An Event Suggestion: The Gela

Verdian

Verdian

King
Joined
Aug 19, 2006
Messages
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I know there are no contests going on right now, but I wanted to write up an event anyway. This idea came to me during my most recent victory playing as Cardith Lorda. The Infernals appeared while I was doing my best to destroy a civilization that was worshiping the Ashen Veil. I lured Hyborem out of his city and killed him with my hero, claiming his weapon, the Gela, for myself. But then I realized I didn't want it. Why would I use such a tainted weapon, especially when fighting demons. It didn't fit, and I was tempted to just destroy it. I wanted to be able to purge it. Or... something. The following event is fairly long, and I am not sure it is even possible. A big part of the event is not knowing what happens based on your choices, so reader beware if you want to be surprised. I hope you enjoy it. My comments on it are after the event.

Spoiler :

Cause of Event
-Hyborem is killed.
-Gela is dropped.
-There must be at least two of the following on the map:
Pool of Tears
Maelstrom
Mercurian Gate wonder
Pyre of the Seraphic
Broken Sepulcher
Mirror of Heaven
-You cannot be the Infernals for this event.

The demon Hyborem has been vanquished, and his soul sent screaming back to the pit of Hell. His weapon, the unholy pike Gela, is all that remains of this might demon. Your forces, victorious, reach to claim the weapon that has been left behind. But it is up to you, [name], to decide what will become of the demon’s legacy.

Options
1) I shall keep the weapon. Its strength shall become my own.
Event ends.
2) The demonic taint shall be washed from this blade. I shall cleanse it in the waters of the Pool of Tears.
The player must take Gela to the Pool of Tears.
3) The blade must be disposed of quickly. I shall hurl it into the great Maelstrom, banishing it to the ocean floor.
The player must take Gela to the Whirlpool.
4) Only the angels of Basium will know how to handle this. I shall entrust the blade to their care and bring it to their Gate.
The player must take Gela to the city with the Mercurian Gate wonder.
5) The blade must be destroyed! I shall hurl it into the fires of Pyre of the Seraphic.
The player must take Gela to the Pyre of the Seraphic.
6) The Gela contains much demonic power. Perhaps I can harness it using the necromantic texts found in the Broken Sepulcher.
The player must take Gela to the Broken Sepulcher.
7) Perhaps the Gela can be used for good, if properly energized. I shall let it soak up the holy power of the sun at the Mirror of Heaven. But it will take time.
The player must take Gela to the Mirror of Sun.

*Note: The player that triggers the event does NOT need to own any of the buildings required or have the terrain under his or her control.

Results
Spoiler :
1) The player keeps the Gela. Nothing happens.

2) Player looses the Gela and gains a new item: Pike of Tears. It grants the promotion “+1 affinity to Nature and Water mana” to the holder. There is also a 50% of a plague occurring, 20% if state religion is FoL.
The Gela is plunged into the cold waters of the Pool of Tears. The demonic taint washes off from the blade in waves of oily blackness, mixing with the spring. The Gela is no more, and in its place an even more powerful blade has been created. But at what cost?

If plague occurs: The demon tainted water is carried far and wide throughout the land. The world suffers, as do the people of Erebus.

3) The unit carrying Gela is destroyed.

a) If the state religion of the player is OO, the player gains 4 Drown and a hero disciple of OO with the water walking promotion.
The Maelstrom consumes the blade quickly and, miraculously, the waves grow calm. A moment passes as the swirling vortex begins again. Out of the center walks a man with bowed head, wearing the robes of a priest. He is accompanied by 4 attendants. The Overlords must be pleased…

b) If the state religion of the player is not OO, 20 or so barbarian Drown spawn throughout the ocean.
The ship is sacrificed and sucked into the turbulent vortex of the whirlpool. A moment passes, and then the seas turn red. A storm begins brewing on the horizon. Something is not right.

4) The player looses the Gela. +3 diplomacy bonus with Mercurians. Armageddon counter gets -10. The player is also granted a level 1 angel with the Hero promotion.
Standing before the holy Gate of the Mercurians, the mighty Basium looks down upon you. You offer up the Gela, and the Angel’s massive hand reaches down to take it. “You have done well, <player name>, to rid Erebus of the demon Hyborem. The angel’s shall sing your name in praise. But there is still much in this land that must banished back into the pits of Hell. Take one of my finest newly reborn warriors to aid you in your battle.”

