I had a few Ideas that could enhance the gameplay, though I love the game as it is. So I though, I'd just share them here.



1. More District Buildings



a. Bastion



A Bastion can be build onto a built district, increasing defense and allowing to put soldiers into garrison. When the city is attackted the soldies will only be used if they are in the region of the battle. That is: a city can be taken without taking each bastion, however the main city garrison has to be taken. If the latter happens, the garrison will still belong to the player the city was taken from, and on a possible recapturing of the city, they will have an attack bonus (the logic is, that they are behind the walls). If a bastion stands isolated it can also fall under siege. If a bastion is far enough away from the city, it should also be possible to take it before taking the main city, exploiting the attack bonus (breaking through the wall). If a city has several garrisons, the army can move from one to another in one round.



b. Underground Hideout/Tunnel (Vaulters)



The Vaulters should be able to build a underground hideout into their own territory at any place. This would allow them to be hidden from the enemy, so they could suddenly show up behind his army, e.g. at a siege. Additionaly such a hideout could be connected by a tunnel, which allows soldiers to escape from a city under siege.



c. Crossroads



The roads in the region are quite useful, especially for moving troops. It is however very impractical, that one cannot influence where they go. That could be helped, by allowing to construct crossroads, that is a field, where a road goes, an from which it is connected to the next region (or crossroad).

They might also provide an additional bonus for trade routes which use them, if one plays the Roving Clans.

The Crossroad is built from the city, but can be placed anywhere in the region.



d. Higher District Levels



Now I know, that district levels where decreased, since the higher ones were op. But why can't they be allowed and balanced by making them a point of research? That is era one allows researching level one district, era two level two, and so forth. That would then yield level 6 at max, which would then also cost a lot of research. As a bonus for the cultist, an additiontal level could be provided for them, and allowing them to start with lvl one researched. That is: they can build lvl two in era one, lvl three in era two, .... so they would at max be able to get lvl seven, which would be really op, but it's in the end game.



Idea of KrimsonVagus: combine the research, that is "Crossroads", "Metropolis" and "Population Boom"



e. Integrate Ruins



When a district is built next to a ruin, one should be able to integrate the ruins into the city with a building. This could be faction-specific, for example:

- Roving Clans : Get and maybe artefacts off it since they are just looting it.

- Broken Lords : Rebuilding the temple, getting off it (hell do i know why).

- Necrophags : bonus, go figure.

- Ardent Mages : Rebuild the temple, getting .

- Vaulters : , since they just "enhance" the underneath dungeon.

- Cultists : They rebuild the temple and just integrate it in their city. I.e. a free district.

- Draken : Enhance Endless Excavation

- Wild Walkers : Nothing, doesn't fit their lore.

The building would then also gain level like a district.



Rymdkejsaren added that the bonus should be small, since they already provide a bonus.



f. Integrating Villages



When a district is built next to a village, it should be able to be integrated as a city part. Of course only if the village is an ally and the race is assimilated. The village then becomes a bastion (1.a) and the villager just becomes a regular citizen of the city.

(Cultist) If the village was converted it will become keep producing units, though they are regular (not mecenaries) and the district will use it's own production for that (i.e. not produce anything).



Rymdkejsaren: as a research, maybe without assimilating.



For KrimsonVagus: if they are handled like a bastion, it would be able to capture it without taking the whole city.



2. Minor Faction Mechanics



a. Change village faction



When one destroys a village, it should be able to rebuild the village, with a different faction. That is, one sends over four units of the other factions, and commands them to rebuild it. This costs a lot of influence and then production for the reconstruction.



b. Interaction with integrated villages



There should be more interaction with integrated villages, like getting a small quest from time to time. Or a request for some resources and getting units in exchange. The village should then also be able to help defend the city when under attack.



3. Global Mechanics



a. Heros



I think it is very lame to just buy heros. I would like to avoid that in any way, so that one has to earn heros. One would be more quest to get them, and one would also need additional mechanics to get them:



I. Birth



There is just a probability of a hero being born at some point. This can then be influenced by some factors.

