Good news, PC players! The free patch 1.3 has been published today, adding new content and features to the game:
Additions
Quest overview – allows you to quickly find and navigate to active quests on the world map
A new hero: Galtrak, the orc blood mage brings his own kind of magic that may even unlock new spells for your wizard…but they come at a price
New world locations: The sullied village
Improvements
Strong performance improvements to optimize your experience on lower-end systems and speed up loading times
Improved gamepad functionalities and guidance
Reworked magic school distribution so they do not spawn in completely unreachable locations anymore where apprentice would get stuck.
You can now jump to the next/previous valid target while casting a spell on the world map
Fixes
Fixed various character outlines not being displayed correctly
Fixed battle being stuck when an units gets routed (morale)
Fixed game being stuck on the world map when you freeze an enemy stack
Fixed an issue where the tower stayed contested after leaving an enemy influence area.
Teleport/Recall spells now wipe a stacks memory, so they do not teleport back again if movement was queued
Strengthening the Circle
The latest patch makes the battle for Eo's fate more challenging for experienced players, improving the Circle Mages' armies and defenses on higher difficulties. It also improves auto-combat massively, taking into account a number of additional factors such as spells, resistances and skills as well as equipment. Players can focus on the battles that really count and do away with manually playing clear-cut victories to prevent unnecessary losses. Add to this over 40 improvements and bug fixes as well as a new Energy Leech skill that allows to leech life from fantastical creatures and Conquest of Eo has become even more fun to play!
Additions
AUTORESOLVE 2.0 - The new formula accounts for most of the skills, promotions and abilities in game which makes it take into account supportive units and strong builds much better than before. Still does not play like a human...
Added new Ability "Leech Energy" (Life leech vs Fantastic units). Can be found as an artifact, crafted (Glyph of Occultism) or gained from level up for certain units.
Improvements
Watchtower and Inn are now spawned in Uram Gor
Changed wishing well adventure to give one cool reward and diminishing returns after that
Build Golem does not have universal upkeep anymore and does not count as summon, instead the upkeep depends on the created golem. Only newly built Golems are affected
Added exception handling if settings file is corrupted to avoid black screens on startup and instead load the default settings as fallback
Tweaked camera angle on world map (better taking mountains into account) and the camera in battles can now zoom in more closely
Tweaked location and resource overlays to cause less occlusion
Spell school dialogue condition displays number of required spells in that school (e.g. [Death 5])
Faction tool tip now displays effects that are active in that faction's domain
Balancing
Antagonist Power Overhaul - Partially affects all difficulties (slight changes to army pools, fixed bugs that prevented final stack from attacking player) but mostly impacts hard and impossible difficulty (stronger antagonist tower and attack stacks, stronger final stack, additional battle enchantments for antagonists on those difficulties, increased attack wave intensity). Also circle mage tower battles have to be fought manually.
Earthlore spell correctly considers ore rarity of region its being cast in. (before that it was basically 50/50 to get adamantinum)
Shortened cast duration for Aether Beast skill cast
Build Golem spell does not have universal upkeep anymore and does not count as summon, instead the upkeep depends on the created golem. Only newly built Golems are affected
Kennels don't block everyone else from getting Follower (checking against active promotions, not all)
Fixes
Fixed issue where markers for how far you can go in a multi turn path where off by one.
