This is probably not the most exciting game in development right now, but if you happen to be a fan of Conquest of Elysium 3 or Illwinter games, you might be pleased to know that
Conquest of Elysium 4 is in development! I was a somewhat surprised, given that Conquest of Elysium 3 wasn't exactly the most successful strategy game ever, but it has been three years and I suppose it did well enough to merit a sequel. Have a picture:
Highlights of the announcement:
- New combat system: as you can see in the photo, there is a grid-based battlefield, and units actually get to move around as opposed to being able to magically attack the front row of the other army. Furthermore, units get initiative values for attacking, so you don't have a CoE3 situation where a defending army could wipe out half of your attacking army in the first round, because defenders got first strike in CoE3. I think that this might be enough to make the game worth getting on its own, since the faulty combat system was probably the biggest issue I had with CoE3.
- Five planes will be in the game: not sure what exactly this entails, but this does sound pretty interesting and flavorful. The two mentioned are an "infernal plane," from which you summon demons, and Hades, which is full of undead. The announcement mentions some interesting interactions like summoned demon lords leaving their fortresses in the infernal plane, and powerful undead returning to Hades, so I think this could be a really cool feature.
- New map and climate generation: not really a big deal in my opinion, but the announcement mentions things that might affect temperature, like summoning a second sun or having Niefel giants, so this might be interesting in allowing you to see how your actions affect the gameworld.
- Random rituals: since the announcement mentioned making classes more random, I assume that this means that the different classes in CoE4 will not be guaranteed to have the same ritual abilities as they art in CoE3, and will be able to summon different creatures or have different progressions within the same class. The portion for this still says "To be written."
- Enchantments: I have no idea. The portion for this still says "To be written."
Anyways, I'm pretty stoked for this game, and I'm sure that anyone who got through the worst of CoE3 would be too! This one also looks like its more accessible compared to CoE3 and has more interesting features, so I think that this might have a broader appeal as well.