Maelstrom Discussion

[Ry Vor]

I'm coalescing the Witch's Brew sufficiently to have sent a preliminary draft to Mike on the general concepts in bullet form of Maelstrom, its only 8 pages or so of bullet points.

From there, we pare down what makes the cut for Maelstrom, what waits in abeyance, and what gets scrapped.  i hope to have the documentation done by Feb 1 on Maelstrom so Mike won't be bored when January Changes are all in effect.   

So here is where I am heading in broad strokes.  We are still debating what is a new scenario vs. what constitutes change more to an Alamaze 4th Cycle.

That caveat stated, here are some of the main intentions for Maelstrom and to follow a couple months after that, a second new map with mainly the same rules.

• New map with a large central sea.
  
• Emphasis on sea power changes in all regards.  Different fleet types, such as barges, merchants, privateers, corsairs, dreadnaughts.  Each has different requirements for producing, such as a PC improvement in a port.  Coastal becomes a new criteria with big bonuses, more sea interactions and decisions due to the economic benefits of sea trade.  Admirals and Commodores.  A Mercantile Fleet with quality 15 and possibly the Navigation technology acquired could do trans-oceanic trade on certain turns (not every turn) to return vast riches, influence gain, and experience. 
  
• Second influence in design on Covert activities.  Less assassination, more kidnapping, capturing, rescue, heroism.  New model for sabotage, new orders for poisoning, diversion, restrictions on counter espionage, infiltration, more results dependent on agent level. 
  
• The separation of Influence into Influence (political strength) and Rulership (Orders available).
  
• The potential (and this is one that may have to be deferred) of adding character classes of Hero, Sage, and Engineer.  An engineer might be needed for PC improvements, a Sage to discover technologies like war machines, Green Fire, silk sails, thick walls.  An engineer to make it happen.  A Hero that is specialized in Unusual Encounters but can level, can operate in many areas like giving recruiting, political, military, and economic commands.
  
• Lots of PC improvements, that increase by level, and may require an Engineer.
  
• At least two new kingdoms.  With new map, new kingdoms become dispersed, likely the Ancient Ones and the Demon Princes are two of the dispersed.
  
• Revise artifacts.  Revise Foreknowledge criteria of artifact placement, and quest artifact and related key not more than 3 areas distant from one another.
  
• A refinement of existing tactics and the introduction of a few new ones like Shield Wall, Counter-Attack, Oblique.
  
• Companion brigades redefined to reduce some availability to wizard kingdoms, a couple new ones, but generally about a 15% reduction in Companion brigades which have been a bit too important so far.
  
• New code of kingdom conduct that only declared enemy emissaries can be put to death, otherwise held in prison, with less chance of Escape but more emphasis on rescue.
  
• Hopefully Giants and Dragons as individual characters of a sort.
  
• Reduce cost of some HP orders, at least to Devout Kingdoms and perhaps wizard supremacy kingdoms become Skeptical, where HP related orders are at 150%.
  That's enough for now.  Probably shooting for Spring for Maelstrom.

[Jumpingfist]

with lots of water perhaps a water dwelling race would be interesting like merfolk race. That has bonuses for water and coastal and restrictions on land. I am thinking something like no kingdom brigades on land must be humans/companions. They would maybe not even require fleets but naturally fight with a sea power rating with there brigades.

Also With overhaul of the sea warfare some things like intercepting across water zones should also be fixed. I always found it kind of cheesy to send a single brigades across the water then intercept your own group to get to viperhead or Avalon

[VballMichael]

Actually, I just saw someone do that in a game. Moved an army group across water by intercepting their other group already across the water. That has to be a glitch.

[Drogo]

Yeah, that's got to be fixed.

[Acererak]

Seems cool to me Rick. I like the new focus on seapower and changes to PCs.

