A trip through the fantasy worlds I enjoy

 

 

What is Legendary Heroes?

It's an expansion for Fallen Enchantress that adds the following:

1. A new Champion progression system.  Instead of random traits your champions have a trait tree that they can use to select traits as they level  up, grow your champions the way you want.

2. The ability to recruit special non-human champions.  Champions aren't just humans anymore.  Rare opportunities or quests may unlock champions of various monster races that can choose traits and use equipment.

3. New tactical combat options.  Swarm gives a bonus for every ally that surrounds the enemy you are attacking.  Be careful where you stand as even weak creatures can become dangerous in groups (especially those with traits that improve their Swarm bonus).  Weapons all have special abilities and every faction has a special ability they can use in combat so even lowly spearmen have 2 special abilities they can use in addition to their normal move and attack options.

4. New monster types like the Banshee who is immune to physical weapons, or the Garagox who knocks enemies back with each hit (which makes it difficult to get swarm bonuses and control the battlefield).

5. New spells and abilities.  New range types have been added that allow for adjacent and line spells and abilities.  Use Wall of Fire in tactical to create a line, 7 tiles long, to block allies from enemy units.  Master necromancy to summon up to nine different skeleton units at once with the Raise Skeletal Horde spell.  Use Resoln's Wraith Touch to drain life from a nearby enemy or Altar's Rush ability to forfeit their attack to get an extra action.

6. A new scenario.  Relias has returned to warn the kingdoms of what he discovered in the East, but there is little time left.  The war has begun.

 

Who gets Legendary Heroes for free?

If you purchased War of Magic before 10/31/2010 then you will be receiving Legendary Heroes for free.  If you will be receiving Legendary Heroes for free you will receive an email from Stardock when the beta starts.

 

How much does Legendary Heroes cost?

If you own Fallen Enchantress then Legendary Heroes will cost $19.99.  If you don't own Fallen Enchantress it will cost $39.99.

 

Can I get Legendary Heroes on Steam?

Legendary Heroes is integrated with Steam.  So everyone that gets it will have it on Steam, no matter where they purchase it from (even if they purchase directly from Stardock).  Those players that will be receiving free copies will be receiving a steam key for the game.

 

How has the champion system changed?

The biggest change is in how you gain champions.  They are no longer waiting on the map.  Although I liked having them on the map to encourage players to explore, it made the champion part of the game to random.  It also disconnected the champion game from the core game (empire building), creating two separate games that were only loosely connected to each other.

In Legendary Heroes players have a new Fame attribute.  Fame is gained by building certain  improvements (though you can also get it from researching some techs and completing quests).  Completing the Tower of Dominion provides enough Fame to get your first Champion.  When you gain enough Fame 2 champions will present themselves to you for recruitment, but you can only pick one.  All the champions have been redone to make these decisions more distinct and interesting.

With this new system the amount of Champions you have access to depends on your empire choices, what techs you researched and what improvements you built.  Not on map generation.

Champions can still be gained through quests, though these tend to be special cases.

There are also a lot of new champion traits that can be learned.  Some that grant access to new spells and abilities, some that improve existing abilities.  For example all axes give access to the Cleave ability, which allows the unit to strike 3 adjacent enemies that are next to each other.  A champion trait increase the amount of damage done when Cleaving.  Others increase damage with fire spells, or the amount of healing done when casting a Heal spell.  Traits can reduce casting times or increase the amount of accessories a champion can equip.

 

Monster champions?  Does that mean I can give a bear an axe and enchanted pants?

Each of the monster champions is special, such as Huhrus the Ogre.  You can get him through a quest in both FE and LH.  But in LH he is a champion with the ability to pick traits when he levels (he starts with path of the warrior) and you can give him whatever weapons and accessories you would like.  Since he is an Ogre he gets all their benefits including having more hit points than a normal champion.  But he cannot wear normal armor, so there are pros and cons.

 

Have the graphics changed?

The graphics of the game have gone through considerable updates.  Redone forests, new rivers, new mountains, dynamic shadows, lower bloom, less terrain blending, improved lighting, better animations, etc.  Ground props have been dramatically reduced and overall the effect is to make the game cleaner and clearer.  It is easier to tell what a specific tile is and which tiles have special things on them.

Legendary Heroes has a new Art Lead, Kay Fedewa.  It is her first time working as a lead on a game and she has done amazing work making everything look both better and more distinct (often opposite goals).

Designer Note: The big lesson for me was that art, much like game design, isn't about one big change or fix.  It's a culmination of a lot of little things working together.  It's the entire scene.  Small things that wouldn't be noticed add up.  Where a player may notice that Legendary heroes has new mountains, those mountains are actually a half dozen changes all working together, none of which would be that significant on their own.

