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[Lapoleon]

In the Lore and Storytelling subforum of the normal Backers forum there is a thread for new Old One ideas. Surprisingly enough nobody has mentioned a classic Sauron-like Old One with a strong tie to one specific object.

[Puzzlemaker]

Honestly, an even better approach would be to let the gods create artifacts that they imbue with some of their power.  They permanently lose some of their energy, but they gain a powerful artifact with a special effect.  It should also corrupt any hero stupid enough to grab it.

In Saurons case, it would be an artifact (The One Ring) that allows him to control the wielders of all the other rings.  The other rings would be powerful by themselves, as well.  Hand them out to all the kings of the realm (Did you know that all nine ringwraiths used to be human kings?)

I suppose the one rings powers would be...

Sister Artifact Control (Control the other "sister" artifacts, aka the other rings, when you wield this ring.)
Spirit-walking (Invisibility)
Master-seeking (Any hero who picks up the ring feels compelled to seek out it's original master.  Sometimes they believe they want to kill him, sometimes pledge loyalty.)
Powerful draw (Heroes want it.  This should be a common side effect of artifacts, the strength of the draw decided by the power of the artifact).
Powerful Magic Bonus
Corrupting

In fact, a solid artifact system where you can exchange some of your power to receive an artifact and choose it's various effects from a list would be really interesting.  Maybe a specific type of god?

[Cthulhu]

That already exists I'm pretty sure.  There's even an agent centered around crafting powerful artifacts, the artificer.

[Puzzlemaker]

Oh awesome!  I wonder if a one-ring like artifact is capable of being produced?  If not, it should be!

[KingDinosaurGames]

Seraph raises towers which serve to funnel light to her palace, they don't terraform but "drain light" from adjacent areas creating a variety of interest effects.  We WILL be revisiting the core six Old Ones to see if terraforming abilities will benefit their strategies and theme but Inatha and Moloch are the only two who pivot around terraforming abilities as they were two that were specifically stripped from consideration early because the static map wouldn't support them. 

Inatha is straightforward - a combination of slow but permanent conversion to tundra as well as the ability to push out sudden storms and other environmental effects from the mountain peaks that still contain his voice.  Moloch is more insidious and open to various approaches from forcing the hexes adjacent to his pools to regress to a primal state (jungles, high temperature, more danger) to corrupting rivers with his bile forcing downstream POIs to suffer to wielding his tendrils like weapons to form massive wounds in the earth permanently damaging the hex (and any POI atop it).  However, each usage provides openings for the Heroes to descend into the Underworld and seek out his Heart, or at the very least sever some of his tendrils.

I'm hoping we get to another Old One vote (though Race is next) while in Beta as one of our next contenders is a Sentient War Machine from the Age of Wonders that has a very unique relationship with terraforming focused around ancient ruins, though I do expect Tzadar to rally and take it.

Will there be old ones that feature an object as their source of power? Like Sauron and the One Ring? Because that leads to a lot of possibilities for moders.

Sisyphus' rise to power is due to a selectable artifact - it alters his powers and of course he'd love to get his hands back on it.  Considering one of our major inspirations for mechanics was War of the Ring (the boardgame) there are Campaigns (multi-stage quests) that have a "dunk the ring in Mordor" feel to them to end the game.  That being the case, it would be trivial to mod in a "One Ring" type object.

In procedural we would like to see these objects created by the usage of ancient power and gifted, like the rings of power, to nations/leaders throughout the world to drag them down into corruption.

That already exists I'm pretty sure.  There's even an agent centered around crafting powerful artifacts, the artificer.

Artificer got the chop - we originally had a few specialist agents that reflected your sacrifice to use their specific branch of abilities but since we've been able to expand the game so much it seemed like an artificial limitation.  Now your ability to craft artifacts depends on ancient knowledge, facilities, and corrupting those whose skills are essential in forming it (elves, dwarves, etc). 

