Endless Legend, fantasyland trying to fix Endless Space's flaws

[Raghar]

Interesting decision to go with a futuristic UI in a fantasy 4x.
And by interesting i mean stupid, since it probably won't sit well with a lot of people.

I think it's after Endless space. Few leftowers from races who blew each other during that space war.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I just beat a game playing as the Cultists. I hadn't tried them before, so I was scratching my head a bit as to what I was supposed to do with them resource wise. I lucked out by starting in a region with both beginner resources, but I didn't have any of the higher tier resources. Since they can't establish new cities and each time they conquer a city they automatically raze it I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to do. I haven't paid much heed to the barbarian villages before, but the answer to my problems lied with them. There was one village that produced 0.5 of all strategic resources each turn, so I got new resources slowly that way, but that wasn't my main discovery. I hadn't realized that the villages produce new units on their own every X amount of turns (and they don't seem to have any upkeep cost either so that's pretty huge) which you can either hoard for an immense army or you could sell them to slavery for a huge amount of dosh. I never really paid attention to it before, but some troops are worth a lot of dust. This works especially well with the Cultists since their gimmick is that you can enslave any barbarian village despite not having a town in the region. I was cashing in more than 10k dust in a single turn which I could spend on the market place to buy the strategic resources I needed to outfit my troops. It's not as sustainable in the long term as being able to properly mine them is, especially with the way the market place adjusts its prices based on demand, but it is a very good way to produce out a bunch of powerful troops in no time at all. It's fun to play a strategy game where you keep finding new hidden depth each time you play it.

Also discovered that the Roving Clans cities are giant beetles with cities on their backs, which means that you can move your cities around if you feel a need to do so. Quite cool.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Races really feel different, I'm playing with "suits of armor" race (I need better name memory...) Dust is everything for this race, you can heal completely in a turn, if I can pay the price. They also have some good life leech combat mechanic and a healer type supporter. With heroes natural high armor passives I nearly conquered the world without losing a unit.

 

[Hobo Elf]

That's the Broken Lords faction. They're my favorite faction so far, but I've yet to try them all. They are really good at steam rolling tactics since you can just heal up your guys with one click of a button. Also they don't need agriculture for population growth so that's nice and helps you focus better on the other shit like Dust and research. Production isn't all that important either since you just buyout everything.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Well, you need a lot of dust (especially if you like expansions a lot) to populate the cities, makes hard to buyout buildings/distircts early. but after a while with some carefully placed cities (near sea and some rivers) you start to swim in gold. They have got some nice hero skills for gathering dust.

 

[sbb]

Interesting decision to go with a futuristic UI in a fantasy 4x.
And by interesting i mean stupid, since it probably won't sit well with a lot of people.

It's a really good UI. Very clean, very slick, easy to understand what is what. Functionality above all else.

Sure, usability is king, but a slight styling would have done wonders imo. It doesn't mesh well with the rest of the game.
Anyway, it wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me if i was interested, but i can imagine it would to some.

It really turns me on when fantasy elements are mixed with a distinctly modern touch, like the UI and the tilt shift. It's a cool design choice that gives it an entirely different feel than a regular fantasy UI would, and sets it apart from a lot of other 4X, in my opinion, simply because it is so cool.

 

[General Maxson]

WTF am I reading? Is this acually a GOOD fantasy 4x? Seems very interesting from what I have read. Is it fun? How is it compared to MoM? Is it a completely different king of fanatasy 4x?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Personally I think it is one of the most mechanically rich fantasy 4X games yet. AI is too timid, but playing on the highest difficulty makes the AI a little bit better. At least I got wrecked hard by AI Drakken in my last game. Not really comparable to MoM, though. There's only one faction that can use magic and it's more like ritual magic that can buff your cities or debuff / hinder enemies. No fireballs or landscape altering spells.

 

[General Maxson]

Personally I think it is one of the most mechanically rich fantasy 4X games yet.

What do you mean by this?

Also this isn't shallow but pretty like Endless Space, since the same devs seem to have made it?

 

[InspectorRumpole]

Interesting decision to go with a futuristic UI in a fantasy 4x.
And by interesting i mean stupid, since it probably won't sit well with a lot of people.

It's a really good UI. Very clean, very slick, easy to understand what is what. Functionality above all else.

Sure, usability is king, but a slight styling would have done wonders imo. It doesn't mesh well with the rest of the game.
Anyway, it wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me if i was interested, but i can imagine it would to some.

It really turns me on when fantasy elements are mixed with a distinctly modern touch, like the UI and the tilt shift. It's a cool design choice that gives it an entirely different feel than a regular fantasy UI would, and sets it apart from a lot of other 4X, in my opinion, simply because it is so cool.

Fair enough. It seems i'm wrong in speculating that people don't like the UI. Maybe it's just me.

