Keeperman wrote:

Hi,

I need to say that if you decide your campaign mode is achievable, I’d still like to help.

In fact, I am offering to make you a selection of 1/4 size dungeons that you can install with alpha 18. You would find this especially helpful if you are unable to convert any of the alpha 17 dungeons cropped to the right size.

This is a good idea if there are going to have prefabricated dungeons. The developers of Xenonauts, an XCOM-like, had the controversial idea to use prefab maps instead of randomly generated ones, but I think it’s a good idea. Handmade dungeons are always going to look more interesting than automatically generated ones (although there’s no reason why you can’t have a mix of both), and it’s easy for the community to step up to make more maps.

I suggested a rating system for dungeons, but why not have someone who is willing to make the maps do it himself? It’s one less thing to program, and you’ll probably get better dungeons in the end.

Campaign size. Dimensions of the oveworld map could be adjusted after developing it.

Attacked on a map you aren’t currently playing.

Complex and tricky. For alpha18 AIs and players might have to take it in turns to attack squares on the overworld.

This means AI cant interupt until an invasion has ended. Then it is the other forces who attack while you must defend. It is their turn. etc.

On strategy:

• – Currently, minions in production facilities spit out random weapons, charms, and spells. I wonder if it would be more strategically interesting if this were further refined. As there are going to be many more villains to conquer, perhaps individual items could only be created after conquering a quadrant of the map. For example, the recipe for a sleeping potion could be won after a dwarf colony is conquered. The same system could be extended to weaponry, charms, traps, and even to skills that are taught to beasts. The idea is that certain major villains would either be more susceptible or resilient to certain technologies, and your current production abilities would influence your plan of attack.
• – Similarly, the same system could work for hiring minions. You can only hire minions from tribes whom you discover on your quests. This limits your tactical options on each play-through, forcing you to think on your feet.

Unlocking minions.

Maybe in Alpha19 campaigns?

Keeperman wrote:

Attacked on a map you aren’t currently playing.

Complex and tricky. For alpha18 AIs and players might have to take it in turns to attack squares on the overworld.

This means AI cant interupt until an invasion has ended. Then it is the other forces who attack while you must defend. It is their turn. etc.

Yeah, I thought that something like this might work. There are a couple of scenarios that I imagine:

1. AI (or player) wants to reinforce an active battle with units from a neighbouring square. In this case, the units can just stream in.
2. The AI wants to start a new battle while there is already an active battle. In this case, the time at which the new battle is supposed to start would be recorded. After the first battle finishes, then time-space “rewinds” back to the start and location of the second battle, and all of the activity in the square of the first battle is frozen until the time of the second battle reaches the time at which the first one ended.

The problem with all of this is that you need some sort of indication of the start and the end of a battle. In the current single-map system, you can control and release units at will. I would suggest that, in the campaign mission, any time there is a hostile unit in a square that is owned by the player, or vice versa, that the player should be forced into unit control mode

Ah. I see your point. Each invasion would have to wind back the game clock to the start of the round. A round starts when someone invades someone else.

If you want to start an invasion when there is already one going on, could be hard cheese. It’s not your turn.