Spellforce 1: The Order of Dawn retrospective/opinion piece/weird stuff inside, beware

[Sharpedge]

I played this game close to its release and never replayed much about it, but I recall I very definitely went the, "forget about turning on the monuments, lets just clear everything with my hero" route.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

I liked the first Spellforce. The game-spanning side quests are a highlight. It's not amazing, but it's better than the sum of its parts, both the RPG and RTS would be mediocre at best on their own, but together it’s enjoyable enough. You could argue that they should've dropped one part and developed the other further and it would've been a better game (either RPG or RTS with hero units), and it's likely true, but to me it seems it's working as intended, even if it clashes, they wanted to make a game and have both RPG and RTS in it, pure RPG/RTS Spellforce would be something completely different.

 

[Lacrymas]

For anyone who is interested in this game, I just found out an invaluable console command - AppSession:SetTimeMultiplier (x), x can be any number and it multiplies the speed by that amount, 2 is two times as fast, 10 is 10 times as fast, etc. Nowhere is this command documented and I found it in a GOG post. To bring up the console, hold Ctrl + ]

 

[hello friend]

Horrible horrible game. I bought it because of the lady on the cover, and was parted from my money like a fool.

 

[Rahdulan]

So I heard you want a patch for your almost 20 year old game.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/39540/view/3113651356100192240

Hello,
To celebrate this weekends spotlight sale of the SpellForce series we have a new patch for good old SpellForce 1.

This is the full changelog:
- Current version 1.61.10172

GENERAL
- Fixed a bug which caused the game to default to windowed window mode if no window mode was specified yet, contrary to the video options menu which showed "Borderless" as default.
- Borderless window mode is the new correct default.
- Fixed a bug which caused the game to default to windowed window mode if no window mode was specified yet, contrary to the video options menu which showed "Borderless" as default.
- Fixed a bug which assigned wrong battle abilities to army units. This fixes an interaction which caused runic army trolls to activate Berserk even at full health.
- Slightly adjusted field of view angle, it should now cover more area on wide displays.
- Fixed a bug which caused ranged units to momentarily become idle after shooting their weapon. This effectively increases ranged units' effectiveness in battle.
- Player-controlled units that were originally neutral or enemy to the player will now regenerate health and mana even if the player does not have an available food store.
- Graphic.FieldOfView config option is removed. Field of view now adjusts to game window's aspect ratio,
- Added fonts for bigger resolutions (notably for 1080p, 1440p and 2160p).
- Runes in runeboard now are of the same size as runeboard slots regardless of game window's aspect ratio.
-- You can specify a new option in config.lua: Graphic.Borderless. It is set to 1 by default.
-- If Graphic.Borderless is set to 0, the game will run in regular window mode at the specified resolution (see Graphic.WindowWidth and Graphic.WindowHeight).
-- If Graphic.Borderless is set to 1, the game will run in borderless fullscreen mode, disregarding the Graphics.WindowWidth and Graphic.WindowHeight options completely. This is equivalent to previous fullscreen mode with added benefits, but with no way to adjust resolution.
-- An option to change window resolution from in-game options menu has been temporarily removed. You can still change window resolution through Graphic.WindowWidth and Graphic.WindowHeight options in config.lua, as long as Graphic.Borderless is set to 0.
-- Default FOV value is 92, and it is recommended for 4:3 aspect ratio window. Recommended FOV for 16:9 aspect ratio window (i.e. Full HD) is 115. Allowed values are from 45 to 150. Higher values generally mean greater in-game view area.
- Adjusted in-game unit preview display. Units should no longer appear too wide on windows with aspect ratio greater than 4:3.
- Fixed a bug which allowed the player to open locked chests/corpse loot under certain circumstances.
- There is a special SpellForce_mod.exe available in the game folder. The differences between it and the regular version are currently as follows:
-- A special debug menu is enabled in the main menu. Note that this menu can be activated on any version of the game if Debug.ExtendedLoad is specified in config.lua.
-- Certain commands have been given a keyboard shortcut:
--- Ctrl+D toggles debug mode on/off
--- Ctrl+S toggles between different debug category modes
--- Ctrl+E toggles between different debug value modes, depending on the current debug category mode
--- Ctrl+F toggles between different debug display colors
--- Ctrl+H toggles decimal and hexadecimal debug value display
--- Ctrl+T toggles between different debug dot display modes
--- Ctrl+W toggles between different terrain display modes
-- Multiplayer mode over the Internet is disabled. LAN mode is still enabled.
- Allow the game to run in background (i.e. alt-tabbing) in all game modes always (previously only in LAN/Internet game modes, or if Debug.RunBackground was specified in config.lua)
- A nasty bug, which caused numerous crashes, infinite spawns on certain maps (Shiel, Farlorn's Hope, Kathai, probably more), way too bright lights in certain places etc., is no more - note that saves already affected by this bug will still be affected by it


