Illwinter's next project
 

I have now put together a web page with a little information on our next game. It can be found on the Illwinter page here:
http://www.illwinter.com

The game is Conquest of Elysium 3. For those that haven't tried it, it's another fantasy strategy game, but simpler and much quicker than Dominions.

So that's what we are working on now!

Cheers,
Johan K
(Developer, Illwinter Game Design)

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

THANK YOU for posting this!

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

I'm very excited, both to hear that Illwinter is working on a new title, AND that it's CoE3!

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

One word: Woohoo!

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

The production page should mention also that Conquest of Elysium 2 is a free download from Shrapnel in case someone wants to try it out

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Well, I don't want to scare anyone away from CoE3. We are way better at making games now than we were when CoE2 was made and I believe CoE3 already is much better than its predecessor.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Thanks for the update! After all this time I still enjoy Dominions but having a faster playing game sounds like a fun complement (the only thing I don't like about Dominions is the number of units you have to manage in the late game). And I'm very happy that it supports MP as Dominions has gotten me hooked on that.

Do you plan on having a similar level of modding support as for D3 (perhaps not initially but down the line)?

And, now that it's been announced, does that mean a tentative 2012 launch date? :)

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

As someone who considers CoE an excellent game (and actually better than Dominions for single player) I can only say: I can't wait.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

The headline says, somewhat confusingly
"Conquest of Elysium 3 is in development right now (2012-08-09)."

I take it that's supposed to be 2011, not a hint at a release date or something.


I assume that you're still developing on Linux and CoE3 will be released for it?


Very interesting news. I played around with CoE2 a couple years ago and wasn't all that impressed. That said, I have faith. When can we pre-order?

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Correct, that's a typo. I sure hope it will be finished much sooner than that date.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Thank you JK for posting this. I greatly enjoyed CoE2 so I'm really looking forward to CoE3.

I assume it would be published by Shrapnel right?
Oh and a pre-order discount would be nice ;)

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

I don t know at all this COE, but i ll give it a try :)
Thx for the info.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Yeah. I looooooooove D3 but when playing CoE2 I couldn't see a thing. I'm very excited to hear of this, and look forward to CoE3. Maybe I'm just biased because Dominions is so great, but the CoE3 info from the page looks very promising.
Thank you for making excellent games.

Also, will the cosmology be the same as with Dominions (I.E. celestial spheres, the Void, the various Hells- and perhaps the nations themselves)?

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

YAY! Will it support modding? :)

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Great news! I can't wait to see it.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Awesome....can't wait. Thanks!

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Woohoo!

Great news! I love CoE2, but despite its brilliance, it's a little too dated to be taken in anything but small doses. A new version will be most welcome!

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

There is no modding support in CoE3 right now. It will probably be added, but maybe not until after it has been released.

The cosmology will be similar to Dominions, at least the void and horrors will make it into CoE3. Nations are not the same though. CoE is more about a powerful character like the necromancer, he does not rule a large nation like the pretender gods in Dominions.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

SP only, right?

Do you have a dev log, like for Dominions?

Edit: will you release a demo?

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

While CoE2 was rather confusing with the interface at times, this seems very interesting. Looking forward to it :)

* Hotseat and network support for multiplayer games.
Straight from the features.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Silly me, I somehow missed that.

That's just awesome!!!

I wonder if it would have PBEM as well, as in allow one to play at his leisure rather than engage in long blitzes (what would be impossible for a proud father of two :) )

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Hmm, I presume the turn structure would follow the CoE format rather than the Dominions one?

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Awesome!

