What Fallen Enchantress Will Look Like in a Year

A year from now, after taking in all of this input from the beta test, Derek and Brad decided to listen to everyone.

First step was reigning in heroes, so now they start with 1 Hit Point and get 0.10 hit points per level. Also, to combat the stacks of doom, if any of your heroes lands on a square with another one of your heroes, they must immediately fight to the death. 

Magic was overpowered, so all damage causing spells were changed to doing 1 point of damage.

Technology development was moving too slowly, so it now takes 1 turn to learn the only technology that's in the game, which is just called, "All technology crap."

Maul now heals your opponent for all attacks after the first. Bear cubs are nurtured and fought over by opposing factions.

City sprawl has been taken care of as you now build your cities vertically. Buildings are stacked directly on top of previously existing buildings. They recently had to patch the magic spell "topple" as it was considered overpowered. Cities must be built a minimum of 100 squares a part.

The great debate as to whether regular units were overpowered or underpowered rages on. As of the last patch, every regular unit you make generates 10 gilder a turn, they start with 400 hit points, and hit for 200 hitpoints a pop. In the previous patch, regular units cost 10 gilder a turn, started with 1 hit point, and hit for 1 point of damage a pop.

 

4,559 views 10 replies
Reply #1 Top

I'm pretty sure you just described E:wom.

Reply #2 Top

You now have an insight into the joy that is game development

Reply #3 Top

Interesting commentary on the input provided by a beta. Part of the reason I concentrate on crashes and stability issues is usually regardless of how I feel about a system or dynamic theres already an opinion out there that states it.

 

I will say that FE is heads above E:WOM at this point.

Where as E:Wom did tons of things badly, FE does less things better. But there does seem to be something missing from the overall game which would increase playability. Doing one thing very well. I don't care if its more attention into Tactical combat or City or empire building, Better character development or any other dynamic. The point is after 5 or 6 games with the current version I was done with it. (Other than reminding myself how to mod in XML)

A good game always does at least 1 thing VERY well, and I'm just not seeing it at this point in FE.

Examples: Total war series.. I don't know about the newer versions but older versions like rome.. the City building/ empire management was mediocre at bests.. the Realt time tactical battles was the bread and butter.

Final fantasy tactics- Tactical turn based Combat, thats all this game did really.. sure there was the RPG aspect but that system only reinforced the tactical combat.

 

Civ IV: Empire building and city building. Combat was crap but everyone accepted it because the rest of the game was good.

Any Generic City builder : Doesn't matter if its Caesar IV or Tropico 3, They do well in the city building aspect. Sure there are combat, diplomacy etc aspects shoe horned in to differentiate them but  they are a city builder above all else and do it well.

 

FE: it has City building, empire building, Tactical combat and RPG aspects.. but honestly there is no one specific apect I can point to at this point and say THAT is what makes the game awesome because its done so well. All aspects are okay but a bunch of okay features tied together doesn't keep me coming back.

Now thats all my opinion of course. I don't think me supplying my specific input is as helpful as the above general opinion piece.

Reply #4 Top

Don't worry ... Derek knows a stupid idea when he sees one.  There's been a lot thrown out there, but only a handful of the ideas should be considered.  The game is pretty solid and just needs some minor tweaking ... nothing major, some bug fixing, stronger AI, better UI, and a little more content.  I suspect Brad will start getting an itchy release finger in about 3-4 months so you won't have to wait for a full year.  :-)

Reply #5 Top

Yeah, I don't doubt Derek's ability to disregard poor ideas. In fact, we have to remember that the beta is in a much later stage than it was for the first E:wom beta. As far as I know, they're not really looking at changing designs any more. This is the spit and polish phase. Sure, there's room for improvement. But don't expect whole systems to get replaced. The only thing this doesn't apply to, of course, is the AI.

Reply #6 Top

I don't expect significant changes either. Judging from some of Frogboy's and Derek's comments, FE is in the "it just needs some balancing and a bit more content. And maybe some UI improvements." stage. I think it's far from that point, but we'll see I guess...

Reply #7 Top

I think they're off to a good start, and all jokes aside, I wish that I was playing the 2013 version of FE right this moment.

 

Reply #8 Top

Quoting Satrhan, reply 6
I don't expect significant changes either. Judging from some of Frogboy's and Derek's comments, FE is in the "it just needs some balancing and a bit more content. And maybe some UI improvements." stage. I think it's far from that point, but we'll see I guess...
End of Satrhan's quote

lol if that's all they're going to do they're screwed. can someone link to a post by frogboy where this is made clear?

Reply #9 Top

Quoting Satrhan, reply 6
I don't expect significant changes either. Judging from some of Frogboy's and Derek's comments, FE is in the "it just needs some balancing and a bit more content. And maybe some UI improvements." stage. I think it's far from that point, but we'll see I guess...
End of Satrhan's quote

In a hypothetical build where all of the major balance and pacing issues were addressed, I'd still have problems with tactical combat, city development, the UI, performance, diplomacy and AI.

... so yeah, I hope they don't rush it out the door :P

Reply #10 Top

I'm still paranoid from E:WOM where the bad ideas were the only ones that seemed to get listened to.