Overlords - Experimental game. Concept thread

rdonj · #1 August 26th, 2009, 11:06 AM

Alright, so my Factions concept never really took off (well, maybe it secretly did and I should have tried setting up a game for it). Here's another.

Overlords: These nations have pre-defined empires, 10 provinces large with 3 starting forts (including the capitol). No labs/temples added on the extra forts. Their provinces already have magic sites at the beginning of the game so their advantages over lesser nations should be even more so. However, they can only attack normal nations or independents if their pretender is in the army or if they have dominion in the normal nation's (or independent's) province (an overlord cannot take a normal nation's capitol unless all other overlords are dead). They can attack other overlord nations whenever they want though. Overlord nations will be seperated by normal nations, but will be given gatestones to allow them to attack each other more easily. Gatestones will also be moved down to construction 6, and made forgeable only with e9s9. Overlords will start with one gate stone.

Victory conditions: Either all other overlords must be dead and the sole surviving overlord in control of at least 5 capitols for 3 turns OR control 10 capitols for 3 turns(assuming all nations).

Only more experienced players will be considered for overlord positions. Otherwise the game would quickly come unbalanced. Either all overlords will have stealth preachers, or none will. Overlords will not be able to choose blood sacrificing nations.

Normals: Normal starting empires, one province, no extra sites or anything. May do whatever they wish, except that they may not cast ANY globals. Note that the Overlords may cast these spells should they so choose.

Victory Conditions: For a normal nation to win, they must control at least 5 capitols for 3 turns, including an overlord capitol.

Since there are spells that some people are allowed to use and others are not, either they will have to be made into nationals (annoying, and possibly mod conflict inducing?) or there will have to be a game master to deal with unallowed globals. I am leaning towards the game master idea as without one, it is possible one of the players of an Overlord nation could mess up the game by doing things he's not supposed to. Plus as I intend to admin rather than play, it would give me an easy way to know what turn the game is on and when hostings are.

Suggested Settings:
Age - QM has suggested MA, this seems a decent starting point. Any should work though.
Pre-set starts
Mods - cbm 1.5 or whatever the latest version happens to be at the time, no gem gens, and if water nations are included UWGIM.
Gold/resource/supplies/indies - normal
Players - as many as possible
Magic sites - 20
Renaming - on
HoF - 15
Research - difficult
All other settings default, on a 15-20 PPP map.

Comments, criticism, and sign ups welcome. Veteran player input on settings is particularly desired and may result in changes to the above.

quantum_mechani · #2 August 26th, 2009, 12:52 PM

I really like this idea, but I'd rather keep it to one era. More thematic, more manageable, and there would probably be trouble filling up a mega game anyway.

rdonj · #3 August 26th, 2009, 12:57 PM

That is a good point. It would be fun from my perspective to make it into a mega game, but probably unrealistic.

Illuminated One · #4 August 26th, 2009, 01:47 PM

As long as you restrict only globals I really see no need to do anything about it. If someone who isn't allowed to use them uses them just kick him out.

If you really want to have no access I could probably change a script of mine to make national spells out of the globals.

rdonj · #5 August 26th, 2009, 01:57 PM

If there's a game master though, there is no need to kick them out. Just take down their global with a massive dispel. Plus the game master nation (hidden in some corner somewhere with no connected provinces) can punish someone who goes against the rules and attacks people they're not supposed to, again without having to search for a new player to play the nation after kicking them out. But really being physically in the game and getting turn files when the game hosts would be immensely useful to me. I am admining 3 games right now already and it is getting a bit difficult to keep track of everything that's going on from turn to turn :P That said the game master bit is not completely necessary. It would just be convenient.

The script would be useful in either case though, actually

rdonj · #6 August 26th, 2009, 03:23 PM

QM has suggested that this game be MA with jotunheim, abysia and ashdod as the Overlords, along with any underwater nations that happen to be in the game. I have no particular problem with this, however if a different era would be preferable that can be changed. Thread title updated to reflect this.

TheDemon · #7 August 26th, 2009, 05:23 PM

I wouldn't put a forge bonus site (or any bonus site) anywhere on the map. Why not just hand out a gate stone and if they lose it, too bad for them. If they're forgable, they can be wished for easilly enough. I don't think that's a bad thing.

rdonj · #8 August 26th, 2009, 06:34 PM

Actually yes, the construction sites are unnecessary. So scratch that from my post. The rest stands, will update again later when I am thinking more coherently.

GrudgeBringer · #9 August 26th, 2009, 07:06 PM

I think ths could blossom into a really good idea that could take off for games in the future.

I was just wondering why you would go MA with very difficult research?

It would seem that for the 'underlings' to compete,magic would have to come into play. It wasn't clear to me if the Overlords where the only ones to be able to cast globals, or if no one could.

I would think EA would be good for the underlings and maybe MA for some of the overlords ect.

Just an opinion off the top of my head.

rdonj · #10 August 27th, 2009, 02:12 AM

MA was pretty much an arbitrary decision for this particular game. Difficult-very difficult research is to keep magic more rare. Basically the overlords are the only people who have much magic. They also have most of the gems in the game. They need these advantages to be competetive, and it creates a scenario that could lead to interesting diplomacy between normal nations and overlords.

EA would probably be good for overlords actually, because there are so many nonhuman superpowers. In the end I decided to go against it on the basis that ea super nations are sort of cliche here :P

So, any takers?