Derek (Kael) has been super busy with the general expansion of Stardock Entertainment over the past 3 years. AS I type this, there are 7 concurrent game projects going on. Back in 2008, I dreamt of having a second team. Here we are, 6 years later with seven teams. I’m writing this from the airplane on my way to visit one of the new studios (one that hasn’t been announced yet).
So what does that mean for fans of the Elemental universe? The answer is, lots of good news. While Galactic Civilizations III heads towards its March alpha, the Elemental team is hard at work on a new DLC pack for this Winter tentatively called “Monarchs” which will bring more channelers to the world for players to play with. In addition, we expect to announce the third game in the Elemental fantasy universe this year. It will be dramatically different from War of Magic or Fallen Enchantress.
Without giving too much away about the new game, which we expect to formally announce this Spring, its planned feature set includes:
It’s been in development for awhile, prior to LH. LH was originally supposed to be a minor expansion on FE but as you’ve probably gathered, we really love making these games. The next update to LH is in the works, pathfinding improvements, performance and some other updates are scheduled.
Wait frogboy, there's a rotating camera in FE:LH?
How do I do that?
And okay I'll give that next game a chance.
I don't rotate much, and when I do it's usually just on the tactical map.
add a height mechanic to the combat terrain, like the system in final fantasy tactics. It adds a lot more variables to play with and is just more fun to play than just a simple 2d grid.
Another YES here.
I've never used (except by accident) the rotating camera in FE or GalCiv2.
Always found it more of an annoyance than anything else; particularly in galciv which doesn't autoreset the camera.
I could give up the rotating camera in the strategic map, but not the tactical map.
Woot! Woot! Possibly up to 2.0. I'm excited.
As for the rotating camera: With the ability to rotate building placement, I very rarely feel the need or desire to rotate the camera. If I do, I always ensure that auto-swingback is enabled because I'm OCD about the orientation of my map.
So, my vote would be: Yes, I would be willing to give up the rotating camera for a boost in performance. I would be willing to give up the rotating camera for a boost in visual quaility if you maintain the concept of art used. I really like the fantasy-styled sillhouetted-pascel art.
The only time I find myself needing to rotate a map is during tactical combat when trees get in the way of tile selection.
N/A
<<Insert Dos Equis joke here>>
On the serious side, I agree, I only rotate on tactical, and only because sometimes you just can't see something, or more likely can't select/interact with it properly.
edit (added):
I take that back, kind of. I always play with preset view 2 active. Thanks to the above poster for reminding me of that! I just have a better sense of direction with that view.
I had no idea there were preset views.
Will have to try it next time I'm in the game.
I would love to see a Linux port, but I doubt it will happen.
Strengths: 1) Hostile world idea: Wildlands and Boss creatures, quests, random events.
2) Fame mechanic for hero recruitment and Sov/Hero Classes and skill trees.
3) Shards influencing spell power/effects aside from just giving mana.
4) Custom sovs and races. Sandbox and random maps, the World and opponent options are perfect.
5) The modding features while not accessible to all, have enabled the talented among us to make some great additions to the game.
Ideas that were implemented but not to their full potential (imo):
1) Troop traits- just all there at start of game, none earned via quests or research. None brought by conquering other factions. Or earned by defeating Wildland bosses or gifted by a Warrior hero upon recruitment.
2) Heroes' back stories integrated into quests and special events. A scary demon gates into camp one night and tries to steal the soul of one of your heroes. The "Troublesome Adventurers" quest sorta scratched this itch, but a lot more could have been done with this. Perhaps a cool hero defects from another faction but it could cause war, etc.
3) Tactical combat- adequate, but a lot of inconsistencies with playing it out vs. auto-resolving, dumb troop movements (I click to attack a unit and it puts my unit in a square where it can suffer attacks from 2 enemy units instead of just one), and while the special attacks were great, there were just not enough different varieties to make it exciting. Line of sight, terrain modifiers, a real siege mechanic, etc have been brought up multiple times. If I camp my army on a swamp tile, my enemy's cavalry should suck, etc.
4) Loot drops were always a little shaky. And defeating an enemy sov or hero should have earned me Fame and a random magic item from their inventory that fell as they were carried off the field of battle. The injuries were all tremendously clever, and a great addition.
5) A better/more consistent use of magic motifs: The ice spear should slow your enemies like a hit from an ice elemental. Lightning damage should have a chance to stun an enemy using metal armor/arms, Fire should burn a unit for a few more turns etc...
Weaknesses:
1) No creature editor to let modders easily create new monsters. Lots of peasant hair and shirt options but no tentacles?
