[.915][SUGGESTION] Would allowing Monsters to target outposts and/or cities be Fun?

I'm pretty sure they target cities. Just not outposts/resources. Basically, since they are monsters, they don't really care about resources... they are just out to kill things... units, people, etc.

Realism isn't really what I'm looking at.  Realism can only add imersion, sometimes. You might be right about they do attack cities, I think I misread Froggy's post.'What I'm trying to get at is, would it add fun to the gameply IF they did take out uotposts (which for your realism argument, would need to be manned by something....)  My inclination would be yes

Monsters tend to wander sqaure to sqaure. However soemtimes they will specifically go after a unit. I have seen them go specifically for outpost/monuments many times. Cities is more of a wander randomly into the tile.

You are forgeting one aspect of the game. If a city is destroyed then that tile is not usable anymore. So basiclaly the AI would simply send anothe rpioneer to the next available tile and so on. You would end up with huge areas the ai can not build in. That would destroy AI growth between constant loss of cities and losing buildable tiles.

Sir Frogboy said that playing the AI is like playing an electronic version of him.   If monsters started targeting settlements, I'd lie to think that Froggy would modify his strategy so that he cleaned out areas before settling them.  That's what I do now, to my detriment.

No

Yes.  It is not fun now because the AI spams everything with pioneers, activate monsters that ignore the AI and go after cities.  The system is broken right now.

They should, but it should be based on type of monster and the reason they are there.

Spiders, Wolves, and Bears should never break resources, they should just attack weak units nearby or stay in their homes.

Bandits should break undefended resources over a broad area around their lair, and should respawn lairs in uncontrolled areas of the map.

Higher-call intelligent creates should attack undefended resources near their lairs, and go after lightly defended nearby features when their lair is broken, creating a new lair if they kill the thing that "woke them up"

Malsqueek: this is a great design, but I think re-spawning should apply to all creature types for uncontrolled areas.

I find that the monsters consistently go after my outposts and resources while ignoring the AI-owned  outposts and resources.  This is extremely frustrating in my opinion.

I agree with Malsqueek in that beasts (bears, wolves, spiders, etc.) should generally avoid outposts and resource operations while focusing on units weaker than themselves.  I also like the idea of a territorial "radius" for bandits and lair-based monsters.

That said, I can see room for more nomadic monsters bent on destruction, such as dragons and the like.  If there is too many, however, initially developing your empire can be frustrating and problematic.  Try defending that life node against a Slag beast when all you have is one or two cavemen with clubs and no armour.  One of my starting areas had no less than 6 Slag beasts in the general starting area...

Who says monsters don't target cities? And no, it isn't fun!

That really depends upon the turn.

Getting a dragon in your grill on Spring of 174 sucks bad.

Another 70 turns later, you might be hoping it attacks you, but in your city, and another 40 after that you will be excited to fight a dragon wherever.

Looking at your turn, had you gone a production-high, military-quality-heavy build for your empire AND have a couple units and two good champions on hand, that dragon is a good fight.

Whoa, that is more painful than receiving a birthday telegram from Zinedine Zidane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYN54NZqlcw&feature=related

Alas my heavy armor was at the other end of the map trying to clear a hoarder spider so I could establish another settlement - that job required all the muscle I could muster. It still wouldn't be enough to stop this beast but might have softened him up enough so the city defenders could deal with him. (The city has a hedge and 3 squads of Defenders - it's hard to come up with the cash to defend them better than that at this stage of the game). This is extreme but I find .915 has strong or deadly monsters just about everywhere I want to settle, they will attack and it takes time to build the strength to deal with them. And I'm still playing on EASY - hats off to those who can beat this game on HARD!

Try Resoln death demons and win on hard without breaking a sweat

I'm finally starting to accept the fact that the "No Taxes until you are out of money" and "Use your early mana income to boost production and research" strategies are essentially required for any kind of start to completing with the AI. Try those and you should be competing pretty well on normal or challenging in no time. I hate being shoehorned into it, but it works REALLY well.

