Frogboy Frogboy

Elemental Status: March 2014

Elemental Status: March 2014

Lots of cool stuff going on around here.

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes 1.6 is due out in April and there will be a new DLC released shortly after that.  It involves spouses. That’s all I’ll say.

Legendary Heroes 2.0

Also, as some of you may have heard, Legendary Heroes 2.0 has been approved and budgeted. This will be a free update of some significance.  I don’t have a due date for it yet but it does have some interesting changes in it including ZOC for monster lairs and possibly some changes with regards to the way champion inventory is handled. 

Other things on our “want” list for Legendary Heroes 2.0 include:

  • Updated diplomacy options to help build longer term relations
  • More performance boosts (we’re working on redoing the way trees are handled)
  • Some tweaks to the way magic is done
  • More effective alliance handling (this is something we really want to see)
  • Some changes to the way the Spell of Making is handled

That’s just a bit of it.

Obviously, this all boils down to having enough revenue to pay for it.  The numbers for LH are quite promising.  In January, about half of LH’s revenue came from the DLC. So that’s a good sign.

Next DLC

Like I mentioned, we have new DLC coming out next month. It’s already in QA.  Kael has gone pretty crazy with it.  Anyone from the Civ IV world knows the crazy stuff Kael can do so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. But it’s pretty neat.

But AFTER that one I have two questions I’d like to get your views on:

1. How OFTEN do you want to see new DLC?  (Monthly, Quarterly, Every couple months, etc.)

2. What would you like to see our NEXT DLC be?

a. Stamps pack (for more random map generation interest)

b. More tactical battles maps

c. More magical spells

d. New factions

e. More loot

f. More quests

g. Something else (if it involves writing c++ code, it’s not DLC so has to be content that is downloadable).

Other sneak peeks…

Troll

image image image

Stay tuned!

1,147,688 views 201 replies
Reply #76 Top

Quoting DsRaider, reply 50
The problem with adding in a new faction is that it would be hard to make them unique and AI friendly without editing C++. The Dead are a good example of this.

 Aren't "The Dead" getting AI attention in the next patch?

Reply #77 Top

Quoting rahal, reply 76
Aren't "The Dead" getting AI attention in the next patch?

It doesn't mention any AI stuff in the 1.6 changelog, or anywhere else as far as I know. Besides even if they do it just proves my point, you need to at least tweak C++ in order to make a good new faction.

Reply #78 Top

Quoting Crastiloowa, reply 60

 


Quoting DsRaider, reply 55I hear a lot about tech trees but personally don't think they have much to do with factions playing different.

Just to pick out this one item - you could (potentially) do a lot with a wholly alternate tech tree.  Just to name a few examples


Simple re-organization so that "late game" techs come early and early techs late.  For instance, a "horselords" faction could have a tech tree that re-positions mounted warfare at the start of the warfare tree.
Assign different costing to nodes, so that e.g. magical techs cost less than warfare techs (relative to the "standard" tree.) 

Even if the AI researches at the same rate, different costings will end up "pushing" them down particular tech paths

Prune out any techs that the AI or a particular faction can't use effectively (e.g. Sion tech.)
Purely cosmetic changes for look and feel (e.g. instead of building a Storehouse, an insect themed race could build a hive)

These kinds of changes don't even necessarily require entirely new tech trees, just different prerequisites for unlocks of existing techs.

You can create unlocks that are wholly inaccessible to other factions (though again, you don't necessarily need a new tree for this, just different prerequisites) - similar to the "Black Quire" spells granted in the Empire tree.

 

To your point about playing differently, it would mostly be about "pushing" the choices in a particular direction.  This would be most helpful for the AI; the player can already choose to rush particular targets.
I like these ideas. Having research affected by a faction's traits can be a easy, effective way to make races feel different. Different traits could affect the costs of certain techs: for example, in addition to the Scholars trait giving 10 percent to all research, you could have traits giving research bonuses or penalties to specific nodes: for example, a warrior themed race could gain a 15% bonus to military techs; likewise a race like the Ironeers could have a penalty to magic research.  More traits with free techs are possible too

Reply #79 Top

The present factions need more differentiation both visual and gameplay rather than adding more generic factions.

More Loot is always good.

A naval game added.

New heroes with a little more imagination.Some Heroes have a few sentences.Not the best for immersion.

