And another thing about magic.. :) There should be a 7th school of magic for all things related to spirit and mind.. maybe also general stuff like dispels, teleporting.. anything that doesn't belong with the physical elements or life/death. Call it Arcane or Sorcery. How is mind magic.. water?
More about magic... I think they should move away from the type of (city) enchantments that give +1 to X per essence. Conjuring a Wall of Fire around your city is cool.. but +1 to growth or production isn't very magical or exciting. Same with unit enchantments.. flaming weapons = good, invisible +x to y buff = boring. When spells are cast, things need to happen instead of invisibly linger in the background. That's what mundane research is for. City enchantments should
Played some FE and it was kind of.. fun. Here's some first impressions. The overall presentation of FE could be improved. Right off the starting screen, the lullaby'ish music tried to put me to sleep. It certainly was not conveying the feeling of defiantly entering a devastated world with dangers lurking behind every corner to rebuild an empire from ashes. Music could be stronger with feelings of danger, mystery and defiance. Setting the mood just right is very important
Aura of Commerce? :x That's about as anti-magical as I can imagine. I hope magic will be magic and economics will be economics...
I don't really get the group sizes. It's about numbers and you can already train more units if you want more numbers. So why do you need to 'research' a bigger group size? Experience would be far cooler (elite troops) and make more sense at the same time.
That pic really makes me wish there were 3 alignments, including neutral. Instead of the black and white approach with life/death. That's a choice I don't like since I would choose a neutral faction most of the time. Neutral could get some utility from both life and death but without their most powerful stuff.
Research does serve a purpose. Factions that focus on research can be more technologically advanced than others, at the cost of something else. It creates diversity - i.e. a massive army of peasants against a small elite force with top notch equipment. But the key here is to make technological advancement a real choice to focus on with a drawback to it. Otherwise it's just extra clicking that is annoying.
I'd much prefer a city icon that takes up one square on the map. Or a pregenerated look for different levels of a city, with special 'one per faction' and 'one per world' buildings visualized. The manual grid building is just pointless and makes the cities look blocky and unattractive. Their zone of control should just be a circle with the option of building Guard Towers or Outposts to expand to a desired resource.
Separate Innate powers or 'lesser magic' from more powerful global scale Channeling magic that associates with the Shards and Global Mana. Innate powers: - These are the basic spells you get from level-up traits, Fire Disciple, Air Mage etc. Tactical spells and unit enchantments. - These spells do not require using the global mana pool. Each champion has a Personal Mana pool or 'Power
Yeah the imbue thing is a little unclear. Is there some kind of a trade off or is it just a mandatory 25 mana click on every champion? If there is no trade off except losing 25 mana, it should be removed and they should be able to cast their spells independently. In fact, innate magical powers should be separated from the more powerful global scale magic associated with shards which should be reserved for Channelers only. Shards would also make the 'mundane' ma
STARTING A NEW GAME First thing I noticed is the mood. There's a pretty tune playing in the background. I am about to enter a devastated land with the task of rebuilding from scratch in a hostile world. The mood should be - danger, defiance, boldness, ambition. The beginning needs a good kick and some excitement from the music. Play this on the background and you'll get my meaning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP
I also prefer the MoM way where the unhired Champions aren't on the map but show themselves randomly. Maybe some of them could be tied with quests and such on the map but I think most of them should be kind of random events, influenced by your prestige. Anyway champions just standing on the map waiting for recruitment or death is kind of unexciting (especially if they block a tile so you can't build on it...).
