Seralim Tribes: The Seralim Tribes are an indigenous nomadic race that practices Dust-fueled shamanism. They have the weakest cities in the game, but gain unique advantages by tapping the power of Endless ruins and temples in ever-larger numbers.



Aesthetic:





Overview: This is designed to be an underdog faction focused on exploration and clever use of terrain (especially Temples and Ruins). They will have difficulty gaining power in the traditional expansion route due to their unique city limitations and expansion penalties. However, The Seralim gain unique exploration - expansion synergies. Their Quest progression will target temples or ruins that are far away or in enemy territory and give bonii toward the network goal. [Questprogressionspeedcanbeusedtothrottlethisprocessasneededforbalance.]

The Dustdrinker Saga: For millennia, the Seralim Tribes have lived in harmony with their surroundings. Mystics within the tribe known as Dustdrinkers consume concentrated Dustwater, losing touch with the physical world but gaining potent visions of an energetic spirit world. While vulnerable in their trance state, they possess the unique ability to understand and activate Endless structures, much to the benefit of their fellow tribesmen. Some say the Dustdrinkers have even stranger abilities, unshared with outsiders …

Legends speak of heroic Dustdrinkers able to perform incredible feats, from erecting magical shields to making gardens bloom in winter. Legends of cataclysm are being recounted more frequently of late too, of endless winter and creeping darkness and the loss of knowledge and tribal culture. As the green plants huskify in the winter dark and the wilderland animals grow hungry, the Seralim feel the pressure of the coming cold. Some distant tribes have already lost touch with their Endless roots, raiding others in the winter when the Dustdrinkers should be helping maintain the local ecosystem. There are even reports of organized cannibalism in the fringes of Tribe land …

There is a recognition among your people that, regardless of next steps, the old ways are no longer adequate. A number of nearby tribes have established a cooperative settlement composed of individuals from every tribe. It is hoped this new tribe can bring a spiritual and creative rebirth to the Seralim peoples, and perhaps uncover the hidden powers of the Endless that only the Legends themselves speak of ...

Dustdrinkers (Affinity): The Dustdrinker caste possess the ability to intuitively manipulate Endless control mechanisms. For a one-time Dust fee and an 8 turn charge time (4 with hero), Seralim units can awaken Endless Temples and Ruins. The player’s network of Awakened Temples and Ruins gets more powerful as it grows, providing powerful abilities.

Sustainable Gathering (Trait): The Seralim draw very lightly upon the resources of the land, using their bond with Auriga to skim from the planet’s abundance without upsetting nature’s balance. City districts work all tiles within 2 hexes, but FIDS output reduced by half (rounded down). Enemy cities lose half of their districts upon capture.

Tribal Decentralization (Trait): No Seralim of the past could have conceived of the current cooperation efforts, and many are still opposed. Vast efforts are wasted in dealing with these recalcitrant tribal chiefs. District construction costs 50% more, cities generate 50% less influence, expansion disapproval grows 25% faster, and only the capital city center can become Level 2.

Nomadic Hunter-gatherers (Trait): Because of their prowess living off the land, it takes much less effort to establish new cities. Settlers are 30% cheaper and Luxury Resource extractors are 50% cheaper.

Each Awakened Temple and Ruin also provides vision within 1 hex and allows a small garrison, and will function indefinitely barring destruction by an opposing faction (whereupon it reverts to a normal Temple or Ruin).



Awakened Network Status (Mechanic): The Network grows increasingly powerful and unlocks new tiers of abilities. The first Awakened structure moves the Network into the Red Status; to get to higher tiers, the player needs to Awaken a certain percentage of the world’s Endless Temples and Ruins. There is a minimum empire happiness to each level on top of the Awakened requirement, to reflect that Dust Drinkers are dependent on a stable social order to be productive.

Red (first Awakened building): Capital city vision increased by 4.

Orange (5% Awakened, Content): Anomalies revealed within all regions that border any player city with an Awakened Temple. +6 defense on player units in home territory.

Yellow (15% Awakened, Content): Winter sight penalty negated on all player units in a region with an Awakened Ruin. Each Awakened structure grants +5% to that region’s city FIDS total during summer (regardless of ownership).