Reply #80 Top

Reply #81 Top

Reminded me of Fantasy wars.

That's compliment, by the way.;)

Reply #82 Top

As soon as the new patch comes out i'm buying all the DLC.

 

Reply #83 Top

Quoting j_wl_b, reply 70

So what is needed to make a more immersive, visceral, and epic game? First make cities feel like cities. While not taking up a large amount of space on the strategic map find a way to make them feel like real, living, breathing cities full of bustle, life, and centers of things. Cities are the centers of a civilizations culture, economy, industry, etc and they in some way should feel like it. How to get this effect in a limited space I am not sure but for the game to become epic I feel it is necessary. Also the land around a city, it's area of influence, should automatically change as land is cultivated, minerals are mined, villages with Palisades created, etc. What better way to see your civilization make an impact on the world then to have your territory change and develop over time. The player need not manage any of this it would simply be a graphical representation of the people of your nation spreading out from your cities and taming the surround world within you territory. To add even more depth and a more visceral feel two more things should be added to this. When monsters or enemy armies inter your territory they should leave a trail of devastation though the fields, villages, etc which will take several seasons to fix. This will make a more visual and thus visceral feel to people invading YOUR territory. Second the degree and quality of the improvements in a cities surrounding territory should be greatly influenced by your cities level.
One idea I had is for an invading enemy in a city's area to affect a city depending on the invader's size and power. Penalties like reduced/negative growth as people flee, seriously increased unrest, food and production reduced etc.

Quoting j_wl_b, reply 70
Make armies feel like armies. Having armies represented by a few men immediately kills immersion and leaves a sense of... for lack of a better term... un-epicness. An idea for this might be to have armies in tactical battles take up multiple squares rather then just one. This would allow for two things. One more troops can be seen for each unit of men making a company of soldiers feel like an actual company of soldiers. This in itself would automatically increase immersion and make a battle feel like a real battle instead of a few people beating on each other. Second it would add more depth to tactical battles. There could be other ways to make armies feel like armies that would require less in the way of coding. If there is then by all means run with it. Just give me the sense that I have an army and when my army meets an enemy army I want it to feel like an actual clash of armies. To make the game more immersive, visceral, and epic armies need to feel, look, and act like armies.
The Immersion mod actually did this as far as numbers go. Other things would include tac maps with elevations, LOS, different movement effects, limit ranged weapons. Another thing would be for an army to be deployed in battle formation (unless its surprised).  

Reply #84 Top

Tactical terrain: Swamp tiles to limit your movement and defense, wooden areas to reduce damage from ranged attacks, arrows that can be stopped by obstacles that are in the line of sight, hills (height that give a +1 attack bonus to damage), catapults that will destroy fortified tiles and so on...


Traps: An option option to setup traps at the strategic and tactical level at a cost.

 

Treasure: when conquering a town you get: 0$ and 0 items. Can we gain a little loot please or my followers will abandon my rampaging urges!

 

Healing Champion's injuries: There must be a better way than to ruin my economy to buy an expensive potion to cure 1x condition. (infirmary building?)

 

Loot: It would be nice if we could get more loot when defeating enemy champions (items and or gold).

Reply #85 Top

Stop being so cruel.  I haven't got any money left.

Reply #86 Top

No arrow shooting in close combat or a penalty...

Reply #87 Top

More differences between mounted and foot soldiers. Give all unmounted units the ability to fortify. One handed spears available to all (initiative bonus but no immunity to counterattack.) Mounted Units cannot use two handed Melee weapons. Have the ability to unhorse units.

Reply #88 Top

OK since Navies would be difficult to code, how about using water movement in an abstract way? Have units be able to move instantly between cities with Docks/Harbors (within limits) Basically. a unit could move instantly from a city with a Dock or Harbor to another city with a Dock or Harbor within a certain tile range. Capacity would be limited by the improvement.

Reply #90 Top

Quoting DsRaider, reply 77


Quoting rahal, reply 76Aren't "The Dead" getting AI attention in the next patch?

It doesn't mention any AI stuff in the 1.6 changelog, or anywhere else as far as I know. Besides even if they do it just proves my point, you need to at least tweak C++ in order to make a good new faction.

