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[lordcooper]

IIRC correctly multiplayer was dropped partially due to the exceedingly minimal amount of people who even tried to use it in E:WoM.

So, 1000 posts later, the game is ok. Good to know.

I laughed.

My one gripe is that I'm pretty sure there's no mechanism to prevent spamming outposts, which the AI does. It kinda ruins the savage wilderness vibe for me a bit, but I guess it's just because I'm used to thing in my boarder being mine and mine alone (thanks to Civ).

See, I actually really like that.  It gives me a sense of the wilderness gradually being tamed and overpopulation starting to set in.

[Neonivek]

Nice to see people are finally critiquing Fallen Enchantress in here as I have been hovering over the decision to buy it (unfortunately I bought a book for a friend... so I cannot afford it anymore without irresponsible spending. So I am going to be waiting a while)

[Korbac]

Sorry for being really dull, but I'm not quite sure what this is.

Is it an expansion or a reboot?

[umiman]

I have a weird relationship with this game.

On one hand, it's still pretty buggy. The UI is slow and honestly quite terrible. And the pacing is all kinds of weird. Not to mention the fact that the AI blatantly cheats (whee, instant quests and free dragons for everybody!) and every single AI produces the same units anyway so it's like fighting the same faction (n) times. I don't like how you're so restricted when it comes to producing cities and how the custom inventories for all units purports to be unique but you always end up with the same units anyway because the inventory trees are linear and kinda lame. Etc. etc. etc.

But on the other hand I couldn't stop playing it for about 15 hours, even through all that. Not sure I will play it again though. *shrug*

Your mileage may vary.

You know what would be incredible? A game like this, but with Magic: The Gathering units, items, monsters, etc. It'd be freaking brilliant. I've always held the opinion that Magic: The Gathering would make an incredible Civ clone.

Korbac: It's Stardock's attempt to redo their mistakes, I think would be the proper way to put it. Just think of it as a new game loosely based on Elemental.

[somebody]

Sorry for being really dull, but I'm not quite sure what this is.

Is it an expansion or a reboot?

It's an expansion turned standalone after the complete failure of the first game.

[thvaz]

Fallen Enchantress is a good game. Not great, but a good game. I recommend it if you like 4x games and RPGs - its 4x half is subpar as it is RPG one, but together they are worth way beyond the sum of its parts.

[Korbac]

Glad they've at least repaired some of the damage. Is the unit crafting system any better? I was really looking forward to some unique units - I understand they couldn't make them as detailed as I wanted but giving each unit just health, damage and speed was a kick in the pants.

[forsaken1111]

IIRC correctly multiplayer was dropped partially due to the exceedingly minimal amount of people who even tried to use it in E:WoM.

Nobody tried to use it because it was a broken mess. I couldn't even find computers on my local network, much less connect to someone via the web.

[lordcooper]

Glad they've at least repaired some of the damage. Is the unit crafting system any better? I was really looking forward to some unique units - I understand they couldn't make them as detailed as I wanted but giving each unit just health, damage and speed was a kick in the pants.

14 stats, quite a few accessories, weapons and armour (split into different categories like helmets, boots, greaves etc) with all different sorts of modifiers, elemental effects etc etc.   There are quite a few different ways to play it.

I have a weird relationship with this game.

On one hand, it's still pretty buggy. The UI is slow and honestly quite terrible. And the pacing is all kinds of weird. Not to mention the fact that the AI blatantly cheats (whee, instant quests and free dragons for everybody!) and every single AI produces the same units anyway so it's like fighting the same faction (n) times. I don't like how you're so restricted when it comes to producing cities and how the custom inventories for all units purports to be unique but you always end up with the same units anyway because the inventory trees are linear and kinda lame. Etc. etc. etc.

But on the other hand I couldn't stop playing it for about 15 hours, even through all that. Not sure I will play it again though. *shrug*

Your mileage may vary.

You know what would be incredible? A game like this, but with Magic: The Gathering units, items, monsters, etc. It'd be freaking brilliant. I've always held the opinion that Magic: The Gathering would make an incredible Civ clone.

Korbac: It's Stardock's attempt to redo their mistakes, I think would be the proper way to put it. Just think of it as a new game loosely based on Elemental.

I've had one bug so far when a wolf skipped it's turn for some reason.  That's it.  The UI seems decent enough (except for having build/train in the build/train sub menus when confirm would make more sense) and I haven't experienced any delays or stuttering when selecting options.  I haven't noticed any obvious cheating by the AI, but admittedly most of my time so far has been spent in the campaign rather than skirmish so it may well do.  There's almost definitely an optimum set of units to use, but it's easy enough to just not use them.  More tech tree branches would be cool though.

