Suggestions

Post here and discuss any suggestions you may have for putting into the game. One thing that I know I need is more stuff to spend growth points on.

OK:
-Racial traits, which affect gameplay. For each positive trait you get, there must be a corresponding drawback. You started this with magic potential, in making a race magic oriented, they don't have much access to technology. For example, a race with flight may be able to cross mountains easily, but go slower overall. These should be noted on the character sheet, and Imun has the final word on whether a particular trait is balanced.
-Gods should be able to do a special actions that can directly affect gameplay each turn, and not sit back and merely allocate growth points. For example, a god may wish to improve the defenses of a city, or stimulate its growth. If you do big actions, they may take multiple turns, and/or have a backlash, to be determined by Imun. Players should pm Imun to ask if an action will be game breaking. Of course, rule of cool and it being thematically aligned may reduce cost. Small flavor actions will be allowed. Minor actions that have a little effect might be allowed more than once in a turn.
-A technology potential in the character sheet. With increasing levels from low to high. Could do same with magic. Growth points could be allocated towards research, to improve technology or magic. And I propose having a magic technology level, which is indicative of how well members racially can control their magic. Can be increased with growth points, as their research improves.
-Air units, which can cross mountains and ocean easily. Requires a lot of technology/magic, and some growth points
COOL IDEA: An air city, which can move and land like a regular city. Can only be attacked by air. Can move. Requires more growth points, and a load of technology/magic. There might be members of a race that are aerial (like pixies) by nature, but that should have a corresponding drawback.
-Teleport gates: Creates a stable gate between two cities, allowing units to travel instantly between cities. Defending armies can move between cities. Requires some magic/ expenditure of growth points, and several turns. May be created between two cities of different races on agreement.
-Diplomats/Traders: cost 1 growth point. All they can do is allow your civ to visit other civs, and trade, or negotiate.

Might want to look at Erfworld (www.erfworld.com) webcomics for ideas on rules. A lot of the ideas you have, such as cities, troop transport, mages, have rulesets that are explained in the setting, and it functions like a game mechanicsverse.

sorry out of time!

I like the idea of the teleport gates, it would help trade oriented civilizations like mine (but warlords would also benefit),it would be nice to be able to make hidden ones (possibly a few tiles away from the true destination), but of course you would have to get there the normal way first.

-demigod/angel: powerful long lived being, possibly created from one of the creatures as an action from the god (I had sent you a pm on the matter, now that you are (hopefully) over your sickness I wish to hear from you soon. No big deal if it is impossible to do.)

eliotn wrote:

-Racial traits, which affect gameplay. For each positive trait you get, there must be a corresponding drawback. You started this with magic potential, in making a race magic oriented, they don't have much access to technology. For example, a race with flight may be able to cross mountains easily, but go slower overall. These should be noted on the character sheet, and Imun has the final word on whether a particular trait is balanced.

This sounds like a good idea. I would love to have something like this in there somewhere to make everything unique.

eliotn wrote:

-Gods should be able to do a special actions that can directly affect gameplay each turn, and not sit back and merely allocate growth points. For example, a god may wish to improve the defenses of a city, or stimulate its growth. If you do big actions, they may take multiple turns, and/or have a backlash, to be determined by Imun. Players should pm Imun to ask if an action will be game breaking. Of course, rule of cool and it being thematically aligned may reduce cost. Small flavor actions will be allowed. Minor actions that have a little effect might be allowed more than once in a turn.

This is already kind of allowed under miracles. Having more activeness might be something to consider. If you can think of an easy system like the growth points system for generic godly actions then I would be happy to have it put in.

eliotn wrote:

-A technology potential in the character sheet. With increasing levels from low to high. Could do same with magic. Growth points could be allocated towards research, to improve technology or magic. And I propose having a magic technology level, which is indicative of how well members racially can control their magic. Can be increased with growth points, as their research improves.

Magic and technology levels are pretty much inversely proportional as of right now. Having a system where the specific levels are known and can be used would be nice. If you can think of a couple ways this can be used besides your flying city below it will find it's way in.

eliotn wrote:

-Air units, which can cross mountains and ocean easily. Requires a lot of technology/magic, and some growth points

I was thinking of putting in a late-game option like that. Under the current system it would require a lot of growth points as well as a rare resource type that might only be found in one or two tiles on the map. Having a technology or magic level requirement would be cool too.

eliotn wrote:

COOL IDEA: An air city, which can move and land like a regular city. Can only be attacked by air. Can move. Requires more growth points, and a load of technology/magic. There might be members of a race that are aerial (like pixies) by nature, but that should have a corresponding drawback.