Fixed an issue that sometimes caused the AI to freeze in battle when one of their units would rout
Fixed Elixir of Subjugation item costing focus to use (unit-skill still costs focus)
Undying units don't get offered death defy in level up
Fixed several occasions of Skills (mostly throw potions skills) not profiting from additional Ability-range (or wrongly from Missile-range)
Parry Stance does not replace Guard Stance anymore
Fixed Loss end nodes -> unchecked further engage or added new end node with unchecked further engage
Fixed Wendigo not having the passive Corpse Consume heal
Fixed selection cursor in Elynn's Revive As Shaikan
Fixed Flesh Colossus not displaying its On Death ability
Fixed Death abilities of several units triggering twice
Fixed infinite loop that appeared when two units with On Death abilities kill each other
Fixed -% to willpower changes accumulating to below -100%, actually granting willpower for getting damage (masochistic spider queens)
Fixed Purity Hollow Guards being in Hokan's Forge
Fixed toggle buttons not working correctly with gamepad
Fixed a bug where a fight in an adventure had a higher stack power than the option said (the other case, lower power than anticipated, is still possible if the AI can't spend all that budget)
Fixed spawning adventures on the player's instant castles; also added validator check and fixed for Isgrimm as well
Fixed Metor VFX not playing correctly when off screen
Fixed toggle buttons not working correctly with gamepad
Fixed a bug where a fight in an adventure had a higher stack power than the option said (the other case, lower power than anticipated, is still possible if the AI can't spend all that budget)
Canceling fly spell during execution - abort spell is now blocked when busy.
Fixed bug with moving location onto stack which builds a lodge
Fixed component colors in tool tips
Fixed a crash in combat that sometimes occurred when a unit with charge damage attacked an enemy from an adjacent hex
Fixed a Rohen adventure where there could be a loop created by not destroying source location
Hammering out your way to play!
Today’s patch for SpellForce – Conquest of Eo is all about choice and setting up the game the way you want to play it! Now you can completely individualize your preferred difficulty setting from enemy aggression to antagonist power and AI behavior to economy as well as choosing the Circle Mages you face in the game. Pro Tip: Simply pick the ones you love to hate, to make victory that much sweeter! We have also been busy with over 50 smaller and larger fixes and improvements to the game based on community feedback as well as major performance optimizations, so more people can enjoy a smoother experience.
Time to visit Eo and make your way from humble beginnings to becoming the greatest of mages – if you survive!
This is the complete list for the patch 1.1:
Additions
Added a variety of custom difficulty settings - set the game up exactly the way you like to play it
Added antagonist selection at campaign start - choose whom you face in game!
Display quality of slotted artefacts/glyphs in unit details
Added essence filters for inventories in the tower menu - filter your ingredients by essence type
Improvements
Several performance improvements on worldmap leading to reduced system memory usage, improved loading times and smoother framerates (especially on weaker systems)
Improved colors of crafting essences, to be better readable for people with various color vision deficiencies
Can now assign build lodge action also into known fog of war
Improved performance when gaining status effects in battle
Increased supported concurrent domains displayed per faction from 50 to 128 (looking at you, Instant Castle spam)
Tooltips correctly differentiate between "can cause"(30% chance) and "inflict"(100% chance unless resisted) status effect
Made description of Thunderstorm and similar skills clearer
Follower explains that it overrides Enslaved
Balance
Resistances are now stacked relative chance based on difference to 100% (30% Resistance Base = 30% Resistance, add 20% from Spell/Glyph= 30+(70*20%)= 44% Resistance). This allows units with 100% resistance to still be immune, while providing diminishing returns for stacking resistances and prevents immune murder stacks.
Steadfast now grants 50% resistance against status effects instead of full immunity
Life leech only works against Mortal units to make it less universally powerful
All summons in battle appear without actions to reduce summon spam strategies
Specific Titan Spells can only be kept active once, like Global Enchantments (affects Forgemaster, Lightbringer, Primordial Treant, Shaper Golem)
Consume Corpse now always heals the unit post battle for its healing value, but is rarer in levelups, so you don't have to hunt down or miss out on corpses in battle
Made Dancers Potion and Unstable Elixir more viable
Lowered strength of Copper Rune of Ashen and Copper Rune of Elementalist to match other runes of same powerlevel
Enslaving a unit does not trigger moral loss/onDeath effects anymore
Increased Damage for Berserker Trait, increased resistance for Quick Reflexes, lowered Resistance of BathedInLight
Motivate has 1-turn cooldown and Motivate and Command cannot target the source unit (stops endless action exploit)
Fixes
Fixed savegame menu to show all savegames despite unknown files being present
Fixed flyers not being able to fly over destructibles
Fixed post battle unit state bugging out and not being displayed from then on
Fixed Leech City not working on Westguard's Bastion
Fixed Hokan Ashir having Purity troops, now has proper undead version
Fixed loop in Estwal settlement adventure and adventure existing more than once
Fixed Audale shops not properly unlocking the spells you bought
Fixed an issue that caused kennel upgrades to override enslaved for all units instead of only beasts.
