Long list of things I'd like to see touched/added in the expansion

from Elemental Forums

This is a pretty long list, but it's more of a top 10- most of these are more along the lines of fixing current mechanics to be better, with a few things generated towards additional content/new ideas.

 

1) Outposts and militia

I'd like to see things revamped here.

    Outposts should be upgradable, but by level not specific building.  Outpost benefits and militia

should be based on a combination of tech and level.   Outpost level maxes should also be determined by tech,

with perhaps defensive trait giving a bonus.   This would also reduce micromanagement that is with the current

system.

    Militia should also make more sense.  You shouldn't have archer militia without archery.  Conclaves

with enough fortification should have mage militia.  Overall, I think militia needs to be more buff at higher

city levels


2) Bonus creatures like wildlings/ogres.

    There needs to be a revamp here as well.  Instead of auto-getting units, I'd like to see having a

wildling hut/darling hut/ogre hut in your lands enable new units.  Upgrading the huts should enable more

creatures.  There should be advantages and disadvantages to the units- for example: a mercenary camp should

allow really fast training of units, maybe even zero production cost, but should have higher upkeep and a gold

cost to produce.  I'd like to see a few more of these in an expansion as well.


3) City Growth, City Levelling, and Wonders

    I still don't think there's enough benefit to high level cities as compared to many cities.  The

prestige penalty for many cities just doesn't seem to matter, as you hit your food caps very quickly.  One

idea- wonders should require a level 3 city, and one wonder per city unless it's level 5.  This would also

give the AI a better chance at some wonders.  We do need more wonders in general, enough that players would

have to choose what they want.


4) Hero Classes

    I'd like to see more variety here, and perhaps sub-classes to be gained at level 9.   Why can't we

have dual wielding for example, or rangers?   There are a number of good ideas possible here, I have plenty.
Warrior path needs specific weapon skills- there's a lot more detail that could have been included here,

though I understand why it wasn't for the base game.  This is an area that is ripe for expansions.


5) Loot and Magical Forging recipes.

    I'd like to see more variety in loot.   We have ice spear, lightning pikes, why can't we have have

lightning spears and ice pikes, or flaming swords?   These things should be randomized.

Also, rare items should be findable, that have additional bonuses to standard magical weapons.  If the dev

team has played some of Soldak's games (such as Din's Curse)- having them work like elite/legendary weapons do

in that would be nice.  (I assume Torchlight/Diablo has a similar system)

Also, for units.  I'd like to see magical weapons themselves- you don't get guaranteed weapons with research.  

You'd have to obtain the recipes, which would be done through hiring blacksmiths/enchanters, who would give a

chance of finding recipes, or finding them through quest rewards/loot.  Another method would be sacrificing a

weapon to a blacksmith- who would have a chance to reverse engineer the recipe.

Magical item research would unlock the ability to use the recipes, not the weapons themselves.



6) Summons

    There's just a lack of variety in summoned creatures in this game across the board as compared to say,

Age of Wonders.  Also, I'd like to see Binding work with Life Magic for the sake of custom factions.



7) More minor random events

    This is something that should be imported outright from Civ IV.  Derek has a lot of experience putting

minor random events into FFH, this is something that I really want to see in FE.


8) A revamping of initiative/critical hits and splitting into physical/magical.

    I don't like how mages benefit from wielding daggers, or riding mounts.   I can see staves and certain

magical items increasing the effectiveness of spells, but I like to see some logic in my fantasy.  I just

don't see how holding a dagger makes my fireball faster.   The current system just has too many points of poor

logic for my taste.  Magical and physical crits should also be separated.


9) Betrayers factions and Life/Death magic.

    This is a minor quibble, but Betrayers factions should be able to choose between life or death shards.  If

you can recruit life mages, you should be able to have them benefit from shards.



10) Navies and Dynasties

    If the AI can handle Navies and Dynasties, those should be put back into the game.  They are two

features players seem to really be requesting back.   This is the lowest priority for me, but other players

really seem to wish these features back, so I included it here.

3,831 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

1

I like Outposts as is. Have you been up against City Militia before? Maybe its just because of my crappy starting position, but they had longswords, and those hurt ... ouch.

