0009144: Revisiting old continents with new events - Arcen Idea Tracker (Bugs and Features)

ID	Project	Category		Date Submitted	Last Update

0009144	Valley 1	Suggestion		Aug 5, 2012 10:40 pm	Aug 6, 2012 12:14 pm

Reporter	lavacamorada	Assigned To
Status	considering	Resolution	open
Product Version	1.205

Summary	0009144: Revisiting old continents with new events
Description	This is probably something for the very long term, perhaps even for an expansion, but I wanted to get the idea out there. Currently, there aren't a whole lot of reasons to return to older continents. I occasionally go back to older continents to look for missions that offer spellgems that I want, but that's about all. The old continents are still there, but they're practically dead, with trivially easy monsters and virtually no reward for exploring. There's a lot of real estate out there that's essentially being wasted. It makes sense that, even after an overlord is defeated, new threats would eventually rise up and threaten a continent. The idea I had was to sometimes make the "new" continent an old continent facing a new threat. Here is a rough sketch of how I think it might work: * After defeating an overlord (or equivalent), a different continent becomes active. This has a chance to either be a new continent or an existing one (but not the one where the overlord was just defeated). * If a new continent is created, it works just the same way it does now. * If an old continent is chosen, the active continent's level is increased to the world level. If you defeat the overlord on the third continent, and the second continent is chosen to be the new active continent, its level becomes 16. - Because of this, the continent numbers are essentially meaningless; they could be given randomly generated names instead. - Any lieutenant towers that have not been destroyed continue to exist but no longer count against the continent's level. * One of several events is chosen to be the cause of the continent becoming active. Each event brings with it a different set of challenges. * A few new regions are added to the old continent (replacing adjacent deep sea regions). They are chosen as follows: - If the new threat (see below) depends on a specific region type, at least a few squares of that type are added. - If the continent has no regions of some types (for example, it is the second continent and has no swamps, or it was created during an older version and has no craggy highlands), those types are prioritized when adding new regions. - If neither of the above is true, the new region types are chosen at random. - If there is no room to add new regions (which seems unlikely), that continent can't be chosen as the new active continent. - The new regions serve three purposes. First, they shake things up a bit so the continent isn't exactly the same as it was before. Second, they ensure that continents on older worlds will be able to have new region types. Third, they ensure that there will be unvisited tiles available to place lieutenant towers or the equivalent (or to explore for supplies, in the extremely unlikely event that you already explored everything the first time around). * The new continent gains a new overlord-equivalent, four new lieutenant-equivalents, and some new rules that generally make the game more difficult. What exactly these are depends on the event that caused the continent to become active again. * There could also be new guardian powers that specifically help to combat the new threats, or additional dispatch missions needed to weaken them. * One profession is particularly important for each event. (For example, Aquaurgy would be important for the Perilous Tides event described below.) Attacking the overlord keep, or destroying event-specific environmental threats, is much more difficult and has a large skill bonus for the right profession. This way, even if you have a well-established city, you're encouraged to put in more citybuilding effort to develop the newly important profession. * Each continent can be chosen multiple times, but can have each event only once. Some of the effects of an event (e. g., certain types of enemies being stronger) remain when another event is chosen, so a continent that is chosen several times can eventually be very challenging. Some possible ideas for events: * Skelebot Invasion - A group of hostile skelebots have decided to attack the settlement. - The overlord is automatically a skelebot, and lieutenants have a high chance of being skelebots. Overlord and lieutenant towers spawn in junkyards and resemble factories. - All types of skelebots on the continent are stronger, have a higher chance of being elites, and migrate farther. - Skelebot Artillery have a chance to spawn in ice age or junkyard regions. These are world map threats like ice pirates, but they are more dangerous. - Neutral skelebots in the settlement have their loyalties tested. Having them automatically rebel is probably too harsh, but they might be less willing to go on missions, or less likely to succeed, while this event is active. * Death from Below - All kinds of horrific creatures are attacking from deep underground. - The overlord and lieutenants dwell in caves rather than towers. The "purple" chunk is located in the first level of a cave; the cave that contains it is chosen in advance, but not revealed to the player. Thus, you have to do a bit of cave exploration to find it. The lieutenant cave resembles a longer Boss Delve mission, and the overlord cave is like a large cave system in itself. - New, highly dangerous enemy types appear that spawn in any region, but only underground. - While this event is active, world map missions are much more likely to be underground. * Perilous Tides - All of a sudden, the oceans have become much more dangerous. - The overlord and lieutenants have occupied larger versions of the mysterious vessels, located in ocean tiles. Bring lots of ocean buoys. - Sea worms, jellyfish, and nightmare octopi are stronger and can migrate onto land tiles. - If ocean missions are ever implemented, those become much more common while this event is active. - Two new environmental threats appear in oceans. Pirate ships are similar to ice pirates, but stronger. Tidal anomalies affect all land tiles, except for lava flats, within a large radius. While in a tile affected by a tidal anomaly (and not in a safe chunk), all monsters are immune to acid water, and the chunk periodically floods with acid water.
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Internal Weight	Feature Suggestion

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
Aug 5, 2012 10:40 pm	lavacamorada	New Issue
Aug 6, 2012 12:14 pm	tigersfan	Internal Weight	=> Feature Suggestion
Aug 6, 2012 12:14 pm	tigersfan	Status	new => considering
Apr 14, 2014 9:28 am	Chris_McElligottPark	Category	Suggestion - General Idea => Suggestion - General
Apr 14, 2014 9:30 am	Chris_McElligottPark	Category	Suggestion - General => Suggestion