[Suggestion] Better character advancement
Elemental Forums
I've managed to spend a few hundred turns in Fallen Enchantress, I've come up with a few suggestions regarding the way heroes and sovereigns level up and develop over time. So here goes:
Chapter 1: I'm the Sovereign here, not you
Since the game is going in the direction that heroes traveling the land will have the ability to cast spells on their own and the dynasty system went bye bye, any hero can contribute to the spell tree, we come to the question. How is any hero different from a Sovereign? Why am I the hero of the story, and not the level 5 or level 9 heroes that are right there since the very first turn? I can't really think of a reason, and that makes it a bit sad. The Sovereign can't bee all powerful from the get go, but he needs an umpf to make him/her clearlly superrior in some small way when compared to other heroes. And no, the ability to found one city doesn't count.
To this extent, I propose adding a default trait to all sovereigns, "Path of the Sovereign" or "Chosen one" or "BMF", which would either slightly boost their statistics, or enabling them to do a few unique things. Now, what those unique things are, I can't fathom at this time(blame the cold). Or it could just enable some sovereign only traits on the level up screen. Which leads to...
Chapter 2: If it's got a number on the end, it's got to go
What I most enjoyed in games that had trait/perk systems like FE has, things like Fallout,..., OK, can't remember any other at this time, but what I enjoyed most was that every time that screen showed up, there was something new and exciting that allowed me to expand the utility of my character. FE does that to some extent, but the the amount of Trait I, Trait II, Trait III.. traits is a bit disappointing. They're not unique, they're repetitive, sometimes they can be useful, but, they're still repetitive. Nothing sucks out all of the fun and anticipation of leveling up then seeing the same traits you got last time . Consider replacing them and expanding the traits with more unique things. Things that enable more special abilities, like the the Path of the Defender has counter-attack, or the other paths have those nifty attacks. Path of the Mage doesn't have anything similar. For that I would suggest overpowering/mana-pumping spells. Oooh, this actually be the unique sovereign thing. And speaking of unique things...
Chapter 3: More uniquinesnesnesnessnes or Don't be afrait to steal from HOMM4
By far the best thing I liked about the gameplay of Heroes of Might and Magic 4 was how the heroes evolved. You had a combat skill, you had some life magic, BANG! You were a paladin. You had some death magic, you had some nature magic, BAM! Necromancer. This way, even though they were generic as hell at level 1, every hero in HOMM 4 became unique as time went on. If possible, try implementing something similar for FE. Since the different traits are already catagorized in different trees (defender, assassin, something somethign), how about doing something similar, letting the traits mix and match, generating classes that have their own bonuses, be them passive or active.
Chapter 4: The plot twist
Aeris dies.
The end.