When all combatants die during a battle, we now make sure one unit stays alive for winning faction to avoid errors with adventures
Implemented fallback to make saves work again where multiple locations are saved at the same position
Credits menu can now be exited with controller
Fixed an issue that caused the follower spell to not work once kennel feeding pits have been built
Fixed an issue where having a Draw result in a adventure battle caused the game to stop responding
Fixed an issue that caused certain sacrifice unit options in adventures to stop you from progressing the adventure
Fixed incorrect saved path adjustment if path was blocked or interrupted
Fixed cocooned unit aborting attacker's melee skill
Fixed crash in Silver Drift Hollow Mine adventure when fleeing from second fight
Fixed issue where spawning a primordial forest inside your domain wouldn't instantly apply additional modifiers from rooms
Fixed issue where apprentice join notification could break savegames
Made sure correct message is displayed when no valid crafting recipe was found
Patch Announcement 01.00.27144
Esteemed mages,
our game has been out for a week now and we couldn’t be happier with your reactions and feedback. We have been listening and reading as much as we can and we immediately got to work on improving the game and fixing any bugs you have encountered. The current patch contains over 60 fixes, improvements and additions to the game!
We will of course continue to further improve the game and your feedback and support in this is invaluable. Thanks for helping us make the game better!
Today’s patch will address some of the main topics and the two major bugs that hindered people from enjoying the game fully.
Some balancing changes and improvements will only work if you start a new game, especially for Antagonist behaviours, quests and starting locations.
Fixed game crashing when it could not save to the hard drive due to Windows Defender or antivirus preventing that. (You will still need to manually add the game as an exception and allow it to create and write into folders)
Fixed an issue where autosave would be triggered between an adventure and starting a battle inside of it causing incorrect behavior after loading that autosave.
Added Quick save and Quick Load (F5/F8)
Primary school now determines first apprentice's followers to add more variety to early game troops and decrease initial difficulty.
New Hiring Locations were added for Start Regions to increase variety of initial units available.
Antagonists do not spawn stacks close to your tower when going to war now, to prevent curb-stomping your tower out of nowhere. This should make the mid-game smoother and provide less of a difficulty spike.
Antagonists also announce they are about to take actions against player via notifications.
We tweaked Antagonist reputation loss (lose more when you bring the fight to them, less anywhere else) + Antagonist AI can send Titans now! That should keep end-game difficulty more even.
There were a bunch of further balancing and quality of life improvements, some nerfs and a few fixes that affect gameplay and balancing as well, so here is a lit of all the changes:
Additions
Implemented Quicksave (F5) and Quickload (F8) on world map (1 quicksave slot for now and quickload only loads quicksaves not any other) & don't allow to save over quicksaves
Primary school now determines first apprentice's followers to add more variety to early game troops
New Hiring Locations for Start Regions to increase variety of initial units available.
Added floating text when a unit resists a status effect attempt through their working resistance.
Dead Hero + Active Spells first time screens added
Improvements
Antagonists do not spawn stacks close to your tower when going to war now, to prevent curb-stomping your tower out of nowhere. Antagonists also announce actions against player via notifications.
Tweaked Antagonist reputation loss (lose more when you bring the fight to them, less anywhere else) + Antagonist AI can send Titans now!
[Alchemy] made Toxic Distillate and Plague Vessel more different from each other
Now displays floating text when a unit resists a status effect attempt through their working resistance.
