Proposal for "alt alt" champion progress

[Bognor]

I tried out alt champion progress the other day and really enjoyed it.  It provides most of the fun of champions without the need to pull your attention away from the main game.

It got me thinking about one of the original purposes of champions, which was to provide a way for a casual player, non-gamer, or potentially even a young person to participate in a game of AI War.  As I see it, the two current modes of champion play have certain disadvantages for newbies:

• Regular champion play pulls the champion away from the main game, and the nebulae do not have variable difficulty, making this poorly suited to a really young player or non-gamer.
• In alt champion progress, module unlocks and ship progression are tied to knowledge gain, and thus not directly under the control of the champion player.  If the main player decides to do something other than capture planets or knowledge hack for a while, there's nothing the champion player can do to progress their ship.  Similarly, the champ player is never directly rewarded for their own actions.

Therefore, I suggest an alt alt champion progress, in which experience is gained by being on a planet when non-wormhole guard posts and command stations are destroyed.  Essentially, it would be the same as regular champion progress, just without nebulae and with a different relationship between experience points and leveling/unlocks.  It would put the champion's own progression squarely in the hands of the champion player.

I might not have proposed this so close to the planned release, but it's mostly an expansion of existing mechanics, so perhaps there wouldn't be too much novel coding required.

One problem would be getting the balance right, given that a Turtle/Bouncer in a crosshatch galaxy is going to have far more non-wormhole guard posts than a Mad Bomber in a snake galaxy.  But to some extent, this problem is self-correcting: the more defensive setups would permit champion leveling after neutering fewer AI worlds, but those worlds would also be more difficult to neuter, and later worlds would pose greater challenges appropriate for a more highly leveled champion.  The strength of the AI's response to alt progress champions is already a separate lobby option, so overall game balance shouldn't be an issue.

[nas1m]

Sounds good to me! Seconded.

[The Hunter]

Another interesting idea that i had is that nebula fleet could be controlled by champion player as well.

[Bognor]

Another interesting idea that i had is that nebula fleet could be controlled by champion player as well.

Do you mean "as well as by the main player"?  I don't think you'd want the nebula fleet solely under the control of the champion player, as they can't follow the champ into nebulae.  (I haven't confirmed by testing, but I presume the "allow full shared unit control" option should permit a champion player to control the nebula fleet, though it would also allow them to control the main player's other ships.) 

[_K_]

Personally, i would prefer the champion's level to be tied (indirectly) to AIP or hacking progress. I believe that since the "main" part of the game is fighting and defating the AI, the champion's strength should not progress independently from the general game progress defined by AIP and HaP.

For example, you could add some "experience node" buildings on AI planets and give experience to all champions every time a node is destroyed. They are shielded like the CSGs so you need to destroy the command center to take one out. Alternatively, you can hack the planet to disable the shield and take out the node at the cost of hacking progress.

In addition, you cold mix this system with nebula scenarios so that like 50% (or a definable vlue between 0 and 100%) of the experience pool is obtainable through nebula scenarios, and the rest through experience nodes.

[keith.lamothe]

Personally, i would prefer the champion's level to be tied (indirectly) to AIP or hacking progress.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but doesn't the current alt-progress do exactly that by tying XP gain and unlocks to Knowledge gain?

[_K_]

Personally, i would prefer the champion's level to be tied (indirectly) to AIP or hacking progress.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but doesn't the current alt-progress do exactly that by tying XP gain and unlocks to Knowledge gain?

shh, i havent played AI war for like 6 months, but couldnt resist posting in this thread.

The knowledge-based experience is tied to AIP very directly, there is no extra decision making as the champion levels up along with your knowledge. You might want to get some extra knowledge due to that, but that's it.
Having an extra variable to worry about when deciding which planets to take, as well as an extra option for hacking adds much more depth.

The whole thing is not much of an issue to me, but the exerience nodes is how i see it done best and simplest.

[Teal_Blue]

Since i am rather a newb at AI War, but love it anyway, i wanted to ask if i could play a game as a Champion in a solo game? Or play as the main player and have the champion be a bot?  I go to work and school and wind up having a game late at night and solo games seem to fit best.

Also its less embarrassing when people don't see how badly i play.

-T

[orzelek]

You can select a role normal + champion for yourself and play as both at once.
You'll have the champion as part of your normal military.

[Vacuity]

I support the OPs suggestion with one tweak: the Champion should *not* gain experience for taking out Command Stations or pretty much anything else that will raise AIP.  If the Champion's being controlled by someone young, or with a poor understanding of the game, it would be wiser to remove the temptation for that player to start racking up AIP willy-nilly.  It just seems like this might save a few people some grief (or at least reduce the grief).