Cataclysm (now Woes) ideas

[PokerChen]

Midgard's Upheaval
- An age-of-man cataclysm that, unlike others, is not explicitly directed at hurting you, but to juggle up the landscape and hopefully create openings. It is, however, most faithful to the orginal meaning to the word...

- That is, it is an earth-quake that reforms the landscape around the map and will potentially hit towns.

- When this event occurs, select several different X,Y-coordinates on the map.
 - - If a mountain or hill tile is chosen, smite it and replace with a lake. Randomly smite and replace the surrounding tiles of 3 radius into  lakes, marshes, or plains. Kill any unit that gets in the way.
 - - If it is any other tile, smite it and replace with a mountain. Similarly, randomly smite and replace with plains / hill / mountain tiles.
 - - If the coordinate selected is empty space, then randomly pick one of the above and proceed. Anytime the event picks a spot and it is empty, raise a new tile. This event then serves to enlarge the playing field and spice up the terrain coverage.

 - - All surviving units within 5 radius take 20~50% damage, and all surviving building within 5 radius take 50~100% damage. Does not affect defensive towers at this age, and does not affect town-centers.

 - - Because it is intrinsically a natural event, there is nothing much you can particularly do about it. Having Palladium for the Greeks may perhaps avoid destruction of the town's tile - does this work against the Midgard token?

The Heros of old (Ancestral Artifacts)
- Age of Man cataclysm.
- Developing on Pepisolo's and others' Hero ideas from legend, but I would like it to be more generic and less bandit-spawny in this variation.
- - If it is possible for melee units to attack into a flying unit on a lake, then do this: several lake tiles are created, and populated by a flying (bandit) Cerebus. Otherwise spawn a normal Cerebus. They are named the guardian.
- - If possible, do this between the Greek and the Norse towns, destroying old tiles where necessary.
- - The first red / blue unit that kills a guardian is granted a mighty artefact. He becomes a hero of the first Age. There are several variations that I would like to explore at this point:

(option 1) simple powerful artifact.
He is powered to 10x HP/Dmg and automatically promoted to level 3, and gains immunity against attacks by God and mythical creatures (he will be dangerous to your minor gods should he survive until then).

(option 2) The fable of the three.
This variation will always spawn 3 lakes with 3 guardians. Each bears an artifactof the following:

- The mighty Warrior. As above.

- The Bearer of Honor. The artifact grants him the image of glory and men flock to follow him to battle. He is powered to 8xHP and 3X damage and promoted to level 3. Each turn, he spawns a random level 1 unit on an adjacent  tile. He also multiplies auto-heal in a range 2 around him by 2. He is invincible as long as another unit is adjacent to him.

- The One of Forked Tongue. The artifact grants him great charm, and convicts all who fight against him to convert. He is powered to 5xHP, 3x damage, and promoted also to level 3. He reverses auto-heal (thus countering the second hero), and his special power is to convert a level 1 or 2 unit who is killed either by himself or his degen. Spawn the same unit at half-health on the same tile. Half health because this is merely the age of man...

[Shumbok]

Imposters : Self announced Heroes and Villians, destroying random buildings and people in epic fights the next few turns

[Pepisolo]

A piece of text about Norse mythology Ragnarok catastrophe (just one part of it):

"The sun and moon would be swallowed up, and the world would be left in darkness and despair."

Could possibly be another loss of farming resources type Cataclysm. Just change the game background to pitch black instead of the currently sunny one and disable all farming produce for a time. Sorted!

Maybe work better as an epic last Cataclysm, though, as the fade to black then signalled a huge battle of the gods.

http://mythology.terrapolis.org/?title=Ragnarok 


Oh, liking the detail on your ideas Zharmad, good stuff!

[Winge]

Flash Flood
A normally insignificant river suddenly swells!  Flood tiles (similar to Lakes) appear for 3 turns in an area 1x Round wide and 5x Round long.  All units and structures on the tiles are immediately destroyed (Town Centers, Hills, and Mountains are immune to and not targeted by the effect).  After 3 turns, each Flood tile becomes a regular tile as follows:  55% chance of becoming a Plain, 30% chance of becoming a Marsh, and 15% chance of becoming a Lake.  Could potentially cut off a town for a long period of time.

Divine Summons
Either Red or Blue faction is randomly selected.  3/4/6 (based on Round) of that factions units are removed from the field to take part in a divine battle taking place in another realm.  After 5 turns, up to 50% of them return at full health and maximum level.  Basically, tries to force a player to overcompensate for the temporary loss of troops.