CAMPAIGN GAME MODE
- Fixed a bug which caused Fog of War to not restore on game load. This retroactively fixes all saves made on previous versions of the game.

RTS SYSTEM
- Fixed a bug which caused army units to spawn significantly slower if the unit requires 2 or more types of resources.
-- To compensate for this, army units which require Aria, Lenya or Moonsilver now have a longer spawn time.
--- This is still a net positive, excluding units that only require one of those resources and no other resources.

UI
- Restored resolution option in settings. Added "Window mode" option in settings. Available window modes: Windowed (regular window), Borderless (fullscreen window), Fullscreen (proper fullscreen mode).
-- Resolution only affects the game in Windowed and Fullscreen window mode. Borderless window mode always uses full resolution.
-- For Resolution, Window mode, and a few other options in video settings, you need to restart the game for the settings to take effect. This is a temporary measure.
- Window can now be properly moved in windowed mode. Cursor clip has been disabled - you can now move mouse away from window in windowed mode.
- Added warning before travelling to another map via a bindstone if there are still active monuments.
- Adjusted healthbars above unit icons - should be more visible on high resolution displays.
- Fixed font size for unit name captions above in-game selected units on high resolution displays.

AI
- Units can now cast all abilities (for example Riposte) and area of effect spells (for example Area Freeze).
- Avatars with ranged weapon will now autonomously attack targets within range.
- Fixed a bug which caused units to fixate on one building, even if all attack spots for the building were taken and there were other buildings free to attack.
- Rune heroes now seek to destroy buildings when there are no enemy units in range. This matches the regular army's AI behavior. Avatar AI is unaffected by this change.
- Improved decision making for Benefactions spell.
- Units controlled by AI can now cast Boons and Mirage.
- Allies/enemies now cast their aura if there are 1+ allies/enemies (depending on aura) around instead of 3+
- Units now cast Aura of Light regardless of how many allies are around
- Units now cast Extinct only when there is at least one enemy under a health threshold dependent on Extinct spell level
- Units now cast Death Grasp on allies who are under 25% MAX HEALTH, rather than on allies who are under 5 HEALTH

