Game News Empire of Ember blazes into Early Access

[Darth Roxor]

Tags: Empire of Ember; Poleaxe Games

The Action RPG/city builder/city demolisher/dungeon crawler/RTS Empire of Ember has just been released on Early Access. If you are as confused as I am by the above short description, you can read the following info and watch a trailer of the game, and maybe you'll get a clearer picture:

Empire of Ember is a first-person action-RPG featuring player-created cities, destructible environments, and procedurally-generated dungeons. From today RPG players and fans can experience first-person ranged, melee, and magical combat during its pre-launch phase, and help provide developer Poleaxe Games with constructive feedback in time for the games expected launch late summer.

Players will have the opportunity to loot dungeons, lead armies in overland combat, command the defense in siege combat, and quest through pre-designed levels. Poleaxe Games will be providing regular updates to keep players in the know on all aspects of the games development, including all ongoing improvements made through player feedback across its Steam and Discord community channels.

Empire of Ember includes a light RTS strategic element where players can unleash the might of an army of NPCs to fight alongside in hundred-unit battles, all of which is tied into the game's persistent world with a script by former Telltale Games lead writer Patrick Kevin Day.

Add to that an ambitious city builder feature where players can design and create their own city from an asset pool of over 2500 cosmetic and functional structures including wizard towers, libraries, blacksmiths, stables, taverns and houses in order to put their own creative mark on their game. More importantly, these player-created cities can be shared in an asynchronous multiplayer mode, in which players can download another player’s city, defeat the defenders, and sack it.

Empire of Ember will be launching on Steam late Summer 2021 and welcomes player feedback throughout its early access phase. An early access launch discount is available for launch week for any RPG fans looking for their next adventure.​

It costs about 25 bucks (I can never say for sure with the potato prices that Steam keeps subjecting me to), though there's a 20% discount for the coming week. As the press release claims, the full release will be in "late summer", though you know how it is with early access.

 

[Kalin]

Looks like Oblivion.

 

[Galdred]

There is a codex thread here. FWIW, I had good fun with the alpha build. It is inspired by Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and Mount and Blade (for the "warband" commands), with more direct building placement in the settlement.

 

[Thac0]

Empire of Ember has just been released on Early Access.

I am a massive addict for everything that can scratch the stronghold itch, and a game that lets me man the walls i built myself and fire some arrows at the approaching hordes is a childhood dream for me.
I will absolutely buy this, the only question is if I wait until Early Access ends for a better experience or buy now to increase development funds.

There is a codex thread here. FWIW, I had good fun with the alpha build. It is inspired by Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and Mount and Blade (for the "warband" commands), with more direct building placement in the settlement.

Does the dungeon crawling add anything to the mix? Looks kind of randomly thrown in there.

 

[Tacgnol]

Makes me a little anxious when I see so many genres on a single game. Very few devs can pull that off.

 

[Galdred]

There is a codex thread here. FWIW, I had good fun with the alpha build. It is inspired by Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and Mount and Blade (for the "warband" commands), with more direct building placement in the settlement.

Does the dungeon crawling add anything to the mix? Looks kind of randomly thrown in there.

Dungeon crawling is pretty close to regular battles, except that you have no troops.
There are very few traps(I saw some spikes, but I don't know whether they triggered, or were just there, and I didn't try stepping on them), but more "usable" (in that you can use telekinesis to kill people with them) environment than in your regular battles.
You can summon skeletons out of dead opponents for these dungeons, which makes them closer to the regular battles.

It is a bit like the old Storymod for Mount and Blade if you tried it (it also had dungeons where you could only bring your own character).

Makes me a little anxious when I see so many genres on a single game. Very few devs can pull that off.

Hybrids are hard to pull off indeed, but on the other hand. I would say this one could become one of the better ones, even though it will never beat the "pure" games of the genres it bridges.
Edit: Look at Birthright: All 3 parts were weak, but their sum was still great.

The management is minimal actually. It is more Mount and Blade than Kenshi/Rimworld. You loot stuff in dungeons and camps to improve your wizard tower (and its surroundings), but the structures are mostly there to let you recruit better troops. They pay themselves in an awfully long time, so from an economic point of view, you'd better just invest the gold into better gear to be able to handle harder dungeons.