I think the Shards are too random. Create an Air Mage? Earth and Fire Shards next to your city.. Maybe there should be Lesser and Greater Shards. Lesser Shards would start out as neutral and you'd then be able to align them with your element of choice. Greater Shards would have a fixed element and be much more powerful in general. They would also be guarded by creatures that could only be controlled by strong magic of the same element. I.e. to conquer a Greater Fire
Will shards still appear at random on the map? How about a system where shards would appear in appropriate terrain on the map? That way you would know where to look for what you need instead of them being completely random. A Sovereign with a focus in Fire magic could then automatically start the game in a volcanic region, which would further establish his identity. Likewise.. Mountains and high places for Air shards and Air mages. Lakes and islands for
This really looks promising and inspiring! The only thing I'm wondering about is the lack of an Arcane school of magic. Spells like Mana Blast and Mana Shield are oddly under Fire+Water or Earth+Water.. it doesn't make much sense and it means impossible to specialize in these type of spells - you get them seemingly at random based on what elements you pick. And Confusion is under.. Water? A category for Arcane / Spirit magic would definitely be a good addition to house
I would like to see some kind of terrain and line of sight considerations a la AoW:SM. So you could protect weak spellcaster units, need to fly or teleport to get to them etc. I'd also like to have a smaller grid on the battlefield. Single hero units bouncing around their oversized squares to face different attackers looks silly and it makes it hard to actually know who is in which square and how close to what. Something like... Hero units = 1 square
I would vote for getting rid of the grid style building. Or at least make it look more organic and less of a chess board.. somehow. Just rotating the tiles would not help eliminating the blocky look. Then.. instead of building several buildings that do the same thing and stack up, build only one and then upgrade it. Arcane Study becomes a Wizard school. Wizard school becomes an Arcane University. Building becomes taller, bigger and more impressive each time you upgrade and is instantl
One big thing to be learned from MoM is that city spamming is extremely boring. Elemental should get away from that more and make it possible to make due with just a minimal amount of well built cities. Cities that each have a real identity and flavor to them. Building one Minas Tirith is ultimately cooler and more rewarding than filling the map with 10 generic cities that all produce more x and y.
I found my original post on the topic, which I will shamelessly link here: https://forums.elementalgame.com/385974/get;2668180
Wow this thread made me find my old post where I suggested a similar spell.. been looking for it, thanks heh. [quote] Nether Gate (Ruin, Conjuration, Global) - creates a permanent gate with undead pouring through every turn [/quote] I like the idea of such a spell as a high end global death magic, but perhaps Shadow World is not the best name? Not suggesting Nether Gate is necessarily better. Shadow Rift?
Remove the "books" and incorporate a research queue similar to MoM. If an actual "book" is found (quest or NPC bringing it to you), it can give you spells for free and speed up the research process. Have only Channelers stationed in a mage tower earn research points. That Channeler can be your Sovereign or an Imbued NPC Wizard or Loremaster. Keep the trait that grants Sovereigns research points where ever they are.
One year to cast a spell? Ugh. Casting times don't really make sense with the epic long turns. I would like the turns to become one week long if there will be multi-turn casting times. And for multiple other reasons like sensible movement rates. Otherwise I would rather have a switch you can leave on and automatically attempt to counter any global spells cast by enemy Sovereigns on their turn. Then on the beginning of your next turn get a nice quick video of your Sovereign int
My first idea was to give the Shards more personality. Put them in locations that are appropriate for them. And have the environment itself defend them against those not attuned to their element. They could also be guarded by appropriate creatures, that the Sovereign could take under control instead of having to kill them. Shard locations and environment: Air - high altitude, mountain tops, surrounded by in
The OP makes some very reasonable arguments. The Channelers need a strong magical identity and powers to go with it from turn 1. Learning new spells can not be about mundane researchers unlocking techs. The Channelers need to be the focus here. Sovereigns or imbued Wizards should be the ones who unlock new powers. Researching should be tied to their Intelligence score. That way a low Int Sovereign could recruit a high Int NPC, leave him in the tower to unlock new powers and go
Air: Lightning that stuns; Storms; best single target damage potential; anti-missile weapon; mobility, flight; freedom; anti-earth Earth: Physical rock attacks that cause knockdown; damage reduction; endurance; strength; imprisonment; gravity / anti-air Fire: Best and most balanced damage potential overall with