Game Concepts
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General
Empire Tree
The Empire Tree on the left side of the Main UI is a powerful tool for managing the nation. It’s broken down into three collapsible sections: Units, Cities and Quests.
The Units section shows all of the units that the player currently controls in the world that are not stationed in a city. A unit’s stats can be seen by hovering the mouse pointer over its entry, while left-click can be used to select it. Armies of units are marked with dots to the right of the leader’s portrait to indicate how many units are in that group. To get more information on a specific unit in a group the army entry can be expanded by clicking the + symbol and selecting any of its individual units.
The Cities section shows all the cities the players owns in the world. It functions similarly to the Unit section, showing units that are stationed in a city with the same dots to the right of the city icon. Cities can also be expanded, like armies, to see the individual units in the city. In addition, the bar underneath a city’s icon will tell its progress towards the item in its construction queue. When a city is not constructing or training anything it will show a “Zzz” icon next to it in the list to bring it to the player's attention.
The Quest section of the Empire Tree is the simplest part of the tree, but possibly the most useful. During a playthrough of the game the player will come across quests in the wild that require to do all sorts of things to complete them. When this is done, each new quest will get an entry in the Empire Tree that can be clicked on to remind the player where they need to go for the next step. This can be an invaluable tool, especially when coming across a quest that will require to strengthen their forces in order to conquer.
Current Year
Every game of Fallen Enchantress starts in the Spring of the year 159 - After Cataclysm. Each turn equates to a Season in the world and it can checked how many seasons have passed by hovering over the current date. Every game of Fallen Enchantress has a limit to the number of Seasons before it ends. The progress towards the time limit can be checked on the Kingdom Report in the Govern screen.
Hiergamenon
The Hiergamenon is the ultimate resource for discovering the world of Elemental. It contains information about all elements of the game broken down into categories, and can be accessed by clicking the ? icon in the top right of the screen.
- Factions - The Faction section will display all of the factions in the world of Elemental. If looking for more backstory on a particular faction, or just to compare their abilities, this is the place to look.
- Sovereigns - The Sovereign section contains detailed information on all of Elemental’s Sovereigns.
- Technologies - The Technologies section has a detailed breakdown of every technology available to the current faction. It’s a great resource for examining the links between technologies, as well as more detailed information on unlocks. It should be kept in mind that pre-requisite technologies and unlocked items can be clicked to jump to their Hiergamenon entries.
- Spells - The Spell list is a comprehensive list of all the spells available to the player's faction, no matter how they are unlocked.
- Improvements - The Improvement section is a complete list of all improvements available to the player's faction, along with their required technologies when applicable. It can be a great resource for finding out how to unlock specific improvements by tracing them back to the technologies they require.
- Equipment - A comprehensive list of all equipment in the game. The Equipment list is extremely useful for getting the details on items that can be found or created. In the case of equipment for trained units, it can also be looked up how much they will cost for troops along with what techs unlock them.
- Resources - The Resources section features a complete list of all resource nodes found around the world.
- Monsters - The Monster category contains all of the monsters that could be found in the world. It’s a great place to check into the strengths and weaknesses of the creatures the player will be doing battle with.
- Game Concepts - The Game Concepts section is full of tips and tutorial information related to gameplay and the world. It can also be used to watch any of the videos from the tutorial map as well read up on advanced game information and systems.
Places of Interest
There are many different places of interests scattered around the world of Elemental. They can be identified by their unique tile designs as well as the icons floating above them in the UI.
Notable Locations
Notable Locations are places that contain treasures from ages past, sometimes including equipment, items and resources. They can be identified by the green treasure chest icon that hangs above them and can be claimed by moving a Champion or Sovereign onto them.
Quest Locations
Quest locations are tiles that start, or continue, quests for Champions. They can be identified by the quest scroll icon hanging over them. Golden quest scrolls indicate a quest location with an available quest, or once on a quest they show the next objective needed to complete it. When a quest location has been activated but the quest is still in progress the icon will change to a silver quest scroll. In order to undertake a quest, a Champion or the Sovereign need to be moved onto a golden quest location.