Skills display when they END the turn instead of when they don't
Added icon indicating the rewards when a new tower level is unlocked next to the floors
Implemented error popup in case something is blocking access to the save game directory
Created more specialized overlays for locations and plants to make them more lightweight
Tweaked Summon Beast to have more variety
Tweaked some worldmap hints for location spawning
Cleanse Ally skill works on everyone (so you can cleanse mind controlled units)
Charmed Status effect (Mind Control) now tagged as negative status effect -> cleansable on own units
[Souls] Pristine souls are not ingredients (no essences)
Word of Recall can be revealed sooner in spell book when owning the page
Extra hiring-slot now shows different icon in location overlay ( hammers instead of unit+)
Select tower/airship first when during flight to prevent accidentally moving units out
Improved performance while in the tower menu or while viewing unit details
Mitigation for everybody affected by the autosave + battle on turn start issue. We now explain what the problem is (needs windows defender allowing folder access).
Improved Water Material in Region Alluvyan
Changed Rohen horizontal faction banner color to Orange.
Removed the story path where Castle Meldec would vanish
Balancing
Adamantinum increased to 2 all-color essences
Nerfed wisps
Fixed coloring/image in Tower menu (Allfire flow had wrong color)
Room extensions balancing (Illithian Chamber bonus increased to 2, Employee of the Month more expensive)
Tweaked Necromancy starting items (from hamlet) for easier first crafting
Better balance for Shaper Secret fights
Increased upkeep for Build Golem spell
Fixes
Summons in battle now have the "Summon" and "Expendable" traits
Changed Fire Elemental to Fire Golem in spell book
Fixed Silver Drift Hollow Mine did not award achievement for clearing the quest line
Fixed the glyph and artefact equip window not being scrollable when using a controller
Fixed selection cursor displaying "no valid targets" in reset exploitation skill (and for all skills that don't implement ValidTile-interface)
Fixed Turn Animal only working on disordered or worse state; Turned state can be cleansed
Flame armor has no resistance anymore -> cannot be resisted by own troops
Fixed consume corpse working in any range, now only works in displayed range
Fixed missile skill Volley previsualization showing wrong damage values and fixed visuals triggering delay when not in camera focus
Fixed faulty tile definition on Cave 01 Battle map, near the entrance.
Adjusted Visual representation of Mountain Tiles in Rushwater Down. was not clear enough.
Fixed some Shaper Stacks being wrongfully assigned to New Purity of Light
Fixed Hovered-Tile-Indicator not being rendered if occluded
Fixed loca in Insight Spell popup
Fixed imbalance in essences of poison coating/toxic distillate
Fixed tower is still shown as next action after landing
Fixed issue where autosave would be triggered between an adventure and starting a battle inside of it causing incorrect behavior after loading that autosave.
Hide new tower levels until unlock says so
Fixed not localized collect button in apprentice school
Fixed hex highlight in WorldMapBattleEffect
Fixed some elven stacks’ power in Alluvyan adventures not scaling correctly
Fixed faulty tile definition on Worldmap in Region Westguard.
Reworked hand-placed mine locations in Draycott and Stoneblades.
Fixed bug that caused not triggering "War" when immediately dropping to 0 reputation
Fixed reload/recharge statuses being cleansable
Fixed Demon-form being cancelable by Steadfast/Cleanse
Shaper Golem now has Construct trait
Clarified "No Upkeep" wording in summons/mind controlled traits
Fixed FireBeetle missile attack not being usable as default skill
Embrace Your Destiny in SpellForce: Conquest of Eo - Out Now!
Embrace Your Destiny in SpellForce: Conquest of Eo - Out Now!
Vienna/Austria, February 3rd, 2023 - Embrace the path of magic to become the most powerful mage in SpellForce: Conquest of Eo – out now and available on PC! Experience a unique mix of tactical battles, leading your armies and heroes to countless victories. Upgrade your tower to grow your strength and conquer the magical world of Eo in this ever-changing turn-based strategy role-playing game!
Make the journey from the humble beginnings of your old master’s small wizard tower and cross the perilous lands of Eo in your constantly changing quest for magical might. Face off against competing factions and send your armies and heroes on dangerous missions as you accrue magical knowledge to become the most powerful mage of all time.
