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- Aug 5, 2009
- Messages
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The turns in the latest video looked lightning fast.
-
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Vapourware That Which Sleeps - Vaporware Strategy RP
- Thread starter Kem0sabe
- Start date
Kamelasa cult when? And, by the way. Game looks amazing, incline as fuck. I can bet my beer on it.
Lucky
Arcane
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2015
- Messages
- 672
I keep feeling conflicted before watching these, since I really want to see more of the game but also want to start my own playthrough knowing as little as possible. Watching this one made for a good preview, though, on how to play and what the game will be like. The UI looks really good. Sleek, informative and with a fitting aesthetic. That must have a taken an insane amount of work to get right. I'm also liking how the first three agents and possible turn length of their various actions naturally push the player towards choosing between what their starting location will be and start formulating schemes. Where to start and who to target. Maybe spread your attention with smaller plans, or invest in a big influence grab. There's tons of actual fun replayability there, if it works in practice. The lack of long turn-loading should help with this, since those won't be slowing down the player's decision making process.
Two questions to KingDinosaurGames: Firstly, you mentioned the current map-limit for the POIs being around 1000. Is that the planned limit or will it increase further? I’m guessing that you yourself won't need it that high, but I’m quietly hoping for some insane modder to recreate Middle-Earth or the Warhammer world with the modtools in great detail.
Secondly, I was digging around your forums a bit and found an interesting titbit about the art-assets for the Old Ones, saying that the art for the Old Ones we have seen so far reflects their weakened state at the start of the game, with their true form being different and seeing it dependent on how much of their power has been restored. Is that still planned? I hope so, because it sounds like a very cool visual touch to accompany your progress, while also making it feel like you're regaining your former splendour.
Not sure if it's your thing, but you can still get the game + beta from their website. The beta isn't out yet, but it'll likely be released quite a bit earlier than the full game and you can read the extra info on their beta forum. I prefer a full release, personally, so I'm still waiting despite backing the kickstarter.
Two questions to KingDinosaurGames: Firstly, you mentioned the current map-limit for the POIs being around 1000. Is that the planned limit or will it increase further? I’m guessing that you yourself won't need it that high, but I’m quietly hoping for some insane modder to recreate Middle-Earth or the Warhammer world with the modtools in great detail.
Secondly, I was digging around your forums a bit and found an interesting titbit about the art-assets for the Old Ones, saying that the art for the Old Ones we have seen so far reflects their weakened state at the start of the game, with their true form being different and seeing it dependent on how much of their power has been restored. Is that still planned? I hope so, because it sounds like a very cool visual touch to accompany your progress, while also making it feel like you're regaining your former splendour.
Words cannot describe the intense pleasure I felt masturbating to the videos in the previous few pages. Would pay top dollar for this in an instant.
Not sure if it's your thing, but you can still get the game + beta from their website. The beta isn't out yet, but it'll likely be released quite a bit earlier than the full game and you can read the extra info on their beta forum. I prefer a full release, personally, so I'm still waiting despite backing the kickstarter.
anus_pounder
Arcane
Noted. Tempting, but I'll wait till its released as well. I might or might not be broke atm.
Joined on the 4th of July
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2014
- Messages
- 1,563
Words cannot describe the intense pleasure I felt masturbating to the videos in the previous few pages. Would pay top dollar for this in an instant.
This should become an endorsement on their steam store page.
Man, waiting for this one is becoming hard
The chances of them not fucking it up and providing actual
looks more promising with each new video. Please do not fuck it up! I need to believe...
The chances of them not fucking it up and providing actual
looks more promising with each new video. Please do not fuck it up! I need to believe...
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2015
- Messages
- 182
So am I. Teehee.
That was the double entendre...
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2015
- Messages
- 182
Yeah, I just couldn't resist. 
But seriously, I totally agree with your post. This really does look like it could be one of the best games ever, and I'm becoming more and more nervous that I'm building up my expectations too much.
So there you have it, King Dinosaur. Don't break our tender hearts.
But seriously, I totally agree with your post. This really does look like it could be one of the best games ever, and I'm becoming more and more nervous that I'm building up my expectations too much.
So there you have it, King Dinosaur. Don't break our tender hearts.
Space Satan
Arcane
There is no release date set yet. The game is moving along slowly but steadily. The beta will probably be released in Q1 2016.
Lucky
Arcane
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2015
- Messages
- 672
I've looked around a bit for info that hadn't been posted yet and I found some nice bits that weren't part of the kickstarter updates. Some of it might be a bit dated by now, but there's still loads of good stuff about the mechanics and how the game'll play. The spoiler bits I did not read and I'd recommend against reading them if you plan on following the intended difficulty curve of the game, but I thought I'd post them for those who aren't bothered by that.
Old One events
War
More war
Even more war
Lizardmen suffer more attrition than usual when outside of jungles/swamps, and even more attrition when in cold areas. They CAN adapt but it requires the proper totemic leadership.
Rather frustrating few days dealing with unity "quirks" to put it mildly. However, let's talk about Breakthroughs and Opportunities.
Let's take a look at this battle to get so you can see how breakthroughs and opportunities appear in the battle. First let's talk about what is different from the prior battle you saw - the most obvious difference is that this is a battle between Elves and Orcs. This is a fairly typical Elven battle - with a commander in each row as well as heroes in the center corridor. Notice the icon with a "3" in it, this appears when heroes are present in the battle. While heroes are uncommon early in the game you'll see a plethora of them once the Alliance has formed. Heroes add small bonuses to the battle but are good at a) killing monsters/beasts and b) creating opportunities which we will go over shortly. You'll notice the "archer" icon on both of the forest corridors - elves always gain "Hidden Threat" in forest/hills corridors where their ranged value is better than their opponent. This modifier adds horror equal to their ranged value and is part of the reason elves are devastating in their home territories. You'll also notice that the Druid has invoked "Wrath of Nature" which grants a substantial shock and melee bonus each round but is only usable in "wild" POIs.
At the bottom corners you'll see the previous turns status updates - it looks like the Left Flank was previously threatened but must have been reinforced as it is no longer pulsating - and a hero was wounded last turn on the Elven Side. Also you can see in this battle that a "Legendary Hero" notice was posted as the druid here is relatively famous.
Lore: The "Ti'Qusar" is one of the three forms of "Crusade" the elves possess, it is essentially a "one off" military excursion with a limited goal. Most often it occurs in order to recover an ancient artifact from human hands though it can also be raised against you.
(I cheated to have control over both parties, normally you'd need to have influence over the commander to see breakthroughs/opportunities)
The right flank (bottom corridor) is pulsating red both on advantage and on the enemy unit indicating that the line is about to break, in addition you will see a pulsating sword icon which indicates a breakthrough. Clicking on the breakthrough brings you to....
Breakthroughs use the same detail menu as most challenge/opportunity screens but are actually designed a bit different. The breakthrough "type" is determined by the main unit type (Cavalry/Infantry/Beast/Flying/Golem/Dragon/etc..) which comes with two generic actions - additional actions are granted via the traits of the unit that accomplished the breakthrough. Here you see that a cavalry unit has broken through and has four actions to choose from. The top and bottom are the defaults while Sylvan Grace gives the ability to inflict damage to the reserve and Stormrider can grant a rather significant advantage to this corridor going forward. You can right-click to close the breakthrough and review information on the battlefield before returning to it. Right clicking on the actual icon will "pass" the event. Taking any action on a breakthrough will tend to inflict one wound on the Elite Unit.
Breakthroughs happen when the Breakthrough Value reaches 100 (this is invisible to the player) - every point of difference in Shock vs Discipline contributes 10 points and each point of Melee advantage grants 5. These points accrue over turns until the Breakthrough occurs.
On the other hand we have "Combat Opportunities" which are based on the same opportunity system used during challenges and function with the same logic : check what exists and "randomly" assign an appropriate opportunity. Opportunities range from melee battles between heroes to a friendship forged on battle. The central corridor has the Opportunity icon so if you click on that you will see...
Here we have a combat opportunity allowing the player to take potshots at soldiers, snipe the enemy commander of this corridor, or just shoot at the poor wounded orcs. If the hero had additional traits he/she may see additional possible actions. Opportunities can be relatively simple, as seen here, but some of them can change the tide of battle. Participants in these opportunities generally gain significant fame from their exploits.
Opportunities are one of the "random" elements of the game and while I generally hate randomness in game design we decided it made sense given the context of the actions (beneath the Fog of War). Part of how we mitigated the randomness, or perhaps embraced it, was by how we setup the opportunity chance. Opportunity chance is determined by heroes present, commanders present, varieties of units present, spells/effects - each of these categories adds to the total but with diminishing returns PER CATEGORY - meaning that the 10th hero in the battle will add significantly less than the 1st hero added. These means that the more random elements going into the battle the greater the chance of an "Opportunity."
Navies
Planar problems
Anecdote
Eventually it works so now the Guildleader will by default push the Deep One tagged trade good so it begins to arrive everywhere he has access to - featuring the good at a feast of nobles gets it upgraded from Sundry to Delicacy which means nobility will start partaking. Meanwhile I've begun systematically shutting down other Merchant Guilds so that our fishy leader is getting more and more access to important POIs, and I've also been killing any Druids (food purification) and Eldritch-affiliated heroes I can find. More and more agents are required to mollify the Deep Ones who are just getting far too excited about their successes.
Time passes and maybe 50% of the rulers of the world are at some stage of infection - at this point the success of the plan reaches its peak. Finally a sage I miss figures out what is going on, awareness spreads, the Deep Ones rise with froggy doom, and the world descends into a series of purges and paranoia that create modifiers for hundreds of turns to come. Didn't finish that game (I rarely do unless testing endgame elements) but I consider that a fitting endpoint.
Dwarf spoilers
Elf spoilers
Lizardmen spoilers
I particularly like how Sisyphus will allow for some real moustache-twirling villainy. Killing mentors, wrecking hometowns, riling up the populace, then rubbing in the heroes' face how they couldn't save anyone and how everyone hates them. Most of the Old Ones seem more distant and uncaring when it comes to lesser beings, so having one that lets you play as someone's nemesis is a nice change of pace.
Old One events
First things first - people were asking about showing regional information as part of the Scenario Select so I wanted to give a sample of how that works.
We didn't want to go full-on descriptive mode, so the brief summary gives just a brief description of the area (and highlights it on the map) - clicking on a particular nation will give you a description of the current state of affairs and a timeline. Clicking on a notable (which are generally Kings and Champions) will give you their actual character screen but also a summary of their desires and why they are set that way from a thematic perspective. This way people people can get as much or as little information as they want from the Scenario Select screen.
