[Suggestion] Re-Incorporating Dynasties - Keeping Them Fun - Preventing Abuse - Sound Off Please

I really hope they listen, but it seems like we have made a ton of topics on this and given plethora of ideas that could make it work.  I just don't think that they are interested in making the dynasty system work.  I really don't think that the system really needed a lot of work.

First, I would say limit 2 children per hero.  This would keep the numbers of champions from ballooning.  Also, give the children the choice of marrying non-royal champions.  This way, if I choose to keep my female daughter instead of marrying her away, I can.   When you choose to marry away a daughter, you should receive a bountiful dowry, gold or treaties.  Forget the grandchild randomly going to either grandparents faction, just stay with which ever they are born into.  Also, make the traits the child gets random, but weighted towards those of both parents.  So if daddy has powerful and mommy has swift, I am more likely to get one of those than others, but might end up with something unique.  

EDIT: Also, there is no reason why you couldn't marry away a Male child too.

Agreed except on the " I just don't think that they are interested in making the dynasty system work." part. I only say that because even though I've seen tons of other posts in other threads about bringing back the Dynasty System, I haven't really seen a concentrated effort to show the Devs how large the player base that wants to see dynasties return actually is. I also haven't really seen them say much about it except for Boogie showing us how to re-enable them in the XML even though they aren't complete yet. Admittedly I also I haven't kept up-to-date the last few months so they may have stated somewhere else they want them out and maybe I missed it.

Either way I think showing them just how many there are who want them, and who may not want them, could influence a decision on their part or at least get some more solid information out of them.

Very good input, Xia. Appreciate the response my friend.

Note: I tried messaging the Chief (Frogboy) to see if I can get some info out of him on the possible dynasty come-back. I can't promise he'll answer or say anything "official" but maybe we can get some general info out of him on whether or not we'll see them come back as a normal (non-modded) part of the game.

I read somewhere on the forum that there was an XML change to enable the dynasty system but there was one catch not all of the dynasty windows have been created yet so while it is functional it may not be as easy to manage given that some of the dynasty panels will be blank.

As such it is my guess that they plan on bringing it back at some point later on since they already have most of the code for it built into FE

I would tend to agree, but, we don't know for sure exactly. If the new design mandate for FE doesn't utilize Dynasties they may not put forth the effort to bring them in officially and it may be left to us modders to bring them into the game. Personally I think that would be a huge waste of what's been accomplished up till now, but I'm not the one in charge of the current design. Only Frogboy and Derek know for sure I think.

In short: I was a big fan of dynasties.

I do hope they stop making the kids rediculously overpowered and produced at insane rates, but other than that: please bring back marriage & children. It kind of made it feel like building a real dynasty out of nothing. And I also agree with the idea of allowing your kids to marry normal heroes as well - just as you could.

last I heard dynasties where planned to make a come back in the 'next' expansion, don't know any details as to what they're going to do with them though (other than they said they wanted to do them 'right').  I firmly believe they DO have a pretty good idea of how many of us want dynasties back being this has been something that seems to have been brought up many times since the initial take away of tha system.   I think I come up with some decent ideas sometimes but almost never on command so I'll prolly be posting here again later (after a few drinks when my mind really starts tickin)

Although I don't have any solid ideas of how to reimpliment dynasties in the game, I'd like to voice my support of them and would love to see them in an expansion for E:FE. (Along with Naval units and a separate Nature Sphere of Magic. :P)

I don't want to wait for an "Expansion" to FE to get them back though. I still remember when the Chief started talking about giving the buyers of Elemental a free game he said the next Two games Stardock did they'd give to the players for free. Somehow though I think we'll be paying for the expansion of FE. Mostly because the company needs to recoup some money, not because Brad would go back on what he said. I don't even think I'd want to hold him to the whole "two games" thing as it was only what he first mentioned when he was understandably upset and thinking what he could do for the fans of his company, and not so much on what the bottom line for that would mean later down the road.

As such I'm perfectly happy getting just FE for free and paying for it's expansion, but, that being said I don't want them to wait for the expansion to put in all the cool things I really want like the aspects that originally drew me to Elemental in the first place, Dynasties being one of those.

Imagine if they hold back on Dynasties, All the major tools and editors, larger maps that are supported without heavy modding, boats, and other spheres of magic or other things that were all part of Elemental that we had to begin with just to make us pay for them later down the road. As much as I understand the need for them to recoup some of the costs, that would kind of piss me off at the same time.

That's why I'd like to see as many of the things the players like and want as possible make it into FE, pre-expansion.

Dynasties aren't my top priority now, but otherwise I agree with Xia's 2nd paragraph in reply #1.

