Fallen Enchantress vs Warlock Master of the Arcane

from Elemental Forums

As a quick disclaimer, I've been a rather silent and infrequent Beta tester of Elemental and Fallen Enchantress, but a rabid fan of the Fall from Heaven mod for Civ IV.

Although I'm excited to see all of the changes that Fallen Enchantress has made since the first Beta, I wanted to point out some UI features that Warlock Master of the Arcane has implemented that simply make playing much more streamlined.

Warlock is a pretty good game which has been compared to a Fantasy game built around the Civ 5 engine (This is not the case, but I won't drag myself into that discussion).  The game isn't very deep (the AI and tech trees are less than spectacular) and lacks the potential of Fallen Enchantress, but it does have several advantages in terms of UI (even if it lacks simple things like lists of cities / units that would make it much better):

  1. Event queue that covers both Building Construction AND Idle Units.
    1. Although it's great to have a way to cycle through units, the units that just completed their actions are usually the ones that I want to move again.
  2. At a glance clear view on what a city is working on and when it will increase pop (pie chart with a semitransparent section of what the pop will be next turn) or when it will finish a unit.
  3. Quest tracking at the top (I know I usually only have a handful of active quests, but it's nice to review what they are and where the objectives are [show me on the map the target]) - may be in the beta already.
  4. Action Icons that are there, but not in the way
  5. Context sensitive mouse pointer (When I want to cast a spell icon changes to a wand.  Default pointer is normal looking [more of a vanilla Elemental thing because choosing between a weird default pointer vs context sensitive pointer was tough])

I have to admit that I'm not a UI guy, but I do know when a UI just *feels* right.  Hopefully others who have played Warlock can give some other helpful examples and Frogboy, Derek, and Heavenfall can check out Warlock to see what I mean.

10,454 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I do agree on most of your points, dunno about the quest tracking, what you mean (I left warlock after the 1st playthrough, at that point I was finished with the game and deinstalled it).

and nr 4? please explain to us idiots... (ok that would be me). what you mean :P

That said, the UI is probably the "last" thing to be worked on, since making a perfect interface for city options that will be discarded later on is a waste of time ;)
That last note is only a guess though.

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Kongdej, reply 1
That said, the UI is probably the "last" thing to be worked on, since making a perfect interface for city options that will be discarded later on is a waste of time

 

Yes, this.

Now if the UI were in this shape at release, I'd have some serious complaints. But as long as they keep tweaking the stuff as we go along that we know won't change, and fix it up completely prior to ship, I can live with it for now.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Do these games really compare? FE has an AI.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

They could swap an AI for a UI or something :)

 

Warlock is an AI from being a top game. FE will become a top class game eventually. 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I think they aim for very different feelings. When I play Warlock it's like I'm playing magic: the gathering on a chessboard. When I play FE, there's a sense of "realism" (within the fantasy lore) - the setting doesn't feel like it was built for a game but a story (this is a good thing).

The AI in warlock is a  joke, but I still enjoy it, and I think I even enjoy it more than FE beta 3. Shame they have nothing for us modders, or I'd go crazy.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting seanw3, reply 3
Do these games really compare? FE has an AI.

Yes they do compare, but personally I do not like the things Warlock did with cities, units and... magic (ok I am not a fan of how warlock translated a fantastic magical world into a tactical game, but that does not make it a bad game just because I dont like it).

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 6
When I play Warlock it's like I'm playing magic: the gathering on a chessboard.

? O_o. I ain't getting reminded of magic the gathering... :P. (I am a fan of magic tho :P)

On a last note, I will take a good look on the UI and provide feedback somewhere in beta 4, thats why I do like this post, because if nothing else, derek can put down the "good ideas" on a piece of paper and use it when he goes through the UI if it is still relevant.
So I will still thank you Judgex for posting this!

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Since FE is on a break, and Warlock is getting old fast (due to bad AI, the rest is pretty cool), are there any other alternatives? Any strategy games that has gone under the radar lately?