SpellForce: Conquest of Eo offers a unique and engaging gameplay experience by combining elements of 4X strategy games, RPGs, and turn-based tactical combat. Your mobile base of operations - your mage's tower - and depleting resources keep players constantly moving, preventing the stagnation that can occur in the late-game of other 4X games. Instead, the game focuses on the thrill of discovery and danger of early gameplay, while also allowing for research and experimentation to improve units as they level up and acquire new equipment and abilities. With a wealth of procedurally generated adventures and RPG elements, SpellForce: Conquest of Eo transforms the classic RTS-RPG mix into a turn-based 4X RPG experience that is sure to keep players engaged.
Watch the latest trailer here: https://youtu.be/7GxwbnHWpKs
Launch Discount SpellForce: Conquest of Eo is a new turn-based chapter in the SpellForce series, and will is available for PC at an SRP of $ 29.99 / € 29.99 / £ 24.99. If you are swift as the wind, you can save 20% for the first week after SpellForce: Conquest of Eo's release.
For more information, follow SpellForce on Facebook or check out the official website. Website: https://conquest.spellforce.com/ Facebook: https://fb.me/SpellForce Discord: https://discord.gg/spellforce
Enjoy & stay tuned!
Magical Times Ahead! SpellForce: Conquest of Eo Will Release on February 3rd!
Magical Times Ahead! SpellForce: Conquest of Eo Will Release on February 3rd, 2023
Vienna, Austria, January 23rd, 2023 - Are you ready to embark on a journey to become the most powerful mage of all time? SpellForce: Conquest of Eo, launching on PC on February 3rd, 2023, offers a deep 4X experience with an abundance of content and high replayability. With over 80 handcrafted battle maps across 15 unique environments, players can assemble their armies from a variety of over 100 units, including dwarven axe wielders, stone golems, orcish shamans, and majestic griffons. Perfect your armies by hiring one of more than 15 heroes and apprentices to lead them. Embark on a plentitude of adventures and master over 700 handwritten quests. As a master of magic, research over 100 different spells in your grimoire and use them strategically in tactical battles that demand consideration of flanking, range, visibility, high ground, and special battle enchantments. Explore the vast world of Eo, a magical realm full of treasures and resources, inhabited by various races such as men, elves, orcs, dwarves, goblins, and monsters. Are you ready to experience the ultimate adventure?
Watch the latest trailer here: https://youtu.be/ohkI768Hjwc
SpellForce: Conquest of Eo offers a unique and engaging gameplay experience by combining elements of 4X strategy games, RPGs, and turn-based tactical combat. The mobile base of operations - your mage's tower - and depleting resources keep players constantly moving, preventing the stagnation that can occur in the late-game of other 4X games. Instead, the game focuses on the thrill of discovery and danger of early gameplay, while also allowing for research and experimentation to improve units as they level up and acquire new equipment and abilities. With a wealth of procedurally generated adventures and RPG elements, SpellForce: Conquest of Eo transforms the classic RTS-RPG mix into a turn-based 4X RPG experience that is sure to keep players engaged.
Launch Discount SpellForce: Conquest of Eo is a new turn-based chapter in the SpellForce series, and will be available for PC on February 3rd, 2023 at an SRP of $ 29.99 / € 29.99 / £ 24.99. If you are swift as the wind, you can save 20% for the first week after SpellForce: Conquest of Eo's release.
Venerable Mages, The year's end draws near and we are polishing and improving the game. Today we want to give you a glimpse of the mages you will face as antagonists in the game.
Thanks to the fantastic art of our Art Director Dominik Mayer, they have faces to their names that are much more than just a portrait, capturing the essence of each. As many of you may know, the Circle of Mages plays a pivotal role in the history of SpellForce and the future of the point in time our game is set. When we meet the in Conquest of Eo, they have been around for about a century, becoming more powerful after discovering the Allfire and learning its use.
So immersed are they in the study and practice of magic, that they rarely venture outside their studies and towers, instead sending out minions or using proxys to subtly manipulate what happens in the world. With the creation of the Circle, the art of magic has seen a resurgence, magic is now abundant and academies teaching it, have sprung up all over the world. It is those academies you will seek out in order to gather your own apprentices, so you can make use of their powers and train them to become leaders of your troops and spreaders of your influence.
