***Community Design: God Powers in combat--DEV THREAD***

Not necessarily, it could be reasonably conveyed with what's present in the game, I feel. Lower enemy happiness=increased aggression, which makes sense, depending on how you look at it. Although, I wouldn't be too against a more nuanced representation of multiple enemy tribe statuses, something which Weyworld clearly displayed that system was not built to effectively represent.

Edit: Er, check that post again, I edited in an elaboration on what I was thinking with the scare idea as you made your post.

Well with a lot of practice I managed to get smaller impacts but its very fiddly.

Just limit it to the belief produced by aforementioned campaign altars, i.e. by the army itself.

That means we would have two different kinds of belief.  If one kind doesn't work, I don't see how having two would.  This all drives home just how sketchy the belief system is.  What is Belief?  What is the purpose of generating, gathering, and using belief supposed to accomplish?  Why is my peacetime belief unsuitable for my wartime belief? 

A combat belief generator is like a rage bar.  Imagine Zeus standing around waiting to toss a lightning bolt because his troops haven't built up enough steam to go to war yet.  "Come on guys, let's get in there and fight!  In the meantime, here's a pretty rainbow."

I'm somewhat surprised that another one of these kinds of threads pops up.
The reason I'm surprised is that various members at various stages of Godus' development have offered wideranging threads going into detail with suggestions and ideas on how to improve specific aspects or the game as a whole.

Please tell me, why do you need people to regurgitate what has already been worked out in detail multiple times over?
Call me crazy, but I've tried to participate in this dance several times over. Some on my own accord, others at request of 22cans staff.
And each and every time it amounted to nothing. Not only have most of these suggestions been ignored completely.
But a few months later the same request gets posed again reinventing the wheel.


If you do intend to do something with the suggestions this time around then please excuse my skepticism.
But please understand that I don't particularly feel like attempting to work through various trains of thought again only to have it be completely ignored.
Moreover, while I understand that you guys are restricted in what you can do at this point. I personally believe that some things aren't as easily split up as others. So without further ado, here are a few of the suggestions I've made in the past.

Some related to godpowers, some tangentially related to godpowers and some unrelated to godpowers.

• Settlements, Belief, Inspiration and followers.
  
• Godus Settlements - going into the future.
  
• Farming - a timed conflict of interests? Or a viable solution.

What it boils down to is that right now, I feel there is a disconnect with what the game is doing and what a godgame should aspire to do.

We are a god, because people believe in us, our power comes through progressional growth and belief in us by our people.

Yet what it comes down to is that our people are inconsequential - they are a figure on paper with no real purpose.

And our powers come from pre-existing bits and bobs in the land that subsequently enable us to perform chores or solve puzzles.

We aren't "gods", we don't feel "godlike". Instead we are groundskeepers. Making sure that there is no litter on the floor, making sure the flowers look prim and we are punished for speaking our minds.

What I would desire is two-fold.
For one have powers come through our followers. Not through some pre-existing element in the terrain.
And secondly have powers be affected both by the needs of our people aswell as our actions as gods.

Finally and not entirely unrelated but very consequential for PC. Don't tie things into the gem cash currency. We're a god, not a customer at the local carnival cashing in our chips for prizes. Don't "Cheapen" being a god, but let the sacrifice come either through sacrificed resources (be they living or material wealth) or actions by our followers and be represented as such.

That brings me to the first big suggestion I'd make.

Split belief up into two parts.

This one is pretty straightforward. Right now we have "Belief" and "Gems" - the gems are a remnant from the mobile development but could easily be altered into something more substantial. By taking the concept of the Pit of Doom and working from there you can create a sort of "Super Belief", a power born from sacrifice. A more rare resource that enables you to perform particularly strong divine acts.

This sacrificial resource is more rare by its nature but would enable you to "move mountains".

Meanwhile the regular belief could be used for more mundane acts, things that need to be done, but aren't necessarily attributed to the divine. They just speed things up.
Our followers could theoretically make a staircase, dig a ditch and do all kinds of things. With belief, we just speed things up.

Split powers up in various catagories.

Right now we have a variety of powers at our disposal. We have powers like Swamp and Beautify which alter the terrain, we have powers like Finger of God that affect a single target and Rain of Purity that affects a larger radius.
Its easy to work from there.