2) The loss of the dynasty system.
3) The loss of cross-school spells.
4) The lack of truly flying units (why are they following roads?!? can't fly over terrain blockers in combat), the lack of water/amphibious creatures.
5) The Diplomacy/Trading screens/features.
All in all, a good game that has eaten 500+ hours of my spare time over the past 2 years. The next iteration can only improve on a solid foundation. And I learned how to do some .xml stuff!
And the whole response to the Elemental launch is still a high-point in personal/corporate accountability. It should be taught in b-schools.
Edit: camera rotation can go away in favor of performance
Does giving up rotation necessarily mean ALL rotation, or could you create 90 deg presets? A la SIM city
+! I never use it. It's not at all needed.
To be honest the new game does not sound that appealing to me, no tech tree, no unit customisation and no sovereign unit. Problem is that these aspects are things that I love about Elemental, it always bothers me when sequels in games remove features. This is one of the reasons I got so angry with Egosoft over X Rebirth, that said Stardock does do one thing exceptionally well, improvement through iteration.
I am glad to read that Legendary Heroes shall continue alongside the new game and it will get more DLC, shame it will be near a year till we will get that DLC but I will take anything I can get. A 2.0 version sounds wonderful, I just wonder what improvements and additions it will include, I know many of us have many requested features and outstanding bugs/performance issues, it will be really interesting to see what the team has prioritized and added.
Thank you for the update Frogboy, I can not wait to see what we get for Legendary Heroes in 2014.
Edit - Also scraping the rotation is fine for me, I only ever use it if a unit is hidden or not targetable due to location. (Usually at the edge of the map)
Why do you say a year? Isn't it coming this winter (March)?
I will occasionally use camera rotation on tactical maps when units are obscured by buildings or fixtures making them difficult to find, target or activate. I would give up the ability if confident I could manipulate all units in every battle successfully without it.
Yes to disable rotation for strategic (I never use it). Yes for tactical if those view-blocking terrain is removed or modified to be less obstructive to the player's view. Thankfully, those aren't too common...
Really glad to hear for more updates and having fixes backported to LH.
The new game sounds very good. The closer you get to MoM the better as far as I'm concerned. I always disliked playing with my sovereign as a unit so that alone is a big improvement. More powerful magic and the crafting sounds like the game will be a lot more interesting.
I have hardly played LH at all, and did not like the various directions it took. A big disappointment for me. FE was a much better basic game in my opinion. So it is unlikely I'll be buying DLC for LH or LH2 but the new game sounds much better.
Whoah wait what? Your Sovereign is not a unit? Then I am against that move completely.
That is thoroughly the most enjoyable aspect of the game for me. It differentiates it from Civ/Warlock/etc like clones where you sovereign is just some sort of presence that casts spells/controls policies in the background.
Infact I disagree with UncleJJ44 on pretty much everything he has said there. I do play LH more than I've played the previous two incarnations and I am very happy with the directions it took. I will definitely be springing for more LH DLC and an LH2
Feburary 14th is the first day of spring, the coming winter is 11th November. Unless the DLC is in the next ten days or I am missing something obvious this coming winter would be over nine months from now.
Regardless of when it is released, I shall be keeping my eye out for Legendary Hero news just in case.
So is there a list of the 7 games anywhere?
My guess:
1. Gal Civ 3
2. Elemental 4x
3. Elemental RPG
4. sins of a solar empire????
5. Star control
6. ???
7. Something using oxide
I do believe the popular choice of the first day of spring is the vernal equinox or around March 20th, which is the astrological first day of spring. Plus, if we are going by Phillip (the ground hog), we are looking for another 6 more weeks of winter this year, which places it the week of March 16th in 2014.
Hmm...this is one of the unique traits of the Elemental series that I really like and use often. When I play Civ V I often curse that I can't rotate the camera (but I still try!) However I could also understand the advantages of a fixed camera system, so I wouldn't be upset if it want away; just very, very disappointed.
Damn, so excited, GalCivIII, new Elemental game... If ya gonna have a founder's pack for new Elemental game, count me in.
That said, thats some drastic changes, seems the new Elemental game is going down the MoM route. Which i'm happy with and welcome with open arms. Hopefully we will have more content too.
I think they said they were developing 3 games for mobile platform, one would be dead man's draw. So your list might be a bit too pc-oriented. I also recall reading that SINS was specifically not in development - that studio was focusing on their MOBA game (and anyway it wouldn't count as one of Brad's 7 teams, right?).
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