[Cthulhu]

That works.  I was kind of wondering about the artificer since it seemed like he'd probably have a niche, shorter-term role in your strategy but once you've hired him you can't get rid of him without killing him.  It makes more sense gameplay-wise to not have one of your agents dedicated to a single function.

Also I'm a little disappointed that "Dunk the ring in Dordor" wasn't intentional.

[gimli]

Now your ability to craft artifacts depends on ancient knowledge, facilities, and corrupting those whose skills are essential in forming it (elves, dwarves, etc).

Nice! 

[TempAcc]

That is actualy more faithful to how things were done by Morgoth and Sauron then before. Sauron created the rings by teaching the elves some things and letting them create the rings themselves, with the One Ring being the only one he actualy created himself, after learning some things from the elves as well (the noldorim, specifically).

Also I do like the idea that old ones should lose some of their powers if they decide to use to to create an artifact or infuse people/creatures/agents with power, since that also did happen to morgoth, and the only reason he was considerably weaker then the other valar in the second half of the silmarillion is because he infused tons to of things with his powers (and by carrying silmarils in his crown, which actualy made him weaker). At one point he was so weak even fingolfin, an elf (albeit one of the strongest ones that ever existed), was able to seriously injure him.

[HellHound01]

Does anyone have anymore information on Cultures/Governments/Races?

Is there a full list of the above that are currently planned to be in the game?

How do Cultures and Governments interact? I'd assume warlike "Norse" cultures will probably be more dangourous with a military style government, then say... a republic.

Is it possible for governments to change via revolution/revolt/coup in game?

How much do the traits of Kings and other leaders affect the nations? Will warlike leaders in a peaceful type government be able to force a war, or will they end up being confined by the style of the government?

I've read that NPC nations will sometimes go to war with each other depending on culturall/government traits, how far will they go? Will they enter total war mode, or simple fight over bits of land or trade rights?

Is trade reciving an overhaul with the kickstarter being so successful? I remember that origionally it was kind of a vauge thing that occured, will there be actual trade routes that can be raided/blockaded now? Also what about pirates?

Will non-human races also have seperate cultures? Such as Wood Elves/High Elves/Dark Elves? Or will they be pretty monolithic compaired to Humans?

Do races like Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs get boost in combat because of racial abilities?

Sorry if these questions have been asked before.

[bulborbish]

Does anyone have anymore information on Cultures/Governments/Races?

Is there a full list of the above that are currently planned to be in the game?

How do Cultures and Governments interact? I'd assume warlike "Norse" cultures will probably be more dangourous with a military style government, then say... a republic.

Is it possible for governments to change via revolution/revolt/coup in game?

How much do the traits of Kings and other leaders affect the nations? Will warlike leaders in a peaceful type government be able to force a war, or will they end up being confined by the style of the government?

I've read that NPC nations will sometimes go to war with each other depending on culturall/government traits, how far will they go? Will they enter total war mode, or simple fight over bits of land or trade rights?

Is trade reciving an overhaul with the kickstarter being so successful? I remember that origionally it was kind of a vauge thing that occured, will there be actual trade routes that can be raided/blockaded now? Also what about pirates?

Will non-human races also have seperate cultures? Such as Wood Elves/High Elves/Dark Elves? Or will they be pretty monolithic compaired to Humans?

Do races like Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs get boost in combat because of racial abilities?

Sorry if these questions have been asked before.

I'll do my best to give you what I got.

1. Races can have certain Governments, Humans have the most with most common governments, Culture is independent of government type and defines who lives in a Point of Interest compared to who controls the point of interest.

2. Races in the main scenario (though they can be modded in easily enough)
-Humans
-Elves
-Dwarves
-Orcs
-Lizardfolk
-Ithilid Esk Folk (can't remember their name right now
-a few more minor races which I can't remember

We really don't have a full list of governments so I won't list it, and Cultures vary by scenario

3. Cultures mostly exclusively react with each other on a xenophobia value, and governments do more of the foreign policy and how armies are built. Unfortunately we haven't been told all the details at the moment

4. Yes, along with peaceful transition in certain cases, like how KDG told us a story on how trade with a republic turned a necromancer government and a lizard folk government into civilized human governments.

