[Gameplay] New Sovereign and Champion abilities

How about having champions acquire (or have by default) different traits and weaknesses like sovereign does? That would add personality, and they'd be more unique than they are right now.

• Attunement: Fire:     gain 30 % more mana from fire shards and get a 15 % bonus to fire damage / effectivity
• Attunement: Earth:   gain 30 % more mana from earth shards and get a 15 % bonus to earth damage / effectivity
• etc.
• Artillerist:                bonus to AOE hit area and "never miss" with spells that scatter  like here
• Enchanter               All spells with a duration (such as unit buffs) last 50 % longer.

Not perhaps aquiring, but also DEVELOPING existing skills. Until now, only the basic stats have been allowed to be increased due to experience. I feel like allowing the existing skills (or that matter gaining new ones, like Forestry 1-10, Channeler 1-10 ) in addition to increasing basic stats like strenght etc would add alot of flavor to the game, making each hero unique.

Like some of your suggestions.

You might like some of the ones I  suggested in this post: https://forums.elementalgame.com/394749

Right now I feel that the Sovereign Creation is not good for making a truly focused Sovereign. 

Hmm Would Like to have  a Skill Tree: Set form to pick from at Creation: 

Such as:   Skill picks at every 2 Levels: 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,...ect...

Skills unlock at certain Levels, you get to pick one every so many levels. 

Most skills require the previous one in that skill family

Warrior Ethos: You are a natural born warrior, Skills in combat come naturally to you. 

Skills: 

Level 1: acquired  at Lvl 2 

Combat Stances, Block, Heavy Strike, Pain Tolerance, Defense Training, Attack Training, Enemy Weakness Humanoid, Fent  

Level 2: acquired at Lvl 8

Improved Combat Stances, Block and Counter, Crippling Strike, Improved Pain Tolerance, Imporved Defense Training, Imporved Attack Training, Enemy Weakness Beast, Impoved Fent

Level 3: acquired at Lvl 16 

Advanced Combat Stances,  Preemptive Strike, Devastaing Strike,  Advanced Pain Tolerance, Advanced Defense Training, Advanced Attack Training, Enemy Weakness Magical, Advanced Fent 

Level 4: acquired at Lvl 24 

Legendary Combat Stances,  Preemptive Strike Block and Counter, Legendary Strike, Legendary Pain Tolerance,  Legendary Defense Training,  Legendary Attack Training, Legendary Enemy Weekness, Legendary Fent

Combat Stances:

The Focusing on how to hold your body to react to the battle field conditions. Improving Attack or Defense. 

Aggressive Stance: + 50% attack -50% Def

Balanced Stance:  The Basic combat stance 

Defense Stance: -50% attack + 50% Def 

Improved Aggressive Stance: + 75% attack -50% Def

Improved Balanced Stance:  +10% attack +10% Def  

Improved Defense Stance: -50% attack + 75% Def 

Advanced Aggressive Stance: + 100% attack -50% Def

Advanced Balanced Stance:  +15% attack +15% Def 

Advanced Defense Stance: -50% attack + 100% Def 

Legendary Aggressive Stance: + 150% attack -50% Def

Legendary Balanced Stance:  +20% attack +20% Def  

Legendary Defense Stance: -50% attack + 150% Def 

Block skills: 

Block:  The skill to stop your opponents  blow instead of countering your oppents attack.

Block Counter: The skill to block your opponents attack and counter attack instantly.

Preemptive Strike:  Based on the skill of blocking you stop your opponets attack by stiking just before they can.   

Preemptive Strike Block and Counter:  Striking, before your opponets first blow, blocking the following attack and countering in one instant. 

Strike Skills: 

The Skill of Delivering extreamly powerful attacks by fuleing your attack with your essence.

Heavy Strike:  +200% attack , Uses 1 Mana  

Crippling Strike: +300% attack, Uses 2 Mana

Devastaing Strke: +400% attack,Uses 3 Mana

Legendary Strike: + 500% attack, Uses 4 Mana  

Pain Tolerance:

The ability to shrug off or ignore physical injury.

