Nothing highlights that…shall we say, diversity of what Stardock makes better than Fences.  So, on the one hand, Stardock makes popular PC games but on the other hand, we’re the world’s top desktop utility company.  And the number #1 utility is called Fences.

According to the data, there were approximately 3 million active users of Fences.  That means, people who have used Fences in the past 30 days.  That’s a lot of people.

Putting out a version 2 was a tall order. It’s hard to live up to a program that so many people considered critical.  For me, my favorite feature wasn’t the organizing as much as the “GO AWAY” feature (double click on the desktop, icons hide, double click to bring them back). 

There are a lot of new features in Fences 2 but in my mind, there are two killer features that make it an obvious upgrade:

#1 It lets you have “pages”. Sort of like on your iOS or Android device, you can now swipe the desktop to bring another page of Fences.  One could almost have imagined that such a UI would have made (ahem) more sense than the “Start” screen in Windows 8. 

#2 Folder Portals.  These are Fences that point to a directory on your computer.  In hindsight, it’s an obvious feature. Instead of having to dump more stuff on your desktop, you can just have a given fence represent a directory. Very handy.

You can get Fences at https://www.stardock.com/products/fences

You can read CNET’s review here: http://download.cnet.com/Fences/3000-2072_4-10909535.html

Gamasutra has the Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion post-mortem up.  It goes into the highs and lows of the development of Sins Rebellion.

It was a pretty fascinating project. It was often hard to tell where Stardock stopped and Ironclad began and vice versa. The companies shared a global code base of the project (secured high speed Internet FTW) and this resulted in a ton of improvements that never really got listed in bullet points. But those who have the game know what I mean – What makes Sins Rebellion so awesome isn’t just the new features but it’s the hundreds of little tweaks and touch ups that would be absurd to list in a bullet list.

Given its success it’s going to be interesting to see what’s next for the franchise.

www.sinsofasolarempire.com

This is a game play example of what a randomly generated game of Elemental: Fallen Enchantress is like.

The Dark Days

Amarian, greatest of the Kings of his age led the host of the west in a desperate battle against Curgen, lord of the Titans.  So great was their battle that it broke the world, dividing east and west by a great sea.

In that desolation, ancient creatures returned from the deep places of the earth and laid claim to vast swaths of the world. Where these elemental lords did not hold sway, the robbers, bandits and vile  monsters that had existed only in the edges of civilization moved in.

For a century after the cataclysm, there was little hope that civilization would ever rise again.

It had been hoped, for a time, that Amarian’s daughter, Procipinee, would be able to unite the factions into a single kingdom. But as told elsewhere, her unwillingness to recognize that the world had changed led to a splintering of the realms of men.

Meanwhile, in the east, the collected hosts of the Fallen, had themselves broken into their own petty empires. Curgen’s Quendar lieutenant, Magnar, laid claim to the mantle of emperor.  Outraged at the arrogance of the Quendar, the Trogs, the foot soldiers of the empire, formed their own empire called Yithril under their warlord, Verga.

Into the middle of this strife came the people of Boyne.

This is their tale.

Queen Deb

Deb was not of noble birth, for the Boyne had no nobility. They were a people who lived near the sea.

But Deb was unique amongst her people. She was born with the rare gift of being able to channel magic from the shards of the world. It was obvious that there was something special about this as the lands increasingly prospered as Deb grew of age.

On her 18th birthday, she gathered her people together to found the city of Charlon, near the ancient water shard that rested near the cliffs of the the bay of Boyne.

 

Players can create their own character with their own backstory

Charlon as seen 159 years after the cataclysm

Being an agricultural people, the people of Charlon happily tended to their twilight bees and made full use of the nearby forests for timber and game.  Deb also convinced the town elders that it would be beneficial to build a shrine on the water shard in enable her to tap into its energies more directly.

Soon, people began to immigrate to Charlon. People who had struggled to survive in the wastes amongst the robbers, bandits, and other dangers of the wilds now called Charlon home.

Deb recognize that such a concentration of people would make the Boyne a target. It was time for her to seek allies.

Beyond Charlon

Deb had never traveled beyond the homelands of the Boyne.  A town elder told her of the Inn of the Docile pony that still served travelers who occasionally took rest there.

The Docile Pony is..relatively safe.

Seeking rest, Deb stopped in and met a man who told her a tale of woe.

The Darklings, discarded creatures of Curgen that had long retreated to the depths were becoming more bold

 

The man’s shop was nearby.

Deb had no combat training and her knowledge of magic was at its beginning. She would need help first.  Her first instinct was to search the edges of the wastes, where the fertile lands of Boyne ended. Anyone hardy enough to survive that would be an asset to her people.

That was when she met Karavox.

Karavox explained the history of his people – the Krax.

The story of Kraxis

The Krax were amongst the most loyal of Amarian’s followers in the great crusade against the Lord Curgen.  However, when the world was broken, his people were cut off from the main host of Amarian, who had fallen in the battle of the Henge. To survive, they had to make due with the resources around them which included Death Shards. 

Deb was horrified at the thought of men making use of Death magic.

“Do not fear, my lady,” Karavox assured her. “We shall be friends. Death magic simply celebrates the transition from life into the after life.”

As a token of their new friendship, they agreed to a non-aggression pact.

