Fallen Enchantress

[Scott Tortorice]

Hey Scott, I was wondering why FE doesn't show up in my desktop Stardock Central? Is it because it's in Beta?

Don't know. I find it here: http://www.stardock.com/ when I log in.

I put about two hours into the latest beta build a few days ago and I am still finding the game to be good but not great. It just becomes too much of a monster grind for me early on. I wish the game had me thinking more strategically rather than just worrying about grabbing loot, leveling up, and killing monsters. I just feel it needs more strategic magic.

Still, there is definite promise to this version. I still find myself going back for just a few more turns.

 

[Nexus6]

Good point Scott. I'm with you all the way. FE is a very good game, just not a great one (at least in its present beta state). It's missing something that would put it over the top from a B/B+ to an A (Perhaps the greater strategic focus that you mentioned?). Still in all, being a 'B' game is by no means a bad thing. I mean, not every game can be Civilization, the original Starcraft, or the original Deus Ex.

The big wild card remaining with FE is the single player campaign, and I definitely look forward to playing it. I've not read anything about it, have you? Who knows? A really strong single player campaign might yet make FE an 'A' game. By comparison, the Age of Wonders campaigns are quite a bit different than the sandbox mode. I remain optimistic.

 

[Nexus6]

Scott, did you see? It's official, I saw it on Steam. A release date for FE has been set for Oct. 23rd. That just about settles it for me deciding against XCOM for the moment. I will probably be wrapping up Skyrim about the 23rd, at which point I will do the FE single player campaign.

BTW, I'm sort of assuming that for those of us with pre-order FE betas on our system that it will just be a matter of downloading another patch on the 23rd? Yes?

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Scott, did you see? It's official, I saw it on Steam. A release date for FE has been set for Oct. 23rd.

Yeah, I just saw this. Kinda caught me by surprise. All things considered, I think FE is in good enough shape for release, but I suspect I won't really enjoy the game until another expansion is released. I still feel like the strategy game needs some spice. Either that, or CK2 just spoiled me.

BTW, I'm sort of assuming that for those of us with pre-order FE betas on our system that it will just be a matter of downloading another patch on the 23rd? Yes?

Either a patch or we will have to re-download the whole game. They will probably post detailed DL instructions on the official site on the day of release.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Today, Stardock gets a second bite at the apple as Fallen Enchantress is released in just a few hours! Wardell is recommending all beta testers to do a complete uninstall:

Greetings!


Today’s the big day. In fact, 2 hours from now 1.0 will go live.


Now, to save yourself pain and aggravation please do the following: UNINSTALL the beta. Completely. That also means go into the my games\fallen enchantress directory and rename it to something else (or delete it entirely).


Don’t take any chances. Start from a clean setup.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Tom Chick, who was one of the first people to go negative on War of Magic, has posted a positive blurb about FE:

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2012/10/22/october-22-wallet-threat-level-stardock/

The better part of my weekend was spent with the final version of Fallen Enchantress, mostly losing against the AI. Stardock has really outdone themselves this time. If you like turn-based strategy games, if you like fantasy, even if you like RPGs, don’t miss this one.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Just gave FE another spin and have to say that 1.0 is a solid product! I expect this one to do MUCH better than EWOM. It definitely is a worthy addition to the library of fans of 4X gaming and RPGs.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

This is cool: Wardell & Co have published the Elemental Hiergamenon as interactive ebook:

http://www.elementalgame.com/hiergamenon

 

[Nexus6]

Yes, I look forward to getting started on the campaign as soon as I wrap up the Dawnguard main quest (which should be soon). One thing that concerns me though is that the Fallen Enchantress campaign is presented in the menu as a 'scenario'. Does this mean that the campaign is actually a much smaller scenario rather than a full fledged multi-scenario campaign? I hope not. Anyway Scott, if you get started on it before I do, please do post some general comments, sans spoilers of course.

Concerning the 'hiergamenon', I hope Mr. Wardell isn't taking himself and the game too, too seriously. The game has to be really good and compelling before I'll take the time to read a lot of additional text. However, not to be too negative about a game that I mostly like, I've not played it in a couple of updates, and if V1.0 and the campaign are good, the game just might be worthy of some additional window dressing (for lack of a better term or phrase).

