Good Morning
It seems as though thread history is being removed (or at least difficult to find and/or access). I cannot locate much of my previous ideas, threads, gameplay comments, etc. As such, this thread: A consolidation of previous ideas.
Since the beta, I've offered many thoughts, considerations, and ideas for Fallen Enchantress. This is not to say that I am/was the only person to come up with some of these ideas....only that I've given them some conceptual thought and so I'm tracking them.
Some of these items were quite extensive to implement. Whether or not SD chooses to impletment any of these items is not the primary purpose of this thread. Nor is the point of this thread to rehash these ideas...though I'll admit; there is nothing wrong with discussion and debate and I welcome it in this thread.
The primary purpose of this thread is to simply consolidate the ideas I've had since beta till now into one location. (and perhaps ... maybe one or two of them will show up in LH 2.0 or FE3)
As always, comments and suggestions are always welcome.
1) Preferred Start Location OR World Wrap
Is it possible to have in one of the game setup screens....perhaps in the "Where are you?" screen, an option called "Prefferd Start Location" where the toggled choices can be:
- Middle
- Edge
- Corner
- Random
Often I am finding myself pressing ctrl-N for a start location based on geographics....not resources/power etc. I would like to position my empire/kingdom within certain orientations compared to the nations around...
OR
Is it possible to have east-west and north-south world wrap options in the start-up options?
2) A Pre-Game Unit/Hero/Sovereign Management System
The system could be organized in a split screen tree-design.
- On the right hand side you can see which factions have access to which units/heros/sovereigns. The tree can be expandable to help keep the work area clean. Faction -> Sovereign -> Units/Heroes. Each item could have a checkbox that would disable the availablity of said unit...if you did not want it in the next game.
- On the left hand side can be a list of all available units/heros/sovereigns....all editable. Perhaps an option to 'make copy' if you want to slightly change the design.
- Therefore, designing a unit could be done from here....and associating it with factions could be as simple as click and drag. (or an option to right-click and 'make available for all')
- Be able to design sovereigns and assign one to a faction
- Be able to assign designed units to factions
- Be able to select/deselect units available for use by factions
- Be able to delete your designed units/sovereigns
- Default game factions/sovereigns/heroes/units would not have the delete option, but can be hidden from gameplay.
3) Expanding Wildlands
As the game progresses, the wildlands periodically expand such that you are eventually forced to address the issue in order to make the late game more challenging.
- Each lair in a wildland would also be a 'node'
- Each lair in a wildland would spawn wildland monsters every X turns.
- Each node would have a base ZoC of 2 squares (a 5x5 area)
- There may be a 'capital node' where the bossman is at with a larger ZoC (perhaps a 7x7 area)
- As the game progresses, perhaps every 50 turns, each wildland node would have its ZoC increase by 1, thus the overall wildland increases in size.
- NOTE -- Since Wildlands are nodal now, it is possible to have differently sized wildlands for different map sizes....maintaining game balance.
- Note that each wildland would be its own unique faction. It could have the same color, but wildlands cannot merge. They conflict.
- By conquering nodes (lairs) you could reduce the size of the overall wildland (This is presuming that the adjacent nodes do have ZoC's extend far enough to cover the area of the node you have taken over.)
- It could be presumably be possible to 'carve' out a path through a wildland, leaving both sides intact.
- Whenever wildland monsters conquer a city/outpost it effectively becomes a lair/node for that wildland, starting at a wildland's initial ZoC.
- Wildland monsters are hyper aggressive towards any unit, outpost, or city within it's wildland ZoC.
- Only when all wildland nodes are conquered will the default wildand ZoC become fertile. Not every tile would become fertile. Only 1/9 tiles should be settlable but the locations should be decent locations with some essence.
- NOTE -- A new Victory Condition could be made here called "Cleansing the Land" whereas the players objective is to conquer all wildlands in order to win the game. (generally speaking, if you've settled all wildlands....you have the resources to win the game militaristically anyways)
4) More XP against AI
One aspect of this game that I have always felt lacking was the pittence of XP you received from defeating AI units and their armies.
- When an opponent hero is involved in the combat, grant double XP? (subtract a static amount of XP for each injury the hero has...note that the equation should not result in a negative value)
- When an opponent sovereign is involved in the combat, grant triple XP?
- When you wipe out an opponent faction --> Get Fame reward and that last battle grants you quadruple XP?
- When you conquer an AI city, get a Fame reward. (and the first city you conquer should get a cutscene)
- When you conquer an AI capital city, get a Fame reward (and every capital city you conquer should get a cutscene)
- When you lose one of your city's, receive an Fame penalty (and the first city you lose should get a cutscene)
- When you lose your capital cuity, receive an Fame penalty (and get a cutscene)
- As when an AI sovereign surrenders, if you kill and AI sovereign, he receieves a unqiue injury, similar to the surrender injury.
