Contest: Design a Wonder public poll

[Kael]

Hey, Kael, is there going to be another contest before 2.14? If so what type (that is if you know )?

Doubt it. The contests are actually posted as needed. This time we were working on the 4 spell tower wonders so I wanted lots of new wonder ideas, just to get some creative thoughts going.

I don't have any idea about what the next contest will be (Woodelf actually suggested this one). But it will be on something we need help with. I would love to have a writing contest or a skinning contest but I think either may exclude to many member of the community.

 

[Kael]

Ouch.

This is the reason why I've learnt to write any long forum posts in Notepad or some other text editor first.

(And since I'm curious - in retrospect, I don't really even think it was a very interesting submission myself, but your thoughts re: Mana Shell?)

I think its to powerful a counter to a major component of the game. It would have made offensive spellcasting to weak and to be best negated would have required the player line his units up on the border to the cpuntry he was attacking, which would have been difficult to get the AI to do.

 

[puck11b]

Now you've done it, since you've answered one of these you are going to get bombarded with "What about my baby..."

In other news, what about my baby, the Shrine of the Elements..
*grin*
~p

 

[Kael]

Now you've done it, since you've answered one of these you are going to get bombarded with "What about my baby..."

In other news, what about my baby, the Shrine of the Elements..
*grin*
~p

Its not a problem, just wish I had all of these from last night. I didn't like the shrine of the elementals because it created a synergy between opposed spheres. Water and fire are supposed to be in opposition to each other, but this wonder would have made it more liekly to see water/fire mages. So at a concept level it didn't seem right to me.

But the killing blow was dealt by the new Tower of Mastery victory condition, which you need all 14 mana types to be able to build. This wonder would have been to helpful toward that purpose.

 

[Silverkiss]

Ahh... I really wished the Shrine of Elements to enter game, it was cool =P

Back to the contest, I vote for Shrine of the Conqueror because it fits FfH well and its a good compensation for loosing a level 10+ hero.

Second choice would be The Eyes and Ears Network, but maybe thats too powerfull at the moment.

 

[soibean]

I really dont think the Eyes and Ears network is over powered... sure you get three techs that the AI has but by the time I would normally build this, I play on Prince, Im ahead of the AI except for some basic techs which I skip over. I normally have founded my own religion and warred upon my neighbors so everyone hates me, so no open borders beyond 1 if Im lucky.

My neighbors tend to practice isolationism against my aggressive defensive strategy.

 

[TheBladeRoden]

Was Mantle of Oblivion too corny?

 

[Kael]

Was Mantle of Oblivion too corny?

No the mantle was the last wonder cut before I posted the poll. I love the idea but I didn't put it in the poll because I don't think it would be fun for player to have used against them. I was just imagining a player who had a plan once he achieved a tech anfd then lost it do to an ai civ building this wonder and had to restart. I worried that it would be a frustrating experience.

 

[TheBladeRoden]

Aw, but frustration is part of the whole Civ experience!

 

[Hian the Frog]

Chalid's post in the private forum is a good explanation for most exclusions. Definitely a lot of good ideas came out of this. I think 2 of the 3 I loved couldn't be done.

The Team,

Is it possible for us to know why these wonders are in the poll and others no ?
If yes, where can we read that ? I just want to know why mine is not in.

The Frog.

 

[Kael]

The Team,

Is it possible for us to know why these wonders are in the poll and others no ?
If yes, where can we read that ? I just want to know why mine is not in.

The Frog.

Yeah, I wrote this big post about all of them. But it was over 30,000 characters and the forum ate my post. It took me a long time to write, and Im still bitter about it so Im not rewriting it.

But Im glad to answer quesitons about those that are interested and I remember yours without even looking.

The reason it wasnt added was that its effects didnt seem big enough for a wonder. It didnt offer any unique abilities. Its important to have "stat only" buildings and wonders in the game, not everything can be a new mechanic. But I didnt think it was as creative in the mechanics (though i liked the flavor) as the entries we choose for the poll.

 

[Hian the Frog]

Kael,

Understood.
In fact, i hoped to have a wonder that created a kind of monastic military order, a kind of templar unit both religious and military without spells,... OMI, there are not enough low cost religious units without spells. You can build Inquisitor,...but nearly at the end of the game.
That's all. And, i'm not disappointed to see that mine is not in the poll. The Shrine is a very good and fun idea.

The Frog.

 

[Samuelson]

Its probably annoying you to keep getting posts saying what about my wonder, by please can you tell me why the World Council of Peace didn't get in?

 

[Kael]

Its probably annoying you to keep getting posts saying what about my wonder, by please can you tell me why the World Council of Peace didn't get in?

The world council brings focus on a piece of the game that we dont have in right now, voting. Without a voting mechanism the flavor of this seems out of place, though I did like how you refered to that in the flavor text. When voting comes in (we do eventually want to include it) something like this would be good.

 

[bebematos]

Thinking a little about some posts I read here I agree that the Eyes and Ears would agravate the game accelerating problem.
In my experience, in the early game each tech count and errors in synchronize teching and overall game strategy are punished. As the time passes and acquiring a tech becomes easier this pressure is lessened. The reason to this is tech trading. In it's current form, Eyes and Ears could worsen this problem. So I thought a alternative mechanic to the tech sharing element of this wonder, inspired by the Ultimate Strategy by naf4ever.
When you control a Eyes and Ear, the research cost of each technology is reduced by 20% for each realm that you have a open-borders treaty with, until a -80% limit.
Additionally I defend the banishment of the Trade Technology feature to the later parts of the Tech Tree.
So the tech development would slow down and the different realms will develop diferent techs, as they have diferent overall strategies.
However this sugestion could overpower the teching strategy.
I hope any of this made sense, hehe.

 

[Civmansam]

So The Clouded Walls wasn't included because it was too hard to code? Well I can understand that

I voted for the shrine since it seemed it fit into FFH the best out of them all.

 

[Kael]

So The Clouded Walls wasn't included because it was too hard to code? Well I can understand that

Yeap, Im the bad guy on that one, it was picked as a favorite by a team member and we had to veto because Chalid and I couldnt figure out how to do it.

 

[Zurai]

Awww, and I was hoping to pull off getting a design into the poll in all three contests

On topic: I voted for Eyes and Ears. It might need a bit of tweaking to balance it, but I think it's a great concept.

 

[Enigma]

Yeah, I wrote this big post about all of them. But it was over 30,000 characters and the forum ate my post. It took me a long time to write, and Im still bitter about it so Im not rewriting it.

But Im glad to answer quesitons about those that are interested and I remember yours without even looking.

The reason it wasnt added was that its effects didnt seem big enough for a wonder. It didnt offer any unique abilities. Its important to have "stat only" buildings and wonders in the game, not everything can be a new mechanic. But I didnt think it was as creative in the mechanics (though i liked the flavor) as the entries we choose for the poll.

So, uh, what about mine? (Corridor of the Near and Far)

 

[Kael]

So, uh, what about mine? (Corridor of the Near and Far)

We thought it was to redundant with the Nexus.