'Fallen Enchantress' Expansion for Elemental Coming in Second Quarter of 2011

In yet another step today in its ongoing effort to improve Elemental: War of Magic and make things right with the fans who suffered through the game's bumpy launch, publisher Stardock offered details on the first of two expansion packs, titled Fallen Enchantress. Both were originally promised to be free for anyone who purchased the game prior to October 31, 2010 but Shacknews has confirmed that the cutoff has been extended for this first pack. Anyone who bought the game before 11:59pm on December 31, 2010 will be getting Fallen Enchantress for free. Exactly how the accounting will work is still to be determined, but Stardock will be using the purchase data from its Impulse distribution network to validate those eligible to get in on this free offer.

Fallen Enchantress continues the Elemental story in Q2 2011.

The expansion, due in the second quarter of this year, includes "significant changes to the existing game as well as massive new content additions including spells, magical equipment, quests, locations, and creatures" according to the announcement press release. Derek Paxton, who joined the Stardock team last October after his work on the popular Civilization IV mod "Fall from Heaven", runs the project as lead producer. Here's his take on what they want to do with Fallen Enchantress:

In Fallen Enchantress we wanted to focus on exploring the world outside your kingdom's borders. The world isn't empty and waiting to be settled, it is dangerous and needs to be conquered. There are unique locations with their own history and guardians; monsters settled in their lairs and vast wild land areas that offer their own challenges and rewards. There will be areas the player would do well to avoid for most of the game until he builds an army that is able to conquer them. Fallen Enchantress brings the world of Elemental alive. Don't expect many of your scouts to return, but those that are daring, lucky or strong enough to survive will be rewarded for their journey.

That part in the description about "significant changes to the existing game" begs the question of what happens to those who pick up Elemental now--when they'd have to pay for the expansion--and decide they simply prefer to play the core game alone. However that works out, the massive 1.1 patch launched in December made good on the developer's promises to fix the game. Shacknews contacted Stardock for clarification but have not received a reply at the time of publication.