The other function of your city is to make sure your wizard tower does not fall. So defenses are more important than economic building (the market takes 100 days to pay for itself... Given that the game lasts 300 days max, and you fight roughly once every few days, that's not a super great RoI).

 

[Alpan]

There should be a subgenre for x-jank games that lag/stutter in their trailers.

 

[Mortmal]

That looks .. good. Really odd in this era of shovelwares. Now that's a news worth of posting , instead of another disco advertisement.

 

[Mortmal]

Darth Roxor just checked , its 16.79 euros on steam . Theres a 20% discount today.

 

[luj1]

First-person/action RPG/city builder/city demolisher/dungeon crawler/RTS

 

[luj1]

Makes me a little anxious when I see so many genres on a single game.

Very few devs can pull that off.

In other words, no one today.

 

[Galdred]

First-person/action RPG/city builder/city demolisher/dungeon crawler/RTS

"RTS" is basically commanding troops like in Mount and Blade, while you also kill opponents with your own character. As I said City-builder is mostly spending hard earned dungeon money to construct building that will produce better cannon fodder, and merchants that will have better items.
The troops you can bring with you make a huge difference, so it is still an important part, but it has been quite simplified compared to any regular city builder.
I think simplifying the secondary aspects was the right call, but I am a sucker for RPG with a stronghold that serves some purpose, and there are very few of these.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

There should be a subgenre for x-jank games that lag/stutter in their trailers.

Makes me a little anxious when I see so many genres on a single game.

Very few devs can pull that off.

In other words, no one today.

 

[MicoSelva]

Looks... Ambitious.
When I saw the title I hoped for a moment it would be a sequel to Ember.

https://af.gog.com/game/ember?as=1649904300

 

[Nazrim Eldrak]

I hope there is a good story in the final game or at least good quest descriptions / encounter dialogues like in Sorcerer King.
(The better game is called Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes)

 

[ERYFKRAD]

better game is called Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes)

A bold claim.

 

[Rarre]

Is it good?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I never played fortenite but a few segments of that vid made me think of BTIV (the barrel throwing and manipulation). I also started to wonder if there was going to be a VR version. Eh...


yeah, some nifty ideas here. I hope to see more updates on this one. Bit of building, dungeon blobbing, troop management, hex fog of war, and more. Lordy, that load time and stuttering animation here & there.

Yeah, I'd give it a go.

 

[Nazrim Eldrak]

A bold claim.

And here I thought you lost your brofist ability. I wonder what you did to DU to get it back.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

A bold claim.

And here I thought you lost your brofist ability. I wonder what you did to DU to get it back.

Not a damned thing on either occasion.

 

[Galdred]

After some more playtime, it is true that the feel of combat could be improved(it feels a bit floaty) but I really like the uncompromising difficulty:
No Save in dungeons, no healing except for very scarce resting spots in the larger dungeons, or "fountains" that replenish life and Mana. It really makes the dungeons feel dangerous, combined with the ridiculously low hp pool.

 

[Whisper]

After some more playtime, it is true that the feel of combat could be improved(it feels a bit floaty) but I really like the uncompromising difficulty:
No Save in dungeons, no healing except for very scarce resting spots in the larger dungeons, or "fountains" that replenish life and Mana. It really makes the dungeons feel dangerous, combined with the ridiculously low hp pool.

They are increasing hp pool of starting characters.

 

[Galdred]

After some more playtime, it is true that the feel of combat could be improved(it feels a bit floaty) but I really like the uncompromising difficulty:
No Save in dungeons, no healing except for very scarce resting spots in the larger dungeons, or "fountains" that replenish life and Mana. It really makes the dungeons feel dangerous, combined with the ridiculously low hp pool.

They are increasing hp pool of starting characters.

I discussed it with the dev, and he told me that Easy dungeons should indeed not be harder than very difficult "army encounters", and he has a good point.
I can only tackle easy and very easy dungeons indeed (and normal when I am super lucky). Note that the labelling is relative to your level. The difficulty of the dungeon itself is fixed.
My issue was that there was no good way to reach level 5 early on (as all dungeons were too hard), so the change makes sense, as long as the difficult ones stay that way.
Also, there are already reviews recommending against the game because it is too hard, which is a shame...


The starting HP pool was a bit low for a mage character, but I suppose it was very frustrating for a melee build :D
As long as the dev keeps the usual healing options out, I think the game should remain challenging enough.

He is implementing suggestions really fast, which is great.

