As we move towards release many of the assets in the beta make their exit. We shall miss them (well, maybe not).
The finished quests start to get put into place, the finalized notable locations begin to be inserted and the unreleased spell books and special abilities start to get implemented.
The beta program has largely been about testing out systems and mechanics. Some mechanics, like the per city level building limiter, didn’t survive. Others, like influence based resource control, replaced them.
Memory Problems
The area we need the most help on right now has to do with out of memory issues. This is something we’re very concerned about because it’s not easily repeatable (but very easy for those who run into it). So we’ll be asking users who run out of memory to get us their debug.err and their saved games so we can look at it. It could be as simple as some building in the game taking up some crazy amount. It shouldn’t be hard to track down something that eats up over 100 megabytes per turn (or so you’d think anyway).
The other area we’d like to hear from you are all your ideas, suggestions and wish lists. We want to make sure Elemental is something really special on day 1 as well as set the game on the path to evolving over time.
New Quests
One of the types of quests that I’m enjoying are the ones where you have to collect various items and bring them back to someone to get them made into a special item. I’m looking at adding the ability to trade these items between players so if the AI players have found Midnight Stones (for instance) and you need one more to get the boots of eternal dodging then you can trade with them for that midnight stone (and vice versa if they need something the AI can come to you and try to trade for it).
Special Abilities
Here’s a sampling of some of the special abilities we’re putting in:
Poison Shot Tangled Web Vengeance Sanctuary Deadly Bite Immunity Blink Rain of Stone Flame Strike Maul Sprint Savage Strike Confusion Drowning Strike Crushing Blow Dominate Hurricance Backstab Tremor Searing Attack Agonizing Fear
But if you have your own special abilities you’d like to see, go ahead and post them and explain what they do. Keep in mind, the more convoluted they are, the less likely they are to go in (e.g. Moonlit Dance – if full moon, target unit has a chance of doing a special dance that causes adjacent units to mimic dance draining them of their will to live if they have an intelligence less than 8 but greater than 4).
Anyway, we’re pleased with how the game is turning out. The only thing we’re sweating right now really is the out of memory issue.
Appetite: Instantly kill (eat) a creature with X hitpoints or fewer. You gain half those hit points.
Ambusher: Stationary and invisible in one tile. When an enemy unit enters the tile, they reveal themselves and attack. More suited towards "antlion" type enemies rather than thieves.
Awe: Intelligent opponents cannot initiate attacks against a creature with Awe. They may only counterattack. There can be plenty of variations effecting different enemies.
Animal Awe: As Awe, except only effect animals rather than intelligent creatures.
Charm: Give a Charm attack. %Int x 5 chance of resisting. Allows you to command a unit for one turn.
Displacer: Doubles the apparent unit size. Every attack has a %50 chance of hitting a doppelganger, which evaporates on hit.
Lash: Lash out at all enemies in one tile. They lose only 1 hit point each but take a morale penalty. Does not effect champions.
Lifespreader: Creates a 1 tile forest on the battleground. This can entangle opponents.
Suggestion: Implants a suggestion in an enemy unit that has a %Int x 2.5 of resisting. This allow you to move a unit a square in any direction, but not attack a friendly unit.
Not a special ability, and maybe not the right place either, but i feel consumed by the intense "i want to name something cool that everyone will use ingame"-feeling..
I want a profession more suited towards using magic.. all that are now seems very focused on practical things, but there should at least be a Wizard class for bonus in essence. Maybe also include some special item for the profession, like a sword for warrior, scout cloak for ranger etc..
So.. A wizard.. or sorcerer, trickster, children entertainer. is all good
Adept - Class(like royal or warrior) - spells cost less and do more damage. Like 1-3 less mana and 10% more damage.
You know...
Why don't we have 'Historical background' be the current picks. I.E. Huntsman, Miner, Royal. Then when your Sovereign hits Level 2 they get a class, Like Healer, Adept, Rogue, Warrior. And then again at 6 they could have another split for super specialist roles.
I didn't miss any fun. I played the game to completion many times. More often than not, I played partway and abandoned the game. I just found the endgame boring and dull. All sense of discovery had gone out of it.
Just because I enjoy games differently than you do doesn't mean what I enjoy is less valid. Thank you.
No idea is truly new. But some ideas are more new than others
Change the name to "Inception" and it's perfect
Several abilities I think might be cool to have would be:
Shield Wall - Reduce movement by 50%, decrease piercing damage by 75% or something to that effect.
First Aid - heal targeted adjacent unit X. This could be based on the user's wisdom.
Leap Attack - With superhuman strength the unit leaps into the air coming down onto their target dealing 1.5 their normal damage. This maybe consumes the energy of two normal attacks but is less likely to miss.
