Greetings!
Sorcerer King has been released and it is good. So now what?
We have an extensive road-map in place for it for the next couple of years. Let’s take a look at 3 basic areas:
#1 Sorcerer King free updates
#2 Sorcerer King DLC
#3 Sorcerer King expansion pack
The free updates
There’s a lot of things we can do for the updates. We would like to hear from you. In the comments below, please feel free to list a few bullet items you’d like to see in free updates.
Sorcerer King 1.1 is due out next month with UI, AI, and more balance tweaks in it.
We would like to also implement an additional victory condition but we would like to hear from you guys what that victory condition should be.
The DLC
What would you like in DLC? We’re thinking $3.99 for DLC. So what would you like to see? Maps? Magic? Items? Quests?
The expansion
The expansion for Sorcerer King will deal with the rivals. You’ll be able to play as some of them (instead of just the Kingdom). Moreover, the rivals will play as full 4X civilizations each with their own plans, alliances, etc. There will be a LOT more types of resources (like 3X as many) which will feed into crafting, trading.
I vote magic and items, mainly. Maps, I don't care, cuz random 4 lyfe. Quests, I love the writing, so more of that, sure, but the quests themselves are pretty cookie cutter. I don't know how more of them could add to the experience too much, other than the funny writing.
The colorblind fix mentioned elsewhere on the forum would be very welcome. It's purely QoL for a small part of the user base, but it would make the game much easier to play.
Additional Victory conditions: Unite all minor races, and find all heros.
Generally speaking, I really would like to see a greater variety of opponents. I would pay for this.
Two randomly selected lieutenants from a pool of 12, each with unique abilities. (With each one being randomly selected, not two that are always chosen together)
The option to craft the keys to the kingdom- as a way to avoid lieutenants. Obviously this would have to be challenging, and available to all Sovs, not just the tinkerer.
A few more Sovs to choose from. - Probably something you have planned for a DLC, I bet.
OT: In my last three games, the first crafting item that became available was the return home scroll. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it kills variety and randomness. The scroll seems to have replaced the minor potion of healing as the first crafted item.
It would be nice if the sovereign could cast magic in their own "turn", rather than having to take the combat turn of one of your units.
-A new town screen like heroes 7.
-Starting race option.Maybe make rivals full playable races with their own unique units?
-More spells.
-More unique-legendary items.
-More opponents(and as was mentioned above more lieutenants).
-Starting units get skills,and more HP with each level.As you have said a level 10 warrior stronger than a level 1 paladin(or something like this).
-A bit more variety in sites which you get a quest.A pond,a forgotten tower,an ancient tree,an old dwarven armor,a fountain,ice tower.
-Victory condition:Find a legendary item(weapon-scroll-crystal)which comes from a series of deadly quests.Do you spend valuable forces to go after that item and risk of an attack from sk or do you ignore it?When you find it you release the soul of sk oldest opponent who avenges his death and frees the world of his existence.
For DLC- quests, items, magic, units- in order of importance. Maps don't interest me- random map parts should be part of free updates.
With the expansion, I'd love to see resources do different things for different factions- Wraiths would get little use for wheat, but get food from crystal, etc...
I want to see more lieutenants.
fixes (excluding balance/bugfixes):
more stuff:
Enemy should also be able to take out Outposts.
BUT can a unit still "sacrifice" their turn to cast a sovereign spell? If not this would be a V bad change imo.
I think the plan is that the unit can call the sovereign to cast a spell and then continue with their own turn.
For normal gameplay patches I like the focus on AI youve spoken about frequently. I would also love to see some rebalancing of level bonuses to help incent keeping units alive for the long term. Like Bailey slowly attracts a pack of dire wolves around her as she levels up. I'm sure the balancing is a nightmare, but some more flavor to normal units could really open up army diversity and help differentiate individual playthroughs.
For DLC I'd most like to see new champions, new items and new spells in that order. The current champs mostly do a good job of playing differently, but I'm sure you can think of even crazier ones. Or just expand the skill trees for slme of the current champs. For items I'd like to see a lot more super rare unique items and maybe more that offer skills on the tactical map.
Love your direction for the expansion. Moreover I hope the game is doing well and keeps doing well enough to get more than just the one! I love the base gameplay systems and art you've built here and really want to see it expanded upon as much as possible.
Steam workshop?