Green (25% Awakened, Happy): Winter Dust penalty negated on all player cities with an Awakened Temple. Each Awakened structure grants +1 FIDS yield on anomalies in that region (regardless of ownership).

Blue (35% Awakened, Happy): Winter Science penalty negated on all player cities with an Awakened Temple. Awakened Ruins create free roads in friendly and neutral regions.

Indigo (45% Awakened, Fervent): All cities with an Awakened Ruin get a force field that blocks incoming enemy units from besieging the city until the Ruin is destroyed (costs besieged player Dust equal to siege strength). Each Awakened structure grants +2 FIDS yield on anomalies in that region (regardless of ownership).

Violet (55% Awakened, Fervent): Friendly units in regions with both an Awakened Ruin and an Awakened Temple are immune from winter effects. Each Awakened structure grants +5% to that region’s city FIDS total during summer (regardless of ownership).

White (65% Awakened, 100% Approval): Winter Food penalty negated on all player cities with an Awakened Temple. Awakened structures gain an extra two garrison slots, two free respawning militia, and +3 vision.



Military: The Seralim starting unit is the Dustdrinker, a reconnaissance / support unit that gets a combat bonus if there are Ruins or Temples nearby. They get the Dusthund, a monstrous cavalry-style dog that drinks Dustwater, as their Era 2 unit; it gets a combat bonus and free counter against any unit that uses Dust in combat. Their Era 3 unit is the Dustranger, a strong ranged unit that gets a large advantage for being on high ground.

Starting Tech: Language Square and Search Ruins.

External Affairs: Militarily, the Seralim are most vulnerable in the early-mid game, as they have significant economic penalties. However, they are less immediately threatening than the Cultists and Necrophages despite a similar expand-or-die dynamic, because they don’t care about Minor Factions. Moreover, they can Awaken the Temples and Ruins in other empires’ lands; hence they fill a niche between competitive expansion and nuanced diplomacy. They don’t directly conflict with most empires’ goals, so with some flexibility and luck they can scrape through the early stages and be ready to expand when the winter really starts to bite.

AI Strategy: Other players will be forced to make a choice between engagement and containment. Eventually the Awakened Network will be so powerful that they can expand with impunity, using free roads to connect distant, Anomaly-rich strongholds. Hence players might want to send expeditions to de-activate the temples early on (no declaration of war necessary if no garrison is present). At the same time, Seralim investments in Endless Temples and Ruins can provide tremendous benefits to their allies and they can be solid junior partners in a world-conquering team.

Preferred Victory: Wonder, Diplomatic, Expansion. The Seralim Tribes have a strong interest in pursuing their quest line, as it will prod them towards bold and interesting choices. They are also natural diplomats, simply because they’re much weaker at the start. The Seralim can go for expansion as well … but they have to be careful because their Awakened Network benefits are dependent on minimum levels of happiness.

Rudest wrote:
ooooo! Interesting, can't wait to see!

Children of Ice

Yeah, really need to get into this one. Also love the above drawing on SE Asian architecture. Cambodian style temples really invoke the imagination.

I'll have a little try



Faction: The Silence

Aesthetic: Cloak & Dagger



Description

The Silence are a cult-like organisation with a special affinity for stealth. Where some might benefit from gathering information about their enemies, the Silence benefit from obscuring information about themselves. As Silent warrriors favour subtlety, they generally wield light weapons (with no shield). Silent armies are weaker on average, but must be approached carefully, as they are not always what they seem.



Units

T1: Acolyte (single dagger): cheap, fast, weak, cannot be counterattacked

T2: Warden (crossbow): fast, high attack, low defence

T3: Zealot (spectral greatsword/scythe): expensive, immune to magic, high damage, splashes to one adjacent target



Passive abilities

Cloaked: One cannot discern the tier of units in an enemy silent army -- to to an outsider, all Silent units look like hooded figures until combat is initiated. This means that a scouting party of meek acolytes must be treated with the same respect as a raiding party of potent zealots. Similarly, one cannot discern the population of silent towns.

