[Suggestion] Dissolution of Empires

from Elemental Forums

Disclaimer: This is based upon a rule set where the death of a sovereign is the end of that empire.

 

From the lore, the player character is a channeler, a magical being of immense power and one of the few with the ability to wield magical forces. As we have seen in the beta, you have two magical units: mana of the various elements and essence. Essence is currently only used to convert the land into the type livable according to your chosen faction.

 

Currently, when a sovereign is killed, that empire vanishes in a flash. I am suggesting altering this instant vanishing into a decay over a number of turns. Essentially, as long as the channeler is alive, their essence remains bound to the land maintaining it. Upon their death, it is no longer bound and the land returns to being neutral/wasteland/barren land. During this period of decay, the population of the city falls as people flee the dying lands, broken spirits because of the loss of their supposedly immortal sovereign, or some such reason. It will also allow an opportunity for the player or other AI sovereigns to claim the cities by using essence to re-imbue the land and save it. The benefit of this would be acquiring a city that is already developed without risk to military units or damage to the city itself.

 

This is kinda inspired by a line I remember from an old King Arthur movie, 1981's "Excalibur". When Percival goes to retrieve the grail he is asked a question: "What is the secret?" He replies, "That you (King Arthur) and the land are one." The land mirrored it's king.

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I think that the cities dissapearing when the Sovereign dies is just a placeholder. Because it doesn't make any sense. If you look at the land where the cities where, you can see that it retains it properties (green for life, dark for death) which sdoesn't make sense if enemy kingdom/empire must dissapear because of lack of Sovereign support.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

When you kill a sovereign, instead of his realm just dissapearing, I think it should stay around, maybe split up in various factions with new non-channeler leadership. And depending on that new leadership, the cities might stay at war with you or revert to neutral. Or under certain circumstances they might even offer to become your vasal.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Wintersong, reply 1
I think that the cities dissapearing when the Sovereign dies is just a placeholder.....
End of Wintersong's quote

I agree, this will propably change once the AI and the vassal-system are implemented.

It would be nice if the death of the sovereign doesn't automaticly mean that the entire faction is defeated (talking about the AI's here, not the players faction). It might take a while before the new management, perhaps a family member or hero, gets complete control of the faction. During this time some cities may break away and form their own faction, vassals could declare independant or even try to take over, or even a civil war might occur between the heir and his siblings or powerfull generals.

I really hope something like this will be in the game, but maybe thats just me daydreamingO:)

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Agreed. I'd like to see the Sovereign's heroes and children split up the cities in the fallen Sovereign's kingdom and be rebels or small kingdoms of their own without a Sovereign. That would be a lot more realistic for a war game in my view. It would also bring in a lot more strategic depth.

Killing off  every unit in a kingdom when the Sovereign dies just doesn't make any real sense. I can see any magical creatures a Sov has summoned dying. Anything with lots of upkeep. But the dead Sovereign's children and heroes would still be there at the very least, even if the cities die from infertile land and the armies disband because no one pays their upkeep.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I'd like the empire to fragment into the hands of powerful generals any heirs and descend into civil war.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Wintersong, reply 1
I think that the cities dissapearing when the Sovereign dies is just a placeholder. Because it doesn't make any sense. If you look at the land where the cities where, you can see that it retains it properties (green for life, dark for death) which sdoesn't make sense if enemy kingdom/empire must dissapear because of lack of Sovereign support.
End of Wintersong's quote

 

I hadn't noticed that the land retains the properties. But I also haven't messed with the color settings and just going with the borders because they are always the extents of the life/death.