- Broken Lords : production

- Roving Clans : High luxury production

- Wild Walkers : High

- Cultists : Many converted villages

- Drakken : High

- Ardent Mages : High production

- Vaulters : High strategic production

- Necrophages : Slaughter. Much of it. (Increased Promotion Chance)



II. Promotion



If an army fights a battle, there is a chance, that one of the soldiers might become a hero. If that happens, the player may choose to promote him to such, which will cost dust and influence and of course the unit.



III. Capturing



If a whole empire get's destroyed (or heros get dismissed), the heros will start wandering the land as outlaws (this may also be the case at the beginning of the game). They will try to assemble a wild army, but when kills his army and injures him, he might choose to join the empire, given an amount of dust.



IV. Conversion (Cultists)



If the Cult find's a hero and destroys his army he might be able to convert him for influence. This is not limited to outlaws, but also to heros of enemy factions.

Also: converting roaming armies without a hero would be a very nice feature for the cultists.



V. Asylum



Factionless heros wandering the land might also choose to join an empire with their army if the empire has a mighty army and is rich.



VI. Market



One could also keep the marketplace, but only for heros that are acutally sold. This can be accelerated by a war against an empire, so the latter cannot afford the heros anymore.



VII. Era or Building



Since balancing issues were remarked, on could add a system, where at defined a point a hero is recruted. That maybe one per era or from special buildings.



b. Join Regions



If two cities in two regions have adjacent districts, they can join the regions into one. Thereby the citycenter of one city will be decreased to a normal district. This has the advantage that many buildings only need to be build once, but the obvious and huge disadvantage of a more difficult defense. That is, the city can be under siege much easier. Also the people will be much more unhappy.

Before one can do so, both regions need the same minor faction, as explained in 2.a.



c. Expand Regions (Cultists)



When playing Cultists on a map with small regions, one cleary has a huge disadvantage. Hence it shall be possible to expand the territory into another one, if the other is not civilized (if one does that, he declares a war). This also only works fully when 2.a. is applied, because a village of another faction cannot be integrated nor disconnected from the region it belongs to.

The expansion works for fields adjacent to districts, which could then be bought with influence.



I just realized, that a City cannot be sieged, when it goes up to the border of the region. This can be exploited, hence I would argue, that a field must be between the most outer district and the border.



d. More Diplomacy



What I missed is the possibility of trading a war declaration. That is to ask another faction to declare war on a third empire, or to do so oneself, if it is with a common foe.



From KrimsonVagus:

• Liberating cities captured by other factions >> Give the city back to the original faction. Or the option to immediately "ransom" the city back to the original owner in exchange for resources, technologies etc...
• Trading contact with other unmet factions
• Allied Victory condition (and modified Diplomatic Victory for Alliances)
• Allied armies can reinforce each other as long as BOTH players "Accept" the reinforcement. So for example, you get into a battle your friend's army is nearby and can reinforce. Both players will get a screen that will require their permissions. If they BOTH click the button of "Accept" or the "check" symbol next to the reinforcing army >> The army will reinforce and be controlled by the player of the Main Army for that battle ONLY
  
  

e. Special Connection to minor factions



I think it would be a nice addition to have sort of a natural connection between each major faction and one minor faction. That is it gives a special mechanic and makes it easier to pacify them. This is only available when assimilated. (I do not know if it fits the lore).

• Vaulters <-> Delvers (They love it nuder ground) : Allows to build a tunnel to their villages (1.b)
• Necrophags <-> Haunts (Undead) : If units are killed near a village of Haunts, they will be partly revived as Ended
• Drakken <-> Erycis (Dragons or something like that) : Village produce reserves
• Wild Walkers <-> Urces (Like the forest?) : Village produce reserves
• Broken Lords <-> Sister of Mercy (Noble Knights) : Having Justicere in the army increases the healing rate greatly.
• Ardent Mages <-> Silics (Magic) : Village produce reserves
• Roving Clans <-> Gauran (Having a Mitotaur pulling your cart is useful) : Each village increases the of trade routes.
• Cultists <-> None.
  