Just a blur: Silent armies will not show unit count at the very edge of your vision radius

Meticulous Analysis: +2 vision range (early awareness helps the silence choose a stealth tactic)



Active abilities (cost dust & have cooldowns)

Intimidate: Silent armies appear larger than they are for 6 turns (plus two units)

Conceal: Silent armies appear smaller than they are for 6 turns (minus two units)

Vanish: Selected silent army turns invisible for 4 turns (any action or movement will make them visible again), this can be used for setting traps, or hiding while you wait for reinforcements.



Playing as the Silence will involve early detection of threats, then puffing up your chest when you are feeling scared, playing innocent when you have a strong hand, setting ambushes, and other general mindgaming . Playing against the Silence will require patience and game sense.

Skinchangers



An espionage themed, infiltration focused faction designed to surprise the players and keep them on their toes.



Not every lifeform on Auriga is macroscopic. The recent cataclysms have unleashed a plague on the inhabitants of Auriga. Many of those infected choose to die. Some, however, have chosen to replace their own gangrenous flesh with that of Auriga's more fortunate denizens.

• Assume the apparent identity of another faction to hide their true factional identity at the beginning of the game, presumably through the diplomatic interface
• Maintain multiple separate empires for purposes of border colors and diplomacy, a new one with each capital they take
• Take over diplomatic functions of factions when they take their capital
• Faction units are bannerless like Privateers
• Starting unit are Fleshless, who have hidden health-- when they kill another unit, the Fleshless unit appears to die but in fact infiltrates the unit killed, taking on its stats, benefitting from future retrofits, and providing vision
• At any point the Skinchanger player may give an order to an infiltrated unit, a fully infiltrated army, or a city defended only by infiltrated militia and garrisons, at which point the infiltrated unit, army, or city becomes affiliated with the Skinchanger player
  
  

Inspired by a game where I saw Roving Clans massing factional troops on my border and thought, "Boy, good thing they can't declare war-- but what if they weren't actually Roving Clans?"

Gameplay is different enough that there are a lot of details and corner cases that need filling.

I noticed a suggestion made by godman85 to make the sisters of mercy a full fledged faction here and I thought it was a pretty good concept

I'll copy/paste it out here just to get things rolling.



The Sisters of Mercy

Affinity:

The Sisterhood of Mercy: The sisters are unable to pacify Minor factions but are immune to attack from them because they saved them long ago. This, however is not true for empires. The Sisterhood does not believe in conquest but in a defensive war, they will show their enemies that it is better to fight for a cause then to fight for greed.

When the sisters conquer a city, the AI or Player is replaced with an AI that is allied to the sisters faction. There will be no expansion penalty and their new alliances will generate X amount of research and dust per turn. In other words, they pacify factions. They also are able to build that faction's units if they pacify their capital.

Traits:

The Champions of Auriga: All units trained by the sisters go through inoculation making them all immune to all debuffs except stuns and slows.



Noble Warriors: A random hero is generated every 30 turns. Unable to use the marketplace for mercenaries or heroes. Pacified Factions can gift heroes for influence.



Jihadi Loyalty: Minor factions will leave their cities and join forces to crush enemies of the Sisterhood. Only the haunts will not swear loyalty. Only active if enemies are in sisterhood territory and player has no control over minors.



Units:

Sister of Force: Known as the inquisitors of their people. These no nonsense women hold nothing back in battle to make sure this world lives in peace. This infantry unit has immunity to all forms of CC while being agile and gets a free counter.



Companion Cavalry: These men left civilization many years after the sisters in order to help them. After finding out they were doing great, they joined forces with the sisters but still must prove themselves worthy to bare the children of the sisters. This cavalry unit is heavily armored and demands attacks from adjacent units. Its armor increases by 25% per hit and is reset at the end of the turn.



Sister of Mercy: These women were the healers of all of Auriga and the best doctors on the planet. Their expertise in the field is amazing. These Support Units have an initiative of 0 but have a special ability which allows them to switch target to whomever is low in health or disabled and heals them to full HP. This ability has a 2 turn cool down but if a free move.

I've got my own take on how Sisters of Mercy should work as a major faction;



=Sisters of Mercy Affinity: Mercy and Wrath=

=Victory Condition: Quest =



Essentially your affinity grants you the ability to commit "Acts of Mercy" or "Acts of Wrath."



