looting corpses.

In some games you could get their arms and armor, I think it would be a cool idea to be able to harvest dead armies- corpses for zombies, magical creatures can be used to distill essence or something...a certain % of the humans arms/armor/mounts able to be used to create a unit?  Except the way creating units is (I believe) simplified so u couldnt really do this, except maybe it putting a speed boost to ur next unit production or cost less, etc.

I say you pick it up in the condition you found it. It makes no sense for an item to lose an enchatment simply because the item is now used by a diffrent user. What WOULD be fun would be an enchatment that somehow effects a non bound user (enemy picks up weapon, uses it, kills someone, enchanted weapon kills user). Also on large battle fields the corpses were frequently left to rot at which point looters would come by from the local population and then said items would enter the local economy.

tangent... Oooo.... the local economy should get a boost from a fallen army based off of looting. Perhaps a bonus that lasted a few turns. The bonus would be attributed to the size of the army.

... Back on track - I like the idea of armies being able to pick up and use there fallen enemies corpses.

Even the victors should have their weapons and armor degrade in that case - with possibly having magic equipment degrade more slowly if at all.  Magic weapons, however, can degrade in that (for example) a +5 weapon eventually becomes a +0 weapon and then degrades normally until it rusts and falls apart.  If the weapon is wielded by someone who can also wield magic (or is maintained by a "magical smithy") the rate of decrease would be considerably to totally slowed.  It would cost a lot more to maintain weapon stores and armies armed with magical weapons in this case and thus make fielding one that more rare and powerful (and encountering one).

I like the idea of deciding how to dispose of the dead as a strategic game element; keeping mind not only how to bury the enemy but also your own fallen: do you give certain members a heros burial; do you erect monuments to their honor; etc.

That would be a nightmare. Interesting concept, terrible for gameplay...

Goodmorning all,

There are at least three types of +2 swords,

Sword + potion of Plus two

Sword + spell of Plus two

Sword made of +2 native quality.

It's not hard to think that at least one of these,  the Sword + spell,  could be cast to stop being active if not conrolled by a unit of the right channler.  the other two would be more hard to explain... but Having a sword of native Quality +2 become a +1 after loosing a battle,  due to being banged up and slashing armour, and or whatever, could perhaps be explainable.



Mainly i'm thinking that a few weponds would be directly captured,  the rest would be melted down to scrap and used as easy to access resourses for recycling (don't have to mine or purify the metal,  just remelt and recast it. so short term big plus to making new things which use that resourse.)


Stripping summoned magically bound monsters that didn't die in the battle of thier magical esence could also be cool.  but would only be possible if a hero  with essence was at the battle and was trained how to do it.


Take care all.

Robbie Price.

Just like to say I am not polobo and polobo is not me.

I saw the icon and thought "Iposted in this thread already?" and then I was thinking yeah this sounds like me, damn do I have Alzheimer's? and was like wtf and then I saw the name and I was like lol and whew I'm not losing my mind.

What if someone has cloned you using your DNA while you've been sleeping?   It's still not you, but genetically very close. 

Just thought the same thing while playing last night. It would be neater to make the game more like an RPG. Army equipment would be items put in character doll slots. Dead armies drop their items which can then be carried away. Probably armies should have a certain carrying capacity. A certain number of free backpack space slots.

Thinking about if my proposed type of weapon and armour looting would unbalance the game. I think it may actually make the game more balanced. If a player doesn't have access to a iron mine, can't build nice swords. This way they can get a limited number of swords with some effort and skill.

The current approach of weapons and other equipment being intrinsically built into a unit feels irritating. I also like the ideas of being able to steal items, a marketplace between players for trading in items, warehousing stacks of looted equipment for later need or recycling and having veteran units being more individual with funky equipment they picked up along the way.

I'm wondering about balance... would you want any weapons dropped by an inferior army? should you be able to equip your swarm of minions with looted enhanced gear? ...a simple but nice option would be for items to drop, collected by the victor by moving to the location with enough troops and the list of items to pop up and be automatically sold. The option to salvage and then equip items being a researched or totally optional element.

Armies should probably need some re-training in a city to become effective with equipment that is too different from their previous load-out. Or they could just suffer through a few battles and automatically become proficient.

Balance issues should be helped, not hurt, by making items lootable/tradeable. If one side is prevented, by lack of a resource, from building really nice bows +5. How are you going to keep the sides balanced? Looting kills provides a second method to obtain an item. Having a marketplace between players a third.

I agree that looting of the bodies should be allowed. This kind of ties in with units that require several different resources, and having one of those resources removed. The best idea from THAT is to have whichever equipment slot it is to be replaced by the second best equipment (if equipment are more speciallized and less, this one good-this one bad, then human player could que a rank of 3 alternate equipment, or simply list their top 5 favorite equipment for each slot, in order)

either way, this style of thinking at least should lead development away from equipment glued to the unit.

for instance, if an army of bastard swordsmen defeats Longswordsmen, and the player with the bastard swordsmen decides he would rather equip longswords, then they can switch weapons no problem, since they are both swords.

Also, the number of enemies should be considered when looting, and if you select "take all swords" those beyond your army size would automatically be sold, and if your army was bigger, the swords would go to the highest level troops/ those with the most Hit points left.

aka, if you were 40 and they were 60, you would sell 20 longswords,

if you were 80 and they were 60, your 60 best soldiers would equip longswords.

I think a pop-up should only be shown for superior or alternate weaponry, while obviously lesser equipment is automatically sold off.

If however those bastard swordsmen killed an archer brigade with +5 bows, since these are powerful items, a pop-up would show, for "sell off" or "send to armory." Either a supply wagon would generate on-site to bring the bows back to a friendly city, or the bows would automatically teleport to a friendly armory, where they sit in a ware-house until you train units that can use bows, and then "select bow +5" will work with new bow units until all bows are sold. Alternatively, an army of veteran archers (friendly) can arrive at the city and equip said bows. If they are an ally (especially a human one) you can haggle as to the price of the bows, and what they are willing to give in return, wether it is a temporary lease of a resource, a technology, or some newly trained auxiliary units.

which brings me to another point. I think unit gifting should be enabled. Further more, I think a human player should be able to board an ally's ship. I see little need to allow the AI to do this, although coordinated attacks with human teams (one human's navy, the other human's army) should be allowed.

also, how are we going to regulate city creation and possible destruction? can a town be destroyed? how close together will they be able to exist? will their be distance costs?

I ask because I was thinking of settlers from civ 4, and the ability to "raze" cities. In a game such as elemental, I think it would be prudent for at least a ruins to remain if someone chooses to abandon a city, and monsters should most likely decide to preside theirin, like spiders, cave trolls, and goblins.

Goodmorning all,

I was thinking more along the lines of equipment being recycled, some of the better equipment would be kept, if compatible, and adiquate in number to use for the troops picking them up, but the basic assumption is that any armour will need to be resized, any weapons would be of a differnt make or handle . . . whatever. 

Selling loot for money also seams odd to me... who are we selling to? Where is the arms market nobody but your opponents need enough bronze armour, or shredded bronze armour, to equip an army.

also i think what you do with bodies and POWs is a significant consideration, politically.

take care all.

Chop up the bodies!!!! Use the fat for fuel, the muscle for meat (when necessary ... for dragon?), and the rest goes to the alchemists for study. Arharhar!