I, for one, never found the dynasty system very engaging.  It added zero strategic depth to the game, and was just annoying the way it popped out kids with the name of "Goofelbrod" or "Invetsibloghjoyuryal."

I have no interest in seeing this aspect of the game return unless it makes some kind of strategic impact on gameplay.

Dynasties were interesting, but if they are to be brought back, I guess we'd need permakilled heroes.

Not that it would be a bad thing, mind you.

Of course, for dynasties to actually work we'd need for all characters to be mortal and to age (and eventually kick the can), it would make for an interesting game, if somewhat frustrating, but... what if the child inherited some of the parent's traits and levels it had uppon reaching majority, with a lesser chance of a complete random trait, even as a Lvl 1 (call it education/emulation) but unlike WoM, let them not be parent clones

I agree the names got annoying. I would say getting more generals that you don't have to pay recruitment costs on is a big strategic impact on gameplay, that's just me though. I've played the FE beta every day since it's release and in every game I've played I didn't get anymore heroes after the 4th or 5th one. I didn't really try to either though.

Agreed on the permakill. In fact I mentioned that same thing in the thread about Heroes getting out of hand. I still think the Sovereign should be immortal though just as is now and as was intended in WoM.

ya, I certainly didn't like the age factor in ROTK.  Giving a hero a slightly larger chance to die in battle would solve the 'over population' with them I be thinkin.

I'm not missing dynasties at all. My vote woud be to ditch them. They work well in games like Crusader Kings where the game itself is more about politics. But I really don't see FE gains much by adding this.

Having said that, one idea I would find interesting would be that when marrying your race gets one of the bonuses from the spouses race. And possibly a random negative as well. This would make each game more random and different.

Dynasties were interesting, but pretty exploitable, and highly buggy even after several patches. I haven't personally missed them at all. One thing I would kind of like to see again is the roaming groups of heroes. I thought those were fun and made the game more interesting.

I was glad to see dynasties go, and have no interest in them returning.  The just don't fit in a game like this.  I have yet to see any suggestions that didn't make them feel like they were shoe-horned in, just because they sound like a neat idea.

Crusader Kings 2 is coming very soon, which is a much more appropriate game for dynasties.

I hate, hate, hate the idea that completely taking away a piece of content, rather than making it good, makes the game better.  Especially when the fixes would be pretty easy.  It doesn't have to be this major overhaul, it just needs some tweaks.  

I'm not too keen on taking out an aspect that was such a enjoyable part of Elemental either, especially when it does only need some minor tweaks to be a fun addition to FE. What I'm wondering now is where all the people who said they wanted Dynasties back in the other 30 or 40 comments I read yesterday and the day before are? With as many posts as I read saying "bring back Dynasties" I figured this thread would get a little more traffic.

Bringing back dynasties is a bad idea for FE. I might could see it in an expansion down the road, but I would rather the current features in the game get refined before adding in others. Dynasties were kind of fun, but they didn't really work well from a gameplay standpoint.

Let Stardock refine the AI for the current features and once finished they can focus in the AI that can handle a theoretical/possible "The Dynasty Strikes Back" expansion. Same for some possible, but higly unlikely, naval content in the "The Hate Boat" expansion.

I miss it and I understand when people say that it doesn't belong but... hell, it doesn't belong until someone actually makes it well and suddenly it's like "Why has no one ever done this before???".

If FE were to be as moddable as WoM was supposed to be before its release, at least players could try some stuff. I haven't checked FE moddability though and I'm not holding my breath for it.

I would love to see dynasties come back, because it would add another level or strategy and gameplay. Dynasties were a huge selling point of WoM for me, and people complaining about making the game more simple we are playing a 4X strategy game not an FPS... Why would you make a TBS more streamlined and dumbed down? That is just a silly statement.

The only real thing I see standing in the way of boats and naval combat right now is the size of the maps. A "Large" map in FE looks and feels (size wise) like a "Medium" map in WoM. For good naval combat you'd need two continents and a ocean or really large lake or inland sea. I wouldn't want to go through all the trouble of building boats just to sail two squares so I can get off the boat. Provided the maps were bigger naval combat could be fun I think.

To me that's not as much an issue as dynasties though as like Emperor_Nero above me, Dynasties were one of the big drawing points of Elemental to me in the first place. It was the only real mechanic that set Elemental aside from all the other fantasy war games before it. Even now when you go back and read the mostly dismal reviews of Elemental, one of the few good praises the game always got in a review had to do with the dynasty system. I would think that wouldn't be so soon forgotten.

Dynasties were removed for a good reason I agree with. I don't think it is because they don't want them at all, just as I would like to see them. But if you do too many things it becomes harder and harder to do any of them well. If Fallen Enchantress is a result of slimming it down to that, I don't want to see them undo it.