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

I'm a bit dissapointed :(

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Knowing Dominions_4 was not arriving this is the next best thing. All the features look great!
Here are some ideas, take any you wish:

The two games below are stable, successful and fun
fantasy TBS games with great strategy plus active
forum communities. Also their editors are powerful and easy to use.
A) Heroes_3 Complete
B) Age_of_Wonders_ShadowMagic

Second here are some gaming features which will
increase the success and interest of your future game:
1} Random Game Generator = Already exists!! Hooray!
2} Multiplayer option = Already exists!! Hooray!
3} Map Editor = Allowing editing of monsters, items,
terrain, and custom timed events. The best TBS map editors I have found
are from the two games above... perhaps they can provide ideas.
4} Variation for Size of Maps = Huge maps available as an option
for stronger systems. Could you make use of the memory usage
available from the 64-Bit Operating Systems??
5} Multiple Map Levels = Allows dungeon type maps OR
multiple worlds type maps
(Cavern realm, Shadow Realm, Myrror Realm, Underwater realm)
6} Custom AI Scripting Option = Allows the community
to create unique AI personalities thus anytime someone
new to the community complains about the AI everyone
can respond with "Create some scripts to generate new
and different AI behaviors."
7} Multiple Random AI Personalities = Prevents the
human player from being able to predict what the AI
will be doing during a game. The custom AI scripts
created can be included when the game is randomly
selecting an AI script. Any AI personality script
should have the option of being disabled in case it's
bugged.
8} Random Item Formula = Allows items within the game
to be more unique and thus increases replay value.
Examples = Variables A, B and C are randomly selected
from separate lists.
Kings(A) Poisonous(B) Axe(item) of Death(C)
Ice(B) Knife(item)
Dukes(A) Helm(item) of Minds(C)
Fire(B) Boots(item) of Speed(C)

Using a random item formula means each new game will have new unique items!
Adding one new variable greatly increases the number of possible items.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Wanna share why?

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Ohhhhhh !

Is that a spellbook I see with the witch ?

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Probably because it is not Dominions 4 ;).

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Will it have a soundtrack?- Dråm maybe?

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

When don't have a public dev log yet, but I might make something like that available. Maybe just a change log from git (the revision control system we use).

Demo, I don't know. If we have time to make one, might happen after release, we'll see.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

We haven't asked them yet. But if they are willing and Illwinter has the money required, then we might get some music from Dråm or Falsobordone. I hope we get some music :smirk:

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Excellent :up:
I love their music and hope either one will make it to the game.

That medieval music has real charm and both are great performers.
I recall Dom-III sound track made a great impression on me. At one point I even made a piano arrangement to one of the tracks (the como poden one IIRC) :)

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

I hope that it will be more than "Dominions light" or "Heroes of M&M 3 10 years later"

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

I don't particularly care about the music, but I'm confidant many of us would be eager and willing to send donations your way.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Brilliant!

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=45926

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

I have to curb my enthusiasm until seen modding possibilities. Modding is something I need on every game. Heavy modding.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Or maybe just take pre-orders. I know Im in for at least one copy.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

I'm in as well. I would love to be able to add new classes etc, but I will buy the game either way.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Can't wait to buy it. But wait... will there be any chance since I am now living in China?

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

I will definitely pre-order. I trust IWs good taste, creativity and long term support for their games. I wish there were more game devs that care so much about content rather than quick sell with awesome GFX and broken games (Elemental - I'm looking at you!).

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Will preorder too, if possible.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Oh me too for sure, even though I'll never have time to play it. "Just shut up and take my money" - as the saying goes :)

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

I finally tried CoE2. It's a neat game, but I hope the 3 will have a much better interface. Stuff like seeing that your commander is insane on the map, a better battle display (at least see how many hit points a unit has, like in dom if you click on the unit to inspect it during the battle), explanations of the icons (again, dom does that when displaying units).
And most importantly a minimap or map zooming. It's a real pain to know where you are in CoE2, and big maps are definitely out of the question without a map navigation tool.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

CoE could really benefit from a proper tactical combat MoM-style. With its small, dozen-units-per-army scale it's, like, mandatory. And then it would succeed where Elemental failed.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

I could place a chimp in front of a typewriter and the end result would be a better computer game than Elemental.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Great news JK! Looking forward to it. :)

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

nevermind

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Man, this must be the worst botch since MOO3. Bad gameplay and worst bugs.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Aside from the minimap, all of that is currently there already.

Re: Illwinter's next project
 

Questions about the new project will work much better if they are comparisons to CoE2 than comparisons with Dom3. The only Dom3isms I see so far in CoE3 are some imports of graphics.