SPELLS
- Critical Hits ability now works more reliably.
- Firebane visual effect now only stays for a short while. This does not affect the actual spell duration, which is still 1 hour.
- Conservation visual effect now properly disappears after the spell expires or if the spell is broken by taking enough damage.
- The following spells have had the previous changes reverted:
-- Death - no longer irresistible, damage no longer affected by black magic resistance
-- Area Pain - damage, cast time and cooldown reverted
-- Area Healing - cast time and cooldown reverted
-- Torture now properly deals damage to targets in range.
-- Assistance now properly distributes damage among nearby allied units.
-- Feet of Clay now correctly reduces casting speed instead of movement speed.
-- Enlightenment now no longer fails because of mind magic resistance check.
-- A number of spells has had its visual effects fixed.
--- Spells affected by this change: Poison, Feet of Clay, Area Freeze, Area Hypnosis, Roots, Area Roots.
-- Area Hypnosis now properly breaks on damage done after 2 seconds passed since casting the spell.
-- Raise Dead no longer works more than once per corpse.
-- Mirage no longer continues to drain mana even after the illusion was destroyed.
-- Roots now correctly targets enemy units at levels higher than 13.
-- Remediless now properly prevents healing from White Essence and White Almightness.
-- Cure Disease now properly cures Pestilence instead of Poison.
- (EXPERIMENTAL) Changes:
-- Area Healing cast time and cooldown changed.
--- Level 1-20 cast time: 1/.../1 -> 2/.../2
--- Level 1-20 cooldown: 2/.../2 -> 10/.../10
-- Revenge now scales with charisma. Heal per corpse, mana restore per corpse and maximum amount of corpses affected by Revenge changed.
--- Level 13-20 heal per corpse: 10/.../10 -> 15/15/20/20/25/30/35/40
--- Level 13-20 mana restore per corpse: 10/.../10 -> 4/4/5/5/6/7/8/9
--- Level 13-20 maximum amount of corpses: 5/5/5/6/6/6/6/6 -> 5/6/7/8/9/10/12/14
-- Roots duration, cast time and cooldown changed.
--- Level 13-20 duration: 20/.../20 -> 12/12/14/14/16/18/20/24
--- Level 13-20 cast time: 3/.../3 -> 1/.../1
--- Level 13-20 cooldown: 60/.../60 -> 3/.../3
-- Roots area duration changed.
--- Level 13-20 duration: 20/.../20 -> 8/10/10/12/12/14/16/18
-- Poison now stacks. Chance to apply poison on-hit significantly increased at early stages of the game. Damage and duration changed.
--- Level 1-20 damage: 2/2/2/3/3/3/4/4/4/5/5/5/6/6/6/7/7/7/8/8 -> 1/1/1/2/2/2/3/3/3/4/4/4/5/5/5/6/6/6/7/7
--- Level 1-20 ticks (1 tick = 2 seconds): 50/60/75/90/110/125/150/175/200/225/250/275/300/325/350/375/400/425/450/475 -> 30/45/60/40/50/60/45/55/65/50/58/66/55/61/67/60/64/68/65/68
-- Extinct now deals damage based on targets' missing health.
--- This damage occurs only if the target's health is not under the threshold specific to spell. If that threshold is reached, the spell works as before, killing the target instantly.
-- Death is now irresistible. Instead, damage it deals depends on target's black magic resistance.
-- Area Pain now does damage equivalent to Pain of respective spell level. Cooldown and cast time increased.
--- Level 1-20 damage: 5/6/8/10/12/15/18/22/27/33/40/48/57/67/78/90/103/117/132/148 -> 10/14/20/24/29/39/49/58/73/89/107/125/144/163/182/202/223/246/270/300
--- Level 1-20 cast time: 1/.../1 -> 3/.../3