 

Are there more changes?

Lots of more minor tweaks and improvements.  There is a new game option slider for production pace (so you can modify it seperatly than research pace).  Screens have been added (an army screen for managing multiple stacks in one tile) or improved.  The battles result screen animates your xp bar and dings when a unit hits a level as well as showing any results of injuries or death so we don't need additional popups for it.

When you adjust the world difficulty it will change the levels monsters spawn at instead of just their hit points.  Turn it down to get weaker monsters and up to be facing level 8 bears and worse.

Since you don't have your "free champion" starting by you players start with their sovereign and a group of spearmen and club wielding militia.  In general this makes starting sovereigns a bit more powerful but it does a great job of showing off the new weapons abilities (since the spearmen and militia have different abilities) and it gets the player used to using armies.  He can start fighting with his starting units and by the time they die be ready to get some new ones trained.

We have also added a feature based on player feedback.  The ability to set a city to producing a resource (like additional gold), instead of just having the cities get a bonus when the queue was empty.  This is a more intuitive option for the player and works better for game play since we can seperate idle cities from those that have been intentionally to produce more of a resource.

There are more, new items, new weapons, new armor, new quests, etc.

 

 

Does the addition of these new mechanics make the game more complex?

Our goal is to take FE to the next level with the expansion.  To make it into a better game, not a bigger game.  So things that were confusing or overly complex were cut.  For example finding champions in the wilderness can be confusing for new players, the new system is both better designed and more intuitive. 

I've also removed cutting/blunt/pierce damage.  The goal of those damage types was to make the weapons different from each other.  To make an axe different than a hammer.  But the majority of players ignored or were unaware of the differences and were left feeling like battles were less strategic because the defense strengths or weaknesses didn't impact their strategy.

Now the weapons have special abilities.  Spears have Impale, which strikes an enemy and the unit behind them.  Axes have Cleave, which can strike 3 units that are all adjacent to the attacker.  Crossbows have been added to the game and they are powerful short range weapons, they strike through 5 enemy units in a line.  Even shields give a Shield Bash ability which does the units normal attack damage and can knock the victim back a tile (which is good for controlling swarm bonuses from your units and your opponents).  Because of these abilities, different weapons feel very different from each other and we no longer needed the stat differences that damage types offered.  In other words, stats differences are okay differentiators, game play differences are better.

I've also cut Influence and Faction Prestige.  Influence fell victim to the go big or go home rule.  It just wasn't important enough to feel like its own thing.  Removing it makes gold more important for diplomacy.  Faction Prestige is being replaced by a Unrest penalty based on the amount of cities in your empire.  The more cities you have the higher your unrest is.  This makes anti-unrest effects more critical as your empire grows and does a better job of balancing large vs small empires since it directly reduces production and research rather than just growth (as faction prestige did).

Part of removing Faction Prestige was the change to have the amount of unused food a city has available impact growth.  So now when you see a tile with high grain yields it isn't just a higher size that the city can grow to, but the speed at which it will reach that size.

 

Other links?

Website: https://www.elementalgame.com/legendary-heroes

 


Comments (Page 19)
21 PagesFirst 17 18 19 20 21 
on Mar 03, 2013

Derek Paxton
...

  It makes me sad when I see the number of FE 1.0 crash reports that we are getting to this day for problems we fixed long ago.......

 

it makes me sad that a company that once railed against restrictive DRMs and third-party download managers has decided that Steam, rather than their non-restrictive, sold-out Impulse engine is the way to go. I see, just like the US constitution's Bill of rights, Stardock has decided to let theirs slide and deteriorate. 

 

I'm one of those who got in on the Collector's WoM, and consequently, received Enchantress as compensation. As a show of support, and appreciation, I purchased the map pack, and I hadn't played Enchantress for weeks, and haven't again, since, either. I've been playing other things. I just did, because of what Stardock did, and I felt they were truly putting their money where their Bill of rights was. In grabbing the update from last week, I saw the upcoming expansion, and the notes with it, and was proud again, to have supported a company with these standards. And then I saw "Steam". 

 

It makes me sad. 

on Mar 06, 2013

Will the "Map Pack DLC" be included in the finished Legendary Heroes game?

If not, will it be eglible for Legendary Heroes if I own it?

 

on Mar 06, 2013

according to Derek Paxton ( see reply # 35 in this thread) people who bought the map pack for FE will also get the map pack for LH

on Mar 06, 2013

Ah thanks, I even read the first few pages of the thread, but I seem to have missed that, or forgot about it already...

on Mar 11, 2013

I'm truly impressed, I for the most part agree how disconnected the Heroes integration and their role within the "4X" aspect of FE was. Also, it was a chore and really unbalanced that whomever found their Faction's random Champion first, could potentially recruit them. Huge gameplay imbalance, utterly and without unnecessary revulsion injected.