  

To counter that, each major faction should have minor faction which it cannot assimilate (it only can destroy the villages and rebuilt them according to (2.a)

• Vaulters <-> Silics : Since a Harmonite is more of a resource than a living being for them.
• Necrophags <-> Sisters of Mercy : Obvious.
• Drakken <-> Ceratan : Well Spiders eat flying things.
• Wild Walkers <-> Delvers : Since Delvers only use wood for there tunnels and hate forest.
• Broken Lords <-> Kazanji : Because Kazanji seem to be the evil for the broken lords.
• Ardent Mages <-> Jotus : Because they are profane and stupid beast.
• Roving Clans <-> Hurnas : Because a peace treaty is as unthinkable for an orc as is war for a clan member
• Cultists <-> Again none, therefore no bonus in the first place.
  
  

KrimsonVagus Idea for "Feuding Factions":

• Vaulters <-> Kazanji : The flame-bound Kazanji dislike the cold lands of the Vaulters. Vaulters hunt them down to make generators on their lava homes.
• Broken Lords <-> Silics : The Silics are "Harmonites". Just like the Harmony from Endless Space, they hate being exposed to Dust, and BL are made of Dust
• Ardent Mages <-> Ice Wargs : Ice Wargs hate the "fire magic" of the Mages. The Mages often torture the Wargs in their experiments, believing them to be primitive beasts.
• Roving Clans <-> Bos : The centaurs do not use currency (in traditional mythology), which makes them inaccessible to the commerce-loving Roving Clans
  
  

I would love to hear your comments.

Very interesting ideas. I definitely agree with wanting to be able to have more tile improvement types and different kinds of districts to give city planning a bit more flavor. I like the idea of crossroads a lot.



I also agree about heroes - I posted my own thread about getting non-mercenary heroes before reading yours. I didn't think of things like promotion/capturing/conversion; they could perhaps work if they were balanced right and not too random (what heroes you use should be a part of your strategy that you can plan for, since they are so central to the game and it is a strategy game) but just any kind of default hero-recruitment mechanic beyond just the market would be a huge deal in my opinion.

Love most of your ideas, really nice thoughts ! Im not sure about the special connection, but else it sounds good to me, especially about the heroes.

Interesting. I'll just throw my opinions at these ideas. My general thought is that a lot of the mechanics add more complexity than depth. Part of the beauty of EL is how it walks the line between too complex and too simplistic.



1a: See my first comment.

1b: An interesting idea. I could see it giving the ability to move an army in a city under siege to any district or exploitation hex if the unit spends its entire movement.

1c: I like this a lot. An expansion that can be placed anywhere in the region that acts as a "connection" for roads. It maintains the simplicity of the road system but gives more tactical options.

1d: No comment. I am sure the developers already have something in mind for this.

1e: I like this idea a lot. Ruins often get in the way of good city placement. The bonus should be quite small though since being able to build on it is already a pretty large advantage.

1f: How about the "native district" research adding the possibility to build a district on top of a village? It then turns into a district with a unique look and simply has the mechanics of both a district and a village. This is advantage enough and not further mechanics are needed, imo.





2a: This could be abused for some serious minmaxing.

2b: I agree that more interactions with assimilated villages would be nice, but keep it simple.



3a: More ways to acquire heroes does sound good, especially with Roving Clans in the game blocking your market, since for some factions heroes are vital at certain stages. I like II and IV the most since they involve less randomness.

3b: This might be a good idea but I am not sure it would be worth the effort most of the time since having two regions is often better than having one. The biggest objection I have is that you could use it to block someone from getting an expansion victory.

3c: No comment. I haven't really played Cultists yet.

3d: More options in diplomacy is always a good thing!

3e: Another thing that will rely too much on chance (if you spawn close to your favoured faction or not), and could set lucky people up with way too powerful combinations of passive abilities.

Thanks for the feedback!

@Rymdkejsaren You should definitly give the cultist a try. They only can have one city, so it will inevitably grow huge, hence the bastions.

For 2.a. one could just make it very expensive, because it can indeed give overpowered perks.

About 3.b.: If you have the military to defend such a double region, especially if it has the bastion-mechanic (which would be needed there), you could also just attack him. The thing is more aimed towards a economic plus, but beeing more vulnerable. But yeah, that would need to balanced

3.e: yeah maybe not the best idea, but I think a bit more diversity would be nice. That was the best I could come up with.