As for MtG, that would make a great mod.  And the game actually comes with a set of modding tools, so hopefully we'll be seeing something like this further down the line.

IIRC correctly multiplayer was dropped partially due to the exceedingly minimal amount of people who even tried to use it in E:WoM.

Nobody tried to use it because it was a broken mess. I couldn't even find computers on my local network, much less connect to someone via the web.

I seem to remember them saying they tracked what percentage of players clicked the multiplayer option on the main menu.  I think it was something like 5%.

[forsaken1111]

IIRC correctly multiplayer was dropped partially due to the exceedingly minimal amount of people who even tried to use it in E:WoM.

Nobody tried to use it because it was a broken mess. I couldn't even find computers on my local network, much less connect to someone via the web.

I seem to remember them saying they tracked what percentage of players clicked the multiplayer option on the main menu.  I think it was something like 5%.

Interesting, though it wouldn't take into account the people playing offline or people who knew it wasn't working so didn't try.

[lordcooper]

Quoting in full because the numbers surprised me so much.

Let  me preface this that I am one of the people here that wants MP in Elemental games. While I ultimately approved FE not having MP, it was with considerable consternation. If you guys knew what % of the WOM budget was put into MP you'd be shocked (>30%, mainly because of the dynamic, worldwide virtual machine server infrastructure that was developed -- every game is a "pit boss").  So I can assure you, it is literally impossible to be more disappointed than I am.

Now, that said, someone asked for some numbers. Here are some facts that help provide some context to the discussion.

77% of the Demigod user base after its first year had never attempted to play a single multiplayer game. And that was a game designed as a multiplayer centric game.  Chris Taylor and I double checked that number repeatedly because we were certain it had to be wrong. It wasn't.

Over 90% of the Sins of a Solar Empire user base at the time we were about to release Trinity had never attempted to play a single multiplayer game.

At GDC, friends of my from Firaxis told me that only around 4% of the Civilization IV user base had ever played a single MP game (not finished a game, simply tried it).

Fewer than 1% of the WOM user base attempted multiplayer. I don't mean played a game. I mean simply went to the MP lobby (it adds an active flag to your SD account if you simply went to the main MP screen).

Now, I want to emphasize that we have no problem developing features that only a fraction of the market is going to use. Heck, we used to make OS/2 software.  But at the end of the day, decisions have to be made and sometimes your options are all non-ideal.

But as my first paragraph should hopefully make clear, it is not something we're giving up on.

[nenjin]

Reading the RPS article and people's comments, FE doesn't sound that far removed from War of Magic to me. "All the lights are on but no one really seems to be home." Sounds like some things are slightly more interesting but the phrase "none of these parts seem to connect to each other to form a meaningful whole" keeps getting repeated, and that's exactly how WoM felt. Lots of stuff going on that never quite pulls it all together.

[Neonivek]

I really don't like playing multiplayer a lot of the time especially in games I feel like I don't approach anywhere close to being "Skilled" since I only enjoy a game with others when I feel like I am a contendor.

Add in the many ways Online is terrible: You are a noob, they are a noob, you are a scrub, they are a scrub, you are a tryhard, they are a tryhard, flames, trolls, and other stupidity... and often you absolutely do NOT want to play multiplayer.

I would never play Civilisation online, I would never platy genuin games of Warcraft or Starcraft online, I have never touched a real time strategy game online, I think that I'd need my head examined to play a 4x game online as well. There is no balance in any of these games you either have fun or you do not have fun and if you are not one of those people who either has fun losing or has the mindset to win you are not the one multiplayer is geared to.

The fact that no one likes multiplayer surprises me and doesn't surprise me. It surprises me because I thought EVERYONE did multiplayer, it doesn't surprise me because multiplayer sucks.

Multiplayer sucks and sucks so bad. Multiplayer rocks as much as it sucks. It needs to be in the game as much as it absolutely should not even touch the game.

[forsaken1111]

The main reason I buy games like this is to play them with my circle of friends who also enjoy them.

Thus, I've decided to pass on the game. I do hope it's fun for those who buy it though.

[Neonivek]

The main reason I buy games like this is to play them with my circle of friends who also enjoy them.

Thus, I've decided to pass on the game. I do hope it's fun for those who buy it though.

If you have a circle of friends who enjoy the same game and buy it and still play it.