Some powers are permanent - but should they be? We've already seen the problem that the permanent swamp caused with the Astari, resulting in making them invulnerable which in turn created a range of new problems. The easier solution would've been to have swamp be temporary.
This is something I go into in detail in one of my threads above, but what it comes down to is that our act of making a swamp would slowly be retaken by nature and reverts to its original form. Unless we somehow keep feeding belief into it or find another source to sustain the terrain alterations.

Which leads to the second half of that - making such powers permanent. The base for this already exists, which are the springs which were (are?) supposed to enable us to create verdant lands for farming.

Then we have a number of instant powers like Finger of God. Straightforward. You pay the price, you do the deed. Whether its squishing a follower, throwing a fireball or rock or anything similar.

And then we have a number of more AoE related powers which could range for raining on an area to planting a forest to others.
Ofcourse if other potential catagories pose themselves as valid, these are good options.

Now that we've established a basis for "belief" (a resource cost) and "powers" (distributed in purpose and type)....

From here we look at both gameplay aswell as player enjoyment. Some powers serve a specific purpose. A fireball functions to destroy an oncoming army or enemy. A rainstorm can put out fires or water crops.
Ideally you want powers to be multi-functional. Enable the player to be creative. Other games offer good insight into this. Where clever usage of the terrain and combination of effects can sometimes result into surprising results.

Whether 22cans can achieve the same at this point in development I don't know - but its a good aim. Perhaps a swamp on desert soil followed by a beautify can result in something unexpected?



While I could list off a variety of godpower suggestions - it all depends on where you want to go with the game.
Is the game going to be the collection of minigames that it turned into over 2 years of development?
Then its going to need far different kinds of powers than if it is to become the persistent sandbox it was originally made out to be.

The way the timeline is shaped and how our followers provide us with the means to progress into that also has drastic effects on how the game plays.
Are we fully in control? Or do we in part serve at the behest of our people? How much detail should we want or need? Or how are we limited in the engine or other technical constraints?


I for one would love to see a stronger focus on the persistent development of our followers through the ages.
Have their actions leave a lasting mark on both the terrain aswell as our progression as gods. And have our choices as gods guide the path that our followers tread.
Rather than finding monolithing structures buried in mountains I would love it if they build them in our name for something we did for them.
And have their act of worship result in a new divine power for us.

If we went through the trouble of flattening a mountain, their belief and gratitude be reflected in an improved sculpting tool.
If we went through the effort of fighting off a tribe of invaders - perhaps we get a more combat oriented power or a way to strengthen our people?
If we saved them from natural disaster - have powers reflect his through shields or other protective/supportive measures.
If we focus on creating a thriving society - grant us powers that improve follower aspects. Be it by providing them with wildlife to hunt, trees to chop down, ores to mine or otherwise.

We could easily "boost" or "conjure" the growth of animals providing our people with meat and hides. Grow trees to provide them with wood. Crash down meteors filled with valuable ores.
Or we could turn terrain from deserts into lush jungles or from swamps into fertile plains (or the other way around).


Finally, have those actions reflect how our followers look as they develop. Assuming a multiplayer component is still in the works it would be awesome if followers from one player would reflect their different looks and style. If you are a warlike god, perhaps this could be reflected through our people. If you are more benevolent then they reflect that.


Everything ends up being connected. The answer isn't as easy as "we need this power" or "that power needs to be..."

I hope this helps somewhat. If not then so be it. I can't say I'm expecting a lot anymore. But here is my suggestion.
Oh and one more thing. Naming conventions... The way things are called are important. Much like "gems" give a bad impression so do other names.

We already had meteor, suddenly we get "comet" - its a strange choice.
But more importantly, why the hell does the "holy forest" spawn a single tree!?
Attention to detail can go a long way.

I'm with Danjal on this.

Soooo.... did this topic die?
Seems like it just came to an abrupt halt.

Any feedback, Devs?

I wouldn't call it dead. As very often happens in design you get periods where you have a bit of time to think about future features that work may not begin on for weeks, months or even ever. It's good to have options when the time does come. This is a very specific issue I know I will have to address. This is meant to be a community input thread so there is no reason to stop posting if you want to contribute. When I sit down to do a design doc for powers in combat, I will be able to return to this thread.

Just one more brief thought (on the above idea). If a player picks A, ignore the "threat," and moves the main game screen to the threat area, he/she might see a few enemies on the border making annoying cat calls and tossing a few spears etc.. Just enough obnoxious annoyance to possibly goad the player into fighting. Something like, "what god??... Razz!"

You mean that popup/login statement on mobile that tells me every world is different is not being truthful...