 

The Sheriff

Sheriff Tagart had known Deb since she was a little girl.  When Deb returned from her first foray into the wilds, he informed her that they had met Bacco the Beggar who had, in fact, become quite helpful due to his knowledge of the wilds.  His presence in town had put people at ease enough that the Sheriff and his two deputies could accompany her on her quest to deal with the Darklings.

Luckily, Deb’s first confrontation would be with Mites, the smaller, weaker cousins of Darklings

 

When it came time to deal with the Darklings who had taken over the merchant’s shop, Deb got her first taste of dark magic.

Darkling’s aren’t big, it’s that Deb has been shrunk and cursed by Brunthus (not pictured).

Brunthus also blinded the Sheriff, making it hard for him to hit anything.

Luckily, tiny Deb was able to defeat Brunthus and return to normal size.

In doing so, she learned a lot of important lessons.

With her Earth magic improved, she looked at her spell book to see how she might make better use of her growing powers.

Since Deb was not yet trained in combat, she decided to use her power to give herself a mystical armor

 

 

The tale of Relias

Upon returning to the Inn with news for the merchant, there was another man having a drink. His name was Relias. He told how he had formed a Kingdom in the south called Altar and was delighted to find out that there as another Channeler in the world.

Relias was an adventurer. He had been disowned by his noble parents and went into the wilds at an early age. He was, at one time, an agent of Queen Procipinee, Amarian’s daughter and considered (by herself anyway) as the rightful heir to the lands of the world.

He had only recently returned from a dangerous mission on behalf of Procipinee to seek the answer of a prophecy. The threat he found was dismissed by Procpinee which led him to gather as many people who would follow him and start their own kingdom.

 

Alguire

With Charlon prospering, the people of Boyne sought to expand their influence into the neighboring, uninhabited areas.  To this end, the pioneer expedition Alguire was trained and sent out. Along the way, the expedition found a buried trunk of armor. Most of it was ruined but an ill-fitting set of chest armor was able to be modified for her.

Deb with her rusty old sword and now matching rusty armor

The area around Alguire was rich in minerals and, more importantly crystal. This was important because the land was very poor in metal which greatly diminished their capacity to produce their own weapons and armor. Crystal, by contrast, provided an alternative – arcane weapons and armor.

Arcane weapons and armor tended to be much better but had the downside of being much harder to construct. And, of course, the people of Boyne knew nothing of weapons or armor of any kind. It would have to be re-learned from scratch.

To this end, the council determined that Alguire would become a conclave – a center for mystical learning.

 

…Time

       Passes…

 

Emissary of a Dark Queen

Ten years into Deb’s reign, the lands were peaceful. Relations with Altar and Kraxis were close. A new friend, the Ironeers, had been met and had grown close.

That was when she came to Charlon.

 

Ceresa meant death

 

Representing the Empire of Resoln, the emissary told the council of their people, the Wraiths.  It became very obvious that their leader, Ceresa, was unstable. Moreover, they were more powerful than any other faction you had met so far.  And she herself was more powerful in terms of combat knowledge and raw magical power than any other leader including Deb.

For now, their lands were distant but the threat was palpable.

 

She knew a lot about the people of Boyne. But little was known of her.  To this end, Deb hired Wallace the Mercenary to guide her and brought a team of deputies with her.  She rode Pox, the warg she had found in a quest the previous year.

 

The wastes that separated Resoln from Boyne was very…very dangerous

 

Cereas agreed to meet with Deb. But it was obvious they had little interest in being friends

It was not surprising that the adventurer, Relias was out in the wastes as well.  

Relias shyly admitted that he had just signed a treaty of tribute with Resoln.  “We are struggling, my lady,” he explained. “Athica remains our sole city.  Our second city, Haven, was destroyed by monsters. We must adapt to our circumstances.

After leaving Relias, Deb encountered an abandoned Inn. Living within it was the former proprietary who explained that his livestock was diseased.  He gave directions to what he believed the source of his ills was.

This led Deb into a very very dangerous place.

Wallace and the Deputies were killed. Deb, badly injured, managed to escape.   This brought home just how dangerous the world really was to Deb.

Some weeks later, when she had recovered, she asked the town council to begin training their own champions. While they would not necessarily be as effective as those who had traveled the wastes and gained immense experience, but given the resources of Ceresa and the dangers of the wilds, there was no alternative.

The Bard and the Shieldman

Using all of the influence she had, Deb was able to recruit two men to be trained for her elite forces.  To this end, William the Bard and Balor the Shieldman became her two lieutenants.

William was sent out with a number of deputies from Alguire to give him sufficient experience to become a true asset to the people of Boyne.

William encounters a monstrous spider while exploring the tomb of A’raka

It was William’s travel into the deep West that they made a startling discovery…

Beyond the wastes there was unsettled, fertile land.

 

As usual, where there’s danger, there is Relias

While returning home, William came across Relias, once again adventuring in the wilds. He was now the most powerful of the sovereigns thanks to his vast experience.  Altar, however, remained a good friend to the people of Boyne. He was happy to negotiate a new trade treaty and extend the existing non-aggression pact.

Altar invited William to visit Athica to see how much it had grown. 

Athica in 189AC

It was indeed true that Athica was a bigger town than Charlon. But Boyne had Alquire as well.

The Oracle Strikes

The day had long been expected and feared. The Wraiths were coming.

The people of Boyne had no history of warfare with anyone. Now they would see if they could rely on their friends.

Kraxis had no interest in going to war with the mighty Wraiths.  Gilden was already at war with them. But Relias was willing.

