Here’s a video of Scott (Boogiebac) working on some cut scenes for Fallen Enchantress.
Hmmm more eprsonality for Ai sounds kind of nice. Like for example an AI that just does have a certain grudge or disliek against certain a Race or faction and just acts not rational in behave of this group. Or maybe some certain preferrence in he case of which magic is used or in generally being truthworthy or being backstabbing. Additional to this a fitting leaderface and there certainly could be done a lot.
Hmmm maybe already it would help if the otehr parties would act a bit more from themself to contact the player and not letting all inetraction being technical relevant or at leats not obvious relevant. Like instead of the obvious diplomatic points letting your interaction or maybe opinions about a seem to be harmless discussion influence the AI opinion and desire to crush you be influenced.
There certainly could be done a lot I would say on the otehr hand the question propably as far it is in reasonable cost and production time relation. Anyway someone still can dream for things or?
This is probably the wrong place to ask this and I'm sure its been answered elsewhere already (I did check, I swear!).
Can we get an estimated release date for Fallen Enchantress? May/June, a few months, by Christmas, or spring 2012 (hopefully before end of the world)?
I remember back in February that Frogboy stated that there will be no boxed or retail version (excuse me if this has changed since), and with the recent sale of Impulse this month I'm also kind of nervous on how we actually acquire the game or prove that we bought War of Magic early enough and are eligible for the 2(3?) free expansions/sequels.
Hmmm thi is mainly an assumption but I guess impulse does save when we actually bought something or registered tehre something and I guess in case of retail versions stardock will propably offer a way to prove it by a bill copy if it is not registered.
As said it is mainly an assumption and I can be wrong. Hope it does not look like I am camping the thread. It is just that I am really interrested in the topic.
Richness, depth, and polish...that's exactly what I want more of, something WoM let me down with big time.
I am primarily an RPGer who does enjoy richly styled fantasy strategy games also, like AoW:SM, HoMM, Etherlords, FFH.
And I don't take any offense to the creative comment, although I have a very active imagination(told that all my life lol) that's why I buy and play games and not make them.
ya my statement was a short not well thought out statement. Should of got more into it, didnt think it will be quoted.
Of course lore is important. Just thought up of MoM and in no way did it even have a story or history. But yes you are correct it was traditional fantasy put into a different genre of gaming. I enjoy the races in AoW:SM. Just playing one of those races was fun. Add in an overall story line and heroes and a unique story line per map and ya lore is a fun thing. One thing that bummed me out about Elemental was that the world was pretty much all humans and harsh empty lands. I guess not looking forward to in a fantasy game. 2 races that arent that different and a desert.
I've recently realized why I am still playing WoM and haven't moved on despite its downfalls, and that is the art and style of the game. I may fly off subject a bit here but does it strike anyone as being odd that some of the best games of all time up to this point were from the early 90's to the early 00's and a lot weren't on the PC? For me, there are a lot of reasons why games back then were intrinsically "better" then most all games produced now. Back then there was a limit on how graphical you could make a production due to technology. Even still, I have experienced some of the best worlds within those limited games. Games such as Chrono Trigger, and Xenogears, and even to the mostly basic graphics of Lord of the Realms II. Part of the love I have for those graphics was that it was really the first time I'd experienced something like that, nowadays we are all so jaded because we've all "been there done that". Most of the really good games came from consoles and the main reason they were considered some of the best games was not because of the graphics but because of the depth and quality of the game itself.
WoM is a beautiful game that has yet to show us it's true potential (and this is really being worked on if FE!) Cutscenes and stills from this game could be amazing and I'm sure they will be in FE. I feel like I am really attached to most games I play in WoM because of the way things look to me. It may seem so basic and not very vibrant to most but it has that throwback look except with a modern polish. It's not straight cartoon and it's not gritty reality. Speaking of those two sides of the graphical spectrum, I find imo that most of the early games were successful because not so much production was put towards amping up the graphics but instead more time and effort was put in to the mechanics/story/battlesystems/economy etc... The PC was the pinnacle of graphics back then (and still is) and even then they were limited, however there weren't too many absolutely astounding games, at least not nearly as many as there were available to the consoles.
Part of me wants a straight RPG game with these graphics. Coupled with an epic story and fleshed out with great characters I could really get in to that!
I wonder if a given cut scene could be generated dynamicly? Such as having one of the layered backgrounds (potentially with moving or animated props to be used at different depths to fill in background where appropriate) as a backdrop and using the character models (scaled appropriately to the scene) of the involved characters and createing a basic scene where poses or emotes could be used to convey the 'action' or 'emotion' of the scene.
A battle surrender could be done a follows. A field backdrop (the type of terain that the event occured on) with some troop siluetes (could otherwise be a unit from the battle normal, scalled to create depth to the scene or applied with a full black body cover to create a siluette. The leader of the winning force could be holding a pose in the foreground with weapon held pointed at opponent who is on bended knee before them (they could be static poses or be treated as a type of idle animation). Could throw in a smoke effect drifting in the background (with a burning village if a city was attacked).
Then you could get a prompt on accepting the surrender (having defeated the enemy army) letting them retreat with perhaps a commanding unit and say a rough 25% of their forces (so you would have some eliminated outright and likely some damaged) you could receive a perception adjustment (+/-) from that faction and others for your mercy- or have a stipulated surrender where your letting any of the units survive is dependent on what the faction can offer you (the units would have been 'slain' in combat- but it would basicly 'revive' some of them after combat if you let any live), you could opt to just complete the battle normally where any slain units are dead, or even take them prisoner (held for ransom as in a delayed stipulated retreat, or 'spend' the POWs to gain intel on that faction or some materials/equipment or something.