 

[Nexus6]

OK Scott, I did the first map of the campaign, and first of all I answered my own question. Yes, the campaign does seem to have more than just a single map. I'm happy to report that for the most part I'm enjoying it thus far. I actually had to restart it once (after bungling the assault on the Beastmen enclace), and I see now that the key to the first leg (map) of the campaign is not to rush things, do as many of the side quests as possible, and make sure you take the time to micromanage the equipment of your heroes. In any event I'm assuming (and it is my hope) that this first part of the campaign focuses mainly on tactics, and that as you progress you will get more in to diplomacy and the strategic aspects of the game.

My only complaint is that quest tracking was sometimes confusing. That is, the game would give you a location you need to go to without always showing you where it is. Also, there was one of the major quests where I had actually gathered all the artifacts to get the Titan, but didn't realize it until I accidentally passed through the village where I had to return the artifacts. I wish quest tracking in FE was more like Skyrim. In Skyrim you almost always know where you need to go and how many (if any) artifacts you have in your possession to complete the quest. Anyway, this is sort of a low-to-medium complaint, but not a game-breaker. I would add though that I was disappointed that you don't seem to keep the babe mage/archer Sharilyn from the first map to the second.

Before I forget, I think the story and the way it is weaved in to the game is mostly good. I like how they don't burden you with reading a lot of text, but rather give you 2-3 short paragraphs here and there, and the video cut scenes are nice and artistic and remind me a lot of the cut scenes for the first SINS game. Like all fantasy stories since PJ did LOTR, the FE story is maybe a tad pretentious, but I won't hold that against Mr. Wardell too much if I continue to enjoy the campaign.

Again though, good game. Thanks for recommending it.

 

[Nexus6]

Game Informer gave FE an 84%. Despite this generally high rating, the reviewer did mention that he felt the game lacked a certain 'soul' that would have put it over the top from a good game to a great one. I suppose I would have to agree with this. Although I'm mostly enjoying it, it will probably not be the Age of Wonders killer that I had hoped. For one thing Age of Wonders had a great many races/factions that were very different and all great fun to play, whereas I don't see a lot of differentiation in the FE factions. Also, I still like the Age of Wonders inventory management better. Having said that, I am enjoying the FE campaign, and I guess there's nothing left for it but to see how I feel at the end.

BTW, loose one babe mage, but gain another. I'm there.
View attachment 37935

 

[Nexus6]

Just finished the second leg of the campaign. On the plus side, I enjoyed it even more than the first map, and the video cut scenes were beautiful. I really like the game's artist. However, the second map ends with a semi-tough dragon fight, and after winning that battle the game ctd'd at the conclusion of the cut scene. I of course had to do that battle again, and fortunately it didn't crash a second time. Also, I get the feeling now that the campaign is not going to make use of the more strategic options in the game. Not a big, big, deal I guess, as I'm still enjoying it, it just seams like something of a missed opportunity. By comparison, the campaigns in Age of Wonders frequently had you seeking to gain the favor of other factions, build small empires, make alliances and so forth. Oh well, maybe Stardock will do a more strategic-oriented campaign in a DLC. In the meantime I'm giving the game pretty strong B+ marks.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

I haven't had much time to get into this further, but based on my experiences with the beta, and the few hours I put in with v1.0, I am basically in agreement with your assessment (and have been since the beta ). The game feels like it needs a bit more to make it truly interesting. I don't really feel invested in my chars as I do in, say, CK2, and the strategic game feels a bit too much 'by the numbers'. I need to play it some more, but I think I would probably score it a 8.0 myself. Good, but not great. However, seeing the powerful mod tools which were included with the game, I expect modders will be addressing a lot of this going forward.

BTW: is the campaign broken up in scenarios? Haven't look at that yet.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

Class act:

Dear Stardock customer,

My name is Brad Wardell. I'm the President & CEO of Stardock. Two years ago, you bought a game from us called Elemental: War of Magic. We had great hopes and ambitions for that game but, in the end, it just wasn't a very good game.

Elemental was an expensive game. You probably paid $50 or more for it. And you trusted us to deliver to you a good game. $50 is a lot of money and companies have a moral obligation to deliver what they say they're going to deliver and frankly, Stardock failed to deliver the game we said we were going to deliver.

