Fallen Enchantress at two weeks
Fallen Enchantress has now been out two weeks. So far, we’ve sold about 50,000 units (give or take). This is somewhat below Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion but, obviously, far far ahead of War of Magic during the same time frame.
The biggest obstacle has been reviews. It’s hard for niche titles (and make no mistake, fantasy turn-based PC games are niche) to get coverage. There’s only so many reviewers to go around and the last thing we want is a drive by (i.e. rushed) review.
Tomorrow or Thursday we expect to release v1.01 which has a long list of fixes and tweaks that we’ve found. Probably the most obvious change will be performance which dramatically improved.
The Map Pack
We will be releasing our first-ever DLC for a Stardock game. It’ll be an interesting experiment to see what the demand is. Paul Boyer and I have designed a series of hand crafted maps that will be going up for sale in a week or two for $4.99. If sales of this are strong, we’ll look at doing additional DLC packs. A game like Fallen Enchantress lends itself to content centric DLC and so we’re anxious to see what people are interested in.
The Expansion
We have an expansion planned for early next year. I won't spoil it except to say that it’s going to re-design the way champions are handled in the game. We want the game to generally move towards the power of your champions be a reflection of the power of your civilization.
After the expansion, Stardock will look at where things stand. We have 3 game development teams at Stardock. One is on “Game X”, One is FE related stuff, and one is on mobile game development. Since we’re not likely to get as many reviews as we’d like, we’re going to be relying heavily on word of mouth.
Version 1.1
We very much want to do a pre-Christmas update to FE. That version will be heavily AI and balance focused based on player feedback. We’ll have more details of that as we get closer. Right now, we’re focusing on getting v1.01 out the door.
Civ V: Gods & Kings arguably better that Civ IV: Beyond the Sword. As far as I'm concerned, it's currently the 4x strategy game to beat.
Lord Xia,
Realism often goes against gaming. If i would play a realistic roman or ancient battle most of the time armys would try hard not to fight against eachother. Moving into a superior position and waiting for the other to attack. Which wouldnt be much fun. Civilization isnt realistic but it wouldnt be much of a game either if it was realistic.
Oh, I agree completely, I was just arguing against a previous statement made. Often, I think making a game "real" can hurt it's fun. There has to be a line made where it's real enough not to make players think it's stupid, but at the same time it's at it's optimal fun level.
Mtn_Man
True, civ 4 is better. But i prefer some things about civ 5.
I still play civ 4 whenever i want a real challenge.
Maybe i should have spend some more time explaining myself. I diddnt have the time to read over the first 2 posts more carefully. Well. Good night all.
i still play Civ3 more than Civ4. Much of that is due to not being able to play huge unmodded maps, or medium sized heavily modded games with Civ4. Civ3 is the better game for me simply because it doesn't have the content limits. And that seems to be due to Civ4s fidgety 3D graphics. i can play massive games on Civ3 with major mods. Some of these mods have broke the code which limits number of cities and units. No problem. Hundreds of cities and well over a thousand units. No problem cept with the hyperlinks. Mods keep me playing, and that kept me buying until Civ5 required external DRM client. i hope FE can get a handle on this memory thingy. Elemental franchise could become my new Civ, but only if i can play epic games with massive mods. If not then i will enjoy the small maps till i don't. Then move on.
Just to add my 2 cents, I have never bought a DLC in any game thus far, that was worth the money.
Add the maps to the expansion and raise the price, if you must, but extra cash for maps that many other people are producing for free, does not seem to be worth it.
Well, I haven't actually played the game yet since I was neck deep in getting to the new cap in Lotro when this game came out. I will just come out and say that I have never once played a custom map in any game except Alpha Centauri where the campaign map was a set map. I would love to give you guys 5 bucks for some DLC but maps are not the way to my wallet; sorry.
I will try the game out this weekend or next after I browse some of the 1.01 feedback. I greatly enjoyed the original release of WoM but the aspects I loved were nerfed as the as the game improved lol
I'm a little late to chime in on this topic. But I just want to say I can't see myself buying a map pack for a game that's meant to play with random maps. Not unless the map pack included new monsters/quests/terrain variations or something that would also be added to the pool of stuff the random generator could draw upon for map creation. That map pack they made for Civ 5 included a new variation of the Continents style random map for example. You could also sweeten the deal by making new premade Sovereigns for Capitar, and Umber.
Fatbil,
I would rather see more expansions than dlc. But if i like to play the game im not that bothered with small packages which would lenghten the time i would spend with the game. More diverse monsters, skins and new factions has my preference for dlc. But new patches, balance tweaks and mods might be preferable to me now.