Free updates:
For a free update add of victory condition would be something like: if you have 50% or like 75% of the shards on the map then you can cast a spell that makes you win. It'd give the player even more reason to go find shards but it would always be dependent on shard numbers and maybe difficulty. It'd have to be different than Tower of Mastery though.
UI stuff: Still too hard to track city growth, still too hard to know how long it takes to build something -- wish both of these were easily seen on city screen or at least in the tooltip when you hover over a building item or food tooltip.
So I played the Tinkerer sovereign over the weekend and I still find Enchanting really not very easy to use. A good place to start would be to reduce magic costs to maybe even zero. I rarely enchanted because of magic costs until the end game and by then it wasn't much use. Secondly, I found that there was just too many things to pick from. It's a micromanager's dream but not for me. I don't have a solution for that though.
There needs to be more available wolfhides available from the beginning of the game. I never build leather armor because of it. I'd suggested before to have a building called something like Hunter's Guild that gives one of a type of resource (like Wolf Hide) or maybe two.
Build Road really should be available to everyone without research. It'd be nicer if you could drag a road from another road and have it auto connect. I know towers will auto-connect but not always. It's too annoying to get around the map as it is. If reducing the base cost of roads then maybe a building that reduces it's costs of universal spells or something. Also, it'd be awesome if pioneers or perhaps scout could just have an option to build a one square road for their turn. It'd exhaust the scout or pioneer of course.
I still feel like I spend half the game spawning pioneers for tower upgrades. It makes the game feel like a grind. It'd be nice if you could click on a tower and queue up an upgrade to the closest city.
I really wish I could equip shields and weapons on my soldiers. I think I crafted two weapons the last game and that was it.
DLC:
See my first inclination is to say more items but I rarely build items besides chain and platinum armors with Ring of the Tutor in as many as I could. That being said, I suspect there might be interest in sovereign specific crafting. At least, a more expanded choice. Also, I'd be nice if playing through as the priest that I'd have different unit sprites than the tyrant for example. I'd be nice if that Altica city looked different based on sovereign. That's examples of DLC that I'd consider buying.
I enjoyed the campaign scenario and wouldn't mind seeing more stories. It might be a way to introduce scenarios like Relias chaining undead girl (sorry not good on names). I'd be willing to pay for scenarios if they told a good story in the elemental world. I wouldn't want to see these story in an expansion because they are previous stories. I'd be a good way to build a campaign-lite story driven scenerios that lead to the main campaign as it currently sits. I'd be cool to see the SK becomes the SK by scenerio. I don't remember this because part of Fallen Enchantress so that's why I suggest it.
I can tell you specifically that I'm not interested in more heroes than currently is offered. As cool as Tandis is, I don't have a good grasp of him as a character. I'd rather see energy spent making the current heroes interesting than making more guys or gals with "cool" features.
The one caveat is that I'd totally buy a Build-a-hero generator DLC. Fallen Enchantress had a pretty good generator and SK could use one. I'd need to have a way to build a starting units too. Maybe it's points-based set against difficulty.
I wouldn't mind seeing a Scenario Editor DLC that allows people to build there own scenarios with robust tools. This could also be provided free as part of an update to allow more people access to it.
Expansion:
This seems obvious as you mentioned but I'd be interesting to playing the game as the yeti faction or swamp guys. The mechanics would have to feel very different though and the goals perhaps different.
I'd love to see the "minor factions" have their own AI goals for sure.
I'd like to see a continuation of the story. Just because the SK is defeated doesn't mean that there isn't more story to be told. The engine is robust enough to handle a game that plays a bit like Fallen Enchantress but different.
This idea is either a free update or here: Brad mentioned a want to diversity what a city does. I still don't have much reason to build more than two cities and that really only for logistics and that's it. Something like Fallen Enchantress but not exactly the same would be welcome.
The expansion sounds fantastic, but please ensure that each minor you can play as changes the gameplay significantly enough that it feels different. Maybe one of them uses the crystals like the tyrant does, that is they absorb them for mana gains, or they require shards for their units (I can see Ceresa's legacy doing this). Anything to make it feel asymmetrical in their actual play, too.
DLC is easy. Quests, spells, champs, and sovereigns. Maps are not something I'd buy as I always go random.
I always go random maps, so maps are not a big draw for me either. More champions & spells always. Maybe more variety in the sorceror king and his minions? I stepped away from computer gaming for a long 6 months due to real life issues taking precedence and I am just now getting back to the game. Have to say I love it. It really turned out great!