In effect you would have a likelly mostly static snap shot kind of picture of the event happening- it could be further expanded from there if you wanted to animate the action taken in the example above, but it would hardly be necessary (and could potentially be pointless in the case of deciding a policy or something less dramatic where it would be pantomimed approval/dissapproval or something). You could say reveiw the world history book for the world (map) you are playing and it could have a kind of bullet note list where you could view the history of decisions made and could potentially throw in an accompanying picture here or there for major events or something. You could have it set up as by date or by type and then make the bullet points simple summaries such as 'Gilden Declared war on Tarth' or clickable to expand the details of the entry such as a record of hostilities or tie it into the graph progress thing.
While some have said that they don't like the campaigns, I wish to differ. I find them fun, they let you see the lore and backstory of the game, and I for one, like to have some sort of set goals sometimes, and not a total sandbox (which I also like, but to be able to choose is even better).
The book was good because of that, who would have thought that below East Anthys was a huge underground world!? I think the wastelands will give you the chance to show more, like the Imperius one (How about a Calebethon one? I don't mean underground maps, which would still be cool, but sort like if you build a city by one of the entrances, you get a bonus at some resource, or if you build cities at different caves entering the complex, troops can move between them without enemies looking at them!)
I concur with the others, give us some gameplay video, or something! While hearing the details is awesome (what other company let's players talk with the devs?) some footage would be also well recieved, just don't show spoiler things if you don't want, but a gree landscape is hardly spoiler-y
Hope to hear more soon! FE is looking good!
to me were the 90s-2001 golden age of PC gaming. Also console games were fun back then too. But i think PC games have stood the test of time better. Which makes me wonder why PC gamers get offended when i say i think PC gaming is dying. I mean if the 90s rocked with PC games, both in quantity and quality, but like there are NOW way fewer PC titles than before and like 80% of modern day PC gaming is also on consoles.... how isnt PC gaming dying? B/c the sales of Warcraft and Diablo? Hurray 1 company is making the majority of the sales.
Anyways...
Alot of people get nostalgia thinking about old games but by today standards arent fun in reality. But there are a few that stood the test of time b/c their gameplay is unique and hasnt been beaten yet, and i gladly play them. Also i think 2d had more style to it than 3d. I mean Lands of Lore... still beautiful to me. Well Gears of War looks great too, despite polygon whores say about Killzone or Crysis 2. But 2d had such a simplistic handmade nature to it. Explains why GOG.com gets so much attention. Modern day gaming is becoming more and more standardized
And with HOMM2 - the graphics are quite stylized but hold up well, better than H3's (and even H5's, which is based on H3's look but in 3D) more "realistic" look. It seems the more "realistic" graphics in a game are, the quicker they age and start to look bad, and good 2D will last a lot longer and generally look better than equivalent 3D. It will be great in fheroes2 when we can have huge maps (potentially much bigger than current H3 maps with underground), and other new gameplay features. Anyway, like games like Lands of Lore, HOMM2 still retains its beauty - in its case a simple but attractive 2D beauty of LOTR-style fantasy map/world, races, creatures and heroes.
Best regards,Steven.
For me in a Stratagy games Lore/story is not important Unless you play the campaign. The Game should (and does have a sandbox mode as most stratagy games do) and this sandbox mode will be played a lot more than the campaign. And since most of us make our own story in sandbox mode then the core game really does not need any lore.
Personally I rarely play campaigns in these types of games because they tend to be too tied to the story (aka too linier.)
I'll have to disagree with you on most of the post. But I will agree with you on the WOM art and style, except I don't like it but it is as bad as the graphics from those early games. Now the best Turn-based stratagy games were from PC's and not consoles because these games had more depth than the console, not sure how your getting the console games have more depth in the 90's. In fact I have never played a console game that I have liked that could not be done better on a PC but that is a personal opinion (I also hate console controllers. Give me the mouse and keyboard anyday.)
WoM is all about potential that is never achieved. I hear all the time about it's potential even after it has been out a year there still a lot of "potential" left. Well I think that all of WOM "potential" will show up in FE.
Even if I don't read a lot of the lore, i still appreciate knowing that there is a rich universe there. A bunch of numbers moving around on a screen is about as interesting as rolling a dice to me. If lore can be brought in to be visible directly in-game (for example, elves living in a big tree because they love nature or whatever) all the better.
For some of the things in game they could even have it pick one set of lore at world generation. You could have a couple different origin stories or groups of info that may or may not be contradictory between groups that the game would choose for the given element. So say darklings are damaged survivors of the cataclysm in one game and in anouther they are outcast scavengers. These different lore/backgrounds could be tied into how the ai makes them behave. So the scavengers may avoid attacking groups of units all together and prey on weakend units or those that are by themselves. The survivors may be more likely to form into large groups to take down anything that is in their territory (behaving more like a faction).
It would make it so you don't 'know' exactly what that bear, ogre or spider unit is going to do without more observation of its behavior- it also ties the lore as more important to the gameplay experience. Maybe ogres are peaceful (non-agro) on humanoids and only attack beasts for that game. Even if its only a couple sentances difference or the ai works the same every game, the player's perception of the monsters and other things in the world will be different in each given game creating a unique experience each time. I see it as similar to how a custom faction fits into the world currently.
Edit: On second thought it would probably be better to have the AI type separate from the lore type for more combinations and less predictability (ie requiring observation or interaction vs. just reading their lore for that game to know how they'll act).
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