Class ideas:
Pirate - After each battle that this hero wins they receive twice the amount of gold normally alotted.
Sail Master - All ships in this character's navy gain +1 movement points.
Master Shipwright - All ships built in a city with this character in it are produced 25% faster.
Explorer - +1 sight, reduced penalty for traveling through rough terrain.
Master Healer - Units in the same tile as this hero regain 2 health as long as they haven't moved the turn before.
Champion of the Meek - Hero gets a bonus to armor and health if stationed in a city.
I think this is all that I have so far. Amazing game guys!! I can't wait for the release of the final game and I am especially excited for the sea expansion!
Undead creatures - a must (Empire powered)
Siphon life - Unit's attack drain health from enemy and restores lost health
Raise undeath - Units who die from a "siphon life" attack would rise up as undead under the command of the opposing side until the end of the battle
Freezing touch - slows enemy by 35% speed
Weakening touch - reduces enemy attack by x%
Plague strike - each delivered attack can infect enemy with death disease (only works on living creatures)
Holy smite - each attack adds a holy (life) damage (only works on undead creatures)
Paralyzing touch - attacked unit must resist or cannot move for x turns
Draining aura - all enemy units in melee range suffers x damage (unless resisted) each turn they remain in range
A few more ideas that would be cool if they make it into the game.
Class:
Master of Body: Unit is a martial arts master, every level they gain +2 attack but cannot use any weapon other than a staff or fist weapons.
Abilities:
Aurablast: Unit channels their spirit into a powerful energy attack on any foe directly in front of them. Deals additional to any foe that is undead.
Chi Strike: The hero strikes with such force that his opponent is knocked back 1 space.
Harden skin: For a turn the unit has increased resistance to arrows. 75% damage reduction against piercing attacks.
If I think of more, I will be back!
Wishlist
Champions gain 1XP/turn Increases Strength, Agility, and Combat Speed by 2. Increases Max Health by 5. Increases Resistance to Death Magic by 10% Decreases Resistance to Life Magic AND Fire Magic by 50%. On attack: heal self for 10% of damage dealt. Can sacrifice City population to heal fully. Can be spread to friendly units. Decreases Kingdom prestige by 10% (This could either be a one-time 10%, or a stacking debuff to global kingdom prestige for each vampire, possibly up to a threshold of 50%)
Units:
User Interface:
Magic System
Cities:
Wow Malloreon, that's quite a wishlist you have there!
Quick question for you, have you successfully created a dirt patch which works as intended? I'd certainly love to get some filler and it'd help with planning.
but ya have to admit a good one ... only thing I don't like is 2 ring limit.. I more like one ring of type limit with 10 ring max.. but i can deal what ever way it goes.. none the less great idea's and nice presentation Malloreon ...
@Folick009: the dirt tile works so far, however, I was not able to make them be built instantaneously, they still take one turn to build each. And currently Cities have a max amount of buildable tiles (though I could have sworn Frogboy said that it was unlimited now), so you will run into trouble after building a few of these. Also: under the current system I had to mod actual game-files to get this working, unless I am mistaken there is no file structure in our /My Games/Elemental folder for it yet.
@Twohawks: Thanks! Yeah, I don't necessarily advocate a two ring limit, however I do think we need some kind of limit. In a previous game I kept on getting 'Ring of Might' as a quest reward - the amount of damage my Champion was able to dish out was insane. I simply displayed a two ring limit because it fit into the screen nice and easy
I note the Mallorean and Belgarion references...
The main problem with dirt patches etc is that you could make super large cities for strategic purposes.
All kinds of auras. Auras affect the character with the aura and every adjacent ally. Multiple auras that overlap stack in range and have an overlapping stack of effect. I realize this is a "convoluted" mechanic, but since it can be applied to a wide array of skills once coded, it may be worth it.
Let me paint a picture of what I mean with "stack in range" and "overlapping stack of effect".
Single aura: Red is a character, blue is range of aura(s), yellow are areas in which the effective power ("stack of effect") overlap and increase.
Single character with auras, no overlapping:
Two characters with auras, some distance away from eachother:
As they stand adjacent to eachother, the powers of their auras will start to overlap, increasing both in range and power relative to the number of squares that are originally covered. Notice that the strength of the auras stack in the yellow areas, and how the collective aura (blue) is now bigger than before. Also notice that despite not being in the overlapping areas, all the aura-giving characters are receiving the benefit of stacking auras :
A second example, showing three aura characters with overlapping auras:
And in formation:
In this latter case, anyone in the middle, aswell as all characters contributing to the aura, would have four times the regular effect.
Auras could be anything. There are many classic auras, such as Thorns (enemies take damage when hitting anyone in the aura), Healing (everyone in the aura is healed every turn), Speed (everyone in the aura moves faster), Strength (everyone in the aura hits harder), Precision (increased chance to hit or score critical damage), Damage (every enemy in the aura takes damage every turn).
