So there are stacks of units? I might be wrong (I certainly am), but I don't remember it was so clear (I mean: there are armies, but they might work as single "units" and you could not be able to stack armies on the same place). The numbers on the shields could also be the numbers of "units" in each army. Or some army levels (depending on how many units are in...?).

Adventurer_Blitz wrote:
i don't think they are doing much with water besides transportation, though they haven't said much about it.

One of the reasons it would make for perfect expansion material. =)

i don't think they are doing much with water besides transportation, though they haven't said much about it.

Predateur701 wrote:
I would like to add, if you see the sea, it had different level of water, so we can suppose we will not be able to go everywhere with boat unless we got the good research.

Not a bad supposition (more or less just like trireme movement restrictions in Civ). I wonder if embarkation/disembarkation to/from ships is limited to coastal tiles at sea level. I also wonder if a similar restriction applies to building a harbor, or whatever other city improvement is necessary to construct naval vessels.



On a side note, an aquatic faction or two could be really cool . . . nice expansion material, maybe?

Steph'nie wrote:
They are the Wild Walkers.

Dammit Steph. y u do dis. We should stick with Mad Fairies.

Nosferatiel wrote:
If you haven't suffered a Steph'tease, you've just not experienced everything Amplitude has to offer, completely, yet.

Hehehe lol

steph'nie wrote:
they are the wild walkers.

thank you, steph'nie!

Steph'nie wrote:
And we're just sitting here at the office: amazed and giggling (and not saying a word!).



I'm eager to reveal more about the factions of Endless Legend: hopefully, this should keep you waiting until the Alpha launch on Steam.

TEASE… Will the alpha/beta be MAC compatible, or will we MAC'ers have to wait until the full release?

I would like to add, if you see the sea, it had different level of water, so we can suppose we will not be able to go everywhere with boat unless we got the good research.

Varadhon wrote:
Oh and Steph'nie, is there any chance that we could get at least the name of the "Mad Fairy" faction? lol It would be nice to be able to call them something other than mad fairies.

They are the Wild Walkers.

Well, I think you've all seen this by now:

http://forums.amplitude-studios.com/content.php?389-EL-Faction-Reveal-The-Vaulters



Vaulters are officially revealed. And with them, the devs gave us some cool artwork and two new screenshots!



I'm kinda busy right now but since I may not be able to talk about this stuff after my visit to amplitude studios (evil, evil NDA), I decided to share some of my speculaitons about one of the screenshots. Also, it's fun guessing what things are without knowing if you're right or not ^_^



Here's the screenshot, edited using my amazing paint skills:







Let's have a look at the things I've circled:



1) While the UI seems to be basically identical to that of ES (though I'm half-expecting it to change later for a more fantasy-ish look) there are these strange new buttons added. I can only assume that one of them is the quest menu, but what about the other one? I'd say trading menu but the icon doesn't look like it has anything to do with the trade at all. Unless you trade cups.



2) The name of this research didn't bother me at first; just some tech related to the underground, no biggie. But then I noticed the (-). If you remember, in ES this would indicate an anomaly reduction. But there won't be any negative anomalies in EL so what can this minus mean? I'm at a loss here :S



3) Some ghastly-looking ruins perhaps? Although I'm pretty sure they're not ruins but either an anomaly, a minor faction village (somewhat unlikely) or vaulters' watch tower. Except it's not a tower. It also has a bit of portaly look, don't you think? I wonder if there are portals in EL.



4) Anomaly. Unless green floating glowing balls that kind look like futuristic energy drink in fashionable cups are a normal thing on Auriga.



5) Ruins most likely.



6) These shields, aside from indicating the controller of an army, also have a number on them. I assume it indicates the amount of units in an army. But I'm a bit confused as to why the vaulters have so many separate army (maybe it's just to make the screenshot look cooler). Also, I wonder what happens if the vauletrs engage the mad fairies. Will only one army enter combat or will all armies in an area get "sucked in" to the combat? Also, can you even start battles over cliffs?



