UPDATE: The post below is unchanged, but you probably want to read the Skyward 2.0 Base Game Extensions Design Document for the always-latest thinking. This is for a lot more than just the major villains!Based in part on Bluddy's (and others) requests for more unique things going on in the Age of Gods, and partly on the request for Quests of some sort, I've been thinking about introducing Major Villains for a bit now.
25 new base-game units coming:--------------------------------
1. Overall the spawned bandit units will stop ever being duplicates of the units from the various factions (however, obviously, if faction units "turn bandit" from first being red or blue, you'd still see them as bandits of course).
2. Instead, there will be 11 new unique-to-bandits military units, comprising four barracks-style, four archery-style, and four siege-style units that you don't see anywhere else. More asymmetry, yay! There will be 12 in all, but the existing Hippo-Toxotes takes up one of these slots.
3. There will also be 9 new unique-to-bandits mythological creatures that you don't see anywhere else. A total of 10, when you include the Dark Elves that are already in the game. When you consider that the base game only includes 9 mythological creatures in total at the moment, this is a doubling.
4. There will also be 5 new unique-to-bandits Major Villains, about which more will be said below.
So, overall, 25 new units for the base game. We felt this was important stuff for the base game rather than an expansion, as it helps to make the base game feel appropriately more robust on the bandit sides, and helps us in making an interesting ramp-up into the age of gods.
How do Major Villains appear on the board?-------------------------
When you reach the Age of Gods, a single Major Villain will spawn somewhere on the map, along with the two gods that spawn. This is kind of like the catastrophic woes that hit at the start of the age of monsters, in terms of it being a major new negative thing to counteract the major new positive things (new gods) that you get. This also adds yet one more unique layer of things to have happen on particular games, and a major reason to want to get to the age of gods to see some cool new stuff.
How do Major Villains work? (Broadly speaking)-------------------------
This part I am still designing out, and am open to discussion on (hence this post). However, a few specific things for now:
1. Each major villain will have a unique passive ability that affect you while they are on the board.
2. Major Villains cannot be killed, but they can be temporarily banished. After they are banished, they will be off the board for a certain number of turns (depending on probably the Woe difficulty level) and then will return again. So you can't just off them and that's that forever.
3. Major Villains in some respects take on the role of "bandit gods" without actually being bandit gods in a literal sense.
4. Major Villains, unlike gods, will move around the map doing huge damage to the units they encounter. They likely won't move very far per turn, though. And may not be able to damage buildings, we'll see. Probably will not be able to, because that would be just super frustrating.
Current sub-ideas I'm considering-------------------------
1. It may be interesting to have the villains be invincible until some quest is undertaken. Think destroying the one ring before you can kill sauron. Or actually even having it directly kill sauron, if we're being faithful to that example.
2. It may be interesting to have the villains cast spells periodically that do various effects. Kind of like god tokens, but less disastrous to yourself since you can't control these.
3. It may be interesting to have the villains have a large stronghold that they live in and come out of when they stop being banished (and which shows the countdown timer for when they come back after being banished). If this stronghold is destroyed, then a new one would pop back up somewhere else once they major villain is into the banished state.
4. Specifically, it might be interesting if the stronghold itself is what has to be destroyed prior to the major villains being vulnerable at all. And then once that and the villain are gone, a new stronghold with a countdown timer appears somewhere else on the map the next turn.
General goals-------------------------
1. Making the bandits feel more unique in general, as well as a bit unique per game.
2. Making the age of gods a lot more interesting and distinct from the earlier ages.
3. Not making the age of gods SUPER more difficult, but in particular making it so that you don't hit any doldrums there, since your existing balance from the age of man just got upset by the new villain that arrived.
Thoughts?
