[0.95][Lair in Controlled Territory]

from Elemental Forums

As it is right now, if a Lair is within a factions border, then the monsters on that lair will abandon their lair and start wandering around. This allows you to ninja loot without fighting the "guardians" of the lair. This is kinda lame, only a few goody huts should be available for free pickup. Everything else should be earned.

How about Lair Guardians NEVER leave their lair. If the lair is within a factions border, then the lair will spawn a new monster stack rapidly x2 as normal and that monster stack spawned will make it a priority to assault the settlement/outpost that is bringing it under influence. 

I think this would make the world more fearsome , unforgiving and unyielding, as it should be.

5,025 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Good idea.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top


+2, like this idea very much.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top


very interesting idea.

I like how it would handle ninja looting the lair.

However, if the lair were to change how fast it generated units, say 2x to stick with the example above, you would/could then have a potential exploit in which to generate XP for your units.

 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

That's right and if you made the mob offer very little XP then it just wouldn't jive (I think the low xp for killing enemy faction armies is lame).

If the mechanic won't change though for low xp rewards for faction armies, then we might as well apply it towards these special spawned mobs that will harass and attack the settlement/outpost/improvements.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I mostly agree, but the AI builds its strategy on ignoring monsters most of the time. It would need significant re-tweaking to adjust to this. 

This might work better:

Monster lairs should have a CHANCE of giving treasure. Most of the time it is loot, but 12.%% of the time lair is empty, 12.5% of the time there are more monsters.

I am thinking of goodie huts from civ2. Usually good, but there is risk.   

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

I'd like to keep the mechanic the way it is. Disturbing a lair is a potential risk. Ninja looting is the reward for that risk.

I once disturbed a banshee lair with expanding borders, and she starting laying waste to my mines and shards. My sovereign stack was on the other side of the map, and none of the defensive units in the city had magical attack abilities.

 

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Yes it is true you can loot the lairs this way, but for minor monsters this doesn't matter much - you could just kill them anyway.  For the epic mobs (Dragons etc) you can scam some pretty fancy loot, but now you have an uncontrolled monster, which is probably too tough for you to kill, roaming in your territory.  I view that as a serious negative.

So.

Advantages:  Loot earlier than you could otherwise obtain it.

Disadvantages:  Really big bad critters roaming your territory.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

When the monsters destroy mines/shards/settlements/outposts, it is not because they are priority targeting them, they are bumping into them in their random meandering.

If a player dares to incur the attention of a Lair, that attention should be immediate and swift reaction by the Lair to eliminate the intruding force. Whether it is a Mite Mob or a Ash Dragon, that is up to the player to decide if it is worth plopping down anywhere near it, but the consequence of doing so shouldn't be a randomly wandering mob. It should be, "If I push the wildlands, it WILL push back DIRECTLY and IMMEDIATELY."

And it really would fit into the lore of the game, the land is wild and requires the direct intervention of the Sovereign to retame the wild for the emergence of civilization. As it is right now, the Sovereign pretty much founds the first settlement and screams, "LOOOOOOOOOT RUUUUUNNNN!!!" as he drags the whole army away further and further away from the capital. And for the most part, the Capital will be safe as will the follow up settlements, even IF monster lairs are disturbed.