After playing…my ideas and suggestions

[Kreuzberger]

First of all, thank you for this little gem you made. Your Artwork is charming and you really did some research about medieval style, architecture and items. Even more you implemented european myths and folk lore in an excellent way, that immediatly caught my attention as a german. So, while playing, I had some ideas, that could add to your game content.
1. Small enemies
Inspired by your usage of characters out of european folk lore, I had the idea, that very small enemies could bring some more diversity into the ranks of enemies in the game. Every enemy in the game is represented by a platform, topped by a torso, head and equipment….so small enemies could look like this: a platform, topped by three little torsi/heads plus miniature equipment or daggers/knifes used like swords, positioned triangular (one front, two behind). In battle, as like the goblin wolfrider, the player must kill three enemies on one platform instead of one enemy.
Then searching through germany´s folk lore, I found some example…..the small folk (das kleine Volk). Tales speaking of very small humanlike people, who live in hills with burrowed hallways, that have many doors left and right. They live in peace with human kind, often lending exquisite household items to human weddings, because of being also capable craftsmen. They are living in kingdoms and sometimes lay war on each other, with tales about a human sometimes helping a small folk king in a battle. In the tales the small folk leaves the human countries, when the humans start to adapt to christianity, because of the too loud belltowers. Short said, there is much of them in nowadays Lord of the Ring dwarfs, but in the tales their max size is defined as not growing bigger then up to your knee and beards/axes are not mandatory. ^ ^
So, the small folk could be a rather rare encounter, which confronts the player with a moral question….how will the player deal with them? Just exploit/plunder them, trade with them or even more helping them in their wars? They could be a kind of rare employer.
Other possible very small enemies: irish redcaps, hobgoblins(german Kobold), noisy ghost (Poltergeist), vampiric bats, willow wisps, moss women (Waldweibel)

2. Flying enemies
Now why not some flying enemies? Who, for example, can only be attacked in melee after they attacked first? Folk lore again tells of cockatrices (Basilisk) and harpyies. Also I remember from the resident evil movies an attack of masses of carrion eating birds, who went mad and crazed after eating too much zombie flesh. They could also make a very interesting small enemy, let´s call them blood ravens/vultures, full of necromantic magic they digested with their food. A collateral effect of necromancy. Also, ranged weapons should get boni versus flying enemies, giving them some more sense in the game.

3. other enemy types from the folk tales
In german folk lore there are also the wild men (Wilde Männer), the wild hunt (Wilde Jagd), the mountain monk (Berggeist), the white woman( Weisse Frau), the glas manikin(Glasmännchen) and the lindworm (Lindwurm). Wild men are described as 2 metre and more tall extremly strong men with very large beards, clothed in fir tree leaves and equipped with whole treetrunks. A good idea for a wildernes encounter. The wild hunt at the other hand is a dammed lost soul of a former sinner (archvice of wrath), hunted by the forces of hell high in the sky over and through the forests of the world. And woe to the mortal gettin in their way. The mountain monk now is a spirit in human form, mostly clothed like a monk, that can be met in mountains and near mining operations of the human race. He can be both, good and evil. And he likes good humble people, who work hard. He could make a good storyline. The white woman at the other hand is a stationary ghost, haunting a special place, to which it is bound by history and tale. It can lead a mortal being to big riches in the ruin, if the mortal helps here to be released by doing something ghastly and terrible. Then the glas manikin….also a nature spirit in the form of a small folk being, but totally made out of glas. He can be found in the woods around the working places of charburners and glasworks. He is a good spirit and tries to help the poor, but always with a moral test. He also could give a story line. And in the end the lindworm can be a very strong single enemy, maybe with lindworm brood as small enemy type next to it. It should be non flying, large dragon like, with poisones breath and bite and only be found in the rearest corner of the map, sometimes coming near to human settlements and so presenting the player a very dangerous job but plenty in payment .

4. small idea about the undead
I miss undead without complete jawbones in your game art. :) This would greatly add to the diversity of undead heads and to their ghastly, rotten look.

5. High quality equipment too easily aquired
For my taste, especially weaponry, was too easy to get in game. My suggestion is, that you broad the range of items by dividing them into low quality iron items, which can be bought everywhere and more rare high quality steel equipment in large Settlements, really expensive. Even more I would add bronze equipment used by the ancient undead to underline their origins. Which also can be still deadly….

6. Endgame goals
I am sorry, but me too….I think in the end the player should be given the chance to get himself to a lord´s position with all it´s duties and possibilities, if his company is powerfull enough. In a wartorn feudalistic scenario, this is a realistic option. Just basing the game on the position of being a mercenary alone will take alot of fascination out of it in the long term.

thank you very much for reading

[Kreuzberger]

PS: I forgot trolls and ogres. :P

[SuperCaffeineDude]

1. Small enemies would be great though how they differ from larger enemies will be hard to simulate on a hex grid, my suggestion would be having small units merge into each others hexes to make a beefier unit, i.e Kobold/Sprite + Kobold/Sprite = Kobold/Sprite Duo.
And from there; Group, Gang, Mob, etc. The larger the unit becomes the easier it is to hit, and the more damage it does. When dealt enough damage its swarm size is reduced.

2. I think one problem with flying units is how they might be represented, ideally the difference between a teleporting unit and a flying unit would be that a flying unit can be engaged by archers, and maybe locked into ground combat?? But the art style has a rendition of the upperbody on a pog-like stand, so I’d worry that a hovering unit might look cheap, and might be a pain to find on the z-level plain (like on dwarf-fortress).
In concept though I would love something like that.

3. I would love to see the “Wildmen” used as a bandit sub-faction alongside the “Deserters” and such, since (flags aside) the assets are already on the table. The other creatures you mentioned I’m not so sure about.
I’m pro troll, maybe warhammer-like with health regen, but germanic with fur and nose, with branches they can swing and stones they can hurl. Perhaps in groups of 3, with rare albino trolls that are larger but hate light

[Kreuzberger]

1. That´s what I had in mind…3 small enemies share one hex, or as I called it…one character platform, with three little upper bodies. The player has to kill then 3 enemies instead of one per targeted hex. Like the two necessary kills for the goblin wolfrider.

2. Flying units should be only attackable after they attacked first in melee. Until they go into melee, only ranged weapons can attack them. No need for a z- Level, the art design just need to show the wings for better understanding and maybe a wing symbol for the flying Status, that disappears after the first melee attack of the flyer.

3. Part of my creatures are suitable as enemy mob, others for events/storylines. Have you just said, that germans are trolls? How dare you… :P

[Kreuzberger]

Any feedback from the devs?

[Author]

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