Sorcerer King: Rivals - what is it?

[Frogboy]

Sorcerer King is a strategy game game set in the fantasy world of Elemental, a land dominated by the shards of magic.

In the time of the Sorcerer King, the land had been conquered by Mirdoth, the Sorcerer King of the game's name.

You are the leader of one of the factions that still resists his rule.

In the original game of Sorcerer King, the game revolved around you building up an army, gathering allies, crafting weapons and armor and confronting the Sorcerer King in his fortress.

Now, as the designer of that game, I believe it's safe to say that the game was very fun -- the first few times through. The problem with Sorcerer King was replayability. Building up an army and attacking the Sorcerer King is only fun so many times.

Put another way, a game about stopping someone else from doing something is only fun so many times.

Sorcerer King: Rivals flips it on its head. This time, YOU are the one trying to become a god. The Sorcerer King is still doing his thing but you have the same ability he has. You are both trying to build up ascension points to reach critical mass and everyone else needs to stop you.

There's no doomsday counter this time because it's not a race. It's not the first player to get N ascension points, rather, it's the first player to reach a dominance of ascension magic which changes the dynamics a great deal and, in practice, greatly increases the replayability.

## So what's NEW in Rivals? ##

There are two new races to play as in the game: The Undead and the Frozen Realm each with their own units and buildings. The base game only has 1 race (men) with essentially the same units per faction.

We also added three new demigods for the player to contend with. In the original, the Sorcerer King had two lieutenants roaming the world. Now, there's 5 out there (only 2 at a time).

We are including a powerful Quest editor so people can create their own quests for the game along with continued access/improvement on the various bundled modding tools.

Rivals also adds Steam Workshop support so people can share their maps and quests together and the integration is seamless.

If you have any questions on the game, just post here. I'll be around!

Cheers!

[Siddha]

Sounds good
I have Sorcerer King and I will definitely buy this expansion in due course

Meanwhile I recommend Sorcerer King to anyone wondering about buying it
I think this pre-order offer is very fair

[Frogboy]

Thanks!

[Lex]

Why only 2 new races? Where was 2 more - swampers and infernals, - for future dlc?

[Anno]

Will this be a completely standalone, separate application? Or will there be a way to add it on to our existing SK game?

[Frogboy]

It's stand-alone. But you get everything that was in Sorcerer King.

[RexJayden]

After reading this, I now understand why some people are upset that essentially we (myself included) bought the "lesser" version of this game without knowing it.

[Dwarfurious]

I CAN BE THE DWAAAARVES
Honestly i got the original game because of the Dwarf hero, who turned out to be the best hero by far. The writing was so great i played several worlds, but i kind of liked the doomsday clock as a difficulty twist.

PROTECT YOUR SHINS AND BEWARE OUR TINY TINY AXES!

[Frogboy]

In Rivals, the dwarf rides a spider. ;) And the Dwarves can hire mercenaries.

[Momonga]

@devs would you consider making an Iron-Man game mode?

[Dwarfurious]

Originally posted by Draginol:

In Rivals, the dwarf rides a spider. ;) And the Dwarves can hire mercenaries.

I'd rather start with the classic Dwarf hero, in my first game he was a one man army who took down the sorc king himself, destroying armies! Too bad you didnt have Dwarves in your previous Fallen Enchantress games, its what kept me away.
Hopefully more great writing ! Even if you made fun of Dwarves, i loved the tundra theme, reminded me of Disciples 2

[Frogboy]

Re Iron man mode, that sounds interesting. I'm trying to think how it would work in SK. I remember playing that way in XCOM.

[Duke Davout]

I already own SK. It is excellent: aside from the weak -- incongruous -- quest writing, the game is clean, elegant, full of rich strategic possibilities. And best of all, we can rename everything, adding our own flavour and cultural tint to the factions and leaders we choose. A very strong TBS offering, with its own logic and drive. Three questions about the expansion:

First, if I purchase Rivals, will SK continue to exist unaltered in my library; or will Rivals overwrite it in the manner of the horrible forced updates Steam requires? I don't want an expansion that takes away a game I enjoy as it is. In other words will I be able to play SK as it is when I want; and play Rivals on other days when I choose?

Second, does Rivals continue the welcome option to rename units, outposts, enemies and so on?

Third, does Rivals continue the crucial option of large UI (should be an industry standard) that makes SK such a pleasure to play?

Thanks.

[Frogboy]

First question: SK will be a seperate item in your library.

Second question: I am not sure. I'll be in the code this weekend and will look.

Third: Absolutely. And it has a different UI than SK does since it focuses a bit more on building up your civ.

[Momonga]

Originally posted by Draginol:

Re Iron man mode, that sounds interesting. I'm trying to think how it would work in SK. I remember playing that way in XCOM.

I was thinking more like wizardry 8.

For players seeking a more difficult challenge, Sir-Tech brought back an option to play using rules from the early Wizardries - the "Iron Man Mode". In this "permadeath" mode, players are not allowed to save the game; instead the game is automatically saved when the player quits. As a result, a death cannot be trivially undone by a simple "Restore Game".

[Frogboy]

Oh I like that. I think that might be doable. Probably not by release but soon after. I hadn't thought of it that way before.