Yes folks, its another thread by yours truly. Usual disclaimers, Already talked about, agasint lore, so-on and such-and-such.
In another thread( https://forums.elementalgame.com/375417 ) i was talking about how having the possiblity of marrying a peer would be nice. Didn't want to be stuck some arm accessory for a wife for next 1000 years. Flailed around trying to find something that would fit lore, but the only things really in a lauge with channelers are dragons, and they are not exactly wife material. Suggested maybe channelers kept being born and i could pick one up for my wife.
The idea, is that channelers continue to be born as the game progresses. Yes, they are very few in number, its very rare, but it does happen. If i have an empire with a billion citizens, over the course of hundreds of years, you would think at least one channeler would be born into that empire during that time.
When they are born though, it gives you a massive oppurtunity. Any channeler should be monitering for the presence of a new channeler on the off chance that one is born. After all, you built a massive empire because your a channeler, having a channeler you know nothing about showing up in your empire could lead to her starting a rebellion or other problems.
So you spot her right away and whisk her away to your citadel. Players could then get a choice. Kill her to remove any possible future problems. Sacrifice her for more power. Or raise her as a loyal apprentice/follower/hero.
I have 2 different thought on how she should function as a minion.
The first is that you control her, and she adds some bonuses to your magic powers and you can use her as a very powerful hero, or marry her, or have her stay at your citadel to research.
The second idea, and the one I like more, is that, as a channeler, she is her own seperate side, controlled by the AI. However, as you raised and trained her, she is allied to you. She would have a seperate spell tree and empire and everything. However, as she is very closley allied to you, you share tech and magic research with each other. You could also assaign her tasks.
Ex. You have an island out apart from your empire. You could assaign her to be its govener. You would retain control over the islands, but she would hang out on the island and support it with spells that you might not have the time or spare mana to cast.
Or you could marry her.
Or you could use her as a very powerful hero in combat.
You would be able to control what training she recieves as she is raised, so you could control her abilites.
This would also help out massive empires that have grown beyond a channelers ability to keep magiced. If mundane and magic power are seperated, then the empire might grow beyond the size that the channeler can cast spells over. Having a second, weaker, AI controlled channeler to assist you might help keep that from happening.
The new channeler should also remain at the strength of a very powerful hero at most to keep from unbalancing the game. After all, the strongest heroes have likley been around for a long time and have a lot of magic invested in them by thier channeler, in some cases, more then the new channeler can cast in total. The new channeler can't simply show up and surpass their experince and magic. And channelers are not born powerful, tehy become powerful over centurys, something this new channeler has not had a chance to do, and won't for quite a while.
Another way to keep this from being too powerful is the training given to the new channeler. Your channeler would need to take time to train her, time he could of spent researching or casting. She would be a major investment of time and resources.
The heart of this idea is a way for you to custom build a hero who has an in-built reason to never age on you and dosen't depend on your channeler completly for all of her magic.
