Suggestion Collection

[ManaSeed]

Doppelganger
Rumors say if you meet a person who looks exactly like you, death is not far away. A Doppelganger takes the appearance and stats from one of your brothers. Nobody knows their true form. According to folk tales, they are ancient spirits that dwell in the deepest woods where no man has arrived before.

Cultist
What drives people to insanity? Is it insecurity towards the cruel world which filled by bandits, undead and orcs? Or is it the desire to bring your loved ones back to life? Would your toughest brother be frightened if a cultist lit himself on fire just to deliver a passionate hug?

[GOD]

I appreciate the input, faithful servant :P It helps me tinker with the suggestions and improve them as much as possible.

Sling:
Bolas probably aren’t European enough, but Goblins will be introducing the nets. Perhaps composite bows could be implemented as more powerful versions that take more AP and fatigue to use. More variety like that would be nice to have.

Randomized backgrounds:
They’d be minor differences for the most part, so it’s mostly for the psychological effect of not knowing for certain what you’re getting. That keeps picking recruits fresh without affecting stability too much , while also making the different backgrounds feel a bit more meaningful, since you’d associate the changes with the different background (even though this wouldn’t be the case).
It’s actually quite interesting that the background penalties and bonuses tend to be minor, but still play a big role in what people choose. While it’s the stats and traits you get that tend to have a larger impact. A small change like this might encourage them to spread their attention a bit more.

Deformed faction:
Not mutants, as that that’s implies a humanoid starting point or a deviation from the normal. You don’t want that, because being able to mentally place them as being similar to something else prevents them from being incomprehensible. Check out Ascendancy and Tone Rebellion (Sacrifice too, to a lesser extent) and you’ll see what I mean. In fact, just play them anyway since they’re amazing games.

The click between this group and the world itself is that they would evoke the feeling found in old mythology and folklore of the world beyond your borders being unknown, frightening and incomprehensible. This is hard to get across with modern examples, as our world is far more charted than it was back then, but it’s part of why the woods are meant to be so terrifying in old stories – it’s beyond the realm of man and anything can be in there. We now ‘know’ more about the contents of the forests and what’s below the mountains and so these stories don’t have the same effect on us, but any setting that does not account for this fear loses a fundamental aspect of the way the world was perceived back then. What better way to reflect this than to add something incomprehensible that the player cannot place? Something unexpected that makes them less certain of what they think they know and don’t know? Just think of people finding creepy glitches in games and flipping out about it, since it shows that what they thought hey knew turned out to not be so certain. That surprise is not close to the fears found in the past, but it does induce the kind of uncertainty that undermines people taking certain aspects about the game world for granted, which helps bring it closer to the medieval time period. In fact, I’m starting to like it more and more as I think about it, providing that the devs are capable of executing the correct atmosphere.

Dodge:
How would it overpower it? Since it only applies to the first hit and not to any that follow (regardless of whether the first hits or not), it can’t be used to create a reliably high defence rating. It’s indirectly actually a slight nerf to the Swordmaster build that stacks melee bonuses and never gets hit, while making the actually viable perk for regular builds. Fiddling with the percentage a bit to not have it give too much is fine, but you probably wouldn’t need to go under 10%.

Nine Lives:
The once per turn thing would be prevented from getting too powerful by basically giving you an almost guaranteed injury (which I expect to stack and be nasty – like losing an arm) in the midst of battle and how it would only help if the last hit on the turn is the one that nearly kills you. Hanging on with 1 HP and probably neither armour nor a shield, is almost always a death sentence if you’re still in combat.

I can see your point though that having it be once per turn effect might be too good for a tier 1, while a once per battle is still far too weak. How about keeping it tier 2 and have it keep the merc alive once per turn when hit with an attack that what would have been a killing blow, at the cost of sustaining an injury and only working when the attack would not have resulted in a fatality. That would make it more of a toughness based perk, rather than luck, and make it fit in better with the Defence tree. More powerful than the current version, though you’d keep the problem of surviving with 1 HP being next to useless when it’s not a wide-spread ability.