I like auras.
We should have auras.
I didn't scrutinize the whole thread, but I like the idea of armor sets you quest for.
I would also add that there should be a bonus, either to defense or a special ability, for getting the complete set.
I, too, am not sure that removing goodie huts is a great idea because of the need for initial cash influx.
I think, this was mentioned before but goodie huts - to conquer the "boringness" could provide encounters with various enemies (like e.g. in the old Warlords series). Encounters could scale in difficulty. Fewer huts is a good idea. Early xp and gold for founding your first kingdom...
Stacking auras are bad. Buffs should (almost) never stack, it leads to critical mass issues. The only buffs that should stack without limit are ones that are based off of time (eg, each successful attack you make increases your attack by 1)
However, auras are great.
Rings:
- Different sizes: Small, Medium, Large
- 2 small + 1 medium per finger
- 4 small per finger
- 2 medium per finger
- 1 large per finger
When talking about sizes, think wire vs jeweled. A wire ring would be tiny in width, and you could easily put four of them on one finger where you would normally wear a ring. However, a wire ring would offer only a very minor benefit. A large jeweled ring, however, might offer a huge benefit, but you can only put one of those on a finger. So you could have 40 ring slots and rings would take up different amounts of slots, from 1 to 4. A large ring would take 4 slots, a medium ring 2 slots, and a small ring 1 slot. When you run out of slots, you can wear no more rings.
The same system could go for amulets, bracelets (forearms), anklets, arm bands (biceps), ear rings, etc. Magical jewelry should automagically resize itself for a perfect skin-tight fit on whoever wears it. It should fit fine under any armor.
Speaking of armor, why are leg coverings and boots not allowed to be worn at the same time? That seems ridiculous. The same goes for wrist-guards and shields?
As for the memory issues... I get them all the time. Every game crashes because of them. I have 8 gigs of memory on Win 8 Ultimate x64. They only occur when I have lots of cities and more than 4,000 population and am 500+ turns into the game. After crashing out and loading a new game, it takes hundreds more turns before I get another crash. But, as I continue to go, eventually I get to a point where taking any more turns results in an out of memory issue. Each time I have to load, I get fewer turns before I get the next crash due to out of memory.
these rings are magical. I imagine that putting on ten thousand rings would overload your body with magic
2 rings is the industry standard for the amount of rings any character can have and I think it's best kept that way. We don't want commanders wearing 20 +.25 combat speed rings. This falls under buffs stacking like the aura guy.
I think different buffs (i.e. the names of the buff) should stack. So if one buff is Blessing that gives +2 defense and the other is Protection that gives +3 defense - you get +5 defense.
If it was 2 Blessings or 2 Protections - those would NOT stack.
Same for debuffs.
This would open up combos between and within stacks while not letting people just put 15 of one buff in a stack and get +30 to something.
Could also have an upper and lower limit like in Warlords 3. I believe in Warlords 3, the range was -2 to +3. So if you had the scenario above, you'd get +3 defense. However the +5 would be used during the calculations.
Like if an enemy had a debuff that did -1 defense. Well, your stack would still get +3 (+5 + -1 = +4, which is over the limit, so it get capped to +3)
With this system, you could still stack up the buffs/debuffs but the final result would be capped within a range.
There are lots of good ideas I'm seeing people put up so I won't list a bunch (ok I changed my mind, see end of post). What'd I'd like to know though is there a way to limit what abilities are available? There isn't any class ability tied to units that I can see so what is to stop me from making a unit that can backstab, do a crushing blow, spit acid and bring down a rain of stones? Having all abilities available to everyone dimishes the uniqueness of each one and in turn makes them less interesting. Not to mention you will inevitably end up with some super-combos that everyone will start taking. I'd like to see the abilities limited in some fashion. You can do this through tech, race, stats, classes or whatever just don't let them get out of control.
As far as actual abilities for heroes I also hope they make sense. I see you have an ability called Deadly Bite. I think it would be rather odd to see my human hero have this skill for instance. Also you have another called Poison Shot. This sounds like an arrow so it should require that the hero owns a bow to use it. Personally I would like to see most supernatural like abilities come from items and not skills. Skills should be things like backstab, crushing blow, sprint, etc and maybe a few special spell-like ones for heroes that are from a magical race or have essence. Maybe you could make spell-like skills require that the sovereign invest essence to give it to the hero.
Here are a few abilities also. Some of these are not combat related as I'm not sure if you are referring to abilities you get when you level up or just combat abilities in general that are used in tactical combat. I haven't read through all the posts so forgive any repeats.
