Well, I need at the very least... 6 races for things to be interesting, since there are needs for complex inter-racial interactions ( duh that sounds weird ).

I might play with the idea of an aerial race, or even an interplanar race. Those would be cool, Yet they would be real hard to balance, Since they would be literally indestructible.
HOWEVER, say I implement merfolks and mermaid, there could be balance underwater as well. Humans could reach either one through diplomatic means. But then that possibility would be gone as soon as onerace is defeated or become too small.

I had already incorporated "mercenary" races tough. Units that would fight for you for money, fame, to reward you and for plain fun. Those units could be theoretically used to reach the other races, but, I would have to put a lot of them.

I could also use water-breating wizards, but it''d still be absurd that they would be able to win against mermaid wizards...

Hummm water pollution.... dunno, would be weird.

Map balancing would not be an issue tough. I intend to provide only 2-3 maps, maybe only one. I''d just put scenarios, that all use the same map, with different starting conditions / stuff.

BTW, assuming a turn-based battle system, how hard would it be to simulate projectile flights accurately?, I''d love to see an arrow bounce on a force field just to strike that pesky wizard''s best friend beside him *evil laugh*

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website coming soon

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Original post by xMcBaiNx
I might play with the idea of an aerial race, or even an interplanar race. Those would be cool, Yet they would be real hard to balance, Since they would be literally indestructible.

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Here''s an idea for balancing an inter-planar race:

Advantage: They can zip into another plane at any time, making them virtually indestructible.
Disadvantage: Their religion (or something else) forbids them from ever killing another living being.

An aerial race could be balanced much the same way as a mermen race, the only difference being that their safe-havens are on the high mountaintops rather than under the sea.

Atlas
Spiral Graphics

I think I could make an aerial race settlement as reachable as any land-race settlement. I''ll just make them a bit weaker, to compensatefor their ability to fly.

However, an aerial archer isn''t much fun to fight... They would have to be allowed to fly only for a certain period I guess... Oh and by the way, I''m not putting fairies in the flying races... Because I don''t feel they belong there. They fly alright, but their little size/wing strength don''t allow them to counter wind/gravity too well above a relatively small altitude

Don''t get too hung up on balancing them in the context of battle. Just making them slow, or preventing them from actively killing, oversimplifies what could be a wicked groovy system. The Hawkmen are stronger, faster, better looking, and able to fly, and they live in mountaintop cities that no army could ever assault, but nothing grows on top of mountains, so they''re dependent on trade to get food and medicine. Hawkmen giving you guff? Embargo their asses into the poorhouse. Of course, not having enough economic clout is just as crippling as a sissy army, so you have to keep yourself balanced. In fat seasons you can rack up the respect, and then when your a little lean you can call in those favors.

Also, when it comes to economic and political models, make sure you read up on some actual political theory. There''s a lot to it, and it''s dangerous to try to design a true model of, say, a Communism based on the Western (Americanized) view of it. And make sure you know the difference between a Democracy, a Representative Democrocy, and a Constitutional Democracy. That''s the sor tof thing that''ll really bite you in the butt.

This is still in embryonal(sp?) state, I''m in a CS program at some technical school (somewhat equivalent to community college i think) which has some courses equivalences with uni. Im prolly going to master and I have well... about 7 years to complete this project, with a few friend coders willing to help. So aside from art, we have all the ressources and time we want to bring up something neat. I plan at least 2 years of design heh.

The problem which arises with the hawkmen however, is that in a 8 player game, if they pick on you.... its kind hard to convince the other to embargo them too... but oh well, if you cant defend and have no political power, it should be obvious that you are doomed. Conquering however, might not be so easy. if he get absorbed by say, the hawk men, I might allow the player to flee with a coupleof followers. He could then rally somme ally, and help from there, until he conquers his places back... or backstab the ally.

I think different locales will be interesting... Sea, underground, mountain tops, lands and forests, other planes(maybe). It will be easy to give different advantages to different races, advantages that are easily justified.

The weapons and armies won''t be that different. There WILL be mermaid swordsmen, elf swordsmen and human swordsmen. (not necessarily swordsmen, but you get the idea.) And you''ll be able to pick up watehver the ennemies drop. This could add a whole new element to super duper weapons. All right you got that badass catapult, but just be sure you win the battle because you''ll be in trouble. And that might provide the fairies with some advantages too... ever tried a fairy swordT?)

And I perfectly agree with you. I wanted to read on that stuff and that''S even where the idea came from. The perfect game of that type would be a nice allegory of the current world. Where the player can actually be in the shoes of the people he hates because he don''t understand them. He could also see how it is hard to stay cool as a leader when you really think your opinion is the best and your populace starts complaining (hint: iraq).

I have a friend who''s going for political sciences so I''ll be able to get some advice...

And you''re right about the western view too... I''ll try to get some unbiased sources (HAH) about most types of governments

I just learnt that I''d be working in a library this summer.. "mainting computers and assisting users" AH! there are 4 PCs... Guess i''ll be allowed to read "a bit"

*lazy*

Talking about balancing... I was thinking of an online, browser based strategy game I play called Utopia. Avians can''t use war horses (which add to your offense) so perhaps in your game, races with flying units could partially be balanced by the inability to hire mercenary armies. Also, they would have weak armor because it would be quite difficult to fly if you were wearing heavy armor

Well, I could balance things this way, but WHY wouldn''t they be able to hire mercenaries, that''s another story... What I could do however, it apply a strong penalty when they attack in the forests or underground, for instance. It would be pretty easy to do it that way...

Hmmmm, something like they can''t fly anymore at say, 50% health could work, or allow units to aim at the wings...

Ideas on balancing:

The mermen. They can only go say 200 feet below sea level (maybe 400 feet for short times), so their cities would have to be relatively close to shore. Since their language developed underwater, they have trouble communicating with any race other then other mermen (causing political snafoos, wrong shipments, etc).

Interplaner races. The need to concentrate for a set amount of time before they can cross planes, so once they are in a fight they have to stay and duke it out. You would also want to put a restriction on how much they can carry when the cross plains, otherwise whoever had them as an ally could just poof an army into their enemies fortress.

Bird- people. Their mountain/tree top fortresses are very hard to attack directly. But since they spend so much time flying, they need a lot of food so the spend most of their time eating/trading for food. Maybe transporting small valuables for food would be most of their business. This would also make them very vulnerable to a siege (assuming you could keep the bird-people from fling in supplies).


[edited by - kars on April 3, 2003 12:28:01 PM]

I''m glad to see you''re willing to dedicate a decent amount of time to the design. In which case I''d like to give you a few pointers. If you haven''t already done so, start a design document, organized in a way you can find what you''re looking for quickly and add to it. If you''re looking for feedback or opinions. Set it up on its own free little website and put a link to it in your signiture here. Any time you update it or if you need to flesh out an idea, post here and I''m sure someone would be happy to take a minute looking over it and responding. Just a thought.