I’ve just got an idea though that might be the solution to the Nine Lives problem of being left with 1 HP being useless. Make Nine Lives tier 1 utility. Keep the ability as it is (once per turn), but change how end-result of when it goes into effect. Rather than the unit being left standing with 1 HP, it falls down as if dead and can therefore no longer targeted. Next turn, he gets back up, pushing away anything that was standing on him, and rejoins the fight with 1 HP. Basically, you give him a one-off second wind similar to that of the wiedergängers, except the merc was never technically dead (meaning that if the fight ends before the next turn, he counts as being alive and with 1 HP in the post-battle screen) and can only do it once. The only one capable of attacking him while down would be then be the ghoul with its cannibalize ability. Naturally other units could also take his gear while he’s on the ground. This would remove the problem of Nine Lives leaving you with 1 HP and then immediately dying to the follow up attack. Seems like a great solution to the problem, without making the perk itself overpowered.

Leader type units:
Yup, they’d be a nice way of creating some variety and a tool they can use to work on internal faction differences, while also allowing for more scaling between the different stages of the game. They’re probably planned already, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to make some suggestions on cool mechanics!

Supernatural:
The thing with Lovecraft horror is though that it relies on the monster not being seen and that it can never be beaten, only delayed. A monster that is just there, out in the open, and that can be fought is not Lovecraftian. Might as well try and do something a bit more fitting and interesting (deformed!).

The rat-kin:
Rat-men are great and criminally underused. If you haven’t played it yet, you can have your party members be Rats in Legend of Grimrock 2. One of the few games that lets you do that.

[GOD]

EDIT: Woops, double post and unable to delete it.

[lfish]

Dodge : Another possibility would be if it was always active, but would deactivate any time you’re overwhelmed. So very useful in one on one fights, not so much otherwise.

Deformed : Not entirely sure how it well it would fit without having a more specific example.

Rat-kin: They could fit in pretty well I think. Would have to make sure they were differentiated enough from goblins though. Seems like they could fit into the beasts faction.

Pastoral: I like the idea of defending a flock of sheep from a horde of werewolves or ghouls in the night. Get paid based on how many are still alive after the battle!

[GOD]

Some more old ideas, including the above suggestion on Nine Lives on by itself.

Transferable AP damage:
Have a stun do 9 AP of transferable stun damage to the target, rather than just skipping the next turn. For this to work, ending your turn has to count as the unit having full AP again. This would mean that a stun against a unit with full AP works exactly as it does now – they skip their next turn. Similarly, a unit that decided to wait but still has full AP would just skip that turn like they do now. However, if the unit has decided to wait but spent AP, then the amount of AP damage that remains after being deducted from their AP pool would transfer to the next turn. As a result, you can’t casually use the wait command as a buffer against stuns, because you’ll be hindering yourself in the turn that follows.

For example. A units spends 4 AP and waits. That unit then gets stunned. The turn they were about to receive is skipped and 4 AP is deducted from the AP pool of their next turn.

Shield Bash perk:
This suggestion presupposes the above suggestion on transferable AP damage. Have the Shield Bash perk increase the AP costs of abilities by 1 for a single turn (so movement cost is not increased). So it turns into a method that can be used to prevent the other unit from using two 4 AP abilities, while a two-hander would only be unable to attack when moving across difficult terrain (and not having taken the Pathfinder perk). It also enhances offensive use of shield bash as a way of dealing with an entrenched opponent taking potshots (shield up, stab or slash) by breaking the deadlock. You remove their positional advantage, take the spot and then force them to either use their shield or attack as they can longer do both, for that turn, while standing still. Or make it more useful for breaking a battle line, since people knocked out of it will have more trouble effectively joining the fight again. That way you make the perk increase the flexibility of shield bashing, while two-handers not being able to attack should be situational enough that it is not exploitable (and make pathfinder more attractive for two-handers).