Wonderful suggestions so far. I have been keeping track of several other threads with similar topics. So now I will reply to your ideas based on the feedback we got from the other threads, just for future reference and perspective. Also, the devs and the community can pick the ideas which are easiest to apply as necessary...



Source threads:

1- More Buildings and techs: /#/endless-legend/forum/6-game-design/thread/3375-more-buildings-and-building-requirements-terrain-population-and-more

2- Brainstorming new technologies: /#/endless-legend/forum/6-game-design/thread/3364-brainstorming-new-tech-ideas



NOTE: By adding new features and corresponding technologies, the tech tree will increase in size and there will be more redundant technologies that must be replaced, removed or modified. Otherwise, to prevent radical changes to Science Victory >> Amplitude may have to reduce the cost of all technologies and increase the number of required techs for Era Advancement (if our suggestions are applied as new technologies)

Lemmy wrote:


a. Bastion

...............

b. Underground Hideout/Tunnel (Vaulters)



The Vaulters should be able to build a underground hideout into their own territory at any place. This would allow them to be hidden from the enemy, so they could suddenly show up behind his army, e.g. at a siege. Additionaly such a hideout could be connected by a tunnel, which allows soldiers to escape from a city under siege.

Similar ideas from previous threads:

1- Era 4 technology called "King of the Hill" for mountain-related improvements, unlocks:

a) "Tunnel Network": The city must have a mountain and/or 3 cliffs in exploitation. All your Armies in this region can now move through cliffs and mountains. Moving through mountains cost 3 movement points. Armies in mountains can not be attacked. The militia of connected regions with Tunnel Networks will reinforce each other regardless of distance. Trade Routes can bypass blockade by 50%.

b) "Shrine of the Endless": ((A construct that serves as both a temple to the ancients as well as a research facility to study fallen artifacts from the stars. Can only be built near mountain/ridge)). Gives +5% and +5% Influence per mountain tile in exploitation.



2- Era 2 or 3 technology called "Partisan Engineering" for enhanced defense options:

a) "Camouflaged Turrets": Militia units defending this city have +2 Attack and Damage per Watch Tower in this region, and another +2 attack and damage for every watch tower advancement technology you have researched.

b) "House Reinforcement": Militia units defending this city will gain +2 Defense per Level 1 district, +3 Defense per Level 2 District, and Level 3 districts grant an additional rank of the "Block" ability to militia up to a maximum. Militia units also gain +2 movement points.

Lemmy wrote:


c. Crossroads

........................

This is great for controlling the direction of trade routes. So this way, wherever the improvement is built it will redirect all roads to it, correct? I think it can be built from the city directly and placed anywhere in the province.

Lemmy wrote:


d. Higher District Levels

......................

We could combine multiple district-related improvements in the same technologies. For example, "Crossroads" and "Metropolis" (higher levels) can be unlocked with Era 3 "Population Boom" technology.

OR we could add the crossroads to the "Caravanserai" technology?

Lemmy wrote:


e. Integrate Ruins



When a district is built next to a ruin, one should be able to integrate the ruins into the city with a building. This could be faction-specific, for example:

..................

The building would then also gain level like a district.

I fully agree with this one

NOTE: Interactions with Ruins and integrating Minor Villages can be unlocked with its own technology, maybe?



A similar previous thread suggested the idea of "Archeological Digs" or "Ruin Reconstruction", which allows the Ruin District to provide a unique bonus to the city depending on the faction and type of ruin. Also, this thread suggested multiple types of archaeology digs (same for all factions):

/#/endless-legend/forum/6-game-design/thread/3341-idea-ancient-technology-digs



My suggested benefits for each faction:

- Roving Clans: +1 trade route on the city OR 20% trade route bonus on city (obvious choice, lots of trade route benefits for Roving Clans)

- Broken Lords: Reduced cost of buying population in this city (again, fits well with the faction mechanics)

- Necrophages: +2 per Worker per Pacified Village in this city (Same as faction bonus but this time for :industry

- Ardent Mages: +9 on Ruin District if it was Temple Ruins OR +9 if it was Unspoiled Ruins

- Vaulters: This city becomes immune to Winter effect on (same concept as the "Winter Shelter" improvement)

- Cultists: This city will automatically produce Nameless Guard or Fanatics (must be researched), just like a Minor Village (the produced units can't be retrofitted, and the city will randomly choose which one to build). OR just free district?

