Vapourware Divinity: Fallen Heroes - canceled tactical spinoff from Expeditions series devs

[a Goat]

Take the parts of Dragon Commander that people liked and replace the RTS part that got boring after 5 minutes? Honestly doesn't sound half bad.

 

[Lacrymas]

It's D:OS2, but I think without the armor system. I suspect they'll also fix initiative. They just need to have good AI and encounter design. The random items might actually benefit this game because you'd switch up your heroes depending on what kind of items the mission gave you, adding to replayability and non-stale squad choices.

 

[Dodo1610]

I still have no idea why they are at PAX West but not at the Gamescom especially since everyone knows how much we Germans love strategy games and Cologne is about 3h driving away from Ghent.
Anyway, I like how the "DOS 2 is the best game evar" crowd ignores Fallen Heroes and seems to be more interested in Baldurs Gate 3.

 

[Infinitron]

imgur as blogging platform: https://imgur.com/gallery/TXxYJdc

Divinity: Fallen Heroes

Yet another game in the lovely Divinity series. This one seems to have a far more tactical design to it, deploying your squad (a mix of the available heroes and generic troops that fill various roles) into missions with set objectives rather than the more free-roaming experience of Divinity 2. Between the mission you can talk to your crew on board your ship to learn more about them and what's going on in the world, get their advice, and choose what missions to take. It's actually a bit reminiscent of BioWare games where you can grow closer to or apart from your crew through your interactions with them. You have to be careful as you actually *can* lose heroes if you piss 'em off enough. Another difference from the previous games is that, as far as I can tell, you don't actually take your own character into missions, instead acting as the captain and commander and only controlling your squad. I actually found the more focused experience far more enjoyable than its free-roaming predecessors.

If you're a fan of the series you'll be happy to see a bunch of the heroes from the earlier games making a return, many of them able to join your crew … though you seem limited on how many of them to deploy on the missions, most of your squad needing to consist of the generic troops.

Like the previous games this one allows multiplayer, though it's back down to only two-player at most … but given the tactical mission-based gameplay it's understandable. That said I get the feeling that this style of gameplay will be far more enjoyable single-player.

 

[fantadomat]

I still have no idea why they are at PAX West but not at the Gamescom especially since everyone knows how much we Germans love strategy games and Cologne is about 3h driving away from Ghent.
Anyway, I like how the "DOS 2 is the best game evar" crowd ignores Fallen Heroes and seems to be more interested in Baldurs Gate 3.

Poor marketing?

 

[Neerasrc]

People are playing demo. We still haven't seen an in-game video. I wonder what they're doing.

 

[Mazisky]

Larian: "PR is overrated!"

months after

People: "Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity Fallen Heroes vaporware?"

 

[Neerasrc]

Larian: "PR is overrated!"

months after

People: "Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity Fallen Heroes vaporware?"

they are provoking us.

 

[Bohr]

Whatever that is on the left is a dead ringer for the honk honk...

 

[Bohr]

It went well.

 

[Neerasrc]

We had so much fun. See you next year with the new demo.

 

[Infinitron]

Sneak peek:



(I suspect this is supposed to be under embargo until Larian publish their next newsletter)

 

[a Goat]

Armour is in, instead of initiative you now it's just enemy turn-enemy moves everything, your turn-you move everything kind of deal.

 

[Lacrymas]

How is armor still in? Are they literally imbeciles?

 

[a Goat]

You can see the bars on the video.

 

[Lacrymas]

I meant in the sense of "what were they thinking to have armor still in?!".

 

[a Goat]

I meant in the sense of "what were they thinking to have armor still in?!".

Let's be honest, armour just changes the order in which you use your skills. In DOS you dump CC then nuke, here you dump damage to pierce armour, then CC then nuke.

 

[Lacrymas]

Even Swen himself has said that armor was a very bad idea lol.

 

[Ismaul]

I meant in the sense of "what were they thinking to have armor still in?!".

Let's be honest, armour just changes the order in which you use your skills. In DOS you dump CC then nuke, here you dump damage to pierce armour, then CC then nuke.

It also changes another thing: the window in which enemies can actually do something before being CC'ed/dead.

 

[Lacrymas]

Yes, they can do damage. Like I've said countless times before, if you want to limit CC don't give it out like candy and give it a cast time. There can be other debuffs than CC.

 

[thesheeep]

I meant in the sense of "what were they thinking to have armor still in?!".

Let's be honest, armour just changes the order in which you use your skills. In DOS you dump CC then nuke, here you dump damage to pierce armour, then CC then nuke.

The problem is that by the time you actually get some armor down to be able to use any CC, the fight is basically over. Mostly thanks to the crazy amount of armor enemies have, especially on the harder difficulties. While you barely have any armor at all yourself if you didn't fully spec for tank (and even then, it's no comparison). So while you get CC'd all the time and need to have specific heals for CC effects, your enemies are perfectly safe for most of the time.
The entire system also makes that one talent that lets some effects work through armor an absolute must-have.

DOS1 wasn't nearly broken enough for this attempt at a fix that just made things worse.

About the initiative:
That was by far the worst thing about Expeditions: Viking. Whoever started first had such an incredible advantage that this alone was what made almost every encounter either a breeze or super hard.
I really, really hope that battles start factions further apart for this to have less of an impact. Or they simply let the player always start first and balance encounters around that.

 

[Neerasrc]

This game is crafted for mobile phones. The design says it was made for the touch screen. Simple arena mode and dragon commander presentation. I guess walking will not happen. Let's see what happens when the game becomes final version. I think we'll buy it and finish the game and forget it. I felt a little like that.

 

[insukk]

It is dead, Jim: http://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=656219&#Post656219

 

[Infinitron]

It is with a profound sense of regret that today we announce Divinity: Fallen Heroes has been put on hold, as we fondly celebrate the work done so far. We’ve been working with Logic Artists for over a year since before the announcement on March 27, 2019. Though enthused by the reception of the announcement and the energy of our fans, we have taken many things into consideration over the course of the last few months, and today we’re ready to talk about its future.

Originally scheduled for a November 2019 release, it has become clear to everyone involved that the game will need far greater development time and resources than are available now to bring it to fruition, in a fun and sustainable way.

Going forward, we at Larian will continue to work on Baldur’s Gate 3 with news coming soon, and Logic Artists will be focusing on their own Expeditions games. As an independent developer ourselves, we understand and value the importance of a developer investing into their own IPs, and their own future.

We’re sorry for the players excited for Fallen Heroes, who will have to wait an unspecified period of time, but we strongly believe that bringing Fallen Heroes to fans should be done in a timeline that allows it to be developed soundly.

We value the work that everyone has put in to Fallen Heroes, and though we lament its status as of now, we all agree that there’s a great game in there that will sometime reach the players who await it.

Logic Artists shared the following statement: “It's always sad to put an exciting project on hold, but sometimes the realities of development and release schedules simply assert themselves in ways that are outside anyone's control. It's been an incredible honour to work with Larian on their Divinity IP, and everyone at Logic Artists has been blown away by how helpful and welcoming Larian has been throughout the project.

There's no doubt we've learned much that will benefit our own projects in the future, and we'll always be grateful for that experience. As our own team pivots to focus fully on the third installment of the Expeditions series and a new IP of our very own, we wish Larian the best of luck with Baldur's Gate 3. We can't wait to play it!”

WTF Avonaeon

 

[Dodo1610]