Traveling Structures

unique idea

from Elemental Forums

To my knowledge... we haven't seen any games provide actual structures which truly travel.  As seen within the movie Krull an evil fortress would teleport and appear at different locations across the realm... this piece of the story was very interesting.  Traveling structures should naturally be very rare, but definitely available within the editor.  Such a feature would add a fun type of fantasy we've never seen for games. 

Here are a few examples: 

An Evil Fortress which teleports to a random new location once every 10_turns.

A Wizards Tower which floats on clouds. (Its shadow can be the source for moving to this location IF the travelers have the ability to fly.)

A Portal(teleporter) which travels on a floating island. 

A Powerful Blacksmith on the back of a gigantic turtle.  The turtle could travel on land and water plus while traveling in water it may submerge thus not being available for several turns.  The blacksmith himself could be amphibian or have a magic item which allows him to breath underwater.    History myths have spoken of turtles this large in size. 

9,730 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I got another couple!

WoW style necropolis which flys and is able to teleport around.

A teleporting phone booth which is bigger on the inside than it appears. :grin:

 

Your thread has given me a similar idea which may be fun in single player. A building which travels backwards in time. It of course would not be useable in multiplayer, since time travel is hard enough to pull off with one player. Essentially, if you lose a big battle or something goes terribly wrong, you send your channeler off to the building you previously discovered and it will essentially undo your previous X number of turns (3 or so?). The resulting instability of the space-time continuum causes the building to be destroyed the moment your channeler leaves. And for added fun (so you don't know exactly what the enemy is going to do in a turn or two) it will add in some random stuff which is almost to minor to be noticed, but which hurts the player if they don't figure out what is different (something to the tune of half your sheep turning into rabid dogs or other odd occurance). After all, there are consequences for messing with time...

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I saw a scrap of Krull this week and that Fortress also made me think immediately of Elemental. Since we will be able to have world-wrecking magic in the late game, I seriously hope we can have *at least* a teleporting castle or even a small mountain. Buildings on clouds would be really awesome, but I haven't seen any hints about how or if flying units/objects might work.

I especially like the mobile enclave idea because it could provide a great way to play the game as a non-expansionist. I've been thinking a lot lately about how wrong it might be to be calling this a 4X game if the essence-hoarding channelers could work out to be more like Gandalf than a magical monarch. It seems fair to consider Gandalf and Sauron as rough analogs to an Elemental channeler, but I've never seen or heard of a TBS game that could let a player work as a roving diplomat and occasional battlefield participant with no interest in ruling a particular territory or people. If Elemental could support a play style like that, the game would seriously deserve a bunch of awards and maybe a new category all to itself for 2010.

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting GW, reply 2
maybe a new category all to itself for 2010.

We could call it... 4XRP

Explore... Expand... Exploit... Exterminate... Roleplay... :grin:

Seriously though, you do bring up a good point. Having a small, mobile civilization would be an interesting alternative to my normal turtling. You would still be able to build up your power, albiet more slowly, without worrying about getting bogged down in any big wars... Heck, it would likely be the best defensive strategy, but at the price of a large, powerful civilization.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Seriously though, you do bring up a good point. Having a small, mobile civilization would be an interesting alternative to my normal turtling. You would still be able to build up your power, albiet more slowly, without worrying about getting bogged down in any big wars... Heck, it would likely be the best defensive strategy, but at the price of a large, powerful civilization.

Two words: The. Rangers.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Awesomeness! Totally agree with NT.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Don't forget walking castles... "howl's moving castle" style or possibly "Baba Yaga's hut" style (it has chicken legs for those who are not familar with russian folklore and/or played Quest for Glory).  (I want floating islands more, but still)

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Baba Yaga's hut" style (it has chicken legs for those who are not familar with russian folklore and/or played Quest for Glory

Or read Fritz Lieber's fabulous Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories.

Here's hoping an artsy modder can give us that one soon after RTM.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm not familar with Fafhrd and the gray Mouser.   Does boba yaga's hut play a big role?  I'm curious to see how she/it is used.   Is it something you recommend?

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting landisaurus, reply 8
I'm not familar with Fafhrd and the gray Mouser.   Does boba yaga's hut play a big role?  I'm curious to see how she/it is used.   Is it something you recommend?

Fafhrd and the Mouser are *the* dynamic duo of classical fantasy lit, IMO. I don't remember how many appearances Baba Yaga makes in the stories. My sloppy memory is that she's an occasional 'guest star' playing a role similar to the regular scary entity advisors Ningaugble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face. But the hut was striking, especially because I read the stories when I was still doing some tabletop RPGs.

I definitely recommend giving Lieber's Nehwon stories a try if you never have. It might be too 'decadent' for folks who like their fantasy in Hollywood pure black and true white, but the imagined world is really strong and more than a few D&D friends of mine loved the stuff too.