- Drakken: Enhanced Endless excavation ( +8 extra Influence ?)

- Wild Walkers: Stockpiles in this city can be built 50% cheaper



Also, if you capture a city already with a Ruin District, it will have the same bonus as the original owner? (the bonus will not change?)

Lemmy wrote:


f. Integrating Villages



When a district is built next to a village, it should be able to be integrated as a city part. Of course only if the village is an ally and the race is assimilated. The village then becomes a bastion (1.a) and the villager just becomes a regular citizen of the city.

(Cultist) ....................

I think there should be a special building or improvement to be built on the village, for balance purposes. In addition, maybe you can integrate the village if it was just pacified regardless of assimilation? Makes sense this way imo

Lemmy wrote:


2. Minor Faction Mechanics



a. Change village faction



When one destroys a village, it should be able to rebuild the village, with a different faction. That is, one sends over four units of the other factions, and commands them to rebuild it. This costs a lot of influence and then production for the reconstruction.



b. Interaction with integrated villages



There should be more interaction with integrated villages, like getting a small quest from time to time. Or a request for some resources and getting units in exchange. The village should then also be able to help defend the city when under attack.

Perhaps, these features can be introduced inside the technologies of "+1 Minor Faction assimilation slot"? (to save up space for other technologies)

Changing village faction sounds awesome. Not sure if the devs will agree to it though.. sounds like a lot of work

NOTE: there should be a way for other factions to still interact with the integrated Ruins and Villages. Otherwise, many quests might be destroyed and/or permanently frozen.

Lemmy wrote:


3. Global Mechanics



a. Heros



I think it is very lame to just buy heros. I would like to avoid that in any way, so that one has to earn heros. One would be more quest to get them, and one would also need additional mechanics to get them:



I. Birth

.......................

II. Promotion

......................

Not sure about these, tbh. Too many balance considerations and changed mechanics... although it sounds good on paper

Lemmy wrote:


III. Capturing



If a whole empire get's destroyed (or heros get dismissed), the heros will start wandering the land as outlaws (this may also be the case at the beginning of the game). They will try to assemble a wild army, but when kills his army and injures him, he might choose to join the empire, given an amount of dust.

This can be applied to the current Market mechanic. Heroes of destroyed factions will become available on the market, perhaps at a discount for the faction that destroyed them? They will keep all their equipment, level and skills... Although the "Roaming Hero" army concept sounds very exciting

Lemmy wrote:


IV. Conversion (Cultists)

............................

V. Asylum ..........................

:l

Lemmy wrote:


b. Join Regions

.......................

c. Expand Regions (Cultists)

........................

I think the devs originally intended the region borders to be permanently static in Endless Legend. Indeed, this is one of the game's defining features. Not sure if they will change their minds... even though it will certainly add even more depth and complexity to the game.

Lemmy wrote:


d. More Diplomacy



What I missed is the possibility of trading a war declaration. That is to ask another faction to declare war on a third empire, or to do so oneself, if it is with a common foe.

YES! And there are MANY other diplomacy and war options that need to be added, such as:

1- Liberating cities captured by other factions >> Give the city back to the original faction. Or the option to immediately "ransom" the city back to the original owner in exchange for resources, technologies etc...

2- Trading contact with other unmet factions

3- Allied Victory condition (and modified Diplomatic Victory for Alliances)

4- Allied armies can reinforce each other as long as BOTH players "Accept" the reinforcement. So for example, you get into a battle your friend's army is nearby and can reinforce. Both players will get a screen that will require their permissions. If they BOTH click the button of "Accept" or the "check" symbol next to the reinforcing army >> The army will reinforce and be controlled by the player of the Main Army for that battle ONLY

5- This older thread has more ideas about diplomacy and multiplayer. I highly recommend it, for future reference: /#/endless-legend/forum/6-game-design/thread/3314-discussion-more-options-and-features-for-multiplayer-team-battles

Lemmy wrote:


e. Special Connection to minor factions

.................