[unclemike]

Personally, I feel that every expansion should include lots of new kingdoms, spells, and troop types. That's what makes things interesting from the player's perspective and is common practice among successful games. For example, the exciting part of when Age of Empires had an expansion pack is not the modified rules of the game but rather all of the new kingdoms that may be played (e.g., Age of Kings, War Chiefs, Asian Dynasties, African Kingdoms, ...etc.).

So if Ry Vor may indulge me, let's have a friendly contest. Say the best 8 or so new kingdoms have a chance of making it in the Maelstrom expansion with perhaps a free game setup as a reward. That combined with the 2 new kingdoms that he already has planned to do would provide us enough of a difference from The Choosing to make Maelstrom stand out as a distinctive and interesting expansion of the game.

Here's my new kingdom proposal (the more detail you provide, the greater the chances of it making the cut):

Elementalist (new wizard kingdom):

• Replaces the Sorcerer and Warlock kingdoms. Reason is that those two have very little distinctive differences between them (e.g., one may have better spell lists like earlier teleport spells than the other but that's about it). Since those two are uninteresting and vanilla-like, I would replace them with a more interesting Elementalist wizard kingdom. The three wizard kingdoms of Maelstrom would be Necromancer, Illusionist, and Elementalist.
  
• Elementalists are masters of the elements so they get an extra 25% bonus to the Lightning, Firestrike, Tornado, and Earthquake spells.
  
• New summon troop spells (only for the Elementalist):
  
•    Air Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on plains, 10% reduction vs. enemy missiles (wind storm)
  
•    Fire Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on desert, 10% bonus to group combat strength (valor)
  
•    Earth Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on mountains, 10% bonus to group defense (shield)
  
•    Water Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on water, 10% bonus to magic attacks (e.g., wights antimagic)
  
• New spells:
  
•    Tidal Wave - 4th level combat spell for Elementalist, inflicts 1500 per wizard level, may only be cast on water (assuming water combat will be changed from fleet battle to group vs group as normally)
  
•    Ice Torrent - 6th level combat spell for Elementalist, inflicts 1800 per wizard level, blasts shards of sharp ice crystals into enemy forces
  
•    Summon Kraken Elder - more powerful version of the Kraken spell, makes Pirates pee themselves
  
•    Hurricane - 7th level regional spell for Elementalist, inflicts 20% permanent damage to pc defense (so Famine damages food, Plague damages census, Hurricane does structural damage). [BTW, for this next expansion I would like to separate regional spells into two classifications (land-based and combat-based) so that you may have one land-based regional like famine active alongside a combat-related regional like cold darkness.]
  
•    Blizzard - 8th level regional spell for Elementalist, slows all movement in region to 25% than normal (including flyers), inflicts 15% morale damage to non-allied groups, makes all water areas traversable without ships (frozen over), kingdom capitals within region have 0% food spoilage
  
• New Companions:
  
•    Water Mephit - small sprite-like creature, may fly like bats
  
•    Nereids - medium sized aquatic troop type, may heal themselves (attrition goes to 0% when in water)
  
•    Leviathan - very strong beast (think Ent on steroids), may crawl on land and travel with group, causes 20% fear vs pc/group, tough to bring down, max 1 per group
  
• New Artifacts:
  
•    Emerald Crystal - Superior class artifact, recon a single area at L10 agent level (may pick up invisible groups, hidden pcs), Elementalists has Foreknowledge of this artifact on turn 0
  
  

Again, the more detail that you provide, the greater the chances that it'll make the cut. I may come up with another new kingdom that is more aquatic-like in nature later on...

[Avantar]

Personally, I feel that every expansion should include lots of new kingdoms, spells, and troop types. That's what makes things interesting from the player's perspective and is common practice among successful games. For example, the exciting part of when Age of Empires had an expansion pack is not the modified rules of the game but rather all of the new kingdoms that may be played (e.g., Age of Kings, War Chiefs, Asian Dynasties, African Kingdoms, ...etc.).

