Design Contest Q&A thread

[xienwolf]

[NWO] Valis: Actually that was kinda the point, you would be vulnerable to certain problems, and you would be immune to certain other ones. It is the Balseraph, so the idea is something which is unexpected, not something which is flawless in execution

Frozen-Vomit: I would say to make option C more likely to be selected it should also remove the religion of the prophet child from all cities in your Civ and a random selection of other cities in the world to overall reduce the influence of that religion by 5-10%.

And for option B: Will it move only the holy city, or also the religious wonder (if built)?

I have to disagree with Jono though, I think that it is appropriate for the holy city of the owning civ to get a Great Prophet if you give them thier child. I do think you should get diplo modifiers appropriate for gifting them a Great Prophet as well.

Jono: A bit high on the gold values since those 2 techs are rather early game. I'd almost say to remove the requirement for festivals to get the event and make that a requirement to hire him instead. But then it would happen so early that you probably do not have many roads yet. I'd maybe go for a large culture boost along with option B? Dunno, just think that it ought to do you some good to pay homage to the trickster if he really is powerful.

 

[zxcvbnm]

How about some serious penalty to civs with that religion? Surely they must believe that their god(s) have abandoned them as (t/s)he(y) let(s) their prophet be killed by infidels

 

[xienwolf]

kwarriorpoet: I believe at the end of your nifty quest you meant that the "Save the World" faction get golden ages, right? Not the "Hail to the King" (defeated) faction?

Overall, pretty cool.

 

[zxcvbnm]

It is just a bit too close to the AC, horsemen, wrath and hellfire

 

[Demus]

kwarriorpoet: very nice event, even though i recon the portal is a bit overpowered as it is. the +1 AC per turn from 20 and up could be devastating, not to mention the buildup of minions. If they'd move in in a constant "conga line", it'd be tough to survive them, but if they group up in groups of 5 turn spawns, they'd be practically unstoppable. My advise: lose the +1 AC per turn, and make the minions scale up more over time (start at lower strenght, end out with 1-2 less minons/turn)
there should also be an option added whether or not you want this event in your game, since having it in 100% of your games could be a bit much.

 

[Frozen-Vomit]

Thanks to Jono and xienwolf.

I guess it should also move the wonder - I don't know if holy city does much alone now because line of sight was dropped in BtS.

Is there a fixed time when the entries have to be finished? Like 24:00 at Kaels local timezone or something?

 

[xienwolf]

Well, for AV I know that the hero can only be built in the Holy City, so there is still SOME effect without the wonder.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

The same goes for the Runes of Kilmorph Holy city (needed for the Mithril Golem)

 

[Jono]

I think a simple solution would be turning the religious wonders into national wonders. That way you can just rebuild it if you get the holy city.

 

[Kael]

Just a reminder, we have less than 24 hours before the period to submit entries for the design contests expires.

 

[Rex rgis of Ter]

Less than twenty four hours!
DrumROllllll..........

 

[princecharles]

@ princecharles -Illusionist

Illusionists are already the Svartafar unique conjurer. It would be rather confusing to have 2 different unique units for two different civs with very different abilities have the same name. The special abilities of your illusionist seem like they would be very difficult to implement. Also, heroes have already been made much less likely to defend.

Is it too late to change the name? I never saw the illusionist, sorry. While I agree it would take some thought to implement, I still like the idea of the two abilities. However, it is the team's choice, so I have a feeling I'm already out of the competition.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

No, not too late.

 

[Calavente]

kwarriorpoet :
your event is pretty cool ..
but a mit difficult..

AC 10 is very low : AV creation + prophecy : 10AC.

then option A for evil or good civ : 10turns means 21 minions created with 6str... before even learning where is the portal !! and just when you learn where it is the ravager of man appears !!!
it is a huge army.. most of the time I don't have a 6str unit when AC is 10.. so to go against 21 units ...??
then : preparing for war and razing 2 cities can be very long, especially as you won't yet know were the portal is and maybe won't know an evil (good ) civ yet, or maybe already many tiles away. thus you would have your holy sword unit but will be facing 20-30 minions + the ravagers of man of or elves.

I think the pace is too quick.

maybe up all counts by 2 ..
and then make you minion creation goes in the 30% chance happening each turn, and maybe 1 for 20turns, then chance of 2 for 20 more turns, then chance of 3 ...Etc.

I mean, it may be worse than barbatos !!! AC 10 comes quickly, and when arriving, the nearby civ is distroyed... as minion are permanent, there isn't even a safe zone !!

 

[xanaqui42]

kwarriorpoet :
your event is pretty cool ..
but a mit difficult..

AC 10 is very low : AV creation + prophecy : 10AC.

then option A for evil or good civ : 10turns means 21 minions created with 6str... before even learning where is the portal !! and just when you learn where it is the ravager of man appears !!!
it is a huge army.. most of the time I don't have a 6str unit when AC is 10.. so to go against 21 units ...??
then : preparing for war and razing 2 cities can be very long, especially as you won't yet know were the portal is and maybe won't know an evil (good ) civ yet, or maybe already many tiles away. thus you would have your holy sword unit but will be facing 20-30 minions + the ravagers of man of or elves.