Let's take a look at some of the Old One Event screens since we're finished with all of these except for Seraph and Moloch. These are a BIG deal because the Old One screens are generally unique - whereas most "events" or "challenges" all use standardized screens these have to be designed special. They come in two forms so we'll take a look at where they are at - the smaller version which generally means you need to look at the map to make decisions and the full-screen versions for more "dramatic" events - these are usually punctuated by special effects.
This is Azlan's Core ability, Night Whispers, which lets him sink his dreamy tentacles into individuals of your choice throughout the world. Clicking on the ability will pop up this menu showing you everyone you have and, if possible, if you want to add another (this is limited by how awake you are). It shows where you've placed each of the lucky notables and you can click on them to change it (though this gives some lag time where nothing happens). The description in the middle is the changing state of the Dreamlands, the Carcosan Winds draw travelers to the Carcosa danger in the Dreamlands which doesn't effect these dreamers. You can also eventually drag people directly into the Dreamlands though this comes much later into the game and also can backfire, as the Dreamlands has its own dangers much like the Underworld - your Notable may encounter a beneficial entity or even be saved by his God (if his God resides in the Dreamlands), though a more common result is they come back wonderfully insane. Don't drag in anyone too strong as Heroes can hunt you down in the Dreamlands and put an end to you in your home town (with difficulty). More normally you'll be sending people to one of the more appropriately themed areas... such as...
The Nightmare Plains - overtime this area will slowly make the target more cowardly, the higher their willpower the longer it takes. If they have some particular traits or protection it takes even longer. However, over time an Opportunity will eventually occur (this screen) which lets you either add or remove a Trait or use one of the abilities you have gained. In this example you could add Afraid of the Dark, for instance, which makes the Hero unlikely to go adventuring into Ruins or perhaps use the ability Recurring Nightmare (an ability only useable if they are in the Nightmare Plains) which gives them a penalty to all of their stats for 10 turns.
As usual, mouseover anything for a tooltip and click on a Notable/Agent/Hero to get their box of information.
As for a "full-screen" Old One event:
This is a sample of one of Sisyphus' taunting abilities against the Chosen One - each of the lines you see can be clicked on to be adjusted to a new declaration which plays upon a particular fear or desire of the Chosen One - the more you know the Chosen One the more effective you can be (also you gain lines as you awaken and as the Chosen One gains corruption). Generally you use this more passive ability along with Sisyphus' other strengths to deride the Chosen One and target his weaknesses until he gains sufficient Corruption to begin to sway him to your side.
So you can see "False Prophet" checks the number of failed Prophecy Quests the Chosen One has been on, "you walk a trail of Ashe" shows places that 'Like' the Chosen One that you have either destroyed or done something terrible too (bonus points for burning down the Chosen One's home village), "filled with betrayal and tears" shows the friends you've killed of his, "with bent back and broken spirit" is if he is wounded, and "ungrateful" shows nations that hate the Chosen One.
The background is composed of a texture reflecting the power of the Chosen One on the right versus the Old One - in this case it is fairly muddled. We're still looking to get a better base for the descriptive text, but this is how the Old One full screen event will look going into Beta.
Our hyperlinked in-game help menu inspired by the Civopedia. Not much to say here except we're adding hyperlinks as we go to make the game more accessible (since it's pretty daunting right now to jump into).
We didn't want to go full-on descriptive mode, so the brief summary gives just a brief description of the area (and highlights it on the map) - clicking on a particular nation will give you a description of the current state of affairs and a timeline. Clicking on a notable (which are generally Kings and Champions) will give you their actual character screen but also a summary of their desires and why they are set that way from a thematic perspective. This way people people can get as much or as little information as they want from the Scenario Select screen.
Let's take a look at some of the Old One Event screens since we're finished with all of these except for Seraph and Moloch. These are a BIG deal because the Old One screens are generally unique - whereas most "events" or "challenges" all use standardized screens these have to be designed special. They come in two forms so we'll take a look at where they are at - the smaller version which generally means you need to look at the map to make decisions and the full-screen versions for more "dramatic" events - these are usually punctuated by special effects.
This is Azlan's Core ability, Night Whispers, which lets him sink his dreamy tentacles into individuals of your choice throughout the world. Clicking on the ability will pop up this menu showing you everyone you have and, if possible, if you want to add another (this is limited by how awake you are). It shows where you've placed each of the lucky notables and you can click on them to change it (though this gives some lag time where nothing happens). The description in the middle is the changing state of the Dreamlands, the Carcosan Winds draw travelers to the Carcosa danger in the Dreamlands which doesn't effect these dreamers. You can also eventually drag people directly into the Dreamlands though this comes much later into the game and also can backfire, as the Dreamlands has its own dangers much like the Underworld - your Notable may encounter a beneficial entity or even be saved by his God (if his God resides in the Dreamlands), though a more common result is they come back wonderfully insane. Don't drag in anyone too strong as Heroes can hunt you down in the Dreamlands and put an end to you in your home town (with difficulty). More normally you'll be sending people to one of the more appropriately themed areas... such as...
The Nightmare Plains - overtime this area will slowly make the target more cowardly, the higher their willpower the longer it takes. If they have some particular traits or protection it takes even longer. However, over time an Opportunity will eventually occur (this screen) which lets you either add or remove a Trait or use one of the abilities you have gained. In this example you could add Afraid of the Dark, for instance, which makes the Hero unlikely to go adventuring into Ruins or perhaps use the ability Recurring Nightmare (an ability only useable if they are in the Nightmare Plains) which gives them a penalty to all of their stats for 10 turns.
As usual, mouseover anything for a tooltip and click on a Notable/Agent/Hero to get their box of information.
As for a "full-screen" Old One event:
This is a sample of one of Sisyphus' taunting abilities against the Chosen One - each of the lines you see can be clicked on to be adjusted to a new declaration which plays upon a particular fear or desire of the Chosen One - the more you know the Chosen One the more effective you can be (also you gain lines as you awaken and as the Chosen One gains corruption). Generally you use this more passive ability along with Sisyphus' other strengths to deride the Chosen One and target his weaknesses until he gains sufficient Corruption to begin to sway him to your side.
So you can see "False Prophet" checks the number of failed Prophecy Quests the Chosen One has been on, "you walk a trail of Ashe" shows places that 'Like' the Chosen One that you have either destroyed or done something terrible too (bonus points for burning down the Chosen One's home village), "filled with betrayal and tears" shows the friends you've killed of his, "with bent back and broken spirit" is if he is wounded, and "ungrateful" shows nations that hate the Chosen One.
The background is composed of a texture reflecting the power of the Chosen One on the right versus the Old One - in this case it is fairly muddled. We're still looking to get a better base for the descriptive text, but this is how the Old One full screen event will look going into Beta.
Our hyperlinked in-game help menu inspired by the Civopedia. Not much to say here except we're adding hyperlinks as we go to make the game more accessible (since it's pretty daunting right now to jump into).
War
Warfare
Though war in That Which Sleeps is primarily about the preparation and less so the battle itself it still always comes down to battle in the end. Let's start our discussion by taking a look at the most common situation when it comes to warfare, a battle that you have nothing to do with.
Here you see a battle screen absent any controlling influence from the player. We obfuscate most of the information for combat and present it through both tooltips and clicks to additional menus depending on the level of infiltration you have over the concerned parties. At the most basic level you may not even be able to see the names of the Elite Units present in the battle whereas if you had infiltrated one of the Commanders you could not only see all of the information but also influence the strategies being utilized in the current battle. Another aspect of display is the "concealment" of default conditions - meaning that we highlight crises as opposed to dump the entirety of information. A corridor with crumbling morale will pulse, if a breakthrough is likely to come soon then the advantage icon will be pulsating. Any player wishing more information displayed by default can enable it in the settings and grids with the numerical values are displayed next to the relevant section. Enough about what you "could" do, let's talk about the battle and how it resolves.
Battles (in war) take place ON a POI over the course of many turns, this is much different than most strategy games which tend to have either battle as a part of movement or immediate resolution. We'll talk a lot more about the strategic implications of this (supply/flanking/pinning) later on when we show movement on the map but for now the important aspect is the layout of the battlefield. Depending on the POI you'll find from 1 to 3 battle corridors, generally representing the center and flanks. These can have different terrain types that vastly impact the battle. In the screenshot shown you have two "plains" and a "ford" - plains allow 3 elite units each and are ideal for fast moving units like cavalry. Fords on the other hand allow only a single elite unit (+ flying units) each and give a substantial bonus to an unflanked defender.
Armies will by default split their forces to cover all possible corridors, while multi-national armies will assign separate armies to each flank. In the case of attacks from multiple sides the defending force will have multiple concurrent battles and need to select from its reserve which battles to assign its forces to.
Their are a lot of calculations involved to determine who is winning in each corridor but you will always have the at-a-glance simplified value representing if the attacker or defender presumably has the advantage. Now this number is not necessarily accurate but it generally reflects a multiplier (10 losses to 1) given an exact exchange in battle. However their are many smaller factors that can derail that as well as some fundamental uncertainty.
Each corridor has a tactic being employed which is represented by the icon next to the advantage icon on the corridor. The purple axe that the orcs so greatly favor represents "Total Assault" which is essentially human wave tactics (orc wave?) - it will reward you greatly if you break the enemy lines but if you fail to do so you will take much greater casualties. The human kingdom on the other hand is Defending on both flanks and Skirmishing on the ford. There are a total of six tactics and proper selection can save or lose a battle though the choice is often weighted in favor of strategic concerns. Often you'll want to stall the enemy army and choose all defense even if you could deal more casualties with a different tactic. Corridors are also capable of being affected by rituals, spells, and even some Old One powers that will alter the conditions of combat there.
Commanders will take charge of a corridor when possible, the better their skills the more likely they are to achieve a breakthrough or combat opportunity. Command directly adds to breakthrough chances and their are many traits that add to particular statistics or even augment breakthrough results. Elite Units deserve an entire post of their own, but are the great equalizer of That Which Sleeps. Deploying an Elite Unit always come with the risk of its injury (they take a long time to replace) but their abilities can turn the tide of battle. In the picture above we have Orc Champions deployed against Crusaders and Heavy Infantry. Orc Champions are your standard line-breakers for the orcs - they have a bonus to cracking mundane infantry units and are your best hope at winning a basic battle. However, Heavy Infantry by default cancel any anti-infantry abilities neutralizing them. Meanwhile the crusaders, outside of giving a sizeable bonus to attack, provide the status Zeal which causes half of your wounded each round to instead return to combat. Good statuses are shown at the top of a corridor, negative statuses at the bottom. Speaking of negative statuses, at the bottom you can see the the Warg Riders have done a number on that flank - the condition you see is "In the Wake of Beasts" which comes into effect if they break a line, it renders the line permanently broken essentially turning that corridor into a melee-only combat zone. Very useful, but beasts are weak to plenty of Elites as well as heroes and effects like fire.
