Illwinter announces Conquest of Elysium 4

[Yskonyn]

Thanks for the explanation, Nef. I'll go and watch those LPs.

[PanzersEast]

Which do you guys like better...

Conquest of Elysium 4

or


Dominions 4

[mikeck]

So what is the "goal" of the game? Is it like Dominions where you basically build armies and generals and kill everyone? Do you build towns or just raise units?

Also, what is the difference between COE4 and Dom4?

You kill everyone else by building units and improving your casters to summon all kinds of beasties.  But you also have to explore the map, which not only has neutral armies to squash, and towns to take, but some special sites of import to certain factions' resource gathering and unit progression.

As with Dom, each faction is different.  I'd even say that, despite CoE being the faster & more streamlined game, it's "classes" tend to have even more varied gameplay styles.  Each one starts off deceptively simple with a handful of units and a town or two, as with any turn-based strategy game.  But as you gather & use your special resource(s) through each game, it gets more unique. 

As a couple examples, the last two I've played were the High Cultist and the Markgraf.  The High Cultist needs sacrifices which they get from holding settlements, the larger the better.  But in order to summon bigger nasties, like the Deep Ones, they have to cast summon rituals in coastal areas/towns.  Some of the summons at that mid-level (Starspawn?) are the only ones that can be fed enough sacrifices to summon the highest level stuff... like a Great Old One.  In contrast, the Markgraf is a class which consists of Hoburg halflings who left regular halfling society and began using necromancy for a means of cheap labor and such.  They collect 'Hands Of Glory' for their Necro rituals, like the Necromancer class does, but one of the classes' big end-goal power plays is to turn it's Markgraf into a Vampire at a specific map location (to be discovered) and it's Hog Rider nobility into Vampires or Ghoul Lords, and their necromancers can become Wights & Ghosts retaining some spellcasting.  There are special transcendence possibilities like this in some classes.  IIRC, the High Priestess can eventually turn into her Demon God incarnate once all the footwork is done & she achieves the ritual to have him take possession for the ensuing rampage.   8)


TL;DR
It's not quite a 4X, not quite a strategy-roguelike, but has some elements of each.  I've been hooked due to each class having a different style & range of unique mythical units.  Mixed with the exploration of the fog of war whilst searching for certain class-related things.  There is a good bit of randomization to it all so each game is different.


Tokshen and Das have both begun CoE4 LPs on YouTube, if you want to see it in action.  I'd recommend Tokshen's vids for a faster glimpse.

Thanks!

[Bison]

Which do you guys like better...

Conquest of Elysium 4

or


Dominions 4

Both 😀

[PanzersEast]

Which do you guys like better...

Conquest of Elysium 4

or


Dominions 4

Both 😀

:D  ;)

Has been a while since I have played DOM 4... I played CoE 3 quite a bit back in the day.



PE

[bbmike]

Won my first game! It was a medium map with two other AIs. I killed two of the Barbarian's armies but it was the 'Independents' that finished them and the other AI off.

Two things I wish this game had: 1)when you cursor over a unit I wish a text popup would appear that told you what it is (my eyes have hard time seeing the icons) and 2)a respawn eliminated AI option

[Huw the Poo]

1)when you cursor over a unit I wish a text popup would appear that told you what it is (my eyes have hard time seeing the icons)

Do you know you can right-click the unit to see its info panel?

[Huw the Poo]

Which do you guys like better...

Conquest of Elysium 4

or


Dominions 4

They're different enough that I wouldn't want to pick one; as superficially similar as they are, I find they scratch different itches.  That being said, if I was being forced at gunpoint to choose between the two, I guess I'd go with Dom 4.

[Nefaro]

Which do you guys like better...

Conquest of Elysium 4

or


Dominions 4

Dom4 still has the most content-wise, but they complement each other.

Whereas Dom4 is focused on a territorial war best intended for multi-player, CoE is about expansion into the fog of war that is a bit more single-player friendly with relatively faster turns.  Although it does have a multi-player option, too, which people play due to the faster  more streamlined nature.

Just keep in mind that CoE has more elements of randomness in it.  One start may be much more difficult than the next, with the same setup.  As mentioned, it's gained a bit of a roguelike moniker for it's quick & simple procedural starts that build in complexity and variety as the game progresses.

[Nefaro]

Tok's LP:

CoE4 playlist  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW0ffM-nuH4&list=PLrCqw-30TkeVkG83w3IS9-ffmMShllQxi


IIRC, he has a couple quick starts where he gets killed but ends up going quite awhile with the Troll King class.  Should give you an idea..

#1

[bbmike]

1)when you cursor over a unit I wish a text popup would appear that told you what it is (my eyes have hard time seeing the icons)

Do you know you can right-click the unit to see its info panel?

Yes, that's normally what I end up doing. I guess I need a bigger display or better eyes.

[Bison]

Nice list of fixes today.

Higher quality music files
Fix for potential 2 tunes at once.
New void map look
Eagle warrior not recruitable multiple times
Recruited Ghost captains and Elemental Champions are now commanders
Missing ability descriptions fixed
Flying units no longer fly out of castles unless gates are opened
Sacred spring not invisible
Item effect description for scrolls
Improved weapon info
Bucket of frogs no longer an edge summoning
Warning for incorrect amount of memorized spells
Desert Sun will be reborn in sun
AP cost shown for convert settlement
Fire Brand now has a visible area fire effect
Fewer sound effects for sleep cloud
Get correct start spells on converted units
Shift select units works now
Smoother spell animations for large fights
Shortcut for Plane Shift worked without having the ability
A few typo and stat fixes

[Bison]

Illwinter is great at patching games.

Two alternative Dawns of a New Empire when the humans don't rule might now occur when you play in that era. Also a new ritual, new magic items and many tweaks and bug fixes.

2 new alternative Dawn of a New Empires
New ritual: Iron Grafted Golem
Magic items that boost spell range
Put space between immobile units to let other people through
Large units couldn't reach topmost square on a wall
Be less willing to open the gates
Warlock of Fire had too cheap fire rituals
Colossus don't start as follower
Call Legendary Beings could fail if Horned God was already summoned
Incorrect memorize warning for soothsayer
Could recruit Yetis in a few incorrect places
Berserking units become front rankers
Changed move behavior for flying units in battle
Learn proper start spells for bog witch
Spells and rituals sorted by level
Elemental resistances shown on items
Mass command got new look & sound
Recruitment of commanders could stop working
Increased max nbr of commanders 5000 -> 9990
Fixed some battle backgrounds
New hammerer description
--noglext (don't use opengl extensions)
Description fixes
Serpent Fiend had to long range on poison breath
War Dogs now front- units
Various stat fixes
Retry with windowed mode if fullscreen mode failed

[Nefaro]

Increased max nbr of commanders 5000 -> 9990

I wonder who reached that limit, and what their game looked like?  :o

[Bison]

Increased max nbr of commanders 5000 -> 9990

I wonder who reached that limit, and what their game looked like?  :o

I thought the same thing.  My theory is that on the largest map with max number of contenders; you could conceivably reach the limit if the max is in regard to a combination of all contender units.  I know that its very easy to play the Roman based faction and amass large numbers of leaders.  There are a good dozen+ different type of leader units that bring different abilities to the army composition.  For example my latest game in one of my roman army stacks, on a medium board with 5 other factions, I had around 10 different leader units and am planning to add many, many more because otherwise the legion style units cannot face some of the more magical based factions or large monster factions effectively.  You need the different mage and centurion types in order to compete and it's still very challenging to do so.  With all that being said I cannot imagine 9990, let alone 5000, different leaders units on the map at one time.  That's some serious power roaming the world.