- As when an AI sovereign surrenders, if an AI chooses to give up, he becomes a mercenary for hire, receiving an unique injury and having a cost associated with his services should you find him on the strategic map.
- (from NaytchSG) When you defeat an enemy hero/sovereign, you receive a random piece of loot that the hero/sovereign had him.
- (from NaytchSG) A new 'Pickpocket' trait could be designed that would allow you to choose which item you received instead of random.
5) Balanced City Defenders
Currently there is a double standard being presented.
- Player's city militia will only defend the first attack of a given turn. Subsequent attacks in the same turn will not have city militia present.
- AI's city militia will defend every attack in every turn and will be at 100% force and health each combat, even if you've killed off or damaged some units in a previous attack on the same turn.
I'm hoping for this to be balanced out one day...
- City militia for both players and AI alike should have there mortality status and health tracked over the course of a turn. Upon the new turn, the status is reset.
- Consider applying Unique Defenders for each city type into the base game to present a lore aspect to each city type. An example can be found in my mod: https://forums.elementalgame.com/451304/page/1/#3441614
6) Finding Loot
When finding loot, PLEASE install a 3-button set of options in the pop-up.
- Use - Makes immediate use of the item of loot that you pick up. (whether it's equipment or consumable)
- Equip - Opens the equip window so that you can make an informed decision as to what you want to do with the loot.
- Ok - exits the set of option and continues gameplay.
7) Changing Capital Cities
Have the capital city have more prevelant interaction in the game.
- The 'non-continuous' unrest penalty would change, obviously dependent on ZoC.
- If a 1/faction building represented the capital (perhaps a 'Palace' type building or even the Tower of Dominion itself....have one set of bonuses for Kingdoms and another set of bonuses for Empires.), it could have inherent bonus (perhaps the non-continuous effect).
- Changing the location of your capital would cost production time, resources, and perhaps even mana.
- Upon completion of the new capital building, the old building would NEED to be destroyed and all effects negated.
- Heroes would show up at your capital city. (NOT at your sovereign's location)
8) Mutiple City Tile Types (for hills and mountain sides)
- It would be absolutely fantastic if the city terrain retained its basic shape from pre-city.
- Have several new 'city tiles' developed for the different hill orientations that exist
- 1 corner raised, 1 half raised, 2 opposing corners raised, 3 corners raised, all corners raised
- Have these tiles rotatable so that the engine can match it with the nearby hills + mountains
- Have the terrain merge into these tiles instead of going completely flat.
- All Buildings would need to know what level, upper or lower, they are being built on
9) Outpost Upgrades
- Currently there is little drive to build and develop outposts in the game.
- Remove the ability for a Pioneer to settle an outpost
- Add the ability for a Scout/Explorer to settle an outpost (if needed, add a small population cost (5 or 10 .. tops))
- Ouposts should have their OWN upgrade queue
- Outposts should have only a max of 5 levels (starting at level 0), a level depicted by the number of upgrades it has.
- Each subsequent upgrade should take twice the time to build. (lvl1 - 3 turns, lvl2 - 6 turns, lvl3 - 12 turns, lvl4 - 24turns, lvl5 - 24turns)
- Outposts should have a minimum distance of 5 from any city and any other outpost
- Likewise, a city should have a minimum distance of 5 from any outpost (so an outpost can 'guard' fertile land)
- Outposts should have more upgrade options -- see attackdones mod for examples https://forums.elementalgame.com/446432/page/1/
- AI should be able to upgrade their outposts!
- AI should be able to use outposts to 'guard' fertile land and be able to raze their outpost when they are ready to replace it with a city.
10) Advanced Roads
- Roads showed be 'owned' by a faction, it's tag dependant on the ZoC its in.
- Roads should NEVER enter neutral territory unless they default with a neutral ZoC tag. (that means to make a economic treaty work, you MUST generally share a border and IF that border is lost, the treaty IS cancelled as the neutral tag can never be sustained)
- Roads that end up in neutral territory should be razed in 10 turns.
- Roads should level up through techs along the techtree. (Path --> Road --> Highway)
- Path - granting +1 movement
- Road @ Construction tech - granting +2 movement
- Highway @ Mobilization with prereq Construction - granting +4 movement
- All your owned roads level up upon reaching a tech
- A Road Builder Unit should be made available at the Construction tech. This unit can build AND destroy roads.
