I'm really happy with... just about everything in AVWW really.
Getting rid of EP in favor of CP was a good move and I think shows how hard it is to nail the tone of the game. My question is, now that EP and continental destruction is gone, perhaps some strategy can still be left in the game?
My thoughts are:
- The settlement is fair game for the overlord to target. It's the rebels' outpost. I don't think it makes the game too tense (unlike the impending destruction of the continent).
- I also think it's important that attacks on the settlement NOT be visible on the world map before they arrive. This would create a mission that the player had to do which involved simply attacking rampaging monsters, and never allowing them to reach the settlement. I think from tier 3, it should be possible for the overlord to attack the settlement by sending monsters. This would be a mission that lasts several mission time turns or until the player returns to the settlement to recharge (it might be better to still allow the player to recharge by, say, just walking over the settlement, so he can choose not to take on the mission right away). If all survivors are wiped out, the settlement is lost and the player has to move on to another continent. If the mission is left alone for several mission time units, it auto-resolves randomly and your remaining settlers ask you where you were to defend them.
- There could be some missions to spy on the overlord, which would give the player knowledge of attack plans. The attacking party would then become visible on the map, at which point the player can attack them.
- A secret mission could involve stumbling into where the attacking party is. It could be underground (they travel by caves) or above ground, or they could be resting in a building. This prevents the attack on the settlement from happening and sets back the overlord.
- The overlord doesn't know where the settlement is initially. He needs to send scouts to find the settlement.
- Encountering scouts and killing them in random places will weaken the overlord and set him back.
- When a scout arrives at the settlement, another mission becomes available which is to kill the scout(s) (in a similar way to the defend settlement mission). This is a tower defense style mission that really benefits from storm rush. The scout is really buff and runs past the settlement and other chunks next to it. Your goal is to prevent all the scout from reaching the end, at which point it's assumed that the overlord has learned of the settlement's location.
- In addition, the overlord can set up visible attack camps that are too powerful to take on (too many strong monsters). The player can then have missions to try break up those camps before they invade the settlement too.
I think the general feel of missions like the ones above is that there's some danger, but all in all it's 'strategy-lite' which I think is what suits the game best: it should be pretty hard (but possible) to really lose a continent.