If u are worried about the price. Steam has summersales where u could often buy it for 75% less. But you have to be patient of course.
I won't pay for maps ..But may for an expansion, why not pack'em together ?
I honestly think a map pack for DLC is a terrible idea. I have never, and will never, buy a map pack. They don't add anything worthwhile to the game. Random maps + lack of MP really erode a need for spending additional money on maps. I think you'd be way better off with added civs/spells/champions than maps.
I disagree with all ^ I definitely want fantasy races like Master of Magic. It's a fantasy game afterall so bring in the fantasy races. Especially hobbitssssss
Willie Sanderson,
The possiblilitys of the fantasy genre is endless. So u might get lucky
I agree that reactions on both the forum and the review sites have been strangely muted.
As far as I am concerned there is a feeling of waiting for the game to be finished, and I am not ready to comment on it on the internet until I see how Stardock deals with the issues that the game still has.
To beat a decomposing horse, I am talking about giving tactical combat some meaningful shape, reviewing the magic system and its selection of spells and fixing diplomacy. I know this is all working as intended from the dev point of view, but to me it all feels like a first try and not like a finished product. Therefore I am, in a way and possibly forever, still waiting for the game to be finished before giving any evaluation of it on forums or among friends and before I consider buying DLC.
I'd rather play an original game than a Tokenesque pastiche. As I said in one thread, it would be a disservice to the game to slap together some fantasy races and drop them in while neglecting to actually make something that adds to the game and the games lore, you're essentially dumbing it down for mass appeal because people can't stand originality.
Hi all
Well, I will buy the DLC Map pack and they certainly will get played!
I'm happy to support FE and Stardock $5 it's nothing, how long dose an average large map game take? seems good value to me.
Yes I mostly play random maps, but no random map will ever be as good a well crafted player created map...
Yep $5 I'm in.
It depends how good those maps are and what they may contain. If they come with scripts or recurring events (like tidal waves, expanding growth, growing volcanos or rivers springing up - i.e. life of their own) they would be interesting. So far I have not used pre-made maps with most games, as they have no advantage over random ones.
(On the other hand, I'd like to support Stardock.)
That's why other game release editors or have randomly generated maps. It's exactly because they don't require much resources to create that people will probably not pay for them. I know I wont.
Folks reading this Discussion Thread, who are interested in the Map Pack that Frogboy mentions here, (or folks who are militantly sure that they don't like the idea of a DLC Map Pack ) probably ought to check out Frogboy's new Discussion thread, where he mentions (among other things) that a "Gigantic" Anthys Map will be included in the $5 Map Pack; and that "most" of the new Stardock-staff "Hand-crafted maps" will permit some measure of ships (unit transports ?) to be used on them ...
The point is: the discussion about the Map Pack has moved onwards, to this Thread:
https://forums.elementalgame.com/436360
You make what SELLS what the MASSES want not what a handful of realists want as that's been proven not to make much money. So FANTASY it IS!
Might as well put my suggestions for the game (which I totally love btw!) up as well (pretty much copy/pasted from a previous post I had):
I would be wastly more interrested in seeing DLC's with new civs, new techs, new rare resources (super unique lizard mount for troops? Yes please), new quests, wildzones and events. I expect a few of these will be coming in the expansion, but why not give a little in advance. Possibly look into vastly unique civs that don't use any of the same methods as the other civs?
Well, the expansion is slated for early next year. Not alot of time to make stuff for DLC and the expansion.
Especially if there's BIG maps - like 50% bigger than current large.
Just seems like I'm always starting on top of 3 other factions, even on large with just six total players (when large accommodates 9 according to the tooltip text - which I'm trying to imagine).
Hello,
Make a multiplayer extension to the game, and you will extend your sales. The most famous strategy games are multiplayer. With no multiplayer, you interest only a fraction of the strategy game fans. And for sure, they will not post many comments for a game which doesn't interest them.
As Civilization 2 make a multiplayer hotseat extension (Civ 2 Multiplayer), the sales for Civ 2 have increased...
I know many strategy game players who don't buy FE because of the multiplayer. Think about it, make a real poll on all strategy game players and you will be surprised. (Not just an internal poll for players who have ever bought the game...)
I have played to many and many strategy games and FE has really innovative concepts. It's not like a Civ, or a Heroes Might and Magic and it's also different from AoW. According to me, FE has a real potential for being one of the most famous strategy games BUT you have to make a multiplayer extension or patch. It will be a shame if you don't make a multiplayer patch or a multiplayer extension for the game.
Have a lot of fun with FE!
Bye
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