Ideas for the Next Scenario?

[Frost Lord]

^^^ to self

The next generation of games may also allow for a 'Ready' button as well where turns may execute before their deadline if players submit that they are ready to accept the next turn's results. So that may end up being a nice improvement to the game where players may receive more than two turns a week if an experienced crew is playing the game.

I'm currently working on converting the system's XML files to an SQL database (using the same Fall of Rome's database BTW) but it'll take some time to do. The task will take about 2-3 months if I can keep up the pace of working 10-15 hrs a week (Rick is a slave driver) but when I'm done will allow for some of this new stuff for games.

Then the server environment will have the foundation for ready-button capability (solo/tutorial/regular game) and the next generation of Alamaze/Kingdoms of Arcania that works off an interactive map...

VERY EXCITING...!

My new chant is:  "Yay Rick....crack that whip!"

LOL!

[Frost Lord]

UM

I am not as technical as you, but I would consider my knowledge of database design and data retrieval to be "Advanced". If there is anything that I can do to help, please let me know.

And thank you (and Rick) for continuing to push the envelope...!

Frost Lord

[Tomag Ironfist]

I think merchant trading vessels and sea patrols should affect (for example) two tiles around the PC where the order is entered from. This will alleviate the complexity of having to enter all 5 or 8 of the sea tiles (respective of the order).

Another idea is to be able to customize many different fleets. Kingdoms can have 1 fleet per PC you have on that sea. So if you want to do some 711s in a really contested sea area, you can invest to really jack-up the fleet for that PC (assuming the merchant trading vessels affects an area around a water PC as stated above), and leave the water PCs in 'safe' areas with gimpy quality 4 fleets. This will allow for many different sea orders. If you have 7 water PCs, then you can issue 7 orders, one for each fleet. If you want to move an army across a sea, you can select which fleets you want to use and the power of that 'mega-fleet' will be the average of all the fleets that you selected to move that army.

I think it'd be super duper cool idea to have these said fleets locked onto their respective water PCs. So if an Elf builds up the fleet of the water PC at 'XH' to the highest quality, a dwarf can come along and take that PC for himself, and in doing so, he will acquire that super strong fleet that is affiliated with that PC.



I really like the idea of roads connecting cities, with opportunities for super efficient movement!

I think more diverse spell lists would add a lot of flavor to all kingdoms, especially the mage kingdoms.

Removing the dragon kingdoms will relieve the frustration players have with limited brigade recruitment as well as the inability to land on water PCs (inability to land on water PCs in super frustrating, though it makes sense with the concept of the kingdom).

Adding dragons as powerful companions or other important characters will allow for the dragons to continue to be a big part of the game without being a playable kingdom.



I think the order entry website can benefit a lot from some simple quality of life improvements, examples:

Under the 'covert' tab, next to the agent name, state whether or not he/she in on a standing order (and specify what standing order they are undertaking). Though not a big deal, I find it annoying to have to look on my kingdom report to see which characters are usable since I often times have many of them on standing orders (this can extend to all characters with standing orders).

When entering 710/720s, it'd be nice to be able to change a mis-entry without having to cancel the order all together. This is especially true for dragons and amazons who have good movement - I'll get to the 6th or 7th tile and I'll enter a tile wrong, and then have to re-enter the previous 5 or 6 after resetting the order.

[Ry Vor]

All good stuff. 

There will be more PC improvements, or "buildings".  Another dimension for Alamaze that was key in Fall of Rome.  Plus Mike really wants to do this.

I'm not sold on the Mediterranean map, especially if the players are not.  Again, not one of my strengths are naval tactics, and perhaps that is not the way to go.  Just thinking of a completely different map rather than what Resurgent was to Classic.  I think we did well with Centauria.   BTW, why aren't you playing more DUELS? 

Making dragons and giants characters instead of kingdoms simplifies things in my mind.  I am happy I didn't come under more scrutiny for the dragon kingdoms. 

This next scenario in my mind is the culmination of Alamaze.  Then I think I need to do Kingdoms of Arcania.   I'd also like to do a card / board game design. 

So, with Mike's enthusiasm, put out your wish list.  Should Dome of Invulnerability be abolished or raised another level?  What kingdom do you want added?