Battle continues until one side retreats (not a bad result) or is routed (generally terrible for the routed army) - you increase your chance of routing the enemy if you take out their flanks and accomplish a double envelopment (much more likely if the enemy center is aggressively attacking). Armies can retreat behind the walls of cities and castles requiring a siege which we will go over in another post.
One big thing that we haven't really discussed is breakthroughs and combat opportunities. Breakthroughs result when you have managed to break through the lines of the enemy army - this will often "reward" you with the ability to either apply pressure to another corridor, attack their reserves, or perform an action special to that elite (for instance if you cause a breakthrough with an Assassin tagged Elite Unit you will have the opportunity to eliminate the enemy commander). Certain units can almost always force a breakthrough but these are generally your more difficult units to acquire and also each time you deploy an Elite the AI will track its usage to determine its own training and recruitment needs.
One last thing before we stop is what you "aren't seeing". As you know That Which Sleeps is a game that creates some strange situations, like when you control both armies in a battle. For that reason there is no single list of actions - everything is tied to active context. The area at the bottom of the menu by default shows a brief summary of the battle (or expectation), but when you click on a commander, elite, army, or hero you control/infiltrate you will see a list of actions at the bottom. We'll be going over the many ways you can sabotage a battle in one of our posts.
Though war in That Which Sleeps is primarily about the preparation and less so the battle itself it still always comes down to battle in the end. Let's start our discussion by taking a look at the most common situation when it comes to warfare, a battle that you have nothing to do with.
Here you see a battle screen absent any controlling influence from the player. We obfuscate most of the information for combat and present it through both tooltips and clicks to additional menus depending on the level of infiltration you have over the concerned parties. At the most basic level you may not even be able to see the names of the Elite Units present in the battle whereas if you had infiltrated one of the Commanders you could not only see all of the information but also influence the strategies being utilized in the current battle. Another aspect of display is the "concealment" of default conditions - meaning that we highlight crises as opposed to dump the entirety of information. A corridor with crumbling morale will pulse, if a breakthrough is likely to come soon then the advantage icon will be pulsating. Any player wishing more information displayed by default can enable it in the settings and grids with the numerical values are displayed next to the relevant section. Enough about what you "could" do, let's talk about the battle and how it resolves.
Battles (in war) take place ON a POI over the course of many turns, this is much different than most strategy games which tend to have either battle as a part of movement or immediate resolution. We'll talk a lot more about the strategic implications of this (supply/flanking/pinning) later on when we show movement on the map but for now the important aspect is the layout of the battlefield. Depending on the POI you'll find from 1 to 3 battle corridors, generally representing the center and flanks. These can have different terrain types that vastly impact the battle. In the screenshot shown you have two "plains" and a "ford" - plains allow 3 elite units each and are ideal for fast moving units like cavalry. Fords on the other hand allow only a single elite unit (+ flying units) each and give a substantial bonus to an unflanked defender.
Armies will by default split their forces to cover all possible corridors, while multi-national armies will assign separate armies to each flank. In the case of attacks from multiple sides the defending force will have multiple concurrent battles and need to select from its reserve which battles to assign its forces to.
Their are a lot of calculations involved to determine who is winning in each corridor but you will always have the at-a-glance simplified value representing if the attacker or defender presumably has the advantage. Now this number is not necessarily accurate but it generally reflects a multiplier (10 losses to 1) given an exact exchange in battle. However their are many smaller factors that can derail that as well as some fundamental uncertainty.
Each corridor has a tactic being employed which is represented by the icon next to the advantage icon on the corridor. The purple axe that the orcs so greatly favor represents "Total Assault" which is essentially human wave tactics (orc wave?) - it will reward you greatly if you break the enemy lines but if you fail to do so you will take much greater casualties. The human kingdom on the other hand is Defending on both flanks and Skirmishing on the ford. There are a total of six tactics and proper selection can save or lose a battle though the choice is often weighted in favor of strategic concerns. Often you'll want to stall the enemy army and choose all defense even if you could deal more casualties with a different tactic. Corridors are also capable of being affected by rituals, spells, and even some Old One powers that will alter the conditions of combat there.
Commanders will take charge of a corridor when possible, the better their skills the more likely they are to achieve a breakthrough or combat opportunity. Command directly adds to breakthrough chances and their are many traits that add to particular statistics or even augment breakthrough results. Elite Units deserve an entire post of their own, but are the great equalizer of That Which Sleeps. Deploying an Elite Unit always come with the risk of its injury (they take a long time to replace) but their abilities can turn the tide of battle. In the picture above we have Orc Champions deployed against Crusaders and Heavy Infantry. Orc Champions are your standard line-breakers for the orcs - they have a bonus to cracking mundane infantry units and are your best hope at winning a basic battle. However, Heavy Infantry by default cancel any anti-infantry abilities neutralizing them. Meanwhile the crusaders, outside of giving a sizeable bonus to attack, provide the status Zeal which causes half of your wounded each round to instead return to combat. Good statuses are shown at the top of a corridor, negative statuses at the bottom. Speaking of negative statuses, at the bottom you can see the the Warg Riders have done a number on that flank - the condition you see is "In the Wake of Beasts" which comes into effect if they break a line, it renders the line permanently broken essentially turning that corridor into a melee-only combat zone. Very useful, but beasts are weak to plenty of Elites as well as heroes and effects like fire.
Battle continues until one side retreats (not a bad result) or is routed (generally terrible for the routed army) - you increase your chance of routing the enemy if you take out their flanks and accomplish a double envelopment (much more likely if the enemy center is aggressively attacking). Armies can retreat behind the walls of cities and castles requiring a siege which we will go over in another post.
One big thing that we haven't really discussed is breakthroughs and combat opportunities. Breakthroughs result when you have managed to break through the lines of the enemy army - this will often "reward" you with the ability to either apply pressure to another corridor, attack their reserves, or perform an action special to that elite (for instance if you cause a breakthrough with an Assassin tagged Elite Unit you will have the opportunity to eliminate the enemy commander). Certain units can almost always force a breakthrough but these are generally your more difficult units to acquire and also each time you deploy an Elite the AI will track its usage to determine its own training and recruitment needs.
One last thing before we stop is what you "aren't seeing". As you know That Which Sleeps is a game that creates some strange situations, like when you control both armies in a battle. For that reason there is no single list of actions - everything is tied to active context. The area at the bottom of the menu by default shows a brief summary of the battle (or expectation), but when you click on a commander, elite, army, or hero you control/infiltrate you will see a list of actions at the bottom. We'll be going over the many ways you can sabotage a battle in one of our posts.
More war
War... War Keeps Changing
The earliest prototypes for That Which Sleeps involved little more than a armies clashing while heroes and agents battled it out over quests. In this earliest incarnation our most direct influences were evident - battles were strategically derived from various Card Driven Wargames like Successors or Here I Stand and the battles were simple numeric affairs taken from War of the Rings. It was never our intent to keep the mechanics this streamlined but it was an important place to start. We wanted to capture the elegance of the innovations that recent board game design had brought to strategy games while also reintroducing the advantages of having a computer handling a complex backend. It seems that many modern designers trying to bring boardgame mechanics and concepts back to the PC were hindering themselves by migrating Cards, Decks, symbols, and other physical components literally back to PC design. Our first step away from those limitations was to introduce greater granularity by asking ourselves what components would we "also" track in these games that we have enjoyed. Things like exact numbers, wounded troops, experience, and complex chains of events were immediate responses and we used these list of must haves to create dynamic displays incorporating the best of the themes and mechanics these games had to offer while including far more variety both within existing mechanics but also with a new variety of supporting mechanics.
Introducing new mechanics always threatens to bloat the design and lose the "magic" of the simple elegant design so we adopted a lot of rapid prototyping measures so that we could see what distracted from the game rather than added to it. It was always important to us that the "battle" supported the greater strategic elements as opposed to being a centerpiece - while we have added a a lot of depth to the system we always ensured that it was properly covered in application and usage by the AI and with copious "rolled up" feedback to the player. We also made use of the unique "permissions" based system (which we call Infiltration) that dictates what a player can actually do in a given situation to ensure that player involvement in a war can range from hearing distantly of combat, to an agent wandering by the battlefield to make mischief, all the way to commanding both armies as well as the individual unit commanders. This allowed us to add even more optional complexity to the game with the understanding that 90% of the time your exposure to these mechanics will be limited so that it doesn't slow down the game.
The Mask of Command
All of this work means little if the AI can't back it up. We've spent a lot of time dealing with individual commander personalities and ensuring that they have plenty of opportunities to exercise their will so that you can reliably predict and act upon the behavior of a known commander. In order to do this we took two measures. The first was to ensure a chain of command AI worked properly - although we are not anything even close to a war game we make use of the same types of AI structures found in more serious entries in the genre, namely ensuring that we have Front-based AIs who prosecute wars based on their personality and command and that they can contain subsidiary AIs under them. The second was to tie the effectiveness of the army, both strategically and tactically, to personality as much as skill. Unit deployment, approach to campaigns, and even army composition itself can be determined by temperamental commanders. Lure a bold commander away from his defensive position with the promise of glory or prey on the fears of a paranoid leader to strand his subordinate without reinforcements - you'll come to know the commanders as you play against them.
Commanders adapt based on their command value allowing them to override their personalities just as skilled kings deny their own desires. However, in order to ensure that repeated stratagems continue to defeat the less skilled commanders we introduced a concept called "Respect" (which is actually termed Caution in-game itself) - this represents a commanders growing awareness that his foe is simply better than he is. This value spreads the same as rumors and clues so that as your ever victorious armies continually outmaneuver the commanders of the world they will begin to be wary of you. Caution however can only restrain truly passionate commanders for so long and they will be struck with will damage as they chaff against their instincts. Skilled commanders, on the other hand, are gifted with adaptive strategies beyond what is generally available. They are capable of disseminating these actions to their contemporaries in order to allow their less skilled brethren to counter yours, or others, tactics.
Personality and skill determine which of the available strategies a commander will employ when waging campaigns, what actions they will take both in victory and defeat, as well as a variety of smaller actions. Much like Ethos can be used to constrain individual decisions Doctrines can be adopted to standardize commanders though imposing such standardization on a nation requires sufficiently strong political will. In addition to constraint the pool of actions can also be expanded, often with high value actions that will trump the standard types. One of the most common methods of expanding available actions is accomplished through Desperation which allows the commanders to take more risky, desperate actions that might normally fall outside their comfort zone. Other actions are culturally determined or by the particular specializations that a nation has adopted. Not all of these are bad for you - while many of these strategies could be as easily deployed against you as against their neighbor there are some that are almost always to your benefit.
