Rise of Empires Era

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Sarudak
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Rise of Empires Era

Post by Sarudak »

So here's my idea. I've been wanting to make a modification of A New Land and I want to flesh it out more make it more epic and feel more diverse and interesting. I'm going to call it Rise of Empires.

I'm going to add in fairly extensive upgrading options for your units. That way you can have heroes among your regular units and probably even get units to lvl3 if the game goes on long enough.

Upgrades will be primarily from two buildings the blacksmith and the temple. The blacksmith will offer upgrades to weapons and armor as well as later on being able to forge super-weapons such as the Rod of Justice or the Scepter of Fire. The temple on the other hand will offer blessings to your units increasing their health, resistances, and movement speeds. These upgrades will be accomplished by using two secondary resources ore and mana. Ore can be obtained by mines in the mountain. Mana is magical essence, it can be harvested in two ways: One is through great cost you can create lotus gardens and the lotus petals can be rendered down into mana or the leaves and sap of great trees (the big shiny ones on the map) can also be turned into mana.

I wanted to make the factions a lot more interesting too so I'll be borrowing heavily from Extended Era, Era of Myths, and the Imperial Era... Yes all three... =)

And another point to keep in mind is each faction has two ages that it goes through they all start in the colonial age and later in the game can advance to the imperial age. The imperial age for each empire has more powerful units (ie even though these units ideas and images will be borrowed they will be upgraded - think lvl 1 units that are on par with most lvl 2 units) at an increased cost and also the possibility for other events (like summoning powerful heroes of legend maybe... ;-))

So here they are:

1. Empire of Man - I guess this would be your most basic empire they get loyalist units in the colonial age and can negotiate with the mermen and maybe the elves (not sure yet). In the imperial era they get the Aragwaith units which are the all-around best imperial units.

2 Empire of the Sun - This empire is primarily drakes although there are also humans in the mix. They get drake units in the colonial age and can negotiate with the saurians and naga. In the imperial era they get Lavinian Legion units (the humans have geared up for war) and at the temple they can eventually learn to summon mighty celestial faction units. They are more temple focused.

3 Northern Alliance - This empire is composed of primarily nomadic people they get outlaw units to start and can negotiate with the dwarves and mermen. In the imperial era they upgrade to Marauder type units and can produce powerful mechanical units through dwarven technology. This empire is heavily blacksmith focused.

4 Lords of Darkness - This empire is ruled by powerful magi who practice the dark arts. In the colonial era they can produce undead units and can negotiate with the naga and saurians. Once they advance to the imperial era they control the legions of chaos and can also form the blood pact and get powerful vampire units.

5 Elvish Empire - This empire is almost wholly elvish. Instead of farming like normal their people gather from the forests. In the colonial era they produce elvish units and can negotiate with the mermen and forest folk (wose and fire sprite). Once they upgrade to the imperial era they can call upon powerful nature spirits to fight for them (elemental units)

I've also got ideas for more factions in the future if these work out. But I want to try to keep my ambitions realistic. If anyone would like to assist in this project I am going to keep this top post updated with what sections of the project are in concept, design, development, balancing/testing, and complete. As well as who is working on any particular part of the project at the current time. If you would like to provide a contribution just post it on this thread. If you want to work on a specific part of the project let me know.

I. ANL Code - Balancing/Debugging
II. Blacksmith - In progress
A. Basic Weapon Upgrades - Functional
B. Armor Upgrades - Design
C. Super-Weapon Forging - Concept
III. Temple - In Progress
A. Blessings and Enchantments - Functional
B. Summoning - Concept
C. Super-Weapon Creation - Concept
IV. Castle Upgrade - Design
A. Automatic Experience Gain - Design
B. Training Options - Concept
V. Factions - Design
A. Empire of Man - Functional
1. Colonial Age - Design
2. Imperial Age - Design
B. Empire of the Sun - Functional
1. Colonial Age - Design
2. Imperial Age - Design
C. Northern Alliance - Functional
1. Colonial Age - Design
2. Imperial Age - Design
D. Lords of Darkness - Functional
1. Colonial Age - Design
2. Imperial Age - Design
E. Elvish Empire - Design
1. Colonial Age - Design
2. Imperial Age - Design

Since I got it on the Add-on server the current stable version will always be up there. Everyone enjoy and have fun! EDIT: All conflicts with ANL should be resolved now...

