Hello everyone,



We are not yet able to announce the 5th Endless Legend major faction (out of 8) for the simple reason that YOU are about to design it!

We want this Endless Legend faction to be complete and available on the day of the release.



Welcome to the Faction Creation Competition! We have now reached Quest 2: Hero, Units and City.

A big thank you from the whole dev team to all participants to Quest 1. It has been very exciting to follow the progress of the creation.





THE QUESTS



This faction creation is divided in 3 Quests, and will therefore request a real community teamwork. Here's where we stand:



Quest 1: The Biography

• Submit a Name, a Background Story and a Basic Gameplay Idea. [COMPLETED]
• Vote for your favourite proposal in the forum polls. [COMPLETED]
• The best three submissions will be chosen for a GAMES2GETHER vote. [COMPLETED]

Quest 2: Hero, Units and City

• Submit your Hero, Units and City based on the winning Biography. [ON-GOING]
• Vote for your favourite proposal in the forum polls.
• The best three submissions will be chosen for a GAMES2GETHER vote.

Quest 3: Logo and Ship

• Submit your Logo and Ship based on the winning Biography, Hero, Units and City.
• Vote for your favourite proposal in the forum polls.
• The best three submissions will be chosen for a GAMES2GETHER vote.

THE GUIDELINES

This competition is purely about visuals! Indeed, we are calling all the artists among you and are encouraging you to participate.

The idea is to use any support you want to show the community how you visualize the look of this faction's units and heroes, as well as architecture for the city. It can be battle scenes, costumes, plans of buildings, everyday life illustrations, references, character designs, etc... anything that can give a good idea of how you imagine the faction.

Don't hesitate to help out each other, try to give constructive feedback on each others' proposals. Keep in mind that this is mainly a Teamwork, not only between quests but also between yourselves with the same goal, make that faction look good!

• Keep in mind that this should be the result of your own work, without any copyright infringement.
• Submissions must be posted in this thread: upload your work directly, as it will allow everyone to view your attachments without downloading anything or being redirected to another website.
• Do not hesitate to describe your work and inspirations

THE DEADLINE FOR QUEST 2







THE REWARD

The winner of each Quest will:

• see their proposals* implemented in-game and get their name in the credits of the game.
• receive a special G2G Forum Badge
• be invited to Gamescom 2014!

*IMPORTANT NOTE Amplitude has the right to moderate proposals that are offensive, unrealistic in terms of scope, timing and vision. Amplitude will work with the winners to finalise the design and visuals and texts, adapting the winning proposals to the vision and development constraints and to make sure they will be available in time for the release of the game.

UPDATE: Well, darn it, apparently images done by other people are allowed. Well, that requires some new thinking from me... Well, Buzzkillington has linked some images, so here they are /#/endless-legend/forum/7-archives/thread/3575-el-faction-creation-competition-quest-2 and /#/endless-legend/forum/7-archives/thread/3575-el-faction-creation-competition-quest-2 I'd pay most attention to executor and servant images he provided since his images for preacher are more intimidating than preachers are supposed to be



ANYWAY, so why my ideas are mostly robot cyclops? Because all endless robots in the series seem to have one eye. Actually even non endless robots have one eye... Automatons have one eye, sowers have one eye if they have eyes at all, dungeon of the endless robots have one eye... Even Cravers have one eye and they are cyborgs.



Hero unit idea: Inquisitor: Basically robot which's designed role was to hunt down non believers and enemies of the faith hiding among the true believers. One day got in accident with dust causing it to gain free will and now it roams the world to find worthy causes to join hence why it can be recruited by all factions. Alternatively, instead of accident, Unspoken just decided to dumb dust on it for sake of extra chaos.



Place holder image



Robe, half broken mask and robo eye behind it. Also mugshot only because body was hard to make different from preacher. Also, hoods are still fricking hard.



Unit ideas:



The Preacher: Humanoid and fragile robot "priest" which broadcasts canned sermons, chants and religious teachings all the time. Armed with swords and other basic weaponry, they aren't strong in battle, but their ceaseless chanting will demoralize enemies. They are equipped with translator that causes the teachings of the Cult reach everyone. Basically similar to "Heralds" mentioned in description except they purpose is to preach the teachings outside the holy city.



