Psst. Elemental 2015

Before I tell them to set this up I wanted to make a post and gauge interest in this:

There's going to be a new fantasy strategy game from Stardock in the Elemental universe. It's NOT a sequel to Fallen Enchantress.  

I'm looking to ask the team to set up a founder's program for people who are interested in getting a sneak peak at what we're doing and getting early access to it this Fall. The founder's edition would be $20.

Here is, broadly, what the game is like:

  1. Completely new art style
  2. Asymmetrical 4X (it's not you vs. other similar empires, it's you vs. a single bad guy with everyone else as pawns between the two of you and you both play by your own set of rules)
  3. No unit design and no tech tree, instead you gain access to things based on what you've built in your city
  4. Sovereign is not a unit in the game, you instead choose the spell books your sovereign has, their specialization and their ability and use that across the world 
  5. Shards provide magic which is divided between mana, lore (spell research) and skill (for upgrading your sovereign's specialization tree)
  6. Much more quest focused (spells written by Cracked.com's Chris Bucholz, they're awesome)
  7. Champions acquired via completing quests
  8. Crafting (players find ingredients and recipes through the course of the game)
  9. Multiple continents, islands, ship travel
  10. Tactical battles heavily focused on what spells and abilities you have and how you use them, feels a bit like Hearthstone but the battles are still elemental style except with more units - instead of 9 ala LH you'd have up to 15)
  11. All units have special abilities
  12. Plot takes place centuries after the events of LH - suffice to say, bad things have happened
  13. Player *starts out* with the Forge of the Overlord - the player is very tough, has all the techs from LH from the start which is to say the bad guy is just that much tougher

Now, as you can see, because it's so different we're updating, enhancing LH on its own dev path with its own meaningful updates. 

Anyway, who would be interested in joining a Founder's Program if we put it up in June?

 

UPDATE: The URL for the $20 early Founder's edition is live: https://www.stardock.com/buy?s=ESD-SDE-W062


UPDATE 2: The E2015 Founder's Vault is live: http://e2015.stardock.com/

298,119 views 108 replies
Reply #1 Top

At the $20 price point, I'm interested.  Maybe up to $25, but higher than that I'd be out.

Reply #3 Top

Yes

Reply #4 Top

It sounds good to me. I'm interested, and would pay $20.

Reply #5 Top

<*raises hand.

Reply #6 Top

I could go for that.  Unlike Hall & Oates.

Reply #7 Top

Would definitely be interested, but $20 honestly seems kind of cheap.  Why the low price point?

 

Also, will there be supply chain mechanics (eg. i mine iron, which is taken to a city, smelted, which my blacksmith turns into a sword)?  I believe this was considered for the original Elemental and was scrapped, but this format might work better for it.

Reply #8 Top

But, I want to keep my money T.T  ...covers eyes and tosses a $20 bill. 

Yeah, I'm sold. 

Reply #9 Top

Quoting Eeek83, reply 7

Would definitely be interested, but $20 honestly seems kind of cheap.  Why the low price point?

 

Also, will there be supply chain mechanics (eg. i mine iron, which is taken to a city, smelted, which my blacksmith turns into a sword)?  I believe this was considered for the original Elemental and was scrapped, but this format might work better for it.

Final price hasn't been decided but since the only people who will know about this are forum regulars we wanted to do something speical.

Re Supply chain: No plans for that other than in the crafting sense (crafting one item into another into another).

Reply #10 Top

Would we get a badge? I want to be part of the club. :)

Reply #12 Top

I would buy it three times at that price.

So yeah, I'm in.

Reply #13 Top

I'm in.   Sounds great.   I'm interested to see how it plays.

Reply #14 Top

Sure, why not, been here for Elemental from the start :)

How many games is Stardock working on, how is Star Control coming along?

 

Reply #15 Top

 Very excited that you will continue to develop LH as well! 

Sign me up :)

Reply #16 Top

I'm in.

Reply #17 Top

Sounds interesting, especially if there are options to make the pawns hostile/allied with the bad guy at the start of the game to increase the challenge.  

 

Quests that influenced relations with the pawns would be awesome.

 

$20 is an alluring price point, thanks for the heads up!

 

Reply #18 Top

I was for it before I was against it but now I'm for it.

Reply #20 Top

I'm not convinced I'd love it yet. But, for $20, I am in!

Reply #21 Top

This game heading to the new engine from Oxide? Hope so!

Reply #22 Top

Yes, I'm interested.

 

Reply #23 Top

I'd be in. I'd also be in for much more if it was a mom clone :)

Reply #24 Top

I'm definitely interested.