lwarmonger

The only thing you are forced to get right now is food and materials (non-magically). You have to have those two things, and they are pretty common. Everything else is either not essential, or won't be essential with minor balancing. In Civ 4 you simply weren't competetive at all because you had to rely on a few select units, all of which used the same resource. No oil? You were screwed, because oil was required for almost every modern unit. There was no wa

What is up with the concerns for CIV IV like "stacks of doom?" This is not something I see as something to really worry about. First, your troops cost money. The more troops you have the more money they cost, and the better those troops are skill wise the more money they should cost. So there is a natural economic limit on whatever size your army is. Now, for combining all of your troops in one stack. The way the economic and city developme

I don't think luck will necessarily decide games, since there are a lot of ways around certain problems. History is replete with examples of heavily armored cavalry dominating all before them because their enemies didn't know how to counter. However, once they figured out that a disciplined spearwall combined with archers/firearms could break a cavalry charge, the heavily armored knight was gradually phased out. Now not being next to ore doesn't mean you can't go an

I'm not sure what you mean by "uo" style rising, but yeah. After a character has used the longbow quite a bit he is probably going to be getting pretty good at it. An administrator that is in charge of a small settlement that revolves around extracting ore should get traits that improve his settlements ability to extract ore as governor. A merchant who is trading between cities should gradually get better "trader" traits which improve the return he gives you per trip, ect.&n

Neutral cities shouldn't cover the map though (although there should be some of them). That being said, little barbarian settlements (that have a population) but aren't conquerable should be as common as lairs. When you take them they give you loot, and possibly slaves (if you are empire). Their size increases with how successful they are at raiding, and they should raid pretty frequently. Other neutral outposts should be set up by NPC's to take advantage of a local resource

That could work. As you said though, they should cost food to build though. And personally I think the resources we start the game with, barring uses of essence to improve them (or destroy them), should be the ones we end the game with.

[quote]well to me it seems if you have no metal at all you have lost, as army maybe you can compensate with magic, but surely not with brute strength against an opponent WITH metal mines[/quote] Horse archers as an offensive force (you aren't going to be taking any cities with them, but you can sure win field battles), with a spearmen/archer/horse archer defensive field force to keep them out of your cities. More difficult to be sure, but not impossible. Securin

I think the only issue I'd have for leveling up characters in the traditional manner is that it would take quite a bit of time as a player given the sheer number of characters you can at this time recruit/raise. In the interests of simplifying micromanagement of characters I think that a dynamic skills system would better serve the RPG/Strategy hybrid (especially since this game leans a bit towards strategy).

If "getting taken in the rear" would be a negative effect in tactical battles then I would see this. If I could have two armies attack a single army (one from the front and one from the rear) simultaniously and that provides a tangible benefit, ok. That makes sense to me. I think that tactical battle maps would have to make it worthwhile though, or it would have to be something that you could build in enemy territory that would support your operations there (having a relativ

I tried not to change anything too much with this idea, just develop existing systems. The problem with adding a permanent governor is that it locks you in permanently, and severely limits your options as the game progresses. Plus, the game stops being about character development, and more about where you are locking in NPC's to function. What would prevent him from just being pulled out of the city to fight is that while a merchant is governing he isn't improving c

We need more to do with champions right now. That merchant that nets us two guildars a turn if we don't do anything with him should be able to be a better type of caravan for your empire once you hire him (who gradually levels up based on the amount of money he makes on the trade route). Or designated as a governor that provides a trade bonus or monetary bonus for the city he is governing. Then he gets traits dynamically as time goes on with him installed as governor.&n

Or be the trigger for a host of negative events. Or perhaps you get the trait "psychotic episode" periodically, in which your sovereign occasionally just goes off in the deep end and begins to behave randomly for a few months.

[quote]You could also forcibly capture them, such as disarming them, so they have nothing left to fight with (assuming they have no magic left or they cannot do magic). Or you could see about restraining them (which would be the case for "taming" wild monsters without magic).[/quote] What would be the mechanic for it though? I mean lets face it, very few single combats would ever be decided because someone had been "disarmed." Multiple weapons combined with that fact

I just wanted to include the one below too (shamelessly promoting my idea in a number of threads, why not this one). [Suggestion] Gameplay: Living Champions https://forums.elementalgame.com/385079

It has been acknowledged that resource gain from caravans has not been in any way balanced yet. That is an extremely easy tweak though, that I'm sure many of us will be adjusting on our own.

I think that doing this dynamically would be the way to go. Upon level up, sure you can increase a stat by one point, but you and your champions should also acquire skills through what they have been doing. You have a merchant going from town to town trading as an NPC? He should get better at it the more towns he visits. Have designated a character as governor of a mining colony? He should gradually get to know about mining and develop stats to improve it the lon

Yep. I'm pretty sure this is going to make it in for two reasons. First, the Tarth seem to be a naval centric kingdom. Second, a number of the AI development diaries have been on the difficulties of getting the AI to cope with multiple land masses.

Iron should be a bit rare (not just something you need hills for). If you lack iron, then you will need to trade for it, or simply make do with a spearman/archer or horse archer army for conquest/defense. Or go the route of having strong heroes, or an incredibly powerful channeller. Not everyone should have a strong, ironclad army.

Personally I think that this is a little outside the scope of the game. I mean sure, things like staple crops and herds changed, but usually over a period of hundreds of years (unless it was being exterminated... that could happen pretty quickly), and modelling this is probably not something that is worth the time to do. Not when there are so many other things that should get modelled first (like NPC development and dungeon exploration).

I think the "trader" and "administrator" character development described here is right up your alley. https://forums.elementalgame.com/385079

I guess. I just have a hard time thinking of how I would use them. Historically this type of thing was used to control the countryside by establishing a strongpoint that didn't require a great deal of manpower to defend. With countryside not being modeled really, nor with there being any supply lines to cut, I just don't see how the mechanics of you being able to defend a single tile would be useful.

Nah, I meant from your settlements. All population centers should be capable of spawning NPC's. They might come from your city, but because they decided to freelance, they are not "yours" so to speak. You don't get them unless you choose to recruit (and pay for) them. And the causes were more what I came up with from the NPC's that I met playing the Beta. They seemed to mostly fit into those broad categories. I guess we could think up additional

I see nations like the Guildar more as artificer nations. Those level five structures of their don't necessarily increase output so much as they would quality of item (Guildar longswords being better than regular longswords). Output should remain fairly similar for like items.

Personally I think that individuals should spawn from settlements after the start of the game. Their frequency and type dependent upon the population and prevalent buildings in the settlements they spawn from. They wouldn't be loyal to the faction that they spawn from (necessarily), but they might have an affinity for sticking around.

For character development, I have a pretty good description of how I think characters should impact the world, grow and evolve below. Make the world a little more alive through NPC development. https://forums.elementalgame.com/385079 With regards to a loyalty system, if you institute it for family you should institute it for people whose loyalty should be substantially less.