Acts of Mercy: Pacifying villages, rebuilding villages, completing parlay quests, sending compliments, signing peace treaties, signing Alliance agreements.



Acts of Wrath: Destroying villages in territory that you own (rebuilding them cancels the wrath benefits), sending Warnings, declaring wars, breaking peace treaties, breaking alliance.



*Cancellation: Acts of Mercy will cancel out benefits from Acts of Wrath. Acts of Wrath will cancel out benefits from acts of Mercy.



What Acts do:



They either provide a local territory buff or an empire wide buff depending on the action. The corresponding action (Compliment vs. Warning for example) will cancel out the equal but opposite buff granted by its antonym.





Main Quest:



The Sister Superior in charge has secretly become host a dark entity. She found an old tome, the Book of Kurtiz, that had been previously cut from their teachings and so she decides to preach t's balanced teachings of Mercy and Wrath in a desperate attempt to end her dual minded duress, as supposedly the only cure is to seek that balance somewhere betwixt the pages. Each chapter of the story will be told about the Sister Superior/Cannoness/Sister Saint/High Priestess (whoever a Sister's leader would be adressed as in the lore) exploring these teachings with her people. Inflicting whatever changes may come in hopes of saving her own soul and her people's future.





Your main quest is tied directly to this. It defines who you are. In fact, each act of Mercy and Act of Wrath will do nothing at all until you've completed corresponding the quest. What does this mean? This means that Sisters players will want to focus on their quest progress because not doing so will hurt them the most. This is because the quest more or less defines the bonuses and values that will make or break them as an empire.



Example Quest: The very first quest will be rather you want to destroy the village in capital city's territory or pacify them by way of bribe or parlay quest. The Quest has two different outcomes.



Wrathful Outcome: If the player decided to be Wrathful then having burn't down cities in your territories from that point forward will grant an XP bonus for troops built there. If you decide to rebuild the cities, then they will instead give an incremental +% Production bonus to units only.



Merciful Outcome: If you chose the Merciful way of completing the quest, by pacifying the village then from now on Pacified villages will generate a small amount of influence per turn. Destroyed villages will instead give a happiness bonus per destroyed village in your territory.



What this means for your empire:



From that from that point forward you can commit either of these acts of Mercy or Wrath. But each one of has a branch of bonuses completely dependent on how you handled the first situation to determine what either act will give as bonuses. When you choose wrath first then bonuses do tend to be more military slanted. When you choose mercy first then both bonuses tend to be about growth or diplomacy.



The next quest line would determine what would happen when you send compliments or warnings to other players. Now.. You could choose Mercy or Wrath again----this would add a temporary 5 turn empire wide buff to your empire... And again the buffs will be completely dependent on what you choose to do first... But if you are still on the first quest and haven't completed this quest at all? Then you get no special benefits from sending compliments or warnings, as they have not been defined yet. Playing the main quest will be like "Discovering the Acts"



This affinity is to support a "Quest Victory" condition that would set it apart from the other victory type-focuses of other races. It also represents the dichotomy between the duality of Sisters' fluid demeanor. You could easily transition into diplomatic or war depending on how you decide to play off of your bonuses. Everyone will think your schizo and crazy because that's sort of the nature of the Sisters... They are zealot and as such their brand of Mercy is often indistinguishable from a helping hand and spear through the neck.



Faction Specific Tech:



Those Purged, Those Exalted: After it's researched this tech would allow you to spend industry production in your city to destroy a village. It would take the exact same amount as building one. When you tear down a village you get an industry stockpile. When you build one up you get 15 influence points. This tech would help the player slide between Wrath and Mercy gameplay on the fly.



Conclusion:



It's more or less inspired by Harmony gameplay in Endless Space and the dual-nature of the Sisters, as well as seeking to grant them their own identity through a victory type.



