Istari

Gardener - Your sovereign becomes as fat and annoying as Samwise Gamgee.

[quote who="Cerevox" reply="2" id="2556097"]I abhor this idea. Mini games are fine. Having mini games that actually effect the real game? terrible idea. It means that the person who clicks the fastest will have an edge. If that is the case, we might as well be playing a RTS instead of TBS. The only thing that should effect the game is the game itself, not some mini games that you can complete to gain extras and bonuses. If you don't like players taking a long time, put a timer that

There is no doubt that this is the best solution for waiting times. The success of it will all be hinged on the quality of these mini-games and how significantly they impact other aspects of the game. It would be good if the type of mini-game was somehow related to the effect it will have on the larger game. For example, solving a puzzle might result in you researching your current spell a little quicker, a reflex game might improve the personal stats of your sovereign, or a

Thanks Wintersong. I have now adjusted the wording accordingly. [e digicons]^_^[/e] But am I to understand that someone has already posted a thread about tactical advantages that are not as per standard engagement rules? Meaning, where terrain and other "outside" factors are taken into account.

I came up with this idea whilst brainstorming for multiplayer modes in the most recent dev-journal based thread. (Usual disclaimer about possible previous threads with the same concept). It is understandable that many players might not want to fight all their battles manually, especially in the later stages of the game where it can become tedious to command the smaller skirmishes, or in multiplayer modes where people have to wait for you to finish. The idea here is to allow fo

Here are some silly options, either crazy enough to work or crazy enough to have me institutionalized. Absent Strategist: For people who like to take their time, but don't always have a lot of time to take. Meaning, there are no time limits, and the game saves at the end of every turn. In this way, players can leave the game and come back to it another day, just like a drawn out long-distance game of Chess. I think this would be a fairly easy thing to imp

See, that "Kingdom Report" looks more like some application's error log rather than an information summary. Maybe it isn't the intended final form, but this just looks like you're examining statistics or a company's financial statements - in other words very boring. If I wanted something like that, I'd be playing the stock market. It should be more along the lines of say, an image of your city with links to the treasury, the garrison, etc. Some things could be displayed i

I like screens. There I said it. One of the things I liked most about MoM was the plethora of different information and option screens that were organised and designed in a very nice way. From flipping through your spell book, to having a tongue-wag with the fickle AI, or simply staring at yourself in the mirror, it really made you feel like you were handling the seperate aspects of running your empire, in a seperated way. I have seen some games try to have

Dear God.... how many unicorns have to die until you are satisfied? [e digicons]8C[/e] A further repercussion could be the unrest caused by all the unsolved "Missing Peasants" case files and forced prayer Angel cults. And I imagine that new Unicorn recruits might have mixed feelings about joining the rest of their cattle brethren. I don't know, it's definately interesting, but how practical is it, and would it be more of a bother than a fun quirk?

There is also the question of whether sieges will be considered as any other battle. Meaning, will they have to be resolved in one combat/battle, having all units from one side either killed or made to flee or surrender (ala MoM), or will the sieges hold through multiple turns, such as in Lords of the Realm? I would like to be able to cripple a city over time, until the resources can no longer support the population and garrisoned army. But if there are no city walls, or the wall

Thank you Raven X, I hope your efforts are taken advantage of by the developers. Just a minor correction, you've listed my Crafting post under Gameplay and my Non-Random Events post under New Ideas and I think it should be the other way around.

Yes, clarity is quite important here. Another possible solution would be to include a surveyor tool ala MoM. This tool should display information about tiles surrounding a possible city site when you place the cursor in a grid-square, including what tiles will be immediately available for buildings. It looks to me like you wouldn't be able to build on squares 7 and 4 anyway due to the forest, or is that not actually an obstruction?

Sounds very interesting and would make exploration that much more fun. I foresee a possible problem though with navigation. I don't know if units can move through those clusters you are describing (it might be that they can) especially if they're all close together, unless some tree-chopping was implemented. Other than that, it's something simple and so probably not too difficult or costly to add, but with worthwhile rewards, especially if the deep forest type encounters are very diff

Firstly, in regards to +/- ability modifiers, I think it would be better to have everything done by percentage (e.g. increase of X% from all spell research improvements). This would make each talent or weakness pick more relevant throughout the whole game, from exploration to end game. Secondly, I agree that picks should have costs that are in some way proportionate to their advantages and disadvantages. Thirdly, I think that some pick

This makes me wonder, will there be something along the lines of a "Spell of Return" as in MoM?

This is an elegant solution. I propose a couple of possible improvements. 1. Place a limit on roads connecting two cities (i.e. 1). This should hopefully allow the upkeep to remain low, rather than using expensive upkeep to limit road building. 2. Include higher tiers of road type that are magically enhanced/enchanted, and possibly have the best road type be something like instant magical teleportation. Enchantments on roads could have benefits ranging from improved speed

In line with the original post, and looking at these types of customisation from a sales perspective. Do we have any data that would at least give us an idea of: a. The number of female TBS players. b. What features tend to attract them to TBS the most. c. Are female preferred features significantly different to the male preferences? With this information, a meaningful decision can be made regarding the level of additional

I think this idea is good in general, but I have a concern about the overall effectiveness of grouping cities for one purpose. Within one district, I might have designed different styles of cities for varying purposes (i.e. one for magic, one for military, etc.). If I have to group them into a district for which only one purpose can be assigned, I don't think I would be taking full advantage of the advantages of each different city type. This might be solved if you allow custo

[quote who="Juvantei" reply="7" id="2549276"]Without randomness, the game will get boring, repetitive and predictable because everything will become known. That's why most of these games for $50.00 go sour in the first month or two. We need a game that actually takes a bold step forward and puts in alot of random variable features. so that every playthrough is fresh. THAT would improve replayability, not cutting out random elements. That's a total contradiction.<b

It just occured to me that scheduled and calendered events could also be implemented into the game. Things like festivals, holidays, celebrations, remembrance, worship or other traditions can be made to occur once per calendar year, and each one should have some sort of effect, possibly both negative and positive. These occasions could differ according to alignment (i.e. Kingdom or Empire), as well as race. In other words, events that are actually non-random.<

[quote who="Scoutdog" reply="2" id="2548768"]The one thing I have grown a wee bit concerned about is people gaming the event systems to get certain tactical outcomes.... without the dev supporting it: these sorts of manipulations could really be quite fun if the game was built with that in mind (fulfilling the conditions of ancient prophecies, setting the conditions needed to summon crap, that sort of thing), but if the lore and text and feel of the game don't support this system and instead

Category: New Ideas Title: Crafting Link: https://forums.elementalgame.com/376662 Brief Description: Using reagents of varying types and power to enchant or create artifacts/equipment.

Category: Gameplay Title: Non-Random Events Link: https://forums.elementalgame.com/376714 Brief Description: Creating systems and reasons for random events that fit within the game world. These systems serve to organise and simplify event occurences.

I started this idea in another thread. What I gather many people don't like about random events is that they come out of nowhere for no particular reason. What I mean by this is, you are playing in this world about which you are acquiring a great deal of information as you go. Then suddenly, something materializes for which there is no precedent or traceable series of events inside this world you are spending all your time in. I think that instead of some dice roll or game pro

As far as I understand it, crafting kits are made by mining crystals. My suggestion is that a list of materials should be available for making or enhancing mundane or already magical items. Some materials should be more rare, and some even unique. The materials aren't things like bits of wood, metal or leather straps, but rather magical catalysts of varying types and magnitudes of power. For example, gems, stones, golden fleece, eye of cyclops, dragon's blood, channeler's pinky t