5. Government in certain cases will determine how much power the dominant monarch has, and certain traits in a monarch will change how they react to the world around them. Unfortunately not much detail beyond that

6. NPC nations will go to war for a variety of reasons, like control over POIs and threat to the nation. Total War does exist, but as far as I know is only used against threats they are in the Coalition to get rid of

7. Trade as far as I know is still a resource traded between governments for goods, but blockading trade was always kind of a thing. There is a recruitable agent called the Great Captain that is a pirate, but beyond that we don't have much information on piracy. Presumably it is present, and you recruit the Great captain from interactions with them.

8. In what we've been shown thusfar, the other races are fairly monolithic ethnically HOWEVER the support does exist modding wise if you want to make multiple races of the same "type" or add governments to races government lists.

9. All units, hero or otherwise, vary depending on what race they are.

If you want more information on something, just shoot your answer out and I'll go into more detail than what I initially have here.

[Neonivek]

Starchildren? Starspawn?

[gimli]

Here is the weekly update:

http://www.kingdinosaurgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9&start=40#p5652

Interesting! I especially like the new hidden stat for the AI.

2 more things what I want to add:
- Josh talks about farms around a village which is near a river. I don't see any farms. Perhaps some custom tile should be added just like in the civilization games.
- I thought that we gonna have "special" PoIs like temples, shrines, graveyards etc. I only see cities, villages and castles now. We need more PoI types, as much as possible to make the map more interesting. Just my 2 cents.

[dennislp3]

"IMPORTANT - MOST OF THE GRAPHICS YOU SEE HERE ARE PLACEHOLDERS - most significantly the POIs"

That's right above the first picture...just saying...

"Also of note on the map you'll see that farms (slight greening) have sprung up around the village near the river, which gives a bonus in food. It's a subtle effect right now, but if you followed our earlier screenshots we are considering a more obvious signifier."

also in the scenario editor you will be able to use any picture for POIs...which means POIs is restricted to a modders imagination and I am more than sure the actual game when done will have plenty of POI variety

[gimli]

also in the scenario editor you will be able to use any picture for POIs...which means POIs is restricted to a modders imagination and I am more than sure the actual game when done will have plenty of POI variety

Yeah, I know that we can create new PoIs of course, but I mentioned special PoIs, not "settlement type" PoIs. Example: A shrine which blesses the visiting heroes or armies, temples and graveyeards which could spawn various things like treasures, hostile creatures [undeads mostly], etc. etc. So stuff like that. Also, we cannot mod in stuff like that, if it's not coded in the engine.

[KingDinosaurGames]

also in the scenario editor you will be able to use any picture for POIs...which means POIs is restricted to a modders imagination and I am more than sure the actual game when done will have plenty of POI variety

Yeah, I know that we can create new PoIs of course, but I mentioned special PoIs, not "settlement type" PoIs. Example: A shrine which blesses the visiting heroes or armies, temples and graveyeards which could spawn various things like treasures, hostile creatures [undeads mostly], etc. etc. So stuff like that. Also, we cannot mod in stuff like that, if it's not coded in the engine.

Their are a variety of non-settlement POIs, but the idea is to represent the geographic region more so than the unique buildings that populate it.  However, we will be getting some unique imagery for wondrous locations - but as dennislp3 said you can mod in anything you'd like.  The POI image is arbitrary, the type can be set to unique, and then you would place your uniquely created building/modifier in the POI itself - the POI itself is generally a 'holder' which the AI interprets.  We didn't want to restrict a POI to a specific function because letting them be combined within a POI leads to "interesting emergent behavior" which is our favorite buzzword. 

In addition we are supporting offsets to show structures and highlights near the base POI - right now I only use this for Docks and Cathedrals but we expect to expand on this if their is sufficient real estate, and at the very least will be including mines and lumber yards to represent resource production.