outposts » Forum Post by dgilman

Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2394

We've disabled having the monsters attacking them as it was incredibly tedious.

We are looking instead at having those outposts give you bonuses in their area of effect.

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Perhaps a compromise?

Allow monsters to attack them (but not destroy them). Have any bonus they provide be degraded by the ratio of current to maximum HP.

e.g. a theoretical 500 health outpost or Fort doing 5 damage and healing +5 hp for surrounding units.
at 100/500 health it would do 1 damage and heal +1 hp to surrounding units in AOE.

a theoretical disruptive, Nefarious Outpost at 50 HP, slowing enemies by 500% would reduce enemies to 1 move, die easily (the mage/trap-setting bandit in question runs away to safety) and take some time before repairs make it effective.

a theoretical Mage's outpost, doing 1 free magic attack every turn at 100% health would do 1 attack every 5 turns at 20% health.

Terraforming outposts:

Renewal Outpost healing 1 tile every 10 turns at 100% would heal every 20 turns at 50% health.

A Corrupting outpost, harvesting surrounding tiles every 10 turns, or spreading a blight outwards. Would effectively stop working if reduced to 0% health.

The main question would then be: how should they be healed/restore HP to reduce micromanagement? (e.g. passive for you, active for SK outposts. With spells/pioneer actions and Sovereign traits that modify it.)

Currently outposts are mini-cities with most functions disabled and a choice of only 6 buildings, 3 of which do nothing. So upgrading is currently a choice between attack, attack or attack... which have to be taken in turn so attack, then attack, then attack. It lacks intelligence, choice, thematic links, uniqueness, fun and soul.

I'd like it if each sovereign had an outpost upgrade tree with 10-20 options... that sounds a lot but really it's only 4 paths split between 3-5 levels. e.g. Attack, Defence, Special, Unique. To reduce work perhaps only have 1 unique and share the attack/defence/specials. If outposts had a maximum level (based on nearby cities/sovereign skills then you'd never max them out and wouldn't be able to have early-game maximised outposts.

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Mock-up of improved outposts. (more choices, several paths. Nice description with thematic context, fluff):

+1

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Thormodr

Join Date 09/2009

+11

Oooohhhh...I like those outposts. Very interesting!

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Well, when I saw Frogboy say:

"We've disabled having the monsters attacking them as it was incredibly tedious.

We are looking instead at having those outposts give you bonuses in their area of effect."

I felt compelled to do a mock-up. (Even if I think the current defensive line of upgrades can be salvaged rather than scrapped). I'm sure there are lots of other potential outposts... using ideas from Tower Defence games like Gemcraft you could have lots of interesting Tower/outpost effects:

Poison (any DoT). Preferably lingering for several turns after leaving AoE, possibly as a bonus for allying with Swamp neutrals.
Lightning (splash/chain elemental damage, fun particle effects. Useful against enemies immune to non-magic attacks),
Black/Blood-bound (greater effects based on number of attacks/kills/resources like 'ruthlessness'),
White/ Mana(pool)-bound (greater effects based on your current mana, and nice resources like 'hope'),
Mana stealing (each attacked enemy gives you power, more when attacking mages or magic troops),
Armour tearing (each hit debuffs the enemy, befuddles them or otherwise mods their stats). As well as lots of other ideas more loosely inspired by many games or even previous elemental games:
Amplifiers (makes magic stronger in AoE, perhaps lowering terraforming costs or increasing effects/rewards),
Dampeners (makes magic weaker in AoE, interferes with SK spells and provides resistance to hostile terraforming),
Consulates (spawns/attracts neutral NPCs, may offer quests),
Stables (increases moves, or recharges moves of armies in AoE - allowing for nice supply lines without the super-buff of roads x400% movement speed.)

...there are as many good ideas as there are fishes in the sea. Sometimes there are so many the shoal seems daunting, but each is tiny and harmless. It's up to the devs which little fish they like the look of.

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Currently outposts are mini-cities with most functions disabled and a choice of only 6 buildings, 3 of which do nothing. So upgrading is currently a choice between attack, attack or attack... which have to be taken in turn so attack, then attack, then attack. It lacks intelligence, choice, thematic links, uniqueness, fun and soul.

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Arslan1

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