Turned out nice hasn't it?

It has been a long road!  I first played Elemental back in it's "cloth map only" days.  It showed a lot of promise then--tons of great ideas but somehow it never gelled and the game was...just not very fun.  Stardock graciously kept upgrading my account all the way to Legendary Heroes though and at last I feel like we got the game we were promised those years ago.

It's also the most ambitious game in the genre, exceeding even the scope of good 'ol MoM which had lain unchallenged in that area.  Amazing the game *ever* got to this point.  That's real commitment!

Agreed. Love the game.

However, it's been REALLY quiet of late...

I do still hope LH 2.0 is on the horizon because that will mean further development and DLC releases for the game. More balance. More features. More diplomacy. More complex AI.

Well we have been a little spoiled of late, with so many new games around. Everyone is busy road testing the latest.  :)

At the moment I am playing AOW3, Worlds of magic, Starpoint Gemini 2 and Elite Dangerous.  There is not enough hours in the day.

Yep great game, no doubt... just a diplomacy patch short of being awesome....

Brad did mention, somewhat recently, that 2.0 is definitely in the works still, but probably pushed out a bit date-wise. He did also say there would probably be a 1.8 in the meantime.

There is a secret that is going to be disclosed around the 2nd October.

Thanks for the kind words.

Quick status report on LH.

In July we released 1.7.  In August we released an update to that which was largely a bug fix.

Right now we're about to announce a new fantasy game in the series but is NOT a replacement to LH (i.e. LH is a 4X empire builder, the new game is an asymetrical 4X).

Once I have a chance we will be updating LH to v2.0 which is scheduled to have these features:

1. New tactical battle AI
2. Updated unit design (we're going to do more with damage types and designing units to counter)
3. ZOC for monster lairs
4. Lots of updates to the monster AI

I don't have an ETA for this as I have to put my time between GalCiv, the new fantasy game, and LH.  But most of what I'm talking about is backporting.

We also have a new DLC I am desperate to get out there that is mostly new tactical battle maps and new random map seeds.

Sounds awesome Frogboy thanks for the update.

Don't forget we could really use some Diplomancy tweaks in there somewhere.

Cheers.

What does asymetrical mean?  

Okay, found it.  It's when a tree has more bumps on one side then the other.  The tree had 'asymmetrical' bumps.  

So the new game is going to have funny looking trees, got it.

It's a matter of personal taste. I like Endless Legends much better, it has far better interface, more interesting lore and factions, looks better and features more focused design. 

The areas where it's actually worse is the AI, the AI in EL is next to non-existent. Combat is weak in both games. 

No,no,no,no,no,no,no,nooooooooooooooooo

Endless Legend should be banned form the game market for fraud most fraudulent.

I'm personally not as big a fan of endless legend as I am of FE. I just really hope there are more quests in the expansion. I like reading them but the same old ones are always coming up for. 

Every game is a different chocolate, in a different wrapper.  With Endless Legend you only get the wrapper, so owners have to console themselves with licking the inside of it.  The one consolation is that it's a very pretty wrapper, that you can gaze at when you are hungry.

How long have you actually played Endless Legend, Tatty?

This is a trick question isn't it?

Only around 9 something hours. but I really couldn't tolerate anymore.  It was driving me insane with boredom.

I said to myself ditch it, ditch it now to save your sanity, so I did.  More lost money.  I must choose my game's with more care in the future.  :)

Asymmetrical in this context means you and the AI are not playing the same game. In most 4x you and all the AI are competing to do the same things. In the new game, The AI will have a very different starting point and set of objectives from the player.

Really hoping these thoughts on diplomacy (which seem to be a healthy consensus here, as well as in other circles) do not get ignored.

Couldn't agree more with the above comments.  The praise is well-deserved.  At least in my mind, LH is a near-perfect game now (short of completely overhauling the game with massive new features) with the exception of a few issues, the largest area being diplomacy.  But please, please consider addressing diplomacy by v2.0.  It almost doesn't make sense to spend any more time on improving LH without addressing this first imo.

Please look at enhancing diplomacy for 2.0.

What diplomacy improvements are we looking for though?  I think it would help if we gave specific feedback.

I can think of a few things....

1) A diplomacy/treaty summary screen ala GalCiv2 (https://www.galciv2.com/darkavatar/screenshots/final/index.28.jpg)

2) The option to close borders to a faction (possibly at the cost of a relationship penalty)

3) AI being smart enough to understand that maybe sucking up to the faction with the highest strength rating is not *always* the best idea, i.e. if the leading faction is starting to dominate, maybe weaker factions should form an alliance to try and stop them... particularly in the later game

4) Would be great be able to trade a City or Outpost

5) Could also have the option to trade map details, i.e. lift hidden tiles that the other faction has uncovered (Total War Medieval 2 does this, presumably the other TW games do also)

6) Gifts, tributes etc don't seem to have much an effect on diplomatic relationship... would be good if giving a faction a heap of money made them like me a bit more.

7) If a faction demands a tribute, and it is refused... what happens?  Does it affect the relationship?  I could be missing something but seems it doesn't have much of an effect.

8) AI needs to be better at gearing up for war, and sustaining a war... if it's going to declare war.

9) I think the faction strength ratings could use a bit of a tweak... particularly with regard to the armies a faction has, and their production capability. Lots of weak crappy units seems to really boost faction strength... but often the human player can wipe the floor with weak troops.  I dunno not sure exactly about this but I think it needs a look at.  Others would have better ideas on this than me

What else?

That diplomacy list by abob101 looks nearly perfect. Ideally, I'd request one more:

10.) Allow trading of CHAMPIONS.

But I wonder if even Stardock can put enough engineering hours into the C++ coding required, at this point of release. Just think of all the bugs, balance issues, and new AI requirements that would be introduced by such additions.

While I'd love to see abob101's list fully realized, I think the most important one, if we could have but one, is this: Give the AI the priority of forming alliances against the leading player, ESPECIALLY if the leading player is a human. Civ2 did a great job with this (it's the last Civ I played, heh).

This change alone would help keep the late game interesting, yet give significance to any alliances already formed. Right now alliances are nearly impossible to achieve with the AI after turn 200, so those scattered foes you are mopping up might as well form a coalition against you.

In the mean time, of course, we only have that Late Game Challenge mod by an esteemed modder. Which modder did that, again? Hmm, let me just check...

SHAMELESS PLUG FOR MY LATE GAME CHALLENGE MOD

N/A

!!!

I do like the sound of that.

Quoting Tattyhat, reply 10

What does asymetrical mean?  




Okay, found it.  It's when a tree has more bumps on one side then the other.  The tree had 'asymmetrical' bumps.  

So the new game is going to have funny looking trees, got it.

Funnily enough, this has turned out to be quite true!!