General Strategic Changes in 3rd Cycle

[Jumpingfist]

Game wise no real issues with a winter freeze over. I think it could actually help the CI. May be getting a support request or two of course why there 710 order did not go through. Also what terrain is it considered for fighting on? Plains it would be a very hard terrain to actually fight on if one was not wearing the correct gear. The CI and NE would know of this effect and likely be prepared.

[IMPERIAL_TARK]

Could have a negative effect for the Pirates and Atlantians. Perhaps those with Seafaring trait can still navigate their ships through the ice?

Or perhaps just 2 or 3 squares ice over so there are ice bridges but ships still functional.

Not sure many kingdoms "want" to go into the N. Mists during the winter months (doesn't CI have a Winter advantage?), so agree with JF that it could simply make it easier for CI and NE to "leave" N. Mists and not better for other kingdoms.

[Ry Vor]

Game wise no real issues with a winter freeze over.  I think it could actually help the CI.   May be getting a support request or two of course why there 710 order did not go through.  Also what terrain is it considered for fighting on?  Plains it would be a very hard terrain to actually fight on if one was not wearing the correct gear.   The CI and NE would know of this effect and likely be prepared.

The terrain could be considered desert, to both slow movement a bit and likely give several kingdoms some terrain disadvantage to simulate fighting on ice.

It is a two edged sword:  makes invasion into Mists something to plan on to correspond with Winter where the fleets of Pirates and the Mists denizen are neutral, but as JF says, can work for a first winter invasion outside the Mists.  On the other hand, it opens the currently veritable fortress of the Mists to invasion.

We would add a text warning on Late Autumn turns to indicate the Sea of Terror would be frozen, and for each Winter turn that it is frozen: no movement by ship.

I think its just pretty cool, I get good visuals/images, especially it is effecting mainly the barbarians out of the north and the leader of the White Walkers, er, undead from the north. And it it the first instance where a season has this kind of strategic effect, if really only for one region.

[unclemike]

I'm always in favor of a new scenario but I don't recommend limiting it to a single region since that will only end up victimizing a single kingdom in the game. Instead, how about proposing an Ice Age scenario where 8/10 regions are frozen throughout the entire game and only Arcania and the Southern Sands are not.

Then you would have an interesting game where nearly all the kingdoms are dealing with the harsh winter effects of a brutal Ice Age such as:

(1) reduced food/gold production at all pc's
(2) less trade efficiency (so open market may be 5:1)
(3) emissary actions (rebel/usurp/quo) have -25% effect (bitter cold prevents communicating effectively among the people)
(4) 50% group movement rates
(5) allow troops to cross water areas without ships
(6) emissaries/agents ranges are -2 areas
(7) reduced (or zero) food spoilage

So the terrain doesn't change to become desert or another type but rather the map remains the same while a global variable is set in the code for an Ice Age where all terrain costs are automatically doubled (except for flyers).

There's all kinds of cool factors that you can throw in during an Ice Age but I wouldn't do it if you're only going to limit it to a single region. That wouldn't be worth it from the player's perspective who may want the challenge of playing on a map where nearly every region is frozen over.

[unclemike]

Forgot to mention that Mammoths would be a good fit for an Ice Age scenario. The code could check for the global setting and allow every kingdom to recruit Mammoths since the animal should be plentiful in a frozen realm. Actually, I could probably do all of the above in about a week's worth of time (including Mammoths for all) if Ry Vor wants to move ahead with this variant.

[IMPERIAL_TARK]

I don't know if this is true for all kingdoms or just my Pirates, but I noticed that several of the spells on my most recent turn spell list are not complete. That is, they describe the spell, but don't give me all the info for the columns on how to actually cast it. Some I can deduce, but others I'm guessing to do the order. So that will need to be fixed. Some examples (I didn't go through whole list of spells) would include: #87, #90, #887, #933

[VballMichael]

2 things that are questions/commentary/suggestions.

First, in 502, I did hit the SVC, and it was underwhelming. No announcement in the public area of the turn, no reward, no effect whatsoever on my turn, my kingdom or the game in general, just a couple of lines buried deep in my turn report that say our scribes are happy to report that we hit the SVC.
Is this what is intended, or should it be more like a second ESO, or celebrated like a minor world accomplishment?

Second, in 503, I lost a Fool to the Amazons and that Fool does not show up on my missing emissary list so I could do a 385 escape order.
Again, is this what is intended, that he changes sides and now only comes back with a kidnap or capture rather than any potential escape?

[Jumpingfist]

Along those same lines with SVC what does it do? Can multiple kingdoms declare it in the same game? does it impact victory other than lions share. seems if it is going to have victory in the name maybe it should guarantee at least 2nd place and only 1 person should be able to claim. Is it limited to after T20 like 2nd cycle?

[Ry Vor]

Thanks for the new feedback. 

The lack of effect and flair on SVC as of now is because I haven't done that yet.  The main thing was to see if the code recognized the SVC was accomplished and did not end the game.  It would be nice if it also created a list in Valhalla at game end as to which personas had accomplished SVC with what kingdoms.  As to any in-game asset reward, I'd take suggestions.  Perhaps a Prince?  I'm not sure I would make a universal result in-game about Kingdom X achieving their SVC, but it would be disclosed at game conclusion and status points awarded.

Fools and Priestesses do not escape.  When captured or kidnapped they change loyalty to the capturing king.  They would have to be re-captured to again work for the original kingdom.

Mike will make note of the spell lists, also true about some names getting truncated.  This is likely a browser thing, where Chrome is displaying all correctly, but other browsers have different issues.

[HeadHoncho]

I don't understand. Who wins when someone declares SVC? The first to declare? The one at the end with the most status points?

I would find it highly objectionable if someone ended up winning and I didn't know about it, and kept on playing, hoping for a win, when that option is no longer available for me.