your peasants with bonfires, if Abeix himself is eating your champions. Your first task should be to kill any Ritualist's on the battlefield or you risk making a bad situation much worse. This is what archer divisions and swarms of fireballs were made for." Just curious here: If the Ritualist is killed after summoning the Death Demon, does the summoned creature disappear? And if the Ritualist has already summoned a D.D., is he free to summon another one, or is he [The Ritualist] essentially useless to his side after that? "Though they are cursed by the suffering of the world around them, the creatures of the Asag won't attack them and often come to their defense." An interesting idea struck me as I read this Haunter excerpt. The Haunter seems to have developed some kind of strange, preternatural alliance with the creatures of the wild. I wonder if this is something that the Fallen Empires themselves may be able to accomplish. Though Fallen Enchantress is apparently moving away from the "Fallen=Bad" idea, it could be an interesting idea for the bad guys of the game to look into manipulating the corruption of the world to their own evil ends. So, corrupted creatures won't attack an empire that learned how to use corruption, and that empire can look into cultivating some of these vile creatures. Meanwhile, the good guys are trying to purify and restore the land, and maybe they gain some kind of good creatures or something from that effort. Maybe questing could play a role in this manipulation/regeneration... To the ideas board! Anyway, back on topic... "It is best to outfit your champions with items that protect from fire..." A small little point here, but I love the fact that weapons aren't the only items that get the elemental treatment. Here's hoping that elemental armor makes it into the game, and that my crystal ice helmet is just as cool as my enemy's fire sword. "(I love that the art team gave the Butcherman his sacrifical sword and left his feet bound)" I really loved that small detail, too. It's a really subtle, yet impressive way in which the lore behind the character jumps out into the game. I hope this kind of detail works its way into the rest of the characters and the game (especially the sovereigns). Quoting Derek Paxton, reply 2 The bland Minor Fire Elemental, for example, is gone and replaced with the Ignys.
"Ritualist's don't want to fight you. They want to summon a Death Demon that will kill you instead. It doesn't matter what else is happening on the battlefield, if plaguestalkers are chewing on your legs, if a Dark Wizard is replacing your peasants with bonfires, if Abeix himself is eating your champions. Your first task should be to kill any Ritualist's on the battlefield or you risk making a bad situation much worse. This is what archer divisions and swarms of fireballs were made for."
Just curious here: If the Ritualist is killed after summoning the Death Demon, does the summoned creature disappear? And if the Ritualist has already summoned a D.D., is he free to summon another one, or is he [The Ritualist] essentially useless to his side after that?
"Though they are cursed by the suffering of the world around them, the creatures of the Asag won't attack them and often come to their defense."
An interesting idea struck me as I read this Haunter excerpt. The Haunter seems to have developed some kind of strange, preternatural alliance with the creatures of the wild. I wonder if this is something that the Fallen Empires themselves may be able to accomplish. Though Fallen Enchantress is apparently moving away from the "Fallen=Bad" idea, it could be an interesting idea for the bad guys of the game to look into manipulating the corruption of the world to their own evil ends. So, corrupted creatures won't attack an empire that learned how to use corruption, and that empire can look into cultivating some of these vile creatures. Meanwhile, the good guys are trying to purify and restore the land, and maybe they gain some kind of good creatures or something from that effort. Maybe questing could play a role in this manipulation/regeneration... To the ideas board!
Anyway, back on topic...
"It is best to outfit your champions with items that protect from fire..."
A small little point here, but I love the fact that weapons aren't the only items that get the elemental treatment. Here's hoping that elemental armor makes it into the game, and that my crystal ice helmet is just as cool as my enemy's fire sword.
"(I love that the art team gave the Butcherman his sacrifical sword and left his feet bound)"
I really loved that small detail, too. It's a really subtle, yet impressive way in which the lore behind the character jumps out into the game. I hope this kind of detail works its way into the rest of the characters and the game (especially the sovereigns).