5) The player loses the Gela. One of the following happens.

a) The Pyre of the Seraphic gets the additional benefit of providing 1 extra Entropy Mana and 1 extra Chaos mana. This is in addition to the Fire mana provided. 20% chance.
The Gela is hurled into the flames, which seem to flicker and burn eagerly for the demonic blade. The fires die down for a moment before flaring into an intensity that scorches the ceiling of the great temple. Looking into the Pyre, one can now see the tortured souls used to forge the blade dancing among the flames.

b) The equivalent of the Rite of Ogmha occurs. The Pyre of the Seraphic is destroyed and in its place a Mana Node is left. 40% chance.
The Gela is hurled into the flames, which seem to flicker and burn eagerly for the demonic blade. The blade hisses for a brief moment and then, for the first time since it was lit, the fires burn out. The very earth screams out in protest at the magical energies unleashed by the Gela’s destruction. The ley lines leading to the Pyre, once invisible to the naked eye, are suddenly illuminated by the energy surging through them. The phenomenon fades, and the temple now lies in a heap of stone.

c) Nothing happens. 40% chance.
The Gela is hurled into the flames, which seem to flicker and burn eagerly for the demonic blade. The blade hisses for a brief moment and is consumed, leaving behind the screaming echoes of the souls used to forge it.

6) The player loses the Gela. The player then has the option of taking over the Infernals, resetting all of their current cities into newly founded cities (1 population, zero culture) under the Infernal control. Despite the fact that Hyborem is dead, the player keeps his traits. All of your current units are killed, and you receive the appropriate amount of Manes. Armageddon counter gets +10.
Using the necromantic texts found in the libraries left behind by Barbatos, you learn how to twist the demonic powers of the Gela to your will. This ritual will unravel the unholy markings of the blade, releasing enough energy to control the remaining hell spawn. It requires thousands of sacrifices, however. You are fairly certain you have enough willing subjects.

7) The player loses the Gela, and the unit that was holding it is unable to move from the Mirror of Heaven for 3 turns. The Infernals and the civ that summoned them (if either still exist) declare war on the player. Each turn, 1-2 Infernal units spawn adjacent to the Mirror of Heaven. After three turns, the player receives Sol, a +1 Sun mana affinity weapon with +25% damage to undead, demon, and vampire. -5 to Armageddon counter.

a) When the Gela is first brought to the Mirror of Heaven. Your people place the Gela in the center of the Mirror of Heaven. Inky black smoke begins to rise from the weapon in plumes as the sun purifies the blade. This will take time, and surely attract the attention of any demons nearby.

b) At the end of the three turns. The blade ceases to smoke, and the light of the Mirror shines brilliantly off of its surface. The taint is removed, and in its place a holy blade of great power remains.



There it is. The basic idea was to create an event using the natural wonders that appear around the map. That is also arguably its greatest flaw, as there is no guarantee any of them will be present on the map. I could have included more (place the Gela in the roots of Yggdrasil, get a demonic treant; free that stone guy from his prison; ect) but didn't want to go over board with it. I suppose I still could.

Community feedback would be very welcome. I know some of these outcomes are overly powerful (the unknown consequences would do balance some of them, at first), and I am almost positive the AI would be unable to cope with these. And the writing could use work... Ah well.

Thanks for reading it all.
 
Brilliant stuff but maybe tone down the rewards a bit to keep them on par with other events. Either that or make this a quest.

Great suggestions.

- feydras
 
Some really nice ideas.
Some suggestions:
2) Should have better chances for elohim (after all they are the keepers of the pool of tears). And if you fail there could be a chance to trigger war with them.
3) should require OO and not be possible for others
4) Might need a little change in text and maybe even in rewards when you are Basium.
 
This is a pretty cool idea. We haven't implemented quests yet and this would be a good example of one. The downside of this idea is that the AI wouldn't have any idea how to accomplish it. But that may be common in quests (that they only really be available for human players and we add a switch to disable them for people who dont want the advantage).
 