Relias and the Altar would lend their support in the unprovoked war with Resoln – for a price.

 

With the knowledge that one day, the Wraiths would come for them, the people of Boyne, led by the sages of Alguire, had focused their efforts into ways of making use of the one resource they had in some abundance, crystal.

Riding Pox, Deb took on a dangerous scouting mission deep into Wraith territory.  There, she found the city of Hagudst and was dismayed.

It was, by far, the largest city she had ever seen.

When Deb returned, the council had two pieces of good news. First, the academy was training the first “War Mages”. Second, an emissary from the Queen had arrived.

Procipinee’s humility is uplifting

Procipinee’s Story

Procipinee was 8 years old when her father, Amarian, king of all men, perished in the battle of the Henge.  While the brightest, most gifted channeler of the new age, her rise to power did not prepare her for the changes that the cataclysm brought.

Child of the cataclysm. Procipinee has the beauty of youth despite being over a century old now.  Having seen her domain split into various factions, she now seeks to reclaim her father’s realm under the banner of New Pariden.

The Sacking of Charlon

From the north came Ceresa herself leading a frightful army of bound widows, demons and wraiths.

 

Ceresa’s small band of villains strikes directly at Charon

Sheriff Tagart and Baco led the defense of the city.

The Wraith army included their dreaded Skirmishers:

Well equipped, Ceresa’s soldiers were quite lethal

Tagart would lose his life.  Bacco would survive with a concussion.  Charlon was now enslaved.

What was worse when word came from Gilden, there was something called “Magnar” out there.

and then..

Our so-called friend, Karavox, betrayed the people of Boyne. They had sided with the evil Wraith. The Death Magic had consumed Karavox.

 

Return to Charlon

With Ceresa out fighting the war, Charlon was momentarily vulnerable. Deb did not squander the chance to liberate her home.

vs.

Only the injured Augus stood between Deb and her home. No Skirmishers. And Deb did not come alone.  She brought with her two parties of Marshalls, a band of War mages and a group of deputies.

Charlon was liberated

But Altar was failing. Athica was under Wraith control.

Athica would be the first foreign city liberated by the people of Boyne

 

The known world 200 years after the cataclysm.

Fate of the Betrayer

While Resoln remained powerful in the north, Kraxis was cut off from their aid by the growing power of Deb’s forces.  It was decided that Kraxis would be brought to heel.

The people of Boyne have little tolerance for treachery

 

Instead, Karavox would become Deb’s vassal.

Karavox would serve out the remainder of his days as a general in Deb’s armies.

 

 

Flight of the Altar

On a summer morning, Queen Deb and King Relias met on the fields of Kalinor in the western sweeps.  There, he informed her that he was satisfied with Athica being part of Boyne’s kingdom.  But his cause was lost.  It was time for him and his allies to go into the wilds where they could best serve the war effort.

Altar ceased to exist

What you would later learn is that Relias had sacrificed much of himself to not just keeping Resoln from marching down into the lands of Boyne but in thwarting the designs of Magnar.

But the primary defier of Mangar was Pariden.

 

The Oracle Fights

Ceresa in battle was a sight to behold. 

Ceresa and Deb meet in battle with Deb coming out on top

Even Alguire fell

The tenacity of the people of Boyne enraged the mighty Ceresa who had already had a hand in destroying Pariden and Altar

 

Eventually, Magnar would enter the fray.

And then Yithril as well

Deb takes on giant form in another battle with Ceresa, this time Ceresa gains the upper hand

 

 

Noontide of the Empires

250 seasons from the beginning of Deb’s reign, the world is dominated by Yithril and Magnar.  Pariden and Altar have been destroyed by them.  The Wraiths, led by Ceresa, remain the most formidable local threat.

The known world at this stage (large map)

 

Fortunately, the Empires, true to their nature, squabble amongst themselves.  Any one of them has the power to destroy the people of Boyne at this stage.  However, they war amongst themselves keeping them from focusing their full might on the last viable kingdom of men.

 

 

The Kingdom Strikes Back

In the darkness of night, the council of Charlon met. 

The Kingdom of Boyne was the only realm of men remaining in the world.  The violent Trogs from the Empire of Yithril controlled much of the world. The Empire of Magnar and the Wraith Queen fought amongst themselves.

And all of them sought the destruction of mankind.

Boyne was poor in metal. It had none.  It had some crystal and a lot of horses and wargs to call upon.  It was time to make effective use of its resources and take from the Empires the resources it would need to eventually confront the Trogs.

The strategists at Charlon devised a new, type of trained warrior: The Charlon Knight

Charlon knights would be equipped with the crystal-based banishing mace.  They’d ride the proud steeds of Boyne and be equipped with the crafted armor from Alguire.

The first squad of Charlon Knights

They would be led by Deb and her new servant, Karavox

The first town to be liberated would be the former Kraxis capital.

Ceresa met them in person.

Deb’s magic had become powerful over the years

Meanwhile, scouts had located Warlord Verga, the greatest warrior of the age.

His soldiers were the opposite of those of Boyne.  They were clad in chain mail.  Chain mail is extremely effective against cutting weapons (like swords) but does much less for blunt weapons (like hammers).

The first encounter would be an ambush. The fast moving Warg archers from Charon caught a small force of Trogs in the woodlands.

It was a massacre.

No one from Charlon returned.  Verga single handedly slew them all.

The problem was that without metal, Boyne had relied on arcane weaponry. This strategy worked well when dealing with the lightly armored Wraiths.  But now they were coming up against well equipped soldiers with real armor and very strong weapons.

