Not sure if this has been posted yet or not! I haven’t seen it, and similar topic reference said mainly about weapon levels and level balance and all that.
I was wondering about the possibility of enemies leveling?
I’m not sure on what balance Dev’s are looking at for Hearthling vs AI is, but my thoughts were along the lines of:
Hearthlings during combat gain XP, and a little extra for a kill, correct?
What if enemies could too?
My thoughts? Put simply:
-I think it would be an interesting concept to have enemies able to level up-
Scenario examples:
Ex. 1.) During a large melee, some enemies might happen to level up and suddenly become a little stronger, which may turn the tide of a battle.
Ex. 2.) If the forces you sent against a foe are inadequate, or the monsters you’re up against are stronger than you realise, then in the case of either your retreat or loss by death, those monsters will only become stronger, ultimately turning in to a more prominent threat than they were even before.
Likewise, they could receive similar perks to Hearthling footmen when they level up, increase to damage, their own special attacks, etc. (Some weaker, for example, goblins, could even get lucky in a battle and suddenly become stronger and more threatening than a mere peon, raising up closer to the strength of a goblin warrior.)
No need to stop just there either. Enemies that remain consistent on the map (Like goblins!) could level up over time. So the longer you pacify goblins by giving in to their demands, preparing your forces for knocking them out one day, the goblins are likewise getting stronger, the longer you leave them, the harder they’ll be to remove. (Along with additional goblin recruitment)
I know balance is still in the works, but to me, killing enemies is a tedious nuisance at the moment. They seem too weak, even what I thought were stronger ones, are like swatting flies, and swarms of mini rock golems and treants, all that is, is free resources running directly in to my stockpile…
I just had the thought because I think, especially if the difficulty is knocked up a few notches (or if an optional difficulty setting is added), leveling enemies would be pretty sweet and more immersive to the world, giving the enemies something to want to beat your hearthlings for! ( AI’s have feelings too! )
Another suggestion which I just briefly mentioned above, optional difficulty levels, I’m not sure if that’s been talked about or not either, but that would also be an interesting feature.
So we have Peaceful and Normal gameplays.
Is there a thought for the future about harder/easier difficulties? i.e. Creative, Peaceful, Easy, Medium, Hard.
Creative - World is pretty much in players dominant control, (It’s a self explanatory one which has been talked about many times already, this one isn’t entirely relevant to the topic, but it’s here due to the fact that I was labeling different game modes.)
Peaceful - No enemies, cruisy free-build civilisation development with no set backs, unless natural disasters are introduced. (Already Exists*)
Easy - Weak enemies added with Lower HP and Damage than average, for those who want opposition in the game, but just something easy to cruise through. May cause a few bothers with development of civilisation, but nothing drastic.
Medium - Enemies who could be mildly challenging in their own, but usually aren’t so much a threat that they’d be able to destroy a player’s civilisation. Could cause set backs and disruptions to civilisation development. (Already Exists*)
Hard - Enemies whose Hp and Damage are raised, perhaps certain special stronger bosses included also. Some monsters or swarm attacks/raids capable of destroying an entire Hearthling civilisation if the civilisation isn’t prepared with safety zones and defenses. A setting for a military challenge, where most raids would incur a full halt to civilisation progress and a full defensive stature of the civilisation.
Now that I’ve had my longwinded gasbag about these two matters…
Thoughts? Discussion? Alterations? Reproach? 