Not bad. Of course, the Gela is a Trident not a Pike.

One I figure out how to do events (probably after something like this was already added) may add something similar to other equipment, at least to the Malleus Vindex (The equipment I gave to Basium)


Edit: I had overlooked the results. Most are fine, but some could use tweaking. Also, I'm pretty sure that making a tile/improvement (Pyre of the Seraphic) provide multiple resources is impossible.
 
Really cool stuff. :)

Maybe you could add options to bring it to the Holy Shrines of the Order and of the Ashen Veil too ?

Also, I think taking over the Infernals is just too much of a big switch in the game, what about the player would receive the Manes instead of the Infernals, for the Damned will go to the True Master of Gela ? :)

Neat idea anyways, and Im sure there will be plenty of other ideas that will be really good. As Verdian points out, this is likely to be less fun when you really know what is going to happen, so an interesting thing to be provided with would be a guide on how to mod Quests and such events, so that players could submit their own set of quests to the others (but without the description of everything thats going to happen, obviously), and give much more of a roleplay flavour to the game.
 
feydras said:
Brilliant stuff but maybe tone down the rewards a bit to keep them on par with other events. Either that or make this a quest.
Click to expand...

It already is a quest. Kill Hyborem (good luck with that), then take his Gela to a World Improvement.
 
If you've seen my couple of suggestions for new events, you can see that I clearly like the more involved, questy ones. This one sounds pretty dang cool. =)
 
MagisterCultuum said:
Edit: I had overlooked the results. Most are fine, but some could use tweaking. Also, I'm pretty sure that making a tile/improvement (Pyre of the Seraphic) provide multiple resources is impossible.
Click to expand...
The method which jumped out at me would be to remove it and replace the improvement with another one - Chaotic Pyre or something which provides the 3 mana. Reasonably sure it's possible to replace improvements on the fly, and the unit being present makes finding the plot nice and easy.
 
BeefontheBone said:
The method which jumped out at me would be to remove it and replace the improvement with another one - Chaotic Pyre or something which provides the 3 mana. Reasonably sure it's possible to replace improvements on the fly, and the unit being present makes finding the plot nice and easy.
Click to expand...

It isn't hard to replace improvements, but a tile can't have more than one resource (as much as I wish it could). The replacement improvement could also only grant one resource, although you could make multiple improvements on adjacent tiles to grant others.
 
You could make a new resource with those PASSIVE effects all combined. But even if you re-wrote the spells for the 3 spheres to be allowed for either the normal mana or this new triplicate mana, it wouldn't update your Mana Bar correctly, and you'd also have to re-write the code for free promotions to account for the SUM of this resource and the other 3 mana to match it.

Lots of work for a single tile in a single quest that has so little probability of appearance per game (Summon Hyborem, have Pyre feature present, AND decide on using this option + Succeed)
 
MagisterCultuum said:
It isn't hard to replace improvements, but a tile can't have more than one resource (as much as I wish it could). The replacement improvement could also only grant one resource, although you could make multiple improvements on adjacent tiles to grant others.
Click to expand...

Given the restrictions, then, what about destroying the pike and giving you a new piece of equipment or unit that you can move to a city (like how the Dragon's Hoard works, or the Infernal Grimoire). The resulting world wonder from deploying the item would then provide the three mana.

Possible explanation:

The Gela is hurled into the flames, which seem to flicker and burn eagerly for the demonic blade. The fires die down for a moment before engulfing the temple in flames and causing it collapse into itself. In the ruins your troops find the Gela once more, but it has been changed. It is searing to the touch, wholly unusable as a weapon, but your Adepts tell you a great deal of magical power is emanating from it...

Destroying the pyre may also have diplomatic ramifications if it is not in enemy or neutral territory, or within your own borders. Whether that should just be a negative hit or an outright declaration of war (as though you had pillaged that civ's improvement) I don't know; just brainstorming.
 
Well that is possible. Of course, it can only provide 3 types of mana (or other resources) and must provide the same number of each of them (although I've been trying to convince Kael for quite some time to change this). Not that you need any more control than this to implement this idea.
 
