Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Cthulhu]

I'm not too worried, they've apparently got playtesters who've been playing.

One thing I'm not mega-excited about, but I don't see many other ways to do it, is the whole "you have all these powers but if you use them you'll get stomped" thing.  Sometimes I want to be the huge bad guy smashing an enemy who has no chance.  My mod idea is sort of leaning towards this.

Spoiler: My mod idea (click to show/hide)

I figured I've got enough ideas floating around to start writing them down.  Probably after I've tested things out with another mod that'll remain nameless until it's finished, I'll start working on this one. 

Overview

I'm gonna try to skip fluff and flavor text mostly here, sticking with game-descriptions. There's two draft versions of the map. They're very large so I'll use links for them.  Here's the first and the second.  Personally I think I like the second version more, it's got a better use of space and more natural geography.  As for the actual structure of the map both have similar elements going on.  Yellow is plains, light gray is mountains, brown is badlands and desert, dark green is forest, light green is swamp, dark gray is an artificial wall we'll talk about in a minute, and gray-blue is tundra.

Most advanced human civilization is in the southern half along the gulf and on the archipelago that circles around. The exact nature of these cultures I'm still thinking about but the western mainland will probably be more standard fantasy medieval while the islanders are traders and merchants.  The forest island to the south is elves.  There'll probably be more forests in the actual map of course.  I may move this up to the end of the archipelago, I may split the island between two different factions of elves, I may get rid of them and replace them with some other kind of sylvan race.  Maybe fairies.  The Wild Hunt would be interesting to implement.  To the north I'm not sure about.  Probably orcs, or a different kind of human civilization.  Maybe the minotaurs are up here if they make it in.  I'm not sure.  The southern swamp is full of lizardmen.  I might extend it, it was meant to be situated in a place where humans will be forced to interact with the lizards but with the mountains gone so is that.

To the west is the steppes, blocked off by the great wall.  I dunno how well this part will work out without playing the game and seeing.  Behind the wall are various tribes of steppe barbarians akin to the mongols.  Maybe give them their own race.  They're naturally hostile to the civilizations on the other side of the wall but lack the power to actually break through it.  This is meant to be a different kind of threat than orcs, who are a constant problem but don't seem to be able to really topple anything on their own.  The idea is that the barbarians start out divided and too weak to break through, but if the Khanate forms and the wall goes down they represent a civilization-ending threat on their own.  They're immediately in the heart of the civilized world and ready to burn it to the ground.  Of course there's options for high level campaigns for the chosen one to unite the tribes under his banner against you, which would pretty much rule out military victory.  This whole thing will require a lot of testing.

Finally, and this is the core of the scenario, to the northwest is the lost continent of Lemuria.  This is where the former rulers of the world had their seat.  The Lemurians are a pure evil race of psychics and mad scientists who used eldritch technology and vivisected horrors to enslave the world but their civilization fell and now they're almost completely forgotten.  If you play as an alternate old one then you're the one who brought their civilization down and settled in the ruins.  There'll also be an old one made for the game though, King Dzyan.  Lemuria is mostly deserted save for beasts and scavengers, dotted with ancient ruins.  Most of these ruins are full of high level dangers and commensurately powerful artifacts and devices from the age of the Lemurians.  Most of the human inhabitants are clustered along the coastlines in archeological outposts, full of sages and adventurers eager to explore the ruins.

----------------------

The Old One

Dzyan, Last King of Lemuria
Further names pending
Orbs to Awaken: Thinking 9, not sure. I'll need to look at the mod tools to really figure it out.
Starting agents: See above.

All abilities and powers are speculative of course until I can get my hands on the tools. I'll add more as I think of them.

Resurgence

This tree is mainly based around turning the Lemurian continent into a bastion of power and destroying or dominating the various interlopers for a move on the rest of the world.  I'm thinking Dzyan will primarily be a military GOO who relies on unit customization and technology to crush the humans.  The Lemurians aren't dead, they're dormant, and as Dzyan grows in power the whole of Lemuria begins to awaken.

Wake Signal: Passive. Lemurians become recruitable at Lemurian ruins. At first these are scouts and servitors with infiltration and labor abilities, good for starting out. As you gain more orbs more powerful units become available.  Abductors specializing in capturing enemy notables for conversion, warriors and such for combat, you get the idea. New dangers also appear in ruins as the game goes on, both awakened Lemurian troops and defense systems.

Power Surge: Temporarily restores a single Lemurian POI to full function, granting the full suite of recruitable units and dangers. Use it to gank prodding adventurers or prepare an early rush with powerful units. Obviously grants some serious ancient clues if people notice what's happened.

