Iron Kaiser here, back with another idea for implementing quests. (If I'm not careful, I'll wind up becoming known as "that quest guy.") In one of my previous posts, "Improving Quests," I put forward the idea that quests ought to become a stronger part of the main game. I threw some ideas out at that time (Espionage, Bounties, Sabotage), but integrating quests is definitely easier said than done. Even thinking up of interesting ways to use quests can be difficult. But after reading the description of the Haunter in the Creating Creatures Dev. post, I got an idea - what if you could use the questing system to change the world around you?

Let me explain: As we all know, the world in Elemental is broken, shattered, and scarred. There are those (like the Haunter, bandits, NPCs) who thrive on the world as it is, but no faction is like this. Instead, there are two different kinds of factions in the world: those who wish to restore the world to its former glory (restorationists), and those who wish to use the corruption to their own advantage (adaptionists). While Procipinee leads the charge to purify and cleanse the world of its corruption, Verga is embracing the changing world as the means to victory. What if this agenda, this "ecological war" had a strong impact in the actual game? "Sounds neat, but how does this translate into gameplay?"

Okay, let's get to the point: Going up the Questing tech tree, we would add in a new branch: "Restoration/Adaption" After we've completed the first technology along this branch, a party of heroes is given the ability to "Set up Encampment." You can set up an Encampment outside of your borders with one hero, or a party of heroes, but no army units can be present (since a marching army would make it too easy disrupt the ecosystem and hinder the transformation process). When the hero sets up an Encampment, a small set of huts would appear on the tile, and the hero/party would be immobilized for the next X (we'll say 10 for now) amount of turns as the Encampment is being built. Now, our heroes are not merely building a small hut. They're learning about the environment around the encampment and restore it/adapt to it.

Now here's the challenge: as our heroes investigate, they'll invariably stir up the local population. Wild creatures, agitated by the intruding presence, will rush to destroy our heroes. During the 10 turns that the Encampment takes to build, the heroes will face an endurance challenge, as wild hordes will attack the party every two turns. The further away from your capital, and the more powerful your empire, the more difficult the hordes will be. You have to prepare your heroes for the long haul, and if you don't have a well-balanced team, then you'll lose your heroes and the camp.

Completing the encampment, though, yields big rewards. A small area around the camp will be radically changed, either bristling with newfound rejuvination or firmly cemented in a deeper web of corruption. The wild animals around the camp, adjusting to the new environment you've created, will see you and yours as perfectly natural creatures, and so will only attack your enemies (or at least, those of the opposite ecological paradigm). As you progress up the tech tree, the area around the encampment(s) will grow larger, and the camps themselves will turn into outposts and later fortresses, supporting more NPC units.

So, what do you do when an enemy has put down an encampment? Well, you could ignore it, but as long as you do that, you'll be harrased by the supply of NPCs targetting you and leaving your enemy alone. Destroying the encampment will cause the land to slowly revert back to its regular, pre-transformed status. But the change won't be immediate, and taking an encampment isn't as easy as it sounds. A fully upgraded encampment with the best technologies would be protected by a powerful guard of NPC creatures, as well as whatever the enemy faction itself has decided to add to the defense. Again, only heroes can root out an encampment and extinguish the work of their rivals, but only heroes can contribute to the defense of the camp, so it balances out somewhat. Getting a good party together is key.

The benefits of doing this are four-fold. First, as I stated earlier, the idea could be a great way to integrate the quest tree into the rest of the game. Ignoring the quest tree would let you focus on the meat-and-potatoes of TBS games, but investing in quests would open up a whole new strategy to use against your opponents. Second, I think it would help bring the lore into the game. The fight between Kingdoms and Empires (or if this is being changed in FE, the restorationists vs. the adaptionists) comes to life as a true battle over the destiny of nature itself. The Capitarians are no longer diametrically opposed to the Magnar just because the lore says so. Instead, the game will naturally live the conflict out and realize the distinction. Third, if this "Ecological Warfare" were set up so that camps reacted purely to ideology and not diplomatic politics, an interesting dynamic could play out in game. Capitar, at war with Gilden, would have to worry about the camp defenses they've relied on in other wars (vs. adaptionists) failing them now. Meanwhile, Tarth would need to figure out how to balance their alliance with the Adaptionist Umber and their camp defenses, since the camps would attack even political allies (since, after all, they're just creatures reacting naturally to their instinctual enemies). Fourth, I love the idea of making heroes special and requiring parties of heroes in order to do things that armies simply can't do. Encampments seemed like a relatively simple yet effective way to accomplish this goal.

Anyway, that's all for now. Please leave your feedback! I appreciate it.