Hey everyone,
I wanted to lay out clearly what we’re doing with the big round of changes that are now live in the test games on the new server. This includes updates to kingdom troops, reinforcements, intercept ranges, and spells.
The real goal behind redoing a lot of this was to make some of the kingdoms play a little more fantasy-like, according to my vision. What I mean by that is armies having a healthy fear of elven archer phases. Black Dragons are becoming more wily with better magic while losing some of the raw aggression and fear factor you might feel from the Reds charging down on you. Both would still be incredibly hard to kill; they’re dragons after all, but they fight differently. Dwarves now can weather a charge from the incredibly destructive power of the Sacred Order or the Reds and still be ready to fight to the last with axe, armor and determination unmatched by any of the standard races.
Many kingdoms had deficiencies when it came to taking powerful castles because they lacked true shock troops or wall smashers. We tried to make sure every kingdom now has some real power in the storm phase of combat against PCs. For groups like the Reds and Blacks, we added spells that felt appropriate for creatures that can fly as companions. Because of the limitations of the current code system, I can’t create entirely new mechanics, but I believe this is an awesome starting point.
The game will play differently. An attack by the Elves, Rangers, or companions like Wood Elves can now be a potentially devastating opening salvo. As a fan of fantasy, who wouldn’t fear that phase with the Elves? Dragons will crush troops. Reinforcement cycles have been evaluated, so some of the faster kingdoms still have enough troops, but they’re distributed differently. Players shouldn’t feel forced to drop on turn 9 because a setback early on still lets you stay in the fight.
My wish is to make troop composition actually matter. Nomads should fight differently from Dragons, Elves, or magic users. Defense and offense should make a difference. The combination of troops should matter. Attacking and casting spells should become more useful. As an example, a wizard kingdom fighting Rangers, Nomads, or other strong missile-phase kingdoms shouldn’t be able to simply skip casting Windstorm or other defensive spells just to avoid being driven off the field by a withering rain of arrows, nor can the attackers ignore the fact that it may be cast.
Companions have also been reevaluated, who should be able to recruit them, and how their stats better fit the theme. I really encourage you to look at the charts I’ve put out on attack phases. They’ve been redone and calibrated across a range, and the scores in each category now follow very structured rankings. Some units, like the Trolls, are now restricted to a maximum of 3 to help reduce the outsized impact of their special abilities. Now that I have a better chance to see and understand how these abilities and spells actually work in practice, I’ll be able to adjust the power of some of them in later phases.
Spells were one of the hardest things we reviewed. The question was whether certain kingdoms simply don’t have spells, or whether it’s more about when they get them. Does fear only belong in the hands of evil kingdoms? We also looked at what spells could be rewritten for better flavor. A Wall of Fire for the Warlock could just as easily become a Wall of Ice or Water for the Atlanteans, or a Wall of Sand for the Nomads. Today, that’s mostly a description change, but we used that logic when deciding who should have access to certain spells.
One of the more significant changes was bringing down the casting level of spells that impact individual groups. This makes it possible for even some of the most magically weak kingdoms, like the Dwarves and Reds, to protect their troops from regional spells such as Demonic Visions. They still won’t be able to stop the regional effect itself, but they can now strategically protect their own forces. This also makes their wizards feel more relevant and powerful in context.
I understand this is a major overhaul, but this is the direction I’m taking Alamaze. I would really appreciate input from others as we do this. This is most definitely the direction I’m moving, but I obviously need your support, both from new players and grizzled veterans. If you don’t like something, do me a favor and expand on that thought. Contribute, don’t just complain. That’s all I’m asking.
I expect we may find some huge imbalances as we play these changes out, and we will adjust as needed. I will make changes on the fly when necessary. I’ll give people warnings and updates as I have them. When appropriate, I’ll adjust in a more measured way, but if something is huge or game-breaking, I’ll make the call to change it right away. We’re a community. The idea that Brek fu**ed up and the RD kills everything in every fight might be fun for the RD, but it’s no fun for anyone else.
My goal is to move fully to this new server in the next three months or less. As many of you know, I haven’t officially charged for Alamaze in some time. The community has been very generous with donations, not just money but time, reviewing documents, helping with detailed kingdom changes, and even rescuing me when I break the servers. Even with that help, we’re still only covering about 30% of my yearly expenses. Moving to the new server cuts most of those costs by 50% or more and, more importantly, opens up much greater possibilities for the future of Alamaze. Some of you have asked me to post the Donations link here because you have been unable to find it on the webpage, so I will include it below if you want to help out.
I do have backups and better control over the current setup going forward, so in a worst-case scenario, I can import all the old settings. But I would much prefer to make adjustments on this new server. Unfortunately, I cannot simply make changes to individual games. Everything that changes comes from a base template that carries those changes into all games.
I feel some players may not enjoy these changes. Please speak out. My goal, once this has been working for a few months or sooner based on feedback, is to solidify the rulebook and do a real push to bring in more players and welcome back older ones.
I’m also working on a side project to bring a completely new, updated game design to Alamaze. This current version of Alamaze will serve as the base. The plan is to Kickstarter a game engine capable of creating other world themes players might enjoy, things like WWI, Civil War, Pirates, space conquering, and so on. The base code and tools have already been created. The hope is that this will also draw more players into this amazing community.
So please step in and play the new test games, talk with each other, arrange fights with each other, worry less about winning or not, but try things out and have fun. Jump into the week-long game as a side game. Expect it to run about a week, but plan your other games around it. Enjoy yourselves and help make Alamaze a better place with your feedback. It truly does matter.
Thanks,
John / Brek
https://www.paypal.com/donate?token=v2Gd...ocale.x=US
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