--- Level 1-20 cooldown: 6/.../6 -> 15/.../15
-- Torture now has no practical corpse limit. Targets of Torture can now resist the damage and mana drain. Damage per corpse and mana drain per corpse changed. Cast time, cooldown and mana cost changed to match Revenge.
--- Level 13-20 damage per corpse: 5/.../5 -> 15/15/20/20/25/30/35/40
--- Level 13-20 mana drain per corpse: 5/.../5 -> 4/4/5/5/6/7/8/9
--- Level 13-20 maximum amount of coprses: 3/3/4/4/5/5/6/6 -> 100/.../100
--- Level 13-20 cast time: 2.5/.../2.5 -> 3/.../3
--- Level 13-20 cooldown: 12/.../12 -> 60/.../60
--- Level 13-20 mana cost: 10/.../10 -> 50/.../50
-- Units casting Meditation are now interrupted on ANY damage they take.
-- Mirage mana cost per tick changed.
--- Level 13-20 mana cost per tick: 5/5/6/7/7/8/8/9 -> 3/3/4/4/4/5/5/5
-- Fixed Area of Darkness affecting units allied to the caster.
-- Fixed Area of Darkness affecting units more than once, causing them to gain black magic immunity in some cases.
-- Mirror Image now properly costs mana to sustain.
-- Feedback now properly reflects magic damage (was physical damage before).
-- Feign Death no longer grants permanent invisibility under certain circumstances.
-- Fixed Thorn Shield and Wave of Rocks dealing disproportionate amount of damage under certain circumstances.
- Changes:
-- Dominate Undead no longer scales with charisma.
--- In effect, it should now affect undead enemies at a much higher level than previously, closely matching regular Dominate spells cast at high charisma levels.
-- Manashield duration time changed. This also fixes a bug where Manashield spell cast at level higher than 13 would not work at all.
--- Level 13-20 duration (seconds): 100/0/0/.../0 -> 15/17.5/20/23/26/30/35/40
-- Mirage tick duration and mana cost per tick changed to compensate for the bugfix. Cooldown changed.
--- Level 13-20 tick duration (seconds): 2/.../2 -> 5/.../5
--- Level 13-20 mana cost per tick: 10/10/11/12/13/13/14/15 -> 5/5/6/7/7/8/8/9
--- Level 13-20 cooldown (seconds): 2/.../2 -> 10/.../10
-- Thorn shield damage changed to compensate for the bugfix.
--- Level 1-20 damage: 3/3/5/5/8/8/12/12/16/16/22/22/29/29/37/37/46/56/67/79 -> 3/5/7/10/14/19/25/32/40/49/59/70/82/95/109/124/140/157/175/194
-- [EXPERIMENTAL] Rock Bullet damage changed to compensate for the bugfix. Mana cost changed.
--- Level 1-20 damage: 12/18/24/30/36/42/50/58/66/75/84/100/115/130/150/170/195/220/250/280 -> 12/18/26/35/45/58/72/90/112/140/178/210/248/286/332/390/460/540/640/800
--- Levl 1-20 mana cost: 10/.../10 -> 10/11/.../29
-- Fireshield damage changed.
--- Level 1-20 damage: 2/2/3/3/5/5/8/8/11/11/15/15/20/20/26/26/33/41/50/60 -> 3/4/6/9/12/15/18/21/24/28/33/38/44/50/57/64/72/80/90/100
-- Conservation shield value, cast time, cooldown and duration values changed.
--- Level 6-13 shield value: 70/90/110/130/170/220/280/350 -> 75/100/130/165/205/250/300/360
--- Level 1-20 cast time (seconds): 3/.../3 -> 2/.../2
--- Level 1-20 cooldown (seconds): 150/.../150 -> 10/.../10
--- Level 1-20 duration (seconds): 60/.../60 -> 15/16/17/18/20/22/24/26/29/32/36/40/45/50/55/60/70/80/90/100
- Allow the player to cast spells without deactivating their auras (still can only have one aura at a time)
- Shelter and Patronize spells are now working correctly
- Aura of Healing now prioritizes low health allies (instead of choosing randomly)