Condemnation
The gods to not smile on you.  All Mythological Creatures, Mythological Tokens, and God Tokens are immediately removed from the game, and none can be placed.  Gods remain, but become petrified (invulnerable, but unable to attack or act).  Crime is added to every city in the game (one-time constant increase; the rate remains the same).  The effect lasts 5 turns.  Punishes players who rely overly much on Mythological benefits, and finishes off a player who has managed to "hold the line" with gods and the like.

Encroaching Wildlife
Wildlife begins to attack civilians!  All non-military buildings in the outer ring of all cities become non-functional for three turns.  Military building effectiveness is reduced by 50% as the military kills the animals.  Similar to the other famine effects, but one that you can partially mitigate with placement.

Natural Wonder
A natural wonder of the world was discovered!  Now, of course, all sides fight for it (even bandits...apparently Murdoch likes nature).  All units will try to reach and defeat enemy units around the wonder and attack the wonder itself.  Whichever side captures the wonder by dealing the required damage first gains a worldwide buff.  The wonder cannot be recaptured.  Increases the imbalance between factions if the stronger captures the structure, but also gives the player the opportunity to try and balance things out.

[PokerChen]

Wildfire!
- Age of man cataclysm.
- Decide on a wind direction and a set of tiles to begin from near the upwind edges.

- The landscape will burn. Forests that are lighted block line of sight, become unpassable to humans, and heavily damage all humans who were caught in the conflagration.
- Each burning tile lasts 2~3 turns, and have a chance of spreading with highest change downwind.
- Forests will leave behind dead forest tiles, while plains and hills will be recoloured to remove all vegetation. (functionally identical). Lakes and mountains are unaffected, and so will block the direction of the flames.

- When the fires reaches a town building, disable them, damage them and set them alight. Fisheries and defensive towers are unaffected, but primary resource and Norse building take double damage. If these buildings are not destroyed after a few turns, put out the fire as above. Town-centers will burnto enable spread of fire across town, but not take damage. you citiznes concentrate on saving the center.

- So, effectively these fires are long-lasting compared to other cataclysms, because they will take time to burn out. If Poseidon happens to appear, immediately end the cataclysm.

Ride of the Valkyries
- Age of Man/ Age of Monster cataclysm.
- - They come to herald a bloodshed of man, and bring them to the afterlife. Unlike most cataclysms, these Valkyries are on the *Norse* faction - spawn them as bandits if no Norse are playing, and pick a side if both are Norse.
- - Spawn 1 Valkyrie leader and 8 Valkyries in one location. The leader herself has 2x HP and grants all units within 3-tiles, allied-or-enemy, a 2x damage boost to hasten mankind's demise. The leader is invincible for as long as another friendly unit is adjacent.
- - 3 such squads are spawned in the age of monsters!

Thanatos' Great Gathering
- Age on Monsters Cataclysm
- - The God of Death himself desires blood-sport and to sate his hatred. He arises out of the chasm with a large pack of Cerberuses he stole from Hades. Although he spawns as a "bandit", he needs to hostile to all bandits (like the dwarves).
- - These Cerberuses are mobile and have a MP of 5. Thanatos himself has an MP of 5, and grants all of his Cerberuses 5x HP. He has the stats of a minor God.
- - The rogue God will move first, and the Cerberuses will be forced to choose targets around him to keep them all together. Assuming that your Greek-God is alive, Thanatos will adroitly avoid him and choose a Norse town (he isn't a strong God, though he has hatred for them too) to pillage and satisfy his hatred.

- - He will not stop. You must 'kill' him. When you do, all human units cannot die for 5-turns while the God of Death recovers from his trip (a large backlog builds up, naturally).
- -Note that due to the mechanics of this cataclysm and the Norses's lack of Palladium equivalents, this is particularly dangerous to them.

[PokerChen]

EDIT: Modified mechanism slightly.

The Malignant Seed
- Age of Man/Age of Monster cataclysm.
- You discover that a rival Creator has sneaked in something very sinister into your island...
- A seed will grow and supplant a tile, turning into a giant malignant tree. It is considered to be a building with a large amount of health (30.000).
- The purpose of this tree is to corrupt your landscape. Each turn thereafter, it will randomly smite 1~3 adjacent tiles nearby (not already a deadforest/swamp), then randomly place 1~3 tiles: dead-forest, swamp, or fetid-lake. Fetid lakes are lakes that increase the chance of bandit-spawns around it. There is a chance that a dark-elf, centaur or bandit-only units will spawn on the tile created. The change allows it to grow a little more dynamically by not always replacing the same tile.

