Elemental: Fallen Enchantress - Legendary Heroes Interview
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Greg Tito: What kinds of spells or abilities are being added to the game?
Derek Paxton: One thing players requested is to add more depth to Tactical Battles. Fallen Enchantress has different damage types on different weapons. Hammers are blunt weapons, spears are pierce weapons, etc. Some armor protected better against different types, some monsters are more or less defended against different types. From a statistical standpoint there was some variety, it matters that you use your spearmen against the guys in plate mail and your warhammer against the guys in chain mail. But it wasn't visceral enough, players didn't feel the difference so most played without considering the statistical difference and therefor it was as if they didn't exist.
For LH all weapons have special functions in combat. Rather than a spear doing more damage against plate armor it has an impale ability, which strikes an enemy and whoever is behind him. All factions have a special ability in tactical combat as well, so the player always has a few options to choose from (outside of just moving and attacking) in tactical combat. Wraiths can drain life from nearby enemies, Trogs can go berserk, which takes them out of the players control as they attack enemies as quickly and brutally as possible.
As for new spells, we have plenty of those too. Lightning bolts strike all enemies in a straight line from the caster, necromancers can summon hordes of undead into battle and casters can use Gust of Wind to knock back nearby enemies. A lot of the new spells play with the swarm mechanic that has been introduced in LH which gives bonuses when you attack enemies that are surrounded by your allies. Now controlling the battlefield and exactly what tile you are standing in becomes more important.
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Greg Tito: Are new factions being introduced? Why or why not?
Derek Paxton: No new factions. Instead we focused on putting more detail into the existing factions. For example each faction has a unique ability that they can perform in tactical combat. So even your lowly spearman Altar gets the Rush ability that allows them to bypass their attack to get an additional action. All factions have a special ability in tactical combat as well, so the player always has a few options to choose from (outside of just moving and attacking) in tactical combat. Wraiths can drain life from nearby enemies, Trogs can go berserk, which takes them out of the players control as they attack enemies as quickly and brutally as possible.
There are also new sovereign and faction abilities for players that would like to create custom sovereigns and factions and these will be used by the AI when the player creates new games so if a player would like 10 new factions and sovereigns, he has only to create them in game and start playing.
