Etherlords II Wrap Report

Development Timeline Work started in 2001, and was aimed to finish in Q3 2003, but the target date was shifted to about a month and a half later. The main reason was the transition from mainly strategy to including a strong role-playing aspect, which required new textures, better models, special effects and improvement to the adventure maps. Actually, Etherlords II started as an add-on, but the amount of changes and new ideas within the team during early development made us revise the concept to a full sequel.

Changes and Enhancements One of the major changes during development occurred right after the introduction of pale creatures and spells. They ruined the balance and tended to overwhelm the original color decks. It made us do a lot of testing and change the cards' abilities several times before we achieved the necessary results and took out some really nasty tactics. These changes diversified the gameplay to include an almost infinite number of winning decks and appropriate counter-measures.

The multiplayer component also underwent some serious alterations. We introduced new game modes, such as Sealed - a type of duel where each player picks cards from a randomized set, and Draft, supporting up to eight players in Olympic-style elimination rounds. Apart from that, we decided to replace GameSpy with our own standalone master server.

Major Challenges Easily the biggest challenge was to preserve the atmosphere of the first game while adding more depth and detail. Dust storms, volcanic eruptions, various weather effects, shrines, shipyards, ghostly bridges, new combat arenas and various map objects were all parts of this endeavour. We also had to abandon things like global spells and a rune system, replacing them with shrines and spell charges depending on your level and specialization. The artifact constructor and the new spells presented additional challenges of course. Nevertheless, our efforts proved worthy after all and we made it. :)

Best Decisions Sounds like my favourite wishes. :) Well, I guess the best decision was the introduction of the pale aspect. Initially, the team set out to provide more color spells, but after a while, we decided a new sub-race available to all spellcasters would be much better in terms of gameplay.

Another is that we enhanced the tactical aspect - added new spells, new balance and the master server.

We also completely revised the adventure mode and interface; we streamlined and simplified the controls, and introduced an inventory. Characters now can change their decks before each combat, and carry as many additional cards as you please.

Key Strengths In overview, the team did a top-notch job, but to be more specific, we did much to improve the general look, even though we used the same base engine. The models have many more polygons, and the spellcasting effects became really fascinating. Apart from that, we strove to make a clear, understandable tutorial for casual gamers who are most probably not familiar with this kind of game. Despite the seeming simplicity, the task was somewhat laborious, and thankfully, our efforts didn't go in vain. It came very handy to inexperienced players.

Besides those areas, another good job was done making the overall game controls and interface simpler. Most functions were transferred from the interface directly to the adventure map. Thus, the End of Turn button and path plotting were abolished. Now, the day counter works automatically as you proceed, making the adventure mode feel like real-time.

Areas for Improvement Honestly, we had many fine ideas when we started development - to add more RPG elements to the game, such as strength, agility, charisma and so on. We also wanted to include more items, artifacts, armors and bonus weapons, but unfortunately, we had to discard these ideas; they would have bounced us too far off schedule and made the gameplay too complicated. It would take us years just to trim the edges then.

A second thing that didn't work out quite the way we would have liked was our intention to make more new cards and even an independent race. This work turned out to be very time-consuming and demanded loads of testing and balancing than we had expected.

Lessons Learned It's not as easy as some may think to make a sequel that builds upon the advantages of its predecessor. :) Despite the common notion that the sequel is a freebie, it may require much greater attention to detail and new features than a new game. Your gamers get used to original gameplay, and that means you have no choice but to go forward.

Feedback makes a game much better. It's the same as distributed computing - many minds and opinions give birth to ingenious ideas. Etherlords II is a grandchild of Mr.Feedback. Most of its features (RPG setting, artifact constructor, means of transport, shrines, multiplayer mode, etc.) and patterns were inspired by our players.

Team spirit and dedication do wonders. The core members of the Etherlords II team are very experienced MTG and AD&D players who enjoy these games during their free time. That helps them stay up to date with every new twitch in the genre.

Personal Thoughts This is virtually the only game fusing adventure and RPG with trading card combat - except for the recent release of MTG: Battlegrounds, of course. On its own side, Etherlords II offers a well thought-out and proven concept, vivid graphics and an impressive range of spells and creatures to choose from. The game's mechanics appeal to core as well as casual gamers; they have both the fun of a role-playing adventure and the depth of board games, a mix that I can say is rare nowadays.

My favourite creature in Etherlords II is the Pale Knight. It looks cool and dangerous with those flashing eyes, and its grayish armor with golden inlay. Furthermore, it has nice stats - 8/8 for the price of five ether! They say knowledge is power. Well, games carry power then. :)

Dmitry Kolpakov, PR Manager Nival Interactive

Previous Wrap Reports The Temple of Elemental Evil - November 25, 2003 Producer Tom Decker's post-release reflections on Troika Games' version of a classic D&D pencil and paper module

Action Vault: Chrome - November 14, 2003 Techland Level Designer Kacper Michalski offers a thoughtful analysis of his team's recently released action title.

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