Cant argue your way out off game mechanics, it boosts your ass to double efficiency during the startup being able (and casting) inspiration and enchanted hammers on your first city

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

True, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.

I think that it would be a good idea to ascribe certain behaviors to different types of monsters including having some go after resources or units near them.  They definitely should spawn new lairs in areas that remain uncontrolled for long periods as well.  It would add a better reason to actually build units.  I rarely build more than a few  non-pioneer units in a game.  My heroes are usually enough to win.  My current game on hard is at winter 193 and I've built 3 non-pioneer units.

This, pretty much.  Note that you can actually have low taxes once you're running low on money (single digits of Gildar) on Easy and still have a decent time, but casting Inspiration on your starting city is almost mandatory at the moment.  Once you get 2 or 3 settlements up and running, you'll likely easily outpace the AI at the easier difficulty levels.

Why is there even storm dragons in a game on easy??  

I've been playing on hard lately, and am having to spam pioneers something fierce to infill my territory.  I don't always use inspiration early game, and I remain competitive.  Almost always use hammers if I have it though!! 

I think that the fact that the dragon or any other gigantic monster is soooo far away from it's lair is a seperate issue from whether or not they should attack cities or outposts.  If they are chained properly, and don't wander indefinately and unlimited range when they are released, then gigantic monsters are only an issue if you go for the risky outpost/city near their lairs before killing them.

I agree with you though, having a gigantic monster come at you because it has been released from it's lair is crap.  I don't mind if it kills everything around its lair, then goes back and sits on its lair, but no indefinate wandering!!

I never adjust taxes and often forget (for a few turns) to cast Inspiration(or what its called, the one that gives extra mana) at the start. Still, the game is quite forgiving even on higher difficulty levels. This will be true until the AI starts to field tougher stuff. That means the AI must field full armies and do some two front attacks to overextend my main army. The AI should be at my gates when declaring war. If not ready then they should not declare, cause I will then use the war to get a couple of cities.

I'm going to address this issue in a separate topic if it hasn't been so already.  I don't think the problem is the strategy or doing it in game, to me it makes sense.  But I think it may need to be handled a little differently in-game...since newbies might not ever think to do this.

The AI isn't an issue for me. After 4 years playing GalCiv2, I know the AI will outproduce me in the early game. If I survive the early game, I will catch up and move to the front during the midgame. I also know how the AI does it and am not interested in playing it's game in an effort to match it's early growth. The solution I found for GalCiv2, that seems to be working in FE, is large map - small number of opponents. Having some space between neighbors means you have time to explore, settle, do some research and build your strength before meeting the other factions. As I get better, I'll add more factions and increase the difficulty level but, for now - I need to figure out the monsters. They aren't just local color - they severely impact your ability to expand and force you to invest heavily in a rear guard to protect your flanks.

This is the first game I've played where it's normal to have deadly monsters camped on your doorstep at turn 1. In .915, I don't think I've ever been able to establish a second settlement without killing at least a medium monster. This takes time and money - Champions need good equipment, sometimes goodie huts are obliging, sometimes you have to buy it. Soldiers need to be trained and paid - few things will put you into the red faster than a few squads of defenders - even at a normal tax rate. If the monsters treat the AI differently than the player, it will boost the AI's ability to expand in a way that you can't compensate for by adjusting taxes.

I'm OK with tough monsters in the early game and really don't care if they leave the AI alone as long as balance is adjusted so the player has a chance to get established and grow. That should be true for any faction using default settings because those are the settings new players will use and the last thing you want is for them to get frustrated and abandon the game. On average I think late game monsters need to be tougher, I've only encountered one I couldn't handle (made the mistake of completing the Dragon's Eye quest a couple of weeks ago - imagine facing an entire flock of beasts like the one pictured above).

Speaking of the dragon, I think the developers need to make sure the monsters are appropriate for where they appear in the game and for the difficulty level the player has chosen. By all means tough - but not impossible. This is, after all a game - it's supposed to be fun!

If its all appropriate, then its all boring  

I hope for a slider that can change monster aggressiveness / randomness to satisfy us all

I soo want that slider you're talking about...... max agro..... max randomness