[DuPont]

I'll put more thoughts down later, but I still want a Centaur kingdom.

[Jumpingfist]

Idea for a revamped spell system. Likely a bit much but jotted it down a year or so ago.

Point based spell system.

1) 4 schools based on 4 pure Mage types. Sorcerer would be special.
.................................Life - (Druid)
....Physical - (Warlock)............Alteration - (Illusionist)
.......................Death - (Necromancer)

2) each school will have 2 familiarities and 1 opposed school.
-familiarities cost 1.5x as a equal level spell in main school
-the opposed school will cost 2x and requires a wizard to be at least 1 level higher to cast

3) Magic Units(MU) this is what is used to cast spells
-a kingdoms MUs is calculated by taking each wizards and squaring there power level then adding then together. So someone starting with p4, 2p2, and 2p1 would have 16+4+4+1+1= 26 MUs

4) Cost to cast spells.
-basic cost would be roughly spell level squared. These can be slightly off if a spell is P3 but is really somewhere between a P2 and p3 strength. Example fertile field and gold mine may both be level 3 spells but fertile fields costs 7MU and gold mine cost 9MU.

5) assigning spells to schools. Some spells may exist in multiple schools meaning there is more than one way to cast that spell. Likely some spells would be available one level sooner to the specialist of that school before others would have access

6) wizards not kingdoms are the specialists. The pure mages would have almost only wizards of their school but other kingdoms may have wizards of different schools and the SO that starts with 8 mages would have two from each school. Not all wizards would be specialized and would likely not have access to some of the highest level spells within each school.

Special abilities. These are optional but could be cool to add and give an idea how using MU allows for some flexibility with spells.
*expert cast(EC)- must be at least 2 levels high to use cost is 3x MU but spell has an additional effect..example maybe sleep EC would sleep all emissaries of a selected kingdom at the location selected
- EC would likely only be allowed for spell within the Wizards main school
*over cast - 2x MU. Allows a wizard one level below required power level to cast the spell.
*innate ability - spells that cost 10% of a wizards generated MUs can be casted for free . Example a P7 (49MU) wizard could cast any spell that cost 4.9 MU or less for free once per turn and in addition to another spell at normal cost.
*kingdoms could generate more or less MUs in a turn.
Many more possibilities

[Jumpingfist]

Talking about new kingdoms

Why not have a system to allow the player to generate there kingdom. I would picture it basically everyone signs up for the game then would be sent an entree game number.
They would fill out a turn 0 generating there kingdom something like a beefed up order 11. The order checker would be critical here because you would verify your kingdom as you requested before getting a turn 0 results and everything is set in stone.
This T0 would also give time to do things like personalize your king and emissary names. Perhaps even issue your actual order 11.
The idea is not that this would create some super kingdom, likely they would be weaker than some of the strongest but it would really provide an experience that would change from game to game. I am also sure it would take some programming to allow the system to generate kingdom codes based on the new kingdom name to be used with the rest of the system, something was mentioned about this being possible though.

If this is something RyVor has any interest in I would be willing to do much of the leg work breaking down the current kingdoms into some kind of points and feeding it back for his own modifications and tweaks. I would only be breaking them down into a working formula and leave the rest to him not looking to collaborate unless asked.

[Lord Diamond]

^^^^ This!

We actually had a version of this in Campaigns. Of course, teh Fall of Rome kingdoms were much closer in simularity, so the customizing wasn't drastic.

The danger would be that certain customizations would become no brainers and the kingdoms would all end up the same. Something would need to be done to preserve the flavor of Alamaze.

[Jumpingfist]

the idea is that many of the preset kingdoms are actually worth more possible points so you are not for sure getting the best kingdom. If something got picked by most everyone then it would need to be worth more points.

[Frost Lord]

I really like the idea of expanding on the spell list, wizards classes etc. ...and I like the customization option too. As LD mentioned, Rick did something like that before. Maybe it would be a good experiment after they roll out Solo games to try it there to see what customizations work, don't work & get selected too often or not.

WOW Rick, you got a lot of people excited with one simple thread. :-)

Even if you hand-selected 10% of the ideas being sent your way....it would be awesome! I LOVE ALAMAZE!!!