[planned mod] Mini-factions

from Elemental Forums

I'd like to open up the floor for some ideas for a mini-faction mod I've been planning. The idea is to have mini-factions that function like the city-states in Civ5 - they're singular cities, there's an AI guiding their behaviour, they don't expand past their first city unless you lose cities to their armies. The purpose here is to add a bit of life to the world, and add a bit of fun to exploring.

Basically I'm interested in what players would like to see as mini-factions.

For example, the first mini-faction will be an empire-based darkling faction, where a bunch of darklings under the direction of a darkling shaman invaded and subjugated a wraith population town. They'll field mostly darkling units, but also some wraith soldiers. When the player captures the city, there will be a one-time reward of X gold that the population kept hidden from the wraith.

Another planned faction is a populated "forgotten library", where a bunch of humans are trying to rebuild all the knowledge from the old world (sort of like the ending in the book of Eli). There will be a large tech bonus for anyone who does a tech treaty with them, or you can just conquer them and claim the library for yourself.

A third planned faction is orcs, expanding from a ventri ore mine. They start the game with high-tech armor, and will probably be quite aggressive, and they'll ride and produce drake mounts as well. 

A fourth planned faction is a lost elven city. I'm thinking unicorns and ents or earth elementals. Maybe this city produces a low amount of elementium.

So, any other ideas?

6,721 views 22 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

So a Single City, but it can get to L5 if left undiscovered long enough?

OK, my idea.

How about separating out the Ents and Earth Elementals so they could become their own (combined) faction with Lost City? Perhaps they are only found in terrain types of Rugged + Heavily Forested.

Sound cool though. Especially if the cities can grow to Max size.

Of course without testing, an aggressive and well armored faction (Orc) right out of the gate could be problematic. It can be found now in game when selecting the higher level difficulties, multiple factions and a bad start position. Still FUN though. ;)

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Some would grow to level 5, others would stay at level 1 or 2.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Sounds good to me too.

 

One comment....If these factions are never going to grow, they should be very hard to take down.  Trading with the "library" faction, for instance, should be very desirable in comparison to taking them over at the cost of a huge army.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Fantastic ideas Heavenfall. You can be certain I for one, will play your mod. What has often irked me is that there are already minor factions in the game, six of them if I recall. But whenever I have encountered one of them in a game, their supposed city is just sitting there with them having built absolutely nothing, nor have they ventured out of their territory. Could your mod also somehow kick start these existing minor factions, as well as add new ones?

As for what I would like to see in terms of factions...  Anything that breathes life and activity into the landscape, it doesn't just have to be cities. For instance, how about something like 'The Dragon Spire', which could be I suppose a city that could be expanded upon if conquered, but the idea would be that the area near to that city would be a seriously dangerous place because there are wandering dragons that will snack on passing adventurers. Dealing with the menace once and for all would be an awful fight, as the 'city' would be defended by a fearsome force of dragons. However taking the city would net a few gold mines of output, maybe crystal too, 'and' provide for the ability to recruit dragons. The cost for recruiting a dragon should be appropriately high.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

No, there's no way to change how minor factions work per se.

These will not be monster lairs, their actions will be guided by an AI and if there's a dangerous dragon horde defending a tower, they'll probably preemptively invade you. However... it should be possible to have a mini-dragon faction defending a spire. I like it.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Feel free to throw some undead in there as a mini faction if you like, my friend.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Solid work Heavenfall.

Why not follow the original Stardock plan and have the "other" race's camps as the reward?  Conquering or co-opting the darkling camp nets you the darkling resource, dragons roost begets dragon units ect.  It should combine up well with the already existing Diplomacy tech mechanic. 

It's like seeing a horse resource nearby so naturally you go warfare research and nab the horse riding training.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top


A fourth planned faction is a lost elven city. I'm thinking unicorns and ents or earth elementals. Maybe this city produces a low amount of elementium.

So, any other ideas?

End of quote

 

Make them produce Crystal too. I never have enough, especially when trying to recruit a company(12units), which have some of the magical equipment equipped! (Sometimes I need over 100 crystal for one company)

 

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting RogueCaptain, reply 7
Solid work Heavenfall.

Why not follow the original Stardock plan and have the "other" race's camps as the reward?  Conquering or co-opting the darkling camp nets you the darkling resource, dragons roost begets dragon units ect.  It should combine up well with the already existing Diplomacy tech mechanic. 

It's like seeing a horse resource nearby so naturally you go warfare research and nab the horse riding training.
End of RogueCaptain's quote

 

I want to do new things, not old things over again. Each mini-faction should have something unique, and that in itself should be powerful. Adding another kind of bonus isn't something I'm planning on doing.

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Please make them a bit aggresive so that they will expand by conquest if they see an opportunity. That will bring life, fun and surprise to the game. :) Suddenly a group of darkilngs emerge out of the fog and snatches my newly placed city by the gold mine and the fertile land in the valley :)

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

That's the plan!

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/408/screenshothead2.png

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/7114/screenshothead.png

Those are the headpieces for the drota faction (which is actually going to be a complete empire faction). The skull masks will remain when you put a helmet on, the helmet graphic will be visible underneath the mask.

And this is their sovereign:

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/429/elemental1289784780.jpg

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

Enter the drota

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/3411/elemental1289932170.jpg

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/8060/elemental1289931924.jpg

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/5117/elemental1289931683.jpg

 

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

So is this a mini faction or a faction? Why does it says Orcs? This looks like the goblins that fearzone has in his greenorcs thread. What is a drota? Without the skull mask with brown skin they look like they can be dark elves.

Reply #15 from Elemental Forums Top

The Drota are one of species in the Elemental universe. In-game, you can find references to them here

Little is known about the exact circumstances of Pariden the Arnor's destruction. It is said that even the combined might of Kir-Tion, Phaedra and Ardell were no match for Pariden. However, in the end, Pariden was slain and there were whispers that beings known as the Drota were involved. Little is known of the Drota. This technology gives us the ability to find Drota Citadels and recruit from them if they are within our territory.
End of quote

and indirectly here (you can by this text conclude that the Drota are "derived" from Men)

This breakthrough allows us to construct Drath Village improvements. There is a third sentient race on this world, besides dragons, that are not derived from Men called the Drath.

End of quote

 

They look like the "goblins" because I posted them as goblins in that thread. It says Orcs because I just happened to choose them as a framework to build the drota faction from. Obviously this is a work in process and not finished. I'll post a release some time after 1.1 non-beta is released. They will be an empire faction.

Reply #16 from Elemental Forums Top

Good another faction! Someone has to be working on Dwarfs by now!

Reply #17 from Elemental Forums Top

Oooow. More special tiles then? Perhaps the Tile build group could re-assemble. And use preset base rules this time out. LOL :)

Gents/Lasses, anyone else game?

Reply #18 from Elemental Forums Top

Nah, it's too much work for my taste. I've got a ton of other stuff to do as well.

Edit: Hellbrutes will be the official mount for the Drota http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/839/elemental1289959940.jpg

Reply #20 from Elemental Forums Top

awesome ideas.  i will play the mods, you betcha.

Reply #21 from Elemental Forums Top

Saw you talking about this in chat today while talking to Cari, and I would be interested in it as well.