7) Now THAT looks like a village of a minor faciton... or ruins I guess, it's a bit hard to tell from a still picture.



8) I think the only comment I need to make is this - mad fairies have awesome cities! ^_^



9) Oh hi there. I think I've seen you somewhere before. In, like, two games with "endless" in them ;P I guess the Harmony will be a minor faction as well.



10) Assimilated village? Or a village about to explode, .png" alt="smiley: " title="" />



11) Gold or other luxury resource. It doesn't look like it's exploited yet.



There are probably other observations to be had but I have to go now so I leave the rest to you ^_^



EDIT - I forgot about the circle next to "end turn" button. It surely looks like an approximation on when the Dark Season is going to hit. Very interesting

What i would like to know is how late game is this? the vaulters while most definitely not being a dust specializing faction have 1758 dust. Is there some sort of purpose to this useless stockpile? does the vaulters having this much dust mean buyouts will cost thousands of dust? I would really like to know, although 404 prestige doesn't seem like it is late in the game but it might be spent so i really don't know. as for the menu, the award thing looks like it is about prestige and the cup about quests. So, how expensive are things in endless legend going to be compared to endless space?

Oh and Steph'nie, is there any chance that we could get at least the name of the "Mad Fairy" faction? lol It would be nice to be able to call them something other than mad fairies.

10. I looked at this one more closely and re-aligned the distortion. I'm 90% certain it's another one of the hut-like things featured in 7. Compare it to the one featured in the combat screenie. You'll find it in the background. Like the one in 7, it also sits atop a set of ruins. Unlike the one in 7 and like the one in 10 it has . . . um . . . sparklies . . .yeah . . . we'll call them sparklies.

Mansen wrote:
You're as bad as Paradox



We've got one of the devs in a Steam chat almost every day and he's always taunting everyone with new amazing features and how people are going to love them ... and just shut up after saying that, leaving everyone to wonder what this big new shiny thing is.

If you haven't suffered a Steph'tease, you've just not experienced everything Amplitude has to offer, completely, yet.

Steph'nie wrote:
And we're just sitting here at the office: amazed and giggling (and not saying a word!).

You're as bad as Paradox



We've got one of the devs in a Steam chat almost every day and he's always taunting everyone with new amazing features and how people are going to love them ... and just shut up after saying that, leaving everyone to wonder what this big new shiny thing is.

And we're just sitting here at the office: amazed and giggling (and not saying a word!).



I'm eager to reveal more about the factions of Endless Legend: hopefully, this should keep you waiting until the Alpha launch on Steam.

First of all, THANK YOU TO AMPLITUDE FOR RELEASING A GAMEPLAY SCREENIE!!! You've totally made my day!

PANCZASU wrote:




Let's have a look at the things I've circled:



1) While the UI seems to be basically identical to that of ES (though I'm half-expecting it to change later for a more fantasy-ish look) there are these strange new buttons added. I can only assume that one of them is the quest menu, but what about the other one? I'd say trading menu but the icon doesn't look like it has anything to do with the trade at all. Unless you trade cups.

I rather like the clean UI. It's unobtrusive and non-distracting. Since the game purports to extend to a technological era corresponding to our near future, a more typically fantasy-style UI seems less appropriate.

PANCZASU wrote:


2) The name of this research didn't bother me at first; just some tech related to the underground, no biggie. But then I noticed the (-). If you remember, in ES this would indicate an anomaly reduction. But there won't be any negative anomalies in EL so what can this minus mean? I'm at a loss here :S

Not something I'm terribly worried about. Could be all sorts of things from precisely what you identified to a mere reflection of the game's inability to calculate the time to discovery.

PANCZASU wrote:


3) Some ghastly-looking ruins perhaps? Although I'm pretty sure they're not ruins but either an anomaly, a minor faction village (somewhat unlikely) or vaulters' watch tower. Except it's not a tower. It also has a bit of portaly look, don't you think? I wonder if there are portals in EL.

I'd put my money on a tile special of some sort (anomaly, strategic resource, lux resource). I'm very curious to know which one.

