Some ideas

from Elemental Forums

Just a few thoughts I have had and don't feel like making a spearate post for each.

1. Number of units in a stack should effect from how far away they are visible. Single units should be well night invisible unless you are in an adjacent square, and army of hundreds should be visible from quite some distance (assuming they are not skulking in the woods).

2. Terrain should affect visibility. No seeing units on the other side of mountain ranges or deep in the forest. (units in the forest should only see adjacent squares).

3. Really would like to see resistances to each element as part of a units stats. Otherwise it seems like developing abilities to use certain elements will be largely wasted. (Think GalCiv2 and having lasers, missiles and projectiles but then only having a single "defense" value - why have multiple ways to attack, but then no coresponding defense?

4. The community really could use some info on why sovereign death = game over - even just some hints would be nice. Someone suggested that maybe when you defeat a sovereign the winner absorbs his essence - it would be interesting to have some hints other than just speculation. It really is such a central part of the game it is hard to intellligently discuss a lot of game mechanics/balancing without understanding how this works.

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

The community really could use some info on why sovereign death = game over - even just some hints would be nice. Someone suggested that maybe when you defeat a sovereign the winner absorbs his essence - it would be interesting to have some hints other than just speculation. It really is such a central part of the game it is hard to intellligently discuss a lot of game mechanics/balancing without understanding how this works.

I finally remembered this:

https://forums.elementalgame.com/334864

"But these Arnor did understand the power of energy very well. The dark energy (what some might call “magic”) that resided in themselves they harnessed extremely well. With enough of it, they could build a device that would let them travel anywhere.

With the only source of this energy being the Arnor themselves, the mightiest of the Arnor began to subjugate their weaker brethren. This caused the irrevocable split between the two groups of Arnor with the former becoming the Dread Lords and their minions, the Dread Knights.

In time, the Dread Lords had nearly wiped out all of the other Arnor in an effort to take their life force and place it into an orb-like object that would contain enough power to let the Dread Lords do virtually anything they wanted."

By Frogboy Posted December 30, 2008 16:35:58, Excerpt from "Guardians of the Telenanth" Appendix D: The Tragedy of Draginol & The Arnor

maybe the new Sovereigns can vampirize their enemies. But this text would contradict that a random monster could kill (game over) a Sovereign (which attacked but failed).

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Just a few thoughts I have had and don't feel like making a spearate post for each.

1. Number of units in a stack should effect from how far away they are visible. Single units should be well night invisible unless you are in an adjacent square, and army of hundreds should be visible from quite some distance (assuming they are not skulking in the woods).

2. Terrain should affect visibility. No seeing units on the other side of mountain ranges or deep in the forest. (units in the forest should only see adjacent squares).

3. Really would like to see resistances to each element as part of a units stats. Otherwise it seems like developing abilities to use certain elements will be largely wasted. (Think GalCiv2 and having lasers, missiles and projectiles but then only having a single "defense" value - why have multiple ways to attack, but then no coresponding defense?

4. The community really could use some info on why sovereign death = game over - even just some hints would be nice. Someone suggested that maybe when you defeat a sovereign the winner absorbs his essence - it would be interesting to have some hints other than just speculation. It really is such a central part of the game it is hard to intellligently discuss a lot of game mechanics/balancing without understanding how this works.

A resounding yes to all 4 points.  I especially like number 1, which is a concept I haven't seen in many games. 

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Thank you wintersong, it's the first time I've seen that quote and wonder if that could be made into another victory condition?

Amass enough essence to win?

(through leveling/vampiric efforts)

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top
  1. Yesyesyesyesyes!!! This would also really help with the stack of doom problem.
  2. While I agree with you in theory, I think having forsts automatically cut visability to 1 square is a bit extreme... a cut of say 25% sounds more reasonable.
  3. Not for all units, but definately for anything.... "out of the ordinary".
  4. Indeed. The way I always imagined it was that when the Soverign died, his/her land ceased to be livable, and the towns fell into rapid disrepair. But I'm just speculating.

I finally remembered this:

https://forums.elementalgame.com/334864

"But these Arnor did understand the power of energy very well. The dark energy (what some might call “magic”) that resided in themselves they harnessed extremely well. With enough of it, they could build a device that would let them travel anywhere.

With the only source of this energy being the Arnor themselves, the mightiest of the Arnor began to subjugate their weaker brethren. This caused the irrevocable split between the two groups of Arnor with the former becoming the Dread Lords and their minions, the Dread Knights.

In time, the Dread Lords had nearly wiped out all of the other Arnor in an effort to take their life force and place it into an orb-like object that would contain enough power to let the Dread Lords do virtually anything they wanted."
By Frogboy Posted December 30, 2008 16:35:58, Excerpt from "Guardians of the Telenanth" Appendix D: The Tragedy of Draginol & The Arnor

maybe the new Sovereigns can vampirize their enemies. But this text would contradict that a random monster could kill (game over) a Sovereign (which attacked but failed).
Interesting..... still not sure how Brad's GC2 ideas fit into EWOM, but if he is as repetitive as he has been in the past, I definately forsee vampirism @ some point in the future. (You were expecting some screed about how GC2 and EWOM were unconnected, weren't you.... ;P )

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Scoutdog, reply 4

(You were expecting some screed about how GC2 and EWOM were unconnected, weren't you.... )

Considering that I wasn't comparing them in my post... no, actually no. :P Altough it's obvious that the connections are there, it'll take a lot of time until we can really know exactly if they are just recycling ideas, using an alternate space/time line, or whatever. I have fun speculating but as long as their background is solid, I'll accept anything.

Elemental: War of Vampires...

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Elemental: War of Highlanders

You know you want a Queen soundtrack!

Here we are!

Born to be Kings! We're the Princes of the Universe...\o/

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Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

As long as we don't end like:

:P

(not that I don't like Queen, just that I have always found that funny)

As far as music goes... the King of Shadows music from Neverwinter Nights 2; "For the Craftworld" and "Angels of Death" of Dawn of War 2; "Prelude to war" from Battlestar Galactica. As well as some otehrs from Gladiator, Lord of the Rings...

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

#2   Remember, your army should have some scouts out, but we don't want to manually manage them.  Bigger army (ours) may mean more scouts and able to see armies farther away.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

aye, larger armies should have slightly greater visibilty, with added % bonus to visibility if it contains recon units whose specialty is vision and/or scouting.

A giant eagle would probably have the highest bonus available for this, although I doubt such bonuses would should stack.

If there were such complexities added to the game as day or night, or an added subteranean world, ect ... certain units would have bonuses below ground/ at night, and penalties for during the day/ desert terrain/ (ice terrain?) and vice versa. A dwarf would have vision bonuses in the subterranian (as well as drow) although slight negatives to combat above ground, at least during the day.

A seer using primarily psychic prowess would probably have an easier time finding an opponent at night rather than during the day, due to most nearby minds being stilled with the nectar of sleep.