Another way to describe them: Really weak canon fodder unit who are only dangerous in numbers. They motivate believers with their chant and terrify their enemies. Aka buffs or/and debuffs, but weak attack and die easily.



Placeholder:



Mouse one



Arms suck. Also, I really like robo cyclops for some reason. Huh. Anyway, I tried to make it clear that they are pretty much canon fodder. Since faction can use minor faction units rather freely, the basic unit should be rather weak and creepy support unit. I'd like to imagine that these walking speakers don't stop chanting until they are completely destroyed.



ANOTHER WAY TO IMAGINE THEM: Give Geth from Mass Effect swords and fancy robes.



The Executioner: Intimidating huge and dark knight like figure whose blade is rusting from blood of the heathens... Actually a repurposed woodchopper remodeled to look more intimidating. Or any kind of innocent machine that looks really scary to minor faction races. Stronger than Preachers and still pretty cheap, but they aren't actually made for killing so they aren't as efficient as they potentially could be, they are more of shock troops meant to terrify enemies. I suppose they could be on par with minor faction units, but mf units are kinda strong now, so... I dunno, I'm just here to visualize them and give idea of what they are supposed to be.



Placeholder image:



Mouse one:



Need to make it more hellknight-ish. more blood and rust. And possible blade arms. Or not. Problem is that I'd want them to look some kind of huge machine that is remodeled to look more threathening, but I keep only succeeding making huge black figure. Maybe I should take inspiration from sowers... Or real life machines like that. I mean, I doubt Endless machines would look like our "primitive" woodchoppers/conscruction machines, but it would get point accross better.



One thing I'm at the moment trying to do is to figure out how to combine that with http://i.imgur.com/vOdlv.jpg Sowers. Since Sowers are Endless terraforming machines, I was trying to think how would less advanced terraforming machine modeled into knight like killing robot look like... Its really hard though.



The Servant: Abomination of a machine that appears to be mismatch of several different robots meld together with some organic parts possible added to mix... This multi limbed insect/spider like machine work as direct servants of the queen and they make unholy screeching that not many can stand. Created by Queen from sacrifice of chosen ones worthy enough. Strongest and most expensive cultist unit, they terrify enemies AND are effective killers. Dunno whether sacrifice part is just lore and lots of dust or whether there is "other" stuff that you lose when you make them, but I imagine they could be only cultist unit that is explicitly stronger than minor faction units balanced by them being really expensive(or having to sacrifice something to make them). Again, gameplay not up to me, just making the design :3



Placeholder:



Mouse one:



On mouse one: This was supposed to look like a centipede, but ended up looking like a grasshopper. Huh. I blame the mouse Also, skulls are hard with mouse along with everything round On drawn one: Yeah, its supposed to be even larger and it has bigger arms on front to push its body off the ground while rest of the body is on the floor with small wiggly arms moving it. I'd imagine that there can be multiple species combined into it to make an unholy "Oh my god what the hell is that" abomination.



ANOTHER WAY TO IMAGINE THEM: Well, apparently Phyrexians from Magic the Gathering fit the bill. Just google them, Buzz has linked a lot of good images. But yeah, I'm pretty sure everyone knows good abominations with organic and mechanic parts in mix. Like if I bring Mass Effect reference from earlier, then Husks in ME also fit the bill. Alternatively: If human centipede was less gross, more mechanic and more tubes and other horrific stuff.



City idea... Well, that requires a LOT of work, but... Here is the quick sketch.







The big thing in middle is the Cathedral/tomb of the Queen. Big building with dome in it. I'd imagine queen is so huge that whole cathedral is her "tomb" with dome being the part where she is located. Also, I figured out it'd be nice if it had stained glass picture of Unspoken, but... Stained glass is really hard, especially to make into



I guess one way to think about it is.. Well I didn't want to give examples from real life, but for example Hagia Sophia. Aka, big building with dome on top of it surrounded by towers. I'd imagine that city center of the Cultist holy city is at first only the unearthed dome(which contains huge ass body of the Queen) with living spaces and cities being located in districts next to center. When the city center is leveled up, the square shaped bottom of the building is unearthed meaning that Cathedral isn't being built, its being digged from the ground. So basically imagine hagia sophia ish building located in huge crater/excavation site. I guess, hard to describe.



