New game idea: "theocide"

[Alneyan]

So, I was thinking of starting another game, but I would like some feedback on whether there would be any actual interest about the sort of game I have in mind (if there is at least someone else, I will proceed to create the appropriate thread in the MP forum).

As the title says it, it would revolve around the idea of killing a Pretender to defeat the nation, as your Pretender wouldn't get any second chance. If she is killed once, no Call God this time, and your nation would either go to the AI, or be seriously weakened by the nasty host. Immortals may be a problem, which could be solved in a couple of ways: being an Immortal could allow you to die (and be called back) once, but you would otherwise lose the Immortal privileges, or this ability could simply be removed from all Pretenders.

A variant that may be more interesting would be to put one unit in all the capitals, based on the Sphinx (so unable to Teleport), and which would happen to be immobile. Other than that, this unit would probably be your ordinary human commander, with regular slots, statistis and abilities. It would probably be called an Oracle of some sort, or a link allowing the Pretender to stay in the material world, or...

Has such a game be attempted before? Would it appeal to anyone among us? Does it seem too close to a standard game? (I would think so for the first variant, since a Pretender should not have much trouble running away. On the other hand, that might limit the use of SCs) Do I ask too many questions?

Sounds interesting, the oracle, one, seems like its just a capture all the capitals,

[PvK]

Sounds interesting. Personally, I'm over-enlisted in games at the moment, though.

PvK

[Alneyan]

Hmm, annoying that. The oracle would indeed just be a capture-the-capital game.

Perhaps it would be possible to allow the oracle to move until a certain turn? So you could put it where you want until turn 20, and then, I would change the mod to make the Oracle immobile (and without the slots allowing a commander to use Teleport and Astral Travel, if an immobile is allowed to use these rituals, which seems unlikely). Would that sound better, and less predictable?

[Boron]

Hm maybe every nation gets at start an "oracle" , but it is just an ordinary commander . You may move him , but once he dies the game is over for this nation .

If you give each of the oracles something like 2000 exp they are seen in the HoF , so it is easy to check if the oracle is still alive or not .

A defeated nation is then just turned ai .

[Alneyan]

Well, it would probably be too easy to move this commander around then, if she has full slots and no limitations on magic. An Air or Astral empowerment would allow her to move around, and so the nation would only be defeated after the Last province has fallen (or by losing Dominion). I thought it would be pretty much the same problem with Pretenders as targets, and was why I considered proxies instead. On the other hand, having a death warrant on your Pretender could reduce the amount of early independent-bashing by your SC, which might not be a bad thing.

Checking whether the Oracle is alive or not (in the case of a mobile, then completely immobile Oracle) should not be too difficult; if I organise such a game, I will not play, and will merely check if the Oracle is still alive in the chosen province. Putting them in the HoF would be easier, but that would probably prevent anyone else from getting there, if everybody is using a SC prone to be in the HoF as well.

[PvK]

If you're up for the modding effort it would require, one way to achieve a non-immortal pretender would be to make the only pretender available something lame and magicless, but then have players pick pretenders in email to the game master, who could then add them as starting commanders to the player's nation or starting province. Then they can have a pretender-class unit who would not be immortal. Of course, his magic wouldn't give any blessings.

PvK

[Alneyan]

Heh, I like the sound of that PvK. I might be able to allow for blessings (magic on the Pretender) though, if I can figure out how to make Feebleminded units. The Gift could be a solution, but would result in Horror Mark, which is not exactly what is wanted.

Another solution would be to kill the Pretender as many times as needed to remove any magic path, as the blessing effects would still remain, but nothing else. I thought of sending an assassin with a feebleminding weapon, but it would be fairly easy to cure the Pretender afterwards.

The unit Pretender could then be made a Prophet, would spread Dominion and would have Dominion-related statistics. The only two differences would be the heroic abilities for these unit Pretenders (annoying), and the blessing on the unit Pretenders (which would make sense I think).

Otherwise, I feel the actual Pretender (the one you want to kill) should not be allowed to move around with magic assistance, though normal movement would be fine. If you want to risk travelling in the open, more power to you, but no easy Teleporting around. Hmm...

[Alneyan]

It looks like I went on a wild tangent without even noticing it. There seems to be two different game setups in this thread:

- One where a Proxy is mandatory for survival, but happens to be quite useless, and unable to travel magically to boot. If this Proxy dies, the game is over. (The Pretender could act as Proxy as well, though magical movement restrictions should still apply here)

- Another setup where your Pretender does not have any second chance, and is actually closer to being a Prophet (in game mechanisms). Your starting "Pretender" is a useless figurehead, whose only purpose was to alter your blessings.

Anyone would be interested in either of these two? If so, please speak the word, and I will create the appropriate game.