Discussion: how to jazz up the masterquest and spell of mastery wins

from Elemental Forums

Ok Brad announced recently that the team is looking at ways to develop these two win conditions, which is great news because I think both could be improved and made more interesting. Anyway, I thought that now would be a good time to start a thread so that us fans could throw some suggestions out there for the devs to consider.

Anyway lets get the ball rolling:

The Masterquest:

I would like this to feel like an epic quest where the player is aware of the goal at the start but it's going to involve some epic questing all over the map to achieve these goals. If anyone has played Sid's Pirates I'm thinking along the lines of the quests to reunite your long lost family and the path to revenge - these quests were available from the start but took ages to complete and involved sailing throughout the Caribean.

So with regard to FE, how about the map generates quest items throughout the map and guards them with big monsters and in order to complete the master quest you need to find and claim them all - which has to include fighting the epic boss monsters :). The items could be tomes of ancient knowledge or whatever - Derek and Brad are imaginative guys, I'm sure they could come up with something compelling - the point is it should send you on a dangerous treasure hunt all over the map. Breon's letters and Eerog's journals would reveal clues where these items are but you shouldnt have to research them to complete the quest. But what happens if another sovereign beats you to the item? Maybe you could ask him nicely for it (not likely)? Maybe you could bribe him (gonna be pricey)? Or maybe you should just kill him and take it from his cold dead hands? }:)

With regard to the current master quest I was honestly surprised when I won it - firstly, I thought this expansion was about a fallen enchantress and the masterquest would involve fighting her and secondly there was no big build up to the final quest so it all took me by surprise when I saw the victory screen. It also felt too early in the game and I hadnt researched that far down the 3 trees. BTW is Ceresa the fallen enchantress? I'm guessing she must be.

Anyway thats the bare bones of an idea for the masterquest; on to the spell of mastery.

 

The spell of mastery:

Currently, this feels like a research race and while that should be part of it I think it could be more creative and exciting. Also, once someone has started casting this spell, do the other players have to wipe out the player completely in 25 turns in order to stop him? That's a big ask I think. Anyway some quick thoughts:

1) You should own a bunch of different shard types in order to cast the spell (like WoM)

2) You should have to create a master shard to funnel all the mana into (one shard to rule them all :) )

3) Other players can disrupt the spell once it's been cast by either killing the soveriegn or razing the master shard - so the casting player will need to set up a strong defensive position before casting.

4) Once you have started casting the spell, sentient forces within the shards sense your attempts to control them and awaken to stop you, this means all shards you control start spawning loads of super high level elementals, shrills, demons etc in a similar way to the gate spell and you need to keep these forces at bay as well as the forces of rival soveriegns.

5) All rival sovereigns sense your bid for world domination and declare war on you

 

Right so these are my thoughts, it would be good to get a bunch of suggestions on here to help the devs to think of ways to jazz up these victory conditions

3,462 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Wow no other posts? That's pretty surprising. Are people not interested in this part of the game or is everyone taking a 'wait and see' approach for what Kael comes up with? I would have thought there would be a few different ideas floating about on how to revamp these win conditions but I guess not.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I don't have enough experience with the masterquest to comment on that.

 

However I am posting because I wanted to say that I think the master shard idea (#2) is a really good idea. It provides a target point for AI aggression and sets up a good amount of tension for those final 25 turns as you try to defend the shard (I am assuming that the rival sovereigns will all gang up on the master spell caster, unless perhaps they are allied with you?).

On the other hand I am against the idea of spawning elements etc (idea #4). A player going the master spell route shouldn't be forced to also have a really strong military, otherwise they could have just won by conquest.

Going back to point #2 this means that if anything I think the master shard may need to have with some bonus defences, or perhaps take 2 turns to destroy. Ideally the player should have to use all their resources and magic to defend the master shard but they shouldn't have to have the biggest military in the game. With the new AI this may mean that 25 turns casting time is too long and it should be only 10-15 turns - enough that the AI can have a decent crack at it but not enough time that the combined AI can completely steamroll the player.

 

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I don't know if this has been announced but the Master Quest is getting its own special area on the map rather than being a normal quest tile.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Yes.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Cheers for the info Frogboy; I also checked out Derek's changelog and I can tell that the masterquest is shaping up nicely so I'm looking forward to trying it out. Is the new spell of mastery victory in the next Beta too?

Mistwraithe, thanks for the reply BTW, I was beginning to wonder if anyone had read the OP.