 

It's unlikely the AI gets much attention for this point on.  Brad's busy on GalCiv III, and he's pretty much said the AI is about as good as he can make it without it being really inefficient to work on.   The Dead do need some work bad, or a way to disable the AI from selecting them (a mod can do this, but base game needs this added in)

 

The AI in LH is much improved over FE, coding fantasy TBS AI is one of the hardest things out there- no one has ever really done it right, LH came closer than many others.

 

 

 

Reply #91 Top

Quoting Sunray242, reply 84

 

Healing Champion's injuries: There must be a better way than to ruin my economy to buy an expensive potion to cure 1x condition. (infirmary building?)

 

Expanding this thought out a little:

If you play the game for long enough, it always seems as though every city gets every building available. Having more buildings would be an excellent start in further forcing the player to make choices. A 'hospital' chain of buildings is an excellent idea to that end.

I think the game would be more dynamic if the buildings had varying gildar upkeep such that the players (and AI to a lesser degree) were forced to make strategic building decisions so as to not cripple there economy. Perhaps it could be as simple as tier 1 buildings cost 1 gildar per turn....tier 2 buildings cost 2 gildar per turn....etc.

Something to make the player question as to whether or not that building is REALLY worth building...

Obviously, implementing a system like this would also need to have building destruction fixed up so that bonuses from destroyed buildings are removed properly.

Would also really love it if some buildings offered minuses relative to other positives....to give the player choice as to whether to good offsets the bad.

 

As is, every city gets every building....eventually....it just depends as to what order you build them in.

Reply #92 Top

Quoting Sunray242, reply 84

Tactical terrain: Swamp tiles to limit your movement and defense, wooden areas to reduce damage from ranged attacks, arrows that can be stopped by obstacles that are in the line of sight, hills (height that give a +1 attack bonus to damage), catapults that will destroy fortified tiles and so on...

I want this and more.

There are two additional things I requested that would simply require too much coding:

1. Intelligent LOS (where LOS isn't circular)/

2. Things that block projectiles (i.e. hide behind a wall blocks arrows).

The #1 problem my company faces is limited coding resources.  I just don't have enough programmers on hand to do everything I'd like us to do.  It's not even a budget issue.  You'll see me on twitter, facebook, and us sending people around trying to recruit programmers.  It's hard to get people to move to Michigan.

So while a game like Age of Wonders 3 (which is looking great btw) or Warlock 2 have pretty sizeable teams, I've got 2 programmers and myself available on the fantasy 4X stuff (artists are easier to get and why content is a lot more doable).

One of the many reasons War of Magic was so disappointing (and there were many reasons) is that I had to alter the design a lot as time went on simply for lack of coding resources.  There are start up indies with more programmers on their game than I have available for our fantasy 4X. It's frustrating.

 

Reply #93 Top

Quoting Tattyhat, reply 85

Stop being so cruel.  I haven't got any money left.

I have coupon offering 50% discount for LH DLCs. Sorry, that's all I can do.

Reply #94 Top

For myself, should like to see more rock-paper-scissors, have more units and monsters able to resist various damage types. I'd mentioned skeletons before, and had thought 1 piercing damage, 1/2 slashing damage, and full crushing damage would make sense. Also, would like to see more damage spells (Life) and more teleportation spells, such as ones where you can set a marker and then cast the spell again to return to it. Otherwise, getting around can be a chore if you get very far away from your home city, and that can prove a problem since you can only use militia to defend each city only once per turn. BTW, whatever happened to fixing that, assuming it wasn't intentional?

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Reply #95 Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 92


Quoting Sunray242, reply 84
Tactical terrain: Swamp tiles to limit your movement and defense, wooden areas to reduce damage from ranged attacks, arrows that can be stopped by obstacles that are in the line of sight, hills (height that give a +1 attack bonus to damage), catapults that will destroy fortified tiles and so on...




I want this and more.

There are two additional things I requested that would simply require too much coding:

1. Intelligent LOS (where LOS isn't circular)/

2. Things that block projectiles (i.e. hide behind a wall blocks arrows).

The #1 problem my company faces is limited coding resources.  I just don't have enough programmers on hand to do everything I'd like us to do.  It's not even a budget issue.  You'll see me on twitter, facebook, and us sending people around trying to recruit programmers.  It's hard to get people to move to Michigan.

