Idea for a new Unique Feature

[to_xp]Gekko

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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 :P)

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 :D ( 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 ;)
 
First off, if you hadn't said English wasn't your native tongue, I'd never have realized it. The only real issue with your wording would be run on sentences, and neglecting to capitalize the first letter in a sentence... the same errors native speakers make every day.

Secondly, I have to say I really like your idea. It could use a custom option for evil civs too, or at least the Sheiam, but over all it's well fleshed out and wouldn't be too unbalanced.
 
wow, thanx Valkrionn, that's nice to hear. this forum keeps my english from getting rusty as a nice added bonus :lol:

I am kinda exhausted as far as ideas go right now after thinking+writing+editing all of this, and I honestly can't think of anything kewl for some Evil civs off the top of my head right now. but I'm confident that somebody will eventually come up with ideas to make this better :D
 
k, 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.
 
this is a kick arse idea, i really hope its implementable :D

Parts of it certainly are - the island part (both spawning on and removing when defeated) makes it a fair bit more complex than a standard unique feature though.

What do we know about the pre-gone-to-hell Bannor empire? As I recall they worshipped Bhall rather than Junil (which could be worked into this relic of that empire) and that may weaken the inquisition angle. Alternatively, they may have always been that way inclined (witch hunts, killing of evil-doers etc), even before being associated with the angel of justice/law ("justice" might be a stretch for the Bannor).
 
They worshiped Bhall, but Bhall and Junil were very close at the time and Junil had many temples in the Bannor empire too. Witch hunts and crusades are the embodiment of the pre-fall fire sphere. Fire represented passion in the pursuit of justice and punishment of sin.

It is important to note that at the the innocent could pass though flames without harm (much like the Luonnatar still could when Junil was afraid to let his priests' Pillar of Fire harm those who might actually be sent by The One), so they were able to throw anyone into the flames knowing that the falsely accused would be vindicated. This would make a traditional tribunal rather pointless; all trials would have been Ordeals, literally Trial by Fire. I imagine they might have forced the accusers to lead the suspected witches into the flames, which would mean that anyone knowingly giving false testimony would perish as if he had been guilty of the crimes himself. (When Bhall fell and the innocent began to feel the pain of her flames, her most loyal followers stuck to their old belief that anyone who would be vulnerable to flames must be evil, and should be destroyed, beginning with the few priests of Bhall who had remained good. That is how they quickly degenerated into vicious, violent, Orks.)


I don't like to think of the Bannor as having anything to do with Hell before the fall of Bhall (apart from the fact that who wicked who were purged by her flames could expect to go there), thus I'm no fan of this proposed unique feature. Also, hell was a dark, fire-less place before the Fall of Bhall.
 
Parts of it certainly are - the island part (both spawning on and removing when defeated) makes it a fair bit more complex than a standard unique feature though.

not sure about the removing of the island, but for spawning on it you could probably ask Jean Elcard, in Flavourmod the Maelstrom will spawn in a suitable small ocean. this would probably be the very same mechanic AFAIK.

@Magister: it doesn't have anything to do with hell actually... Hellborn is just a name, it can be changed any day, it doesn't matter ( I'll just edit the storyline so that it doesn't mention any rumors of the island having emerged from hell) . same with the mentions of "innocents burned alive" actually, those can just be changed to plain ol' torture - or anything that fits the lore, for that matter . basically, since this is a new idea one can easily change the storyline to fit FFH lore :D
 
Well, I really can't imagine the pre-fall Bannor as every resorting to torture, or needing any tribunal but fire. The Flame (especially the Sacred Flame held in the heart Bhall's temple at Braduk) was a flawless Judge, Jury, and Executioner, so there isn't much of a point in having any other means of prosecuting or punishing sorcerers.

Fire would be a lot like holy water in really bad vampire movies, something deadly to the enemy but harmless or even beneficial to good. I imagine that the Bannor themselves walked though the flames quite often and made their children do so too.