Lovely Might be a lot of work to add these, but it should carry over to the custom factions as well. We can call them "Favored Factions" (special connections) and "Feuding Factions" (can't assimilate)

Lemmy wrote:


To counter that, each major faction should have minor faction which it cannot assimilate (it only can destroy the villages and rebuilt them according to (2.a)

• Vaulters <-> Silics : Since a Harmonite is more of a resource than a living being for them.
• Necrophags <-> Sisters of Mercy : Obvious.
• Drakken <-> Ceratan : Well Spiders eat flying things.
• Wild Walkers <-> Delvers : Since Delvers only use wood for there tunnels and hate forest.
• Broken Lords <-> Kazanji : Because Kazanji seem to be the evil for the broken lords.
• Ardent Mages <-> Jotus : Because they are profane and stupid beast.
• Roving Clans <-> Hurnas : Because a peace treaty is as unthinkable for an orc as is war for a clan member
• Cultists <-> Again none, therefore no bonus in the first place.
  
  

This depends on if the devs agree on the mechanic of changing villages



My suggestions for "Feuding Factions":

Vaulters <-> Kazanji : The flame-bound Kazanji dislike the cold land

Thanks, I integrated some of the remarks. Maybe we should rather organize such ideas in topical threads (i.e. global mechanics, technologies etc.) so one can find an idea faster.

Hello Lemmy.



- I like your fertile imagination. I proposed too some suggestions here : Link. Feel free to comment these suggestions.



- To say your a global critic : yours ideas are more about creating new things than correcting the actuals problems and unbalanced things, which are very numerous. It would be better to concentrate on proposing precise ideas to correcting and balancing (or creating new ideas to do it) than to just create new ideas. I like your ideas, but that is my feeling. ^^



- I will comment them me too.

Lemmy wrote:
I had a few Ideas that could enhance the gameplay, though I love the game as it is. So I though, I'd just share them here.



1. More District Buildings



a. Bastion



A Bastion can be build onto a built district, increasing defense and allowing to put soldiers into garrison. When the city is attackted the soldies will only be used if they are in the region of the battle. That is: a city can be taken without taking each bastion, however the main city garrison has to be taken. If the latter happens, the garrison will still belong to the player the city was taken from, and on a possible recapturing of the city, they will have an attack bonus (the logic is, that they are behind the walls). If a bastion stands isolated it can also fall under siege. If a bastion is far enough away from the city, it should also be possible to take it before taking the main city, exploiting the attack bonus (breaking through the wall). If a city has several garrisons, the army can move from one to another in one round.



Good idea. It looks like this idea : *Campaign fortress : A single separated district which act as a zone of control which prevent any unit to pass by a 3 hexagone zone without passing by the fortress. The fortress have a garrison which you can use. One fortress max per region.



b. Underground Hideout/Tunnel (Vaulters)



The Vaulters should be able to build a underground hideout into their own territory at any place. This would allow them to be hidden from the enemy, so they could suddenly show up behind his army, e.g. at a siege. Additionaly such a hideout could be connected by a tunnel, which allows soldiers to escape from a city under siege.



Excellent idea. It suits very well to the vaulters. The problem is the vaulters now can use teleport so this idea would be useless : they can come immediately, and they don't need to hide units. If the vaulters would have slowers units (on the map), and no teleport, the idea of tunneling and hiding units could really be excellent for them.



c. Crossroads



The roads in the region are quite useful, especially for moving troops. It is however very impractical, that one cannot influence where they go. That could be helped, by allowing to construct crossroads, that is a field, where a road goes, an from which it is connected to the next region (or crossroad).

They might also provide an additional bonus for trade routes which use them, if one plays the Roving Clans.

The Crossroad is built from the city, but can be placed anywhere in the region.



I don't understand this idea. Anyway I think that improving road utility is useless because now, units are very fast even without road. In Civ you need road to fast move your units. In Endless Legend roads are a bonus, not a necessity.