So if Ry Vor may indulge me, let's have a friendly contest. Say the best 8 or so new kingdoms have a chance of making it in the Maelstrom expansion with perhaps a free game setup as a reward. That combined with the 2 new kingdoms that he already has planned to do would provide us enough of a difference from The Choosing to make Maelstrom stand out as a distinctive and interesting expansion of the game.

Here's my new kingdom proposal (the more detail you provide, the greater the chances of it making the cut):

Elementalist (new wizard kingdom):

• Replaces the Sorcerer and Warlock kingdoms. Reason is that those two have very little distinctive differences between them (e.g., one may have better spell lists like earlier teleport spells than the other but that's about it). Since those two are uninteresting and vanilla-like, I would replace them with a more interesting Elementalist wizard kingdom. The three wizard kingdoms of Maelstrom would be Necromancer, Illusionist, and Elementalist.
  
• Elementalists are masters of the elements so they get an extra 25% bonus to the Lightning, Firestrike, Tornado, and Earthquake spells.
  
• New summon troop spells (only for the Elementalist):
  
•    Air Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on plains, 10% reduction vs. enemy missiles (wind storm)
  
•    Fire Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on desert, 10% bonus to group combat strength (valor)
  
•    Earth Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on mountains, 10% bonus to group defense (shield)
  
•    Water Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on water, 10% bonus to magic attacks (e.g., wights antimagic)
  
• New spells:
  
•    Tidal Wave - 4th level combat spell for Elementalist, inflicts 1500 per wizard level, may only be cast on water (assuming water combat will be changed from fleet battle to group vs group as normally)
  
•    Ice Torrent - 6th level combat spell for Elementalist, inflicts 1800 per wizard level, blasts shards of sharp ice crystals into enemy forces
  
•    Summon Kraken Elder - more powerful version of the Kraken spell, makes Pirates pee themselves
  
•    Hurricane - 7th level regional spell for Elementalist, inflicts 20% permanent damage to pc defense (so Famine damages food, Plague damages census, Hurricane does structural damage). [BTW, for this next expansion I would like to separate regional spells into two classifications (land-based and combat-based) so that you may have one land-based regional like famine active alongside a combat-related regional like cold darkness.]
  
•    Blizzard - 8th level regional spell for Elementalist, slows all movement in region to 25% than normal (including flyers), inflicts 15% morale damage to non-allied groups, makes all water areas traversable without ships (frozen over), kingdom capitals within region have 0% food spoilage
  
• New Companions:
  
•    Water Mephit - small sprite-like creature, may fly like bats
  
•    Nereids - medium sized aquatic troop type, may heal themselves (attrition goes to 0% when in water)
  
•    Leviathan - very strong beast (think Ent on steroids), may crawl on land and travel with group, causes 20% fear vs pc/group, tough to bring down, max 1 per group
  
• New Artifacts:
  
•    Emerald Crystal - Superior class artifact, recon a single area at L10 agent level (may pick up invisible groups, hidden pcs), Elementalists has Foreknowledge of this artifact on turn 0
  
  

Again, the more detail that you provide, the greater the chances that it'll make the cut. I may come up with another new kingdom that is more aquatic-like in nature later on...

I know the regions experience "Summer" and "Winter" at different times, but what if Blizzard were less effective during "Summer" months and more so during "Winter" months.

[Avantar]

Personally, I feel that every expansion should include lots of new kingdoms, spells, and troop types. That's what makes things interesting from the player's perspective and is common practice among successful games. For example, the exciting part of when Age of Empires had an expansion pack is not the modified rules of the game but rather all of the new kingdoms that may be played (e.g., Age of Kings, War Chiefs, Asian Dynasties, African Kingdoms, ...etc.).

So if Ry Vor may indulge me, let's have a friendly contest. Say the best 8 or so new kingdoms have a chance of making it in the Maelstrom expansion with perhaps a free game setup as a reward. That combined with the 2 new kingdoms that he already has planned to do would provide us enough of a difference from The Choosing to make Maelstrom stand out as a distinctive and interesting expansion of the game.