Not trying to brag, but I did wish I posted ideas of mine for confronting the Unrest Penalty system much much earlier when Frogboy first released a snippet of it. I think it's a potential system, but if not done right, will cripple the game.

What's worse than the Unrest Penalty hypothetically, and, Civ 5, is the City Capture system as it currently is. I haven't played FE for a while nor posted and read here, but its absurd. Cities need to require turns till they're completely destroyed, depending upon its growth level, and most importantly, Neutral monsters can NEVER Raze a city, only destroy a single Improvement per invasion and percentage of that victims treasury.

My biggest fear is as people already raised here, and that is capturing enemy cities. Its simple but a bit complicated, in that we need to make sure when an enemy city is captured, that it does NOT add to the conquerors Unrest Penalty.

The game needs Assimilation and Puppetry. An immediate capture of any foreign city should always be allowed to be placed in some status that prevents it from raising your Unrest Penalty, in return for not being "annexed into your Empire/Kingdom and subsequently wedded, but in return lose at least 50% of all its Output. 

If Stardock blatantly adds captured cities to the UP, than the game is fucked till patch lol. I personally would prefer Civ 4's in that its Maintenance rather than Unrest, because game-wise its much more manageable as proven when it came to deciding to found another city, and/or creating Improvements in any settlement. 

UP is much more streamlined, yet, dangerous if not appropriately handled.

I have all love for Stardock, and Derek because of having played Fall From Heaven and witnessing how awesome of a total conversion that was. Absolutely talented man, If I could, I'd force him to personally produce GalCiv3, GalCiv4, and all their expansions without doubt of failure.

 

on Mar 16, 2013


In fairness I didn't read all the comments, but I read a lot and was surprised to not see anything about the change to weapon damage.  Adding abilities to weapons is great addition to the combat system, but taking out damage types reduces strategy in a real and noticeable way no matter what other mechanic you are adding.  I like realism and logic, even in fantasy gaming.  Swords, spears, axes, and hammers do not damage plate, leather, or chain armors in the real world in the same way and they shouldn't in any game, ever.  If I go against a faction with no armor I should be rewarded for picking a different type of weapon that doesn't have the same draw backs as it would against a faction with armor.  If people overlooked the differences in FE that's a surprise to me.  You ever hit an iron golem with a sword?  It gets noticed, but that is a good mechanic.  Different weapons doing different amounts/types of damage to different armors is a staple of many games with different weapon and armor categories and I think it would be a real shame to scrap it entirely.  You want more strategy?  Force me to consider facing three armored enemies with an axe that can attack all three at reduced damage, or a mace that attacks one at a time but does more per hit.  People will always decide in a game on what is best in every category.  We all have our favorite everything in everything.  I'm going to find my favorite weapon ability and blindly choose the corresponding weapon without a second thought if there isn't any other calculations to make.  For the sake of strategic depth the amount and type of armor of my enemy deserves to be a counterable consideration I can make.  If arrows are piercing full plate armor like wolf's hide I think you'll have done this game a great disservice.

 

Additionally, I saw the equation in a pretty angry post so I don't know if it was right or not, but the damage calculation equation was stated as (Attack x # of units) - defense.  Rewarding you for bringing two swords, but not two breastplates.  If this is true I'd like to see a change here.  Reward neither or reward both.  (Attack - Defense) x # of attacking units or something.  Just because a unit is comprised of more than one attacker doesn't mean every attacker after the first shouldn't incur a damage penalty based on defense.  I want the realism here, if two people shoot someone in a kevlar vest the second bullet doesn't magically circumvent the vest because it already got hit once, does it decrease in effectiveness with successive blows?  Sure (that would be a great mechanic) but it still counts for something.  Again, that first calculation may be wrong, I'm not sure.

on Mar 18, 2013

Are the battlefields really "smaller" in EFELH respectively is there no "approaching phase" anymore ? I saw a "Pre-Beta-Video" on Youtube, and there the melee units could directly fight each other. If this is a new "feature" I would prefer if this is optional.
It would be a reason for me not to buy LH. I liked it to "sort" my troops before the battle, preparing some spells and it was possible to choose which unitis attack first. After my opinion It is always bad when in a strategy game strategic elements are streamlined with arguments like quicker, easier...I hope the video only missed the scenes before out.

on Mar 18, 2013

Yeah from the videos we've seen so far looks like melee units will pretty much start within striking range.

Personally i'd prefer something between FE and LH... i.e units to start a bit closer than FE but not quite so that everyone is instantly in melee.  