What was needed was defense.  Arcane Armor was the only viable choice.  The Sages of Alguire estimated that it would take approximately 5 years to recover the lost art of Arcane Armor.  Could they survive in the meantime?

During this time, a number of battles were fought with terrible losses for Boyne.

The Oracle Resigns

In the end it was not the people of Boyne who brought the Wraith Queen down. It was Magnar, lord of doom and destruction, Emperor of the Quendar who crushed the Wraith.

The Wraiths flight back into the wilds created an opportunity for the people of Boyne.  The lands once occupied by the Wraith were now open to expansion and relatively protected from direct assault from the Trogs or Quendar.

However, this meant that the Quendar led by their Emperor, could focus their vast armies exclusively on Boyne.  Swallowing her pride, Deb knew she needed to make peace with the Quendar, no matter the cost.

Magnar, having finished off the Wraiths, was willing to grant Deb a reprieve

Lest you think the Boyne weren’t desperate, the first wave of Quendar had just arrived

The Kingdom of Boyne at the end of the first Quendar war

(note, we are modifying the arcane armor to not require metal, but for now, I will need to find some source of metal)

For now we will have to trade with the sexy sexy Gilden…

No, HE is Spartacus

Return of the Magi

The trace pact with Gilden opened the way to train the most powerful, most elite unit ever seen in this world. Christened “Knight of the Magi”, his burning battle axe, Arcane Armor, and dedicated training ensured that in battle, he would face no equal.

Knight of the Magi

A group of 4 of them rivaled a small army

And they came none too soon for the Quendar attacked the moment Deb’s treaty of tribute expired.

It would be later said that this was the most important battle in the Quendar/Boyne wars:

Vastly outnumbered, the Boyne had to hope that their Magi were up to the challenge.

Baaco had not gotten a lot of experience but had really stepped up after the death of the Sheriff many years prior.  Now, growing old, he would see his day of heroism and honor arrive with the victory at Alguire Valley.

South of Alguire, the Magnar had taken an old Gilderian mine. 

At last, Boyne would have access to metal.

The Magi were successful at keeping Magnar at bay.  But Yithril and their Trog hordes were simply beyond reckoning.  Hope was failing. Murmurs of surrender began to circulate. The wounded and the maimed told tales of the might of the Trog. They were, it seemed, unstoppable.

The Magi had bought time, but not victory.

Forge of the Overlord

Long ago, the Ereog, the greatest of the ancient magicians, constructed the Forge of the Overlord.  Upon doing so, he gained a mastery over all of creation – for a time.  In doing so, he attracted the attention of the powers of the universe itself which led to the arrival of the Titans.

With the hope of victory fading, the council of Charlon had considered the possibility of reconstructing the Forge of the Overlord.  Deb’s mastery over the shards was nearly complete. She was, it was believed, powerful enough to cast the spell of making on the Forge of the Overlord.

 

 

The question now was, could the Magi hold the combined forces of the Quendar and the Trogs at bay long enough to construct the 3 towers and the forge?

 
Decades of war had done much harm to Bacco.

Bacco met with Deb. His usefulness in fighting was past. They discussed which city should be the home of the Forge.

In honor of Relias, and because Athica remained the greatest city in the Boyne Kingdom, it would be constructed there. Athica, also had Gilden at its flank, a friend. 

The problem: Time.

Last of the Magi

It is never a good idea to ignore an Ironeer.  Especially if they have Iron Golems

If you read the book Elemental: Destiny's Embers you know how powerful just one iron golem was.  Supplemented by the last of the Magi Knights, the Ironeers had taken the offensive.

Meanwhile, the Trogs had been saving up their secret weapon: Juggernauts.

Juggernauts vs. Guardian statues with Deb backing them up

Alguire was defended but at great cost. Only Karavox remained unscathed.

Yithril, however, had a second army waiting to attack Charon itself.

Charon was well defended. But its weaponry was simply out classed.

 

The situation was becoming desperate.

Wrath of a Broken crown

Nearly a century had passed since the founding of the Kingdom of Boyne.  It had grown from a single village to, at its height, five prosperous cities.  Now, it was being crushed by impossibly strong Trogs of Yithril. 

Charon was occupied by Juggernauts, its lands sickening and dying. Beyond the crumbling borders, endless streams of enemies were closing in.

“Enough,” Deb said.  “I shall destroy them.”

The Boyne were poor in metal but rich in mana.

“If it is destruction they crave, it is destruction they shall have.”

She gathered her greatest warriors.

“First, we shall liberate Charon,” she proclaimed.

Deb gathered the greatest and most powerful force Boyne had assembled

The last of the Magi Knights, now level 7.

Balor had become a devastating warrior

And they were backed by the Silver Mages

The fate of the Boyne rested on this battle

The last of the Magi would fall in this battle. But Charon was freed.

The Boyne had no metal. Only through trade with Gilden had they acquired enough metal to train the Magi and now they were gone.  The tower of the sword required metal.

What the Boyne did have in abundance was mana and crystal.

“I shall give them ruin from the ground,” Deb hissed. “I shall bring down the fires of heaven upon them.”

