So one of the stretch goals was “Pirates. Ninjas. Politicians.” Having browsed the forums a bit, I haven’t seen much talk in the ninja area and I’d like to spur some discussion on this topic. I’m not sure how far into the fantasy realm ninja will go, because they can be pretty ridiculous in manga.
Would they simply have some sort of stealth feature for a one-time sneaky high critical damage attack? Will they have a ranged shuriken attack? Smoke bombs? If we delve into manga territory, would the ninja be able to make shadow clones?
What about on the larger scale? Will ninja merely be stealthy combat units? Can they be used as spies or scouts (would this make introduce too much micro gameplay)? Could you sell their services off to other towns and have them come back with some sort of payment?
The ninja have the potential to be very strong, and therefore a little overpowered, especially if we go with the fantasy ninja area with shadow clones and whatnot.
I personally see them as being a unit that gains stealth at night and have a high parry/dodge skill. The first attack from stealth would be a high critical damage attack, but their basic attacks and overall health would be weaker than that of a soldier. This may be too quirky, but I’d like them to hide in trees or disguise themselves as bushes so they can work as a perimeter scout or keep an eye out on nearby enemy encampments. In terms of gameplay control, I imagine to prevent micro, they would be controlled similarly the current way the trapper is; you would select an area for them to function in. Maybe they have “scout”, “ambush”, and “spy” options. But rather than dragging out a square box, they should have a fixed circular territory they can “control”, and you select where the center of that circle would be, and off they go! So maybe you order them to “ambush” any baddies in this area. And the ninja will run over there and either climb into the tree and wait to attack, or disguise himself as a bush and wait for enemies.
Also, since ninja have to eat - Before they go on missions, they should probably grab like 3 days worth of food and throw it into a knapsack and take it with them so they don’t have to keep exposing themselves to hunt for food for hunger.
Okay and one final thought. If we use them as spies… you know how the caravans periodically show up with a new person wanting to join a settlement? Well what if for ninja espionage, you send your ninja over to another player’s settlement to “join” their town as a worker or something and the owner of the town uses them for every day tasks thinking his population has merely increased? This way you get vision of their area and can strategically plan out an attack. Then when you finally want to have your ninja retreat, he has to leave at night! So maybe he’ll make a dummy body out of wood or something that would take his place in the bed or on the ground when he’s sleeping. And then he’ll regain his stealth attribute (because it’s night) and he runs home! Then after a period of time, one of the footmen will go and inspect the sleeping person and *poof!* a cloud of smoke reveals the sleeping body to be a block of wood or something!
Anyway, I’d like to hear ideas on ninjas.
Thoughts?
-raises katana;
No plurals in Japanese! None! It hurts my ears/eyes!
) really worked as you say… but imagine a situation whereby your night patrol must ward off the ninjas whilst your day patrol does the same for the pirates (or w/e).
I was trying to be extra careful because I saw you rant about it in another thread haha. Oh well…