It seems a lot of the discussion on here is very competitive multi-player focused, which is great. It is always good to see a deserving game have a strong on-line community, but as someone who has zero interest (or time) to really be involved in a competitive multiplayer level, and really just wants to jump on for an hour or two after work/uni, I wanted to open some discussion more focused on single player improvements.



One of the things that really drew me into the game is the main story/quest line for each faction. This is honestly the single deciding factor for me buying the game, combined with the really cool setting.



Now, I've so far played the Vaulters and Broken lords (but finished neither's story), so I'm far from knowing everything about faction quests.



One thing I noticed in the Vaulters quest is that there is a (and this is a spoiler) section where there is talk of a rebellion against the Vaulter leader. I honestly expected to find one of my cities defected and garrisoned by a small army of Vaulter units, but nothing of the sort happened, which I found honestly disappointing. I can see why we would absolutely want to avoid this kind of thing in competitive multilayer, but would it be possible to slightly alter the quests in single player so this happens? Essentially, the goal would be to have the quest put more influence on the game than passive goals and rewards. I'm not sure if other factions have any similar events or not.



Now, the native pacification quests and ruins quests are a huge motivator in the early game but become less important by mid-late game. Would it be possible to introduce more mid/late game quests, for both Single- and multiplayer? I have a few ideas I'd like to outline, to see what people think, and of course everyone is welcome to suggest things



War quests: The basic idea here is that if you are at war with someone, you could get quests from advisor's or your council (however the faction's internal administration works) for defeating a certain enemy hero, or taking a certain enemy city, within some number of turns.



Foreign Diplomacy Quests: These might be a little more varied than the war quests. You may be approached by foreign dignitaries to do numerous things, like building roads for trade for example. If Foreign powers A and B are at war, A might ask you to raise privateers against B. The goal here is to add another level of diplomacy, and the reward could sometimes be influence.



Another option would be to get quests from foreign tribes. Say, for example, foreign empire A has a region with poor approval and non-assimilated Ice Wargs. This tribe might approach you for 'liberation,' asking you to capture or destroy the city (which would obviously have implications fore foreign relations.) The reward could be resources, a few units of Ice Wargs or, if we want a powerful motivator, free assimilation (even if all slots are full.)



Other quests might be simple, the Ice Warg tribe spontaneously offering to pay some dust or one resource if you can bring them another resource, or appealing to foreign powers for help defending them against a (quest specific) army that spawns in the region.

Every faction quest will ask you to take an enemy city at some point in the game.

Compared to other games, the introduction of faction quests is something quite unique and get some depth into the gameplay.

However if you put too much quest, there is just no more space for other elements of gameplay.

Ulto wrote:
Every faction quest will ask you to take an enemy city at some point in the game.

Neither of the two faction quests I've played so far have asked that.

Ulto wrote:
Every faction quest will ask you to take an enemy city at some point in the game.

Compared to other games, the introduction of faction quests is something quite unique and get some depth into the gameplay.

However if you put too much quest, there is just no more space for other elements of gameplay.

I don't really understand that. Quests don't crowd out or prevent other elements of gameplay - they exist as a separate layer on top of the gameplay, enhancing the "play" if not the underlying "game".

Ulto wrote:


Compared to other games, the introduction of faction quests is something quite unique and get some depth into the gameplay.

However if you put too much quest, there is just no more space for other elements of gameplay.

The first part is exactly my point. The faction quests was the reason I bought endless legend, and if the game didn't have it or didn't know if it I would have just passed the game over (as I did, for months, before I heard about them.) It is because of this I think they should become stronger, a core part of the game - for single player, at least. I don't see how any of the suggestions I made would leave no space for other elements of game-play. They would, of course, be entirely optional. I'd just like to see the faction quest have more integration within the world (ie, the rebellion thing for Vaulters,) and for quests to have more of a place late game.