Locations that give bonuses to avatars within them

It would be cool to have certain map locations (dungeons, etc) give a bonus when your avatar is stationed inside them.

A moderately powerful location could give a casting cost reduction to a certain type of magic, or a mild power boost.

A really powerful location could allow the casting of a spell not cast anywhere else. Or allow you create items with a special power you can't get anywhere else.

e.g. an ancient item workshop of the old gods for forging that sword-of-extreme-doom, or (tying in another idea) forging the "this-item-will-let-me-survive-avatar-death-once" item.

e.g. a magical "fault line" where the really high level world-wrecking spells could be cast since it's one of the world's weak points. Maybe even escalate into a "destroy the world" victory condition, but that may be going too far.

This would be one more way to use the resource of "where is my avatar standing", with the tradeoff that it prevents using your avatar in combat (unless combat is nearby), and that the location can't be fortified as well as a high-end city to protect the avatar.

Another possibility is a location that just gives ridiculous bonuses to the avatar in combat *at that one location*, so as a last resort you could hole up there and at least take a preternaturally large amount of armies with you.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Keith

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Sammual

I'm not a fan of locations that;

allow the casting of a spell not castable anywhere else

allow you create items with a special power you can't get anywhere else

As with everything I think it is a matter of ballance. Random is good when it is somewhat ballanced and can be overcome with skill, knowledge, and tactics.

Sammual

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I likewise think that unique bonuses have way too much power to screw up the balance, but large buffs are certainly on the table. One thing that would be interesting is allowing your avatar to use something like the palantir to coordinate all his heroes, giving them buffs in return for taking your best character out of the fight, so he's a bit safer, but his impact is also lessened, or maybe infusing a single hero with his power, so your enemy can't tell where the devastating force is going to come from, but again less powerful than your caster. Both would cause some interesting decisions.

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"Only in the fires of Mt. Doom could the One Ring be crafted."

I think it'd be neat, but I can understand some people not liking it.

On/off World Improvements.

But then, it'd be a waste of precious production time if few people used it and better left to modders.

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RonLugge

Join Date 05/2004

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Quoting Tiavals,

reply 3

"Only in the fires of Mt. Doom could the One Ring be crafted."

I think it'd be neat, but I can understand some people not liking it.

On/off World Improvements.

But then, it'd be a waste of precious production time if few people used it and better left to modders.

Only if you don't give them the ability to 'create' the special place -- you can spend essence to terraform the word around you, so why not to cause the right 'place' to become available?

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Quoting Sammual,

reply 1

Dominions has map locations that give bonus to spells cast from that location. I think it works very well. It would work even better in a game where you could NOT build a city or fortifacation on that location. It would make it a harder choice to decided if you want to risk your avatar or spell casting hero by putting him on that spot to get the bonus.

I'm not a fan of locations that;

allow the casting of a spell not castable anywhere else

allow you create items with a special power you can't get anywhere else

As with everything I think it is a matter of ballance. Random is good when it is somewhat ballanced and can be overcome with skill, knowledge, and tactics.

Sammual

We agree on these points.

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