With pillar of fire and size 5 militia, you can have a pretty strong force. I would agree that it should make slightly more sense though. I mean, maybe no archer militia until the archery tech ... (which, by the way, I think is a bit too expensive :p)

If anything, perhaps outposts could have a limited militia effect. Perhaps one of those upgrading effects adds some militia?

I can agree with militia 'mages' being added to conclaves ;) ... would be nice.

 

2

It is certainly acting a bit odd. As it stands, it seems that units just start to spawn over time (even in the control of a Faction). I'd prefer if it just unlocked a new unit type for nearby cities (all cities?). Perhaps even treat them like a resource, or only unlock it in the city its "connected" to. Either way, being able to design Ogres/Trolls/Wildlings would be an alternative approach. Having them spawn is certainly cool ... and I like that. But would it be cooler to integrate them into society and have them add ... well perhaps a slight boost to population (as well as being an option in the unit editor). Although I guess editing them would bring up balance issues ... but you could only change weapons/traits on the Ogres and Trolls. Maybe you could add armor to wildlings and darklings, but that'd be about it.

Ultimately though? So far suggestions #s 1 and 2 get pretty much a "pass over for now" from me.

 

3

I can certainly dig a wonder requiring level 3 ... not so much on only one wonder per city though. Hell, that'd only ENCOURAGE city spam :P

One thing I hate is that ... if you only have 1 city ... all it will do is hit the population cap pretty damned fast. I mean, you CANNOT just pull a size 5 city out of your ass even if its your only city. You still need the tech, the buildings, the terrain ... so many things. This is why its better off to have as many cities as possible. But why not? can't it just be how it plays?

Well ... I'm not sure about all of that ... but I really think that Size 5 needs to be a bit more attainable if you only have 1 or 2 cities. How would this happen? Other than having a limited effect of tying food to prestige, not sure. I mean, prestige is divided by number of cities, right? So maybe if there was a 1-shot cheap improvement which gave you, say, 5 food per prestige ... this 'extra' food would begin to dwindle if you kept on building more cities, while it would stockpile if you kept to a low number. Its 1-shot, so it can't be reproduced, building more cities will always have a negative food effect. In this case, you'd actually have use for that City Growth/ Prestige.

 

4

Yea, I think Sean's mod does a lot to fix this. Haven't played it, but read his documentation. Anything to make heroes cooler/ more interesting to level up is an A+ in my book.

 

5

Not sure I like this idea ... but if loot drops can be properly tiered, then reintroducing good loot to the highest tier drops might be a good idea. Assuming lairs 'level' in size and strength like cities, the the loot tier should upgrade when the lair levels. (probably not the case yet, but oh well, still a cool idea).

I like the idea of being able to design magical weapons ... I wonder if that would do better in an Item crafting portion of the game? (costing mana and materials ... sort of like Master of Mana). Awesome idea for an expansion pack.

 

6

Agreed. More summons ASAP. (maybe hero traits like, able to hold more than 1 summon of a certain type, or something like that)

 

7.

No Comment

 

8

No good work around for initiative it seems, at least not without rewriting the system. But I AGREE wholeheartedly that physical crits and magical crits should be different/ separate. Part of making Hero classes cooler I think.

 

9

AGREED. this needs in NAO

 

10.

Hell no, waste of time. Maybe if there is a 2nd or 3rd expansion. But economics and Roleplay come first.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Usually by the time I'm facing cities, I just nuke the militia, or shoot it to death, or have a hero who can one-shot them.  Assassin or warrior hero+ great axe is pretty damn good.

Outposts need militia if only to protect against one random wandering bandit or dog razing your outpost, which makes no sense.

 

On number 5- you're right that it needs to be easier for one city to gain in level more quickly.  Bakeries and Butchers do encourage city spam, they are what make towns useful- get enough of those your main cities don't have to concentrate on food, they'll level up automatically.

 

What might work is simply raising the pop requirements for cities, but also raising the amount of food you get base and from improvements.

Also effective population should tie into production, maybe the level of city would determine how efficient that production is?

 

I think we both agree that this area of the game needs work.

 

 

My idea for #8 is that spells have an init, and heroes/items would adjust that init.  They then have a cooldown time that is determined by your regular init.

So fireball might have a base init of 6, for example.

 

On Number 10- I do agree with you, but I suspect we're in the minority.

Sins of a Solar Empire II