I had been thinking of nomadic cities for trillioneyes for a while and figured their main disadvantage would be a slower rate of growth point gathering. Other disadvantages would probably also necessary. I can't imagine anything like this being all that fast for example.

eliotn wrote:

-Teleport gates: Creates a stable gate between two cities, allowing units to travel instantly between cities. Defending armies can move between cities. Requires some magic/ expenditure of growth points, and several turns. May be created between two cities of different races on agreement.

Defiantly for magic oriented races. I think this might be a good idea mostly for stuff that's far away. Trade people might have a use for it as well.

eliotn wrote:

-Diplomats/Traders: cost 1 growth point. All they can do is allow your civ to visit other civs, and trade, or negotiate.

I rather like the idea of a trade unit. As of right now there's not a lot that can be traded though. Perhaps if we put in that magic and scientific knowledge stuff it could be more useful.

UsOurselvesandWe wrote:

I like the idea of the teleport gates, it would help trade oriented civilizations like mine (but warlords would also benefit),it would be nice to be able to make hidden ones (possibly a few tiles away from the true destination), but of course you would have to get there the normal way first.

Hidden ones? I like the way you think.

UsOurselvesandWe wrote:

-demigod/angel: powerful long lived being, possibly created from one of the creatures as an action from the god (I had sent you a pm on the matter, now that you are (hopefully) over your sickness I wish to hear from you soon. No big deal if it is impossible to do.)

I've thought long and hard about the possibility of a hero unit of some sort. My thoughts were that each race would be able to obtain one. I saw your pm and thought it sounded like a hero unit. Perhaps as one of the racial traits more hero units could be possible?


Here's an idea of my own that I had been thinking about:
Magic army unit. Composed of specialized military mages, this unit requires access to a special resource to train, but has a power that increases with you race's magical potential. The main reason I didn't put this up in the board was because it would make those without high magic potentials feel left out.

Heh, if this game gets deep enough and complicated enough, I may just have to program a video-game of it.

So would I use some amount of growth points, or am I able to continue her story without use of growth points.

Scout: fairly weak but quick unit, hard to track (maybe even invisible on the map) can meet up with and break away from armies (trained separately?)

Interdimensional storage between cities: would probably be very very expensive. And might actually be the same as linking all your cities with teleport gates so never mind.

I’ll keep thinking at the moment I seem to be stuck on reality warping.

I would say continue her story for now. Later on when more stuff is finalized we can remove growth points to pay for her if that's what we decide.

"This is already kind of allowed under miracles. Having more activeness might be something to consider. If you can think of an easy system like the growth points system for generic godly actions then I would be happy to have it put in."

Ok. Gods get a number of miracle points per turn. This growth can be static, or may be determined by factors such as number of worshipers.

Preforming a miracle that has no effect on the gameplay and merely for your civ's story, is just for flavor on your civ, or is a necessary requirement for the story (such as placing your outpost) is free.

Other actions may cost miracle points.

Ideas for possible generic godly actions (cost to be determined):
Give/Take Away growth points to a city.
Scout an area (either for faster transport (for mapping mountains) or to determine resources).
Influence combat.
Kill a non-combat unit/ construction.
Reduce the strength of a combat unit.
Provide a resource. Should cost more if it is a resource that is far away.
Teleport stuff. Teleporting minor trinkets may cost little or free, teleporting an army is going to be extremely costly.
Find out alternate ways to win (such as the elusive time travel victory). This information may be private.

Cost should be increased if it affects other civ's, as each god's domain is focused on their own civilization, and not other civilizations. Cost should also be increased if it is contrary to a god's domains (ex: a fire god calling on a flood to devistate a civ). Cost should conversely be reduced if it is aligned with a god's domains, or it follows rule of cool (Imun's decision).

Actions can be publically announced or made secret (accessible to Imun who can give it to any god that discovers it).

"Magic and technology levels are pretty much inversely proportional as of right now. Having a system where the specific levels are known and can be used would be nice. If you can think of a couple ways this can be used besides your flying city below it will find it's way in."

The level of technology of a civ should be defined. There could be a scale from Cavemen-esque to future (achron-style nanomachines, whatever). Growth points could be used to improve the latter.