I also thought of a change that is closer to the current fatigue damage of the perk. Rather than having the shield bash perk do a flat amount of fatigue damage, make it increase the amount of fatigue that actions take in the unit its next turn by a percentage. That’s more flexible and useful than the 10 fatigue damage it does now, with a percent based increase in cost being stronger against high fatigue attacks. This could be in addition to the AP increase tweak above, in case that isn’t strong enough on its own, or as a replacement if the two-hander is too exploitable.

Nine Lives:
Make Nine Lives tier 1 utility. Keep the ability as it is (once per turn), but change the end-result of when it goes into effect. Rather than the unit being left standing with 1 HP, it falls down as if dead and can therefore no longer be targeted. Next turn, he gets back up, pushing away anything that was standing on him, and rejoins the fight with 1 HP. Basically, you give him a one-off second wind similar to that of the wiedergängers, except the merc was never technically dead (meaning that if the fight ends before the next turn, he counts as being alive and with 1 HP in the post-battle screen) and can only do it once. The only one capable of attacking him while down would be then be the ghoul with its cannibalize ability. Naturally, other units could also take his gear while he’s on the ground. This would remove the problem of Nine Lives leaving you with 1 HP and then immediately dying to the follow up attack.

/

Wouldn’t that pretty much be mechanically the same as having it work once per turn?

It’s hard to give specific examples, since the point of the design is that it does not rely on familiar convetions. Ascendancy and Tone Rebellion are the best examples of what I mean, though.

Beasts seem more to trend towards individual mythological monsters, rather than an organised groups. I like the idea of putting them in the Wetland faction and turning that faction into a culturally unique Beastmen variant.

[GOD]

Indomitable
The current Indomitable perk isn’t necessarily bad mechanically but it’s not a very attractive pick as a high level defensive perk because of its passivity, in spite of being an active ability. Passive here meaning that it is more reliant on circumstances, rather than planning. That’s not a bad thing, but it makes it a less attractive pick compared to the other active tier 3 perks (not counting Return Favor, which suffers from the same problem). Perfect Focus and Rally the Troops you can easily think of how and when you’ll use it. On the other hand, the moments when you’ll be able to plan ahead on needing Indomitable are far fewer. As a result, I’ve never found myself going beyond tier 2 for the defence tree. It’s always tier 1 and 2.
Instead, how about making it a passive ability that makes it so that the opponent’s abilities can no longer move that character. So no push or pull (including Orc Warriors their ability). He only moves when you want him to move (when sane). That would suit the theme of being an indomitable juggernaut and allow you make a tactical plan, without being overpowering. Being tier 3 keeps it from being a hard-counter to those abilities, since you’re missing out on the really useful abilities of the other perk-trees, while still being a useful addition.

More perks
Perks are a great way of diversifying mercs and are a lot of fun to tinker around with, so I’d like to see more get implemented, without changing the level scale, for more build diversity. Not changing the level scale keeps things from getting overpowered and makes picking the perks more meaningful, compared to having b a boatload of perk-points.

Centre on company
Could be that I just missed it, but a command to centre the screen on the company when on the strategic map would helpful. Sometimes I spend some time looking around the map and need to figure out where my company is, so I have to pause the game and look manually. A shortcut for that would make exploring go smoother.

[Rap]

GOD wrote:

Centre on company
Could be that I just missed it, but a command to centre the screen on the company when on the strategic map would helpful. Sometimes I spend some time looking around the map and need to figure out where my company is, so I have to pause the game and look manually. A shortcut for that would make exploring go smoother.

Press the Return key.

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[GOD]

Ah, I tried backspace and spacebar, but not return since I figured that would be for confirming. Good to know.

[Rap]

Turns out Return is for returning ;)
The Shift key works, too, the same as in tactical combat.

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[GOD]

Huh, I didn’t even know shift does that on the tactical map. That’s useful info and should take away any issue people have with not knowing which merc they’re controlling. This makes me miss the days of getting a juicy manual with lists of all the keyboard commands, though.
Not that I’d remember to use them. I’m the kind of player that plays Starcraft without hotkeys, because I can’t be bothered to memorise what does what. ;) This one should stick, though.

[Author]

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