The Circle of Mages looks at your expansion with apprehension: Their task is to guard and shepherd the use of magic, preventing it from becoming a destructive force and your ambition is viewed by many as dangerous. Others see a like spirit and may seek out alliances – if you are willing to further their goals in return. You will a selection of the Circle Mages in every game, making each playthrough different due to their different character and behavior. The Circle – as everything in the game – is not good or evil, morality is a matter of choice and so their members come from all nations: humans, elves, dwarves, orcs and dark elves, each with their own agenda and interests.
It will be difficult to get along with each one unless you want to curb your own ambitions and goals but think twice before you make one or all of them your enemy, for their powers are great. As the game progresses, they learn new tricks and magic that may be quite a challenge to overcome. So, choose your course wisely and decide when to strike and when to keep the peace…if you can.
We are looking forward to your comments and we will see you back next year with another Developer Insight!
Death is Not the End: SpellForce Conquest of Eo Shows the Necromancer!
Death is Not the End: SpellForce: Conquest of Eo Shows the Necromancer in New Trailer
Vienna, Austria, December 14th, 2022 - Ah, an army free of doubt, free of fear, free of weakness... and utterly obedient. What else can an aspiring wizard wish for in his struggle to become the the most powerful mage of all times? As a Necromancer, you'll command the armies of the underworld, simply raising your soldiers and servants from the dead instead of hiring them. The upcoming turn-based 4x-Strategy Game SpellForce: Conquest of Eo puts the first of its three archetypes in the spotlight today: Necromancer, the stage is yours!
Watch the Necromancer trailer here: https://youtu.be/w1FWwx_xxF4 The Necromancer is a master of death and manipulation magic, creating undead units in his crypt in the depth of his mage’s tower. Due to his craft, the Necromancer is able to amass cheap, fearless, and resilient armies that can walk tirelessly and even traverse water (after all, they don't breathe anymore...). Thus, playing a Necromancer comes with the ability to generate larger numbers of troops, faster than any other type of mage.
However it takes a lot of magical power to maintain and control the undead, so one is always on the lookout for new sources of the Allfire – the magical power that permeates the world of SpellForce: Conquest of Eo.
SpellForce: Conquest of Eo is a new turn-based chapter in the SpellForce series, and will be available for PC in 2023. With epic, procedurally generated single-player campaigns, different mage archetypes and randomly picked opponents, it offers high replay value.
For more information, follow SpellForce on Facebook or check out the official website - or add the game to your Steam wishlist:
Venerable Mages, as promised, today we are going take a deeper dive into our combat and action system at the core of our battles. It is a bit different from what many games do, so bear with me for a second.
Basically, all our units have three actions represented by the little yellow diamonds beneath the health bar. Each turn, every unit can use up to two of them for movement with distance depending on movement range of unit. The remaining action can be spend on a defensive “guard” action or an attack. If you don’t spend actions on movement, you can use them for attacks, cast a spell or execute some other ability. These will always consume ALL remaining actions, and here is where we already differ from many games: We use what we call the ‘Committed Action System’.
So, when you decide to cast a spell or to attack someone, you automatically spend all remaining action points on that task, fully committing to that course of action. In the below picture, the necromancer’s apprentice has just cast a spell to heal the skeletons above him, so he has no more actions left.
He could have spent two actions for moving and still cast the spell but once he does cast it, he will be ‘committed’, spending all his remaining actions. In the same vein, once the skeletons now decide to attack those Paladins left of them, they will commit fully to attacking, spending all three actions for three attacks on those pesky humans.
This makes combat much more fluid and faster than counting action points while still leaving a lot of room to maneuver. You don’t have to decide what to do for each single action point and you focus your attacks on one enemy. But it also means you need to think about which target to choose.
In melee every attack further results in a counter-attack, that will cost action points for the defender. Action points don't refresh on YOUR turn, but at the beginning of a full turn – meaning at the same time for both you and the enemy. So you effectively have three actions to divide across movement and attack or defense – if you attack, you cannot keep points for defense and vice versa.