Instead of a bar controlling your empires focus like the Harmony did? Your actions do! And this would be fantastic and fun in Endless Legends questy atmosphere. Making you seem.. Well. Unstable. Since you're constantly sending compliments to people only to warn them five turns later or maybe you've burned down every village you see but when it comes to the first main faction you meet you advocate for peace? You could roam Auriga.. Exalting the worthy and purging the unworthy at whim. Emphasis on the whim. Some people might play by more consistent bonuses others might stick to just Wrath or Just Mercy. You would never know what to expect from a Sisters' player. Not to mention, the main story would have DotE roots. Who wouldn't be down for that?

KrimsonVagus has been working on an Aquatic Major faction for a while now: Naga/Typhons. He's also been working on some water terrain to expand the game and to go along with aformentioned amphibians.



And since I'd be insane not to shill myself: my Dark Season faction (which has admittedly not had as much work put into it, since I've been busy with: work; health issues; other games; the police looking for me; the voices urging me to set fire to another orphanage;...).

Ahhh! A fellow MtG player. Woot woot. <3



A faction that thrives in winter has crossed my mind. But. That's usually a small percentage of time spent in the game.

I supposed they would want to stall the game out for the longer more frequent winters to come along.



Or.. Eventually develop tech that enables a structure that turns their territories into winter-like conditions/climate. Which could be interesting especially if your units don't have drawbacks in the winter.

It would make your territories easily defensible and a pain to invade.



I think thematically they need to be some sort of polarized/winterized creatures, machines, something like the Hurnas or even something akin to the Ended. Something that thrives on cold or has simply adapted to it. If it were something barbaric like the orcs, then perhaps they have tech-shamans that don't realize they are operating tech and instead believe it to be magic. A Virtual Endless sealed in some sort of idol might even be manipulating them into thinking it's a god. Your main quest could be centered around recovering the knowledge of how construct "weather control altars" to please your "god".. When you're really just rediscovering how to use weather machines or terraformation devices left behind by the Endless to fuffil that rogue Virtual's goal. >.>

Rudest wrote:
Ahhh! A fellow MtG player. Woot woot. <3



A faction that thrives in winter has crossed my mind. But. That's usually a small percentage of time spent in the game.

I supposed they would want to stall the game out for the longer more frequent winters to come along.



Or.. Eventually develop tech that enables a structure that turns their territories into winter-like conditions/climate. Which could be interesting especially if your units don't have drawbacks in the winter.

It would make your territories easily defensible and a pain to invade.



I think thematically they need to be some sort of polarized/winterized creatures, machines, something like the Hurnas or even something akin to the Ended. Something that thrives on cold or has simply adapted to it. If it were something barbaric like the orcs, then perhaps they have tech-shamans that don't realize they are operating tech and instead believe it to be magic. A Virtual Endless sealed in some sort of idol might even be manipulating them into thinking it's a god. Your main quest could be centered around recovering the knowledge of how construct "weather control altars" to please your "god".. When you're really just rediscovering how to use weather machines or terraformation devices left behind by the Endless to fuffil that rogue Virtual's goal. >.>

Yeah, my original intention was for a faction that starts out weaker than the other factions, but would become stronger as the game went on and the winters became longer and harsher for everyone else, while this faction suffered during the summers and became stronger during the winters. I just never managed to strike upon a way to balance it properly.



As for a theme, I considered some sort of ice elemental (although I was afraid they'd look too similar to the Silics), but some sort of barbarian race also appealed to me (see the Temur that I mention in the link in my previous post, and here and here). Unfortunately, the latter feels a little... ok, really unoriginal.

Buzzkillington1990 wrote:
Yeah, my original intention was for a faction that starts out weaker than the other factions, but would become stronger as the game went on and the winters became longer and harsher for everyone else, while this faction suffered during the summers and became stronger during the winters. I just never managed to strike upon a way to balance it properly.

They already exist and they called the vaulters.

Nasarog wrote:
They already exist and they called the vaulters.

Quit raining on my parade!



But seriously, I can see the similarities, that's why I said that the faction needs more work.

In winter it never rains. :P To make it less like the vaulters all you need to do is change the gameplay strategy from turtling until science victory to something else. An offensive winter-based faction wouldn't be so bad.

Buzzkillington1990 wrote:
KrimsonVagus has been working on an Aquatic Major faction for a while now: Naga/Typhons. He's also been working on some water terrain to expand the game and to go along with aformentioned amphibians.

