In GC2, random events and mega events were there to stir the pot, and change the situation in the current game, often times dramaticly. And while I do enjoy the variety and uncertainty these bring, and the ability to destablize the balance of power they could be much more interesting in Elemental.
My biggest issue with random events, is that there is no way to prevent them, and there is generally only one way to deal with them. An allies leader is assassinated and you're implicated in the act, but you have no way to try and stop this from happening, or even attempting to talk your way out of it. Part of your empire is about to defect, and yet you have no idea the jagged knife exists or what they plan. Pirates swarm the galaxy, and somehow you were completely in the dark to the fact they were amassing a large powerful force.
I think the solution is actually rather simple, use quests as a means to prevent and as an alternate solution to some/most random events. The jagged knife is planning to defect, you send a hero to defeat their leader and stop the problem before it becomes one, or should you fail to do that, you recieve a quest from them with what you'll need to do for them to return your planets to you. You find out an assassin his heading for an allies leader, you move to protect your ally or even simply warn them. Pirates are building up, establish a stronghold in the area and take out their bases and send a hero after their leader before they get too strong.
Not all events should have a warning, if a portal suddenly appears for no apparent reason, it should do just that. And to even recieve warning in most cases should require the use of divination oriented magic, or good ol' fashion espionage. None of this type of information should just be thrown into the players lap unless it makes sense for the specific situation, advanced warning should be earned in some fashion. But even if you dont see it coming, it would be nice if there were more then one solid choice for dealing with events.
Nice. Going on quests to prevent such WTF moments and would keep the game from going into a grind fest and getting dull. not to mention getting a little heads would be nice.
Great idea. I believe questing was mentioned previously, but I like using it not only to gain benefits, but to prevent issues. Bonus!
If I were really smart, I'd have something to say about how an idea like this could help the 'problems' some of us have with time/calendars in TBS games. At the very least, I heartily agree that anything like a mega-event should have at least a chance of a warning tremor and an opportunity to pick up and run or whatever. Or maybe it isn't a chance of forewarning so much as a two classes of mega-events: Can Be Seen Coming and Whamo It's Happened.
The part where half your empire defects is one that kills me. I agree that one (or anything like it) should have some sort of warning, because the blow is just too great for my tastes.
I personally want major events like that one to have some sort of courcil meeting type thing as discussed in a few other threads. Where the heads of an alliance or the heads of the entire world get together in an emergancy meeting to figure out what to do about this new event.
thats a pretty cool idea, infact why just get quests to prevent mega events. maybe you should get a quest to help the mega event occur? like creating more public unrest to an enemy civ so that half of their empire rebels? know what im saying
The basic concept is that Quests should interact with Random/Mega Events.
Whether thats a quest to start an event in the world, or to stop it, I think it has alot of potential.
You could take it even further and have multiplayer quests, either competitve or cooperative. For instance, you could have each faction recieve a quest to get a magical item, and whomever completes the quest first, gains the item, which causes a minor beneficial event to occur for them. Or maybe a mystical creature awakens and starts rampaging through the world, human players gain a quest to stop it, while fallen get a quest to capture and use it for their armies. On the cooperative front, all empires, human and fallen could get a quest to stop an armageddon scenario, each faction having an objective to complete and unless everyone manages to do so, poof goes the world (or maybe the fallen want that )
So many possiblities! My head is spinning... hehe
well if you start to get too busy, make sure you're near something soft upon which to fall. So why don't you throw out some of these possibilties? (throw them at us, not in the garbage)
I'd help brainstorm with this post, but I'm crazy and tired right now and honestly shouldn't be doing things that arn't sleeping like checking forums.
quests to prevent mega-events I think should be a primary quest source. I'm so much more motivated to prevent a giant rampaging deamon from destroying my town in 100 turns than I am to please some random quest giver person who asked kinda nicely.
I just wanted to add... the ability for us gamers to modify or delete existing events and even add our own events will strongly increase replay value for the game.
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