Do You Like to be Teased?

[Lord Diamond]

Perhaps each kingdom should be required to take a negative attribute. Or perhaps NOT having to take a negative attribute might cost a point. Just looking at it from another angle.

[Ry Vor]

I'm fine with that in concept, think I did that a bit in Fall of Rome III, but I haven't spent much time developing negative attributes.  We have some magic disadvantages, movement, and some traits involve a negative bit to an overall positive trait.

In general, without selecting Dynasty as a customization, you don't start with a Prince / Princess.  You also in any case don't start with a baron unless choosing that as a customization option.  Range is normally 8 for emissaries and agents, 12 kingdoms instead of 15, and fewer PC's per region all make for a more epic and longer game.

[Drogo]

It seemed like earlier in this thread people were 'calling' kingdoms and some of those requests sounded like they were being granted.

I would like to add my name to list of people who would like to play in the first game although if you don't have room I am also ok with waiting until a later game has room.

Also, really like UM's idea of an accelerated first game to locate any problems early and get them fixed before the game goes truly public.

[Ry Vor]

Kingdoms will not be granted in the first Choosing games at this time.  I would guess its still 4 - 6 weeks off.  And that's on me, having not finished the design.  Again, even the most dedicated pros drastically underestimate what's involved in Alamaze.  While that makes it about the only computer game that has survived for 30 years, it also means there are lots of i's to dot and T's to cross, etc. 

[Ry Vor]

Troop Types, Combat and Upkeep.

We are at 57 brigade types for The Choosing.  Kingdom types (24), Recruitable, 565 (need better phrase), and Summoned.

The combat system is changing.  Alamaze Classic had predefined troop types, like light infantry, medium cavalry.  We squeezed very diverse kingdoms into that, for example, Red Dragons.  Now Red Dragons are Red Dragons, not mashed into 12 troop types.  The defense value is now going to be independent from attack values, as opposed to a derivative of it. 

The phases are changing.  So now there is long range and short range missile fire (instead of one phase), the Charge phase replaces the Cavalry phase wherein shock troops like heavy infantry participate, and there is an independent value for Storm phases (phases against PC's after missile phases).  

Because of how phases are now individually defined, as opposed to derived from a set of troop types, there will be fewer setup adjustments.  For example, Red Dragons don't need bonuses everywhere because its already built in.  But Flying will still have an advantage against PC's, Elves will have missile advantages in forest, Dwarves will have them in the mountains, etc.

The upkeep costs are changing.  My method has been more tuned, but not exactly, to the strength of the troops.  So one thing that will catch players' eyes is a Red Dragon brigade will cost significantly more to upkeep, but they are twice as tough as the next toughest brigade type.  Those types are Phoenix (rare), Hill Giants, Sacred Order, Trolls, and Mammoths.  Meanwhile, some of the weaker troop types like the wizard kingdoms, Underworld will be cheaper than in Classic.

[Jumpingfist]

Good stuff as always. Going to be fun exploring these new troop types and seeing how they work against each other

[Ry Vor]

This segment of design on the new brigades has been quite the project, but here is a synopsis for Companion brigade types:

Companions (565's):
1.  There are 22 different Companion brigade types, up from about 5 in 2nd Cycle;
2.  All 24 kingdoms have at least 2 (up to 7) available Companion brigade types subject to conditions;
3.  There are three requirements for obtaining a Companion brigade:  terrain(s) (from 1 to 4), Leadership (from Captain to Marshal), and a group brigade(s) requirement, which can be requiring the group to have at least 3 kingdom brigades, or to require a Veteran or Elite brigade, depending on the Companion.
4.  There is a maximum number of Companion brigades by type per group, from 1 (Phoenix), to 10 (Orcs, for example);
5.  All Companion brigade types are available to at least two kingdoms (up to 9 kingdoms)
6.  Some Companion brigade types have special abilities.

Example:  Mammoths are available to six different kingdoms, they can be obtained from the plains only, require a Marshal, require an Elite brigade in the group, and there can be no more than 3 in the group, and they are expensive to maintain. They are superior in the Charge phase and in Storm phases.

So there are many more Companion types, with a consistent set of requirements that allows us to plug and play, they are harder to get, but all kingdoms can get at least two types (in addition to kingdom, recruitable brigades and summoned brigades).

A reminder that groups can now have up to seven different brigade types, and brigades will have an experience level from Green, Regular, Veteran, or Elite.  Green can be trained to Regular, but gaining Veteran and Elite have certain combat requirements. Some have special abilities, such as flying as you are familiar with, and invisibility for Chameleon brigades, as examples.

[Lord Diamond]

Very cool! I do have questions. Will different experience levels of the same type of brigade take up different brigade slots? I appreciate that we will have seven brigade types, but that won't be a lot when I have Green, Regular, Veteran, and Elite brigades of the same type. What happens when your slots are full and some of your brigades get recruited while others do not?

[unclemike]

Here's a sample to help answer your questions but it's only a rough draft...

[Ry Vor]

Well, that's a big reason why we are moving to having 7 brigade types available in a group.  Starting kingdom brigades are going to be Regular or better, as (I think) reinforcements will be.  The Companions, gathered from the wild, will likely have initial Regular experience.  But recruited brigades, like Westmen or Northmen or Zamorians or Huns, may start Green.

So in 2nd Cycle we don't have much of that, and have just the three slots available, but we recently did allow a player to train all recruits at once to veteran so another slot wasn't needed, so that was sort of like adding half a slot.  Now we will have seven.  But yes, if you want to recruit, or even allow for experience advancement, you can't have all seven slots used up. Unless we decide all brigades of a certain experience move as one, which is a possibility to sort of smooth that.