At first glance this may seem to just be a way to speed up combat, but this actually opens up a lot of tactical depth: First, players can flank the enemy (giving you an unopposed attack) or position their units for a better range (but take heed of zone of control or you may suffer free attacks by the enemy) and still attack or stay back and prepare a defense for the enemy.
Players also decide when to commit to an attack or wait for the enemy. But if the enemy attacks first, it will drain your action points by simply attacking your unit with three attacks – resulting in all points spent counter-attacking in melee and leaving you out of options when your turn comes.
Of course, you can do the same to them: Swarm a big strong troll with hordes of undead and risk a few of them (easily replaced by summoning more), to keep the enemy permanently occupied and allowing you free attacks once the troll’s actions are exhausted. It allows you to control which of your units receives damage and prevents strong single units from using special skills that can devastate your army. This opens up new tactical effects – smaller units surrounding a bigger one can effectively pin the big one down with repeated needle attacks instead of a simple exchange of melee strikes and players need to make sure they do not expose their frontline units to an enemy swarm.
Defensive positioning is also important, and can be augmented by standing next to areas that cannot be accessed (such as rocks or buildings) or barricades (which some units may also summon, but which can be destroyed), creating choke points or safe zones for your missile units to stay behind as in the below picture, where the minion unit behind the fence can safely pepper the fire beetles on the other side with its magic bolts. Between our Committed Action System, Flanking/Zone of Control/Blockers and the way actions refresh, our action points become part of the tactical consideration in battle, allowing you to control the flow of combat, use superior positioning to your advantage and make amount of units interesting beyond simply dishing out damage. And yet, it keeps the action fluent and fast. We are looking forward to you trying it out!
We also want to talk a little more about the game world and our main antagonists: The Circle of Mages. Here is a little preview of one of them. Meet Ianna, the Singer.
More about that next time. 😊
Developer Update #3
Greetings esteemed wizards,
Today we are going to talk a bit about combat and some of the things we do to make it more interesting. Turn-based combat is at the heart of our battles and especially for a brand that has so far had real-time strategy at its core, it was important for us to make them turn-based but fast-paced, while at the same time providing a certain tactical depth.
One of the things we did to achieve that is, that while we limit the number of units in battle (you start out with stacks of up to 5 different units, but during the game expand to up to 8), we provide over 60 different hand-crafted battlefields allowing us to make terrain and cover an integral part of many of them. Thinking about where to engage enemies, how to minimize your frontline exposure (to prevent you suffering flanking attacks) or which unit to use to tank means every battlefield is different for you from the outset, setting us apart from more traditional instanced battles where you simply have rows of units being pitted against each other. Add to that the special skills for many of our units (which gain new key skills every 5 Levels as they progress) which can add new tactical options, such as ignoring zones of control, blinding enemies, volley shots and armor piercing or increasing certain damage types from elemental to white or death damage to damage against certain types of enemies, you have quite a mix.
Getting the AI to understand and use a wide range of possible option was one of our challenges – especially with regards to how it uses terrain to its advantage but allows us to make even battles with relatively few units require some thinking from our players. In the below case, the AI defended a village but moved out and up on the elevated position to shoot missile on the player forces. And since the map has an added feature effect called “snipers” damaging attackers every turn, the Ai decided to wait our troops out.
Now the player needs to find solutions beyond simply waltzing up to the enemy and letting loose with the apprentice’s spells. (We got the AI to split forces by smashing the village gate and feinting an attack from the left while baiting the defenders with a weak unit to the right in case you were wondering. Then goblin shaman gave berserker ‘shrooms to everyone so they heal a bit and do some extra damage, meaning they could soak up the defender’s initial volley and then go into melee.)
Another thing that we do slightly differently is our action system that offers more than just a way to tell you how many attacks your units can do and which we are going to take a closer look into next time. In the meantime, if you have any questions on the game, feel free to hop on the SpellForce discord where we have a sub-channel or let us know here on Steam!