And she rode alone, deep into the darkness.  Deep into the uknown lands in the north where the Trogs seemed to come endlessly.  Dodging enemies she made it to Blackstead, which was, even then, training Juggernauts:

Blackstead, in the heart of the Trog Empire

Opening her spell book she found what she was looking for…

I shall bring them hell on earth

 

 

 

And they did

The Fallen Age

The destruction of Blackstead was an emotional victory.  But in the year 239AC (about a century since the founding of Charlon), the Empires dominated the land.

The only hope for the people of Boyne was the Forge of the Overlord.

This single Foundry, taken from Magnar, was the only source of metal for Boyne

Athica continued its effort to construct the Forge of the Overlord while Yithril slowly conquered the outlying provinces of Boyne.

Relations with the Ironeers remained very good. But they were a non-factor in the world at this stage. They only existed because Boyne shielded them.

The only other allies available were…less savory. But perhaps it was time to approach them.

Listrid and the Queen meet

One summer evening, while touring Athica to see the progress on the Tower of the Padars, the situation was put plainly.

“My Queen,” Listrid began. “You recruited me after the fall of the Tarth in a land you have never seen. I can tell you, the Trogs are relentless.  You have asked me on the progress of the Forge of the Overlord.  For 10 years we have worked on completing the necessary prerequisites.  But know this, they consume metal and crystal that could be used by our armies to fight the Trogs.”

Deb listened intently. “You speak truth, Listrid.  But as you say, the Trogs are relentless. Even now, they threaten the eastern borders of Higgins, which was once deep within Kraxis.  I see no victory through arms. I see only salvation through Ereog’s lost work. Only the Forge will save us.”

“I pray you are correct, my queen. But I fear time is not on our side,” she concluded.

“Then make all haste, Listrid.”

To that end, Queen Deb sent her most trusted champions to Athica to reduce the growing unrest due to the need to raise taxes to pay for the war effort.

The Forge of the Overlord

 

The tower of the Witch had been raised. The tower of the Sword have been built. And the tower of the Padars had been constructed.

Now, Deb would cast the “Set in Stone” enchantment to sacrifice research for more production.  In a little over two years, the forge would be built.

Time was running out

The Trogs captured Alquire. They were less than two days ride from Athica.

The Juggernauts were now arriving in force.

Deb found herself alone. The Magi were gone. Her champions too injured (or trying to aid in the construction of the tower).

Deb used as many spells as she could.

Tremor…Falling Star…

Deb had to be careful, she knew casting the Spell of Making on the Forge of the Overlord would tap her mana reserves. She just needed a little more time.

Goodbye sexy Gilden

In the Fall of 243AC, the Forge of the Overlord was constructed.  Now, all that was needed was the necessary 500 mana.  Deb had consumed a great deal of it. It would take her over a year to reserve so much arcane power.

Every day was pain. 

Every day was a desperate battle to hold on for tomorrow.

With the resources no longer being used on the towers, Athica was able to turn its amazing construction abilities towards training a new type of unit: Lord of the Magi.

Athica was surrounded.

The spell was ready, but it would take time to cast

Deb  began the incantations. A whirlpool of light and energy began to surround her and emanated out of Athica to be seen by all…including the enemies of Boyne. 

Could they hold out?

Again and again, the forces of Magnar and Yithril attacked Athica.  Each time, there were casualties. But they held.

The Fallen became increasingly desperate. Only a year left. The defenders were becoming weaker and weaker but then so too were the attackers.

 

With Deb incapacitated (casting the spell) it came down to fewer and fewer defenders

The Spell of Making

Out in the fog of war, one could hear but not see the spells being cast. Spells of horror and evil.

With only 2 seasons left, Magnar himself attacked Athica

Magnar’s forces had dwindled but he had not. 

Opposing him were the old standby’s. Bacco the Beggar. Karavox. Even William the Bard was there.  Here they would make their stand.

So powerful was Magnar that he brought low all who opposed him.  All save Karavox. In the end, it was the traitor Karavox who would save the people of Boyne.

Before the dust began to clear, there was a sound emanating from the city. It sounded like music and yet it came from no living thing. It was the sound of the world itself. The Spell of Making had been cast.

THE END

Author’s Notes

It took approximately 13 real world hours to play through this one randomly generated map.  Each game is different. One never knows what one might encounter.

In this world, the Wildlands were far into the distance and never were a factor for the Boyne. The Master Quest was never an option, so firmly in the land of Yithril did it lie. And, after all, only a fool would travel deep into the heart of enemy territory on quest that had little hope for victory…(cough).

On behalf of the Stardock team, thanks for reading this game play example. Those who have read others know how different they can be.  This is the first time I’ve ever won through this means. It was not, when I set out, the means to which I expected to win (I had anticipated winning through conquest). But that is what makes this game special, one never knows what will happen from game to game.

Ones strategy must adapt based on the conditions on the ground. The lack of metal meant I had to choose a different direction. If I had, for instance, had access to more prestigious locations, I could have used it to get the varying opponents to fight amongst themselves. 

One thing I also didn’t show was all the starting options. I could have made the world thick and dangerous with monsters or had hardly any of them.  There’s a lot of different settings that ensure that each game is a different experience – and that’s before we even start talking about mods.

A Strategy Game in an RPG world

Fallen Enchantress is a turn-based strategy game set in the fantasy world called Elemental. In it, you are one of the few beings capable of channeling magic from the various shards of power that are scattered across the world. As such, the people look to you for leadership to spread your civilization across the land.

Through the course of the game, you will research new technologies, learn new magical spells, raise armies, negotiate treaties, fight wars and go on quests as your people struggle for domination of the world.