My take of the queen is this REALLY really REAAALLY huge blob of cybernetics and organic parts that has humanoid upper body that acts as "interface" for organic computer body thing. Basically that its so huge that it requires entire city sized building to act as "Tomb" or "Throne" or such. Hence why city centre of the cultists is just huge cathedral with living spaces being located in districts you build

ResonanceMask wrote:
Well, dang it. Now that this has officially started, I'm afraid since I know there are many more people with better skills than I D:



Still gonna post my ideas(planning to edit to add visual stuff later x-x; Then again I should be preparing for entrance exam as well... I'll see if I have time) here in case someone gets similar ideas so that I can say "HEY, I got those ideas first!" Or alternatively be happy if someone skilled plagiarizes my ideas so that they get in anyway even without my input



Hero unit idea: Inquisitor: Basically robot which's designed role was to hunt down non believers and enemies of the faith hiding among the true believers. One day got in accident with dust causing it to gain free will and now it roams the world to find worthy causes to join hence why it can be recruited by all factions.



Unit ideas:



The Preacher: Humanoid and fragile robot "priest" which broadcasts canned sermons, chants and religious teachings all the time. Armed with swords and other basic weaponry, they aren't strong in battle, but their ceaseless chanting will demoralize enemies. They are equipped with translator that causes the teachings of the Cult reach everyone. Basically similar to "Heralds" mentioned in description except they purpose is to preach the teachings outside the holy city.



The Executioner: Intimidating huge and dark knight like figure whose blade is rusting from blood of the heathens... Actually a repurposed woodchopper remodeled to look more intimidating.



The Servant: Abomination of a machine that appears to be mismatch of several different robots meld together with some organic parts possible added to mix... This multi limbed insect/spider like machine work as direct servants of the queen and they make unholy screeching that not many can stand.



City idea... Well, crap, thats something I have forgotten to think about <_< Ah well, I have to hurry anyway...

Em not to be negative but:

This competition is purely about visuals!

I find a striking lack of things to look at in your post

Steph'nie wrote:
THE DEADLINE FOR QUEST 2

FRIDAY MAY 27th 2014, 10AM CEST.

I think you mean Tuesday Steph ; )





This ISENT my proposal and i doubt i will make one...i am no artist.



but maybe one of the artists likes some of the ideas.



Hero: psychosocial swordwielder with a mask and sick stuff u know.



ideas:

Obsidian Templars : Gardists of the Unspoken with "super geil" Crossbows

Priors: Male/Female Broken Lord Cultists preaching powers based on dust.

Leviathans : Evil dark cultist Drakken Units, (in the harsh time of a winter...people are seeking answers...)



Special fourth unit:desolated, cybernetic scorpion like sick fusion of decaying flesh, bones and metal ,with a little bit of steam punk elements.



City: petrified forest, gothic architecture,houses made out of obsidian, european cathedrals, graet monolith/obelisk as main core of the Tempel.

Hey? Its about visuals right? So unit names and abilities don't matter, nor does it matter if those are reserved or stolen I think ^^ and let me be the first to say that it is extremely hard to pinpoint whether or not someone stole your idea without you visualizing it first.



Its not too terribly important to leave that kind of thing out of it, but there really is no use in posting quickly. Unless you are trying to reserve a front spot on the poll...



But I digress



First of many visual aspects I plan to create: How I visualize their origins:







The Queen's Tomb



And my version of their Holy Temple City







Darkness is seen as a form of safety to the Cult, and as such trees are cherished and Illegal to harm. Outside the city walls, they give cultists a sense of security. The Queen takes special care to protect their branches for winter, via Autumn.



What? Autumn? Yes, if my interpretation of both EL's and the Cultists' lore is correct, there could be a possibility for the queen to use her connection to Auriga to trigger an Autumn in the Holy Region. With her connection to the Dust and their algorithms, she might even be able to predict winter with extra accuracy. But that is not for me to say.



The City Center in this design is one massive temple, with all the inhabitants residing in its walls. To protect the Cultist farmers as they work the fields, the Unspoken created mystical paths of trees in every direction from the city. At any time a Cultist feels threatened outside the walls, s/he may simply secrete themselves in the trees.



Closer Look at the city (concept drawing)





Watchtower Concept





All artworks in my post are completely my own.

Wredniak2003 wrote:
Em not to be negative but:





I find a striking lack of things to look at in your post

...Reaaaaaaally man?



