Elemental: Fallen Enchantress Beta 2 Starts Next Week

Stardock CEO Brad Wardell indulges us with the good news that Elemental: Fallen Enchantress is headed into a second public beta phase on Thursday of next week, while also revealing some of the changes the team has made to the game since the first phase began last month. Lots of new screenshots accompany the summary, as well:

Balance changes will be both subtle and obvious to players. Fallen Enchantress provides 3 different technology paths to choose from. Beta 2 is designed to give each technology tree its own path to world domination.

The Warfare path is much the same as it was with Beta 1. The key resource for mundane warfare is metal, a resource that players pursuing this much live and die by.

The Civilization path has been altered to give more emphasis on building up your Empire through using diplomatic power. The resource of power here comes in the form of Diplomatic capital which is spent recruiting mercenaries, monsters and other factions to the war fighting for you.

The Magic path has gotten the most love. Between raw mana power and magical equipment that uses crystal in lieu of metal, you can end up with a very powerful force of magical units. Mages, Warlocks, and all manner of new units start to appear as the player goes up the magic tech tree.

Champions are automatically able to cast spells. What makes the sovereign special as a channeler is they’re the ones with the ability to derive mana from the shards. All spell casters use the global pool supplied, ultimately, through your channeler. The bottom line, lots more magic being thrown around.

Caravans are gone. They were a held over idea from GalCiv II that never made the sense in the Elemental universe. Roads now grow up somewhat more organically based on your civilization techs with corresponding economic benefits.