City Destruction Mechanic - Suggestions

from Elemental Forums

Two problems and accompanying suggestions:

1) Currently, when a city is razed the tiles that initially supported the settlement of a city (representing good soil, presence of minerals, magic, etc...)  are removed from the map. This doesn't make much logical sense, and doesn't really do much to advance the gameplay either. These sites are already in somewhat short supply. I would suggest leaving the underlying tiles untouched. While some environmental degradation would be understandable, as it is now the only way to make sense of the mechanic is to imagine that the cave bear who got in some lucky mauls and tore down my town then proceeded to salt the earth and taint all of the minerals in the area. A pretty comprehensive force of destruction...

2) Speaking of cave bears, or ophidians for that matter, currently the situation is thus: a large monster army manages to wipe out my town garrison in a closely fought battle, leaving perhaps one monster with low health left. Result: a city of 150 is razed to the ground (and the earth salted, see point 1). Again, doesn't make much sense logically and is somewhat frustrating. A more sensible mechanic would be for the surviving attack power of the monster stack to be subtracted from the population of the city, and if this resulted in a population of zero, then the city would be razed.

 

Thoughts?

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I agree with both your points in principle

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Cave bears have been known to employ the scorched earth tactic, much like the Red Army did. But on a serious note, I agree with both your points. Although my understanding, from reading the forums, is that monsters are not as willing to attack your cities as they were in WoM let's say.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Yes please! I never liked the scorched earth mechanic I don't know why it's managed to stay in the game so long... :(

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Sarudak, reply 3
Yes please! I never liked the scorched earth mechanic I don't know why it's managed to stay in the game so long...
End of Sarudak's quote

Because Froyboy doesn't like the increased management required with the conquaring of cities as well as the pioneer spam associated with claiming razed territory...

 

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Could be. But I would hope that a believable living world would trump that concern.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top


Two problems and accompanying suggestions:

1) Currently, when a city is razed the tiles that initially supported the settlement of a city (representing good soil, presence of minerals, magic, etc...)  are removed from the map. This doesn't make much logical sense, and doesn't really do much to advance the gameplay either. These sites are already in somewhat short supply. I would suggest leaving the underlying tiles untouched. While some environmental degradation would be understandable, as it is now the only way to make sense of the mechanic is to imagine that the cave bear who got in some lucky mauls and tore down my town then proceeded to salt the earth and taint all of the minerals in the area. A pretty comprehensive force of destruction...

2) Speaking of cave bears, or ophidians for that matter, currently the situation is thus: a large monster army manages to wipe out my town garrison in a closely fought battle, leaving perhaps one monster with low health left. Result: a city of 150 is razed to the ground (and the earth salted, see point 1). Again, doesn't make much sense logically and is somewhat frustrating. A more sensible mechanic would be for the surviving attack power of the monster stack to be subtracted from the population of the city, and if this resulted in a population of zero, then the city would be razed.

 

Thoughts?

End of quote

Sounds like you need more defending units garrisoned in your cities so they don't get razed by bears.

I don't understand how it is players can't grasp this concept.  The game isn't going to play itself, ya know.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

A reasonable critique of my early-game strategy to be sure, but not a rejoinder to the points themselves.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

I agree that the scorched earth thing is very annoying because I don't trust the AI to always pick the site I would (I heavily prefer essence, for example).  But if they build their first, it's now either their choice, or the highway.  There is an earth 5 spell that restores land I believe, but of course, that requires reaching that level of magic, and sparing the mana to cast the spell.