The Ascent to Irrelevance
It was important to us that the game always emphasizes the asymmetric nature as it was originally envisioned. Doing this means that heroes maintain a unique niche in the world in that they interact directly with your schemes, with modifiers, and can tackle the quests and campaigns that can shape the layout of the world. All the way at the other end you have the true policy makers of the world, Kings and Commanders - with armies that can completely undo all the hard, subtle work of either a hero or agent by simply burning a POI to the ground. This element of "staying beneath the eyes of Kings" defines at least 50% and up to 100% of the gameplay depending on your strategy, but their blunt strength is an imperfect tool and they lack means to directly interact with the underpinnings of the world as heroes can.
This leads us to a frequently asked question "Is X still a hero?" or "Can Y be a hero as well?".A big part of the game is "distraction" and if you have been following our AI discussions you know that Kings and other rulers have a value that determines how often they take a "meaningful" action - it is assumed that the rest of their time is spent in typical leadenly irrelevance such as beaurecratic measures or enjoying the perks of being at the top of the food chain. A hero that rises to a position of rulership "sacrifices" the constant movement and flexibility of their previous life in order to now have a wider range of actions. The danger to you is that this hero brings with him the knowledge and friendships attained in their prior life, but if their ignorance and isolation overwhelms that advantage you end up with a somewhat neutralized foe. On the other hand you have Commanders and Kings who may want to take care of issues personally - any Person can "descend" and become a hero temporarily though this often comes with a hit to their reputation, not to mention the political instability their disappearance can cause. They cannot simply QUEST in the location they are at as long as they remain in their position, they do need to "step down" and adventure first. However, certain challenges can cause them to react as if they were heroes which can lead to them being in proper combat or overcoming dangers.
Cold Wars
In addition to evolving the data that flows into wars we also evolved the mechanics and methods of war. Outside of your standard combat you'll find a few extra types of combat.
Siege - Siege battles involve holing up behind some walls and hoping to outlast your opponent. Both sides take attrition and the attacker can assault the walls at great disadvantage.
Raids - A notable takes charge of a small force and passes stealthily through multiple POIs before raiding a particular POI. Raids can be generic to cause damage or can seize resources or even smash into cities to steal individuals, relics, or artifacts.
Skirmishes - Whenever two neutral or hostile armies are adjacent to one another then they may skirmish each turn - generally just a simple exchange of enhanced attrition values though occasionally a more serious incident can spring up even leading to an instantaneous engagement.
We'll be going over some of these types in the ensuing week.
The earliest prototypes for That Which Sleeps involved little more than a armies clashing while heroes and agents battled it out over quests. In this earliest incarnation our most direct influences were evident - battles were strategically derived from various Card Driven Wargames like Successors or Here I Stand and the battles were simple numeric affairs taken from War of the Rings. It was never our intent to keep the mechanics this streamlined but it was an important place to start. We wanted to capture the elegance of the innovations that recent board game design had brought to strategy games while also reintroducing the advantages of having a computer handling a complex backend. It seems that many modern designers trying to bring boardgame mechanics and concepts back to the PC were hindering themselves by migrating Cards, Decks, symbols, and other physical components literally back to PC design. Our first step away from those limitations was to introduce greater granularity by asking ourselves what components would we "also" track in these games that we have enjoyed. Things like exact numbers, wounded troops, experience, and complex chains of events were immediate responses and we used these list of must haves to create dynamic displays incorporating the best of the themes and mechanics these games had to offer while including far more variety both within existing mechanics but also with a new variety of supporting mechanics.
Introducing new mechanics always threatens to bloat the design and lose the "magic" of the simple elegant design so we adopted a lot of rapid prototyping measures so that we could see what distracted from the game rather than added to it. It was always important to us that the "battle" supported the greater strategic elements as opposed to being a centerpiece - while we have added a a lot of depth to the system we always ensured that it was properly covered in application and usage by the AI and with copious "rolled up" feedback to the player. We also made use of the unique "permissions" based system (which we call Infiltration) that dictates what a player can actually do in a given situation to ensure that player involvement in a war can range from hearing distantly of combat, to an agent wandering by the battlefield to make mischief, all the way to commanding both armies as well as the individual unit commanders. This allowed us to add even more optional complexity to the game with the understanding that 90% of the time your exposure to these mechanics will be limited so that it doesn't slow down the game.
The Mask of Command
All of this work means little if the AI can't back it up. We've spent a lot of time dealing with individual commander personalities and ensuring that they have plenty of opportunities to exercise their will so that you can reliably predict and act upon the behavior of a known commander. In order to do this we took two measures. The first was to ensure a chain of command AI worked properly - although we are not anything even close to a war game we make use of the same types of AI structures found in more serious entries in the genre, namely ensuring that we have Front-based AIs who prosecute wars based on their personality and command and that they can contain subsidiary AIs under them. The second was to tie the effectiveness of the army, both strategically and tactically, to personality as much as skill. Unit deployment, approach to campaigns, and even army composition itself can be determined by temperamental commanders. Lure a bold commander away from his defensive position with the promise of glory or prey on the fears of a paranoid leader to strand his subordinate without reinforcements - you'll come to know the commanders as you play against them.
Commanders adapt based on their command value allowing them to override their personalities just as skilled kings deny their own desires. However, in order to ensure that repeated stratagems continue to defeat the less skilled commanders we introduced a concept called "Respect" (which is actually termed Caution in-game itself) - this represents a commanders growing awareness that his foe is simply better than he is. This value spreads the same as rumors and clues so that as your ever victorious armies continually outmaneuver the commanders of the world they will begin to be wary of you. Caution however can only restrain truly passionate commanders for so long and they will be struck with will damage as they chaff against their instincts. Skilled commanders, on the other hand, are gifted with adaptive strategies beyond what is generally available. They are capable of disseminating these actions to their contemporaries in order to allow their less skilled brethren to counter yours, or others, tactics.
Personality and skill determine which of the available strategies a commander will employ when waging campaigns, what actions they will take both in victory and defeat, as well as a variety of smaller actions. Much like Ethos can be used to constrain individual decisions Doctrines can be adopted to standardize commanders though imposing such standardization on a nation requires sufficiently strong political will. In addition to constraint the pool of actions can also be expanded, often with high value actions that will trump the standard types. One of the most common methods of expanding available actions is accomplished through Desperation which allows the commanders to take more risky, desperate actions that might normally fall outside their comfort zone. Other actions are culturally determined or by the particular specializations that a nation has adopted. Not all of these are bad for you - while many of these strategies could be as easily deployed against you as against their neighbor there are some that are almost always to your benefit.
The Ascent to Irrelevance
It was important to us that the game always emphasizes the asymmetric nature as it was originally envisioned. Doing this means that heroes maintain a unique niche in the world in that they interact directly with your schemes, with modifiers, and can tackle the quests and campaigns that can shape the layout of the world. All the way at the other end you have the true policy makers of the world, Kings and Commanders - with armies that can completely undo all the hard, subtle work of either a hero or agent by simply burning a POI to the ground. This element of "staying beneath the eyes of Kings" defines at least 50% and up to 100% of the gameplay depending on your strategy, but their blunt strength is an imperfect tool and they lack means to directly interact with the underpinnings of the world as heroes can.
This leads us to a frequently asked question "Is X still a hero?" or "Can Y be a hero as well?".A big part of the game is "distraction" and if you have been following our AI discussions you know that Kings and other rulers have a value that determines how often they take a "meaningful" action - it is assumed that the rest of their time is spent in typical leadenly irrelevance such as beaurecratic measures or enjoying the perks of being at the top of the food chain. A hero that rises to a position of rulership "sacrifices" the constant movement and flexibility of their previous life in order to now have a wider range of actions. The danger to you is that this hero brings with him the knowledge and friendships attained in their prior life, but if their ignorance and isolation overwhelms that advantage you end up with a somewhat neutralized foe. On the other hand you have Commanders and Kings who may want to take care of issues personally - any Person can "descend" and become a hero temporarily though this often comes with a hit to their reputation, not to mention the political instability their disappearance can cause. They cannot simply QUEST in the location they are at as long as they remain in their position, they do need to "step down" and adventure first. However, certain challenges can cause them to react as if they were heroes which can lead to them being in proper combat or overcoming dangers.
Cold Wars
In addition to evolving the data that flows into wars we also evolved the mechanics and methods of war. Outside of your standard combat you'll find a few extra types of combat.
Siege - Siege battles involve holing up behind some walls and hoping to outlast your opponent. Both sides take attrition and the attacker can assault the walls at great disadvantage.
Raids - A notable takes charge of a small force and passes stealthily through multiple POIs before raiding a particular POI. Raids can be generic to cause damage or can seize resources or even smash into cities to steal individuals, relics, or artifacts.
Skirmishes - Whenever two neutral or hostile armies are adjacent to one another then they may skirmish each turn - generally just a simple exchange of enhanced attrition values though occasionally a more serious incident can spring up even leading to an instantaneous engagement.
We'll be going over some of these types in the ensuing week.
Even more war
Lizardmen suffer more attrition than usual when outside of jungles/swamps, and even more attrition when in cold areas. They CAN adapt but it requires the proper totemic leadership.
Rather frustrating few days dealing with unity "quirks" to put it mildly. However, let's talk about Breakthroughs and Opportunities.
Let's take a look at this battle to get so you can see how breakthroughs and opportunities appear in the battle. First let's talk about what is different from the prior battle you saw - the most obvious difference is that this is a battle between Elves and Orcs. This is a fairly typical Elven battle - with a commander in each row as well as heroes in the center corridor. Notice the icon with a "3" in it, this appears when heroes are present in the battle. While heroes are uncommon early in the game you'll see a plethora of them once the Alliance has formed. Heroes add small bonuses to the battle but are good at a) killing monsters/beasts and b) creating opportunities which we will go over shortly. You'll notice the "archer" icon on both of the forest corridors - elves always gain "Hidden Threat" in forest/hills corridors where their ranged value is better than their opponent. This modifier adds horror equal to their ranged value and is part of the reason elves are devastating in their home territories. You'll also notice that the Druid has invoked "Wrath of Nature" which grants a substantial shock and melee bonus each round but is only usable in "wild" POIs.
At the bottom corners you'll see the previous turns status updates - it looks like the Left Flank was previously threatened but must have been reinforced as it is no longer pulsating - and a hero was wounded last turn on the Elven Side. Also you can see in this battle that a "Legendary Hero" notice was posted as the druid here is relatively famous.
Lore: The "Ti'Qusar" is one of the three forms of "Crusade" the elves possess, it is essentially a "one off" military excursion with a limited goal. Most often it occurs in order to recover an ancient artifact from human hands though it can also be raised against you.
(I cheated to have control over both parties, normally you'd need to have influence over the commander to see breakthroughs/opportunities)
The right flank (bottom corridor) is pulsating red both on advantage and on the enemy unit indicating that the line is about to break, in addition you will see a pulsating sword icon which indicates a breakthrough. Clicking on the breakthrough brings you to....