The bugs are legion. Were will their fixing fit in between version 1 and 1,1?
Oh and more lieutenants too, please! Gets old with only Aegethon and Vetrar.
Tatty, bugs are legion?..I see some, but legion?
Free things:
1) More information where it is needed. Off the top of my head would be to show how many shards are connected to a city, what resources are connected tot he city (without scouring the whole map) and probably some more hints at how to grow things like ZOC from cities and outposts.
2) A "Little" more mana/magic, especially in the early game. Perpahs a building to simply give +1 mana (not magic power) so the Sov can get a little more involved in the early game. I don't mind the hard decisions, but oft it mean my sov is simply doing nothing (and therefore often my armies are stagnant as they need a good spell to help)
3) Mages are 1/100 as cool as they were in Elemental. The staffs are boring and totally weak compared to their champ counterparts, and they no longer support with any useful spells/talents. They are essentially only in my army as a placeholder for the sov to cast spells - which is going away. These guys need a longer skill tree with some nice powers. Showdowbolt is not one of them. The only cool thing they can (other than go invulnerable) do is that one spell that costs 10 mana and hits all enemies, but 10 mana is a LOT (see #2). I on;y use it now that I have a couple of demons horn enchants and I've got 3/4 of large map cleared. The Cleric unit who heals adjacent units is 10x what my mage champ is.
4) Maybe I'm missing something, but after lvl 15, there is no leveling up a champ? How about 3 or so repeatable stacking effects for each on that can only be applied once you reach lvl 15.
5) More map options. In particular, I would like it there were an option to increase the frequency AND clumping of resources.
6) Rename Units - maybe I missed it but I just can't find how to do so. "Former Mayor"? How about "Former Mayor Bob". And I want to name my paladins Lancelot, Galahad and Sir Bedivere - so you know, we can leap out of the rabbit.
DLC:More Items / Spells tied to shards. Tying power to shards works very well.
Recipe for the Wooden Rabbit.
(Free Updates)
Line of sight unit blocking for Ranged units and mages with direct fire spells.
Line of site terrain blocking, ie...trees.
World Map Visibility twinks. When you have a unit on a hill or mountain increased visibility. When a unit is in a forest decreased visibility.
Wandering Sales Men met on the world map.
(DLC)..
Tactical maps with water as a terrain, swamps with swamps, rivers with rivers to cross.
Larger Tactical Maps. (2 tiles away from the enemy front line leaves little tactics.)
More variety of monsters to encounter.. Too many bandits... more then half of my encounters are bandits and wolfs... gets repetitive.
Different Cities models for you main faction... Different colors for the units... something to mix it up. it all looks the same. the only changes in my games are the spells I pick at the start.
Monsters lairs which correspond to the terrain their lairs are in. Scorpions lairs in the desert, ferocious exotic animals in the woods... not just bandits and wolfs everywhere.
Expand crafting to be more accessible at the start of the game. Some way to get everyone in leather before the end of the game, I don't really know how to solve it, special lairs, a worm hole to a realm with special monsters who drop high level ingredients.. I don't know. I never seem to have the ingredients to craft the recipes I have available to craft, other then potions. I always have lots of gems... I never can find ingredients to make plate for my armies in every game I play, and I just stomp all the monster lairs and end up summoning new lairs to I maybe can get the good stuff. I just kind-of given up on crafting and just hope plate mods drop plate and I have good drops or quest for gear.
(Expansions)
Dude... got to get this game off the ground in regards to combat. Unleash the Kraken and let thous Pterodactyl swoop-en in and eating my soldiers. Let me sacrifice some of my wolfs and levitate them to throw at the SK units during tactical combat. Muhahaha!. I am the SK. I dont know if I would spend money just so I can play other Factions. I would be more interested in rebalanced in game play by adding tactics which are currently not available. If I can build fire monsters from the fire faction that burn the unit which attacks them that's great and all, but I can already summon a fire elemental. If swamp giants bash units and have them lose a turn thats nice, but Ill just summon a Ice Elemental and freeze all units on the map for a turn of only 10 mana... way way too powerful by the way.
(Victory Conditions)
Elemental Alliance... call the aid of the old titans to crush the SK. Through quest lines meet and persuade the titans assist you.
Curgen Awakened... Resurrect his spirit get him back in charge. Bring him back to power with gifting units and cities. Finally assisting his army with the SK take down and the returning of Curgen's Bane to him.