 

[sser]

I just beat a game playing as the Cultists. I hadn't tried them before, so I was scratching my head a bit as to what I was supposed to do with them resource wise. I lucked out by starting in a region with both beginner resources, but I didn't have any of the higher tier resources. Since they can't establish new cities and each time they conquer a city they automatically raze it I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to do. I haven't paid much heed to the barbarian villages before, but the answer to my problems lied with them. There was one village that produced 0.5 of all strategic resources each turn, so I got new resources slowly that way, but that wasn't my main discovery. I hadn't realized that the villages produce new units on their own every X amount of turns (and they don't cost seem to have any upkeep cost either so that's pretty huge) which you can either hoard for an immense army or you could sell them to slavery for a huge amount of dosh. I never really paid attention to it before, but some troops are worth a lot of dust. This works especially well with the Cultists since their gimmick is that you can enslave any barbarian village despite not having a town in the region. I was cashing in more than 10k dust in a single turn which I could spend on the market place to buy the strategic resources I needed to outfit my troops. It's not as sustainable in the long term as being able to properly mine them is, especially with the way the market place adjusts its prices based on demand, but it is a very good way to produce out a bunch of powerful troops in no time at all. It's fun to play a strategy game where you keep finding new hidden depth each time you play it.

Also discovered that the Roving Clans cities are giant beetles with cities on their backs, which means that you can move your cities around if you feel a need to do so. Quite cool.

Whoa whoa whoa. This sounds cool as fuck. A fantasy game that takes advantage of its fantasy setting? You're almost selling me on the game here.

Edit: wait, the game is released? Urge to buy rising...

 

[Drakron]

Yes, for a while now.

Edit: its also quest heavy ... you can have a minor faction (that is villages) being allied with you if you talk to them as they give quests, you can conquer them outright or bribe them but there are many, such as the Sisters of Mercy (warrior clerics) or the Justus (2 headed wolf people) that you can use their units after you subjugate/assimilate them.

And by quest heavy I mean there is a main quest for each faction besides those side quests, you always get something out of doing them, that is their Wonder Victory.

 

[coldcrow]

I think this game would be so great if you could switch to proper TB combat.

 

[Drakron]

Its enitrely turn base.

In fact you usually want initiative high so your units go first in combat phase.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Personally I think it is one of the most mechanically rich fantasy 4X games yet.

What do you mean by this?

Also this isn't shallow but pretty like Endless Space, since the same devs seem to have made it?

All the factions feel and play very differently from each other. They have their own stories and thematic flavor that tie in with the gameplay mechanics in a way that makes it feel like you really are playing as a bunch of guys who are what they say they are.

 

[Volrath]

So let me get this straight, this is a 4x strategy fantasy game that:

• isn't shit?

Ok. Sold.

 

[not an artichoke]

The combat can feel flat and the AI is definitely lacking, but it's not shit. Maybe wait to buy until it gets another patch or two.

 

[you know what time it is]

Is there any info regarding mod support ? This game needs it.

 

[Trash]

Been playing it for a bit. Love the easthetics, the (finally) unique factions and the whole thematics. Faction quests also make for a nice narrative and individuality. Nice to see some originality. Especially pleased about how much better the game has become since I played it in the beta. It really has come into itself here. Still, there are two big things that are dragging it down for me atm. The AI is as docile as a cow. That's bothersome. Second thing is the whole 'apocalyptic' angle. I love it but in-game it's no biggie. Winter may be coming but it is hardly the frozen hell I was expecting. Gimme a struggle to actually survive as a people.

The game could also do with more roving monsters. Yes, there are minor factions who send out small stacks but I do miss the monster lairs from ye olde MoM. Thematically it would even fit to have lone groups of monsters (ancient robots, warped creatures, mutations, wildlife) roam the landscape and try and maul you.

Game is fun as it is. Give it a few patches, some mods and a good expansion and it might become a classic.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Winter is mostly effective when playing with Roving Clans, they really can't oparate their business in winter. Winter period become longer each time but never had any real problem with it, just failed some timed quests due to movement restrictions.
Some special winter session monsters should be a good start. Maybe new minor factions that only surface when snow falls. Quests monster should be more powerful too, after early game I could easly kill them only with a hero.

 

[Trash]

Or make winter degrade units, buildings, resources. Have your cities creak under it's icy weight. Have your population starve. Make it a proper something to fear. It's supposed to be the bloody apocalypse after all.

 

[sser]

Has anyone here played the multiplayer yet...? I'm mostly interested to see how the combat would work since it kinda molds the battlescape straight out of the geoscape.

 

[Mortmal]

Winter is mostly effective when playing with Roving Clans, they really can't oparate their business in winter. Winter period become longer each time but never had any real problem with it, just failed some timed quests due to movement restrictions.
Some special winter session monsters should be a good start. Maybe new minor factions that only surface when snow falls. Quests monster should be more powerful too, after early game I could easly kill them only with a hero.

If theres powerful monsters roaming, they will completely crush the poor AI civs. Game is beautiful , most beautiful 4X ever made period,alas the AI is dumb , mostly ignoring the player all gameliving their own life, the difficulty setting dont change that it just scales of +20% toughness on units.Its better in fallen enchantress sadly. If only someone could buy stardock and amplitude and force them to breed , we may get awesome games.

 

[Zeriel]

Is there any info regarding mod support ? This game needs it.

It's sort of like Civ-lite. You can mod most variables (unit stats, faction stats, etc) in .XML files, but brand new mechanics and art etc would be out.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Finished with Broken Lords at last, this time AI gave me some hard time but still not enough to beat me. AI never upgrades its army size and begins to use t2-t3 armors very late in game. Also I rarely see that they use units other that starting ones, elves could've defeated me easly with some upgraded titans and druids.
Broken Lords are really broken with all their high armor skills, healing abilities and insta healing with dust.

Some factions always got beaten very quickly, like the arachnid-likes (goddammit brain...) or Vaulters while cultists, broken lords and elves seem to always take the lead and crush the opposition.