Game mechanics

[Domon]

Myrran costs 2 but your fortress does not generate extra power.

Outpost growth : hardcoded, 0/25%/50%/75%/100% chance to get an extra 1-3 houses at random per turn.

i think both these 2 need to be updated

[Seravy]

There is one thing we never discussed but likely should.

How many wizards should there be on Myrror if the number of enemy wizards is not set to 4?
As is, it means no restriction so you play alone if you are Myrran and have no one there if not, unless the game randomly rolls one at a low chance. But I don't think that's ideal, we just never cared about it because, well, people almost never play fewer wizards.

[Nelphine]

1 opponent: on myrror with you
2 opponents: 1 on each plane
3 opponents: 2 on myrror, 1 on arcanus

[Seravy]

And what if you are not myrran?

[Nelphine]

Reverse the plane.

[zitro1987]

I love Nelphine's suggestions. It might want to make me play '1 player' in myrran as a faster duel game.

[teelaurila]

It would imply 3 enemies is likely harder than 4 enemies, if you are Myrran.

[Seravy]

Okay, let's try to summarize.

Arcanus 4 players - At least 1 on Myrror.
Myrran 4 players - At least 2 on Myrror
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Arcanus 3 players - suggested 2 players Arcanus 1 Myrran - sounds fine
Myrran 3 players - suggested 2 myrran 1 arcanus - as posted above this is harder than 4 players distributed as 2-2 because there is one player alone on Arcanus. It also means picking Myrran is no improvement compared to not picking it on the number of players. So here I think I would rather have 1 Myrran 2 Arcanus.
Arcanus 2 players - suggested 1 on each plane. I disagree, I think it should be 2 on Arcanus and an empty Myrror. There is no point having separate planes if the wizard on your plane can just as well develop into an endgame threat for being alone if you don't actively fight them early as the Myrran one.
Myrran 2 players - suggested 1 on each plane. I think that's fine as it allows Myrran to still retain the "1 fewer than usual on your plane" trait, and as the additional wizard is of a weaker race, it is not necessarily worse than a 2-0 distribution. Alternately we can have none on Myrror 2 on Arcanus but I think that would be far too good for a single pick.
Arcanus 1 player - none required on Myrror - only choice that makes sense unless we want people to be alone.
Myrran 1 player - unsure. Having 1 on Myrror completely eliminates ANY advantage there is to be gained from picking Myrran as you don't get an advantage over another player at all. That, paired with the extreme unbalance of the only early game Myrran race, Dwarf, is a bad idea. This would make the game be about "pick dwarves to win". So that only leaves the option to put the other player on Arcanus. Which is also not ideal but at least each player has an entire plane to themselves so being left alone is not a real advantage. Ultimately it means you only pay the 1 pick for the better lairs and your race, not the potential territory distribution, but as that applies against 100% of the other wizards, it's worth quite a bit.

[Nelphine]

For me, this is all about gameplay fun, as opposed to balance. We've already decided that the vast majority of the games are played with 4 opponents. Therefore, these are a very minor portion of games played, so we can weight gameplay quite a bit above balance.

Therefore, I'm going to revise my statements.

1 opponent, human arcanus: opponent is on arcanus. (Duels.)
1 opponent, human myrran: opponent is on arcanus. (Long term game play with no enemy to declare war early.)
2 opponent, human arcanus: 2 opponents on arcanus(quick game, but more than 1 opponent)
2 opponent, human myrror: 1 opponent on each (this is a game where you fight one wizard, then build into a long term game.)
3 opponents, human arcanus: 1 on myrror, 2 on arcanus (I would even consider 3 opponents on arcanus in order to differentiate it more from 4 opponents)
3 opponents, human myrror: 2 on myrror, 1 on arcanus (this IS harder than 4 opponents, for those people who like the difficulty modifiers of a given difficulty and want to increase the difficulty of the game, but find the difficulty modifiers for the next difficulty up disagreeable for whatever reason.)


This way each number of opponents offers a particular type of game, allowing each combination of number of opponents and choice of myrran or note to be significant.

[teelaurila]

3 opponents, human arcanus: 1 on myrror, 2 on arcanus (I would even consider 3 opponents on arcanus in order to differentiate it more from 4 opponents)

3 opponents, human myrror: 2 on myrror, 1 on arcanus (this IS harder than 4 opponents, for those people who like the difficulty modifiers of a given difficulty and want to increase the difficulty of the game, but find the difficulty modifiers for the next difficulty up disagreeable for whatever reason.)

Yeah, 3 on Arcanus on the topmost. Then you have 3 wizards with even starting points, and empty "new world" to colonize. No "end game enemy". Civ had this sort of map option and it worked quite well. It's easier, it's supposed to be, then you can yank up the difficulty modifiers instead if you so choose. Point is, it's different. It would be great if the opponents put more emphasis on tower breaking here, but likely not feasible. Also, life is likely quite strong for AI, assuming it uses the plane shift means. it's not "balanced", but as Nelphine stated, it doesn't need to be.

On the latter, it's harder than 4 opponent human Myrror, but easier than 4 opponent human Arcanus.