Cataclysm... Start the destruction of the world which enrages the SK and brings his full wrath against you. Cause the 2nd Cataclysm before he Cast the Spell of Making
You asked and you have received....
Fixes/Balance- Unable to use tactical abilities on square north of Swamp Giant champion.- Abilities disappear for a turn from some units in tactical.- Can't collapse the headings in Enchantment tab of Crafting panel- Summoned Wisp doesn't heal adjacent units- Incorrect movement turn estimates- Increase falcon unit's sight range- Be able to center tactical area effects on impassable terrain
UI/UX- More categories/collapsible headings for crafting recipes- Remember which headings are collapsed.- Headings at top of Crafting panel for "recently used" and "new"- Remember current page of spellbook between uses.- Choose from list or grid when assigning a crafted item, instead of cycling through each unit.- Show which improvement a city just finished building.- Popup list of all built city improvements.- Be able to sell/delete/hide items and units.- Be able to give units to allied factions?- Drag and drop army units to change order in army
DLC suggestions- New champions- and/or quests that only pop up for specific champions (good for building back stories)- New SK lieutenants- More variety in tactical maps and opponent combinations- Heal Army spell
There is at least two medium that I know of, and one dirty great big one.
+1 For a Sovereign that actually does something, like cast their own spells on the battlefield instead of you having to possess a sibling for the job. This is so contradictory it defies logic on a epic scale.
The developers of this game show very little definition between Sovereigns, hero's and their pets, units, beasts, traveling salesmen, God's and kings, mice or men, travelers, tramp's and thieves. All seemingly giving the feeling of one base unit with various skill trees.
I have to reiterate that I think that each sovereign needs unique units, especially end-game units unique to each sovereign. Replayability needs to be your focus and you need to make that replayability very obvious.
Wellspring is the "Heal Army" spell. Can be used out of combat as well.
For free updates, I'll be happy with just balance and bug fixes.
That said, I'd welcome some minor diplomacy tweaks with rivals (I find it far too easy to ally with them, but it might just be me). Perhaps make the quests they give you result in a choice between a favor or keeping some kind of unique reward to yourself? For example Ceresa's bones could be a city's essence boosting artifact...
I'd also welcome an ability influence random map generation like in LH where you can pick % of terrain type, landmass type (islands, one continent, two distinct continents, amount of fertile lands, mountains, etc), and have the option to select the number of Rivals regardless of map size.
Also, more victory conditions would be nice, but you need to look if the game mechanics allow to make them interesting. Someone mentioned ally with all rivals, but at the present that would make small and tiny random maps where there are only 1 or 2 rivals a breeze. As it stands, you would have to go out of your way NOT to win a diplomacy victory. Maybe if alliances were significantly harder to achieve, and some rivals would automatically go to war if you allied with a rival they don't like... and besides, Rival-wide alliance should not equal to absolute victory. Rivals+player alliance is an alliance of small pests in the eyes of the Sorceror king anyway.
Perhaps a master quest to forge some artifacts of power? Maybe go beyond that, and incorporate the idea of alliance and forge an artifact of power for each allied rival as well? With each artifact forged a threat to Sorceror king would go up, and you would have to defend your rivals till the last one if forged? It could tie up with crafting system, and force you into a choice of how to use your crafting materials.
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For DLC, I would like to see more champions, and maybe a couple units themed to synergize with the new AND existing champions' skill trees. For example, the existing ranger unit really makes archers shine.
Similarly, I really like the hero champions rival races gift you, even though their usefullness varies, their uniquenes is still very cool. It would be nice if the Rival's units got bolstered by presence of the rival hero, though! Like Pariden's archon granting a boon to pariden mage units one can trade for.
For the expansion, I may be in the minority, and it may open a new can of balance worms with spells, but I'd love to have the return of Elemental shards, instead of the single universal shard. Now, there is very little reason to war with Rivals: they never control enough universal shards to concern yourself with, the units they sell you are nice, the hero they grant you is awsome. Why war?
Now, if they had control of a unique resourse that could possibly outweight the benefits of the alliance, then thats another story. If there are only 3 fire shards on the map and all of them are controlled by the rivals, well... Also would be nice if you could capture their hero in your service if you choose to war with them and won. LH had that mechanic with Sovereign surrender, albeit the broken spirit debuff was a touch too severe, imho.
Of course, more sovereign options and ability to play as rivals (and have THEM have more soveregn options) would be extremely welcome!
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