If the units are slowdowned, buffing roads by creating special road buldnig could be cool but now I don't think.



d. Higher District Levels



Now I know, that district levels where decreased, since the higher ones were op. But why can't they be allowed and balanced by making them a point of research? That is era one allows researching level one district, era two level two, and so forth. That would then yield level 6 at max, which would then also cost a lot of research. As a bonus for the cultist, an additiontal level could be provided for them, and allowing them to start with lvl one researched. That is: they can build lvl two in era one, lvl three in era two, .... so they would at max be able to get lvl seven, which would be really op, but it's in the end game.



Idea of KrimsonVagus: combine the research, that is "Crossroads", "Metropolis" and "Population Boom"



Bad idea. Districts are now boring as system. You just build a triangle (or a special ardent mage district form to exploit the pillars at best) and it is over. I think the game should not only favorise this one boring type of geometric construction.



So, addining new level of district would not give us more choice, more path. What should be good, it would be to creating several new specialised district, and only autorise them if the land is here. Then we would have REAL city specialisation (now there is NO city specialization, they all can build everything, and swich in turn from industry focus to science focus for exemple). See these ideas : Link.







e. Integrate Ruins



When a district is built next to a ruin, one should be able to integrate the ruins into the city with a building. This could be faction-specific, for example:

- Roving Clans : Get and maybe artefacts off it since they are just looting it.

- Broken Lords : Rebuilding the temple, getting off it (hell do i know why).

- Necrophags : bonus, go figure.

- Ardent Mages : Rebuild the temple, getting .

- Vaulters : , since they just "enhance" the underneath dungeon.

- Cultists : They rebuild the temple and just integrate it in their city. I.e. a free district.

- Draken : Enhance Endless Excavation

- Wild Walkers : Nothing, doesn't fit their lore.

The building would then also gain level like a district.



Rymdkejsaren added that the bonus should be small, since they already provide a bonus.



Good idea. Due to the geometric forced city construction (the triangle), the ruins are always a pain for the players into the city planning. In the same way, the limit of the region are a pain too (but it is less a problem).



I think it would be simplier to make all ruins constructables (you can put a district over it). The ruins would be integrated to the city, as a kind of monument. And you keep the square bonus of the district.



The ruins could too give the kind of faction bonus that you proposed. But it is important to remove the pain of constructing blocing due to a ruin (not logical that is just a ruin not a mountain).



f. Integrating Villages



When a district is built next to a village, it should be able to be integrated as a city part. Of course only if the village is an ally and the race is assimilated. The village then becomes a bastion (1.a) and the villager just becomes a regular citizen of the city.

(Cultist) If the village was converted it will become keep producing units, though they are regular (not mecenaries) and the district will use it's own production for that (i.e. not produce anything).



Mediocre idea. As villages generally dont block city construction because they are on the corners of the regions, I don't really care about them. Villages already bring usefull bonus at the point of we nearly always rebuild them (so adding a new bonus would not create a new choice for the player).



Rymdkejsaren: as a research, maybe without assimilating.



For KrimsonVagus: if they are handled like a bastion, it would be able to capture it without taking the whole city.



2. Minor Faction Mechanics



a. Change village faction



When one destroys a village, it should be able to rebuild the village, with a different faction. That is, one sends over four units of the other factions, and commands them to rebuild it. This costs a lot of influence and then production for the reconstruction.



Bad idea. The bonus of minor factions would be too high. And if the devs limit this bonus, it would be useless to do the transformation. I think it's ok as it is now (we could too add events to randomly destroy a village and propose a reconstruction by the player which could pick another minor faction).



b. Interaction with integrated villages



There should be more interaction with integrated villages, like getting a small quest from time to time. Or a request for some resources and getting units in exchange. The village should then also be able to help defend the city when under attack.



3. Global Mechanics



a. Heros



I think it is very lame to just buy heros. I would like to avoid that in any way, so that one has to earn heros. One would be more quest to get them, and one would also need additional mechanics to get them:



I. Birth



There is just a probability of a hero being born at some point. This can then be influenced by some factors.

- Broken Lords : production

- Roving Clans : High luxury production

- Wild Walkers : High

- Cultists : Many converted villages

- Drakken : High

- Ardent Mages : High production

- Vaulters : High strategic production

- Necrophages : Slaughter. Much of it. (Increased Promotion Chance)



Good idea. It is right that it is not normal that heroes are only mercenaries. We should have the feeling of a faction opposition, in a fantasy world, so mercenary should be a minority.