 

Requirements: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 or later. Video card must have at least 512MB of memory Total system memory of at least 2GB in order to play. We recommend a 64-bit version of Windows as Elemental: Fallen Enchantress will make use of the extra memory to improve performance.

The Legend of the Fallen Enchantress

To set the stage for the main game, Fallen Enchantress includes a campaign that explains how the world got into such dire straights. Without getting too specific, the world was broken approximately a century ago when the men of the west combined forces under a single sovereign named Amarian. They marched west to confront the Titan Emperor, Curgen.

Over the previous centuries, the immortal Titans had twisted the inhabitants of of the world into various new species, collectively called “The Fallen”. These included the Quendar, who were the scholars and elite warriors of the Titans, the Trogs, who were bred purely for war and the Urxen, who served as workers for the Empire.

Curgen, in an attempt to crush his enemies, attempted to open a rift that would bring in reinforcements from the world in which the Titans hailed from. When his plan failed, a massive cataclysm occurred that laid waste to the world. Nearly everyone died.

For approximately a century, the various mortal races struggled to survive.  During this time, far older beings began to lay claim to the world. These Elemental Lords and their allies began to dominate the land.

Eventually, your character was born with the gift to channel magic from the scattered elemental shards that remained after the destruction of the Titans. Your objective is to bring order back to the world.

The campaign, tells the story of one of these “channelers”. Relias, who, at the time, was an agent of Queen Procipinee, the most gifted Channeler of the new age.  He has been sent to the East to seek out the Oracle who will tell Procipinee how to prevent the rise of the Empire of Sorcery, a great evil that has been prophesized since before the cataclysm.

 

Design your Mage or Sorceress

Legend tells that once the world was filled with magic. But when the Titans came, they brought with them the Shards of the Telenanth to absorb this magic.  What the Titans didn’t expect was that upon absorbing their fill of magic, they would become rooted to the ground they had been placed.

The Titans could not use these shards. They simply deprived the mortals of the world the ability to use magic.  However, in time, beings began to be born who could channel magic from the shards. While few in number, they were destined to become mighty sovereigns with their own realms.

You are one of these rare individuals with the ability to channel magic and lend your power to your chosen champions to use to fulfill your objectives.

At the start of the game, you can either choose a pre-made sovereign or create your own.

Once you decide who you are, you then choose where you are and who your opponents are.

You can play against your previous creations as well as set each player’s intelligence individually

 

Rise to power

At the start, it is you. There is only you.

You will gain followers, soon enough

The land is still shattered. While it is far better than it was a century ago, most of the land is still unfit for living.  It will take centuries for the lands to make a full recovery.

That is not to say the world is desolate. Other creatures find the current environment outstanding. The Kingdoms prefer the green grasses that were once the dominant form of plant life in the world.  The Empires tend to prefer the alien grasses and plants that the Titans brought with them (they are violet in color). The monsters prefer the barren landscapes in-between.

When you start, you will see that the land is rated for you based on the 3 core environmental resources:

• Grain (from which food comes from)
• Materials (from which production comes from)
• Essence (from which magic comes from)

All three are vitally important and there are endless debates on which one matters the most. Food means larger populations which means more money and more research.  Materials leads to being able to build more things faster.  Essence means the ability to cast more enchantments on the city and certain city improvements gain significant bonuses, it is the true wild card.

Your sovereign founds the first city. After that, only pioneers can construct new ones.

From your cities come your pioneers (who build outposts and new cities), scouts (for exploring the world), and soldiers (to conquer the world).

To aid, gifted champions can be found and recruited. They often have knowledge of magic and by aligning with you, gain access to the magic that you channel.

 

In addition, as your cities attract people from the wilds, your ability to recover the technologies of old increases.

 

Pioneers can also build outposts anywhere on the map. Outposts aren’t cities but allow players to extend their zone of control and make use of any resources in those area. They also contain a limited number of upgrades that increases their potency as time passes.

 

In time, your humble city will grow to be a prosperous capital

 

Your citizens will work tirelessly for you

 

Being a sovereign is a tough job, you have to manage your taxes, deal with unrest, choose what new city improvements to construct all while dodging dragons, demons and other horrors from the wilds

 

 

 

Discover a rich world

As sovereign, there is much happening within your realm. So-called adventurers will occasionally stir up some ancient evil. However, you and your champions can partake of your own adventurers.

Whether it be a humble Inn or an ancient dungeon, the world offers many opportunities to find unique and and powerful loot.

 

As you find more loot, you will able to equip yourself to be increasingly powerful

Better weapons and armor

Better accessories

Better modes of transportation

You and your champions can be individually customized with the gear you acquire during your lifetime. As you gain experience, you will be granted new levels of abilities to choose from.

Even when you think you’ve got a handle on the world, you may discover that there’s a lot more there to it (depending on map size)

 

Match wits with sophisticated opponents

You are one of the very few who can channel magic from the elemental shards. But you are not the only one.  Across the world, a handful of others have also made use of this ability to establish realms of their own.

 

Three sovereigns together at the early stages of their realms.

 

Technology, resources, treaties and more can be negotiated with other factions

It can be very challenging to build a network of alliances to defend your interests as well as keep more powerful neighbors at arm’s length

 

Wield powerful magic

During the age of the Fallen Enchantress, magic is understood under one of the 5 elemental forces: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Life, Death.

Earth protects. Air enlightens. Fire damages. Water grows. Life creates. Death destroys.

