This is just a place to gather my personal thoughts and ideas concerning EWoM, feel free to read it! I'll add more if something tickles my fancy.
Achievement Title System
In other words, your character can have the suffix title of "Roger the Great", "Roger the Holy", "Roger the Destroyer" or even bad ones such as "Roger the Coward", "Roger the Witless", "Roger the Weak", and so on. These would be unlocked by the character that succeeds in accomplishing the necessary criteria to make it happen. These could have bonuses, or just used for flair. Perhaps in the case of your sovereign these can be selectable upon completing it (for your champions, no). Basically..
The GOOD
The BAD
Nobility System (Monarchy)
Perhaps this gives it a little extra boost, especially in the area of roleplaying. Basically, depending on the level of your cities and how many you have, you can qualify for noble titles which you can assign to your champions. These titles which are assigned to champions give your cities a slight boost depending on the STATS of your champion which is assigned. Strength would add a defense bonus to your city, intelligence would give you a boost in research, charisma would encourage growth, dexterity would increase production speed, etc. The higher the title given to a champion, the bigger the boost. This could be tied directly in with the city level system even.
This would probably require research itself (Noble System) to make this happen. For instance, establishing a champion as a Duke you first need a city, and the title of Duke itself would cost a lot of money and resources, where as the title of Count would require a lot less. You can be a Count of a city, but you cannot be a Duke of a Village, another example would be that a baron can be in charge of a town, but a Marquess cannot be in charge of a hamlet. To ensure you don't spam all your cities with Dukes, there could be a rule that you can only have one of each type in your nation.
Government Systems
This is an expanded and similar idea of the Nobility system (which would be included as Monarchy). As the same style above, you can have different types of governments that your sovereign is in charge of, and each one you can learn and hand out titles.
Republic (Growth Bonus/Trade Bonus) - The people love and believe in the freedoms that a republic gives them, therefore this encourages growth and trade.
Theocracy (Research Bonus/Magic Bonus) - The people believe that the sovereign is a god, or at least represents the gods. There are a lot of scholars in a theocracy, and many monks and priests would spend their time in ink and quill. This would get a nice bonus to research.
Monarchy (Production Bonus/Defense Bonus) -If the word is given, the people will rise up and march against your enemies. With this government type, it's easier to raise armies. In other words, you'll get a production bonus.
Trait System
This is an example taken from the Total War series. I believe that it would add a bit more flair to your sovereign and champions. These could be random as well as inherited, and could change depending on the success, failures, and choices that the characters make in their journeys. These provide extra bonuses, and penalties depending. Note, these are only the good traits, there would be an equal listing for bad traits (ie, Pathetic Commander, Idiot, Clumsy, etc) also.GoodCommander GoodInfantryGeneral GoodCavalryGeneral GoodAmbusher GoodAttacker GoodDefender GoodAdministrator Intelligent VictorVirtue PublicFaith BattleChivalry NaturalMilitarySkill Energetic HaleAndHearty PoliticsSkill MathematicsSkill FathersLegacy GoodTrader GoodMiner High Personal Security BattleDread Loyal Brave apothecary bard drillmaster brilliant inventor doctor scribe ancillary mentor tutor bodyguard swordbearer shieldbearer dancer catamite courtesan pickpocket Good Spy Good Assassin Good Saboteur
Occupation, Enslavement, and Razing of CitiesI was thinking it would be interesting to have a few different decisions concerning conquering a city. You could simply occupy it and treat it like your own, but you may have some revolts (bandits appearing nearby for a while). Or you can choose to enslave the population, which reduces that city's population greatly and you receive a bump in population in your other cities (perhaps 5% increase in population). After you choose to enslave the population, you'll still occupy the city but the bandit revolts in the countryside would be a lot easier to manage. An unfortunate side effect, is that it may create some bandit armies (escaped slaves) around your other cities that you'll have to deal with. Or, you can choose to raze the city to the ground, and this would be the best bet if you know you can't hold the city from being re-conquered, or have no interest in holding the city. Where the city once was, is just a giant scorch mark with broken and burnt buildings.[OCCUPY CITY][ENSLAVE THE POPULATION][RAZE THE CITY TO THE GROUND]
I've been kicking some similar ideas around in a few threads. I like the titles, good thoughts. I think the game would greatly benefit from a system similar to the CIV IV Civics system.
I agree, it doesn't have to be anything really involved, but perhaps an additional layer of civics would be great to have. In my above examples, they could even choose to not to include the ranking system, yet just have the Republic, Theocracy, Monarchy, and so forth for the extra bonuses/penalties.
I love the achievement and nobility ideas! Both would definitely add more RPG-ness to the game. The civics I don't really care for. I don't want Elemental turning into Civ. But that's just me, so as long as it is an optional setting, sure.
I've been thinking over these ideas, and I'm still liking the title achievement and nobility systems. The great thing about the nobility system is that it could work for both a Kingdom and a Empire (think Holy Roman Empire - or even the Roman rank of Dux which the Duke is based on - so both would just be referred to as a Duke).
The AI champions may get these on their own accord, which adds a bit of a spin to the game. Imagine instead of just an enemy champion approaching your city which is named "Roger", that he is instead "Roger the Destroye" with a host of troops that have bonuses because of the champion himself? The bonus to having a "Destroyer" or "Conqueror" title is that the champion gets a bonus for when he/she attacks a city, and the bonus also applies to the army he/she is currently leading.