- Global Spells could exist, with upkeep cost, to boost your road movement even faster (Ride like the Wind & The Golden Road)
- Ride Like the Wind - Air Spell (lvl2), granting an additional +1 movement for travel along ANY road by your units/heroes
- The Golden Road - Earth Spell (lvl4), granting x2 movement for travel along ANY road by your units/heroes
11) Razing Cities
- Razing a city should NOT be allowed for X turns after conquering said city where X is the level of the city.
- Razing a city should NEVER salt the earth on or around the tile. (to prevent AI building cities, cast Salt the Earth OR build an outpost (see above))
12) Independent Cities (Gal Civ II style)
- Introduce independent cities that have there own non-magical leaders.
- Each 'mini-nation' operates as a regular faction but cannot build settlers. Thus if they are to expand, they need to conquer or trade to do so.
13) Expanded Diplomacy Options
- Why can we not trade Cities and Outposts? Imo turf wars should be a viable option though perhaps to make a trade fair, both sides need to put land on the table or else it turns into a threat of force.
- All treaties should only persist so long as you share congruent ZoC with your respective capitals. Breaking this link will place a 10 turn timer on the treaty to which after said timer, the treaty will expire for not maintaining established borders.
14) Tactical Improvements
- Ranged combat is currently abusive. Ammo should be introduced into the game. Each unit should have a 'base' melee attack for when there ammo expired.
15) Building Support
Here is an idea: Building Support
Each level of city has a 'building support' level. Each type of city has a modifier to that support level. Building can be built that provide additional support.
The thought would be that each city has some natural infrastructure limitation based on it's size and type. Perhaps it's 'tax revenue' or urban sprawl...whatever the justification...the point is that it should be almost impossible to build every building available. Choices must be made as to what buildings you want in what cities. Here is an example (note that this is not tested for balance...the values may need to be changed to make sense):
Towns: Receive +2 building support
Fortress: Receive +1 building support
Conclave: Receive +0 building support.
Level 1 Cities: Have 3 building support
Level 2 Cities: Have 5 building support
Level 3 Cities: Have 7 building support
Level 4 Cities: Have 9 building support
Level 5 Cities: Have 11 building support
Then have some buildings that can add additional support. For example, the Town Hall could provide an additional +1 building support. The Tower of Dominion could provide +2 additional building support.
16) DLC Releases
Concerning DLC releases: https://forums.elementalgame.com/452256/page/7/#175
Here is a list of Polish Points that the game has and as such are incomplete:
- The AI should be able to cast Arcane Monolith. Will be fixed in 1.7. Thanks Frogboy

- The AI should be able to queue outpost upgrades OR change the outpost upgrade system to something that works. (see above) Will be fixed in 1.7. Thanks Frogboy

- The Binding Trait should have Kingdom units as well for when you have a custom kingdom sovereign with the Binding trait.
- Outposts within a city should still be able to show you how many turns until the next binding creature is spawned.
- The Master Quest is way too easy and quick. There should be an 'episodic' feel to the experience and win condition. Will be fixed in 1.7. Thanks Frogboy

- AI should be able to upgrade Altars, Quarries and Mines beyond there initial build when not attached to a city. OR player should not be allowed to upgrade beyond there inital builds unless merged into a city.
- AI should be prioritizing unrest type buildings higher. When I take over a city, no unrest building are ever built...
I've reviewed all Staves in the game. These are the changes I recommend:
- The Leht Staff should have it's damage increased from 13 Lightning Attack to 15 Lightning attack. (as it should be better than the Mage Staff)
- The Leht Staff should have it's initiative penalty reduced from -6 Initiative down to -3 Initiative
- The Leht Staff should have the Mage's Only class requirement
- The Hailstone Staff should have it's initiative penalty reduced from -6 Initiative down to -2 Initiative (similar to the Mage Staff)
- The Hailstone Staff should have the Mage's Only class requirement
- The Hellfire Staff should have it's initiative penalty reduced from -6 Initiative down to -2 Initiative (similar to the Mage Staff)
- The Hellfire Staff should have the Mage's Only class requirement
- The Mage's Staff has not had its hiergamenon updated to include the Mage's Only class requirement
- The Queen's Staff does not have a hiergamenon description
- The Sindarian Staff does not have a hiergamenon description
- The Spellstaff should be a Ranged Attack
- The Spellstaff should have the Mage's Only class requirement
- The Staff of the Serpent should have the Mage's Only class requirement
- The Winter's Staff should have the Mage's Only class requirement
As I recall other past ideas, I'll post them here.
Legendary Heros Mods: https://forums.elementalgame.com/446461/page/2/#1
Nexus Mods Links: https://forums.elementalgame.com/461175/page/1/