As you and your champions gain levels, your knowledge of spells will improve.

One of the paths to victory is re-construct the ancient Forge of the Overlord and then cast the Spell of Mastery upon it. Along that path, you may gain the knowledge to summon demons, raise volcanoes, smite enemies with tidal waves, or simply use it to heal the broken world.

Powerful spells can help turn the tide against foes that have greater mundane capability.

With enough mana and magical knowledge, great feats of sorcery are possible

A city was once here

 

Take the battle to the enemy

Perhaps you will be  successful in avoiding war. However, should it become necessary, you are not without options.

Your opponents will attempt to flank your strong points to take your cities. Be careful.

Be careful about being flanked by the AI

 

Negotiate trade and treaties with other powers

Negotiate peace treaties

Trade knowledge, resources, and even alliances

 

Acquire rare spells, items and weapons by going on quests

 

This quest will gain you a mystical shield

 

A strategy game that also contains quest locations

 

 

Design your own units to match the conditions of your particular world

What resources you have may heavily influence what weapons and armor your units make use of

Is your enemy heavily reliant on cutting based weapons? Then equip your units with armor that is particularly protective against cutting weapons.  What about enemies that are heavily protected against fire magic? Design units that use ice magic instead. The game includes many built in units but you can design your own. Best of all, the computer players will make use of your unit designs in future games.

 

Massive replayability

Each game is a new experience.  Worlds can be randomly generated. Your opponents can be randomized. You never know what quests or items you may come across. Each game is a new beginning. Moreover, as you play, the game changes. The sovereigns you create, the units you design, the factions you make all may return in future games as opponents.

And remember: This is a Stardock game. Nobody supports their games like Stardock does. That means updates and improvements and enhancements long after release. 

I want to give a shout out to our Windows XP beta testers.  Thanks to your reports, we were able to track down that issue that was causing it to frequently crash on some Windows XP setups.  

As you can imagine, in 2012, it is difficult to replicate "real world" Windows XP systems. There's only so many uncles and aunts in the world to bother and after the...you know, "formatting" incident, I'm not allowed to visit.

Should go out in tonight's build.

Modding Guide

Preliminaries

I’ll be updating this as time goes on. I’ll get turned into its own article eventually with a live version in the modding area of the forums.

• To use mods, you need to go to the Options dialog and turn on “Use Mods”.
• Get familiar with this directory:
  • 
• The documents\my games\fallenenchantress\mods directory is read in by the game.

The Tools

On the main menu is the “Workshop”. This is the gateway to the modding tools. The tools we include in game are:

• Builder’s Forge
• Cartographer’s Table
• Particle Cauldron
• Faction Creator

These tools will be in a perpetual beta as we plan to provide regular updates but we don’t have any plans to encourage casual players to make use of them.

Understanding objects

It will help you if you forget that Fallen Enchantress is a fantasy strategy game. Instead, think of Fallen Enchantress as being a particular “Mod” of a game engine called Kumquat (I didn’t name it so don’t yell at me <g>). We could just as easily have made a Baldur’s Gate style game with it. Or more specifically, YOU could make an Ultima style game. Or a Civilization style game.

With this understanding, let’s talk about what ties them together: XML

That is, all of these tools do is create .XML files. We use PNG for most graphics (we do use .DDS as well which is another graphics format).

The Builder’s Forge

The Builder’s forge is there to create non-mobile objects. For our purposes, we’ll call these “Tiles”. The left mouse button selects and places. You can move the view around with your middle mouse button.

When you save the tile, it is placed in the \documents\my games\fallenenchantress\tiles directory. A tile includes an XML file and a shadow PNG.

A tile, on its own, is just eye candy. It’s what you do with it that matters. That brings us to…

The Map Editor

This is what it looks like if you select the cartographer’s table. There are generally 3 things you can make with this.

1. Custom Maps
2. Tactical Maps
3. Stamps

Making a Custom Map

The basics of a custom map are as follows:

• Make sure there are some starting locations
• Make sure there are enough decent places for people to settle.

Someone could make a Civilization style map where everyplace is settleable.

Left-click to select a type of tile and right click to set it. You can click and drag some things (like mountains) to go nuts with it.

Different types of terrain tiles

Different types of objects

We don’t really use triggers in the sandbox game. But in the campaign, we use them everywhere. A trigger is specifies a condition in which an event is launched. A typical one would be to have tiles marked as triggered and if hit, it then tells the game to open up a cut scene or start a quest or spawn monsters or something.

When you save a map, you can specify it not to create any objects for you. If you’ve created the perfect map with every resource placed and every NPC placed just so, then select that option. If you want the game to go ahead and randomly spawn the resources for you, then don’t check that option.

Making a tactical map

A tactical map is a special type of map that the player is sent to under specific circumstances (a tactical battle for instance)

Like strategic maps, modders need to tell the map where players are going to start out at with their units. Tactical maps tend to have (as you can see in the screenshot) a lot of blocked tiles. That’s because most of the tiles you see are simply decorations and as such, need to be flagged as untouchable.

One thing to note is that Kumquat doesn’t yet support blocked tiles in terms of weapons. That is, putting up a wall won’t stop a unit’s ranged weapon from going through it. So cosmetically, don’t put up a wall expecting it to block line of sight or weapons. This is something we hope to change in a future version.

Making a tactical map, on its own, won’t buy you much. It has to be connected to something to be used.