But the problem is all the governors diversity require diverse heros race. Changing the system would require a huge transformation. So, for exemple, if necrophages can obtain new necrophages hero by killing some units, it means you ll obtain a random necro hero, and it can be very possible you don't need this necro hero (but you would need a dust production broken lord hero).



I think if the hero system if changed by the devs it will require a huge work. I would like to have a skill system and a alignement system as in Heroes IV of might and magic, but I don't think the game will change like that.



II. Promotion



If an army fights a battle, there is a chance, that one of the soldiers might become a hero. If that happens, the player may choose to promote him to such, which will cost dust and influence and of course the unit.



Bad idea. Randomness is bad if its about important things espcially in early game. Getting hero is very expansive and important so you cannot just give free 500 dust (price of a hero level 1) like that.



III. Capturing



If a whole empire get's destroyed (or heros get dismissed), the heros will start wandering the land as outlaws (this may also be the case at the beginning of the game). They will try to assemble a wild army, but when kills his army and injures him, he might choose to join the empire, given an amount of dust.



Funny idea. ^^



IV. Conversion (Cultists)



If the Cult find's a hero and destroys his army he might be able to convert him for influence. This is not limited to outlaws, but also to heros of enemy factions.

Also: converting roaming armies without a hero would be a very nice feature for the cultists.



Good idea. Very adapted to their background. I think the key element to convert could be to have at least of unit of the same race in your stack. For exemple, you need one hydras to convert barbarians hydras.



V. Asylum



Factionless heros wandering the land might also choose to join an empire with their army if the empire has a mighty army and is rich.



VI. Market



One could also keep the marketplace, but only for heros that are acutally sold. This can be accelerated by a war against an empire, so the latter cannot afford the heros anymore.



I dont understand.



VII. Era or Building



Since balancing issues were remarked, on could add a system, where at defined a point a hero is recruted. That maybe one per era or from special buildings.



b. Join Regions



If two cities in two regions have adjacent districts, they can join the regions into one. Thereby the citycenter of one city will be decreased to a normal district. This has the advantage that many buildings only need to be build once, but the obvious and huge disadvantage of a more difficult defense. That is, the city can be under siege much easier. Also the people will be much more unhappy.

Before one can do so, both regions need the same minor faction, as explained in 2.a.



Unpossible idea. I think the region system will stay as it is. Your idea would implicate that you can have 6 villages for one city, which is off course an overpowered bonus.



c. Expand Regions (Cultists)



When playing Cultists on a map with small regions, one cleary has a huge disadvantage. Hence it shall be possible to expand the territory into another one, if the other is not civilized (if one does that, he declares a war). This also only work

Yeah, my ideas rather go into a direction of an extension, that is an add-on.



For 2.a.: yeah, the bonus could get out of hand, but one could scale it. That is the bonus given by the first village of type X is decreased by let's say 0.95 for the second village. So when getting a bonus of 10 for village one, village two only gives 9.5 and village three only 0.9025. The whole Idea would only really be necessary if one could join regions, so only one minor faction is in the region.



To 3.a.II (Hero by Promotion): I do not think that has to be entirely random, rather one has a counter which is increased by killing enemies and at a certain point the promotion happens. The amount of "slaughter-points" to generate a new hero would then also increase the more you battle.

To VI. : I meant you can only buy a hero if another empire sells this one. This would happen more frequently if an empire is bankrupt, since he has to sell his units.

Also if the system is to random concerning the type of hero it would be able to implement a selection menu, which let's you choose between different heros.



I just had another Idea for that topic: one could make a distinguish between factions heros (generated) and mercenaries, by one simple principle: mercenaries quit service after being injured unlike the loyal ones.



Concerning 3.b: I don't think it's that overpowered, since you first would need to build the district connections and secondly are very easy to attack, i.e. fall under siege. Also if the bastion system would be implemented, one could take the city piece by piece. That could give much more depth to sieges.



To 3.e: Well no, not all regions are equally good, they have different resources so this would be expanded to minor factions. The only faction which would have a big disadvantage by that are the cultists, but they do not have a limitation.