Spent a couple more hours tonight going through all the posts again after I started to bullet point my own things. I do think there are lots of good ideas on this thread, but a few are for a different game than Alamaze.
Not much commentary here on the dispersed kingdoms, regarding the 12 zones. In Fall of Rome, I don't think it was great (though easier on new players) to have one kingdom per region. It became too much of "this is (to be) my region - what are you doing here?" So it kind of eliminated a lot of strategic potentialities, so I think the dispersed should stay, but perhaps kingdoms like the Ancient Ones and Demon Princes become dispersed rather than the primary resident of a region.
The biggest thing to shape lots of other changes is settling on a map. I expect I will do something like a rough draft and then ask Ralf to make it beautiful, but although Centauria looks like it is suitable for framing, I am guessing more players are using my version for DUEL. So I will ask Ralf to make the next one more vibrant/colorful than the great looking Centauria map he did. But the main thing is deciding on the terrain, regions, amount of sea, location of the cities. It really is an art unto itself, if you've studied either the composition of Resurgent or Centauria: it has to make sense and provide lots of possibilities and be fair to all the zones / positions. Again, Alamaze is not "random" - that's some other game. No random map, no random cities. New algorithm for PC and artifact placement.
I need to give thought as well as to what the two new kingdoms replacing the dragons will be. Nothing is really jumping out as an obvious missing piece. Lycans might be interesting, but they or/and Vampires could be interesting, but about as time consuming to do as the Demon Princes were, so not likely. I'd really not like to have a kingdom revisiting the problems that the dragons presented as a kingdom rather than characters.
Seems the pendulum may have swung a bit far in 3rd Cycle toward the wizard kings, although we have lost a few players thinking they were weak, despite the results of completed games. So there will be some adjustments, notably Dome of Invulnerability and possibly limit Summon Death to one attack per group to target group. Potentially also a wizard who casts a spell at his power level, so a P5 casting a P5 spell for his kingdom might become weary, ala the High Priestess. We may introduce other health status like light wounds, serious wounds, critical wounds, which brings the agent order Poison into play. Would like to rework Fanatics.
PC Improvements (buildings) will be in, likely replacing the generic 600 order. This also makes the Sabotage Redux more interesting.
Thinking of adding maybe three new character classes: Engineer, Sage, and Hero. Some buildings can be built without an engineer, but may require a character, rather than just left to the peasants. Some advancements, like advanced armor or weapons may require the coordination of an Engineer and a Sage to create the technology. Green (or Greek) fire may require a Sage.
I'd like to unleash the King, such that he/she is also either a military leader or spellcaster, Hero or even Sage or Engineer. Probably a kingdom customization option. So the King can move with groups. We'll add that third category of characters "Special" to accompany leaders and wizards.
I'm debating a couple game mechanic changes. I do want to simplify transfers (the most confounding thing for players) and some orders like sea patrol, and figure how to eliminate the effect of orders currently carrying over to the next turn. Probably by changing the sequence of some commands, which involves further divorcing from the idea of keeping all orders of a given type together in the sequence of events.
Artifacts will be re-examined. I'm thinking of simplifying the key to superior sighting to just needing "a" key rather than the specific key for a given artifact, and with the new weapon artifacts that are also superior like Elan, such as the Sword from the Sky, they also should require a key. I want to make the artifacts, weapon artifacts in particular are doing what was intended, which includes doing damage to troops, having a good to great chance to kill opposing leaders, heroes, or spell casters, or special characters.
Probably will split Influence (effectiveness of emissaries) from Rulership (number of orders available). Makes the selection of King orders more interesting.
Thinking of requiring causi belli to attack a player owned PC if not already declared enemy. I can see an argument against that, as it could eliminate surprise attacks, but it is somewhat realistic historically and the surprise attacks, particularly two v one are the major cause of drops if not lost players.
Would like to restrict executing prisoners to declared enemies. Otherwise, there is a code in Alamaze, and we expect them to be ransomed back. Along those lines, only a few kingdoms, perhaps those with Adventurer could attempt Escape, the others have to be rescued by an agent or fanatic if not ransomed. I just think the auto execute eliminates a potentially interesting aspect of the game. With these, prisoners will again be at the captor's capital, but a PC Improvement might be Dungeon, which helps secure them, and provides some intrinsic Status Quo.
Anyway, that's some of it.
Buddy/Ignore List