Here's my new kingdom proposal (the more detail you provide, the greater the chances of it making the cut):

Elementalist (new wizard kingdom):

• Replaces the Sorcerer and Warlock kingdoms. Reason is that those two have very little distinctive differences between them (e.g., one may have better spell lists like earlier teleport spells than the other but that's about it). Since those two are uninteresting and vanilla-like, I would replace them with a more interesting Elementalist wizard kingdom. The three wizard kingdoms of Maelstrom would be Necromancer, Illusionist, and Elementalist.
  
• Elementalists are masters of the elements so they get an extra 25% bonus to the Lightning, Firestrike, Tornado, and Earthquake spells.
  
• New summon troop spells (only for the Elementalist):
  
•    Air Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on plains, 10% reduction vs. enemy missiles (wind storm)
  
•    Fire Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on desert, 10% bonus to group combat strength (valor)
  
•    Earth Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on mountains, 10% bonus to group defense (shield)
  
•    Water Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on water, 10% bonus to magic attacks (e.g., wights antimagic)
  
• New spells:
  
•    Tidal Wave - 4th level combat spell for Elementalist, inflicts 1500 per wizard level, may only be cast on water (assuming water combat will be changed from fleet battle to group vs group as normally)
  
•    Ice Torrent - 6th level combat spell for Elementalist, inflicts 1800 per wizard level, blasts shards of sharp ice crystals into enemy forces
  
•    Summon Kraken Elder - more powerful version of the Kraken spell, makes Pirates pee themselves
  
•    Hurricane - 7th level regional spell for Elementalist, inflicts 20% permanent damage to pc defense (so Famine damages food, Plague damages census, Hurricane does structural damage). [BTW, for this next expansion I would like to separate regional spells into two classifications (land-based and combat-based) so that you may have one land-based regional like famine active alongside a combat-related regional like cold darkness.]
  
•    Blizzard - 8th level regional spell for Elementalist, slows all movement in region to 25% than normal (including flyers), inflicts 15% morale damage to non-allied groups, makes all water areas traversable without ships (frozen over), kingdom capitals within region have 0% food spoilage
  
• New Companions:
  
•    Water Mephit - small sprite-like creature, may fly like bats
  
•    Nereids - medium sized aquatic troop type, may heal themselves (attrition goes to 0% when in water)
  
•    Leviathan - very strong beast (think Ent on steroids), may crawl on land and travel with group, causes 20% fear vs pc/group, tough to bring down, max 1 per group
  
• New Artifacts:
  
•    Emerald Crystal - Superior class artifact, recon a single area at L10 agent level (may pick up invisible groups, hidden pcs), Elementalists has Foreknowledge of this artifact on turn 0
  
  

Again, the more detail that you provide, the greater the chances that it'll make the cut. I may come up with another new kingdom that is more aquatic-like in nature later on...

I know the regions experience "Summer" and "Winter" at different times, but what if Blizzard were less effective during "Summer" months and more so during "Winter" months.

Also on your proposed Kingdom, what if the Elementals  were immune to certain spells. i.e. Earth Elementals immune to Earthquake, Fire Elementals immune to Firestrike and Wall of Fire?

[Devildog]

Personally, I feel that every expansion should include lots of new kingdoms, spells, and troop types. That's what makes things interesting from the player's perspective and is common practice among successful games. For example, the exciting part of when Age of Empires had an expansion pack is not the modified rules of the game but rather all of the new kingdoms that may be played (e.g., Age of Kings, War Chiefs, Asian Dynasties, African Kingdoms, ...etc.).

So if Ry Vor may indulge me, let's have a friendly contest. Say the best 8 or so new kingdoms have a chance of making it in the Maelstrom expansion with perhaps a free game setup as a reward. That combined with the 2 new kingdoms that he already has planned to do would provide us enough of a difference from The Choosing to make Maelstrom stand out as a distinctive and interesting expansion of the game.