I'm not too sure, but I think this concept may be OP. If you have an aquatic faction that can settle on water tiles, and it alone possesses that ability, it can safely settle the sea tiles with few worries. Other factions will see little benefit in conquering them as they wont be able to keep their water cities. With some tweeking, I could see these guys still working with their wetlands, river, oasis requirement... perhaps they could even be given winter buffs somehow to help compensate for their no longer having water cities.

HappyHead wrote:
I'm not too sure, but I think this concept may be OP. If you have an aquatic faction that can settle on water tiles, and it alone possesses that ability, it can safely settle the sea tiles with few worries. Other factions will see little benefit in conquering them as they wont be able to keep their water cities. With some tweeking, I could see these guys still working with their wetlands, river, oasis requirement... perhaps they could even be given winter buffs somehow to help compensate for their no longer having water cities.

Hmmm, maybe it doesn't come across, but my suggestion in that thread was for the Aquatic Faction to start with the ability to build cities on water tiles, and everyone else needs to research it later. Sort of like how the Roving Clans start with all the Market Technologies researched.



Eidt: Think of it as being similar to the ability the Nautilus Pirates start the game with in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

Buzzkillington1990 wrote:
Hmmm, maybe it doesn't come across, but my suggestion in that thread was for the Aquatic Faction to start with the ability to build cities on water tiles, and everyone else needs to research it later. Sort of like how the Roving Clans start with all the Market Technologies researched.



Eidt: Think of it as being similar to the ability the Nautilus Pirates start the game with in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

Ahhh, I see. But if that's the case a system would have to be added to allow for aquatic battles... and there may still be balance issues



For battles, should all units work as normal and just be replaced with boat icons so as to avoid adding separate water units? In normal battles, water acts as a barrier doesn't it? Should that change? Could special circumstances be added to aquatic battles to add to their complexity since everything will be flat?



Moving on water tiles isnt available until era 2. trading on them not until era 3. Waterciv could start with them, but what if they need to research the ability to go on land in era 2? That way, their guarenteed safety in era 1 and most of era 2 is somewhat mitigated by they also being unable to touch others. And if settling water cities is a researchable tech, shouldn't the waterciv need to research being able to go on land and settle? As a unique tech, where should that be?



Should strategics and luxuries be available at sea? Or could their absence add to the complexity of waterciv playstyle?

So, I know the game isn't exactly to the point where new playable factions are in the near future, but since each Faction has a unique playstyle and ability I thought it would be interesting to see how many functional concepts we could all come up with. It also makes for an interesting thought exercise



The challenge comes in because each major faction is very different from the others in their own unique way.

Unlike a custom faction, this is about entirely new factions.

Who knows? With any luck, a dev may see an idea they really really like and it may be adapted and added into the game in some way at a WAY later date... or the modders could have a field day once the tools become available.



Each suggestion should have:

(0. optional) a unique aesthetic/art style, loose lore

1. a unique affinity (like Holy resource, power through pain, high seat of the queen, etc.)

2. a set of traits that play off of this affinity, but could also be set up to make interesting custom factions. While I'd personally recommend that these traits be entirely unique, I also see no reason why some established traits couldn't just be re-used. These traits may include unique tech to be researched.

3. a general outline of their three military units

(4. optional) Favored victory condition





Feel free to quote others and think of balancing fixes or slight changes/additions to any aspect.

I tried thinking it over myself and couldn't come up with any real interesting concepts, so I'm interested to see what others can come up with. I'm hoping to see some really interesting ideas.



FACTIONS BEING TALKED ABOUT AND MENTIONED

Sisters of Mercy as a full faction Mostly talked about in this thread

Water Based Faction Seperate Forum Here

"Skinwearers" Espionage faction

"Plague Bearers" Stockpile War Faction (Necrophages 2.0) Seperate Forum Here

Faction that benefits from winter so it "snowballs" as winter becomes more common. XD

"Decadent Court" Expansion Faction Separate Forum Here

"Dredgers Guild" Hero-Spam Faction

natev wrote:
Skinchangers



An espionage themed, infiltration focused faction designed to surprise the players and keep them on their toes.