The Citadel Awakens: Hail to the King, baby. Dzyan's citadel is the seat of his power and his avatar on the map.  Upon fully awakening an event is generated with two options. 
---Option 1: The citadel takes off and becomes a flying battlestation.  It becomes much less defensible aside from the fact that it's floating in the sky but it gains a variety of terrifying magitechnological weapons and opens up recruitment options suitable to a final blitzkrieg.  If you've done a good job and the enemy is teetering, this is the kind of thing that will probably push it over the edge.  This is very much an all-in move though.  You've given up your defensive position on the Lemurian continent and if the citadel falls the game's over. 
---Option 2:  The citadel remains in place and taps into ancient conduits beneath the earth, becoming an impregnable bastion of eldritch power.  This option gives up offense for defense and opens up strategic options more suited to a nonmilitary victory.  This is for when you haven't softened up the world enough for an all-out attack and you don't want to tip your hand. 

Eldritch Engineering

This tree is mostly about modification, augmentation, and artifice.  The key to the Lemurians power is their mastery of the eldritch engine, a device that taps into otherworldly power and uses it to fuel artifacts that make the lesser races look like children playing with toys.  Then they played with the lesser races like toys, using their arcane technology to warp their bodies and minds into suitable servants.  To fall into the hands of the Lemurians is a fate worse than death.

Lambent Forges:  This is a passive ability that grants you and your agents access to Lemurian artifacts.  As you grow in power more become available.  Many of these are already present in Lemurian ruins and they can all of course be obtained and studied for ancient lore or used against you.  Most have some kind of drawback.  Some speculative artifacts follow.
---Warp Bomb:  The wild energies channeled by eldritch engines are difficult to control and can have devastating effects on nearby reality when unleashed.  The crudest use of an eldritch engine is to overload it and run away as fast as you can.  This artifact has two uses.  In combat it can be activated to do damage to every combatant, friend or foe.  Outside of combat it can be planted as a challenge of varying difficulty depending on the POI or district.  In X turns the bomb will detonate, tearing localized reality to shreds.  This causes mass casualties and panic in the district and increases its danger as extraplanar predators slip through the holes in spacetime.  Once the bomb is placed nearby sages will detect the energy spike and generate a quest to find and deactivate it. 
---Eldritch Matrix:  This artifact draws on the user's lifeforce to protect him with a web of crackling energy.  The bearer's maximum health is permanently reduced but he gains ancient defense in return.

Psycho-Surgery: This ability allows you to add custom Lemurian-tagged abilities and traits to minions and elite units.  Most won't survive the torturous process.  Either each usage has a percent chance to kill the modified unit or there's just a flat cost where you pay X units to receive Y modified units.

The Abomination Project: Through an extended process too awful to describe Lemurian psycho-surgeons warp a captured hero beyond recognition, producing the perfect tool for the King's plans. The agent produced depends on the hero archetype and class.
---Warrior:  Warriors become Siege Hulks, grotesque brutes that excel in smashing and terrorizing enemy forces but have little finesse.
---Thief: Thief types become Psy-Assassins who use their eldritch powers to infiltrate deep into enemy territory and kill even the most well-protected targets
---Mage:  Mages become Conduits, channeling Ancient power into spells that lay waste to friend and foe alike.

---Leader:  Leaders become Dominators, masters of infiltration, corruption, and political maneuvering.

---Sage:  Sages become Mind-Eaters, adept at playing the knowledge game and corrupting or stealing information.

You can sort of see where I'm trying to go with power.  I'll be tuning it so you have to be subtle and everything, but once you've got the initiative the god's designed to end the game in spectacular fashion with a flying battlestation and world-scarring magitech weaponry.  If it's possible I'll also give The Abomination Project special results if you corrupt the chosen one, again designed with a philosophy of "If you can pull this off you're going to win anyway so we may as well have fun with totally overpowered shit"

[Xantalos]

I very much like that idea.

[Zangi]

I'm not too worried, they've apparently got playtesters who've been playing.

The main problem is if those playtesters have been at it the whole time, what with repetition and everything.  They'll end up knowing the mechanics like the back of their hand and difficulty could be based on what they consider 'normal'.

/justmaybeallbasescouldbecovereddownthelineifithasn'tbeenalready

[Digital Hellhound]

Nice idea. You mention faerie - were you thinking (cos I was when I saw the video) of making them racially fully honorable, or whatever that slider was? The way it was described was that they'd never go back on their word or a deal made, even if it costs them - being magically bound to oaths seems to fit the Fae pretty well. Of course, it'd be nice if they could be simultaneously deceitful in some ways.

[Cthulhu]

Yes, actually. 