Here's my new kingdom proposal (the more detail you provide, the greater the chances of it making the cut):

Elementalist (new wizard kingdom):

• Replaces the Sorcerer and Warlock kingdoms. Reason is that those two have very little distinctive differences between them (e.g., one may have better spell lists like earlier teleport spells than the other but that's about it). Since those two are uninteresting and vanilla-like, I would replace them with a more interesting Elementalist wizard kingdom. The three wizard kingdoms of Maelstrom would be Necromancer, Illusionist, and Elementalist.
  
• Elementalists are masters of the elements so they get an extra 25% bonus to the Lightning, Firestrike, Tornado, and Earthquake spells.
  
• New summon troop spells (only for the Elementalist):
  
•    Air Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on plains, 10% reduction vs. enemy missiles (wind storm)
  
•    Fire Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on desert, 10% bonus to group combat strength (valor)
  
•    Earth Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on mountains, 10% bonus to group defense (shield)
  
•    Water Elemental - 10% morale bonus fighting on water, 10% bonus to magic attacks (e.g., wights antimagic)
  
• New spells:
  
•    Tidal Wave - 4th level combat spell for Elementalist, inflicts 1500 per wizard level, may only be cast on water (assuming water combat will be changed from fleet battle to group vs group as normally)
  
•    Ice Torrent - 6th level combat spell for Elementalist, inflicts 1800 per wizard level, blasts shards of sharp ice crystals into enemy forces
  
•    Summon Kraken Elder - more powerful version of the Kraken spell, makes Pirates pee themselves
  
•    Hurricane - 7th level regional spell for Elementalist, inflicts 20% permanent damage to pc defense (so Famine damages food, Plague damages census, Hurricane does structural damage). [BTW, for this next expansion I would like to separate regional spells into two classifications (land-based and combat-based) so that you may have one land-based regional like famine active alongside a combat-related regional like cold darkness.]
  
•    Blizzard - 8th level regional spell for Elementalist, slows all movement in region to 25% than normal (including flyers), inflicts 15% morale damage to non-allied groups, makes all water areas traversable without ships (frozen over), kingdom capitals within region have 0% food spoilage
  
• New Companions:
  
•    Water Mephit - small sprite-like creature, may fly like bats
  
•    Nereids - medium sized aquatic troop type, may heal themselves (attrition goes to 0% when in water)
  
•    Leviathan - very strong beast (think Ent on steroids), may crawl on land and travel with group, causes 20% fear vs pc/group, tough to bring down, max 1 per group
  
• New Artifacts:
  
•    Emerald Crystal - Superior class artifact, recon a single area at L10 agent level (may pick up invisible groups, hidden pcs), Elementalists has Foreknowledge of this artifact on turn 0
  
  

Again, the more detail that you provide, the greater the chances that it'll make the cut. I may come up with another new kingdom that is more aquatic-like in nature later on...

I know the regions experience "Summer" and "Winter" at different times, but what if Blizzard were less effective during "Summer" months and more so during "Winter" months.

Also on your proposed Kingdom, what if the Elementals  were immune to certain spells. i.e. Earth Elementals immune to Earthquake, Fire Elementals immune to Firestrike and Wall of Fire?

I like the idea of keeping the druid with nature related spells and companions as a 4th wizard kingdom. I also think it would be good to scale back the companions on most wizard kingdoms to make them rely more on summoned troops.

[Avantar]

How about a Kingdom called Netherworld?
A combination of the Underworld and Demon Princes.

Agents and Fanatics are harder to kidnap or assassinate as well as a lessened chance of being captured.

New Order:
Turn Emissary- Through bribery, instead of learning a King's skeleton, the emissary or agent would instead defect to the netherworld. It would have a higher cost than bribing and a lesser chance of success. As well as an increased chance of getting caught.

New Spells

Turn Leader/Wizard- When cast upon group that you are battling, the effected leader would issue orders contradictory to battle plans causing a loss of group strength instead of adding theirs.
When used on a wizard, a spell that targets your group instead targets their own group.