Breakthroughs use the same detail menu as most challenge/opportunity screens but are actually designed a bit different. The breakthrough "type" is determined by the main unit type (Cavalry/Infantry/Beast/Flying/Golem/Dragon/etc..) which comes with two generic actions - additional actions are granted via the traits of the unit that accomplished the breakthrough. Here you see that a cavalry unit has broken through and has four actions to choose from. The top and bottom are the defaults while Sylvan Grace gives the ability to inflict damage to the reserve and Stormrider can grant a rather significant advantage to this corridor going forward. You can right-click to close the breakthrough and review information on the battlefield before returning to it. Right clicking on the actual icon will "pass" the event. Taking any action on a breakthrough will tend to inflict one wound on the Elite Unit.
Breakthroughs happen when the Breakthrough Value reaches 100 (this is invisible to the player) - every point of difference in Shock vs Discipline contributes 10 points and each point of Melee advantage grants 5. These points accrue over turns until the Breakthrough occurs.
On the other hand we have "Combat Opportunities" which are based on the same opportunity system used during challenges and function with the same logic : check what exists and "randomly" assign an appropriate opportunity. Opportunities range from melee battles between heroes to a friendship forged on battle. The central corridor has the Opportunity icon so if you click on that you will see...
Here we have a combat opportunity allowing the player to take potshots at soldiers, snipe the enemy commander of this corridor, or just shoot at the poor wounded orcs. If the hero had additional traits he/she may see additional possible actions. Opportunities can be relatively simple, as seen here, but some of them can change the tide of battle. Participants in these opportunities generally gain significant fame from their exploits.
Opportunities are one of the "random" elements of the game and while I generally hate randomness in game design we decided it made sense given the context of the actions (beneath the Fog of War). Part of how we mitigated the randomness, or perhaps embraced it, was by how we setup the opportunity chance. Opportunity chance is determined by heroes present, commanders present, varieties of units present, spells/effects - each of these categories adds to the total but with diminishing returns PER CATEGORY - meaning that the 10th hero in the battle will add significantly less than the 1st hero added. These means that the more random elements going into the battle the greater the chance of an "Opportunity."
Navies
Naval Affairs
Much like other strategy games Naval Conflicts plays second fiddle to Land Based warfare, but that's not to say that navies are unnecessary. On the contrary naval battles, maneuvers, and exploration are key elements of the game and ignoring them is one of the many ways to ensure your eventual defeat. Naval conflict in TWS emphasizes preparation and strategic planning over tactical choices even more so than land battles.
The primary component of naval conflict is "ships" which come in a variety of types. Wood is required to build and maintain ships and commanders. Ships take quite a long time to build and repair slowly, once again "slowing down" the speed at which conflict on the sea occurs. However, unlike land battles naval battles are instantaneous - but in order to do battle fleets must "search out" the enemy fleet inside the contested naval zone, often giving the enemy fleet time to slip past into an adjacent zone or port.
Ships at sea can blockade any ports in their naval zone by creating a blockade, as in the picture shown above. The typical circular action icon is replaced by glowing red anchors, and all affected ports glow red indicating they are blockaded. Blockades require a certain amount of ships to be effective and render the fleet vulnerable to attacks by enemy fleets.
Viking Longships happily raiding (notice the same raid icon as used on land) while republican galleons search for them. Unlike land-based challenges the action of seeking out an enemy fleet is not deterministic and accruing over time, instead the chance to find the ship increases based on a variety of factors from admiral skills, ship maneuverability, the enemy fleets current action, and the type of naval zone.
Raiding by sea is a common tribal action and inflicts a penalty on ALL POIs with ports on that naval zone and accruing glory for the raider. The accrued raiding modifier over time gives a bonus if the sea-based raider decides to launch a land-based raid making some of the more difficult raids like storming a vault or kidnapping an individual much more obtainable. This bonus is lost if the fleet moves off that naval zone.
Once a fleet has been found (or decides to battle) you will face (if you are commanding one of the fleets) the "Fleet Found" event. Much like a challenge you will have options depending on any elite units (their are much, much fewer of these for navies) and traits possessed. Many of these will give you a penalty to your initiative but come with powerful trade offs.
Initiative serves a very important purpose in naval battles, in general the force with superior initiative is given X rounds (the difference) to inflict skirmish damage representing the time it takes for the enemy ships to close. At the end of that time the ships will clash forcing combat between their marines. The number of marines is listed to the right of the number of ships on each side. Apart from initiative each ship type has base stats for skirmish, maneuverability, and force which will determine how much damage they inflict or how succesful they are at engaging or disengaging from enemy ships. Once the ships are engaged marines will fight one another until surrender or the ship sinks or is captured.
There are a few things to note in this screenshot. The icon on the "Enemy Fleet Sighted" tells what the type of Naval Zone is - in this case it is in shallow water which favors the Longships, though not enough to give them the benefit but perhaps enough to let them skirmish and escape with few casualties. The blue arrow icon is Initiative which displays the bottom of all possible actions as its value will change based on selections. At the bottom of each fleet you would see any artifacts that could be activated, just like in a challenge. The hero icon (same as in most screens) will appear next to the boat types with the number of heroes. Heroes add special actions to naval combat and can trigger opportunities.
Also note that if you have multiple types of ships it will push the actions down one row and any more than 2 will produce a scrollbar.
Much like other strategy games Naval Conflicts plays second fiddle to Land Based warfare, but that's not to say that navies are unnecessary. On the contrary naval battles, maneuvers, and exploration are key elements of the game and ignoring them is one of the many ways to ensure your eventual defeat. Naval conflict in TWS emphasizes preparation and strategic planning over tactical choices even more so than land battles.
The primary component of naval conflict is "ships" which come in a variety of types. Wood is required to build and maintain ships and commanders. Ships take quite a long time to build and repair slowly, once again "slowing down" the speed at which conflict on the sea occurs. However, unlike land battles naval battles are instantaneous - but in order to do battle fleets must "search out" the enemy fleet inside the contested naval zone, often giving the enemy fleet time to slip past into an adjacent zone or port.
Ships at sea can blockade any ports in their naval zone by creating a blockade, as in the picture shown above. The typical circular action icon is replaced by glowing red anchors, and all affected ports glow red indicating they are blockaded. Blockades require a certain amount of ships to be effective and render the fleet vulnerable to attacks by enemy fleets.
Viking Longships happily raiding (notice the same raid icon as used on land) while republican galleons search for them. Unlike land-based challenges the action of seeking out an enemy fleet is not deterministic and accruing over time, instead the chance to find the ship increases based on a variety of factors from admiral skills, ship maneuverability, the enemy fleets current action, and the type of naval zone.
Raiding by sea is a common tribal action and inflicts a penalty on ALL POIs with ports on that naval zone and accruing glory for the raider. The accrued raiding modifier over time gives a bonus if the sea-based raider decides to launch a land-based raid making some of the more difficult raids like storming a vault or kidnapping an individual much more obtainable. This bonus is lost if the fleet moves off that naval zone.
Once a fleet has been found (or decides to battle) you will face (if you are commanding one of the fleets) the "Fleet Found" event. Much like a challenge you will have options depending on any elite units (their are much, much fewer of these for navies) and traits possessed. Many of these will give you a penalty to your initiative but come with powerful trade offs.
Initiative serves a very important purpose in naval battles, in general the force with superior initiative is given X rounds (the difference) to inflict skirmish damage representing the time it takes for the enemy ships to close. At the end of that time the ships will clash forcing combat between their marines. The number of marines is listed to the right of the number of ships on each side. Apart from initiative each ship type has base stats for skirmish, maneuverability, and force which will determine how much damage they inflict or how succesful they are at engaging or disengaging from enemy ships. Once the ships are engaged marines will fight one another until surrender or the ship sinks or is captured.
There are a few things to note in this screenshot. The icon on the "Enemy Fleet Sighted" tells what the type of Naval Zone is - in this case it is in shallow water which favors the Longships, though not enough to give them the benefit but perhaps enough to let them skirmish and escape with few casualties. The blue arrow icon is Initiative which displays the bottom of all possible actions as its value will change based on selections. At the bottom of each fleet you would see any artifacts that could be activated, just like in a challenge. The hero icon (same as in most screens) will appear next to the boat types with the number of heroes. Heroes add special actions to naval combat and can trigger opportunities.
Also note that if you have multiple types of ships it will push the actions down one row and any more than 2 will produce a scrollbar.
Planar problems
Planar Dealings and Conflicts
We've already discussed what the planes are and how miracles work, but we didn't really discuss what happens in the planes. I think, based on the questions, that there's some confusion about how the planes operate. They aren't a separate map even though some have distinct locations - instead travelers to the planes are at the whim of the plane and its events until they either escape, are removed, or killed/driven insane. Planar travelers with the proper traits and abilities are able to either tame the chaos or completely negate it, choosing where to go.
Getting There
The Planes are purposefully difficult to get to - it's a separate aspect of the game that does not demand player attention. However, sometimes the player may want to either involve the Planes in their strategies or they may have a target hiding in the planes they need to "have a chat with." To do this you need to first get to the planes. One of the most straightforward ways of gaining access to the planes is through the Planes Colliding event, which you will only encounter in one of the planes (generally The Underworld) or possibly later in the game if Azlan is the Old One.
The First was able to select this event due to having the Lost Art of Aether Folding which also gives you the fantastic option of ripping the portal open (greatly increasing dangers in this plane and greatly increasing portals across the world). In addition the Dreamer Trait allows her to go to the Dreamlands (physically, which is different than how a dreamer normally enters the dreamland and more dangerous) and her high Arcana allows her to call for a presence within the portal. The only standard action is "jump on in" which sends the brave participant to a random plane, the real world, or lost temporarily in the Void.
If a hero seems to be randomly stranded in the planes they probably fell through one of these portals. Now this is not a reliable way to get into the planes (unless you have certain traits) so if you have a Planar Vendetta to settle you'll need to manufacture your own passage.
These three modifiers offer direct passage to the realm of the God who created them. Except for Planar Rip (the middle Modifier) you need a Planar Key of that plane to pass through, which can be either manufactured via arcana or you can steal the high relic of any religion of that plane which will count. Let's first talk about Planar Rips.
Looks a little odd because the particles are in motion, but a Planar Rip is very apparent on the map and are generally short-lived. Jumping through a Planar Rip is somewhat dangerous but is a reliable way to get into that Plane. Some Lost Arts will allow you to manufacture your own Planar Rip but also the death of powerful creatures or sometimes just their battling will spawn a Planar Rip.
More reliably you can highjack a Divine Channel, which is a modifier created whenever a powerful miracle is cast.
