Elemental: War of Magic - Fallen Enchantress Q&A

GameSpot has cranked out a two-page Q&A with Fallen Enchantress lead producer Derek Paxton about various topics related to the forthcoming Elemental: War of Magic expansion pack. A couple of the more interesting questions and answers:
GS: What are the most commonly cited community requests for War of Magic? How will Fallen Enchantress address those?

DP: The most common [request] is more interesting spells. Because we believe this is critical both to War of Magic and Fallen Enchantress, the War of Magic post-release patches have dramatically improved the spells the game offers. Fallen Enchantress goes far beyond what War of Magic offers, with new spells, new types of spells and it's all built to be easily modable.

The second most common request is to make the world more interesting. Without variety, risks, and rewards, it feels very similar and bland. In Fallen Enchantress, the player's first challenge is to conquer and civilize the world around his starting area. Send out scouts to explore the world. Many may not return, but those that do may bring back valuable knowledge, experience, and treasures.

GS: After meeting with Stardock at GDC, we got the distinct impression that Fallen Enchantress will follow closely in the footsteps of the cult-classic modification, Fall From Heaven 2. This includes the insanely powerful stationary monsters and a deadlier world overall in which early scouts pretty much never survive their initial recon missions. Is it fair to say that Fallen Enchantress will basically be a spiritual successor to that mod? Any other returning features from that project appearing in the new game?

DP: The real influence for Fallen Enchantress was Master of Magic. There are some touches that are similar to Fall From Heaven, but the game manual I always have in my laptop bag and the design I return to when I consider going down path A or path B is Master of Magic. That doesn't mean that I always do what Master of Magic did; we have to do what's best for Fallen Enchantress. But Master of Magic remains the real inspiration behind the game.