Non-national heroes

Treebeard · #1 October 8th, 2003, 02:04 AM

The game is pratically gold now, so this idea may only enter through a patch, if at all, but I think it's a good one.

I was thinking about heroes that would appear only if you have possession of a type of province, like the druid one, allowing the 'Elder Druid' (nature 3/priest 3) hero to appear through an event.

I can think right now about Amazon Queens, too, as extra heroes.

Perhaps it would be better to make them harder to come by.

Thoughts, guys?

Psitticine · #2 October 8th, 2003, 02:59 AM

Sounds like an excellent idea to me, FWIW. It'd work quite smoothly if, for example, the more provinces you have where you can recruit druids, the more chance Tadgh mag Nuadat will pop up to fight for you.

There are random heroes that might join up with anybody, but this would be a nice addition. Maybe also some "magic-aligned" heroes that, well, like the druid example, are drawn to certain forms of magic would be fun. An off-the-top-of-my-head example: if you have a pretender who is very strong in Astral magic, you might just attract a brilliant astronomer who has Astral magic himself, along with a very high research skill and possible a unique magical item (an Astral telescope that lets him cast scying spells).

Gandalf Parker · #3 October 8th, 2003, 03:10 AM

Hmmmm is it better for game-play that an astral++++ pretender has a better chance of getting an astral++++ hero?

Or for a pretender with no astral to have a high chance of getting an astral+++ hero?

I like the idea but the first thing seems like it would be giving a strong astral-strategy player a big astral boost.

How about this...
If a player improves the province with certain sites then it increases the chance of those heroes. For example, a player finds a Jade Amazon province. This is something important to him so he boosts defense over 20, builds a lab, builds a temple. This shows that he has a need. His "respect" gains him the attention of the Amazon Queen.

[ October 08, 2003, 02:11: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Saber Cherry · #4 October 8th, 2003, 03:39 AM

I like it

In fact, it almost makes me recall the days of MoM, when heroes-errant would drift about and offer their services... and no matter which race you played, you could always hope that your favorite hero would pay you a visit!

Province-specific hero availability would be even more interesting. And incase Mr. Parker hasn't made it complex enough, the tax rate, unrest, and dominion strength should be factored in to the probability of a provincial hero supporting you

-Cherry

Psitticine · #5 October 8th, 2003, 04:00 AM

I can see your point that like attracting like might be overbalancing the scales a bit . . . maybe if the backstory of the heroes offers a reason for them to join certain factions, but they are designed to avoid simply repeating the same strengths?

To recycle my somewhat weak example, say the Master Astronomer had scrying abilities and was a good researcher, but had no other Astral magic himself? His skills would still be useful but not in such a way as to unbalance things. It'd also make good "story" sense that he'd be attracted to an Astral power.

Perhaps a better example would be something like a fallen Marignon Paladin who, after having his family killed by the Inquisition, has turned against them and now seeks out Death magic wielders with which to align himself . . . he'd add an interesting flavor to a nation like Ermor (I can just see him waving the Rod of Death as he leads a charge of Longdead Riders) but not in such a way as to make things unbalanced.

Jasper · #6 October 8th, 2003, 07:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Hmmmm is it better for game-play that an astral++++ pretender has a better chance of getting an astral++++ hero?

IMHO it's definitely better for the astral pretender to get the astral hero. The other route leads to averaging out the factions, which for me takes alot of the flavor away from the game.

fmunoz · #7 October 13th, 2003, 07:17 PM

Instead of "non-national" heroes, the game should feature "traitor" heroes.
Every nation in game should get (at least have a very small %) a heroe from another nation in play.

Marignon: A traitor paladin. Family burned by inquisition.

Ermor: The ghost of a noble pratician imprisioned (and later cursed) after trying to defeat the corrupt governement (he stabbed his fosterfather but the old man was already dead :-)

Arcoscephale: The rebel priestess, she just wanted to marry and have children...

...

Saber Cherry · #8 October 13th, 2003, 07:22 PM

Machaka - A shy, timid girl, who is afraid of spiders. No magic powers, no weapons or armor, but gains berserk+10 and trample when spiders are on the battlefield. At level 3 she gains a spray can of RAID.

Gandalf Parker · #9 October 13th, 2003, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by fmunoz:
Instead of "non-national" heroes, the game should feature "traitor" heroes.
...

I like that. It seems like a good way to increase the appearing heroes in a story-mode way. But there are actually alot of heroes appearing.

The problem I have is that Id like to see some variety in the random troops that join you. Illwinter seems to have things in categories of troops joining you for religious reasons, and everyone else is mercenary.

Maybe troops that are switching sides for other reasons would make sense. But I wouldnt want them to come from another player. That kindof plus here WITH a minus there would be to hard to balance.

Nerfix · #10 October 13th, 2003, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:

quote:
Originally posted by fmunoz:
Instead of "non-national" heroes, the game should feature "traitor" heroes.
...

I like that. It seems like a good way to increase the appearing heroes in a story-mode way. But there are actually alot of heroes appearing.

The problem I have is that Id like to see some variety in the random troops that join you. Illwinter seems to have things in categories of troops joining you for religious reasons, and everyone else is mercenary.

Maybe troops that are switching sides for other reasons would make sense. But I wouldnt want them to come from another player. That kindof plus here WITH a minus there would be to hard to balance.

I like the idea too...

It would definedly spice the game, and who couldn't love a Traitor Paldin?