[Suggestion] Make flags more interesting, ideas for visual and gameplay improvements

By Colonel_Jessep on January 15, 2009 2:42:40 PM from

Demigod is a great game and a lot of fun to play. The engine works great and I hope multiplayer will be even more fun once the netcode is polished. However some things don't feel right at the moment. For a game based on mythology and role playing I would expect more than flags that buff a few stats. The Demigod beta reminds me too much of a math problem and a good demigod build is too much about crunching numbers.

Especially the flags could be more interesting in function and appearance. Buffing Demigod stats is useful but it's nothing to write home about. And I would prefer to have buildings I can keep apart at a glance.

The creeps are usually just cannon fodder, easily killed, basically XP on legs. In my opinion they could use a little help. Why not make them strong enough to worry about and to make the game more interesting at the same time. Here are a few ideas I came up with for buildings that would be easy to recognize on a map and might increase the depth of the game:

· Shrine of the Valkyries: Each new wave of creeps spawns with a Valkyrie. She greatly buffs health, speed and damage. When the Valkyrie dies, she will drag the souls of close by enemy creeps with her to Valhalla.

· Lich's Dungeon: Killed creeps have a chance to rise from the dead and are invulnerable for a short time.

· Box of Pandora: A strong group of creeps are spawned close to the enemy stronghold. The opposing team will receive no bonuses for destroying them.

· Menhir of Ragnarök: A blizzard sweeps over the battlefield in regular intervals and slows down hostile demigods. Creeps will be frozen in place and die if they were already wounded.

· Titan's Barrows: Giants will join the battle sooner and have more HP. In early game this building could generate additional income from the buried treasures.

· Fenris' Lair: A giant wolf spawns with each group of creeps. He grows larger and stronger with each war rank and can deliver a crippling bite to a demigod once (short stun).

· Dragon Graveyard: The armor made from dragon skin will greatly improve the armor of creeps and the riches found between the bones will increase the gold income of the whole team.

· Oracle of Delphi: The whole map is revealed for a few seconds. Holding the flag will increase the visual range of creeps significantly.

· Arcane Library: Shorter cooldowns and faster mana regeneration for the whole team. Monks heal faster and do more damage.

· Hall of Kings: Free war rank upgrade and a speed and damage buff for all creeps.

Some of my ideas might not fit into the budget or would have to be adjusted. But I think one or two of those buildings on each map would add significantly to the game immersion. What do you think?

PS: to keep costs down some stuff could be reused, i.e.: Valkyrie --> Angel, Fenris --> smaller version of Unclean Beast with a different texture...

Additional Ideas:

by Heavenfall: Maps should have a central flag randomly choosen from each of these to give some variety to every new map, and force players to rethink their plan of attack every map.

by polarstar_111: A flag/building that decreases the number of enemy creeps slightly (Monks, Giants, Catapultsauri -1 each).

+46 Karma | 12 Replies

very nice ideas indeed

but its not based off of greek mythology. Its like it but nothing is greek, named or really looking. but still nice ideas.

I likke these ideas much better than what we currently have. Stat boosts although useful are boring, these ideas are not. I have been thinking of something very similar to theese for a week or so. Maybe I'll post my ideas in here too.

Thanks for the Karma, I'm glad you like my ideas so far. The names are based on Northern and Greek mythology and random standard fantasy stuff and are placeholders. They can be replaced with more fitting names. It was just to demonstrate how a 'flag' could be improved to fit better into the role playing aspect of the game.

@ Trigeminal: please add your ideas too, the more the better!

Wow, these changes would make for a very interesting game.

As for minos, about how many come in at a time in the early game? Sorry, but I don't have the beta.

If the number could be increased as well as their strength and damage and stuff being increased (initially I mean, not after getting a certain flag) it would make for an interesting change.

And forgive me if there is already a flag like this, but how about having a building that actually causes your enemies minos to decrease in number? Half the time you wouldn't want it because you need XP, but it would become really useful lategame.

A name like Ennui of Amaterasu (Japanese sun god), maybe.

And as Col Jessep suggested, perhaps buildings that when captured cause weather changes (to your advantage). Such as random periods of snow, or rain, or sandstorms (maybe 1 - 2 minutes) that slow down, reduce damage, etc your opponents more than you. Or perhaps even random meteor showers, or earthquakes?

Quoting Soccer194,

reply 2

but its not based off of greek mythology. Its like it but nothing is greek, named or really looking. but still nice ideas.

Mostly Norse mythology is what I see...

Mostly good ideas, though giants earlier is a bit of a game-breaker.

their still ideas that will need some balancing as awalys but the end result could be a awesome game.

Most of the changes suggested here look like they only require the changing of a few numbers, which can be easily done through mods of course once the game is released.

I'd love to see these flags. What I'd love even more is if the maps had a central flag randomly choose from each of these to give some variety to every new map, and force players to rethink their plan of attack every map.

I added your idea to the first post Heavenfall, some variety will keep the gameplay interesting.

@ polarstar: in early game a portal spawns 6 Minotaurs or so. With upgrades and increasing war rank you will get more Minotaurs, Archers , 3 healers, 3 Catapultisauri and 2 Giants.

Decreasing the number of enemy Minotaurs wouldnt do much but you could have a flag which decreases the number of Monks, Catas and Giants by one. Idea added.

Quoting Heavenfall,

reply 9

Love it!!! Helps prevent the do the same thing everythime routine some of the "pros" get into.

Yes, this game is not supposed to have a "build order". I would hate to see this game turn out to have a do order - a starting strategy so much better than other strategies that other strategies become useless.

For example, I haven't played the game, but I imagine that they would try to strike a balance between capturing goldmines (assuming there are some in the middle of the arena), get XP by killing minos, or just straight rushing for a flag/s. They would have to be very careful that a certain map isn't made such that one of the above strategies becomes too good in comparison to others, as it limits the strategic depth.

And I don't know why I thought of this, but how about a flag that once captured gave you the ability to cover a certain building or demigod with shields (as in SupCom ala energy shields that makes it invulnerable and uncapturable) for a small period of time (say ten seconds)? And if you held it, it gives you the ability to shield a building or demigod for five seconds at a high cost (mana [or whatever the personal energy readings of demigod's is called] or something I suppose), which recharges every minute or so, so that you can't spam it. Or instead of a shield, it could be an armour or integrity boost that halves the damage the building or demigod takes for a limited amount of time.

The ability to shield or reduce the damage taken by a building or demigod would be immense in well matched competitive games, as it could mean the difference between a demigod dying or a building being destroyed or captured.

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[Suggestion] Make flags more interesting, ideas for visual and gameplay improvements