My suggestions for a more living world in FE

(neutral villages, travelling people, monsters building lairs, arctic/dessert/wasteland people)

from Stardock Forums

Hi,

I was (and still am) a big fan of Fall from Heaven II, so buying a game designed by Kael was inevitable. And I also love Fallen Enchantress (despite its lack of multiplayer and Hotseat) and will certainly get the next expansion. Creating my own fractions and playing against them is huge fun.

I have some suggestions, how this game could be made a bit more living and so more interesting:

- you could include neutral villages (like in the campaign) in random maps and scenarios, where you can sell and buy stuff (especially healing potions to cure permanent wounds) and send caravans to. Those villages can be conquered (or acquired through influence), but have a strong garrison.

- People traveling between cities (like caravans): not only gold could be exchanged through caravans, but also people. For example, when a city is at the borders of the country and threatened by monsters and enemies, people could start to flee from the city to safer places (and enemies could try to catch and enslave these people). This would add a new kind of fluctuation to the world (people fleeing from war, starvation, etc.) and make the player care more about his citizens (since you don't want your citizens to leave your kingdom/empire)

- Monsters building new lairs on neutral ground: When a monster lair is in the influence of a player, the monsters start to wander around. But why not allow the monsters to build new lairs, when they walk on neutral ground

- Some more ideas with terraforming: I'm missing some fraction traits for specific terrain: for example the traits arctic, dessert people or folks of the wasteland (you may only choose one of those traits; fractions with those traits could have some unique looks, like fur for arctic people). This fractions could found cities on those terrains (which shouldn't give much food and grow extremely slow, off course).

Sorry, if some of these ideas were already (and often) suggested.

Cheers,

Andreas

 

P.S. And one bug I've found: Once I was attacking a city of a computer enemy, who somehow had a boat in the city. I defeated the boat, but after that I wasn't able to end the turn and the game came to a halt

7,408 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I love the idea of neutral cities, and refugee units. 

On the refugees: some quests already acknowledge the idea of roaming people and refugees, could be more interesting if refugee units auto-spawn from conquered cities, and talking to them had a chance of initiating a quest. Or you could pay them gold or influence to become pioneers.

As far as new monster lairs, I like the idea of monsters making new lairs, or new lairs spawning over time - but not necessarily as an alternative to attacking cities. A dragon should toast anyone dumb enough to settle in its land. Even darklings aren't going to re-settle without a fight. 

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

I like the idea regarding neutral towns (and especially neutral things like inns, camps, etc.).  Sadly, playing the quest maps gives a more 'living world' feel than all of the rest of the game combined.  Why are there no permanent inns & towns?  Why are factions & monsters the only living things on the planet?  The random map generator should have a hundred permanent (or semi-permanent) locations to seed into the world that would simply be too small for any faction to bother capturing or destroying.  These locations might occasionally have: weapons, armor, magic items, food, information, fighting units, quests, etc. for the weary party of adventurers.  One of the things that I like best about the Quest Maps is that they make the world seem to be a living world instead of just a game.  [ping Brad: please give us some of these things to turn the game into a dynamic living world] :thumbsup:

Monsters building new lairs on neutral ground is an idea that should have been implemented long before this.  For example, if a wandering monster lasts for, say 150 turns, there would be an increasing percentage chance that it would build a new lair for itself and start spawning new wandering monsters.  This would possibly force players to make decisions about playing a little more aggressively in the early game instead of just building up education, economy and expansion.

I also like people traveling between cities.  This should be a more dynamic relationship between cities (and their building choices) than currently exists within the city build menu.

Sins of a Solar Empire II