VERY well thought out. Also gives an incentive for people to kill off hyborem :)

I commonly play AV and even I'd want to kill him to get one of these rewards. The Pyre of the seraphic giving chaos and entropy mana *drool* :D

Al
 
Not just an incentive to kill Hyborem, but an incentive to NOT do it indiscriminately with basium's worldspell (you want to be able to swoop in and grab the Gela for yourself afterall).

Yes, making a building/wonder out of the trident after the Pyre would allow you to provide 3 mana then, easily.
 
like the ideas but i think that all of the quest endings should have a possibility of bad things happening
And if leptim frigus does something in ice you should add a quest path for it
 
Thank you for all of the positive feedback. I know some of the rewards are much better than what is currently offered in events, which is the main reason I posted for feedback. Alternate suggestions are appreciated.

Some suggestions:
2) Should have better chances for elohim (after all they are the keepers of the pool of tears). And if you fail there could be a chance to trigger war with them.
Click to expand...
Don't the Elohim protect all of the wonders of the world, or is there a special bond they have with the Pool of Tears? Depending on the outcomes of the events, it could add the "You are destroying the world" and "You are aiding the world" diplomatic modifiers to leaders. I was just unsure how complicated I should make something like this.

3) should require OO and not be possible for others
Click to expand...
I was originally going to restrict some events to religions, but even having the correct terrain feature present to have the option to do an event branch was a chance (the map may never spawn it). Getting rid of the Maelstrom section just because you don't worship OOs limits the chance even further. Instead I gave it a negative, which I think adds a bit more flavor. Just because you don't worship the Overlords doesn't mean they aren't still down there... :satan:

4) Might need a little change in text and maybe even in rewards when you are Basium.
Click to expand...

Yes, none of these were really written with Basium in mind. Is it a simple task to have different text appear for him in the events?

We haven't implemented quests yet and this would be a good example of one.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I thought quests were events, and that more complicated ones were not going to added until Ice. My mistake. =/ Is it too early to be posting about/creating quests?

Not bad. Of course, the Gela is a Trident not a Pike
Click to expand...

D'oh! I didn't have a pedia article to go by, and I guess I didn't look at the picture close enough. More re-writing to do. That is a shame, "blade" sounds much better than... "prongs".

Maybe you could add options to bring it to the Holy Shrines of the Order and of the Ashen Veil too ?
Click to expand...

I was originally going to have buildings in cities be places to take the Gela to (Mokka's Cauldrom instead of the Sepulcher, Mines of Gul'dir (sp?) instead of the Pyre) but eventually decided against it. Mostly because that would present dozens of options, and I was not sure how complicated to make something like this. I eventually settled on the theme of just the special terrain features. I wouldn't mind changing this, though. Kael, just how complicated and long do you plan on quests being, if I were to rewrite this after feedback?

I think taking over the Infernals is just too much of a big switch in the game
Click to expand...

I tend to agree, and am really surprised that more people did not make similar comments. Originally, I was going to just give that event branch the reward of an undead, non-hero Hyborem (resurrect him). But then I thought it would be nice if there was a way for a player to play as the Infernals if they were late in tech and missed their chance. Then I remember the other thread going on about how weak the Infernals were, and ways to change that. Converting your territory seemed a convenient way to do that. On further reflection, this would a big problem if a player was already the Infernals in a multiplayer game. Would that create two Infernal races at once (which would be kind of neat, actually)?

Giving the player Manes would seem even more powerful, though. Demon units without any of the drawbacks of being the Infernals...

a guide on how to mod Quests and such events, so that players could submit their own set of quests to the others
Click to expand...
I really like that idea. :D

what about destroying the pike and giving you a new piece of equipment or unit that you can move to a city
Click to expand...
I prefer this idea to what I originally had, even if it was possible. This was the only event branch in which the reward depended on you owning the territory.

all of the quest endings should have a possibility of bad things happening
Click to expand...
I agree, and I wanted to have a balanced chance (or balanced percentage chance to occur) of both the negative and positive outcomes. But again, I was not sure how complicated to make this.
 
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