By tricking this Priest into casting this powerful miracle I am able to either infiltrate and interfere with the miracle or head to the POI in which the miracle is cast and, if I possess the planar key, stride confidently into the plane perfectly safe.
Yes but what do I do in the planes?
Let's look at the result of a successfully cast ritual in the planes.
Here you see the First has completed a *very* rare ritual that adds a fantastic modifier to this plane. In essence the Plane will collapse in 10 turns unless the gods give a certain amount of faith to the mod (or a hero disables it). By ensuring that the gods in the plane are either distracted or weak enough (<30 faith) this ritual could be cast without notice. Other challenges in the planes involve siphoning power off a God, causing chaos in the planes, or looking for stranded agents/heroes.
And heroes?
Unless they're in the planes for a quest then a Hero is going to have very different experiences depending on the plane they enter.
Here a plucky young adventurer has been snatched up in the Crag and forced into an "audience" with one of the Princes. It seems he is lucky as he got off without anything too serious - gaining the "Demonic Tutelage" trait which, while extremely beneficial, also advises the hero towards more fiendish actions. Note that if the Chosen One gains "Demonic Tutelage" it greatly increases the rate of Prophecy Quests.
We've already discussed what the planes are and how miracles work, but we didn't really discuss what happens in the planes. I think, based on the questions, that there's some confusion about how the planes operate. They aren't a separate map even though some have distinct locations - instead travelers to the planes are at the whim of the plane and its events until they either escape, are removed, or killed/driven insane. Planar travelers with the proper traits and abilities are able to either tame the chaos or completely negate it, choosing where to go.
Getting There
The Planes are purposefully difficult to get to - it's a separate aspect of the game that does not demand player attention. However, sometimes the player may want to either involve the Planes in their strategies or they may have a target hiding in the planes they need to "have a chat with." To do this you need to first get to the planes. One of the most straightforward ways of gaining access to the planes is through the Planes Colliding event, which you will only encounter in one of the planes (generally The Underworld) or possibly later in the game if Azlan is the Old One.
The First was able to select this event due to having the Lost Art of Aether Folding which also gives you the fantastic option of ripping the portal open (greatly increasing dangers in this plane and greatly increasing portals across the world). In addition the Dreamer Trait allows her to go to the Dreamlands (physically, which is different than how a dreamer normally enters the dreamland and more dangerous) and her high Arcana allows her to call for a presence within the portal. The only standard action is "jump on in" which sends the brave participant to a random plane, the real world, or lost temporarily in the Void.
If a hero seems to be randomly stranded in the planes they probably fell through one of these portals. Now this is not a reliable way to get into the planes (unless you have certain traits) so if you have a Planar Vendetta to settle you'll need to manufacture your own passage.
These three modifiers offer direct passage to the realm of the God who created them. Except for Planar Rip (the middle Modifier) you need a Planar Key of that plane to pass through, which can be either manufactured via arcana or you can steal the high relic of any religion of that plane which will count. Let's first talk about Planar Rips.
Looks a little odd because the particles are in motion, but a Planar Rip is very apparent on the map and are generally short-lived. Jumping through a Planar Rip is somewhat dangerous but is a reliable way to get into that Plane. Some Lost Arts will allow you to manufacture your own Planar Rip but also the death of powerful creatures or sometimes just their battling will spawn a Planar Rip.
More reliably you can highjack a Divine Channel, which is a modifier created whenever a powerful miracle is cast.
By tricking this Priest into casting this powerful miracle I am able to either infiltrate and interfere with the miracle or head to the POI in which the miracle is cast and, if I possess the planar key, stride confidently into the plane perfectly safe.
Yes but what do I do in the planes?
Let's look at the result of a successfully cast ritual in the planes.
Here you see the First has completed a *very* rare ritual that adds a fantastic modifier to this plane. In essence the Plane will collapse in 10 turns unless the gods give a certain amount of faith to the mod (or a hero disables it). By ensuring that the gods in the plane are either distracted or weak enough (<30 faith) this ritual could be cast without notice. Other challenges in the planes involve siphoning power off a God, causing chaos in the planes, or looking for stranded agents/heroes.
And heroes?
Unless they're in the planes for a quest then a Hero is going to have very different experiences depending on the plane they enter.
Here a plucky young adventurer has been snatched up in the Crag and forced into an "audience" with one of the Princes. It seems he is lucky as he got off without anything too serious - gaining the "Demonic Tutelage" trait which, while extremely beneficial, also advises the hero towards more fiendish actions. Note that if the Chosen One gains "Demonic Tutelage" it greatly increases the rate of Prophecy Quests.
Anecdote
Many many many, but after trade goods were added ... 7 months ago? I had to do some vigorous testing, and one that was particularly fun came about after a brainstorming session for "eldritch trade goods". To test this I added in my now favorite Deep One plot (corrupted meats that convert people into Deep Ones) which was designed, like most of the game, to have the freedom to interact with various elements of the world and evolve in unexpected directions but by itself be fairly minor. At its most basic you will spawn a modifier in a non-port POI adjacent to a port-POI that harbors a significant Deep One colony, but it has no inherent ability to expand outside of its most promising tag "Trade Good". So I wanted to see if I could somehow get all the Kings of the world eating my delicious corrupted tentacles by making it a sought after trade good delicacy. The first order of business was getting it from the random POI into a POI with a merchant guild and getting them converted - this first step took the longest time as it's very hard to force a "pull" for a Trade Good that has no desirable value. I ended up destroying any other "Sundry" Trade Good to try and elevate the value which eventually got it into the Merchant Guild POI - then it was just pass time until hopefully the merchant guildleader falls under its sway. A few investigative minded heroes needed to die, and I also had to manage Deep One Faction as they get feisty when their plans start to succeed.
Eventually it works so now the Guildleader will by default push the Deep One tagged trade good so it begins to arrive everywhere he has access to - featuring the good at a feast of nobles gets it upgraded from Sundry to Delicacy which means nobility will start partaking. Meanwhile I've begun systematically shutting down other Merchant Guilds so that our fishy leader is getting more and more access to important POIs, and I've also been killing any Druids (food purification) and Eldritch-affiliated heroes I can find. More and more agents are required to mollify the Deep Ones who are just getting far too excited about their successes.
Time passes and maybe 50% of the rulers of the world are at some stage of infection - at this point the success of the plan reaches its peak. Finally a sage I miss figures out what is going on, awareness spreads, the Deep Ones rise with froggy doom, and the world descends into a series of purges and paranoia that create modifiers for hundreds of turns to come. Didn't finish that game (I rarely do unless testing endgame elements) but I consider that a fitting endpoint.
Dwarf spoilers
Multiplayer is off the table for a good long time, and quite possibly forever. I do think that this same concept would work well as a multiplayer game but I would definitely design many of the mechanics differently. However if the game is a wild success and people are overwhelmingly in favor of multiplayer we're actually significantly closer to that goal thanks to the Rivals being implemented, but we would still want to brainstorm for some time on the exact implementation as I don't think any of our hypothetical ideal designs are compatible with the game as it is now.
I know I've been lax in updates but things are flowing so well now that I'm back in my actual work environment that I'm routinely losing track of time. So let me just expound on some design elements right now and I'll follow up later with more screenshots.
SPOILERS - We're going to talk about races, why they're designed this way, and what they are capable of. Up until now I've just generally been hinting at what they do or laying out some of the lore background but since people will undoubtedly be dumping info from the Core files of the Mod tools I may as well get more concrete.
As you know the game is VERY human-centric, with humans having a wealth of complexity from government types to traits. In accordance with this they also have the greatest variety of borders for their allegiance display. Let's look at a collection of some of the human frames and also some of the racial frames.
The frames are jarringly distinct between the races, helping to create a clear distinction between the minor variants that human nations posses and the truly "other" experience of the elder and outsider races. In addition the idea of "heraldry" in order to distinguish ones own nation from another is unique to each race. Humans range from arcane symbols in magocracies to simple three color stripes in republics or more ornate coats of arms in a feudal system. Instead of these flags dwarves, for instance, each possess a crest of carved metal or stone in accordance with their clan - lost clanholds are not casually cast away like human flags but instead are marked in the lore of the scenario with the metal/stone crest broken - showing that this clanhold is abandoned. When dwarven hold size grows too large to maintain OR discontent rises to a certain amount the clan will split off its malcontents who will attempt to recover a lost clanhold. In this way the "nations" of the dwarves are more permanent. A more extreme example of this exists for the only Outsider race, the Cthnonian - the frame that you see above lacking transparency is the mark of control for ALL Cthnonian hive nations. No matter the distance, their is worldwide unity in their cause. Discord, which can be paralytic to Cthnonian hives, can occur splitting the worldwide body - in such a case the heraldric frame itself is split into two shapes. As the hive struggles to "reconcile" back into a dominant cause no other revolts are capable within the worldwide hive structure itself (though they can still reject that government form through cultural change).
Another example is our most recent addition, the Minotaurs - Minotaurs exist primarily as modifiers in the world due to the curse that keeps them from gathering in great numbers. Just as orc modifiers are marked with a clan that can indicate affiliation with a major power so too are Minotaur clans marked, either with one of the four core clans, a "lost" Minotaur, or the cursed bloodhoof clan. Minotaur clans can rise to become a nation (given the right circumstance) but swear affiliation to one of the given clan types if they are of the four core clans, claiming that heraldic symbol and joining in with any other declared nation of that minotaur clan. Just as the dwarven heraldry feeds back into their gameplay so too does the concept of the four Clans - each representative of the original divide of the five clans when the penumbra fell on them. Minotaur storytellers return yearly to a meeting place to spread information, both benign and game-critical lore, which then disperses back through the disparate clans - the "lost" minotaurs are those who have lost their path due to enslavement by other races and may take on a more typical role in the world (adopting "human" government forms) or be lured back into the Minotaur fold, bringing with them modern methods of warfare. Underlying all these mechanics is the penumbra itself, informing the decision making of the tribes - and if you have need of its power feel free to capture enough minotaurs to force its emergence for your own needs.
Racial Traits
Each of the races has a variety of unique traits - some of them are in the typical "Race" tag while others are "Heritage" traits that speak to the best of what that race can be. Heritage traits are not just powerful for combat and challenges they are also signs of prestige - a Dwarf Leader with several Dwarven Heritage traits will be seen as called to lead and create a more stable kingdom, though on the other end a King with no traits may find himself strongly challenged by a usurper who possesses them. Heritage Traits are tied through mechanics back to the lore of the races and are distributed through the Bloodlines system. To continue with the Dwarven example, Dwarves are born of stone and, when they die (underground) they return to stone, adding to the foundations of the tunnels they die in. As dwarves age they approach this natural end, becoming firmer, tougher, but also slower. Over ages this ancestral tableau empowers their descendants, acting as a bloodline to their kin - losing this foundation is crippling to a dwarfs chance of gaining a "Heritage Trait". This is part of the reason that ancestral clanholds are held in such high regard, their walls are quite literally formed of dwarven history.