=]
Last edited by Sarudak on January 30th, 2008, 2:38 am, edited 8 times in total.
flameskewer
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Post by flameskewer »

Interesting concept.
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Unnheulu
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Post by Unnheulu »

Heard of Settlers: Rise of an Empire? :) :P ;)
kesnar
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Post by kesnar »

Coooooooooooooool
But I think it will be a little tricky to create it,won't it???
Sarudak
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Post by Sarudak »

Nah... Not as hard as you would think. Especially working with A New Land as a base and already having all the units put together. It shouldn't be that hard at all... I just need to learn WML... ;)

And no I've never heard of settlers Rise of an Empire... Lol... Too many names like that are all ready taken: Age of Empires, Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends, ect...
Shardan
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Post by Shardan »

that seems really nice!
i can help you with test, im still a newbie of WML.
I think that u will need lot of testing, balance will be hard with lot of facrions...
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Unnheulu
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Post by Unnheulu »

Sarudak wrote:Nah... Not as hard as you would think. Especially working with A New Land as a base and already having all the units put together. It shouldn't be that hard at all... I just need to learn WML... ;)

And no I've never heard of settlers Rise of an Empire... Lol... Too many names like that are all ready taken: Age of Empires, Rise of Nations, Rise of Legends, ect...
Commercial game, 6th in the Settlers series.
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Gena
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A new Empire thing

Post by Gena »

:D i think its a great idea Im new on this forum site but i think its great idea
Sarudak
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Post by Sarudak »

Ok. i finally got my added units working and the current download should have everything working and be relatively bug free. Download it people! You will need it to play!

The latest version has the Empire of the Sun Faction working with Drake Hatchlings as workers and Human Mages as researchers.

Oh and I've had some pretty major conflicts with A New Land if I have both of them installed. A New Land pretty much overrides my mod. No idea why. If anyone has any clues let me know. Otherwise you may need to remove ANL to play.

EDIT: Rise of Empires is now up on the Add-on server! Everyone enjoy!
Karo
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Post by Karo »

Was just watching the game today, and due to the more continental scale of the maps I've seen so far, as opposed to the fortress/city-state scale of Bob's ANL maps, I thought that having roads to aid your economy would be both a good way of adding aesthetic value to your maps and having a unique way of earning money.
Sarudak
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Post by Sarudak »

Karo wrote:Was just watching the game today, and due to the more continental scale of the maps I've seen so far, as opposed to the fortress/city-state scale of Bob's ANL maps, I thought that having roads to aid your economy would be both a good way of adding aesthetic value to your maps and having a unique way of earning money.
Hmmm... Well i might be able to include some basic city building dynamics... If I could have the computer map out the basic pattern of their city... Does anyone know if you can create your own terrain types and how you put them in the game if you do...
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Post by St Stux »

Sarudak wrote:
Karo wrote:Was just watching the game today, and due to the more continental scale of the maps I've seen so far, as opposed to the fortress/city-state scale of Bob's ANL maps, I thought that having roads to aid your economy would be both a good way of adding aesthetic value to your maps and having a unique way of earning money.
Hmmm... Well i might be able to include some basic city building dynamics... If I could have the computer map out the basic pattern of their city... Does anyone know if you can create your own terrain types and how you put them in the game if you do...
Try the WLM workshop. Someone has done this before, try asking for a civ-wesnoth mix to point you in the right direction.
Porro ago res publica of somnium
Sarudak
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Post by Sarudak »

Ok... Update I have gotten most of the basic functionality implemented for the colonial age and am now going to focus on getting the imperial age. Each of the Empires has to achieve their own 'source of empire' for them to reach the imperial age and all of it's benefits. Each group has it's own source of empire and unique character once reaching the imperial age.

Empire of Man - Source of Empire: The Imperium
The Empire of Man has always relied on the strength and wisdom of humankind to win its battles. The Imperium is the ultimate expression of the strength of humanity. Led by the Emperor of Man the imperium seeks domination of all opposing forces they are relentless. The Empire seeks constantly to expand its borders and are not concerned about who they must displace to do this.