Monster Lairs
Monster lairs are home to many of the nasty creatures of Elemental. Lairs are defended by the creatures that call them home and contain treasures for those that manage to destroy them. While the defenders of a lair will not generally wander far from them, they will spawn smaller creatures from time to time that will wander the land doing as they please. If one is having trouble identifying monster lairs on the map, they can turn on their UI icons in the Options menu; they are identified by a purple dragon icon. It’s important to note that if the borders of a player's cities or outposts overtakes a monster lair, it will be destroyed, unleashing the lair defenders to roam the countryside.
Champion Camps
Champion camps are locations that house recruitable, faction specific units known as Champions. Camps that have Champions that can be recruited are marked with a blue knight icon, while those that are of an opposing faction are marked in the same fashion as monster lairs. In order to recruit a champion a unit needs to be moved next to their camp, selected and then clicked Recruit. Once their requested fee is payed they will join the player's cause. In order to recruit higher level Champions the player needs to research technologies in the Magic tech tree.
Resources
There are many different resources in the world of Elemental, with the most important distinction being between Player Resources, City Resources and Resource Nodes.
Player Resources
Player Resources are the backbone of a nation. They are the resources a faction will stockpile and use to fuel the majority of its needs. While they may be produced on a city level, they are considered player resources because their stockpile exists for the entire nation to share.
Gildar
Gildar is the primary currency of Elemental. It is primarily gained via tax income in cities and is vital to the strength of an army, as well as all of units which require wages. Beyond wages there are a number of uses for Gildar, from recruiting Champions to buying new equipment.
Faction Prestige
Faction Prestige is a measure of the pull a nation has towards drawing in new citizens. The more prestige one has, the more population it will get each turn in its cities. It should be kept in mind that gains from Faction Prestige are split evenly amongst all cities, so the more cities the less of an increase one will see in each of them per turn.
Research
Research is the resource used to learn new technologies and advance a nation through the tech tree. Unlike other resources, it does not pile up over time. All the Research produced in cities each turn is applied directly towards the technology which is currently being researched.
Mana
Mana is the resource used by Champions and Sovereigns to cast spells. It can be gained from a variety of means, but the primary source is controlling the magical shards of the world. By building shrines on shards inside a nation's borders their power can be channeled through cities and into the nation’s Mana pool.
Crystal
Crystal is the resource of magical forging and equipment fabrication. It is primarily refined through Crystal resource nodes found in the wild and is used to craft magic equipment for troops.
Metal
Metal is the resource of war and production. It is required to craft armies clad in heavy armor with the finest of weapons. Iron nodes must be secured within a nation's borders to acquire a supply for troops.
Horses
A stockpile of Horses can be a great asset for a nation's military, allowing one to field troops mounted on horseback to the front lines. In order to secure a supply of horses one will need to construct improvements on Wild Horse resource nodes found within its borders.
Wargs
Wargs are an alternative to horses that can be used to train mounted units. Much like Horses, one will need to build on Wild Warg improvements in order to acquire Wargs for their armies.
Influence
Influence is a crucial resource for dealing with other nations and creatures of the world. It can be used directly as a currency when trading with other nations, as well as altering the value of goods used in trades with others. In addition, when building camps to recruit wild creatures, such a dragons and ogres, influence will bed needed to get construction underway. Influence can be gained through city improvements and resource nodes in the world.
City Resources
City resources are the resources that are specific to individual cities. While they may not impact a nation directly, it should be kept in mind that cities are the core of an economy. In many regards, city resources are the fuel that provide the player resources needed to keep a nation afloat.
Food
Food is required in order to grow the populace of a city. For every unit of Food in a city it can support one additional citizen.
Grain
Grain is the primary source of Food for a city's people. While every city starts with Grain equal to the Grain yield of the tile it’s settled on, there are also improvements and resource nodes that can increase it beyond this starting value. Generally if one is looking to increase their Food, however, they will instead be building improvements that increase the amount of food that yield grain in a city.
Production
Production is the measure of how quickly a city can build improvements and train units. Much like research, Production does not pool in a city and instead is directly applied to whatever it is building or training each turn.
