I'd like to keep the garden until we tested it and it doesn't work ...
We should probably test the garden with a placeholder, then, so as to avoid wasting modeling efforts. I don't see why it *wouldn't* work, though. I'm rather optimistic for it, though. Buildings like the garden also make the buildings of MegaGlest a bit more varied while making the faction a bit more unique.
I'd also like to point out that we really need to nail down what exactly we're doing. We can't start modeling and making art for the faction until we finish planning it. I happen to have a fair bit of time on my hands with the holiday season, and might be able to get a model or two done if we can figure out what we're doing (gonna need arch's base human for any humanoids, though).
I think the current plan outlaid by the
Google Doc looks pretty good. The names need some work and it could use some more concept art (the palace, for example, has 2D concept art, which would be a bit difficult to transform into a model; I'd rather like to know what the side should look like rather than modeling blind). I'd also like to take a closer look at the upgrades. Here's my concept for upgrades (all names are working names; and can easily be changed to whatever sounds best):
- Power of the Magi: Produced by the university. Increases max EP, EP regeneration, and attack strength of Magus and flying carpet
- Worship: Produced by the university. Required to build the obelisk/momentum/stele, which can produce the hero units
- Desert irrigation: Produced by the well. Increases movement, production, HP, and attack speed of all units by 10%. If MegaGlest acquires a future way to apply multiple different stat changes to different sets of units, also apply a 50% production speed increase to the wheat field.
- Advanced irrigation: Produced by the well. Requires Desert irrigation. Increases attack strength of most units (all except magic based and hero units). If MegaGlest acquires a future way to apply multiple different stat changes to different sets of units AND the ability to modify the effects of attack boosts by a percentage, boost the attack-boosts of the well and garden by 50%.
- Desert cavalry: Produced by the stables. Required to produce the mameluke and camel archer.
- Craftsman secrets: Produced by the market. Increases attack strength of units with melee weapons and armour strength of units with metal or leather armor.
- Enhanced supplies: Produced by the market. Increases slave's build speed by 33%. If the ability to change repair speed becomes available, increase that by 33% as well. If the ability to modify production costs in upgrades, decrease production costs for all buildings by 10%.
As noted, the well produces mostly stat based upgrades, based on the idea that water is a difficult necessity for desert peoples. Two of the three cavalry units require upgrades before they can be produced. That leaves the Cataphract without needing an upgrade. The Cataphract is described as heavy melee, though. Perhaps the upgrade should be required for the Cataphract and the Mameluke can be produced without an upgrade (the Mameluke is described as a fast raider with bonuses to cavalry). That bonus reminds me that if we're developing the factions separately, we need to coordinate on the attack and armour types. Ideally, their'll be a large number of types so that we can have things like a cavalry unit effective against cavalry and a Khopesh warrior that's effective against infantry. That's done easily enough by having "anti-cavalry" and "anti-infantry" attack types, which would be effective against the armour types generally used by cavalry (which would need its own armour type) and infantry (metal, organic, leather, etc). That discussion is best done in the
generic MG refit topic.
At any rate, several upgrades have extended ideas. In addition to what they can do, I'd like to see them do
more if later features become available. MegaGlest's upgrade system is really basic, and I'd hope to see that expanded on. In particular, the ability to apply different stat increases to different sets of units, such as giving unit A an attack strength boost and unit B an attack speed boost. GAE did this with an
enhancements tag, which allowed these different enhancements to be applied to different units. I'd also like to see the ability to increase by multipliers (realized now that's not already possible, so the above descriptions would have to be tweaked slightly). Finally, some things like repair speed, production costs, and attack boost effects can't be modified by upgrades. The latter two only make sense to increase by a multiplier.