I think the pace is too quick.

maybe up all counts by 2 ..
and then make you minion creation goes in the 30% chance happening each turn, and maybe 1 for 20turns, then chance of 2 for 20 more turns, then chance of 3 ...Etc.

I mean, it may be worse than barbatos !!! AC 10 comes quickly, and when arriving, the nearby civ is distroyed... as minion are permanent, there isn't even a safe zone !!

I've seen Armageddon Counters of 10+ prior to the founding of Ashen Veil with some frequency;all you need is a significant number of razed cities.

However, I'd probably at least halve the speed - otherwise, unless you're adjacent to the portal (or it's a small map), you probably won't be able to react to it.

Another thought would be to bind these events to the Armageddon Counter, rather than to a separate Portal Counter.

In any event (pun intended), while I may be nitpicking details, I like the design goal, and most of the ideas. I note, however, that there is a lot to implement here:

1 Improvement
5 units
At least 7 events, possibly more; at least 3 quests are included here (which presumably are each another event on completion).
Some AI behavior that is presumably novel (seeking out specific targets with particular stacks).

 

[White Elk]

@ White Elk: FWIW, here is my opinion on your entries:

Chaos .Orb:

Spoiler :

Replacing the Hawk would probably be done indirectly, making it a completely seperate unit instead of a modification of the Hawk itself (since many mechanics change). Grant the new unit recon and rebase abilities, and replace the Balseraph Hunter and other Hawk carriers with special units able to instead carry only Chaos Orbs.

In my mind I can better picture the Balseraph using the Orbs vs the Hawks. I think it fits their flavour better. At least from the perspective of the 'look' of their Recon units. And since it is a recon tool I think it should be used by the Recon line.

Only thing I would say is probably hard to code is the changing of visible terrain. I am not entirely sure if that one is possible, but there is a defined code entry for what is visible to the orb, and blight does do random terrain effect, so I think everything you need is in the game.

After being reminded of just how much terrain the Hawks can reveal, I think that the unit mutation and terrain alterations may need to be limited to just the tiles the Orb travels through. Or perhaps within a one tile radius. I thought it would be cool to have those random effects occur all along the Orbs path. If this isn't possible then perhaps the unit could be granted a 'spread Chaos' mission.

Ard-Luibh:

Spoiler :

Seems really easy. Though personally I think that all the wonders trying to make an alternate source of reagents are mildly annoying. So at least yours tosses some other things in there as well (if the map don't have reagents, adjust! Not that I often make it to the point of seriously needing them anyhow)

Its not the sexiest wonder on the block, but it is one which I feel is really needed. I had other ideas for wonders, but after playing Yet Another game with no Reagents on the Entire map, I couldn't get this one out of my head. I like to play with the toys in this game. I don't really play to win per se, I play to have fun. I do enjoy having to organize a campaign to go out and capture some Reagents et all; but its not even on the map so gosh darn often that without the WB I would Very rarely play with some of the games most interesting toys (imho).

With this wonder requiring the Medicine tech and Nature mana along with 600 hammers worth of production, I feel that it does cause a player without access to the resources to have to 'adjust' as you say. I think that kind of detour along the path to magic is appropriate for those players who are wanting to play with Ritualists and Archmages etc but have no way of getting them. For an example... Recently I've been enjoying playing as the Grigori and getting three Hero Archmages with Mind III for the Domination spell. I kick the AC up to bring the Avatar of Wrath into the world, and then use these mages to quickly rebuild my Army so I can protect the world from his mighty armies. This type of premeditated playing style (among many others) are Very often impossible due to there being No Reagents Anywhere in the world. Adjusting to world dynamics is fun. But not having the tools you require to play the style of game your playing for, is not so much fun I think. I've played the game enough that now I seek to play specific kinds of games.

Apprentice Jack of all Trades:

Spoiler :

Only part I do not think is possible is to allow you to build a replacement Archmage should one of your initial 3 die (but getting the 4th in the first place is easy. Cap doesn't block a free unit, just the promotion "spell"). But if the new unit had the same stats as an archmage, but was a different unit, then it would work easily. It also might be difficult to track what spells they have cast as conditions for the quest. But it might be possible to base it off simply having a level 2 promotion from each of those spheres.

Yes I think in order to be able to replace any of the original Archmages, the quest mage will require a special unit class or something. Sort of like how you can upgrade an Archmage to Lich and then build another. I have no idea how the casted spells could be tracked. If there is a way I trust that Kael would know. I can imagine that special promotions might work. But the coding may be to messy and heavy for what it grants. If so, then its like you say and simply having access to those spells would be good enough.

..........

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Balseaphs do not have hawks anyway; they (like the Lanun) have parrots, which I think fits them better than either hawks or "orbs"

 

[thomas.berubeg]

I edited my event proposal...

 

[Grillick]

I really like Xuenay's event idea.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Contest submission time is closed. (My entries were the last ones. I wonder if that helps or hurts my chances?) Since entries can't be added/altered now, is time to end the constructive criticism and begin bickering/campaigning over what we should vote for

Seriously though, we should keep discussing the choices while Kael and the team pick what will be on the ballot/poll. It may make the team's job a little easier, and it will let us be more disappointed when our favorite ideas aren't chosen.