An idea I've been playing with in my head

[Shadow]

For a while now I've been playing with the idea of capital cities in my head. I think I may have posted about them before, but I wanted to see if people had fresh ideas related to this, and if people liked the idea before I dedicate time to coding it.

I've been toying with the idea of replacing cities on 3.0 with a single capital city that players upgrade over time. It could have any number of levels of upgrade (7 seems a good number to keep it going for a while). At each upgrade, players need to spend, say, 1000 turns developing their city before unlocking the next level, giving players a choice between three new upgrades to their accounts (offensive/defensive bonuses, bank space upgrades, a food bank, whatever) so that players have incentive to build it up despite the turn investment. Having 7 layers of 3 choices gives something like 2100 possible upgrade paths - if we make them unique and interesting enough it should provide variety for a very, very long time and allow players some account customization

Other details could include upkeep - the city would degrade a bit each turn used, and players would have to invest turns in upkeep, or it would eventually revert to the previous upgrade stage. Obviously this would be a smaller turn investment than building it in the first place. We could also add a leader mission specifically aimed at damaging an opponent's capital city.

Ideally I would like the upgrades to be obvious, interesting things. An offense boost is nice for oldbies, but newbies want something they can see and interact with. So I have a few ideas along those lines, but I need more (halp!).

Some ideas:

Choice between a food bank, a larger cash bank, or troop reserves (or maybe a choice between a troop reserve for only one of the four types).
choice of access to a second race spell
choice of faster merc refilling, lower merc prices, higher merc sell prices

more ideas needed! I'm not promising anything since my coding motivation is fairly low after all the market stuff, but sometimes dev talk is enough to get it back. Let me know what you think.

[taekwondokid42]

I'd be interested to see this play out, but I think it'd be one of those things that's easy to screw up.

Would it be something that worked with your race bonuses? So say a magpie could use a food city to offset some of the bad or get a money city to really specialize?

I think any early implementations of this should have a low number of upgrades to the city, maybe 3 different 'primary' things that the city could be, and then 3 different addons/complements/upgrades that a player could choose between to upgrade their city.

Perhaps (pick 1 upgrade each level):

Level 1 Choices: +15% workers, +10 leaders/hut, +15% defence
Level 2 Choices: -10% expenses, +25% cluny's hut, +15% loyalty
Level 3 Choices: +4 aid credits, -25% merc price, +15% offense

Just some thoughts. I'd want there to be few enough choices at each level that you are forced to pick something that isn't perfectly optimal for your play style. And I want enough variety between the levels of choices that you can do weird things.

To me it's more interesting when the levels don't really have a theme. IE when you choose mercs, you lose out on the ability to choose offense. Maybe it could look something like a city with satellite buildings. City has primary choices, and then you can unlock satellite buildings (perhaps in different orders because unlocking them costs different resources), and then you are forced to pick things that cause sacrifice. Example:

City: +15% workers, +10 leaders/hut, -25% expenses. Costs 100 turns, 5bil, 20 leaders/land, 5 million rats, 1 million stoats
(casher/farmer tower) Tower A: +15% income, +100% Cluny's Hut, -35% loss to sacks. Costs 35 billion dollars
(indy tower) Tower B: +10% offense, -2% health lost when attacking, +15% recruitment. Costs 25 million weasels and 15 million skiffs.
(leader tower) Tower C: +15% loyalty, +10% leadership, 'Raiders always prepared'. Costs 35 million loyalty.
(teamwork tower) Tower D: +4 aid credits, (other ideas?)

Something like that. Prices might be too much. I like it because it forces you to pick builds that aren't pure 'indy' or pure 'leader.' With your race, there's still going to be a clear choice, but you also have the option to throw in some quirks. And, because things are expensive, you also have the option to completely ignore towers that might not be worthwhile to you.

This is just what I came up with too. I'm sure we can think of other interesting city perks.

[Shadow]

I'd be interested to see this play out, but I think it'd be one of those things that's easy to screw up.

Would it be something that worked with your race bonuses? So say a magpie could use a food city to offset some of the bad or get a money city to really specialize?

Yea, balancing it would not be easy, but I think it's certainly workable.

Level 1 Choices: +15% workers, +10 leaders/hut, +15% defence
Level 2 Choices: -10% expenses, +25% cluny's hut, +15% loyalty
Level 3 Choices: +4 aid credits, -25% merc price, +15% offense

+x% to [race stat] is the sort of thing I wanted to avoid, simply because it's boring. I would rather have upgrades be unique unlockable features that are not accessible otherwise, for a number of reasons. Firstly, newbies don't care about the race bonuses and won't notice much of a difference, and secondly, it allows a greater degree of real customization if cities allow players to do really different things that other players cannot do based on their choices.

If not a unique feature, I would prefer something visible, like less health lost, or chances to pick up cash while using turns instead of just percent increasing the usual cash gain. Something obvious and visible.

Just some thoughts. I'd want there to be few enough choices at each level that you are forced to pick something that isn't perfectly optimal for your play style. And I want enough variety between the levels of choices that you can do weird things.

My thoughts exactly.

To me it's more interesting when the levels don't really have a theme. IE when you choose mercs, you lose out on the ability to choose offense. Maybe it could look something like a city with satellite buildings. City has primary choices, and then you can unlock satellite buildings (perhaps in different orders because unlocking them costs different resources), and then you are forced to pick things that cause sacrifice.