With custom maps, players can explicitly load them at the start of the game. But with tactical, they have to either be connected to a triggering event of some kind (like a quest or goodie hut). We don’t currently support generically pulling in unspecified tactical maps.

Making Stamps

Stamps, are used by the random map generator.  We wanted to give modders a way to contribute to the post-release map generation experience. And so stamps were born.

Here’s how they work:

You create a piece of a map.  Maybe it has a starting location on it. Maybe it doesn’t. It can be big or it can be small.

You are better off making the stamps fairly small so that they’re more likely to be chosen (huge stamps may have a hard time fitting into a given world).

Once you’re done, choose the magic wand tool. Select a tile and it should select all of them. Then select the selector tool (the arrow tool) and then using the Ctrl key LEFT click on each tile you want to de-select.  This is the fastest/easiest way to do it I’ve found. Specifically, you should generally de-select cliffs and beaches (anything on an ocean) because otherwise, your stamp will only be selected when it’s trying to find an ocean sided stamp and that could be pretty rare.

Once you’ve done that, select “Save Stamp” from the top.

 

In the Save Stamp area, you need to choose which type of map it’ll be used with. Tiny, Small, Medium, or Large. This sets the minimum map size that the stamp requires.

The file gets saved to the stamps directory in your \documents\my games\fallenenchantress and the game will pull from it as long as “use mods” is on. Make sure you choose the frequency you want it to show up on.  If it says “no inclusion” it means it won’t use it unless it gets explicitly specified elsewhere (like a spell).  I’d recommend “common” for most stamps.

Testing your stamp

To test your stamp, you’ll need to open it up in a text editor. There will be a tag called “frequency”. Set it to 5 (remember what it was previously). This will make it show on on a given map size for certain. DO NOT share stamps like this.

I try not to think about the stamps users are going to share. It’s too disturbing.

Up Next…

Goodie Huts

Quests

Monsters

test

 

 

Q: What kind of computer do I need to run Fallen Enchantress?

A: You need to be running either Windows 8, Windows 7 or Windows Vista.  If you are running Windows XP, you should make sure you have at least 2GB of memory and a video card with at least 512MB of video memory.

Q: Do I need War of Magic?

A: No. Elemental: Fallen Enchantress is a new game in the Elemental universe. But it is not directly related to War of Magic game-wise.

Q: How do I maximize performance for Fallen Enchantress?

A: If you are looking for the absolute best performance, you should disable outlines and pedestrians and lower anti-aliasing in the options menu.

Q: Does Fallen Enchantress have copy protection?

A: No. We do have a serial number system so that if you buy the game from a third-party store (Steam, GameStop, GamersGate, etc.) you are able to re-download it directly from us into the future.  But you may put Fallen Enchantress on as many machines as you would like that you own.

Q: I’m having a problem with FE, what should I do?

A: All of your FE specific data is in My Documents\My games\Stardock\Fallen Enchantress folder.  There is a file called debug.err. The first few pages tell us everything about your computer. If you give us that along with the last few lines of that file, we might be able to find out what the issue is.  Any time the game crashes, Windows sends up a report so we can look into that.

Q: What else can do I do to make sure I get the best performance and experience?

A: First, make sure you have the latest video drivers. We can’t stress this enough. You’d be surprised how many problems disappear if you just keep your video drivers up to date.  Second, if you can, run a 64-bit version of Windows.  FE will be able to see more memory which will improve its performance further.

Q: I have heard the FE AI is really smart compared to other games, why is that?

A: Fallen Enchantress’s AI is multi-core. That is, while you’re taking your turns, the AI spins up on every CPU core you have to do a lot of additional analysis of what’s going on in the world.  Moreover, the game gets smarter the more you play it. The units you create it will make use of, the sovereigns you make it will use against you in future games.

Q: I just saw the AI do something stupid, why is that?

A: AI’s try to be generally intelligent but can still be specifically stupid. In the case of FE, because it’s a non-cheating AI, it can make mistakes. It may not “see” what you see. So it has to go out and send scouts and then do a lot of calculated guessing. Sometimes it may value something differently than you would (such as city placement – it might decide it’s worth giving up on a 4/3/1 city and instead settle a 4/2/1 city because it wants to be one tile closer to something else (like a river or a shard) to get its area of influence on those things sooner.

Similarly, in tactical battles, the AI may not have the mana available to cast a particular spell or you may make a move it was not expecting and thus disrupt its strategy (which is a good thing, you should do that). 

At the highest difficulty levels, we give the AI money. But as you know, money can only go so far. It can’t conjure up for itself metal or crystal or other resources, doing that would make the higher levels absurd and unfun.

Q: How do I use player mods?

A: First, in the options menu, select “use Mods”.  This will enable the game to look at the \documents\my games\fallenenchantress directory to look for the Mods.  Inside that directory you can add quests, maps, items, and other types of mods.

Q: Are there any other tricks to maximize performance just a bit..bit further?

A: Yes, but this is absolutely unsupported.  You can go to the \documents\my games\fallenenchantress directory and change the resolution to this:

DisplayWidth=1024
DisplayHeight=768
UseDesktopResolution=0
Fullscreen=1

We don’t recommend this but you will get the absolute best performance this way at the cost of visual quality.

If you’re a techie, you can go nuts with that file.  If you mess it up, simply delete it and the game will recreate it at its defaults.

This whole directory structure should be thought of as your play ground to do surgery on the game as you see fit. At any time you can always delete it and the game will recreate it if you get into trouble.