Younger dwarves have the ability to exert themselves to great lengths, either pushing their endurance to new limits or crafting incredible artifacts. These dwarves age greatly and must return to the tunnels to rest their final years. A dwarf who dies on the surface, or fails to return in a timely manner, ceases to age into stone - these dwarves are lost forever to the clanhold and are considered disgraced. This "lore" is embraced by the mechanics - while a human may die a noble death defending the walls of a castle to have his name praised and his values spread throughout his culture a dwarf who dies, however nobly, on the surface will have repercussions for his kin - often pushing them to retreat back into their domain. You may also see a dwarf push past an incredibly difficult challenge, only to then retreat on the verge of victory back to his clan - an alien behavior you will rarely see in a human. By spinning the lore into the mechanics we believe we've created a more interesting fantasy world.
I know I've been lax in updates but things are flowing so well now that I'm back in my actual work environment that I'm routinely losing track of time. So let me just expound on some design elements right now and I'll follow up later with more screenshots.
SPOILERS - We're going to talk about races, why they're designed this way, and what they are capable of. Up until now I've just generally been hinting at what they do or laying out some of the lore background but since people will undoubtedly be dumping info from the Core files of the Mod tools I may as well get more concrete.
As you know the game is VERY human-centric, with humans having a wealth of complexity from government types to traits. In accordance with this they also have the greatest variety of borders for their allegiance display. Let's look at a collection of some of the human frames and also some of the racial frames.
The frames are jarringly distinct between the races, helping to create a clear distinction between the minor variants that human nations posses and the truly "other" experience of the elder and outsider races. In addition the idea of "heraldry" in order to distinguish ones own nation from another is unique to each race. Humans range from arcane symbols in magocracies to simple three color stripes in republics or more ornate coats of arms in a feudal system. Instead of these flags dwarves, for instance, each possess a crest of carved metal or stone in accordance with their clan - lost clanholds are not casually cast away like human flags but instead are marked in the lore of the scenario with the metal/stone crest broken - showing that this clanhold is abandoned. When dwarven hold size grows too large to maintain OR discontent rises to a certain amount the clan will split off its malcontents who will attempt to recover a lost clanhold. In this way the "nations" of the dwarves are more permanent. A more extreme example of this exists for the only Outsider race, the Cthnonian - the frame that you see above lacking transparency is the mark of control for ALL Cthnonian hive nations. No matter the distance, their is worldwide unity in their cause. Discord, which can be paralytic to Cthnonian hives, can occur splitting the worldwide body - in such a case the heraldric frame itself is split into two shapes. As the hive struggles to "reconcile" back into a dominant cause no other revolts are capable within the worldwide hive structure itself (though they can still reject that government form through cultural change).
Another example is our most recent addition, the Minotaurs - Minotaurs exist primarily as modifiers in the world due to the curse that keeps them from gathering in great numbers. Just as orc modifiers are marked with a clan that can indicate affiliation with a major power so too are Minotaur clans marked, either with one of the four core clans, a "lost" Minotaur, or the cursed bloodhoof clan. Minotaur clans can rise to become a nation (given the right circumstance) but swear affiliation to one of the given clan types if they are of the four core clans, claiming that heraldic symbol and joining in with any other declared nation of that minotaur clan. Just as the dwarven heraldry feeds back into their gameplay so too does the concept of the four Clans - each representative of the original divide of the five clans when the penumbra fell on them. Minotaur storytellers return yearly to a meeting place to spread information, both benign and game-critical lore, which then disperses back through the disparate clans - the "lost" minotaurs are those who have lost their path due to enslavement by other races and may take on a more typical role in the world (adopting "human" government forms) or be lured back into the Minotaur fold, bringing with them modern methods of warfare. Underlying all these mechanics is the penumbra itself, informing the decision making of the tribes - and if you have need of its power feel free to capture enough minotaurs to force its emergence for your own needs.
Racial Traits
Each of the races has a variety of unique traits - some of them are in the typical "Race" tag while others are "Heritage" traits that speak to the best of what that race can be. Heritage traits are not just powerful for combat and challenges they are also signs of prestige - a Dwarf Leader with several Dwarven Heritage traits will be seen as called to lead and create a more stable kingdom, though on the other end a King with no traits may find himself strongly challenged by a usurper who possesses them. Heritage Traits are tied through mechanics back to the lore of the races and are distributed through the Bloodlines system. To continue with the Dwarven example, Dwarves are born of stone and, when they die (underground) they return to stone, adding to the foundations of the tunnels they die in. As dwarves age they approach this natural end, becoming firmer, tougher, but also slower. Over ages this ancestral tableau empowers their descendants, acting as a bloodline to their kin - losing this foundation is crippling to a dwarfs chance of gaining a "Heritage Trait". This is part of the reason that ancestral clanholds are held in such high regard, their walls are quite literally formed of dwarven history.
Younger dwarves have the ability to exert themselves to great lengths, either pushing their endurance to new limits or crafting incredible artifacts. These dwarves age greatly and must return to the tunnels to rest their final years. A dwarf who dies on the surface, or fails to return in a timely manner, ceases to age into stone - these dwarves are lost forever to the clanhold and are considered disgraced. This "lore" is embraced by the mechanics - while a human may die a noble death defending the walls of a castle to have his name praised and his values spread throughout his culture a dwarf who dies, however nobly, on the surface will have repercussions for his kin - often pushing them to retreat back into their domain. You may also see a dwarf push past an incredibly difficult challenge, only to then retreat on the verge of victory back to his clan - an alien behavior you will rarely see in a human. By spinning the lore into the mechanics we believe we've created a more interesting fantasy world.
Elf spoilers
Let's talk about elves for a bit. As we've posted in the past Elves were originally immortal unchanging parts of the world, blessed with permanence but not with "creation" - they did not change the world simply lived in and existed within it. Elves could be found anywhere in the world, no element was hostile to them and no creature threatened them. When the Void came and brought with it the Penumbra the Elves found themselves in a unique place - as stewards they wished only to observe the world but as the Elder Races fell to squabbling and new creatures (and lesser races) began to emerge a key individual (who came to be known as the Elven Emperor) rose who argued that they (elves) were the most blessed of the creators races and they alone had the responsibility to safeguard the world. However the elves were handicapped by their inherently unchanging nature, but the emperor managed to find a way by manipulating the Wells of Creation (now corrupted as Sites of Power) and granting the elves a more temporal existence. The elves now began to reproduce, to adapt, and to create.
(many events occur over the ages)
Modern elves are split with most of society looking back at their origin as a "fall from grace" - in order to replicate their timeless heritage they have a strict caste society where children inherit the trade of their parents, with excess children being frowned upon. While they lack their fore-bearers natural affinity for the world they more then compensate for this with a wealth of knowledge and skills that comes from both a long life and relative continuity with the past compared to the other races. Heritage traits for elves can restore these lost abilities, even going so far as to grant immortality to an individual elf. The caste society sees these beings as blessed and they tend to rise to positions of prominence within elven society, whereas those who still follow the Emperor's Edicts see them as aberrations dragging their people back into the past. These elves see their caste-bound kin as fools who idolize the "noble savage" and wait for their Emperor's return.
The very act of ripping apart their immortality created a problem with what could be called the elves "soul" - they were never meant for death and in their deaths the spirits of the elves linger. These spirits are tranquil and cogent of their past around uncorrupted Sites of Power, which is what leads most elven societies to congregate around one. Near corrupted Sites of Power these spirits range from curious to hostile, plaguing all races but especially elves - and even more-so if that elf is a descendant. Some spirits are stronger than others and can retain their self for extended periods of time, often leaving the safety of a Site of Power to accompany descendants. Most elves view these ancestors with reverence, and appeal to them in times of crisis for wisdom and guidance - while the elves who follow the Emperor see them as just another legacy, and have developed means to consume these spirits to strengthen themselves (a true crime to most elves). You, as the player, can learn these secrets and make use of them on a grand scale (the elves will not take kindly to this of course). You are also able to corrupt the Sites of Power the elven nations rest on, turning their peaceful home to a place of chaos.
These ancestors lead to the second form of "Heritage" traits for elves - some elves are closely bound to their fallen kin and gain caste-based bonuses. These traits are beneficial but not revered like the others.
The final element to the elven "lore-meets-mechanics" is their orders. Elves have the most unique orders among the races ranging from secretive orders that hope for the Emperor's return to orders that scour the world looking for ancient relics and artifacts that are in the hands of the "dangerous" humans. While tradition stands many of these orders will have limited numbers, but if the world falls to darkness the elves may throw open their ranks and let these orders unleash their true potential. Even worse, antagonizing the elves enough will see them march with their peerless armies or have their immortal champions join with the humans to seal you away.
Just to restate what may have been glossed over - elven nations begin most scenarios with access to power rituals and artifacts that most human empires can only dream of acquiring. While most other nations may be struggling towards some kind of power to battle you, the elves already have it in abundance.
Heritage Campaigns - spoilers
I realize I didn't mention the Runes of Creation that the Dwarves possess so I figured I'd cover some of the Heritage Campaigns that the elder races possess. The Dwarves may seek the fabled "Runes of Creation" that were once their most fabled artifacts, gifted directly by the creator. Their are three separate Runes that are on every map randomly either in the Caverns of the Earth or in the Underworld - it is unlikely given the number of dwarves in a scenario that they will find them on their own, they must instead get clues from other races to successfully find them. Typically the Minotaurs and the Elves both contain "ancestral" knowledge that will lead to one, while the third must be randomly researched (generally by humans) - meaning that only through diplomacy or desperation will the dwarves recover their ancestral powers. Each rune has one map power, and all three combined allow the dwarves to return their dead to life - an endless stone army of dwarves that will make you very... very... sad. Generally it's game over if they get all three.
Elves have many interactions with Limos, being able to re-purify the corrupted Sites of Power or appeal to the actual remaining Well of Souls. On the other hand the followers of the Emperor will seek to gorge their leaders on the souls of fallen elves, increasing his power to the point of being unstoppable. Both of these require Heritage Campaigns that range across the world and the aid of those with specific heritage traits.
(many events occur over the ages)
Modern elves are split with most of society looking back at their origin as a "fall from grace" - in order to replicate their timeless heritage they have a strict caste society where children inherit the trade of their parents, with excess children being frowned upon. While they lack their fore-bearers natural affinity for the world they more then compensate for this with a wealth of knowledge and skills that comes from both a long life and relative continuity with the past compared to the other races. Heritage traits for elves can restore these lost abilities, even going so far as to grant immortality to an individual elf. The caste society sees these beings as blessed and they tend to rise to positions of prominence within elven society, whereas those who still follow the Emperor's Edicts see them as aberrations dragging their people back into the past. These elves see their caste-bound kin as fools who idolize the "noble savage" and wait for their Emperor's return.