I quote myself: "(planning to edit to add visual stuff later x-x; Then again I should be preparing for entrance exam as well... I'll see if I have time)"



Also I really suck in drawing Or at least have several horrible self esteem problems about my art



Also, there is the fact that besides studying I should be writing darn job application right now D:< I'm bad at managing time!



@Stealth Hawk: Wasn't queen supposed to be this really abomination thing? Why does her tomb look like a vampire's coffin? Seriously though, you don't get visual ideas from my post and saw only gameplay? What. I guess I just have weird ass way of thinking then since in my case I thought my post made perfect sense ._.

ResonanceMask wrote:
Hero unit idea: Inquisitor: Basically robot which's designed role was to hunt down non believers and enemies of the faith hiding among the true believers. One day got in accident with dust causing it to gain free will and now it roams the world to find worthy causes to join hence why it can be recruited by all factions.



Unit ideas:



The Preacher: Humanoid and fragile robot "priest" which broadcasts canned sermons, chants and religious teachings all the time. Armed with swords and other basic weaponry, they aren't strong in battle, but their ceaseless chanting will demoralize enemies. They are equipped with translator that causes the teachings of the Cult reach everyone. Basically similar to "Heralds" mentioned in description except they purpose is to preach the teachings outside the holy city.



The Executioner: Intimidating huge and dark knight like figure whose blade is rusting from blood of the heathens... Actually a repurposed woodchopper remodeled to look more intimidating.



The Servant: Abomination of a machine that appears to be mismatch of several different robots meld together with some organic parts possible added to mix... This multi limbed insect/spider like machine work as direct servants of the queen and they make unholy screeching that not many can stand.



City idea... Well, crap, thats something I have forgotten to think about <_< Ah well, I have to hurry anyway...

I actually like all of these, although I feel that the difference between the Servant and the Preacher isn't made clear enough. And the names could sound a bit less... mundane? I'm not sure what I should call it.



Inquisitor works, but I think I'd rename the Preacher to "Hierophant" (a person who brings religious congregants into the presence of that which is deemed holy), the Executioner to "Exemplar" (something fit to be imitated) or "Paladin" (a defender or advocate of a noble cause), and the Servant to "Angel" (being the direct servants of their "God", and the description isn't that far from Old Testament angels anyway).



But that's just me being nitpicky; all of these sound like they'd look great



As for the "Holy City"... I imagine something like a cross between the Cravers ships from Endless Space and Vatican City; lots of domed ceilings, basilicas, cathedrals, that stuff, only with spikes and beams sticking out, or pieces of wall missing where it was deemed "non-essential", like it's in the middle of falling apart



PS: This is what Imagine that the Servant/Angel would look like, courtesy of Epic Mickey:

is it realy 100% about visuals? a hero needs a proper biographie and units are probably redesigned in any case.



in my understanding Quest 3 is all about visuals and Quest 2 is mixed.



for example i have no visual skills so i just will concentrate on other things.

Buzzkillington1990 wrote:
I actually like all of these, although I feel that the difference between the Servant and the Preacher isn't made clear enough. And the names could sound a bit less... mundane? I'm not sure what I should call it.

They are placeholder names.

Well, Sovereign...

Steph'nie wrote:
THE GUIDELINES

This competition is purely about visuals! Indeed, we are calling all the artists among you and are encouraging you to participate.

The idea is to use any support you want to show the community how you visualize the look of this faction's units and heroes, as well as architecture for the city. It can be battle scenes, costumes, plans of buildings, everyday life illustrations, references, character designs, etc... anything that can give a good idea of how you imagine the faction.

I can only write, so, I'll be sitting this competition out. But good luck to all who enter it!

There are couple importants things I'd like to check first.

Is this really about visuals? Will descriptions or roles ne discarded?



How far are we supposed to interpret the original description? Not only the cultist troops are supposed to ne fully robotic but Nos even described them.



Actually knowing what are the core concept you're considering for this faction would be helpful, to say the least.

Anyway, since you people are all about visuals, I guess I'll make quick placeholder drawings with something

Steph'nie wrote:
This competition is purely about visuals!

Oh, ok then. Um... Yeah. Can't say I'm too happy about that I was under the impression that we'll get to design units' stats, abilities, lore and so on, not just the visuals.

I guess I'm not participating then. If you're looking for an artist, I ain't one

uriak wrote:
How far are we supposed to interpret the original description? Not only the cultist troops are supposed to ne fully robotic but Nos even described them.

