The future of FFH

[WarKirby]

I'd like to ask, what do kael and the team have in mind for future additions. What are you willing to do, beyond basic bugfixing. What kind of things could possibly still be implemented:

Tick all that apply:

New unit graphics
Balance adjustments
New civs
New wonders
Major overhauls of game concepts
New spells
New civics
New unique units


And anything else I might not have thought of. Which of these things are beyond the scope of what you want to do, post feature lock. Which could possibly still be added?

 

[Kael]

New unit graphics - Yes! We have an internal prioritized list the art guys are working their way through
Balance adjustments - Yes!
New civs - No, 0 chance
New wonders - probably not
Major overhauls of game concepts - highly unlikely
New spells - nothing major, only if we need one to tweak an existing unit
New civics - highly unlikely
New unique units - probably not

And anything else I might not have thought of. Which of these things are beyond the scope of what you want to do, post feature lock. Which could possibly still be added?

The other major things that are are taking our time is documentation and AI work.

The first post int he bug thread as a "Things to do" list which are things Im trying to knock out.

 

[PhoenixMuse]

I found reading this a tad disappointing. My main issue with Fall from Heaven is the length of the tech-tree. I find it way too short. Just when you've got a bunch of cool spells and abilities, there is nothing left to discover, and games are always less fun when there is nothing left to discover.

 

[Kael]

I found reading this a tad disappointing. My main issue with Fall from Heaven is the length of the tech-tree. I find it way too short. Just when you've got a bunch of cool spells and abilities, there is nothing left to discover, and games are always less fun when there is nothing left to discover.

But if we added more techs we would just add more cool spells and abilities and we would have the same problem.

 

[KillerClowns]

Really, the solution to this problem is painfully obvious.
You simply make FfH sentient and self-aware, so that it invents new techs whenever you reach the end of the tech-tree. What could possibly go wrong?

As dearly as I enjoy Fall Further, the thing I love about Kael's development plan is that it avoids both feature creep and getting lost in it's own features. Everything has a purpose (or is given to Perpentach to play with). With all major development declared finished, the balance can be fine-tuned and perfected. Hopefully.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Pedia entries for leaders/heroes/buildings that don't have them yet?

 

[wilboman]

Working on it.

 

[WarKirby]

What about adding more arcane spells in general? There are plenty of niches and missing functions in there, and it would be nice to just add extra spells to existing spheres (allowing for potentially more than one spell for a spell promotion, similar to Death III)

 

[marioflag]

Is there any chance that some of the civs are a bit worked on?

I'm particularly referring to Doviello and Hippus which have a really interesting backstory but they are just too "normal" and have a few toys to play with compared to other civs like Sheaim or Balseraph so i don't see any point in playing with them.

 

[Jules.lt]

What about adding more arcane spells in general? There are plenty of niches and missing functions in there, and it would be nice to just add extra spells to existing spheres (allowing for potentially more than one spell for a spell promotion, similar to Death III)

Just what I was thinking: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=7701368&postcount=60
(a list of possible second lvl3 spells; one summon and one sorcery for each sphere, but just for lvl3)

I still have hope

 

[Jabie]

I found reading this a tad disappointing. My main issue with Fall from Heaven is the length of the tech-tree. I find it way too short. Just when you've got a bunch of cool spells and abilities, there is nothing left to discover, and games are always less fun when there is nothing left to discover.

Or you could try Fall Further: Extra Civs, Guilds, Equipment and all sorts of other toys to play with.

 

[War Chicken]

I think the Mage / Conjurer join should be rolled back.
Its a real pity that such a variety of spells and summons fell victim to coherency.
I mean - this mod is NOT AT ALL easy to understand no matter if you got a big magic system or a not so big one.

Besides - that is the only change in the game that has happened so far, that I really dislike.

Yes Archmages and Summoners are / were mighty, but one assassin with commando and they're history. And assassins are way erlier than archmages. Theres a counter measure for everything.

Please PLEASE (BEG BEG) at least consider un-splitting the magic system.

 

[Anathema]

Any chance of new map types, or new terrain types? Ever since reading the Soren Johnson's interview I've been wanting something like his "wasteland" terrain - I'll just quote what he said as I can't possibly put it better.

Fall simply has too much Civ-like infrastructure busywork - which is not Fall’s strength - and all that settler/worker/citizen/building-management really slows things down. To solve this, I would fill at least half of the map with wasteland-type terrain that might hold treasures and dungeons and monsters and mana but could not be settled by civilizations (or, perhaps, by specific civilizations). This change would allow for a faster game with more exploration and more variety.

