More Resource Types?
Elemental Forums
Good Morning all.
K...this may be getting a little obsessive, but I've been thinking about FE:LH when I was half asleep early this morning and comparing the game to other 4x games as well as other boardgames that are worker placement and or resource collection. It seems that most of these games have two resources in common....two resources that FE:LH does not include: Wood and Stone.
That really got me thinking....how good would the game become if these two resources were added to the game? A whole string of questions would obviously need to be answered for each resource in order to implement properly...so here's some opening thoughts on each:
Wood
- What would the resource look like? My thoughts immediated were drawn towards tying forests into the game a little more. Currently they can be cut down with the Clearing action, but to what effect? Other than the Logging Camp chain, forests are really just an hinderance to players.
- How would the resource be collected? My first thought immediately went to the Logging Camp chain of Improvements as the natural way to collect wood. I didn't like where that was going though since wood would be required early on in the game meaning that your first city would require a forest nearby. Didn't want to force the player (and AI) that much. So, the next thing was this idea: Gain 0.1 wood per turn for each forest tile within your ZoC. If such a design is possible, then the Logging Camp could still generate wood but that would just be icing on the cake....and an alternative to not having to have large boarders. There is an obvious hurdle here as each tile is split into 4 quarters....so not sure if it should be 0.1 per quarter or 0.025 per quarter.
- What about the Clearing Action? Lastly, we always had the ability to cut down forest tiles in this game, but with no effect or worth coming from it. I would argue that the player would receive a large injection of wood (for example 10 wood) from such an action were performed, but then the tile would no longer collect wood on the 0.1 basis.
- What would wood be used for? This is the hardest part to figure out because there really isn't much for wood to be used for in this game. Many of the early buildings in the game have wood in there design. Most weapons do too. Catapults do. Other uses? Any units? With such a in depth approach being taken towards the collection of wood, there would need to be a balanced and dynamic way to consume the material. Just thinking out loud here but perhaps additional mechanics can be added.....the Blacksmith for example could require 1 wood per turn to burn. If it doesn't have it then it's bonus disappears.
- Would this resource add to the game in a positive manner? Other than just the production and consumtion of the resource, how else would it impact the world of elemental? Perhaps there could be a %chance of wood growing on a tile? Perhaps there could be a spell that makes wood grow on a tile (ooo....the strategic advantage of this spell....)? Likewise, Stratetic spells that burn and destroy could take the forest terrain along with them?
Comments? Thoughts?
Stone
- What would the resource look like? This resource I think would mirror the Clay Pit. Stone would be available for collection just as Iron Ore or Crystal Crag are.
- How would the resource be collected? Here too, I think building a Stone Quarry on the Stone would be the way to go. I don't think any upgrades would need to be in place for this resource as I am projecting that Stone would have few uses. Mountains are another avenue in which to persue...though this one would be tricky since a mountain is a non-buildable/non-moveable tile. Could go the same route as wood though in that each mountain tile within your ZoC could provide 0.1 stone per turn.
- What would stone be used for? The major thing stone would be used for would be large endgame buildings. Anything that requires stone in its construction really. The Tower's as an example, but really any stone structure could have stone added into its constuction cost. Stone Golems could have a cost asociated with them. Catapults could throw 1 stone resource each time it fired in combat. Out of stone? Out of ammo.
- Would this resource add to the game in a positive manner? Hard to say. Spell of Mastery would be a little more difficult to achieve by adding this resource as another hurdle...but it's a small hurdle as you could always trade other factions for it. If mountains were the means to collect, there would be another use for creating mountains through the raise land spell.
Comments? Thoughts?
Overall, I think out of the two, Stone would be easier to implement but would have less impact as well. Stone could even be a moddable experiance as most can be done in xml and simply adding the resource and changing the claypit graphics to match...
Anyways...I'll leave my thoughts here....and see where the community takes them.
Just as not all ideas have mainstream appeal, and some mainstream-appeal implementation ideas don't work out, some non-mainstream appeal ideas can turn out quite well. I think in this case wood and stone and such are abstracted by materials. In WoM you had to accumulate materials to build things and they accumulated globally (so could be used in any city once you had enough of them), in FE and LH Material is an abstract concept that represents availability of basic materials for production, and are city based rather than global.