The very act of ripping apart their immortality created a problem with what could be called the elves "soul" - they were never meant for death and in their deaths the spirits of the elves linger. These spirits are tranquil and cogent of their past around uncorrupted Sites of Power, which is what leads most elven societies to congregate around one. Near corrupted Sites of Power these spirits range from curious to hostile, plaguing all races but especially elves - and even more-so if that elf is a descendant. Some spirits are stronger than others and can retain their self for extended periods of time, often leaving the safety of a Site of Power to accompany descendants. Most elves view these ancestors with reverence, and appeal to them in times of crisis for wisdom and guidance - while the elves who follow the Emperor see them as just another legacy, and have developed means to consume these spirits to strengthen themselves (a true crime to most elves). You, as the player, can learn these secrets and make use of them on a grand scale (the elves will not take kindly to this of course). You are also able to corrupt the Sites of Power the elven nations rest on, turning their peaceful home to a place of chaos.
These ancestors lead to the second form of "Heritage" traits for elves - some elves are closely bound to their fallen kin and gain caste-based bonuses. These traits are beneficial but not revered like the others.
The final element to the elven "lore-meets-mechanics" is their orders. Elves have the most unique orders among the races ranging from secretive orders that hope for the Emperor's return to orders that scour the world looking for ancient relics and artifacts that are in the hands of the "dangerous" humans. While tradition stands many of these orders will have limited numbers, but if the world falls to darkness the elves may throw open their ranks and let these orders unleash their true potential. Even worse, antagonizing the elves enough will see them march with their peerless armies or have their immortal champions join with the humans to seal you away.
Just to restate what may have been glossed over - elven nations begin most scenarios with access to power rituals and artifacts that most human empires can only dream of acquiring. While most other nations may be struggling towards some kind of power to battle you, the elves already have it in abundance.
Heritage Campaigns - spoilers
I realize I didn't mention the Runes of Creation that the Dwarves possess so I figured I'd cover some of the Heritage Campaigns that the elder races possess. The Dwarves may seek the fabled "Runes of Creation" that were once their most fabled artifacts, gifted directly by the creator. Their are three separate Runes that are on every map randomly either in the Caverns of the Earth or in the Underworld - it is unlikely given the number of dwarves in a scenario that they will find them on their own, they must instead get clues from other races to successfully find them. Typically the Minotaurs and the Elves both contain "ancestral" knowledge that will lead to one, while the third must be randomly researched (generally by humans) - meaning that only through diplomacy or desperation will the dwarves recover their ancestral powers. Each rune has one map power, and all three combined allow the dwarves to return their dead to life - an endless stone army of dwarves that will make you very... very... sad. Generally it's game over if they get all three.
Elves have many interactions with Limos, being able to re-purify the corrupted Sites of Power or appeal to the actual remaining Well of Souls. On the other hand the followers of the Emperor will seek to gorge their leaders on the souls of fallen elves, increasing his power to the point of being unstoppable. Both of these require Heritage Campaigns that range across the world and the aid of those with specific heritage traits.
Lizardmen spoilers
Lizardmen possess a fractured past - at the dawn of creation (the meeting of the Elder Races) they arose quickly into dominance. They were the first of many things: the first to take up arms against the Elder Races, the first to draw power from the Primals, the first lesser race to grow dominant, and the first to draw the eye of the creator. The Creator was puzzled by these creatures as they were not by its design, and his fascination gave them a channel to the powers that make up the world - granting them a stronger link to the primals then any other race.
They suffered heavily in the wars of the Elder Races, but their numbers were vast and with the power of the Primals behind them they spread their name across the world. In the end they were undone by their own allies - the Primals turned on one another and the great empire was ripped apart. However, even in their downfall they were the highest of the Lesser Races, and lizardmen alone among the young races stood with the Elder Races and the Primals as they sealed the Creator away before he could undo the world.
Lizardmen flourished again during the Age of Horrors - their connection to the primals made them powerful spirit-hunters that wandered the land working for whichever villages could pay them. While most of the world suffered under the doom that fell the Lizardmen flourished, a return to their roots as both mystics and sages. This continued into the Age of Legends, where not only did the serve as valuable scholars but the most powerful of rituals would always require a Lizardmen shaman to conduct the raw power of the primals. During the War of the Twins the Lizardmen took sides with The Muse, and were hunted almost to extinction by the Dreadnaught - their cultural legacy erased from the earth as every ruin and every tome was systematically destroyed. When the Great Masters came, they had Lizardmen hunted and used for experiments - their connection to the primals a coveted means of extracting the essence of the creator. From their experiments came the Dhaath, the perfect servants of the Old Ones, and the Brood, the heart of the jungle. In the modern age most lizardmen tribes are fallen civilzations with little memory of their past glory given to tribal and barbaric sentiments - though some few tribes remain that remember their past, and the duties that come with it.
MECHANICS - Lizardmen were introduced primarily to have a "shaman" type race and to have a harassing nation that dominates a terrain (swamps/jungles). Their inherent abilities as a nation pivot around how impossible it is to root them out of the swamps - going after lizardmen is almost always a disaster. In addition they are fearsome skirmishers and resist several types of damage. In many games this is the extent to which a player will experience "lizardmen" - but that's far from their true potential. Even though they have forgotten their true connection to the primals they still manifest them through a memory tribal tradition - their are six totems that a tribe can follow, the dominant shaman of the tribe dictates that tribes special abilities. These range from the Troll Totem which allows Lizardmen the ability to recruit War Trolls for combat to the Eye Totem that greatly enhances hexes. Hexes are another unique method that Lizardmen have to interact with the world - as they are directly connected to the creator they can reach out and "alter" another living being - utilizing connections like pieces of cloth or drops of blood related to the person.
These abilities, while unique, are not their true extent - if a Lizardman explores the truth of their past, regains their lost name, and connects with the Well of Souls they gain access to much more powerful abilities of each totem. These range from being able to kill distant Lesser Races with a ritual to being able to raise the ghosts of the Primals. This occurence is fairly rare, much rarer than the Dwarves or Elves finding their Heritage - but it is increased in certain scenarios. Lizardmen have a recurring event where any Lizardman with Heritage Traits are invited by an Order of Lizardmen to come with them and act as Keepers. This Order does NOT exist on every scenario, and is currently only in "What Gods We've Made" where they act as guardians and watchers over the graveyard of the primals and "Between the Titans" where they keep a ruin secure. In these two scenarios the chance of these events occurring are MUCH greater. This also acts to somewhat neuter Lizardmen in other scenarios as any Lizardman who accepts the offer is removed from the game. In certain rare occurences the Keepers will arrive in a scenario to lend help to Lizardmen tribes, but this is usually only provoked if you follow the Court of Bone or are performing Biomancy on the Lizardmen.
They suffered heavily in the wars of the Elder Races, but their numbers were vast and with the power of the Primals behind them they spread their name across the world. In the end they were undone by their own allies - the Primals turned on one another and the great empire was ripped apart. However, even in their downfall they were the highest of the Lesser Races, and lizardmen alone among the young races stood with the Elder Races and the Primals as they sealed the Creator away before he could undo the world.
Lizardmen flourished again during the Age of Horrors - their connection to the primals made them powerful spirit-hunters that wandered the land working for whichever villages could pay them. While most of the world suffered under the doom that fell the Lizardmen flourished, a return to their roots as both mystics and sages. This continued into the Age of Legends, where not only did the serve as valuable scholars but the most powerful of rituals would always require a Lizardmen shaman to conduct the raw power of the primals. During the War of the Twins the Lizardmen took sides with The Muse, and were hunted almost to extinction by the Dreadnaught - their cultural legacy erased from the earth as every ruin and every tome was systematically destroyed. When the Great Masters came, they had Lizardmen hunted and used for experiments - their connection to the primals a coveted means of extracting the essence of the creator. From their experiments came the Dhaath, the perfect servants of the Old Ones, and the Brood, the heart of the jungle. In the modern age most lizardmen tribes are fallen civilzations with little memory of their past glory given to tribal and barbaric sentiments - though some few tribes remain that remember their past, and the duties that come with it.
MECHANICS - Lizardmen were introduced primarily to have a "shaman" type race and to have a harassing nation that dominates a terrain (swamps/jungles). Their inherent abilities as a nation pivot around how impossible it is to root them out of the swamps - going after lizardmen is almost always a disaster. In addition they are fearsome skirmishers and resist several types of damage. In many games this is the extent to which a player will experience "lizardmen" - but that's far from their true potential. Even though they have forgotten their true connection to the primals they still manifest them through a memory tribal tradition - their are six totems that a tribe can follow, the dominant shaman of the tribe dictates that tribes special abilities. These range from the Troll Totem which allows Lizardmen the ability to recruit War Trolls for combat to the Eye Totem that greatly enhances hexes. Hexes are another unique method that Lizardmen have to interact with the world - as they are directly connected to the creator they can reach out and "alter" another living being - utilizing connections like pieces of cloth or drops of blood related to the person.
These abilities, while unique, are not their true extent - if a Lizardman explores the truth of their past, regains their lost name, and connects with the Well of Souls they gain access to much more powerful abilities of each totem. These range from being able to kill distant Lesser Races with a ritual to being able to raise the ghosts of the Primals. This occurence is fairly rare, much rarer than the Dwarves or Elves finding their Heritage - but it is increased in certain scenarios. Lizardmen have a recurring event where any Lizardman with Heritage Traits are invited by an Order of Lizardmen to come with them and act as Keepers. This Order does NOT exist on every scenario, and is currently only in "What Gods We've Made" where they act as guardians and watchers over the graveyard of the primals and "Between the Titans" where they keep a ruin secure. In these two scenarios the chance of these events occurring are MUCH greater. This also acts to somewhat neuter Lizardmen in other scenarios as any Lizardman who accepts the offer is removed from the game. In certain rare occurences the Keepers will arrive in a scenario to lend help to Lizardmen tribes, but this is usually only provoked if you follow the Court of Bone or are performing Biomancy on the Lizardmen.
I particularly like how Sisyphus will allow for some real moustache-twirling villainy. Killing mentors, wrecking hometowns, riling up the populace, then rubbing in the heroes' face how they couldn't save anyone and how everyone hates them. Most of the Old Ones seem more distant and uncaring when it comes to lesser beings, so having one that lets you play as someone's nemesis is a nice change of pace.
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Space Satan
Arcane
Each time I open this thread...
anus_pounder
Arcane
I came, as soon as I saw this topic was updated.
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