Mark of fear.

Some very interesting ideas Shrapnel, definately worth looking into.

Or it could be that dealing with smaller players for a while is exactly what its for?

Since the units survive, it just means you need to be dedicated and build up a larger enough force till you break it.

And yes, SC, I think it should ALSO send back that many units and split the force, giving it a little more oomph, as right now despite the higher charge count a destructo ward is more useful since you can effectively handle more units with a bit of diplo defense.

If you DON'T have it split up forces, my proposal for "infinite charges until broken" should probably be accompanied by a significant increase in size.

Essentially, wards of destruction become the basic tool of war and fear wards become the easy low maintainence way to deal with harriers and random thieves, since only a dedicated attack can overcome it (but it isn't likely to do much to hurt a dedicated attack).

Edited by Dervious Jhyris - 30 Sep 2010 at 16:41

Dervious Jhyris wrote: And yes, SC, I think it should ALSO send back that many units and split the force, giving it a little more oomph, as right now despite the higher charge count a destructo ward is more useful since you can effectively handle more units with a bit of diplo defense.

That was slightly what I was afraid of, but thought was actually the most sensible option too...

Much more coding involved in this (ie handling "non-participatory units who have been feared, but still part of the main force of units who haven't been"). 

The alternative is to simply send back the other units and let the remainder go on - but that's probably as much code (as you need to explain to the sending player why he sent out one diplo group but now has two coming back).

Will think on it.

Best,

SC

Ethelion wrote: I think that spells with charges should regenerate at a rate of max charges/cool-off period.

Again, the "confuse" factor is possible here.

We have ideas in mind for a school of "Scrying". This might tell you the number of charges remaining.  But generally, once a number has been reported, we're against changing it.

Players need to know what they're fighting against.

For example, if your scouts hit an NPC camp and you get a report back, if you send an army out then and there - regardless of the time or distance to that NPC - it doesn't suddenly transform from a Handful of Wolves to a Legion of Arakvar (as that would be unfair).  ie, if there's an army inbound, the system doesn't change that fact.

I'm all for *players* changing facts (by reinforcement, or by dropping and recasting spells, or whatever), but I'm generally against game facts that the system changes itself (ie regenerating spells).

They only lead to player confusion which manifests itself (from our perspective) as Petitions called "My report said X and the reality was Y", which we'd prefer not to have!

Best,

SC

Stormcrow,