So while a game like Age of Wonders 3 (which is looking great btw) or Warlock 2 have pretty sizeable teams, I've got 2 programmers and myself available on the fantasy 4X stuff (artists are easier to get and why content is a lot more doable).

One of the many reasons War of Magic was so disappointing (and there were many reasons) is that I had to alter the design a lot as time went on simply for lack of coding resources.  There are start up indies with more programmers on their game than I have available for our fantasy 4X. It's frustrating.

 
yeah,  having some way to counter the ranged attack makes sense,  my strategy for tactical centers around initiative and the ranged advantage.  

Reply #96 Top


1. How OFTEN do you want to see new DLC?  (Monthly, Quarterly, Every couple months, etc.)

Pretty much depends what is in them, but providing it is something that expands, improves or adds to the gameplay in some appealing or interesting way then frankly I'll buy them as often as you release them.. so every month to two month would be ideal.

2. What would you like to see our NEXT DLC be?
a. Stamps pack (for more random map generation interest)
b. More tactical battles maps
c. More magical spells
d. New factions
e. More loot
f. More quests
g. Something else (if it involves writing c++ code, it’s not DLC so has to be content that is downloadable).
Other sneak peeks…

Um.. Yes to all?

Few things I'd specifically like to see are MORE variation in random maps, I mostly play LONG campaigns using huge random maps so more variation would be nice.  Also the addition of more PRE built maps of varying sizes would be nice as they tend to have more sense and less chaos than the randoms overall.

Also I would love if there was an improvement that allowed outposts to defend themselves.  Yes I know you can station troops on them but I would prefer an upgrade that lets them defend themselves to a degree like a catapult or some inherent archers etc..  OR better yet if outposts were expanded to include different types a la Galactic Civ.  trade Outposts (with relative upgrades) that help increase commerce, Military Garrisons that simply guard territory and choke points. to Hamlets, which are settlements in starting limited feature but when grow to a certain population level can be transitioned to actual settlements for a gold cost (this would also provide a more natural way to grow new settlements rather than instantly having a new settlement after the first be instantly available and would make protecting fledgleing settlements more important until they can grow and be developed into ACTUAL settlements.  Research Enclaves used to develop a magical or research resource, Farms for developing food resources without being an actual settlement and Mining Camps for developing production based resources without being an actual settlements.  all would have different upgrades specific to improving the rate and amount of resource gatherable to be transferred to a nearby settlement, and some general upgrades (for improving attack/defence/movement within owning factions territory).  This would also help keep down the amount of actual city spam, while retaining the improtance of a few so that resources harvested by the different outpost types have somewhere to filter back to.

I would love more depth and options to diplomacy such as being able to gift towns or units or trade for them.. plus the ability sell/buy/trade items that your heroes have to other factions

More layers to the map would be nice like an underground layer for example so we can expand down as well as out maybe opening up access to new underground enemies, resources, faction etc..

Monster AI needs sorting with regard to enemy territories.  For example if my borders expand so that a monster lair falls within them, eventually once they are strong enough they will move off the lair to attack my nearby units and resources.  HOWEVER I have watched the AI factions do the same, yet the monster lairs in there territory NEVER EVER attack there units or resources and indeed when they eventually do move off them they heads straight for me (the players) territory instead.  ALWAYS.  Monsters need to deal with factions equally when within someones borders so that they are a threat to EVERYONE not just the player.

Would love to see some new themed Path choices for hero and player includes beyond Warrior, General, Defender, Rogue and Mage.  Priest, Druid, Warlord, Necromancer, Bard etc.. or maybe advanced paths that further specialize the basic paths.

More mount variety.

Faction clothing Colours to apply to FOUND items too.  Seems a little redundant to say choose your colors when designing a hero or faction and then the first piece of wearable gear you find changes to whatever color it is instead???  Give us the option to apply our factions clothing colors to ANYTHING we wear.

Would also like to see Ships re-added with maybe some nautical enemies, quests, resources etc.. to find and utilize.

Some sort of ESPIONAGE inclusion would be nice so we can affect the enemy cities, research or production through non magical means too.  Or start rumours to encourage them losing relations or start hostilities with other factions etc..or improve relations by encouraging corruption and making gifts etc..