Very cool. The Minor Fire Elemental was bland, and the Ignys most certainly is not. This little excerpt brings up two nagging thoughts in my mind. First, I hope that we don't get Fire Ignys, Ice Ignys, Wind Ignys, Life Ignys, and etc. Variety ought to carry the day in developing all of the elemental creatures. For low-grade enemies, I'd like to run into stuff like wild polar cubs, man-strangling plants, and glowing specters instead of copies of the same unit. I think Stardock has the same idea in mind [as evidenced via this thread], but it's a thought worthy of redundant repetition. Second, the Minor Fire Elemental was a summonable unit. I wonder if the Ignys and other creatures will be summonable as well...
Seconded. This would be a really awesome contest. I'd love to throw out some unique creature ideas and their interesting capabilities.
Anyway, I'm loving it. Keep up the great work, Derek and team!
Nice work, the new monsters, gameplay mechanics, and the idea of a more dangerous world all sound like a great direction forward.
I just wanted to toss in a vote for using some of the current skined monsters to differentiate the feeling of areas. I have no problem with re-skinning as long as they play and feel like different creatures (or at least different branches of the same family tree). Spawning white wolves in snowy territory, gray wolves on plains, brown wolves in forests, etc I think could really help with making geographys feel more distinct as you explore the map.
Kingdom's vs Empire is definitly key. In fact that is also something we want to put more focus on (I don't like that you start at the same attitude when you meet Empires as Kingdom as you do when you meet another Kingdom, etc). But I don't want the theme to be a dicotomy, so for me it isn't as simple as Nature vs Magic or Empires vs Kingdoms. For me its about ruined beauty. I want the Empires to flawed, I want them to have an ideology that reflects the world, utilitarian, cruel, effective. I want the Kingdoms to represent the past world, regal and entitled. But most importantly I want to show the flaws in both ideologies. Neither side is right, neither side is "good".
The core issue is a ruined world with scarce resources and massive dangers. The way the factions respond to it is dramatically different. For example the Empires believe in the exceptional, if you have talent you can rise quickly in their ranks. If you don't you have little value. The Kingdoms value their heirarchy so it isn't as easy to rise through the ranks, and they tend to have a more equal treatment of their citizens (not that saying being locked into the class you are born into is fair, but its better than the treatment the worst among the Empires recieve).
The great thing (for me) is that none of the above is my creation. It was always the intent to have those ideological differences, they just aren't tied well to the game mechanics. It has to be more than flavor text.
So that is still a core concept of the game, it just isnt the first challenge a player will face. First the player has to cut his area out of the world, has to found his kingdom by doing more than just creating that first city. Explore your surrounding, clear the threats, start your empire. If you pass that hurdle then you can get on to meeting the other factions that have survived the same.
Best news ever. Are you willing to spill anything about the level of variety within each side?
The chunk Light quoted in reply 34 jumped out for me as well. I'm even more encouraged to see you wanting to connect that 'vision' level language to game mechanics. I value good flavor text more than the average player, but I know that no amount of spicy goodness can make up for rotten meat, thin gruel, or whatever bad-food metaphor you prefer.
That aside, with the Kingdom/Empire distinction being ideological, how does the Fallen factor work now? At the moment, there's a faction of Men amongst the Empires, but no Fallen Kingdom. Your thread title makes me wonder, what is the Elemental ideological context for creating sentient species through magic? Would a Kingdom sovereign ever attempt to create an 'anti-Fallen' species? Why do the almost-all-Fallen Empires accept a faction of Men when the Kingdoms seem to reject all Fallen?
I don't know.... Im guessing.
Because the Fallen aren't one race and all live on the same continent, thus they have to live with diversity. Meanwhile the Kingdoms are geographically isolated from the fallen and all share the same origins. They probably see Fallen as less then human because they are unnatural creations. Like Duke87 said they cling to the past where humanity ruled the world.
Great descriptions and concept art. It is obvious a lot of thought is going into this expansion. Thank you for sharing.
Creatures look and sound awesome. I'm excited!!!! ....................and just alittle bit scared
I'm starting to get excited about elemental again... Just a little... Btw. Flavor text IS important.