 

[Absinthe]

I actually avoided buying Spellforce 1 back in the day because of the deceptive cover bullshit. It made me consider the entire Spellforce series as some dubious shit if they have to mislead people into buying it, even though it seemed otherwise interesting. Spellforce III was the first one I actually bought, and even then I was still wondering about whether I wanted to in light of that marketing shit. It's only because I got a good look at the gameplay that I bought it in the end.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

because of the deceptive cover bullshit

That sort of art featuring a hot woman with revealing clothing is a common classic fantasy trope, my man.

 

[Lacrymas]

Allowing us to cast spells while auras are active is huuuuge. Auras are now viable for casters. I have to read it more carefully, but I don't think that fixes the problem of melee characters being waaaay more powerful than casters in base game. And really, only Black mages are as powerful as them in the expansions. That bug that allows you to loot locked chests being fixed no doubt pisses in some people's cornflakes.

 

[Absinthe]

because of the deceptive cover bullshit

That sort of art featuring a hot woman with revealing clothing is a common classic fantasy trope, my man.

I know, but if you need to lean on deceptive marketing to sell your shit I tend to assume your product is dodgy shit.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Calling it 'deceptive marketing' is way too cynical imho. To each their own though.

 

[Lacrymas]

I know, but if you need to lean on deceptive marketing to sell your shit I tend to assume your product is dodgy shit.

I wouldn't say it's deceptive. The only thing not appearing in-game is the woman. The aesthetics are all there. What my original point was is that you are immediately drawn to thinking about good vs evil in the Tolkien sense and that such a fight is going to take place. However, that's not even remotely true, and the main conflicts of the entire Spellforce 1 saga are never about elves vs orcs, or good vs evil in general (in the conceptual sense). If we examine the narrative uncritically, you are never at any point told the "good"/light and the "evil"/dark races are or have ever been at war with each other. Like I mentioned in the retrospective, you are a human but you are never treated as an enemy by any of the dark races. Technically, if you can somehow get both dark and light troops in the same army together (which is possible in some campaign maps), they tend to fight each other and don't share resources. They fighting is a plot hole, however, as we are led to believe creatures summoned through runes are mind controlled/dominated by the person holding their rune. I wrote in the review that I hadn't finished the expansions yet and didn't know if that is ever going to be brought up, but I finished them not long after I wrote it and it's not. It kind of gets even darker and muddier by the end of Breath of Winter due to a side quest that eventually leads to the main conflict of Shadow of the Phoenix.

 

[A horse of course]

Interesting topic but I'm illiterate. Could you make a video of it?

 

[JarlFrank]

Like I argued in the review and said already, there isn't actually a mix, it's simply doing these two things at the same time. Which is clunky at best, a waste of time at worst. There is no other way they could've increased the cooperation between the RPG and RTS in the way they game is made (i.e. building buildings, gathering resources, having troops and RPG heroes). Maybe have your hero be the one who collects resources and builds buildings, I don't know. I don't think anybody would argue that it's actually great the way it is now, in whatever entry of this franchise.

Why can't you have a game that properly combines both RPG and basebulding-RTS into one? What is inherent to those two genres that makes this endeavour entirely impossible?

Before the release of Crusader Kings 2, would you also have said that combining an RPG with a grand strategy title is impossible? While CK is not a perfect combination (it still suffers from the usual Paradox game issues), it combines RPG with grand strategy pretty well, and there are several mods that enhance the experience even more.

I see several ways of combining the classic RPG and RTS formulas into one coherent whole. There have also been several other attempts beside Spellforce:
The Korean-made Kingdom Under Fire combined classic basebuilding RTS with leveling-up heroes (kinda like in Warcraft 3) and having a couple of hero-only levels tossed into the mix, that play somewhat like a Diablo clone. Still has the issue of both layers being separate and not a coherent whole.
The Bulgarian-made Tzar gives the ability to gain experience and level up to every unit in the game. Your simple archer can get higher health and damage output by fighting, which makes unit preservation and important thing. You can also build training dummies to train your units on. All units have an inventory, too, where you can equip usable items or items that increase stats. Only your heroes transfer from mission to mission though (and can become ridiculously overpowered lol).

You can easily combine RPG-style gameplay, and even quests, with a basebuilding RTS layer that seamlessly works together. Your character is a lord/lady and must build up and defend his/her town from intruders. In one mission you get an unbeatable siege though and have to escape, the more peasants you manage to evacuate the more builders you get in the next mission. The RTS diplomacy layer of alliances can be tied to RPG quests where various other factions want you to prove your worth before allying with them, which means doing quests. Etc.

It's not impossible to combine both genres in an organic way.

 

[Lacrymas]

I didn't say it's impossible in general, I said it's impossible with the fundamentals Spellforce 1 specifically sets out with.

 

[Maculo]

Thanks for the retrospective Lacrymas. I went ahead and picked up the entire series to try.

For anyone else, there is a huge sale on steam right now.

