Needs a twist

from Elemental Forums

I am enjoying .913 a lot and I am looking forward to the changes to the kingdoms/empires coming in the new versions of the game.  I feel like the game is going in the right direction.  So this post isn't to say there is anything wrong or that something needs to change.  Personally I feel like the latter parts of the game tend to be a little less engaging then the early parts.  Something I personally find helps keep games fresh is when new mechanics or features are added slightly latter in the game.

My favorite example of this is the original X-com.  Part way through the game psychic powers are added and new stats are added to your squad.  It makes you re-evaluate your squad. 

I know FE is constantly adding new features through the technology tree but those are predictable.  I think the middle to late part of the game would be helped by adding a twist.  Something to cause the player to slightly change his plans/strategy. 

Anyway thanks for all the hard work.

36,831 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Have you been inside any wildlands yet?  That enough of a twist?  

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Sure, but the point I'm trying to make is that once you get past the exploration  and expansion phase of the game, your strategy stays the same.  One game I had a hoard of fire elementals over run my kingdom, attacking my cities and destroying one of them.  That was fun, but it didn't really change my overall strategy.  Perhaps if there had been some more lasting effect to the event.  Something to cause me to make a choice (after I had killed the elementals) between going back to what I had been doing or trying something different.

Let me give an example.  Say whatever caused the fire elementals to run loose also causes an effect on the world.  On the world map and on the tactical map some spots now cause fire damage.  There is a quest the player can choose to undertake to set the maps back to normal.  So now the player has three choices, do I ignore the situation and work around it, do I upgrade all my units against fire damage, or do I undertake the quest.  The player has to make interesting choices. And to the point I was trying to make, an interesting choice he didn't see coming earlier in the game.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

To be honest, right now, the wildlands feels like a distraction more than a twist, something to do when you're bored of beating on the AI. In fact, most of the time, by midgame, with a decent army traveling with your sovereign and a spell strategy, none of the wildlands are even remotely challenging. Then there's also the rather sad reward for killing that not-so-super boss... 10% growth and something random that probably never gets used... ? The only thing that's really valuable is often times the territory the wildland leaves behind (and most of the time it's bugged - heh). Sometimes it's nice, but it's not what I would consider game changing.

I think what the OP means is something akin to the event where the Dreadlords arrive in GC2. Some super events like that would have you scrambling to adapt. If you make multiple of them and vary them up a bit, you could keep the player on his feet. Of course something like that would have a certain time before effect (like a couple of hundred turns in - depending on the difficulty of the event), and would need an option to turn off at game start. The game that does something like that pretty well is Sword of the Stars and their Grand Menaces.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Tom Chick had some very nice articles about SPAZ (Space Pirates And Zombies), complimenting games like it which are gutsy enough to change the rules on the player part way through.  That's not to say literally changing the game mechanics, but changing the nature of things the player needs to contend with.  4X games in general could use some sort of late-game shake-up of epic proportions.

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top


So this post isn't to say there is anything wrong or that something needs to change.

 

Are you sure you meant to post in the FE forum?  Were you perhaps looking for the forums of the Civ games, AoW, SMAC, etc?

 

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

I agree with the OP and Kalin.

In addition, I do not feel that there is a balance between the different victory conditions. I am unsatisfied when the game ends and tend to think the current VC's are just place-holders borrowed from E:WoM that are going to be replaced at some point in E:FE.

MOO 2 had the Antarans
GalCiv 2 had the Dread Lords
Space Rangers had the Dominators and the Kilssan
Shogun II has an event where everyone decides to attack at once if you start steam rolling.

I think Fallen Enchantress needs a "Powerful Sorceress whom most be stopped" before you can obtain victory... I would love to see outrageous random events happen (perhaps due to the sorceress) where new enemies show up or the game play gets altered in a significant way; such as needing to go into the Wild Lands for a reason instead of having them be a playground for the uber powerful who have already beaten the game.  (E.G To destroy the source of a demonic portal that will otherwise spew out demons after X turns). Events or Mechanics that make your (same aligned) kingdoms/empires worth keeping around would also be appreciated.

I tend to think that StarDock has it planned out to put the real victory conditions and "master quest" in place after they have worked out the kinks in the basic mechanics and balanced them out. I certainly hope so as I think it would make the game much more enjoyable and atmospheric. It would seem weird if they roll it out with E:WoM's VC's given the description of the game...