Materials
Materials are the source of the Production for cities. Much like Grain, Materials are initially derived from the yields of the starting tile and can be increased later on. In order to increase Production, one will usually want to increase the amount of production each material in a city gives.
Essence
Essence is a measure of the magical potential of a city. It is the third of the core tile yield resources along with Grain and Materials. The amount of Essence a city has dictates how many magical enchantments can be cast on that city, one for each Essence. There are a number of magical improvements that are more powerful in cities with higher Essence values.
Population
Population is the measure of how many citizens are in a city. It is crucial to progressing a city; as certain population marks are hit a city will level up, increasing a number of other resources and unlocking special bonuses.
Growth
Growth is a measure of how many citizens will flock to a particular city each turn. As a city gains levels, its growth will increase and the population will increase faster and faster. If one feels the need to grow even faster there are a variety of improvements that can be built to increase city growth.
Resource Nodes
Resource nodes are tiles found around the world that can provide a nation with any number of bonuses. They can provide player resources for the nation or city resource boosts to an attached city or even a flow of free units. In order to reap their benefits one will have to secure them within their borders and build a special improvement on them. For a complete list of all resource nodes in the game consult the Hiergamenon section on resources.
Wildlands
Wildlands are special areas where the creatures of the world have taken control. They are home to the most powerful creatures of Elemental, and its greatest treasures. Each Wildland is marked by a dark green border around it that, upon entering, will introduce the player to the history of that area. Great treasures await any player able to conquer a Wildland as, once revitalized, they contain some of the most powerful resources and areas to found cities in the world. For every Wildland there is a different method that must be used to conquer and ultimately restore them. Once a player has visited a Wildland the method required to tame it will show up in the Empire Tree on the left side of the screen under ‘Quests’.
Research
Research is one of the primary ways of advancing a nation. As new technologies are learned this will unlock numerous different bonuses, units, equipment, improvements, spells, and much more. The higher the research income from cities is the quicker new techs will be learned.
Tech Trees
The technologies that can be learned are broken into three different tech trees, each with their own focus and prerequisites. Only one technology can be researched at a time.
- Civilization Tree - The Civilization tree is focused on improving a nation’s economy and infrastructure. Here one will find dozens of improvements that increase city Production, food supplies, Research and Gildar income. In addition, Civilization is the tree of diplomacy, improving the options when dealing with other nations and helping to recruit units from the wild.
- Warfare Tree - The Warfare tree is designed to help the efforts with trained units and Champions. It unlocks new training techniques and improvements that boost trained units. All of the non-magical equipment is unlocked from Warfare including multiple varieties of armor, weapons, mounts, and more. While magical equipment may be stronger in many cases, equipment unlocked in the Warfare tree has the advantage of only requiring metal and being easier to produce en masse.
- Magic Tree - The Magic tree is built on the unlocking of magical spells, equipment, and improvements. It will allow the player to build and purchase the most powerful weapons, armor, and accessories for their units with the enough Crystal and Gildar. Along with magical equipment, the Magic tree is the ultimate tree for Champions. Through it one can recruit higher level Champions in the world as well as provide them with new spells.
Taxation and Income
Taxation is your primary source of Gildar income for a nation. Cities provide income that increases based on the city’s level and the improvements it contains. While the base income rate is determined by these factors, the tax rate applied to income will decide how much money is being earned each turn.
Tax Rate
The tax rate is controlled by the player at a global level and is the ultimate control over how much money they will make every turn. The higher the tax rate, the more Gildar each turn. However, as taxes go up, so will Unrest in all the cities. The exact breakdown of the current tax rate, along with what will happen if it is changed, can be seen from the tax rate section of the main UI screen.
Unrest Penalty
There is a delicate balance that must be maintained between taxes and unrest. Unrest is a penalty applied to each of the cities based on the tax rate that reduces their research and production. While lowering taxes is the easiest way to reduce unrest levels in a city, individual cities can also lower their unrest through a variety of improvements and unit bonuses. By carefully managing unrest levels in cities one can maximize Gildar income without taking too much of a penalty to production and research.
Faction Power
The faction power window can show the player the current military standing as compared to the other nations of the world. It is important to consider when dealing with any other faction as it will influence how they treat the player's faction and what can be asked of them.