![[to_xp]Gekko](https://civfanatics-data.community.forum/avatars/m/74/74677.jpg?1475248346){kind=avatar}
[to_xp]Gekko
QCT junkie
Storyline ( wording could use improvements, english is my second language )
"Edward Morlock was a famous Bannor architect, scientist and philosopher during the Age of Magic. Few memories remain of him, but what we know is that, at the peak of his fame, he was issued with a prestigious task: the construction of a massive INQUISITION TRIBUNAL for the persecution of evil mages. Morlock set to work with trepidation, looking at this task as a new challenge for his genius. He decided to build HELLBORN ( thus the name of the tribunal ) on a small island that was said to have emerged from hell itself. the construction was a massive effort: it was impossible to ferry such huge amounts of stone, marble and other resources needed for the building across a sea that was constantly raging with tempests. so the fortress was built with the very same rocks and stones that the island was made of, like a gigantic plant that grows by draining life from its roots.
When the project was at last completed, Morlock was overflowing with pride.
but his happiness would be short-lived, as he would soon fall prey to an ill destiny.
His lust for knowledge had brought him to the study of some arcane arts. and his vanity brought him to talking about these studies to some envious colleagues, who eventually denounced him to the very same people he had given such a good service to.
Maybe it was just the cruel irony of destiny, or maybe an inquisitor thought that would be "fun" ... whatever the reason was, Edward Morlock was the first man processed and condemned in the tribunal of Hellborn. He gave life to the fortress... and the fortress took his life in the end.
nowadays, few tales are told about Hellborn. the whole place fell into disuse when the Bannor were dragged to hell alongside with their goddess Bhall. some say that the fortress is actually a gigantic living being. of those that dare to wonder too close, not a single one of them remained sane after exploring Hellborn's halls. some say the incommensurable pains suffered by the men and women tortured and burned alive in there come back to haunt the minds of those unfortunate and bold enough to enter."
so here is the story. how would this work in the gameplay? it would work as follows:
1) Hellborn spawns on a small island somewhere on the map, its size not bigger than 10 tiles more or less ( 1 tile is enough, 9 would be probably best, anything in between is pretty fine - I'm obviously talking about the size of the island here, not the feature itself
)
2) it is basically a "lair" that you can explore with a unit, but it does not spawn monsters. it could, however, cause some ( little ) damage to the ships that enter the tiles surrounding the island ( i.e. coast only, not ocean. so tiles immediately adjacent to the island itself ) , to simulate raging seas around, but this is optional. ( a random chance for a random amount of small damage would probably be nice, allowing ships to pass by at the expense of some health )
3) its real effect is that it can be explored by a ( living ) unit. it has a "gamble" mechanic similar to the Maelstrom. when a unit enters, it is confronted by the pain that to this day haunts the place. resulting in the unit having visions and actually experiencing itself everything the people burned in there had to suffer.
4) if the units fails, it gains the crazed promotion ( the one that makes it randomly go barbarian, I think it is Crazed ) . the factors that raise the chance of success are unit XP ( the more, the better ) , and unit tier level/production cost ( basically, the more powerful the unit is, the bigger the chance for success gets. "powerful" doesn't mean high combat rating here, just the general "value" of the unit ) . other flavourful factors could be added in as well, this is just the core mechanics to keep it balanced, fun, and ( hopefully ) unexploitable .
5) however, if the unit succeeds, it gains the Hero promotion and is teleported back to the civ's capital/nearest friendly city ( whatever works better ) , and Hellborn disappears in the sea alongside with the island it was on. this also decreases AC ( optional ) , and damages all ships around the island ( big damage, not like that of point 2) ) . this is for flavour, but it is good for gameplay as well. it makes sure that you can't just dump a crapload of useless warriors on the island and try and retry until you succeed, cuz useless ( 0 xp ) warriors have a very low chance of success AND they're all gonna drown if one of them succeeds. plus, you can't just keep a ship right next to the island waiting to ferry a new unit, cuz it would get destroyed if you succeed.
so how does it work in practice? it's a gamble, just like the maelstrom. you have a chance for a very very nice bonus, but it's more likely that the unit will go nuts
( the better the unit, the bigger the chance for success, but you'll also be less willingly to risk it. so it all balances out )
this is just the "basic" version of the mechanic, I encourage everyone reading this to come and add their own ideas
. I already thought of one that is Bannor-specific ( "why are we not using this place for punishment anymore? LET THE PAIN BEGIN AGAIN!" ) : it keeps Hellborn around, raises the AC ( optional, and this is not gonna matter a lot to Bannor anyway: they are good, Hell terrain doesn't spread to them ) , moves the player a little closer to "evil" ( I'm thinking broader alingments here: this should definitely not be enough to change your alignment on its own, just something minor ) , and gives a bonus to the Gallows buildings in the player's empire ( +1 happiness would be nice, but a culture/commerce bonus could be nice as well ) .
I'll have to think about something for some Evil civs as well, of course. ( Sheaim come to mind here ) I do realize that this idea still needs some polishing and detail, ( especially regarding the civs/units that trigger it, and what effect they cause ) those will come
I hope I explained myself as well as I could here, so please tell me if something is unclear and I will happily explain what I meant in detail.