Having said that, I think until we try it who knows... maybe it will work out great.

on Mar 18, 2013

Frogboy

Same hardware requirements. Game should run slightly faster on the same hardware.  However, it will require Steam to get updates.

Steam is becoming another Windows and Valve another Microsoft.  This is a bad, bad idea.

 

 
on Mar 18, 2013

simon_sin

Quick question:

Is this 1.3? Or a separate direction?

Will I be able to have a Fallen Enchantress 1.3 & a Legendary Heroes version to choose from, or once LHs is installed I basically have to use the New rules?

 

Or will this mean FE 1.2 is as far as that game will be developed, and future enhancments will be based on LH builds?

thx.

 

Not sure if this has been answered, but ive been wondering about this as well.

 

Will LH integrate into FE or will the 2 be separate?

 

As far as yalls problem with Steam goes, I first started using Steam when Left 4 Dead came out and since then ive added 112 more games along with it and never once had a problem.

 

Now I don't know if many of you are mistaking Steam for EA's Origin but Steam started it all as far as many are concerned. Theres absolutely nothing wrong with Steam, hell its because of Steam that ive added so many games to my collection. Plus think of it this way, how much gas do you think people have saved from using Steam instead of having to goto a store for a Physical Copy? Hell that's 1 of my main reasons for even using Steam, saving gas money and time.

 

If you all don't want to use Steam that's fine that's your decision, but if you've Never used Steam before and you're trying to make it out to be like some kind of monster then you really have no basis for your complaints as you have no experience with it.

on Mar 19, 2013

DigitalIP


Will LH integrate into FE or will the 2 be separate?

 

 

The two will be separate, similar, I believe, to the way GC2 chapters (versions)  were set up.

on Mar 21, 2013


I don't know if I'm the first to ask this (and imagine I am not by a far cry), but as FE:LH is an expansion of FE, although standalone, what becomes of the content of FE in the new game? I bought E:WoM before that infamous date so have the free copy and am happy for that, esp. since the game is so vastly improved, but my copy of FE is not on Steam, nor can I register it on Steam... So, does FE become sort of lost/dropped from my playtime in favor of FE:LH? or is the content, including the map pack I bought, only available in the non-Steam version of FE, and FE:LH will not recognize my prior ownership?

Hope that makes some sense to somebody... sorry for the odd phraseology but quite tired while typing this [e digicons]:'([/e]

Many thanks to all the people who have worked on this game series! I love FE so much more so than what we had with the 1st iteration in E:WoM

~ Steven M.

on Mar 22, 2013

and what about those of us that do NOT dribble, BUT were in the beta for WOM?

harpo

 

on Mar 22, 2013

Donnerjack2112
I don't know if I'm the first to ask this (and imagine I am not by a far cry), but as FE:LH is an expansion of FE, although standalone, what becomes of the content of FE in the new game? I bought E:WoM before that infamous date so have the free copy and am happy for that, esp. since the game is so vastly improved, but my copy of FE is not on Steam, nor can I register it on Steam... So, does FE become sort of lost/dropped from my playtime in favor of FE:LH? or is the content, including the map pack I bought, only available in the non-Steam version of FE, and FE:LH will not recognize my prior ownership?

Hope that makes some sense to somebody... sorry for the odd phraseology but quite tired while typing this [e digicons]:'([/e]

Many thanks to all the people who have worked on this game series! I love FE so much more so than what we had with the 1st iteration in E:WoM

~ Steven M.

Stardocks plan if you haven't noticed will be much like Galactic Civilization II, they will keep improving the BASE game and CHARGING you for it instead of PATCHING in updates like back in the good ole days.

It would seem modern day programming and development is all about the $$, if you notice nearly all games have gone to the nickels and dimes DLC for games INSTEAD of just GIVING it to you in an update or PATCH.

Thus while FE will continue to get MINIMAL support for a little while longer (much like War of Magic until it died) Legendary Heroes is the NEW game on the block and I'm pretty sure there will be changes and new features after it so there will be another NEW version of the SAME game (War of Magic) that you can PAY for down the road much like TWILIGHT was to Galactic Civilization II base game.

If you have patience the BEST thing you can do now is just wait for the LAST chapter of Elemental(War of the Money Grab) and since they've now gone to Steam you can even wait for the $5-$10 bargain bin price for the whole bundle. That could be 5 years down the road though as I think it was about that long until Twilight of Arnor came along for Galactic Civilization II.

on Mar 22, 2013
Finally played thru a couple of LH games. Wow, wow, wow, (triple wow). Amazing game-play, amazing. SD, you exceeded my expectations that were already very high after i experienced your recovery from the 'elemental' fumble. FE was a vast improvement over 'the game that shall not be named.' LH, is, like, wow!
21 PagesFirst 17 18 19 20 21