Tiered Play & EWoM

from Elemental Forums

Maybe what EWoM needs is a change in pacing.  We have base units that upgrade to the same base units with better numbers and so on with the exception of a few diplomacy tech extras and hero customization.  In short the game doesn't really change much as you steadily rise to power and players can lose interest.  Key words here are linear and steadily.  The purpose of this thread is to discuss that.

 

One trick the Civ series of TBS games to keep players hooked is by reinventing itself each age through advancement of technology.  Not only do units have higher stats but now receive new abilities like flight with the invention of aircraft and later nuclear weapons, permanently altering the playing field.  Fall from Heaven 2 has fully preset units for flavor and strategy that get customization on level up in addition to metagame mechanics like the Armageddon Counter.

 

Maybe the game needs more preset units like Scions with unique and situational abilities.

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I definitely look forward to this when they added abilities to the game. Brad has said it is being looked at. There is currently no ability in the engine to retroactively add abilities to units but it is possible to rewrite that section of the code at a later date when they can set aside the time to do it. Rough estimate of three weeks of work to do it but that was probably said on the fly don't hold him to that schedule.

I think the game needs that change.

The tech tree should be sectioned off a bit more than it is with some cross referencing between the research types so you can't go straight to full powered bows and then the up your groups and kill everything with some magic items investment but some definite tiers where each type of tech stops until you unlock specific techs in civ war adventure magic and diplomacy - era's of the foundation of your kingdom some sort of equivalent thing to:

"stone age"

"bronze age"

"iron age"

"Admantium/Elentium/Mithril - insert godly might- Age"

give some warning to the other players/ai when someone is advancing into another age.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Sounds like you want to play age of empires ;)

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

This does sound good. Perhaps magic should play a larger part in unit design. These units are coming from a magical empire, and so their training should reflect this somewhat. This could be in subtle ways like magic resistance training, or more overt displays such as battlemage training that lets unit throw fireballs and other magical projectiles.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Galactic Civilizations 2 did not have a tier system beyond the colonization phase either and it worked fine for that game design but it just doesn't seem a good fit for EWoM.  Also, ship design felt more unique because they all looked really different rather than EWoM soldiers.

 

Here's a shameless link to a previous solution, a barbarism phase like that mod for Civ4. https://forums.elementalgame.com/388453.  If only Diplomacy had that kind of effect in this game's world.

Edit: Forgot to add an example of Tier play.  City wall defenses, instead of only giving a generic buff to units stationed in a city it will also alter the strategic aspect in the game.  Now the Sovereign can afford to have the majority of his/her army out in the field defending state interests like caravan safety or warring over the countryside.  Prior to this most of the army would be garrisoned at home.