Now that we're here: an inquiry on expansions

[freeformschooler]

I have the base AI War game. I won it in a contest hosted by a friend of mine. It's been difficult to wrap my head around, as there's an incredible amount of content in the game. And yet there are multiple expansions which I have not purchased that add more!

I'm sure this has been asked before, but I'm wondering if Arcen is planning to do expansions for A Valley Without Wind in the near or far future. As it stands, all the cool content is being added for free, but I can see an expansion for adding totally new gameplay elements (Spell combining? More things to upgrade via upgrade stones? A new game mode? Who knows!) as a possibility.

A large expansion would be a day-one buy for me hands down.

[tigersfan]

Assuming it sells well enough, then yeah, we absolutely plan to do expansions for AVWW, just like we did (and plan to keep doing) for AI War. What will that be? I'm not even sure Chris knows for sure, but, he has some ideas for it.

[freeformschooler]

Awesome. Looking forward to it, then.

[tigersfan]

Also, if you do ever want to try an expansion for AI War, Children of the Neinzul is the smallest, and 100% of our profits from it go to support an outstanding charity. In case you weren't aware.

[Drjones013]

I want to see an expansion that develops the colonies, personally. Maybe something along the lines of rebuilding the civilization, expanding on the storyline, that sort of thing.

[x4000]

I want to see an expansion that develops the colonies, personally. Maybe something along the lines of rebuilding the civilization, expanding on the storyline, that sort of thing.

I want to see that, too.

Seriously, I think that "more stuff with the NPCs and settlements" would be at the top of my list for an expansion-specific content.  All the stuff with more spells and missions and mechanics fits with what is already there and is something I plan to do both a lot of free work on as well as probably pack that into some expansions (like we do with ships for AI War, with those split across both).  But for me, expansions should have at least one or two "anchor features" that are just really large and exciting and really... expand the game on a new vector that makes sense with the base game, but which isn't just more of what was already there.  Liek hybrid hives in CoN, or the fallen spire campaign in LotS.

[Drjones013]

If I had to say the one thing I always wanted to see in an RPG-style game... it'd be long-term consequences for player behavior.

I'd like to see a game where colonies rely on the player for growth. Say the colony is able to grow only so much before they need x resource from a certain time period which may or may not be on the continent. The player can choose to get the resource, which expands the colony, or ignore the request, which incurs a long-term consequence for the colony (people start dying, that sort of thing, Civ style).

I'd like to see a game where colonies rely on the player for protection. Say there is another group of survivors out there that also is trying to make it... and they see the colony as a place to obtain easy resources. The player can choose to defend the colony or ignore the request and the colony is either able to protect itself or become abandoned.

I'd like to see a game where the size of the colony matters. Say the player needs certain resources but the because the colony is too small the player can't 'fuel up' there. This could cause the player to invest more into the colony. Or the colony is unable to assist other colonies because it's too small. For example, a colony at level 3 can spare so many colonist to create another colony (and is reduced to level 2 or has to pay some other long-term cost).

I'd really love to see a game where colonies develop independent of the player. Say the colony is able to research certain spells that the player can't obtain himself or is able to grant certain benefits based on its size. That'd give the player a reason to invest in the colonies and revisit old ones.