Varadhon wrote:
I would take much of it a step further. Some of the city transformations ought to be impossible, as per the lore of the game. There is no way that Broken Lords can instantly become Wild Walkers (or at all, for that matter), for example. I frankly also don't see how the Necrophages can ever become anything else either--how exactly do undead insects "become" nature-communing pseudo-elves? This is a fantasy game, to be sure, but you can only take the willing suspension of disbelief so far. This is my only MAJOR quibble with design choices in this game. This challenge was solved two decades ago with Master of Magic. I would expect a game being made now to build on that solution. To my mind, the city, once captured should retain the character of the faction from which it was taken.

Well... I agree with you partially. City staying the same would imo be detriment to the game as imo is the instant transformation of one race into another is silly. I think where you conquer the city nothing happens for first couple turns and then you start assimilating it to your empire. Every X pop could prolong this process by X turns. At the end the city loses let's say 30% pop (but gradually so there is possibility to take the city back with minor pop lose). The rest of the population can be explained as mixture of newly migrated people from the occupants of the city, minor factions already living in the city simply switching allegiance, some original population becoming traitors and working for the enemy and others simply having no choice but to make ends meet accepting their new masters while some are even becoming slaves. With time the privileged winners will breed and the slaves will die and the native population will emigrate so the ratio will further change in favor of the new owner. I can easily see the city 50 years later having little to do with conquered race and 100 years later it could be fully integrated city with occasional alien family that would really be just a fraction.



TL;DR Cities never changing are no-no. Cities changing instantly are also no-no. We need middle ground

I would take much of it a step further. Some of the city transformations ought to be impossible, as per the lore of the game. There is no way that Broken Lords can instantly become Wild Walkers (or at all, for that matter), for example. I frankly also don't see how the Necrophages can ever become anything else either--how exactly do undead insects "become" nature-communing pseudo-elves? This is a fantasy game, to be sure, but you can only take the willing suspension of disbelief so far. This is my only MAJOR quibble with design choices in this game. This challenge was solved two decades ago with Master of Magic. I would expect a game being made now to build on that solution. To my mind, the city, once captured should retain the character of the faction from which it was taken.