- On the turn of it's creation, smite the surrounding 8 tiles to help it get a foothold and helpfully prevent melee units from accidentally being smited when attacking on the first few turns.

- New tiles that have been randomly created are automatically one of the appropriate corrupted tiles, if it's in tile contact with the tree. This aids the tree to grow if the player tries to smite off its tendrils.

- Over time, the landscape will warped. Be warned that this will gradually take over nearby-towns. If there's a clear path of dead-forest/swamp/fetid-lakes between the tree and a town, then the tree will prefer to smite the town's buildings.
- The tree itself spawns serpents (same icon as god token if needed) every 5 turns.

- You need to destroy the tree or corral it somehow. It counts as a military production building in accordance with God tokens.

I think for the fetid-pools, it may be useful to franken the graphics by filling the rock quarry with brackish water and plant dead trees around it.

Meaner option: on Hard difficulty or above, when the tree is converting the surrounding landscape, have a 5% chance to create a bandit fortress.

[Cinth]

Crumble

Instead of tiles being added to the continent, tiles fall away.

5 tiles fall away for x amount of turns.  Tiles that fall away are chosen from around the outside edge of the board and work inward. 

Age of Gods/Monsters type woe because I want x to be = to the number of turns in a round (30/40/50).

[Cinth]

Drought

This dry spell is going to be the death of us all...

Turns lakes and marshes to cracked earth  (needs a tile that isn't a desert tile).

Added bonus if it hits wheat fields and livestock.

[Pepisolo]

Just reading a bit of Greek mythology. I haven't got exact mechanics for these, but these bits of mythology seemed appropriate.

"The Scholia to Lucian[15] says that Eubuleus was a swineherd who was feeding his pigs at the opening to the underworld when Persephone was abducted by Plouton. His swine were swallowed by the earth along with her."

Maybe an something like Eubuleus' Fate. Something that decimates pig stocks. Edit: actually don't think Ebululeus himself was taken, so maybe Glimpse would be more apt.


"In Greek mythology, Persephone also called Kore "the maiden"),[1] is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest-goddess Demeter, and queen of the underworld."

"Persephone as a vegetation goddess and her mother Demeter were the central figures of the Eleusinian mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon, and promised to the initiated a more enjoyable prospect after death."

"Persephone is invariably portrayed robed; often carrying a sheaf of grain."

Vegetation godess for crying out loud. Must be something you can do with this. Persephone's Kiss, maybe, double wheat resources.

No clear mechanics here, but I don't think it's my strong suit.

[keith.lamothe]

"The Scholia to Lucian[15] says that Eubuleus was a swineherd

Made me immediately think of:

Woe name: Legion
Woe effect: All pig farms destroyed

[Pepisolo]

"The Scholia to Lucian[15] says that Eubuleus was a swineherd

Made me immediately think of:

Woe name: Legion
Woe effect: All pig farms destroyed

Definitely some bacon reducing Woe is in order. That would be a Woe indeed.

[Cinth]

I had the thought the woes needed to be Greek/Norse themed across the board.  I was politely reminded that these two factions aren't likely to be the only two factions in the game.

Like I so wanted to rename "Drug Lord" to "Cult of Dionysus".

[keith.lamothe]

Definitely some bacon reducing Woe is in order. That would be a Woe indeed.

"And the world stood still, its denizens aghast. For lo, in all the cosmos there could not be found a single strip of bacon.  Game Over."

[Pepisolo]

I had the thought the woes needed to be Greek/Norse themed across the board.  I was politely reminded that these two factions aren't likely to be the only two factions in the game.

It would be cooler, I think if things were correctly themed across the board.

"And the world stood still, its denizens aghast. For lo, in all the cosmos there could not be found a single strip of bacon.  Game Over."

I don't see how they would want to live in such a bacon-less world. So yeah, definitely game over once this one hits.

[x4000]

I had the thought the woes needed to be Greek/Norse themed across the board.  I was politely reminded that these two factions aren't likely to be the only two factions in the game.

It would be cooler, I think if things were correctly themed across the board.

My statement was: give me a better name that explains what the thing is in the theme, for any of them that you find out of theme, and I'll at least consider them.  So far I have had zero suggestions.