Elemental: Fallen Enchantress Preview
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Wardell said the development team had run down a list of complaints about Elemental to address as many as possible, and one of the big ones was clarity. "One of the problems we had with the first game was people were asking, 'What do all these numbers mean?'" FE's menus, as a result, are built with an eye toward transparency -- hovering the mouse over a stat will probably pop up an info box explaining how it got there. Not a new concept, certainly, but an important one. There will also be a full tutorial to help us get better acquainted.
Likewise, a brief demonstration of the new combat showed an entirely different experience. "It's based on initiative. It's not your side moves and then their side moves; every individual unit has a stat that determines when they move." A fast unit, for example, will move more frequently, not further every turn. I was also impressed by the new weaponry system, which distinguishes between swords, axes, spears, and warhammers with perk-like bonuses that change how a unit fights instead of just varying damage and attack speed. A soldier wielding an ax gets to swing a second time if he misses the first, whereas a sword gets a counter-attack when defending. "We wanted them to feel different," said Wardell, and I think they probably will.