Empire of the Sun - Source of Empire: The Solarii Rebirth
It is often stated in legend that the Drakes are lesser children of the Dragons. The Empire of the Sun however has a different belief it their origin as a people. They say that they once looked not too different from mankind only their skin shone as bright as the sun and they had great wings on their backs as those of an eagle. According to these legends they had greater power than the strongest mages living today. They also say that they lived on the sun. However for some unknown transgression against the higher light spirits they were cast to the earth and bound to it. Accordingly when the weakened Solarii saw the Dragons of earth they saw in them a reminder of home and with their last fading power remade themselves in their image. However the Drakes of the Empire of the Sun have long aspired to once again reclaim their heritage as beings of light. For long ages this was thought an impossible dream until they discovered the sun spirits. Believed to be pieces of their long dead Solarii ancestors that broke off during the long journey from the sun it was found that using magic they could be bound to a drake and they took on the likeness of the Solarii of legend. And from that point on the Sun Cult officially became the national religion the Order of the Sun. And many races flocked to the newly reborn Empire of the Sun especially humans who took up arms in the name of the new Order.

Northern Alliance - Source of Empire: Inter-racial Harmony
The northern Alliance was born from the close relationship between the Hill People and the dwarves. The Hill People are a hardy bunch of humans but despised by more organized societies as mere primitives and raiders. However they had a close friendship with the dwarves. And eventually this friendship grew into a strong alliance one that eventually led to the forming of a united kingdom. In fact relations between the races became so close that it led to inter-racial marriages that had very surprising results. The half-breeds had all the advantages of both parents. The speed, dexterity,size and magical ability of their human parents and the compact strength, resilience and endurance of their dwarf parents. And they bred true. A new race. They were called the Drahew and from this couple came an unbreakable alliance of man and dwarf and indeed even the orcs came to respect the strength of the Drahew so much that they too joined in the mighty norther Alliance.

Elvish Empire - Source of Empire: Pact of Gaia
It is said that the planet is a living thing. That the earth itself pulses with life. And no other race believes this more than the elves and they are often the protectors and avengers of the forests against those who would do it harm. But the Elvish Empire went beyond that... They wished to guard the entire earth and protect it. But to do so they needed greater strength. And so the high Sylphs of the Elvish empire formed the Pact of Gaia, linking those of the pact directly with the spirit of Gaia. These elves changed they became stronger and more focused and intensely warlike. They attacked any who dared to threaten the sanctity of the earth. And even more terrifying they now commanded the spirits of nature. Beings of terrifying power of a long gone age.

Lords of Darkness - Source of Empire: Chaos Gateway
Many have long believed that Necromancy is the most evil and foul thing imaginable. Many people have been wrong. The gateway to Chaos has brought the Xi'har to our world. A race of ancient manevolence. Beings of this world consider them to be demons. Somehow though the lords of darkness have managed to bind even this ancient darkness to their will. And through the power of the Xi'har they have spread their corruption across the land into the hearts of men.
Sarudak
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Post by Sarudak »

Ok so I've been hard at work on the Imperial Era and I've got it implemented for the empire of man. But I'm sure the unit balancing is horrible. Currently it takes 50 research and 500 gold to advance here are the units.

However I am running into another problem. One of my initial goals was to make the game more fun and less tedious to play. I wanted to eliminate micromanagement. But in the late game things become a huge pain. With so much land just putting all your farmers out there to farm is a huge pain and you get soooo much gold from the farms with alot of research that it really just becomes ridiculous. And the number of units that you can reqruit every turn is overwhelming. With this in mind I want a way to keep the economic development within reason in the game. But I do NOT want to slow down early economic development and I do NOT want to give it any kind of absolute cap and I do NOT want to do anything that would keep a player from making use of all the land that he has. I think the best way to do that would be limiting research. Is there a function that lets you square a number or at least multiply two numbers? Because I could make the research points required a quadratic progression instead of a linear one. Any other idea on how to keep the game from getting like that would be helpful. I also want to minimize the pain of making all your peasants farm. I was thinking I could include some kind of 'farm nearest grassland' command that would make the peasant go to the nearest grassland square and automatically start farming. I'm pretty sure it's possible... How hard would it be to implement?
Sarudak
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Post by Sarudak »

Ok. I have now completely redone the entire economic system. Peasants still build but they are no longer required to work the farms and mines. The farms plant adjacent hexes and have a three turn planting season starting in the afteernoon. They can plant two hexes a turn and then the farms all wait for morning when harvest comes in for everyone. Universities don't even need mages except to oversee research. The only thing still requiring workers is harvesting from the great trees.
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