The Bannor were never known for scientists or philosophers either. They saw no need for philosophical discussions as to the nature of good and evil, since they knew that good was defined that which is not destroyed by fire.
 
eh, Lore can be a pain sometimes :lol: is there any other civilization of the Age of Magic that would be suitable for having built this? Patria maybe? otherwise one could always change the storyline to something like a betrayal--->subsequent massacre that happened in the Fortress, or anything else that comes to mind for that matter :D

btw, the "spawn on island, island destroyed after" mechanic can definitely be skipped for the time being I guess. the core mechanic of risk-->reward would remain the very same even if it spawned on land of course. then the island thingy can be left for when someone has the time and willingness to add it in, as the rest shouldn't be hard to code in afaik. ;)
 
Going of on a tangent somewhat, and it's probably a silly question, but could unique features be more than one tile in size?

For example could you have a Haunted forest that is perhaps 4+ tiles in size? (goes back to an earlier discussion of having a woodland where Giant Spiders/wolves/other creepies could be spawned each time they are entered.

Or perhaps a unique mountain range with a string of 6-10 mountain tiles with a pass in the midst of it...which would have the risk of avalanches / or an old abandoned Dwarven Kingdom, possibly now infested by Orcs/Gobbo's but with the potential of the odd mithril weapon/gold/armour for the intrepid explorer (or a mixture of the two for a Fellowship of the Rings effect)
 
A unique feature can't be more than 1 tile, but you could probably set it up so that multiple versions of a "unique" feature spawn near each other. This would probably be done with a special python check that runs when the map is loading, but I just got to thinking it could be really interesting if there was a feature that spread itself into bordering tiles whenever a unit came near.
 
theoretically, it could be an Old Bannor fortress, where the inhabitants went made when Bhall fell, with a wholesale slaughter going on within the walls... (haunted now by the angry spirits of the dead)
 
Remins me of the Sheild of of Shaundalar, but in a good way (I loved that book:)). Maybe something similar? :hopeful?:
 
Oh, it's in a Forgotten Realms book, The Sheild of weeping Ghosts.
Spoiler for those that don't want to know the book
Spoiler :
The sheild was a fortress built by the empire of Rauthmar, in the city of Shaundlar, on the western border of modern Rashemen. The Sheild was just a fort until the mages of the city combined Ilythiiri magic with their human magic, relusting in a portal that linked Shaundalar with another city, and the Word. The Word, when activated with the Breath created a portal to Stygia, and allowed the operator to chanel the Hellish cold of Stygia.

When the Empire of Narfell heard of the Word, they attacked Shaundular, sending 7 children to start the war. When the mage warden of Shandular activated the Word, it killed everbody in the city, and forced them to canstantly re-enact the death of Shaundular. to this day, only the Hathran still go the Shandular, the City of Weeping Ghost, and any that die in the city rise as shadows and bleackborn. And the Hathran are only their to keep others from useing the Word. Oh, and of course the dead don't like being disturbed.
 
I think I'd rather focus on adding unique features already found in FfH lore.

The Tower of Eyes (perhaps called by its Patrian name, The Palus) would make far more sense as a unique feature than a wonder. I'm thinking it would grant Mind Magic (some of Perpentach's power, and perhaps even his original body, remain there), have a line of sight larger than that of a normal ancient tower, spawn some golems when you get too close, and have a special event for when you find it (with at least a Balseraph only option, maybe a Luchuirp only option letting them improve their golems based on finding examples of some of the finest golems of the age of magic, and maybe an anti-Balseraph option too.) It might also be nice for it to give out the Crazed promotion.



A Bair of Lacuna unique feature (giving dimensional magic, with special options for the Sheaim and Calabim) would be nice too.


I'd like to see the Tomb of Finner added, but we don't know enough about him to know what kind of bonus it should give. All we know was that he was a legendary mortal hero at the end of the Age of Dragons, that the Elohim witnessed The Godslayer being placed in his possession, and that his tomb was one of the most important sites that the Elohim guarded.


An ancient library sacred to Oghma would be nice. I'm thinking it could grant Metamagic mana, and maybe give a free tech to whoever entered it first.
 
I like the idea for the Tower of Eyes and agree it makes more sense as a unique feature rather than a world wonder. but we need more world wonders as well :D
 
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