I didn’t want to start a new thread so I tossed them here. So, in the vein of sounding dumb, using a lot of space, causing a flame war or just plain banality, here we go.
I. Things I don’t understand.
A. Prestige. Why is prestige used to indicate growth? Shouldn’t items like industry and land fertility cause growth? Prestige would indicate tourism and political clout. Why move to a city and start a medieval life if there isn’t land to grow crops, a military to protect you, or work opportunities (which I’d include trade in)? “They have a really nice library there.” That’s neat and all but how is this important to 80 percent of the illiterate population? For a farmer whom is more concerned for providing for his family and is that troll over there going to level my hut, a library does what for him? Based off the fantasy setting with medieval tie-ins, I can’t see prestige as meaning much to the average Joe other than giving a sense of nationalism and loyalty and possibly affecting how folks feel about fighting for the sovereign.
People should not come to my city because I built a city. They should come because I restored the land by magic or technology and I protect them. They come because they, the people, can build farms and raise a family, perhaps even thrive, and are free from the dangers of the Titan’s corruption. They do this because there is a nice spread of bottom land that I am providing the common defense of. As such, below are some of my thoughts. How viable are they to implement, or even to consider, I have no idea. For what they are worth though, here they are.
More on the point, people go where the food and jobs are available and where they can be protected. In Elemental, food has been claimed to be a vital resource. As such, shouldn’t it be the primary motivator to building a community? Further more protecting people would also be big, based off the size of the town. Why build a house as part of a village if it’s going to be raided or destroyed tomorrow? As such, why am I, as Sovereign, building farms and huts? Am I now the building contractor as well or just a communist dictator creating communal farms and housing or am I just a different avatar for the Empire? The number of hired adventurers and their levels, etcetera, could add an amount to the, “defense factor.”
As a side note, I’d keep the current build and economic system for the Empire. From my understanding, they like that forced labor, totalitarian control. For them, a centralized, governmental, planned economy is a good thing. Revitalizing the land is not needed. As long as the peasants work, who cares? That’s why the Empire has slave pits and hard labor farms.
B. Green Land: What’s the point of the revitalize spell? You put down a town, you get green. I take it the effect is just for show? I mean, I haven’t done any thing other than found a city and I get inst-land healing. I don’t even have any techs to revitalize the land. I think it would be more worth while if rebuilding the land actually meant some thing. Spending those essence points would be very important or researching high techs to return the green. This could then tie in with the attraction of people. The Sovereign heals the land creating fertile soil in order to attract people and farmers. The number of fertile, or replenished tiles, would be a factor in attracting people (along with defense and “industries”).
C. Horses. The horse seems to only provide for warfare. The horses, the poor noble beasts that I really don’t like, are only good for cavalry? They don’t affect the ability to haul material, food, or trade goods? Folks can’t use them for farming? Are there no work horses or is every thing oxen, which I haven’t seen? You build a farm and it comes with a horse regardless if you have stables or not. If I have a horse resource, shouldn’t it affect more than just my ability to create war machines?
D. Harvesting. Why is there a separate tech for harvesting? Harvesting is the oldest way of living, starting with hunting and gathering. I take it this is just a misunderstood name for what is intended? This is more like large scale farming, plowing, or crop rotation or some thing?
E. Gardens. I’d expect every body and their dog to have a garden in the back yard in the fantasy style universe of Elemental. I couldn’t imagine a medieval stylized family building a hut without a garden. Shoot, their barn, as such as it is, is probably in better shape than their home. Also, until you have market to sell goods, I’d don’t see why people would build large farms. You’d probably need a farmers market for this. Otherwise people are just growing what they need to survive with some small excess to barter for goods or services. They could store grain, but why unless you have a place to sell it?
Perhaps, as a tie-in to my thoughts on prestige, have land grants, small and large, instead of farms and gardens? The one problem I am having is in regards to special tiles. Metal, crystal, horses, and the other, how do the tie in? Are they Sovereign owned then? Is there a merchant class? It would appear so since we have merchant heroes. Giving the player the ability to build stuff is important, but is there a way to augment it so it’s just not, “The Sovereign owns every thing,” while fitting into a burgeoning merchant class?
F. Trade. It seems to me, that trade should add a factor into the attractiveness of cities. I don’t mean like Civ trade points either. I am referring to a number of factors that would influence the attractiveness of a town for growth. Trade means jobs and money. Town tile size and the starting location could play a part, though there are no major rivers yet. Basically, each built up tile would add an amount for money trade as well as immigrant growth. Special tiles and some buildings, like harbors would add points as well.
II. Things I find lacking if not boring.
A. It feels more like Gal Civ economics with a fantasy theme than any thing. For that matter, pick any 4X game such as the MOO’s, and this is what it feels like. Maybe this is what the devs want. I don't know. I’m just getting a little tired of just plopping buildings down.
I guess my solution is related to things I don’t understand. I would like to see less reliance and more varied economics than just placing buildings down.
B. A city feels pretty much like a cookie cutter scenario. Fertile land, not fertile special tiles, seems to be every where. From what I am reading and so far experienced, you can build food producing facilities -note the use of facilities and not farms- any where. You sovereign’s spell of revitalizing the land is not required. There isn’t any use in the spell except as a visual commodity. Fertile land or wheat, etcetera, is just a special tile for farms. From what I’ve experienced so far, you don’t need them for a large city. The special tiles are just nice to have. Especially since prestige promotes city growth and not food, jobs, or safety (defense).
C. City creep. Why is every thing I build part of the main city? Shouldn’t the majority of the things I build be outlying farms and villages? I would expect most special tiles to fall into the small, separate village category unless it is right next to the town/castle/fortress/what-ever-it-is-called. When I build city walls, I’d expect it to surround the core, “buildings,” and not the out lying towns. These I would expect to have to protect with patrols or sentries.
Further more, I suppose it’s just the art direction, but why is a building I create just as large as my main fortification? Is my city center even my manor? Personally, I’d like to see some buildings be more representative, and appear connected, to the main city, walled or otherwise. Secondly, I’d like to see the special tiles be more representative of an out lying village. From my perspective, with the current appearance, the map looks like a collection of giant buildings and not a sprawling town with medieval farms attached.
Well, that’s it for now. Here’s the short recap.
A. Prestige. Remove this as a component as a method of population immigration and growth. Instead factor in:
1. Amount of arable land, created by magic or tech
2. Industry created or available
3. The strength of defending forces and/or cleared monsters and/or political stability (war/peace/border disputes)
4. Trade amounts
B. Greenland. Make it mean more than just a visual effect. Make it represent:
1. The amount of arable land
2. Create as an impetus for immigration
C. Horses. Make more than a cavalry device. Have them influence:
1. Farming
2. Trade
3. Industry.
D. Harvesting, the oldest known technology to people. Why is this tech?
E. Gardens seem over the top
1. All people I would expect to be keeping gardens (rural at least).
2. Create land grants in arable lands for small villages to pop up
3. Remove gardens.
F. Trade. Give towns a base trade factor for growth (attracting people with jobs).
1. Give special tiles developed tiles a trade factor.
2. Give some buildings a trade factor
G. City Creep.
1. Make a centralized city area
2. Make special tile improvements, unless close to center, villages.
3. Make the art fell less like a bunch of giant buildings plopped onto a map to call it a town.
Well, that’s about all the damage and garbage I can spew in one sitting, some times. Hope you enjoyed the show (or not).