Not every lifeform on Auriga is macroscopic. The recent cataclysms have unleashed a plague on the inhabitants of Auriga. Many of those infected choose to die. Some, however, have chosen to replace their own gangrenous flesh with that of Auriga's more fortunate denizens.

• Assume the apparent identity of another faction to hide their true factional identity at the beginning of the game, presumably through the diplomatic interface
• Maintain multiple separate empires for purposes of border colors and diplomacy, a new one with each capital they take
• Take over diplomatic functions of factions when they take their capital
• Faction units are bannerless like Privateers
• Starting unit are Fleshless, who have hidden health-- when they kill another unit, the Fleshless unit appears to die but in fact infiltrates the unit killed, taking on its stats, benefitting from future retrofits, and providing vision
• At any point the Skinchanger player may give an order to an infiltrated unit, a fully infiltrated army, or a city defended only by infiltrated militia and garrisons, at which point the infiltrated unit, army, or city becomes affiliated with the Skinchanger player
  
  

Inspired by a game where I saw Roving Clans massing factional troops on my border and thought, "Boy, good thing they can't declare war-- but what if they weren't actually Roving Clans?"

Gameplay is different enough that there are a lot of details and corner cases that need filling.

I really like the general idea of misdirection and espionage that this idea offers, but I feel like a faction specifically tailored for it is just a bit too narrow as, in live games, people can easily determine who's who (unit looks like mine, on my land, can't control it, dont remember it, SPY! WARN EVERYONE!) With stuff like that, it may be underpowered when actually put into practice or waaay overpowered depending on the mechanics behind that taking over an army thing...



While i like it, I feel like this is more of a cry out to the need for more misdirection in game for all players. Mercenaries should be available the moment the merc market is made available. That way, everyone is capable of using them, increasing the level of intrique in the game AND effectively buffing the roving clans because they are less likely to be the only ones using flaggless mercs. Fake armies of other players could be made by making merc armies using units specific to another faction.

A spy system could be made in another system by researching tech to corrupt a unit in another person's army, but that's a bit too far to think about now.....



Anyways, I think adding these systems as part of the game for everyone would be a better move than just adding them to a specific faction. Though, maybe there could be a faction made more tailored to it than most.... perhaps your skin wearing faction could be modified in some way to be really interesting if mercs were more plentiful in game...

HappyHead wrote:
people can easily determine who's who (unit looks like mine, on my land, can't control it, dont remember it, SPY! WARN EVERYONE!)

The idea is that the infiltrated player could control them-- up until the point that the infiltrating player exerted control, at which point they would irrevocably become a Skinchanger unit.

Anyways, I think adding these systems as part of the game for everyone would be a better move than just adding them to a specific faction.

I feel that Endless Legend allows what combination of depth and simplicity it offers by making mechanics that are unique to factions. Some Fleshless might make it into the mercenary market, though, just as Proliferators do.

I think another faction which interacts with food and manipulates that would be interesting.



The Plaguebearers. An undead faction of flesh-bound corpses dedicated to the spread of entropy and decay, gearing them towards an expansion victory. Their affinity for spreading undeath makes them adept at crippling the expansions of competing factions, but makes them unsuitable for the assimilation of minor factions



Aesthetic - Northern British, Celtic, Norse and Irish influences. Steep, triangular wood roofs on districts. Exploitations ringed in hengeworks and headstones. An intermingling of runes and knotwork adorning armour, only slightly tattered from use by the boil-ridden, lacerated cadaver that is its owner.



Vector of Infection: All faction units and heroes disease immune

Starve a Cold: Does not use food to increase population.