I'd also like for the diplomacy agreements to have more relevance.  Non aggression pact for example shouldn't by default mean you open your borders to the other faction, border access should be separate.  Also with alliances these should have more relevance like encouraging your ally to have bad relations with your enemies and good relations with your friends and trade partners.  technology trades should also allow for direct trading of researched techs.

Other things like Border access in general.  For example if I enter another factions border they pretty much say leave or declare war.. but if they enter mine they agree to leave, moving them to the edge of my border and then the very next turn continue on their original movement back to where they were going heading into my borders again.. leaving you with an endlessly repetitive turn by turn request that they leave which they do until eventually relations drop so bad they declare war.  This needs sorting so when you say LEAVE my territory IF they do that they then don't head straight back in the next turn but alter thier pathing to find a new route AROUND your territory instead.

Finally I would also like to see MINOR RACES reintroduced, these individual settlements are nice especially if they were made so that either by allying them or conquering them you could gain access to a unique spell, tech, building, equipment or unit that without access to them you otherwise couldn't.  This would add an extra layer to gameplay in both substance, falvor and tactics.

Reply #97 Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 92

Quoting Sunray242, reply 84
Tactical terrain: Swamp tiles to limit your movement and defense, wooden areas to reduce damage from ranged attacks, arrows that can be stopped by obstacles that are in the line of sight, hills (height that give a +1 attack bonus to damage), catapults that will destroy fortified tiles and so on...


I want this and more.

There are two additional things I requested that would simply require too much coding:

1. Intelligent LOS (where LOS isn't circular)/

2. Things that block projectiles (i.e. hide behind a wall blocks arrows).

The #1 problem my company faces is limited coding resources.  I just don't have enough programmers on hand to do everything I'd like us to do.  It's not even a budget issue.  You'll see me on twitter, facebook, and us sending people around trying to recruit programmers.  It's hard to get people to move to Michigan.

So while a game like Age of Wonders 3 (which is looking great btw) or Warlock 2 have pretty sizeable teams, I've got 2 programmers and myself available on the fantasy 4X stuff (artists are easier to get and why content is a lot more doable).

One of the many reasons War of Magic was so disappointing (and there were many reasons) is that I had to alter the design a lot as time went on simply for lack of coding resources.  There are start up indies with more programmers on their game than I have available for our fantasy 4X. It's frustrating.

 

 

If the news is to be believed everybody is leaving michigan not moving there.   Lots of ghost town pictures of Detriot.

Reply #98 Top

1. How OFTEN do you want to see new DLC?

Every couple months

 

2. What would you like to see our NEXT DLC be?

g. Something else, More monsters (flying).  More Geographic options (beaches/canyons/jungles/light woods/sand dunes,shore lines, deep sea, etc...).  & A Naval Game (Naval/Sea Units). 

Reply #99 Top

I should like to see naval units, myself, as a way to give more tactical options. Assuming ice elementals would be able to traverse water terrain without penalty, they would be able to capture lightly defended cities on the coastline without having to  slog through all that ground territory to get to it.

Reply #100 Top

Quoting anc40, reply 99

I should like to see naval units, myself, as a way to give more tactical options. Assuming ice elementals would be able to traverse water terrain without penalty, they would be able to capture lightly defended cities on the coastline without having to  slog through all that ground territory to get to it.

 

Imo, Naval units will overcomplicate the game world. Only way I see this working is if many changes are made to the game:

- Many more beaches need to be inserted into the existing stamps and premade maps.

- A series of varied ships and transports needs to be designed, with consideration to be taken into faction specific units.

- More flying units are required to help balance out land/sea battlefronts.

- Sea units are required to give a hero side to naval.

- Sea monsters and lairs are required to complicate traversing the seas.

- Random events need to be made that will be specific to sea scenarios.

- More spells need to be made that incorporate sea and air travel. Cast spells like 'flying', 'water walking', 'floating island', etc.

- Airships are a must.

- There needs to be a reason to explore the sea....a new resource? Quests?

- How will the treaties operate over sea lanes?

- Perhaps even a floating fortress from which to fortify your empire's position.

 

I'm sure I'm even missing a thing or two. Basically....adding naval I think would be a huge project for SD.....IF they could put out something so grand in a DLC, I'd definitely purchase it.....but I don't think they will...

 

...especially when they still need to do similar items....like have the AI be able to handle and build outpost improvements.