Sounds really cool, I hope it will work in terms of gameplay. Are you guys going to work on multiplayer as well?
The concept of "exploring your surroundings" can be improved with the introduction of watchtowers and units with special abilities which also work great in multiplayer strategy (scouts invisible in woods, guides that allow the army they travel with, to be faster when crossing difficult terrain... maybe also specific spells that can add those skills). No Ai can ever use effectively all spells and skills, this kind of games really shine in multiplayer!
(I am an addict to age of wonders shadow magic played by email, any chance to see a PBEM mode for this game, one day?)
I was afraid the difference beetween empire and kingdom were gonna be lost in FE, in fact I believe it's the most original idea the game has to offer, and spelt out as you just did, sounds also really cool. I hope the fallen will have their roaming heroes as well, and maybe human champions should be hostile to Fallen factions, behaving like monsters... This game needs variey, WOM is way too monotonous!
What is going to happen to minor factions? That was also an interesting concept in my opinion, one that would add variety and replayability to the game if they were extremely rare but there was a great variety of them - one with a population made of trolls (that could become mercenary, a different concept from the troll village we used to see in WOM, because you lose the trolls if you kill the faction!), another that sells horses, another that sells special items or produce elementium...- I can just imagine how fun it would be when you finally meet one after several games where you haven't see any. If their unique bonus was something a player could only get with them alive, finally there would be no reason to kill them off anymore. (in WOM they are indeed quite useless).
Add RARE things that don't tend to appear in every game, make players go WOW when they see them in a game!
Please consider not making city disapper anymore when a sovreign dies, (that's so silly feels artificial and kills the "suspension of disbelief" for me and many others) in fact i am for a dynasty system myself (first born child becomes king or emperor and the game goes on).
Why do I always have to be the one to poop on everyone's party? Sorry about that...
So new creatures are cool, but never once did I ever hear anybody say, "You know what's wrong with EWoM? We need better creatures!". I'm glad to hear the tactical battles will be improved so what do we know so far about FE?
cooler creatures than EWoM (this was not an issue)
improved tactical battles with initiative (ok this is good) ... hopefully the tactical AI will be better too because this is still an issue
better heroes (representing all races, more skills, skill trees, etc.)???
more quests???
tech trees to be revamped???
variety of items (common, unique, sets, socket-able)???
more depth to dynasty system???
more interesting choices when building cities???
polished UI???
races more distinct and unique???
ability to customize our armies???
use of water, rivers, etc???
Derek,
I'm encouraged by the designs, but I think you need to go farther to really incorporate them into the world. Wandering monsters are nice enough, but in most fantasy books, unique monsters have a reason for being in the area that they are in and usually affect the area in some noticable way that encourages the populace to band together and kill them.
Example:
Monster A sets up a lair in the area, the nearby terrain changes (spiders create webs which hamper movement, dragons cut food production in the near area because they are eating livestock or the people that havest the farms), the nearby populace panics resulting in a reduction of productivity or a migration of polulace to another town or city. Minor monsters may not have this effect or have it to a lessor degree, but major monsters should have negative effects just by being around.
Allow a method to 'drive away' a monster or monster group other than by killing them. Rather than have all tactical battles between men and monsters be a battle to the death, if a monster or pack of monsters takes too much damage or morale is broken, it flees the battle and then moves say 10-20 squares away and sets up in a different area.
Your comment about " But most importantly I want to show the flaws in both ideologies. Neither side is right, neither side is "good"." is great, now use this idea to make alliances between sides with these flaws more attractive. This should be more than the typical increase in research costs or a trade benefit. Perhaps it's a gain of a ability that offsets a racial flaw or the ability to create a new type of troop for that race that has a mixture of racial traits from both allied countries.
