Do You Like to be Teased?

[Ry Vor]

There will be a form in The Choosing to allow players who wish to, to change all character names including wizards and leaders for $5 on turn 1 submission.

[Ry Vor]

Some more notes for The Choosing.

A kingdom may have a maximum of two declared enemies.  If two are already declared, one must be declared neutral in order to declare a new enemy.  Declaring an enemy costs 0.3 Influence.
 
No Natural Enemies.
 
Smaller starting noble court.  It’s expected most kingdoms will not start with a Baron or a Count as they did in 2[sup]nd[/sup] Cycle.  A customization option will be to select Dynasty which may be the only way to start with a prince or princess.
 
Smaller initial military.  Start with -1 beginning kingdom brigade but +1 brigade to Turn 5 reinforcements.
 
Humans have a controlled town and village in each region.  The Humans have a larger presence, making taking the region a bit harder and fewer neutral PC’s might raise the banner on the region being controlled without action against the human PC’s.
 
Evasion. Kingdoms with the ability can only utilize it for groups of division size or smaller.

Revisions to all kingdom spell lists and introduction of several new spells.
 
Intrinsic Magic Abilities – similar to Presence, these do not have to be cast as the sole spell, but are abilities at different levels. 

Artifacts & Sightings.   Many artifact revisions.  Ring of Power will be a 3 stage quest, and control or destruction of it may be a SVC.  The Crown of Dominion is a three stage quest (map, key, artifact) that also can be an SVC when in possession of the Ruler.

About 20 new artifact sightings.  Revisions to artifact abilities and removal of some old artifacts.  Revisions to artifact classes, for example, Keys for Quest artifacts will be in the class of the quest artifact.  Excellent and Superior sightings may have requirements for success, generally a wizard participating that can cast Light or Bridge unless the kingdom has the Adventurer trait.  Artifact quality is matched to the sighting guardian quality.

Quest Artifacts.  May not be traded (keys can).  A new quest artifact being The Crown of Dominion which is a three stage quest (map, key, quest artifact). 

Secret Victory Conditions.  Provide status points and podium positions, but do not end the campaign.

[Madmardigan]

Some more notes for The Choosing.

A kingdom may have a maximum of two declared enemies.  If two are already declared, one must be declared neutral in order to declare a new enemy.  Declaring an enemy costs 0.3 Influence.
 
No Natural Enemies.
 
Smaller starting noble court.  It’s expected most kingdoms will not start with a Baron or a Count as they did in 2[sup]nd[/sup] Cycle.  A customization option will be to select Dynasty which may be the only way to start with a prince or princess.
 
Smaller initial military.  Start with -1 beginning kingdom brigade but +1 brigade to Turn 5 reinforcements.
 
Humans have a controlled town and village in each region.  The Humans have a larger presence, making taking the region a bit harder and fewer neutral PC’s might raise the banner on the region being controlled without action against the human PC’s.
 
Evasion. Kingdoms with the ability can only utilize it for groups of division size or smaller.

Revisions to all kingdom spell lists and introduction of several new spells.
 
Intrinsic Magic Abilities – similar to Presence, these do not have to be cast as the sole spell, but are abilities at different levels. 

Artifacts & Sightings.   Many artifact revisions.  Ring of Power will be a 3 stage quest, and control or destruction of it may be a SVC.  The Crown of Dominion is a three stage quest (map, key, artifact) that also can be an SVC when in possession of the Ruler.

About 20 new artifact sightings.  Revisions to artifact abilities and removal of some old artifacts.  Revisions to artifact classes, for example, Keys for Quest artifacts will be in the class of the quest artifact.  Excellent and Superior sightings may have requirements for success, generally a wizard participating that can cast Light or Bridge unless the kingdom has the Adventurer trait.  Artifact quality is matched to the sighting guardian quality.

Quest Artifacts.  May not be traded (keys can).  A new quest artifact being The Crown of Dominion which is a three stage quest (map, key, quest artifact). 

Secret Victory Conditions.  Provide status points and podium positions, but do not end the campaign.

Great changes and additions although I think limiting the number of declared enemies may not work well with someone defending against multiple attackers.  

[Lord Diamond]

I am excited about these. In particular, I am thrilled that you are getting rid of natural enemies! I was in the middle of oming up with a major argument against the concept. Now I don't need to finish it!

I have been promoting the three stage quest for a long time, so that is particularly exciting.

I can't wait.

