Tactical AI changes
Strategic AI changes
No more training of individual units (4 will be the new minimum)
No requirement for buildings to build a unit (buidings will enhance units but not be a requirement)
FOW will matter more (money generation)
Changes in the food/housing/prestige mechanic: Food/Housing = faster population growth rather than being a cap.
More cities = lower prestige.
Notable locations can be searched regardless of level.
Quests can be taken on regardless of level.
Random Events
These things are all planned to be patched into WoM. It sounds like Brad will be in charge of WOM, and Kael/Jon will be designing FE.
There’s a new journal entry by Kael on designing creatures.
These descriptions make it sound like a lot of effort has been put into making the enemies you fight quite diverse, which is nice. I hope the same level of effort is being put into making the units I can create just as diverse :)
Have you collected these form various comments on the Elemental forums? Or is there some interview/overvie/thingie I’ve missed?
That was a post Brad made yesterday.
KevinC
6425
The units Kael & Team are cooking up sound fantastic. That is what Elemental has been missing - not just from a flavor perspective, but in interesting tactical choices. Every one of those units he lists brings something different to the table.
That post really kinda got me pumped about Fallen Enchantress. If that’s any indication of how the expandalone is being designed/developed, it’s going to be a big, big improvement.
More from Brad, about why they’re still putting work into the base game, when FE will ultimately be what they’re focusing on:
Q: Why are we enhancing WOM when FE is likely to be so much better received?
A: Because some day, WOM will be a $4.95 type game and we don’t want people to not like what they get. One of the things I regret to this day (business wise) is that we didn’t go back and make the oriignla GalCiv I and the original GalCiv II better.
We have sold hundreds of thousands of copies of those two games in jewel cases at places like Target and I cringe every time I see it on the shelf. Seriously. Go to Target or Walmart some time and see for yourself. It would be a huge missed opportunity not to spend more effort on WOM to make it a funner game so that it can eventually (think 2012) be a “bargain” game and lead people to Fallen Enchantress and subsequent editions of the Elemental universe.
ShivaX
6427
Agreed. I love the sound of where things are going. Add in a previous post/movie about things like giving your troops flaming swords and its looking a lot more like what I was hoping it would be.
Blips
6428
The content and mechanics in FE are going to be pointless if the AI is still as dumb as a post when the game is released. Instead of having a small team dedicated to the strategic/tactical AI, we’ve got the CEO potentially sacrificing the finished game by working on the AI almost single-handedly a few hours each week just so that he can play out his enjoyment of working on AI.
jpinard
6429
The AI will not be dumb. Brad did nearly all the AI work himself on the Gal Civ games, but by spreading himself way too thin for Elemental’s rollout didn’t have the time or energy to make its AI very good. Things are different now and he can focus on doing what he enjoys most supported by the rest of the talented programmers at SD. A great thing about having Jon Shafer on the staff as they can brainstorm what went right/wrong with Civ V and maybe apply some of those lessons to Elemental FE.
Alstein
6430
Making an AI for a game like Elemental or any fantasy game is a hell of a lot harder then making it for a 4X game- when you have terrain, spells, and a wider variety of abilities to worry about.
I’m still worried for the AI, though if anyone can do it, it’s Stardock.
KevinC
6431
I’m hoping Fallen Enchantress actually makes good on the “Multiplayer” feature listed on the box as well. Multiplayer in Elemental is… well, it’s enough to legally satisfy the fact that it’s advertised on the box, but that’s about it.
I know it’s not a huge priority or anything, but I love playing these games coop with my friends. We just had another round of FFH last weekend, and it was a blast.
Blips
6432
Gal Civ doesn’t have tactical battles, city building, abilities, spells, quests. The pathing of Elemental is also far more involved than any of the Gal Civ maps.
Though not as complex, it certainly does have the above - just in space terms. Did you play GC2 with the expansions?
City Building = Planet Development, Abilities = Abilities etc.
The City Building was kinda broke- Brad admitted as such. How it worked in Elemental was a reaction to the criticism of how it worked in GC2. Honestly, I don’t think City Building in Elemental is that bad, outside of it being obvious what the best strategy is in most cases, which is more a failing of the game then this particular idea.
There’s no real abilities or spells outside of constructors/transports/miners, which I don’t really count.
GC2 as a game is much easier to develop an AI for then a game like Elemental.
I’m not debating the massive increase in complexity at all, just saying you couldn’t state all those features were absent in GC2 (with expansions).
I was also equating abilities/spells with the unique racial traits and Super Abilities - not Constructors etc.
Sure, both games share some basic 4x overlaps, but in fact Elemental has many additions for which there are no precedents in GalCiv – additions that complicate the AI problems immeasurably. The racial traits and super abilities in GalCiv have equivalents in Elemental, but they’re just passive bonuses, which makes them a non-issue for the AI in both games. Elemental has spells and unit abilities that the AI must voluntarily activate, and tactical battles that require unit maneuvering. Brad has proven that he can produce a solid strategic AI, but GalCiv’s design made minimal tactical demands. In contrast, Elemental’s tactical demands are enormous.
This
I pre-ordered EWOM with intentions of talking my friends into buying the game so we could coop…but after release I was so disappointed I couldn’t even talk myself into playing :(
Ah, I didn’t think the GC2 AI handled those all that well, and many of those abilities were passive (some weren’t).
Not the same thing though.
Meeker
6439
Just a question as a person whose been looking at the game with a bit of interest, but have not participated in the beta…
Is the game at a state where I should jump in and give it a shot? Or should I wait until the next expansion comes in and see what the changes are in that before jumping in?
Additionally is the game at this point better or worse then what Civ 5 is like? (Dumb as brick AI!)
As said earlier, you should wait. It sounds as if FE will be a much better game. Even if it’s not good, it has to be better than Elemental as it is now.
Worse. Much worse.