I've got an alternate map where they live in a huge island on the end of the archipelago.  Here it is in-editor.  It's a lot more cramped than I expected, depending on how sea-travel works I may need to make the map bigger or the landmasses smaller. 

I'm thinking two types of sylvan folk.  The new island is half forest and half swamp with a mountain range in between.  One half is honorable and upright and extremely rigid while the other is wild and chaotic and dangerous.  Neither is good or evil, they're beyond that.  Both can be manipulated.

[ThtblovesDF]

Well I supported it with Paypal, wonder when beta starts/confirmation Email shows up : )

[Xgamer4]

I'm not too worried, they've apparently got playtesters who've been playing.

The main problem is if those playtesters have been at it the whole time, what with repetition and everything.  They'll end up knowing the mechanics like the back of their hand and difficulty could be based on what they consider 'normal'.

/justmaybeallbasescouldbecovereddownthelineifithasn'tbeenalready

The beta testers (as in, the people who backed at a beta level - not the current playtesters) are apparently the line of defense for that - the game won't be released to the wider public until the beta testers give the go-ahead.

[ventuswings]

From what I understand, the difficulty is flexible and widely influenced by whatever option you use to employ. I remember reading even devs found game impossible with combination of "wise leaders" and "strong hero" option; of course, these could be considered major tweaks, what I meant to say was the difficulty should probably not be a problem with so many 'sliders' one can adjust to find challenge perfect for you.

As for the normal game, I read on another forum that dev actually expect new players to fail several times due to nature of the game - without experience, they could not identify seemingly insignificant variables that would in the future become major threats if left uncontrolled. Sounds like some understanding of the game mechanics, though probably not "like back of their hand", is critical foundation for the success, which one should ascertain through repetition.

[gimli]

From what I understand, the difficulty is flexible and widely influenced by whatever option you use to employ. I remember reading even devs found game impossible with combination of "wise leaders" and "strong hero" option; of course, these could be considered major tweaks, what I meant to say was the difficulty should probably not be a problem with so many 'sliders' one can adjust to find challenge perfect for you.

Oh boy, the harder the better! These 2 options -what you've mentioned- [wise leaders & strong heroes] will be excellent for endless mode. 

[forsaken1111]

What is endless mode?

I was thinking the other day that it would be very cool if there were a 'soft lose' condition which didn't result in your death but rather put you back to sleep for another century or two. This has the game advance time, politics change, borders change, some knowledge of you is forgotten... but maybe a few enduring cults maintain knowledge of you and awaken you again, or stand ready to oppose you.

[gimli]

It's a Kickstarter stretch goal, so this gameplay mode will be added later on. When they add it, I am pretty sure that I will play in this mode only, since it offers extended & enhanced gameplay [IE. looooooooong & epicly fun games!]. 
Anyway, you can read about it here: http://thatwhichsleeps.gamepedia.com/Endless_Mode

[Xgamer4]

It's a Kickstarter stretch goal, so this gameplay mode will be added later on. When they add it, I am pretty sure that I will play in this mode only, since it offers extended & enhanced gameplay [IE. looooooooong & epicly fun games!]. 
Anyway, you can read about it here: http://thatwhichsleeps.gamepedia.com/Endless_Mode

...Is that going to be the long-term home of the wiki? It's really not a fun site to browse - Adblock takes out some of the formatting, making it impossible to read, but disabling adblock gets me bombarded with ads.

[forsaken1111]

God I hope not, especially considering how easy it is to host your own wiki.

[gimli]

It's a Kickstarter stretch goal, so this gameplay mode will be added later on. When they add it, I am pretty sure that I will play in this mode only, since it offers extended & enhanced gameplay [IE. looooooooong & epicly fun games!]. 
Anyway, you can read about it here: http://thatwhichsleeps.gamepedia.com/Endless_Mode

...Is that going to be the long-term home of the wiki? It's really not a fun site to browse - Adblock takes out some of the formatting, making it impossible to read, but disabling adblock gets me bombarded with ads.

I guess only KDG knows the proper answer to your question. I don't know too much about the wiki sites, which one is the best anyway?

[Demonic Spoon]

It's a Kickstarter stretch goal, so this gameplay mode will be added later on. When they add it, I am pretty sure that I will play in this mode only, since it offers extended & enhanced gameplay [IE. looooooooong & epicly fun games!]. 
Anyway, you can read about it here: http://thatwhichsleeps.gamepedia.com/Endless_Mode

...Is that going to be the long-term home of the wiki? It's really not a fun site to browse - Adblock takes out some of the formatting, making it impossible to read, but disabling adblock gets me bombarded with ads.

I guess only KDG knows the proper answer to your question. I don't know too much about the wiki sites, which one is the best anyway?

A dead tree manual.