Question for those who say the world isn't 'barren enough'

It is not as simple as wanting less stuff, we want less non-post-cataclysm stuff and more post-cataclysm stuff (lairs spawning monsters that need to be cleared out, more devistated looking landscape, ect).

My suggestion was to have a slider for both.

For resources I want to be able to play several styles of games.  I want to try a huge map that is set-up with hardly anything.  I think in another thread a scale such as     plentiful ------- adequate ----------- normal --------- barren ---------  what the hell (where is everything)

I would really enjoy struggling through the last selection.  Likewise, I want to play plentiful once to just to try it.

Likewise with monster spawns.  lets have a slider.    very few ------  a couple --------- normal -------- this seems like alot -------- holy crap!!!!

I can picture now a huge map with practically no resoruces and hundres of monsters running around.  Plus then I have to deal with the other 9 Sov and their ilk.  Sounds like fun.

i can imagine everyone fighting over the city with the 2 of 4 gold mines on the whole map connected to it - and the city with the only farm

Yep.

Sliders to determine resources, monsters as well as monsters behavior (preying the weak, protecting their area or suicidal attacks on cities) general map type (islands, continents...) is probably the best option.

It will donate a lot to the goal of making the game re-playable many times, as well as allowing the player to choose their favorite game type.

I agree with the other posters here. With the current resource system, it's too random and can get very frustrating, even with the resource unlocking tech's.  Having the amount of resources available in the world as a slider would be a great idea.

Cheers,

Raven

Yes, I agree.  Actually I think your idea of customizing each world created should be a expanded, and made a basic part of the game.  Most things in the game should be adjustable:  Density of resources, types, density and rate of, 'monsters', lairs, availability of some, if not all spells (and the mana cost to cast), [users.that hate the teleport spells can ‘un-tik / unselect them thereby making them unavailable in the game they are setting up.] unit types, equipment costs, equipment values (Armour rating, attack defense strength, MP), etc ...

I think you get the idea. Just about everything should be customizable by the user when they create a world.  You want horses and wargs to have more MP’s, tic the box, customize you game.

Sliders (as suggested above) could be used for adjust the overall number of specific resource / roaming monsters / monsters that (mostly) hunt wooded and /or mountainous areas available.  Especially things for which we really don’t have a ‘hard’ number.

Sliders could shift the number of resource tiles from “almost none” to max for game/whatever that is.

Each spell could have a tic box.  Checking the box for that spell makes it available in the game.  Following the spell would be a slider that allows user to modify the base mana cost to cast the spell (low med, high,) etc.  Or a box where you type in a number (within a set of range) to fix the base mana cost of the spell, the AP, initiative, or whatever factors the game engine is using with that spell.

Units could have a set of check boxes after them.  Checking the various boxes would modify that unit’s (in its basic from)  str, def, attk, MP, sighting, etc.

Finally:  There should be a way to “save” the customization choices under a name, so it can be used again, without going through all the selections.

I thought this was a good idea that I had from another post which would add more terrain types & add a bit more to the game that fit the "cataclysmic" theme:

I can't see any relationship between the world being barren and the number of resources.

Antarctica and most deserts on Earth are barren but are full of mineral and energy resources (and even archeological. Good for Old Libraries and such).

A "barren world" for our game should be more in relation with human population, vegetal density and even some 'cursed land' (places like Mordor or the fetid swamps full of corpses in the LotR movies).

mandelik>  

the point I was trying to make is that by adding a couple sliders, we could customize the world.  It makes the game more interesting.  Just with those two types of selection i suggested there would be 25 different combinations to choose from.

I'd go even for a slider on the cost of teleporting.   I'd like a game where I can move quickly to save my people, then the next where I'm hampered by the cost.  Would add to the replayability alot.  Sliders on all the magic spells might be abit too much.....or would it?

maybe a generic "magic cost" slider that increases or decreases the cost of all spells as a percentage. 1.1 is going to completely change the entire magic system, so this might become moot or useless.

We just need to be able to build teleporters, like the magic mirrors in the book.  Then we could teleport between cities or where ever.  Or they could be a resource, like shards or gold!!!!  Oh shit, thats a good idea, I wonder who I unconsciously stole it from.  Magic gates that are on the land scape, that you can use to teleport if they are either in friendly or allied zones.  Have to research magic tree like shards to use them.  I am so genius.

The problem with this, which I pointed out to the last guy who mentioned it, is that the human player would just park two large killer stacks on both sides of the teleporter, making teleportation available to only himself. Even if the AI was programmed to use it, it would never be able to use it because the human contols all the portal locations. At least having it as a spell instead of a physical (controllable) location makes it a viable tool to the AI too, that is if it was actually programmed to use it. This would make victory by conquest for the human even easier than it now is, especially on large maps.

Couldnt you just program the AI to protect the gates?  I don't think that would be any more difficult than programing them to use teleport wisely.  But then again, I really dont know shit about programming.

Apparently, programming an AI is almost impossibly hard, as a programmer explained to me in another post. Even just adding a simple spell would likely break the game because the AI would never be able to use it & the human would just romp the AI with it. It seems simple from our (player's) perspective, but from the AI's perspective it's impossibly hard to get around.

That's why I'm all for "buffing" the AI as it's the only way to make it reasonably competitive against human players.

double posted

I hate buffed AI.  Can't stand a cheating AI.  I'd rather have an easy game, than a cheap challenge.

I wouldn't mind some type of advantage.  I am thinking back to the inspiration for Elemental.  I would not want the kind of buff MoM gave the AI on Impossible.  It was practically was.  It made the game so placement became critical and you had to get lucky with some empty lairs.  You couldn't struggle trhough some lean years and then over come.  If it started bad, it got worse in a hurry.

I would like to see sliders on the world in general resources, food sources, magic.  The magic slider needs to be how much to shards enhance the magic.  I would not be a fan of sliders for spells.  However, in the spirit of MoM, spells that you could pump more mana into to crank up the power would be great.  Still, back to the OP, the world can be barren, but I would definitely like to see it get worse.  At the same time, a game full of resources and food would also be fun.  The only way I know of to get both ways is to allow us gamers to select the levels when we construct the world.