Fantasy Friday XIX - Elven Buildings

[Alex Walz]

FANTASY FRIDAY XIX
Elven Buildings

On popular request, we will be looking into the Elven buildings this week! As you're probably aware, the Elves build their buildings (with the exception of the Residence building) in the Great Trees of the Nhob'ru forests. In the MMORTS, Elven players will start with a Settlement building encircled by nine Great Trees that they can use to build any of the buildings below.

As masters of magic, elven buildings are constructed using the powerful forest magic, which means that no Wardens must be set aside to build any of these buildings. In addition, you'll notice that the elves lack any sort of siege workshop. This is because the elven siege is alive, not manufactured. Crawling siege weapons, Treants and Crossbolts, are summoned by the elven Enchanters, meaning they can be obtained even when away from the homeland.

Please note that the costs are subject to change, and that we will likely add more upgrade options to many of these buildings in the next couple of months. We also won't be looking into Walls and Towers quite yet as, as mentioned before, we are working on revamping the wall construction system.


Alchemy Lab - 250 Wood, 450 Gold
Transmutes resources. the Alchemy Lab will slowly convert one resource of choice into another resource.

The following options can be purchased from the Alchemy Lab:
Metamorphosis

Transform a resource into another resource of choice through the art of alchemy.

Gold Preservation

Gold depletes slower.

Stone Preservation

Stone depletes slower.

Upgrade Alchemy Lab

Greatly improves the resource output of the selected Alchemy Lab.

Arcane Sanctuary - 420 Stone, 350 Gold
Elven spellcasters are trained and upgraded at the Arcane Sanctuary.

The following options can be purchased from the Arcane Sanctuary:
Train Enchanters

250 Wood, 250 Gold, 3 Population. Magical melee unit which casts spells and summons Treants and Crossbolts.

Arcane Regeneration

Doubles the fatigue rate of magical units.

Dwelling - 250 Wood - The time-honored art of Archery is taught here. Trains Rangers and researches upgrades for them.

The following options can be purchased from the Dwelling:
Train Female Wardens

110 Food, 70 Wood, 6 Pop. Ranged and gatherer unit.

Train Male Wardens

160 Food, 6 Pop. Gatherer unit.

Train Rangers

84 Food, 90 Wood, 6 Pop

Train Mounted Rangers

234 Food, 90 Wood, 5 Pop

Research Stamina

350 Food - Increases the stamina of your units.

Research Revelation

150 Gold - Increases the view of your units.

Research Distance

350 Wood, 50 Gold - Increases the range of Rangers.

Research Swiftness

150 Food, 150 Wood - Increases the speed of your units.

Residence - 60 Wood, 20 Stone
Provides an automatic trickle of a resource of your choice.


Settlement

The following options can be purchased from the Settlement:
Train Female Wardens

110 Food, 70 Wood, 6 Pop. Ranged and gatherer unit.

Train Male Wardens

160 Food, 6 Pop. Gatherer unit.

Haven Upgrade

550 Stone. Generic Upgrade. Builds a layer of walls around the city.

Build Residence

60 Wood, 20 Stone. Increases Population Cap by 15 points per Residence.

Asylum Upgrade

320 Wood, 200 Gold. Optional Upgrade. Builds a layer of walls around the city.

Sylvan Shrine - 210 Food, 180 Wood, 60 Gold
Economic building which provides a Food trickle. Trains Unicorns and populates the forest with Deer.

The following options can be purchased from the Sylvan Shrine:
Train Unicorns

105 Food, 40 Gold, 5 Pop - Unicorns can fight without riders effectively. Strong against infantry and archers, weak against cavalry.

Train Deer

10 Food, 5 Gold - Trains a wild deer that will provide a slow trickle of Food.

Research Food Preservation

250 Food, 100 Gold - Economic upgrade. Food depletes much slower.

Faerie Sylvan Shrine Upgrade

120 Gold - Economic upgrade. Improves the effectiveness of the Sylvan Shrine.

Tree Symbiosis - 280 Wood, 160 Gold
Creates resource nodes. Economic building which provides gatherable resources. Can summon forest spirits, which provide wood.

The following options can be purchased from the Symbiosis:
Summon Forest Spirit

130 Food, 20 Gold. Each forest spirit produced grants a small income of Wood over time.

Enchant Food

Enchants a magical berry bush/food supply.

War Lodge - 450 Wood, 370 Gold
Trains and upgrades Infantry. The elves pursue the art of warfare in War Lodges. Sentries, Blademasters, and Grand Masters are all trained here. Researches for them can also be found here.

The following options can be purchased from the War Lodge:
Train Sentries

105 Food, 85 Gold, 6 Population

Train Bladestorms

175 Food, 125 Gold, 6 Pop

Train Grand Masters

84 Food, 175 Gold, 6 Pop

Train Mounted Grand Masters

266 Food, 175 Gold, 5 Pop

Research Graduation

320 Gold - Military upgrade. Increases the experience of your military units.

Research Protection

150 Food, 250 Wood - Increases the Defense rating of your units.

Research Retribution

250 Food, 200 Gold - Increases the Attack rating of your infantry units.

[GPS51]

Very impressive looking. Will we be able to fight up the stairways of the trees with the different buildings on them?

[Alex Walz]

Nope, units can't go in/up buildings except for towers and walls.

[GPS51]

Ah well. I suppose that will do . The buildings are unlike anything I've seen in a video game. Congrats to the art department. How did you program the stairways?

[metman]

I must say these building look very impressive and well thought out. Good job!

[Kire]

Nice one, specially love unique getting siege and that no workers for building houses =). Just few question:
-are enchanter competitive melee warriors that cast magic or they just melee hit you with weak dmg, when not casting spells?
-some time ago there was topic that they will make main tree (settlement i guess?) little bigger than others ... is that so already here, cuz cant see from pictures?

The only thing i would change is marble wall =P (i know, saying it all over again =P), doesnt fit, in my opinion, to the elvish "connection" to nature as all other things do.

[nickson104]

Originally Posted by Alex Walz

Nope, units can't go in/up buildings except for towers and walls.

Originally Posted by GPS51

How did you program the stairways?

Im guessing they didnt, they probably got the units to spawn at the bottom of the building and walk out, therefore the stairs are just there for aesthetic (spelt right?) purposes and need little coding? (Dont shoot me if I'm wrong, I dont know much)

[GPS51]

Yeah I mean i was just curious about getting the stairs to hang on the tree. I figured the little elves pop out at the bottom. But do they make cookies...

[Darvin]

Those are kind of hard to tell apart. Look awesome, but definitely a potential source for confusion.

[Swift sword]

I'd guess the stairways are part of the building, right? In that case, it'd just take a skilled artist to create.

Pretty nice buildings overall, fit the general elven culture well. Although I probably won't play orcs much, I do plan to play elves a bit. As such, I'm quite pleased with the way the buildings look. Some of them look quite similiar, but there are enough significant differences to differentiate one building from another. Great job to both the art and modelling departments. Also, it looks like each building has a significant effect and unique use. Well done on the concepts. The Alchemy lab sounds especially interesting, sort of like a more effective market.