While we did update Elemental: War of Magic (you can still download v1.4). Its design just wasn't adequate to make it into the kind of game it should be. So we decided to start over. From scratch. We made a new game called Fallen Enchantress.

So even though it's been two years, we haven't forgotten about you. This week, we released Fallen Enchantress. It is a vastly better game and, we believe, lives up to the expectations set for the original Elemental. This game is yours. Free. It's already been added to your account.

You can download and play it by going to http://download.stardock.com.

We hope you enjoy Fallen Enchantress. Please feel free to visit the Elemental forum at www.elementalgame.com if you wish to talk to me and the rest of the team. We're there and very interested in your feedback.


Thank you for being our customers and your patience.


Sincerely,

Brad Wardell
President & CEO
Stardock - http://www.stardock.com
bwardell@stardock.com

@draginol http://www.twitter.com/draginol

 

[Nexus6]

However, seeing the powerful mod tools which were included with the game, I expect modders will be addressing a lot of this going forward.

BTW: is the campaign broken up in scenarios? Haven't look at that yet.

Interesting, that was what the guy at Game Informer said about FE as regards modding. That is, he felt the game was strong enough that some astute modder might be able to take it over the top from a good game to a great one.

Concerning the campaigns, I answered my own question from playing it. I'm in to the third map of the campaign now.

 

[Nexus6]

Wow! The campaign came to an unexpectedly early finish. It was basically only three maps, though there was a lot to do on them. Don't get me wrong, it left me with a satisfied feeling, it's just that I was expecting at least one or two more maps in the campaign. At the end Ms. Fallen Enchantress spoke of a coming war between East and West, so I'm assuming the saga will continue in a DLC. Hopefully in the next installment they will make more use of the strategic aspects of the game. Again though, I was mostly satisfied, and you know it's a good sign when I now feel like playing a sandbox campaign. Yes, I think Game Informer's 8.5 was just about right. FE is a really good game that just misses being a great one. Still in all I'm finding it very compelling, and at the end of the day think it was money well-spent. My only regret is that we have to wait to meet Ms. FE:

View attachment 37941

 

[Nexus6]

List night I started a sandbox campaign on a large map with all the factions in addition to my own custom faction, and for a while it was great fun. The trouble was that by mid-game I had a large sprawling empire with cities all over the place, and managing it and fighting wars became increasingly tedious and frustrating. I eventually gave up on it. I still think it's a good game, but going forward I won't play the sandbox on anything larger than the medium map. By comparison I think Civ5 does a better job of managing large empires on large maps.

 

[Nexus6]

I see that Stardock recently published the first FE DLC, but unfortunately all it consists of are a few additional maps. I want more campaigns!

I also wanted to mention that there is one thing about FE that deserves extremely high marks. That is, the game has set the new standard on the creation of customized factions. The implementation is perfect. For one thing they give you a certain amount of points to throw around on faction and leader attributes, and this is really good as it keeps you from creating a faction that could skew the game. For another, the player has a wide latitude of control on the physical attributes of your faction leader, to say nothing of your base race and military units. I wish all 4X games had a custom faction creation tool that was this good.

 

[Scott Tortorice]

I see that Stardock recently published the first FE DLC, but unfortunately all it consists of are a few additional maps. I want more campaigns!

I also wanted to mention that there is one thing about FE that deserves extremely high marks. That is, the game has set the new standard on the creation of customized factions. The implementation is perfect. For one thing they give you a certain amount of points to throw around on faction and leader attributes, and this is really good as it keeps you from creating a faction that could skew the game. For another, the player has a wide latitude of control on the physical attributes of your faction leader, to say nothing of your base race and military units. I wish all 4X games had a custom faction creation tool that was this good.

The best thing about FE is what is suggests for...GalCiv 3 (we all know it is coming sooner or later).

 

[Nexus6]

The best thing about FE is what is suggests for...GalCiv 3 (we all know it is coming sooner or later).

Yeah, I suppose since I give mostly good marks to FE and SINS, I will probably give GalCiv3 a try when it comes around. I would add though that Distant Worlds has convinced me that realtime with a lot of automation is the way to go with the big 4X space games.

BTW, I'm sort of going through gaming withdrawals while my Falcon rig is in the shop getting its water cooling system refurbished. It seems that it wasn't Alea Jackta Est causing my lockups, but rather overheating.