Pain Tolerance: All damage is reduced by 1

Imporved Pain Tolerance: All damage is reduced by 2 

Advanced Pain Tolerance: all damage is reduced by 3 

Legendary Pain Tolerance: all damage is reduced by 4 

Defense Training: 

Intensive Training to improve Defensive skills 

Defense Training:  Def + 1

Imporved Defense Training: Def+ 3 

Advanced Defense Training: Def + 5  

Legendary Defense Training: Def + 7 

Attack  Training: 

Intensive Training to improve Offensive skills 

Attack Training:  Att + 1

Imporved Attack Training: Att+ 3 

Advanced Attack Training: Att + 5  

Legendary Attack Training: Att + 7 

Enemy Weakness:

 The study of weakness of defrent body types:  + 50% damage vs That Type of Creature   

Humanoid: Man and like Creatures

Beast: The creatures of the wild

Magical:  Creatures Summoned forth or Greater Monsters Ie Dragon Kind 

Legendary: Improved damge to +100% vs all types 

Fent:

The Skill of making your adversary react to a fake attack allowing you to get a strke in un-opposed. 

Fent:  4% chance 

Imporved Fent: 8% chance 

Advanced Fent: 16% chance

Legendary Fent 24% chance 

Lol This is all I can think of before I have to get to work. 

Talent: Mana Regeneration = +1 to Mana Regeneration, Cost 20 points.

Talent: Expert Tactician = Units in an army commanded by the sovereign have first strike ability; non-summoned defending units have a 25% to make the first strike when attacked by an enemy unit. Cost 20 points. If both sides have Expert Tactician talent then no effect.

Normal: Enemy unit moves to attack, Enemy unit strikes then defending unit strikes

Sovereign with With Expert Tactician talent commands army: Enemy unit moves to attack, 25% defending unit strikes first, then enemy unit strikes

You may want to check out the "Abilities and Histories Mod" which does a lot of what your suggesting. Improving the abilities, histories, and traits not only make the game more interesting but also more valuable.

Unfortunately, there are some limits to what we can currently do right now with modding. For example, we cannot tie the Merchant's income with city size because there is no way to code it. We can, however, tie his income with city income and make him a multiplier. I also don't know the code for implementing cheaper wages yet. We also can't do anything with "progressive" skill development right now or increase XP gain.

I'd love to hear your feedback on the mod, btw.

Hopefully it's something SD can expand upon in the coming months, because variety is definitely one thing we need more of.

Ok, how about this idea:

For each new level, you add specialization points... depending on your various abilities (e.g. a Powerful warrior [STR], will receive more points in Weapons Specialization, Mighty Caster [ESS] will receive more Magic Specialization etc.)

Now, these points can be used to add traits to Weapons (or weapon types) and Magic (schools [fire/water/etc], or Specific Spells).

Now lets say you invest all your Weapon Specialization on Long Sword.

When your Sov. (equipped with Long Sword) enters Combat, he is truly a devastating Warrior. He will receive attack and damage bonuses based on his Specialization points.

He could even perform a coup de grace with a single blow, killing monsters instantly.

Same could be done with Magic.

Mastering Spells (investing a lot of Specialization Points in them) could bring a dedicated Spellcaster to Master the Fireball, casting it free of Mana, or maybe Giving out extra damage. The spell could even be layered, where investing more Specialization unlocks special traits of that spell... for intance, fireball, at higher levels of Specialization could hurt several enemies, could burn for several turns, could harm even fire-based creatures etc.

please comment...

Something that would "flesh out" the game without altering all that much actual gameplay:

The sovereign's profession, like Merchant or Miner, should define the title.

A Merchant sov named Hugo would be called "CEO Hugo" while the miner sov would be "Foreman Hugo".

This would mostly mean editing the few communication/interface bits so no really deep changes.

However, I would like the professions to have more actual game impact.
They should set the tone of the game rather than being "just another stat I pick".

A merchant sov would be the only one who gets "organized" at 2 points cost, all others would pay 5-6.
However, all the troops of this kingdom would never get a morale greater than 50 % by any means.
And maybe all troops cold have the "Lay off" ability.  while layed off they cost no upkeep but slowly lose HP and cannot be healed.
Eventually, they dissolve. However, they can be reactivated before that, heal up, and become regular fighting troops again...

The warlord would get a "forced march" skill, allowing a limited form of "organized", maybe causing HP damage to the troops.

The miner would be enable his stack to cross hills at normal movement costs...