City Sepulchres: Population increased by the deaths of the living. living units killed in combat are added as population to the nearest city. all unit production decreases population in the city by 1 (as it does with settlers). Settler production does not arrest food production

Body bags: population can be swapped between cities in the city management screen (disabled for a city under siege)

Feed a Fever: Food gathered is automatically stockpiled for propagation of rot and decay-based spells and effects

On city effect: Miasma - select a city to cause an outbreak of a virulent disease to ravage the region, causing 10x(number of stockpiles used) in damage to all non-immune units within the region at the end of each turn for 5 turns, including minor faction camps. Useful for pacification of new regions, breaking sieges, dissuading roving major factions without closing borders

On city effect: Outbreak - Enemy cities in adjacent regions suffer an epidemic of The Plague, suffering -10*(Tech Era of Plaguebearers) food on city -10 on Era 1, -20 on Era 2, -30 on era 3, etc. Starting in era 3 this ability should effectively prevent other factions from settling near The Plague, creating space for the faction to expand even in later Eras

On army effect: Biogenesis - Select an army to bestow 2 ghoul units. Ghouls are weak melee fighters which ignore army size limit, possess the "fast" as well as the "cannibalize" promotion, which heals the ghoul to full if they land the killing blow on an enemy

During combat effects: Pollute the battlefield with a selection of noxious vapours, debuffing the enemy army with the appropriate rank of unsteady, exhaustion or slow within an area of effect for 3 turns. level 2 research modifies the spells with the addition of 10% damage to affected units per round. Possible Spell names: Plague Exhaustion, Lethargy of Undeath, Kalluf's Shakes, etc.

Plagued Caravans: Outgoing trade routes to other major factions reduce the health of those cities, giving -2 food per population



Let it Burn - cannot rebuild minor faction villages. (units killed in the village are already contributing to city population as cadavers)

No Love for the Living: Only 1 assimilation slot on faction, available at tech era 2 (with the exception of Haunts, Silics and SoM, use of minor faction units is almost unmanageable for this faction, since miasma and the censer effectively prevent their use in regional defense or use in faction armies)



Plaguebearer Questline: Unique questline for the Plaguebearers faction. Early in the questline, provides a unique faction-only trinket: Censer of The Plague. can only be used by faction units and heroes. Army self-inflicts 10 disease damage to all units if not immune (including if in city garrison). Army with a Censer prevents FIDSI on enemy terrain, including city tiles, within a 2-tile radius. Also prevents extraction of luxury and strategic resources within this radius. If on a road, army halves the output of all enemy trade routes beginning and terminating in that region. Later quest includes innoculation tech for hero units, granting disease immunity to all heroes



Unique Units:

Draugr - sturdy ranged unit (range of 2). High hit points and attack, low damage, defense and initiation. Equips 1-handed axes, shields, and crossbows. can use axes as throwing weapon

Dullahan - Quick cavalry unit. Has the "Fast II" and "Ghostly" promotion, which allows the Dullahan to pass through enemy units, ignoring zone of control, but does not ignore terrain like "Fly". high initiative, high damage, high defense, low hp and attack. Equips spears and 1 handed swords (it's off-hand is needed to hold its head!)

Plague Horror - Infantry unit. unsightly horror composed of many corpses cobbled together. the appendages of dozens of bodies have been fastened around the circumference of a gaping, toothless maw where its torso should be. Has the "slow" and "consuming hunger" promotions. The first non-hero unit attacked (must be on attack) is eaten whole, and will die if The Plague wins, but return if the opposing faction wins. The unit will return to the owner at half health if the battle is a draw. If the Plague Horror is killed during combat, any unit eaten reappears in the same tile as the deceased horror and will return to combat unharmed, but be stunned for that round. The Horror has very high hp, very high defense, average attack and damage, and 0 base initiation. Equips claws and Claymores



Hero Template: Lich - Ranged support hero - Emaciated, mummified corpse. low hp and defense, high initiation and damage. Can cast reanimate on fallen friendly or enemy units 1 time per battle. Reanimated units start at full hp and take 50% damage at end of each round. The reanimated unit has "Shock 1" Promotion.

Faction hero skills - skills focus on +food %. +10, 30, 45% hp on units at tier 4. Ability to cast reanimation twice per battle unlocked tier 4. 1.5x effectiveness on city for effects of Miasma and Outbreak on tier 5.



Thought it would be good to have a faction with a hard crowd control, in keeping with The Plague's focus on debilitating other groups. Strategy would be to have Draugr soaking initial damage, and use your Dullahan to steal initiative from a target unit to prevent your Horrors from losing initiative on engulfing units