Food for thought.

So, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about factions.  Currently, there is extensive planning on how they should work.  However, as it stands factions feel pretty similar to one another.  I have been toying with a few ideas about how to make them feel completely distinct.  One way, that I was thinking of doing this… and I will be as general as possible to avoid SPOILERS, but there may be some further down, so read at your own PERIL!

Some of what I am about to say is borrowed from a game called X3.  There are a few things we can do with units that weren’t really touched in PoP 3.x.  Most units followed linear trees, required the same amounts of money to upgrade, and required the same amounts of EXP to upgrade.  Sarleon did feel a little different because it was supposed to be easier to recruit skads of them, which was made up for by the rate at which they evaporate into an enemy army.

One way that I would like to combat this is random item chance.  Some factions receive factional bonus weapons, armor, or horses.  You might say wait, “why is my archer carrying a two handed spear?” Well, historically that faction might prefer a spear and hell having your archers get a little bonus against cavalry isn’t to shabby.

The second way is by changing the upgrade trees from being perfect mirrors.  PoP 4.0 does not need to be a game about balance.  I see people still playing as Sarleon even though they are a “weak” faction when compared to others on tap.  Some people, like myself, simply enjoy a challenge.

In addition to changing trees there should be a faction (I have one in mind) that has average stats of which all other units will be compared.  This will allow for an appropriately balanced tier system for weapons, armor, and soldiers.  Another reason for this, is that the other factions can be manipulated using this base to enhance certain factional bonuses or drawbacks.  IE.  That archer has a better weapon and weapon skill than my archer… but look out, my archer is wearing plate and has a biiiig sword.

Another faction, may have less units in its unit tree… but the soldiers require far more exp to level up and cost far more to represent this.  As a result the units are of much higher quality…  Is clicking upgrade a million times every ten minutes really a good thing?  If your units are functionally the same,  then why change them…  Also, less units means much higher quality armor.

Food for thought.

Today I am outfitting soldiers.