Feedback, ideas and suggestions are very appreciated
edit1: after a bit of thinking I got a couple other civ-specific ideas. Sheaim and Infernal, namely. they could use a high level summoner ( any appropriate spellcaster would do ) to "bind" the souls of Hellborn's victims to their will, setting them free. this would result in some free manes for the Infernals, or some Moebius Witches with random promotions for the Sheaim.
edit2: idea for the sidar: works similar as the Sheaim/Infernal, but they "free" Morlock himself from Hellborn as a Wane
"Edward Morlock was a famous Bannor architect, scientist and philosopher during the Age of Magic. Few memories remain of him, but what we know is that, at the peak of his fame, he was issued with a prestigious task: the construction of a massive INQUISITION TRIBUNAL for the persecution of evil mages. Morlock set to work with trepidation, looking at this task as a new challenge for his genius. He decided to build HELLBORN ( thus the name of the tribunal ) on a small island that was said to have emerged from hell itself. the construction was a massive effort: it was impossible to ferry such huge amounts of stone, marble and other resources needed for the building across a sea that was constantly raging with tempests. so the fortress was built with the very same rocks and stones that the island was made of, like a gigantic plant that grows by draining life from its roots.
When the project was at last completed, Morlock was overflowing with pride.
but his happiness would be short-lived, as he would soon fall prey to an ill destiny.
His lust for knowledge had brought him to the study of some arcane arts. and his vanity brought him to talking about these studies to some envious colleagues, who eventually denounced him to the very same people he had given such a good service to.
Maybe it was just the cruel irony of destiny, or maybe an inquisitor thought that would be "fun" ... whatever the reason was, Edward Morlock was the first man processed and condemned in the tribunal of Hellborn. He gave life to the fortress... and the fortress took his life in the end.
nowadays, few tales are told about Hellborn. the whole place fell into disuse when the Bannor were dragged to hell alongside with their goddess Bhall. some say that the fortress is actually a gigantic living being. of those that dare to wonder too close, not a single one of them remained sane after exploring Hellborn's halls. some say the incommensurable pains suffered by the men and women tortured and burned alive in there come back to haunt the minds of those unfortunate and bold enough to enter."
so here is the story. how would this work in the gameplay? it would work as follows:
1) Hellborn spawns on a small island somewhere on the map, its size not bigger than 10 tiles more or less ( 1 tile is enough, 9 would be probably best, anything in between is pretty fine - I'm obviously talking about the size of the island here, not the feature itself
) 2) it is basically a "lair" that you can explore with a unit, but it does not spawn monsters. it could, however, cause some ( little ) damage to the ships that enter the tiles surrounding the island ( i.e. coast only, not ocean. so tiles immediately adjacent to the island itself ) , to simulate raging seas around, but this is optional. ( a random chance for a random amount of small damage would probably be nice, allowing ships to pass by at the expense of some health )
3) its real effect is that it can be explored by a ( living ) unit. it has a "gamble" mechanic similar to the Maelstrom. when a unit enters, it is confronted by the pain that to this day haunts the place. resulting in the unit having visions and actually experiencing itself everything the people burned in there had to suffer.
4) if the units fails, it gains the crazed promotion ( the one that makes it randomly go barbarian, I think it is Crazed ) . the factors that raise the chance of success are unit XP ( the more, the better ) , and unit tier level/production cost ( basically, the more powerful the unit is, the bigger the chance for success gets. "powerful" doesn't mean high combat rating here, just the general "value" of the unit ) . other flavourful factors could be added in as well, this is just the core mechanics to keep it balanced, fun, and ( hopefully ) unexploitable .
5) however, if the unit succeeds, it gains the Hero promotion and is teleported back to the civ's capital/nearest friendly city ( whatever works better ) , and Hellborn disappears in the sea alongside with the island it was on. this also decreases AC ( optional ) , and damages all ships around the island ( big damage, not like that of point 2) ) . this is for flavour, but it is good for gameplay as well. it makes sure that you can't just dump a crapload of useless warriors on the island and try and retry until you succeed, cuz useless ( 0 xp ) warriors have a very low chance of success AND they're all gonna drown if one of them succeeds. plus, you can't just keep a ship right next to the island waiting to ferry a new unit, cuz it would get destroyed if you succeed.
so how does it work in practice? it's a gamble, just like the maelstrom. you have a chance for a very very nice bonus, but it's more likely that the unit will go nuts
( the better the unit, the bigger the chance for success, but you'll also be less willingly to risk it. so it all balances out )this is just the "basic" version of the mechanic, I encourage everyone reading this to come and add their own ideas
. I already thought of one that is Bannor-specific ( "why are we not using this place for punishment anymore? LET THE PAIN BEGIN AGAIN!" ) : it keeps Hellborn around, raises the AC ( optional, and this is not gonna matter a lot to Bannor anyway: they are good, Hell terrain doesn't spread to them ) , moves the player a little closer to "evil" ( I'm thinking broader alingments here: this should definitely not be enough to change your alignment on its own, just something minor ) , and gives a bonus to the Gallows buildings in the player's empire ( +1 happiness would be nice, but a culture/commerce bonus could be nice as well ) .I'll have to think about something for some Evil civs as well, of course. ( Sheaim come to mind here ) I do realize that this idea still needs some polishing and detail, ( especially regarding the civs/units that trigger it, and what effect they cause ) those will come
I hope I explained myself as well as I could here, so please tell me if something is unclear and I will happily explain what I meant in detail.
Feedback, ideas and suggestions are very appreciated
edit1: after a bit of thinking I got a couple other civ-specific ideas. Sheaim and Infernal, namely. they could use a high level summoner ( any appropriate spellcaster would do ) to "bind" the souls of Hellborn's victims to their will, setting them free. this would result in some free manes for the Infernals, or some Moebius Witches with random promotions for the Sheaim.
edit2: idea for the sidar: works similar as the Sheaim/Infernal, but they "free" Morlock himself from Hellborn as a Wane
