A Big One
I think this would be a great one:
GAME SETUP: MASSIVE PARAMETER VARIABILITY
Illwinter could remain both true to their vision and simultaneously get rid of a lot of balancing worries / balancing gripes by making the way a game is created / the "game setup" screens work (with emphasis, I suppose I would like to suggest, on the plural) radically dynamic.
I have already suggested a few things in this direction (such as "Handicap" settings, etc.), but I would like to elaborate on a few new ideas and addendi:
All of the following could be made adjustable without too much UI overhaul directly in a game setup screen similar to the one which exists now:
- Blood Hunting Affects Unrest: From Exceptionally Much, Very Much, to Default and Hardly. (Alternatively: A slider with numeric values reflecting the Blood Hunt <-> Unrest algorithm.)
- Maximum Number of Events per Turn: /Numeric Slider/ set to Default.
- Blood Hunting Ease: Very Easy - Easy - Default - Difficult - Very Difficult
- Ritual Summons: Very Easy - Easy - Default - Difficult - Very Difficult (makes casting ritual summons cost more gems / cost less gems)
But it would probably be more useful to split the process up with an idea like the following:
In the SELECT NATIONS screen, have FOUR Columns:
1. Nation listings
2. Nation Choices: from these, you can select from Human to Impossible AI
3. Set National Handicaps for this Nation (Default: None): Clicking this button will open the Handicap Screen, at which you can change the following settings:
Gold Income (from +/- 0% to +/- 100%),
Resource Availability (from +/- 0% to +/- 100%),
Ritual Summons Bonus/Penalty (from +/- 0% to +/- 100%),
Unit Hit Point Bonus (from +/- 0% to +/- 100%),
National Forge Bonus/Penalty (from +/- 0% to +/- 100%)
National Gem Income Bonus/Penalty (from +/- 0% to +/- 100%)
4. Set Pretender Handicaps for this Nation: The default is /none/, but clicking this button will allow you to change the number of points which can be spent during God Creation; if this value is positive and the nation is set for computer AI, the computer gets additional bonuses over and above the allowed amount; if the value is used for a Human nation, it will allow a pretender to be chosen with more than the allowed Creation Points and/or disallow a currently loaded pretender as cheating
Quite obviously, this will mean that "view settings" during the game MUST be able to show all of these.
This also presupposes a God Creation Screen with some of the following features:
In the GOD CREATION screens, which you can quit at any time without having to save your god, there is an option for
- Saving God under a particular name in a folder SavedGods
- Load God (which will put up choices from the SavedGods folder
- Set Creation Handicap: The default is Off, but you can create and save Handicapped Gods: there can be +/- anywhere from 5 to 120 points. Gods saved as Handicapped with bonuses or penalties will be flagged as such and can be used in MP games which require handicaps for certain nations
In the GAME SETUP Screen, have FIVE MAIN CHOICES:
1. Set Basic Game Parameters
2. Set Nation and Victory Parameters
3. Set Advanced Parameters
4. Set Alliance Parameters
5. OK (Create Game)
1. Under Basic Parameters, one would find a screen in which we could change
Independent Strength
Magical Site Frequency
Number of Global Enchantments Allowed (0-24, default: 6)
Similar Settings etc.
2. Under Nation and Victory Parameters, we would find a screen in which we could change
Number of Starting Provinces
Type of Victory Conditions: Opens a new screen in which you can set any combination of VCs (including mixing, for instance, Dominion of X and Victory Points of Y)
Victory Conditions under Alliances: Default is "There Can Only Be One", in which only 1 nation can ascend to Godhood; this can be changed to allow two or more nations to ascend as a Pantheonic Alliance if their Alliance meets the victory Conditions.
3. Under Set Advanced Parameters, we find a screen in which global changes can be set for all nations:
- Blood Hunting Affects Unrest: From Exceptionally Much, Very Much, to Default and Hardly. (Alternatively: A slider with numeric values reflecting the Blood Hunt <-> Unrest algorithm.)
- Maximum Number of Events per Turn: /Numeric Slider/ set to Default.
- Blood Hunting Ease: Very Easy - Easy - Default - Difficult - Very Difficult
- Ritual Summons: Very Easy - Easy - Default - Difficult - Very Difficult (makes casting ritual summons cost more gems / cost less gems)
- Global Forge Bonus/Penalty (from +/- 0% to +/- 100%)
- Global Gem Income Bonus/Penalty (from +/- 0% to +/- 100%)
- Global Ritual Spell Bonus/Penalty (from +/- 0% to +/- 100%) -- this sets an additional bonus/penalty for casting ritual spells cumulative with that for Summons
- Global Enchantment Bonus/Penalty (from +/- 0% to +/- 100%)
4. Under Alliance Settings, we find a screen in which we can decide:
- Whether alliances can be allowed at all (default: Off). Clicking the "off" button opens up a new screen from which we can select Alliances Allowed from Start and Alliances Allowed During Game
- Whether AIs can be pre-allied with one another or not (Default: Off). Clicking the "off" button opens a screen in which we can see all of the AI nations in the game on the left hand of the screen. On the right, there are 8 "team" pull-down menus; we can add any nation from the pull-down menu to any one of the teams, thus creating 1-8 pre-allied "sides" of AI alliances pre-set and unchangable for the course of the game.
- Whether Humans can be allied with AIs: Similar to the above screen, this default is Off, but one can make pre-allied Human and AI "teams".
- Whether Humans can be pre-allied with Humans: Default is Off. Clicking "On" will set up "teams" which are unchangeable for the course of the game. Options here include: Any one team member who wins the victory conditions will win the victory conditions for the whole team, or Cumulative Victory (all VPs, Provinces, Research, Dominion, etc. is counted together)
- Whether Humans can ally with Humans during the course of a game via the Alliance Interface: Default is Off. Clicking this will open up a screen in which you can stipulate
the minimum number of turns you must remain allied before you can select "Break Alliance" from the Alliance Interface in-game (default: 2)
the maximum number of other human players that can be allied with one another at one time (default: 2). Any players that have agreed to an alliance can move through the others' provinces unharmed and are treated as one nation for combat purposes (Nation 1's troops in Nation 2's province will fight together with Nation 2's troops and PD on the right side of the battlefield against any non-allied attacks; all buffs work for both sides.)
This presupposes an Alliance or Alliance Interface screen in-game. Using this would allow players to form Alliances within 2 turns time in-game. E.g.: Opening this screen would allow you to send a (binding in contractual sense) offer to another human nation for an Alliance for X number of turns, whereas X is a number between /minimum stipulated/ (see above) and "indefinate". The human player to which this offer is sent will receive notification in his Alliance screen next month, and she can choose to accept or deny. If players accept, the Alliance takes force on the start of the next thereafter as the very first event. If more than one Alliance is sent per month (e.g., if both nation 1 and 2 send an offer to the other at the same time), and both are accepted, the offer with the highest number of minimum turns of alliance is considered valid. Conflicting Alliances cannot be made -- the computer checks at the beginning of each turn whether an alliance can be legal or not, and if Alliances are accepted, making other offers sent in the meantime invalid, then these will be returned with the appropriate message (e.g. "Your offer for Alliance has been deemed invalid.", such as would be the case if Nation 1 allies with Nation 2, and Nation 2 offers an alliance to Nation 3, which is an enemy of Nation 1 -- in such a case, BOTH nations 1 and 2 must send an identical Alliance Offer to nation 3 simultaneously to have a valid contract.)
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