Commodity of Information and Trade

I suspect some of my fellow control freaks might balk at your suggestion, but I really like the idea of having mechanics that reflect the limits of low-tech communication. Requiring advanced magic and/or special items for long-range communication would at the very least make for some strong differences between the early, middle and late game that had little or nothing to do with whether you'd played as a turtler or started conquering from the git-go.

Quests and tactical combat that do not include the channeler might be a problem for something like this, though. How would you see a limited communication system affecting a champion leading an attack orce or sent questing to a distant locale? It'd be no big deal if any tactical engagements where the channeler was not present are required to auto-resolve, but I haven't seen any suggestions that things will work that way.

1. Low-key magical link between Channeler and Champion? Where simple things like 'go here' are instant, but controlling in battle is hard, if not impossible. Battles are more or less auto-resolved, your messages moving to your own units/in your own territory getting a movement bonus, research/spells to improve link to the point messages are no longer needed or something like that.

2. Disable it completely when dealing with your own empire. Simply to keep this from being becoming a frustration.

I like lists.

Neither of those sound so good now that I typed them up...

I think I have to say this is impossible.  Ok it's possible but just will not work for this game. 

1: If you have this limitation then it would seem odd to have the ability you have to have instantaneous feedback of what is going on in the world.  A camp on the outskirts of your land is attacked, in the game you will know as soon as it happens, realisticly you wouldn't know till the raiders have moved on or possibly never know. That would be EXTREMELY hard to represent on a map.  How frustrating would it be to have the map under a consistant 95% fog-of-war coverage and how would you keep track of the times of every piece of map that's been updated.  You can send scouts, but you have to wait for them to get back...if they do.  So  much time would just be spent on getting information on what is happening and then you would have to make descisions on your best information.  Not even being sure that information is current enough to make a good descision with.  This would also be hard to program in the enemy AI balancing 'scout' information with strategy.

2: I doubt that this game is going to have every event on a realalistic 1:1 time with each and every other event.  So a 'realistic' addition such as this would not fit since it's unlikely everything else is going to be on a realistic ratio.

3: Just doesn't sound like a fun mechanic to work with IMO.  I think there are much better ways to add sabotage and the-like to the game.

I'd be a lot more persuaded by your general argument if we weren't talking about a fantasy game. With magic, all things are possible, so the only real limits are dev time for coding and creative time for putting code functionality into the game UI/story.

The still-unrevealed essence mechanics are a definite possibility for channeler-to-champion communications. The strength of your link might even be an interesting motivation to invest more than you might do otherwise--if you know you want to raise up a Defender of the Far Marches, it could be worth a bit more essence to ensure you can swap a bit of info over that distance instead of just being able to send Go There or Come Here orders.

And essence investment could easily fit into mechanics for more general info flow--what if investing your essence in a given region can give (or always gives) you a form of magical awareness of those lands?

Not that I'm begging for a dev journal on magic or anything...

I want basic communication to be instantaneous. So, for example, my channeler can be aware of anything that isn't under fog of war (by communicating with subordinates or whatnot), and diplomacy could be done easily. However, things like trade or gifts would require caravans to set out, unless a substantial effort is made to teleport them (which shouldn't be common - really only for the most valuable goods or artifacts, or if the need is urgent enough). That said teleporting small quantities of goods could be a little cheaper than teleporting things like armies (even small armies) - having a channeler on each end could make it much easier than a channeler sending something very far away with no associate at the destination to help.

I'm with GW Swicord.   Its magic...  I want communication to happen through a magic mirror, or in a mysterious mountain top council or something that is 'magic' and 'awe-inspiring' in nature.   I think the communication should be instant.

I know I wouldn't mind having supplies moved by caravan.  I wouldn't mind doing in MoM style (when moving magical items around the world, mana must be used) but the caravan would be a good starting or fallback method of transportation.   I also would want more than just 'enchant road' to be available.   MoM had a spell that made road travel practically instantanious (and Myrror had that spell on all the roads by default, which I always thought was a strange design choice).  Now I want other things, like road-to-road portals and flying roads, and under water roads.    If there is going to be many uses for caravans, then I wouldn't mind seeing the spell work to match it.

Trust the pigeonSquared to come out swinging promptly upon his return. The brilliant idea of channelers cooperating for a teleport spell opens up a slew of possibilites for long-term efforts like a Bifrost Bridge between capitals and even short-term alliances to do something like raise a volcano under a common enemy's capital or take down an offending overland enchantment. The teleport question itself also brings us back to just how much spellcasting, if any, champion units will be able to manage. At least some mage champions should be able to do something to help their channeler send reinforcements, no?

Yea, but the 'universal' magic mirrors in MoM were as much about limited dev time and limited PC power as anything else. I'd love to see big variety in how each faction implements communication magic, and I don't just mean different frames for everybodys' mirrors. I'm thinking about mirrors for some, pools of water for others, cups of blood, talking skulls/skeletons, etc.

On the item moving thing, I think mixing teleports and caravan delivery would definitely make for interesting choices, at least during those times when you aren't storing much mana each turn. If I know it will take a long while to get the necessary mana, should I leave that great find 'out there' until I can bring it home magically (quickly) or can I risk sending it with a caravan that might be captured en route?

This is why I love these discussions. One person makes a comment, thought to be relatively unimportant (in this case just a justification...) and another sees potential and turns it into a great idea! Cooperative magic between channelers and/or heroes would be indescribably awesome. In fact, I'm going to start its own thread because I'm in love with the idea but don't want to hijack this thread in its infancy.

Edit: Here is the thread if anyone is interested in discussing this idea further.

Definitely. One of the best ways to add both strategic depth and replayability in one swell foop is to provide several ways to achieve the same goal (same principle as having multiple victory conditions). You have to choose which one makes the most sense in any given situation, and each presents its own distinct risk.