[Ry Vor]

I am excited about these. In particular, I am thrilled that you are getting rid of natural enemies! I was in the middle of oming up with a major argument against the concept. Now I don't need to finish it!

I have been promoting the three stage quest for a long time, so that is particularly exciting.

I can't wait.

The natural enemies were something I came up with when 2nd Cycle started around 1990.  I didn't like High Elves and Dark Elves working together, and at the time the direction was toward Epic games, basically good vs. evil.   With The Choosing, there are 24 possible kingdoms in a 12 kingdom game, so the natural enemy idea is not really appropriate.

I am interested myself to see the three stage quests with the proviso that a quest artifact cannot be traded and that some of them may provide a SVC so allows a more adventuring aspect to the game.  I hope as well we do have more unusual sightings, and the Foreknowledge trait allows a head start on some of these. 

The change to an SVC not ending a campaign I think is one of my better ideas and an original one, that I think the hard-core Rex-type players can support. 

[Jumpingfist]

I do like that SVC will not end games.
http://kingdomsofarcania.net/forum/showt...n#pid26847

I am curious about thoughts behind only 2 enemies? is this to help prevent 3vs1 seems to me would cause the opposite effect. knowing someone can not lower all the reactions.

[Ry Vor]

I do like that SVC will not end games.  
http://kingdomsofarcania.net/forum/showt...n#pid26847

I am curious about thoughts behind only 2 enemies?  is this to help prevent 3vs1 seems to me would cause the opposite effect.  knowing someone can not lower all the reactions.

Declaring virtually all unallied kingdoms to be enemies has become too common a tactic.  Its a pretty powerful defensive move that is cheap.  This change now is just to make declaring enemies more of a strategic decision, instead of just carte blanche declaring everyone an enemy to protect a region from nobles.  Should increase the intrigue and I'm all about that.  Also, we had that limitation in FoR and it seemed to work well.

[HeadHoncho]

I really liked JF's idea of SVC not ending a game back when he pitched it, and I still like it now, so it's good to see it moving forward.

Just like MM and JF, the only thing on the entire list I didn't care for was the limitation on declared enemies. The reason for this is based on game design... it's already a challenging proposition to "defend" in Alamaze, as the attacker usually has the advantage of preparation, initiative, and various other benefits.

Limiting the declaration of enemies will make it even harder to defend. And compounding this issue is the fact that losing control of a region now always brings you down a reaction level, while it always increases the declared enemy's reaction level (this was one of the changes from Clipper to HTML).

[Lord Diamond]

Limited declared enemies worked very well in Fall of Rome. Give it a chance. You can always switch around, but it takes work. Your enemies suffer as well.

My main gripe with natural enemies was that it actually helps prevent them from fighting one another when you get the double denigrate in regions they control. The Darkelf doesn't have much of a chance in Oakendale when he can't get better than Suspicious without knocking the Elf out of control first. This makes attacking Oakendale much less attractive than it would otherwise be.

[Ry Vor]

NECROMANCER
Marshal+ allows night attack except in Summer.  Night attack does Fear.  Enemy archery is -75% at night
 
All Undead not subject to death magic
 
Skeletons – Regenerate attrition by % SK in group (1 skeleton in 5 brigade group reduces attrition 20% not points), so 20% attrition becomes 16%.  An all skeleton group would always have 0 attrition.  Immune to death magic.
 
Zombies – Eat killed brigades, adding one Zombie brigade per two killed brigades (2 killed brigades = 1 Zombie brigade).  Must have at least two Zombie brigades in the battle for the special.  Conquering a town can create one zombie brigade, a city two.  Immune to Death magic.
 
Starting troop type and reinforcements are Death Seekers.  Can be converted to Zombies on a 1 to 1
brigade basis via spell.
 
Ghouls – If two or more Ghoul brigades, causes fear in battles resulting in 10% reduction in enemy group morale or PC defense value.  Stacks with other Fear abilities.
 
Wights – Immune to battle and death Magic against them.
 
Spectres – can fly, if all brigades in the group can fly. 
 
Sacrifice – A spell to sacrifice a general to make another general in group a Marshal.  Can sacrifice a Marshal to make another Marshal in group a Warlord.  Must name the leaders (by name not rank) to be both sacrificed and elevated.
 
Nazguls.  Spell to convert a Marshal I or higher leader into a Nazgul Marshal.  Like Wraith for leaders: cannot be killed except by magic weapon but cannot advance.  A Warlord becomes a Nazgul Marshal II, a Marshal II becomes a Nazgul Marshal I, a Marshal I to a Nazgul Marshal.