Ynglaur

Just curious: how do games in the Europa Universalis series handle succession? Do they have a good model?

Keith - Those are great suggestions. If they do use a hybrid model, then if someone really wants, they can hard-code the whole thing in Python, but those of us with less programming skill can just hack some XML and call it a day. <img id="myFxSearchImg" style="border: medium none; position: absolute; z-index: 2147483647; opacity: 0.6; display: none;" src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABgAAAAYCAYAAADgdz34AAADsElEQVR4nK2VTW9VVRSGn33OPgWpYLARbKWhQlCHTogoSkjEkQwclEQ

I recommend... Add to triggers: Other quests Add to rewards: Other quests Diplomatic changes Consider adding the ability to "pass of" certain quests to other factions, or perhaps to initiate some of your own. This may be best for the "fetch and carry" quests. "Hey, Faction A, make me happy by running off and getting me some X". <img id="myFxSearchImg" style="border: medium

This IncrediBuild thing reminds me of some software WETA uses. Basically they turn all of their graphic artists' workstations into a great big virtualized rendering farm at night.

Frogboy - After Demigod, I seriously think you should do PurplePaladin's suggestion. Don't do it at release, but add a "public" patch a few weeks later. :p

Yeah, the Total War series has replicated the morale effect very effectively since Shogun. I'll never forget this one battle I had in Shogun: a very large enemy army was advancing up the hill towards me. I basically had archers and heavy cavalry. the archers were causing some casualties, but were going to get hit. So I dispersed them, and then moved my heavy cav through their ranks. The enemy line wavered visually, and as the heavy cavalry got about half way to t

I knew that "Trollish Heritage" pick would come in handy someday...

LOL I'm going to steal this line if you don't mind.

It looks like the punch-counterpunch will be, in terms of "damage types" at least, a function of tactics rather than of strategy. This makes sense to me. At least then you have a fighting chance. How often in GalCiv2 do you not even both with defensive tech because you only have 33% chance of guessing "right"? Fire/Ice/Lightning/Earth/Blunt/Pierce/Chop would be even worse.

Lore-wise, I don't think population centers can spring up without help from a Channeler, at least initially. It might be interesting if, as life returns to the land, and if space is available, independent cities did spring up. It may also be an interesting event to have independent "strongholds" found from time to time, full of scrappy survivors who fend off the dangers of the wastes.

I think trying to work out "loyalty by character" would be very interesting, but tricky to implement, and very tricky to guess. We couldn't expect the player to remember all of the various permutations, and would need to develop a system to show that City A is loyal to Character X, and City B hates Character Y, and so forth. Cool concept, but it wouldn't scale well if we suddently have dozens of characters per Faction. That said, I think having Cities have likes/dislikes f

Historically, armies didn't always break at the same time, but parts of armies usually did. I like the idea of a "Discipline" stat, too, but it's probably redundant with Morale. Basically, I don't want untrained peasants able to form close ranks and march in formation quickly. Well-trained troops should have advantages in speed, reaction time, and maneuverability. Boogie - How do you see that type of thing being reflected? Are unit formations, etc. goi

The people of say a is terrorizing them. You can: Ignore their pleas for help. After all, your troops haven't seen this mysterious monster. Send a hero to investigate. Everyone knows one bumbling young hero can find a monster faster than an armyof horsemen. Increase the garrison by of troops. Tax a "Wasting My Time" surcharge of of gold. Tell them they're lu

Coding the AI would be the easy part. The hard--and frustrating--part would be for the player to keep track of it all. With too many actions/counter-actions, the game becomes a crapshoot.

The populace is demanding that your release the prisoner , who they claim is jailed unjustly. You can: Leave him in prison Leave him in prison, and use your spies to find and imprison the most vocal of the pleaders (effectiveness based on oppression, size of army, morale, and other factors) Send a Hero to recover evidence of his guilt or innocence at Let him free

[quote who="Denryu" reply="50" id="2470429"]A channeller with the "impotent" trait should get "alchemical potion d'viagra" in their research tree. [/quote] This would be a really interesting trait, actually, and possibly add some real strategic decision-making. "Do I send my heroes on a quest to retrieve the Elixir of Vitality, or spend the next few months researching my own concoction, or just keep my sorry hide out of danger for the foreseeable future?"

Since we'll be able to marry off our female progeny, I think it would be cool if each princess had a dowry associated with her. It'd add a touch of realism, and I think we could introduce a fun game mechanic at the same time. Each princess has an associated dowry, which can be most anything: gold, land, cities, shards, armies, heroes, whatever. (Dragon's probably wouldn't assent, of course). Once married off, the receiving faction receives the dowry in full. If m

If control of Shards gives "shard power" (for lack of a better term at the moment), perhaps a Sovereign special abiilty will be skill in different elemental paths, to which "shard power" gets added. Sovereign.Base Fire Power = 4 Fire Shards Controlled = 3 Sovereign.Effective Fire Power = 7 In terms of how easy/hard it is to change a UI. Lessee, for our J2EE-based "thin client"...a few days. For our Flex-based self-service UIs, slightl

How about this? Sovereigns can be female. The initial Sovereign, at least, can channel, so they're the Boss; societal norms be darned. The game automatically chooses a Successor for every Sovereign. By default, this follows the normal pattern in pre-industrial Europe: eldest male closest to the royal bloodline. If no males are left, a female can stand in succession. A Sovereign may designate any Character as his/her Successor. If the

I like Rishkith's idea. It blends Wintersong's idea, but allows the concept to change over time with the game. Even more interesting would be items that gave additional attributes/powers over time . Think "corrupting influence" or "angelic influence" and the like.

I think a set of unique powers--costly, but useful--would be nice. I'm less inclined to go with damage-dealing special abilities, and more for "soft" benefits, such as: +10% to all interactions with animals (charm spells, negotiations with intelligent bunnies, taming bears for cavalry, etc.) Ability to automatically spot a random enemy Sovereign every turn (perhaps only if within own territory) Ability to add +10% morale to an army that doesn't be

I like the idea of spending on roads being used to control road growth, rather than manually buiding each and every one. That gets to the strategy aspect, without the micro-management cost. Perhaps allow the player to build roads manually if they want, in order to speed-up a particular route, or even build roads to other areas on the map (mountain passes, through forests, etc.).

Nice update! "-> AI will not train a unit that was designed more than 100 turns ago " If we do this, then the AI should evaluate whether or not it can design anything better which accomplishes the same purpose. If not, it should be willing to build old units. "-> fleshed out AIChooseFutureCityLocations() so that AI prefers a location near a fertile land tile for it's first city, then near a shard or iron ore deposit for subsequent cities" D

I think it would be nice to have a few types of roads. The first level should be built automatically at no cost, and represents the natural, unencourage trade. It would also, eventually, build roads between Factions, but slower than within a Faction. Its rate would also be driven by the Diplomatic Relations between the owning Factions. Example: Path - Built automatically within a Faction's Cities Built between different Faction's Cities more slow

Elemental currently goes out and grabs data files, which is why it's trying to access the Internet and is tripping ZoneAlarm. Definitely consider putting an app exception rule. Stardock - What port is it using? HTTP or FTP, by any chance?