As for the noble ranks, I thought it would add another layer of management that wouldn't be complex, yet still add a small layer to the game as well as RPG'ish elements. Perhaps down the road your Sovereign's son marries one of your champions, who could be "Amelia, Duchess of Ansalon" or something of that nature, and eventually their son/daughter inherit the Dukedom title, and so on. So basically, unless that particular line dies out, once you give someone a noble title it's basically written in stone, unless you remove it by force or something of that nature. For all you know that your Duke could have traitorous loyalties to another sovereign due to lineage, and it may make civil wars a bit more enjoyable (if possible).
I would add to this...the nobility thing, at least. The system itself I love, especially if it happens to include Tiberon's latest idea, that of having noble lines.
I'd love it, personally, if the nobles acted like nobles. That is...they aren't just champions with fancy titles. They actually had comments on stuff that happens, and - if they thought you were doing a crappy job - would say so. And perhaps even try to usurp the title of Sovereign.
I've said it before, I'll say it again - if cities are just regulated to production zones, they'll be boring. But with the nobility being a pain, adding a whole new element to the game (or only single player?) any game, random or otherwise, would be different each time, just based on what you do with the titles, and who you put in charge...
Karma ftw
When I was reading your comment, another idea popped into my head concerning the noble champion lines and it's political ramifications. Let's say that your the sovereign and you get to dictate who marries your offspring (of course). A message pops up from your ally, Duke Roger says that his lovely daughter is of age to marry, and he wishes to marry into your royal sovereign bloodline. The thing is, she has horrible stats and traits, her portrait looks like she got hit with the ugly stick a bit too much, and she even has a traitorous attitude (if we have the trait system). Do you...
A ) Marry her and just deal with it, and hopefully the offspring doesn't inherit some of her underwhelming qualities.
B ) Tell him no, at the risk of insulting your ally, Duke Roger.
Since I have probably 200+ hours of playing Crusader Kings (it deals with Dynasties - it's what the game is all about), it gave me an idea. Bastards! No, literally, bastards! Let's say that on a rare occasion a champion (opposite sex of your sovereign or champion) sends a message, and wishes to meet in secret. When this happens you have the choices of..
A ) You tell him/her no, you are not interested. This has a high % chance for the champion to leave and join another side.
B ) You tell him/her yes, you will meet in secret. This has a % chance to become known, and also a % chance to give birth to a child (bastard).
This also brings about some issues. You have a great champion, she is one of the best you have, and is considered a great asset. So you need to pick, do you risk telling her no and having her leave and join a rival? You'll be losing one of your most important assets. Or, do you tell her yes and give into her wishes (perhaps even yours too) at the risk of it becoming public knowledge, and even greater you now have a bastard son/daughter.. which later could challenge your authority to the throne. On the plus side, the bastard child may serve you and may turn out to be one of the best champions that you have.
Whilst dealing with bastards...
I know that there are many, many books out there with stories that go along the following lines...
Kingdom A was ruled by Person. Person had a kid, Kid. Person died, and instead of Kid taking over, Angry Uncle Who Wants to be King takes over. AUWWtbK tries to kill Kid, Kid flees to your nation. And then Kid says, "Hey, <player>! Ya know how you used to be friends with my dad, Person? He's dead, AUWWtbK took over. Wanna help me out?"
It'd be a great deal of fun if we could work with a minor faction that has lost its leader, and we could have a quest/line to save them.
Or, on another vein...let's say that Relias has a bastard kid. Or just an unhappy offspring in general. It'd be amazing to chat up that child, have them ask for your support, and suddenly get the option to usurp Relias and place his kid on the throne. Having a claimant option would let you take any number of steps against the Altar - recruit a few of his disillusioned nobles, or stir open rebellion, even a civil war, and cripple the Altar from the inside out.
The end result...Relias might win the civil war (and thus hate you immensely, but be too weak to do anything about it, what with the...war) or he might lose (and thus, you get to pull the "Hey! I helped you usurp you daddy, you owe me!" card and have a potentially useful ally for later). Or maybe it's a half-victory, with the civil war falling to a cold war: Relias has a handful of cities, his bastard/child has a handful of cities, and both are ripe for the picking...if you so choose.
Huzzah for options!
That would be great if the game had that depth concerning it's story and it's ramifications. I suppose it could be created in the game already, not sure if this would be the route to go, but you could have a..
MISSION: Help [bastard kid] remove Relias from his throne, with this aide you'll secure a long friendship with it's new ruler.
Basically, you'll have 50 turns to kill Relias so his son ascends to the throne, if you don't do it within 50 turns you'll receive a pop-up message indicating that [bastard kid] has been imprisoned and executed.
Is it just me, or is OP's idea VERY similar to what happens in Medieval 2 total war...
ohhhh, i c wut u did thar OP
It is! I even declared it in the first sentence of that portion (aka trait systems)! If your talking about the other aspects, sure other games have had them. Crusader King's had traits as well, same for nobility ranks (count, duke, king/emperor). Occupying and razing cities isn't something new either, but still choices I would like to see in the game.
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