Neutral towns?

The neutral cities are always a great ideas. They add a toch of uncertainty. I would like to see them but a bit more powerful then in mom. And maybe a b it more agressive.

I would expect independants and stuff. Maybe sort of like 'minor' factions too!

Neutral Powers only exist to be subjegated... but we design our own units so, we wont get theres, I thought we had different tech tree's between the civ's and definitely the races, maybe we can steal some unique techs.

The neutral towns may be like minor races in GC II - have its own personality..

From what I gather there are supposedly many pockets of humanity that survive in the world. The problem is in order to expand beyond these liveable pockets that culture must have a channeler within its ranks.

So any "neutral" civilizations we find will either be isolated and or maybe backward and contained within a relatively small area. Unless of course they have a channeler leading them as well.

"but we design our own units so, we wont get theres". Why not after all we got a new 'factions' town and its not like swords, horse and what-not are rare. So we should be able to we steal their templates and any resources they have, which are mightn not have.

Anywho i like maurding and enslaving things , lots of people do, and as such it would be a shame if it wasn't included in the game. If not for just a few 'practice wars' before the big ones with the other wizards kicks off.

Neutral cities could be established around other unique features other such as the husk of an ancient god, or in an especially defensible location. Floating city of pirates or inside a volcano for fire resistant beasts, perhaps?

I fully expect for there to be an active neutral/minor civ system in this title given all the work that went into doing such in GC2. Moreover it is simply a solid game enhancing element. A strong environmental AI system always rocks. I only hope that such minicivs have a historical memory, goals and objectives,  as well as alliance and affinity systems built into them; nothing wose then braindead neutral sitting there like sheep.

I just hope there are more minors than in GC2 -- in GC2, the number of minors (for UI reasons probably) were simply so limited you couldn't get enough of them on anything but teh smallest maps to give the impression of 'giants in the playground' stomping all over eveyrone else.

I'm with you.

I'm sure there will be a minor civ system and I hope it will be a challange, limited only in that it can't win the game.

Sammual

Why limit it? It should have a chance to win and become a major power especially if the major powers start to die off. It would be neat for it morph into a major power especially if you have one near your rear that you have been trading with for years just when you are deeply involved with a war on some far away land.

Yes. Have a real potential state of flux between regions. 

After all, aren't we going to start out as a 'minor' power with only one city or something?

The only reason I want to limit the minor civs / neutral cities is that I want to be able to make them start the game more powerful then me, to create more of a challange for myself.  I also see the minor civs as ones that don't have a wizard in charge.  In MoM there was never a question about who to attack at any given time, you always took out the neutral citiesy first as they offered the same reward for a LOT less effort.  I would like the neutral cities to start off strong enough that I have to make the choice of who to start a war with, them or a nearby wizard.  If they can win and have wizards running them what is the difference between them and major civs?

Sammual

They may not have wizards running them in the beginning but who knows after some time they grow/evolve into a major civ. Additionally like you said choice is what is important. If I chose to trade with them they might grow into a enemy or an ally. If I attack them it could cost me a lot but I might gain something special or nothing at all.

Good to have as sattelite nations. If they do get conquered I don't think their uniqueness or individuality should be dissolved. Let their cities retain their architecture, minus any new buildings you erect. Have their populace, if it is a different race have an impact and not for the sake of statistics be treated as the same race as yours.

I don't want to give too much away but consider this:

Remember how if you want knights you need horses. Horses are a resource in the game that you have to harvest. They have to be more than just in yor territory, your town has to build out and put a stable on the horse resource.  That gives your civilization access to horses.

There are other animals in the world other than horses. There are lots of different resources in the world that a city may have built out and made use of that are rare and unique.

That's all I'm going to say about that.

Can we have spells that turn these unaligned people into horses ?

The pain, the torture!  The Agony!

Spoilers like that are torturous!

The Frog endorsed my idea!
Now: time for royalties!
Just joking, of course.

But thinking about it, if building a city and thereby expanding your territory is a very expensive prospect, creating a neutral outpost to gather resources for you could be a feature?

Less cost for less control

Ooooh, does that mean I'll be able to have my knights ride pandas instead of horses?

I would go for a giant Badger!!! 

So the map will have a big stable icon over the horse tile? Won't a village be more sensible? Do we have to reach these resources from expanding our cities? What if it is too far away?

What defines a city and what defines a village?

Size, mostly.

It makes sense that you would need to settle at a resource to obtain it, though horses in particular seem odd if they are constrained to single tiles on the map... Animals can't breed or be relocated, huh?
Still just a gameplay mechanic, there's plenty of ways to solve gameplay issues.

Hm, so let's hypothetically say that early on in the game, the player happens to encounter a small village of lizardmen? Rather than outright conquering it, perhaps the player could gain friendly relations with that village and plop down some sort of barracks/recruitment building and then... presto; Lizard Auxiliary Corps ftw.

Perhaps such settlements could become protectorates or vassals? Just to act as another option to outright conquest. Didn't one of the devs mention something about an advanced diplomatic system...?

That would really be out of the ordinary for a fantasy game. And I LOVE IT!