PANCZASU wrote:


4) Anomaly. Unless green floating glowing balls that kind look like futuristic energy drink in fashionable cups are a normal thing on Auriga.

At least two of these are visible in the other Broken Lords city screenie we already have. Right now I'm still betting on a tile special of some sort.

PANCZASU wrote:


5) Ruins most likely.

With you on this one. They seem to persist after they've been "discovered" too, which is nice. The Broken Lords city screenie even makes it look like one is being exploited, but it's not clear that it's any different from the base tile underneath it based on the exploitation values in that screenie.

PANCZASU wrote:


6) These shields, aside from indicating the controller of an army, also have a number on them. I assume it indicates the amount of units in an army. But I'm a bit confused as to why the vaulters have so many separate army (maybe it's just to make the screenshot look cooler). Also, I wonder what happens if the vauletrs engage the mad fairies. Will only one army enter combat or will all armies in an area get "sucked in" to the combat? Also, can you even start battles over cliffs?

If you mean the number of army units in the stack, perhaps. The odd thing about this conjecture is that there are so many units scattered across the map. I would think that the units would be stacked all on one position (maybe there are just lots of units on this screen). I also think that it might be a reference to the experience level of the unit in question.

PANCZASU wrote:


7) Now THAT looks like a village of a minor faciton... or ruins I guess, it's a bit hard to tell from a still picture.

It doesn't look particularly "village-like" to me. I also note that it appears to be sitting on top of other ruins--or, at least, the tiles in question look like some sort of ruins. It looks more like a solitary building to me. I'd bet on an discoverable quest objective. We also don't know much about the Roving Clans or how they work--maybe this is one of their markets.

PANCZASU wrote:


8) I think the only comment I need to make is this - mad fairies have awesome cities! ^_^

Agreed! I wish I could zoom in on it more closely.

PANCZASU wrote:


9) Oh hi there. I think I've seen you somewhere before. In, like, two games with "endless" in them ;P I guess the Harmony will be a minor faction as well.

If that is a military unit (it certainly LOOKS like a giant, wandering crystal of death!), it's odd that it doesn't have a marker on it identifying it as such. The Vaulter and Mad Fairy units in the screenie have such indicators.

PANCZASU wrote:


10) Assimilated village? Or a village about to explode, lol

This looks more like a tile special to me. Note that the far right edge of the screen is distorted for some reason.

PANCZASU wrote:


11) Gold or other luxury resource. It doesn't look like it's exploited yet.

It certainly looks like some sort of tile special to me.



A few other things:



A. This screenie answers a discussion that Adventurer_Blitz, Nasarog and I were having: borders are a nice clean solid line reflecting the color assigned to the faction in question.



B. I imagine that the color white has been reserved for regions not occupied by any major faction. If it were reserved for a major faction, then presumably that faction would be in contact with the Vaulters whose turn it is. You'll notice that around the "end turn" button, the sigil denoting each faction (here, Vaulters and Mad Fairies) appears beneath the button; there is no other faction shown there, especially not one with a white background.



C. The borders don't look like they align perfectly to any particular biome (note that the green/white border cuts through wet grasslands; cf. the northern border in the Broken Lords city screenie, which divides a seemingly drier region from a wetter one). Perhaps these are just the same biome but the tiles appear different because of elevation differences.



D. There are some other tiles that appear to have bluish crystal resources. I'm curious to know what these are. One looks like a different version of the other. If it's an extractable resource, maybe one is at a different level of extraction?



E. Rivers have tiles of their own and are not just the border between tiles.

1) I would have to say minor faction menu



3) Magic ^^



6) I doubt it refers to individual units because the numbers don't correspond with the number of sub-units. That also makes it un-likely to be HP since that's practically the same thing. I guess it could be unit lvl, or maybe even a quick reference of unit type. (Ie, 1 is ground unit, 5 is hero, etc. etc.)



9) lol! that's exactly what it looks like



10) Almost looks like some kind of market when I zoom in... Or perhaps a resource extractor?



This is fun