The Erebus map accomplishes this to a degree, it has desert and arctic zones that are populated by barbarians and difficult for civilizations to settle, but the AI tries to settle them anyway.. and some unfortunate AIs even get started in an arctic zone that cripples them, so Erebus maps aren't perfect. Still, Erebus maps suit FFH2 better than normal BTS maps where everything is lush city-friendly terrain just waiting to be settled with only a few inconvenient orcs in the way. Really I just wish FFH2 had a few more unique maps like Erebus, with Erebus and Highlands being all I play anymore, the other maps feel too much like ye olde settler-spamming BTS.

 

[seZereth]

Any chance of new map types, or new terrain types? Ever since reading the Soren Johnson's interview I've been wanting something like his "wasteland" terrain - I'll just quote what he said as I can't possibly put it better.



The Erebus map accomplishes this to a degree, it has desert and arctic zones that are populated by barbarians and difficult for civilizations to settle, but the AI tries to settle them anyway.. and some unfortunate AIs even get started in an arctic zone that cripples them, so Erebus maps aren't perfect. Still, Erebus maps suit FFH2 better than normal BTS maps where everything is lush city-friendly terrain just waiting to be settled with only a few inconvenient orcs in the way. Really I just wish FFH2 had a few more unique maps like Erebus, with Erebus and Highlands being all I play anymore, the other maps feel too much like ye olde settler-spamming BTS.

yea, but mapscripts can be written and developed by the community, I dont think the team should spend time on that, there are higher priorities right now. If someone comes up wth a good one, we will definitely implement it.

 

[Skitters]

The other major things that are are taking our time is documentation and AI work.

Do you still want submissions for buildings? I've got a seedling of an idea for the Public Baths (well actually I've got three - one being a Council of Esus inspired pools being the centre of dodgy dealing thing, another being a Junil inspired "rules of the pool" (thou shalt not bomb, thou shalt not cheweth reagents....), and another being a follow up to the Aqueduct entry).

Indeed, are there other pedia entries beyond the buildings you'd like to open up to the peons?

 

[Ekolite]

It would be good if the team could create a cannon map of Erebus at some point, preferably in a range of sizes.

 

[Grey Fox]

Double Post... read next.

 

[Grey Fox]

New spells - nothing major, only if we need one to tweak an existing unit

It would still be nice to get the last mana spheres (3 is it? Force, Creation, and Dimensional). I don't think it's a too big of a feature creep, it won't affect the other spheres that much (we already have 18 manas). Plus it would make each of the 4 Mana Categories have 5 manas each (if ice was available).

We have 21 civilizations and every civilization is represented by one mana type, I find it weird that they don't all exist in the game. I do understand your concerns and the need for the spells to not just be another repeated mechanic. What would be your theme for these three spheres? Maybe it can help the community come up with spells you would like to implement.

For example, Force that is supposed to be balance, correct? I'm guessing it's also something like stubborness? We only have one spell that affects diplomacy (trust), maybe Force could too in some way. Maybe the passive effect could balance your standing too (the more you have the more you move towards neutrality, that is more negative with people that like you and more positive from those that don't). I'd also like a weak magic arrow type lvl 1 summon, like a fireball without collateral and only like 1 str. Useless most of the game, but could make an adept have some alternatives to just buffing. And it's not like skeletons which cant attack as they are summoned, and are permanent.

Dimensional can have Escape which I think you said you liked. And maybe some anti-elemental spell. We have anti-illusions and anti-undead, but not anti-elementals. Teleportation for lvl 3 could be good, but tricky to balance and wacky at best to implement in a good way. (Though I could lend you a hand here ). No passive effect needed really. Except maybe to increase the planar gate spawns?

Creation could have to do with improvements and resources which we don't have many spells that do. Passive effects could be some chance for food resources to pop up inside your territory.

 

[LiDDiS]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=306100&page=2

Lots of ideas for the unimplemented spheres in that thread.

 

[Skitters]

I found reading this a tad disappointing. My main issue with Fall from Heaven is the length of the tech-tree. I find it way too short. Just when you've got a bunch of cool spells and abilities, there is nothing left to discover, and games are always less fun when there is nothing left to discover.

But if we added more techs we would just add more cool spells and abilities and we would have the same problem.

Just wondering if there are spells that you like, and that you feel the AI would use, but have been cut to meet the current spell system?

If so, perhaps, more "Techs" could be added - perhaps as offshoots of the Sorcery Tech (if Channelling 1/2) or Strength of Will (if channelling 3 spell).

Once the Tech has been researched, then the spell will become available to purchase with experience points by casters as normal. In order to prevent a single sphere having x number of spells, perhaps these researched spells could either have no specific mana requirements, or have mana requirements that can be fulfilled by several mana types (ie; Fire/Sun or Water/Ice or any Elemental / Alteration / Necro...)