Patch notes 2 are there:

Community feedback patch 4/2/2021
Crash fixes, improve the radial command menu, improve necromancy, and others

1. Improved materials of walls, wizard tower, library
   
2. Fix townspersons you need to rescue from dungeons being partially under the ground
   
3. Fix knocking down opponents by using a power attack against shields.
   
4. Reduce units standing around during village combat. This was because destroyed objects still blocked the navmesh.
   
5. Fixed level 2 markets selling amulets for free
   
6. Don't prompt to bring units with you on linear missions if you don't actually have anyone in your army
   
7. Increase rarity of high-end loot. Each higher-level item is 4X less likely to show up than the prior level item. For example, rare gems are 4X less common than uncommon gems, which are 4X less common than common gems
   
8. Fix crash caused by exiting to the main menu in the middle of a dialogue, then starting or loading another game
   
9. Crash reporting, Reduce number of reported crashes with AICharacter setup, IsGrounded2 checks
   
10. Properly fix mouse and gamepad look up down inverse. Removed look up/down option from General preferences. Instead, in control options click the circular icon next to the control.
    
11. Allies will now follow the player into boss rooms
    
12. Make telekinesis look better close to the player
    
13. Simplify first level to reduce incidence of freezing during loading
    
14. Thanks to
    Thypoon
    : Increase starting health by 30%
    
15. Thanks to
    Zatio
    : Block player from progressing if they don't pick up the mace in the tutorial
    
16. Thanks to Mr. Tickles
    McCuddles
    : Use the mouse to click the radial menu. Also Fix the radial menu when using the gamepad
    
17. Thanks to
    ZipRar
    : Fix being stuck on loading screen caused by entering the mode to 'look around town' twice in a row
    
18. Thanks to
    DitoLoco
    : For 20 spellbooks you can recover your health at the start of siege battles. Also moved cost of siege battle options to Difficulty_Default.json to make the costs easier to change in the future.
    
19. Thanks to
    DitoLoco
    : You now get loyalty from rescuing occupied villages or villages under siege
    
20. Thanks to
    DitoLoco
    ,
    ralordraymondo
    : Undead now last for 5 minutes and more powerful undead 7 minutes. This makes it viable to run a necromancer build through an entire level, while still forcing the player to keep moving
    
21. Thanks to
    ratrogue
    : Don't allow walking through braziers in the tutorial
    
22. Thanks to
    ratrogue
    :
    prefragment
    skeletons so they look better when you break them
    
23. Thanks to
    ratrogue
    : Make first tutorial door handles be circles instead of ovals
    
24. Thanks to
    ratrogue
    : Fix spelling of siege
    
25. Thanks to
    Miku
    : Fix build mode music playing even with music turned off in the settings
    
26. Thanks to
    LVVrunner
    : Fix telekinesis picking up the player if the player is standing on top of the object being affected
    
27. Thanks to
    LVVrunner
    : Fix dead bodies picked up turning invisible
    
28. Thanks to
    Galdred
    :
    Spellbooks
    as a dungeon reward doubled to 20/30, and also increase over time
    
29. Thanks to
    Galdred
    : Chain lighting does damage and consumes mana 33% faster
    
30. Thanks to
    Galdred
    and others: The number of enemies from very easy to very hard dungeons now scales from .25 to 1, rather than .5 to 1. This means the easiest dungeons will have half as many enemies as before
    
31. Thanks to
    Galdred
    Fix minotaur
    
32. Thanks to
    DitoLoco
    : Summons don't count as causalities

32 changes in one day... That is quite impressive for a solo dev.
Didn't he handle more issues in 4 days than the whole Bannerlord team in 1 year?

 

[Whisper]

-> Increase starting health by 30%


Dumbing game down?

 

[Galdred]

-> Increase starting health by 30%


Dumbing game down?

I don't know. The early game was really brutal. You character was unable to handle any dungeon until level 4 or so, and if the healing options remain scarce, and your mana pool depletes as you use spells (each spell has a mana cost, but 15% of this mana is lost for good until you clear the dungeon or die), so you still don't have much room for error.
It also depends a lot on how opponents are bunched up. Some dungeons had 5 opponents waiting for you in the first room, which usually didn't end well unless you had a very strong AoE skill (but you can cast these once or twice early on, as your mana pool is quickly too deplted to recast it).