Kingdom A allies with Empire B. Kingdom A fighters are increadible fighters (Great Warriors) but are also Superstitious and Arrogant. While Empire B's population is Brave yet uneducated (we would need more weaknesses or racial flaws to make something like this work). While allied, the new troops from the alliance would be a random combination (but with a positive result) of all the traits or perhaps a new trait would be added. There should be something more that encourages alliances other than simply more gildar and knowledge points. This could even be something that as the alliance grows (gets older?) the traits increase? Another solution would be allow either ally to build troops of the other ally. These units would appear to be the same race, but would have the traits of the ally. There are tons of ideas that could lead to making diplomacy a much more attractive aspect of the game. If we want a contest, rather than new monsters, we should have everyone come up with new ideas of what treates and alliances could do to change the game.
Just my 2 cents. New monsters are a great addition, but wandering monsters are still less interesting than monsters that have some real purpose in the game which can act as 'Events' in and of themselves.
I hear you. The new monsters aren't the only thing we are doing, just a piece of the coming jigsaw puzzle.
Excellent! I'll take my chill pill now.
I like the flavor text stuff, could be set up in game as a reference where after encountering/killing one, it would have the flavor text and some general info about the creature. Such as if it poisons, or does elemental damage (but not any specific stats). I think the Ignys is pretty cool looking but I agree with one of the earlier posts that the slot of 'minor elemental' shouldnt be filled for each type by a reskinned snake. Especially for elementals, they should show as a manifestation of some aspect or assocaited aspect/function of the element they are connected to. You could also have say 6 different body types for the minor elemental (with their stats) where when the game starts it randomly chooses one body type to apply for units created for each element (so you can have a skin of each element for each body type and have a bit of a different experience each time you play).
I like the kind of alien body structure of the guardian with the tree arm in the demo. Be sure to keep your general monster roster in mind to see any trends that should be broken. One for example would be including some flying creatures, or some that hover instead of always being feet planted on the ground type. On that note there could be a graphical effect and/or a one 'tic' submersion of all creatures in swamp areas into the ground to simulate that there is mud/water. This could be implemented with terain height on the tactical map to create soft bariers like pools of water/mud that slow movement, and give those with flying, levitate a movement advantage.
The last one I wanted to comment on is the neat design and flavor of Abeix. Being a big earth snake is cool and all, but at seeing the 'who dwells beneath' part of his name I couldnt help but see him differently. The name evoked the impression of a Lovecrafian horror, where the earth snake seen in the pic, is more the equivalent of a finger or limb. In otherwords the player would never see the whole creature, just parts of it that they could drive back/defeat, but the entity itself would be unkillable. There should also be some heroic exploit type thing tied into heroes or factions that do monumental things like interacting with the named creatures. Win or loose (or acheive some non combat solution), such an engagement regardless of outcome would spread thrue gossip and such. If something is important enough to have a name, then the general populace would try to keep tabs on it. Diplomacy could be used to bolster or weaken the spread of such exploits or their effects as well (such as reducing the tale of a fubar monster slaying attempt to save face). There could be some kind of buff involved to the associated champion/faction with a duration time on it where as it counts down it the effect of the fame/infamy decreases in magnitude.
Ya it would be really cool if there was a in game beastiary that you could access by clicking on a monster or something. So you could easily view stats, weaknesses, abilities, and fluff.
The game already has the perfect mechanic for this - Prestige. Killing / fending off certain adversaries could gain the faction prestige, and this should be easy enough to do with the current quest system (I assume the system in FE would be able to handle this as well.)
Oh for goodness' sake, then why do you do it? This is just a thread created by Derek to show some of the creatures that (they're thinking of) adding to the game. Why do you assume that this is the most important thing they're doing? There is nothing in the post to suggest that. Normally I quite like your somewhat critical posts, but this is just a bit ridiculous.
Yes, I know you've said you'll take a chill pill, it just bothered me. But I'll be doing the same now.
So do you plan to have the environment be a constant challenge through the game, or will you mainly be dealing with other players after the early game? Because I would quite like it if the world would continue to be challenging during the game, with increasingly powerfull 'mini bosses' that you have to defeat, leaving guys like Abeix and the swamp lord to mid or late game..
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