Also, there should be a seperation between how many have access to magic within the civ and how advanced their magic is. I am confused as to whether Magic Potential refers to the former or latter, although I suspect its the former. Growth points can improve the latter, and a big divine miracle may improve the former.

"I had been thinking of nomadic cities for trillioneyes for a while and figured their main disadvantage would be a slower rate of growth point gathering. Other disadvantages would probably also necessary. I can't imagine anything like this being all that fast for example."

True. A city would probably move a few tiles per turn, possibly one for the flying city. A boat city would be interesting, but may require lots of wood.

"I rather like the idea of a trade unit. As of right now there's not a lot that can be traded though. Perhaps if we put in that magic and scientific knowledge stuff it could be more useful."

You could have trade give occasional growth point awards, or a constant modifier to both cities under the trade. Could be more if they are different races, and are far away. Of course, you need a way to send trade between cities. If traders regularly trade, they should not be important unless knowing their position is important (ex: an army wants to stop trade and siege the town).

"Here's an idea of my own that I had been thinking about:
Magic army unit. Composed of specialized military mages, this unit requires access to a special resource to train, but has a power that increases with you race's magical potential. The main reason I didn't put this up in the board was because it would make those without high magic potentials feel left out."

You could have technology increase the strength of all armies, because a fighting force with guns will beat fighting force with only sticks. Just please don't go the civilization route of having an axeman beat a tank. That irked me when watching a civ demo.

"
Heh, if this game gets deep enough and complicated enough, I may just have to program a video-game of it."

I was thinking about that too. Suprised you should mention that. Would be interesting to have a multiplayer game come out of this.

Be careful. I'm concerned that the more gaming abstractions like growth points we add, the harder it becomes to roleplay. We end up changing the roleplay to suit the game, rather than the other way around. This may be what you want, but in that case we don't need any characters at all and can just make it an abstract game like Risk.

This isn't a video game. We have someone in charge, and there's no reason why we can't just say "I attack x with y using Z strategy" and have him tell us the results.

Snowyowl wrote:

Be careful. I'm concerned that the more gaming abstractions like growth points we add, the harder it becomes to roleplay. We end up changing the roleplay to suit the game, rather than the other way around. This may be what you want, but in that case we don't need any characters at all and can just make it an abstract game like Risk.

This isn't a video game. We have someone in charge, and there's no reason why we can't just say "I attack x with y using Z strategy" and have him tell us the results.

All this is true. I think one of the main reasons I made this thread was for suggestions on new things to spend growth points on and new extra resource types to put on the map.

I like the idea of racial advantages with disadvantages. I think I want to stick that into the game. The others, not as much as that idea.

Not all the suggestions will be put into the game, but we can still make them and discuss them.

We need some sort of framework within which to play the game, this is what the growth point system and so one gives us. Even the best roleplaying game still has bits where you have to roll dice and various other rules.

Agreed. It's just a matter of finding the right balance.

"All this is true. I think one of the main reasons I made this thread was for suggestions on new things to spend growth points on and new extra resource types to put on the map."

Some ideas for that:

Additional ideas for resources:
horses - use them to build calvary, which can increase the speed of your units. Of course, some races might not be able to do this. Found in plains.
oil - use to build technology heavy improvements/structures. Found in deserts
some sort of magic crystal or the like - used to build magical structures, like teleport gates or floating cities. May be found in mountains.
gold - may be found in some mountains. May be used for wonders.

Additional ideas for units:
Prospectors - can scout an area for secret resources, or other hidden surprises. 1-2 GP
Defenses - You have especially well-prepared defenses for a city your size. Increase the strength of your city when it is being attacked. May require special resources.
Units that get a bonus/penalty for fighting in certain terrain, or this may be a racial trait.
Cavalry - your units have horses, and are slightly faster, requires horses and a few growth points to train.
Siege Engines - have increased military strength when attacking cities.
Wonders - like civilization wonders, may require special resources and many growth points. Gives your civ a special advantage. An endgame example is the discovery of time travel!

May have more ideas later. I need to post my actions!

Also, I suggest increasing the cost of settlers for players that have more cities/settlers.
The reason being that it will be easier to produce them once players have a few cities up.

Make turns begin and end at regular intervals. E.g. at midnight on Monday, Wenesday and Friday (in which time zone?). We need to be consistent here.

Snowyowl wrote:

Make turns begin and end at regular intervals. E.g. at midnight on Monday, Wenesday and Friday (in which time zone?). We need to be consistent here.

agreed

We could go for GMT as the time zone. At least it would be simple.