Mana Drain - only through items or for supernatural units
Life Drain - only through items or for supernatural units
Mana Duel (you and target caster have a mental duel that lasts a number of turns, loser is severly damaged and loses all mana. Winner loses 1/2 mana. How long it lasts depends on difference in skill level)
Mana Focusing (spells cost less to cast or you get a mana bonus)
Ability bonuses (like +5 strength for instance, just give them nice names like mighty or tough as nails)
Shard mastery (you pick one element that you get bonuses with, could even give a small penalty to other elements but then the bonus would need to be more significant)
Camoflage (unit is harder to see on the campaign map, only shows up if another group is adjacent or has some counter ability)
Various resource improvement abilities (hunting: gives +1 food, etc)
Duel wield - hero can now wield another weapon in his offhand
Critical strike - each blow has a chance (or increased chance) of dealing double damage
Pathfinder - unit reduces movement costs for every one with him in rough terrain. Allows movement through mountains (1 square per turn regardless of movement rate)
Forestwalker - unit moves through forest like they were plains (can have similar abilities for other terrain)
Some ability that gives a morale bonus to the army the hero is with
Rapid fire - hero can fire a bow twice as fast
Dirty fighting - blinds the target for one turn causing them to have greatly reduced attack for 1 turn
Terror - unit causes great fear in units. All units with out terror get a small penalty to morale at the start of combat. Any unit attacked directly by this unit loses twice as much morale as it normally would
Disciplined - unit is more resistant to morale loss
Quick strike - unit gets 1 extra attack per turn if using a weapon that does not give a combat speed penalty
Dodge - unit gets +2 defense in melee
Damage resistance - unit picks one type of damage that they become more resistant to (maybe 10% resistance)
Weapon expertise - pick a type of weapon, get medium +attack and small combat speed bonus with that weapon
Stench - only through items or for supernatural units. Unit smells so bad that anyone attacking them gets -3 attack and -2 defense
Ok, think that's enough for now. Need to do some other stuff.
Honestly, I think 2 rings per hand is reasonable. One on the index and one on the ring finger.
Therefore 4 rings, 1 amulet (neck), and 1 pack
Although ... multiple packs isn't always a bad thing as long as similar boosts don't stack.
For instance ... if you want a "Ninja" type you could give them a "Wall-Climbing pack" + Invisibility/Stealth Cloak
I look at it this way. I am the guy founding the kingdom. I have 4 rings on my finger that do spiffy things already. I find another ring that gives me some uber cool ability. Am I going to take off one of my four rings to put that on? Keep dreaming. I'm just going to use one of my other available fingers. I would easily put 10 rings on and not even think twice. If the rings were tiny, skinny little things (like a single piece of wire), I would just put them on a finger where another ring is already. This is one case where I think making it realistic to what people would normally do is a bonus. You just have to make sure that the rings that offer +0.25 combat speed are rare enough, expensive enough, and big enough, that you cannot put that many on. Make them large rings. Then you can fit a whopping 10 of them on your hands. So, you get +2.5 combat speed. That's not huge. Is it better than one of the other rings you might want to wear? That's probably a tough decision.
My point is, don't limit what's possible through gimmicky hard limits. Limit them by what's realistic. If you want to put a limit on something, do it by actual physical processes instead of some arbitrary, off-the-top-of-your-head cap. Using ring slots and rings of different sizes adds variety and another interesting aspect to the items and the game play while providing meaningful and believable limits. The same thing goes for arm bands, amulets, bracelets, and anklets. They come in different sizes and you can only fit so many on your body. How many depends on the size, and the bigger ones would tend to offer the more powerful enchantments.
I also agree that limiting enchantment stacking is a good thing. Magical items with the same enchantments should not stack (you apply the highest one only), but different enchantments that buff the same trait in different ways should stack.
I'd rather that rings be more useful (actually worth my time) than be some crappy +0.25 combat speed.
Granted, a character probably shouldn't get more than +2 combat speed from any combination of rings.
That being said ... like minded rings shouldn't stack. Or rather, the largest bonus on any ring is the one thats applied.
Example: you're wearing 2 rings, one gives +1 combat speed, the other gives +2 attack and +0.5 combat speed. The net effect is +2 attack and +1 combat speed.
Example(2): 2 rings, 1 gives +4 attack and +1 defense, the other gives +2 defense and +1 HP regeneration.
Net effect is +4 attack, +2 defense, +1 HP regeneration
//game effect ... sure you can find a ring of speed that gives +0.25 combat speed by killing mooks or questing for old ladies, but if you want to find a GOOD ring ... you might have to search in the Lost Necropolis, etc ... to find that +2 combat speed ring, or that +3 HP regeneration ring, or that Immune to Status Effects ring, or that +5 spell resist ring, or that +4 attack +2 defense ring.
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