We can call it city upgrades or extra buildings, that's just cosmetics.

[taekwondokid42]

+x% to [race stat] is the sort of thing I wanted to avoid, simply because it's boring.

I fully agree with you there. The table I made doesn't acutely demonstrate that, but my creative energies were failing me. Brainstorming:

+ cluny's hut
+ aid credits
+ protection for x hours
+ leaders in towers
+ tax rate shifts (IE workers desert slower at higher tax rates)
+ networth (like a spell that permanently boost NW or something)
+ increased stored turns
+ increased rate of stored turns being released (10 instead of 5 or something)
+ ability to 'earn' and 'loot' and 'forage' (instead of just being default)
+ leader 'storage' (instead of deserting they hang out in storage, and come back once you have room for them)

[Shadow]

Cluny's hut: I think choosing between extra space for cash and a food bank is a no-brainer.
+aid credits: I could see adding this if we first decreased the existing number to 18 or something. Even as a team indy I've never suffered for lack of them, especially with the storehouse.
+protection: I could see an upgrade which doubles the spell's power
+tax rate shifts are pretty much the same as race stats, boring because not obvious
+networth: making different units worth more net on different people could be interesting. Not sure if balanceable, will think more.
+stored turns/turnover rate, I like.
leader storage is a neat idea. Will think more about it

Maybe a choice between three new offense spells would be neat. Maybe a choice between something to lower enemy shields, steal troops, debuff production, or something.

[taekwondokid42]

Debuffs would be interesting. Something like a 3 hour debuff on an opponent. Leader defense only makes the debuff  weaker, doesn't nullify it.

By protection I meant the new warlord protection sort of protection.

What if you had something that kills 80% troops,consumes all cluny's hut money, 80% of pocket money, consumes 70% food, and 30% loyalty, drops 10% land, and then puts you immediately into protection for 12 hours. Only can be used once per round, and only if you have the right building (resets if you die).

Basically a landlock, but you trade all of your resources. Good for stopping other people from getting land or throwing off teamwork timings.

[Shadow]

I suspect that that would be universally hated ^_^

[Proxy]

For a while now I've been playing with the idea of capital cities in my head. I think I may have posted about them before, but I wanted to see if people had fresh ideas related to this, and if people liked the idea before I dedicate time to coding it.

I've been toying with the idea of replacing cities on 3.0 with a single capital city that players upgrade over time. It could have any number of levels of upgrade (7 seems a good number to keep it going for a while). At each upgrade, players need to spend, say, 1000 turns developing their city before unlocking the next level, giving players a choice between three new upgrades to their accounts (offensive/defensive bonuses, bank space upgrades, a food bank, whatever) so that players have incentive to build it up despite the turn investment. Having 7 layers of 3 choices gives something like 2100 possible upgrade paths - if we make them unique and interesting enough it should provide variety for a very, very long time and allow players some account customization

Other details could include upkeep - the city would degrade a bit each turn used, and players would have to invest turns in upkeep, or it would eventually revert to the previous upgrade stage. Obviously this would be a smaller turn investment than building it in the first place. We could also add a leader mission specifically aimed at damaging an opponent's capital city.

Ideally I would like the upgrades to be obvious, interesting things. An offense boost is nice for oldbies, but newbies want something they can see and interact with. So I have a few ideas along those lines, but I need more (halp!).

Some ideas:

Choice between a food bank, a larger cash bank, or troop reserves (or maybe a choice between a troop reserve for only one of the four types).
choice of access to a second race spell
choice of faster merc refilling, lower merc prices, higher merc sell prices

more ideas needed! I'm not promising anything since my coding motivation is fairly low after all the market stuff, but sometimes dev talk is enough to get it back. Let me know what you think.

Not sure if this idea has been completely disregarded and sorry for the necro but I really, really like this idea.
One thing I noticed in promi games was that a complete random who joins late in the round can easily make the net that it took every other empire who has been playing, oh say 3 weeks, in about 2 or so runs, granted that empire was able to get to the mass land that has accumulated over the round.  It completely undermines the whole point of playing from the start of the round.  This is less seen in slow servers with lower turn counts.  But in servers that have high turn rates such as the 3.0 code, it becomes far more frequent and noticeable.

This idea gives something to those players who have been active since day 1.  Though it does not stop randoms from jumping late in the round and jump net over everyone else, if the bonuses were significant enough, it could entice more players to play from day 1.  I mean encouraging more empire activity in the form of using turns could only serve to be beneficial for the whole server right?

I feel one of the main things promi games lacked was actually rewarding a player for using their turns. I mean yes technically running a storing strategy(leader/mager) amassing loyalty, food, and cash does advance its win condition further and further with each run, but they tend to be the least interactive of all the strategies in promi games.  They just sit on resources. Which brings me to my suggestion for this idea, players who actively attack, and defend, and do so successfully should also further their "capital cities".  All around managing your empire should merit reward when done consistently, and it could come in bonuses to attack, defense, or to heal buffs, or land gains, or well anything that isfurthering the players stratagem.

[Shadow]

It hasn't been discarded, just haven't had the motivation to put it together. Can you guys suggest other bonuses that could be included? If people are into it I'd be happy to code it.