Just for this question:

The lore of the cultists would support anything from robotics (due to the Endless servant fabrication in the temple of cessation), over organic servants (the OMCETS being amoebae-like mindless construction servants, for example), to any kind of abomination, made by processes maybe not so different from the creation of the unspoken, sacrificing a few cultists to generate something totally new.

You could even have any kind of creatures in cowls running rampant, especially out of minor factions.

Also, the city-building OMCETS allow you to go and envision any length of architectural monstrosity. The power of dust and old Endless technology should allow for the weirdest imaginable shapes.



I never wished to force anyone to any kind of "the units have all to be robots, tanks and hightech"-reasoning. It's your vision of the cultists that I'm curious to see.

Without any artistic skills whatsoever on my side, I won't participate in quest 2. I'm willing to answer any question about my interpretation of the lore to anyone, however, in the hope that it helps a bit.

Steph'nie wrote:


This competition is purely about visuals! Indeed, we are calling all the artists among you and are encouraging you to participate.

Well F***

PANCZASU wrote:
Oh, ok then. Um... Yeah. Can't say I'm too happy about that I was under the impression that we'll get to design units' stats, abilities, lore and so on, not just the visuals.

I guess I'm not participating then. If you're looking for an artist, I ain't one

I thought this way too... ; ( man i had so many ideas, but i just aint no artist. I doubt i can learn it by myself in a couple of days.-.-.. man that makes me sad... well i will still end my story i started to write about "The Swordbearer" maybe someone likes it and give me a little refference in his work.

@ResonanceMask



Please don't take it wrong way but what is the point of post with no images and as you said "placeholder" names? What difference will it make if I post this:



HERE WILL BE PICTURES LATER



HERO1: Dark figure will add details later



unit1:



unit2:



I believe the entries should be somewhat complete and if you want to add something later then sure go ahead but just making a post to be higher on the poll with nothing but semigeneric descriptions and names that will change later feels kind of wrong to me. Bear in mind this is just my personal opinion. You didn't even write a very descriptive account of what you have in mind. I always found English to be language allowing you to paint images with words if you lack the skills in art department. Your post felt too close to me to posting "first" on the web or even middle finger to all people who will take the time to perfect their creation before rushing to take the best spot for future voting as for now in my opinion there is nothing in your post that gives me even generic idea how would nos faction look like.



You are free to disagree but this is how it feels to me.

ResonanceMask wrote:
They are placeholder names.

Ok, just giving some suggestions because I really liked your ideas



And here's some more reference material, if you want any for what these units looked like to my minds eye (images property of Wizards of the Coast):



The Servant,





the Executioner,





and the Preacher.

Buzzkillington1990 wrote:
Ok, just giving some suggestions because I really liked your ideas



And here's some more reference material, if you want any for what these units looked like to my minds eye:

Wow, cool images. Though I prefer simplistic aesthetics to complicated ones most of time, but gotta say that whatever "Phyrexian Crusader" is, it does go rather neatly with idea I had.



@Wred: Well, fine, I'll do quick mouse drawing with Gimp then And I'm kinda... "Ticked" off about how much you are assuming from my post. They are placeholder names because I don't really care what the final names will be, not because I'm planning to make better ones.

Aren't these pictures Magic: The Gathering(tm) card-pictures? I do believe that's against the rules Steph'nie set up:

Steph'nie wrote:

• Keep in mind that this should be the result of your own work, without any copyright infringement.
• Submissions must be posted in this thread: upload your work directly, as it will allow everyone to view your attachments without downloading anything or being redirected to another website.
• Do not hesitate to describe your work and inspirations

As far as I understand this contest, any participant should post his/her original and self-created artwork.

Nosferatiel wrote:
Aren't these pictures Magic: The Gathering(tm) card-pictures? I do believe that's against the rules Steph'nie set up:







As far as I understand this contest, any participant should pots his/her original and self-created artwork.

They aren't as much contest images as they were "For fun" images he posted what my descriptions reminded him of <_<



Anyway, quick crappy mouse pictures coming. Oh dear how much I hate drawing with mouse... I don't like my works, but with pen it at least feels right. Thanks Wred for making me go to sleep late Ugh, I really had too big hopes of being able to learn to draw in the way I want in a week X-x;