 

[Lacrymas]

Thanks for the retrospective Lacrymas. I went ahead and picked up the entire series to try.

For anyone else, there is a huge sale on steam right now.

If you are starting with Spellforce 1 (as you should), don't forget this -

For anyone who is interested in this game, I just found out an invaluable console command - AppSession:SetTimeMultiplier (x), x can be any number and it multiplies the speed by that amount, 2 is two times as fast, 10 is 10 times as fast, etc. Nowhere is this command documented and I found it in a GOG post. To bring up the console, hold Ctrl + ]

It makes the game immeasurably more bearable.

As for the others, Spellforce 3 is pretty great, 2 is very meh and forgettable.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

2 is very meh and forgettable.

I have fond memories of Spellforce 2 (Dragon Storm in particular).

 

[Lacrymas]

I just can't get into it. I find the RTS part very boring, the fact you only play with the light races doesn't help. I got quite a few missions into it but I don't see anything special in it to continue.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Dunno, I think that SF2 and SF1 are quite similar in quality (although I'd probably go SF3 > SF2 > SF). Where Spellforce 2 failed was in its last two expansions. Faith in Destiny was meh and Demons of the Past was buggy trash.

 

[Havoc]

Yeah, I loved the Spellforce games. Didn't get to the 3rd installment until recently. SF3 has some nice plot (it's a prequel but some stuff is retconned) but the RTS/RPG part is horrible in my opinion. In the first expansion, it is better but felt like the same plot is happening. The second expansion, the troll one, is the best one, in my opinion. Not only the RPG/RTS mechanics are superb (better control and hotkey work, skill trees too, and unique characters) but the story is a lot better than the previous two. I'd recommend playing the troll expansion as it's standalone (storywise the second expansion isn't quite a standalone).

 

[Absinthe]

I wouldn't say it's deceptive. The only thing not appearing in-game is the woman.

Right, the woman plastered all over the marketing material and even the game's box cover. It was pretty infamous.

The aesthetics are all there. What my original point was is that you are immediately drawn to thinking about good vs evil in the Tolkien sense and that such a fight is going to take place. However, that's not even remotely true, and the main conflicts of the entire Spellforce 1 saga are never about elves vs orcs, or good vs evil in general (in the conceptual sense). If we examine the narrative uncritically, you are never at any point told the "good"/light and the "evil"/dark races are or have ever been at war with each other. Like I mentioned in the retrospective, you are a human but you are never treated as an enemy by any of the dark races. Technically, if you can somehow get both dark and light troops in the same army together (which is possible in some campaign maps), they tend to fight each other and don't share resources. They fighting is a plot hole, however, as we are led to believe creatures summoned through runes are mind controlled/dominated by the person holding their rune. I wrote in the review that I hadn't finished the expansions yet and didn't know if that is ever going to be brought up, but I finished them not long after I wrote it and it's not. It kind of gets even darker and muddier by the end of Breath of Winter due to a side quest that eventually leads to the main conflict of Shadow of the Phoenix.

This part didn't concern me, tbh.

Interesting topic but I'm illiterate. Could you make a video of it?

For what it's worth, I prefer written over video, by far, because I read much faster than people on videos speak, so videos are painfully slow ways to get info for me.

 

[Maculo]

Holy shit, Lacrymas, that console command makes a world of difference.

 

[luj1]

Spellforce was considered garbage back in the day. It is eternal proof that hybrids of this kind almost never work out. Funnily, today you have an epidemic of strategy/management/RPG hybrids and feature bloat.

 

[Ontopoly]

The rift level in the first game is my favorite video game level of all time. The rest of the game was only Okay though. It's certainly not "required reading" like someone here said but it's worth playing since half you dipshits constantly replay the same game anyways for over 3000 hours.

 

[Sjukob]

The only thing not appearing in-game is the woman.

It's the protagonist, yes female canonically.

I find the RTS part very boring, the fact you only play with the light races doesn't help.

Not true, you got to command orcs and dark elves, like you did in original spellforce.