This is just an idea i had for making the Generals more unique in gameplay compared to Assassins. Positive and Negative Feedback is welcome.
General's Command Radius
Introduction: It seems a main problem at hand is having 2 seperate "classes" of Demigod, supposed to have completely different gameplay mechanics, but at the moment play almost identically. What we have gathered is that changes need to be made to Generals to give them a more strategical feel instead of the typical action style gameplay. Suggestions have been made to give the Generals no direct abilities and to have auras and passives that will buff their troops while they sit back in the base and control their minions. This will give Generals a very RTS style feel to them but at the same time will leave the general as sort of a statue in the base just handing out aura's and point and clicking your minions around leaving your Demigod doing nothing most of the time. This idea is a middle ground to that idea but not to that much of an extreme that will leave them out of the gameplay altogether.
Command Radius Definition: Generals are not front line fighters as the assassin's are but at the same time leaving them to be statues in the base while controlling their minions around the map will leave them to be pratically useless other then having some passive abilities. The idea of the Command Radius is to give each General a "field of control" or local influence that will expand outwards from them in a circle. The power of this radius, in the mind of a General is basically the influence they have over that area of the battlefield. Based on each General, the core abilities of the Demigod should be mostly limited to the range of their Command Radius. Having such a limitation can have both a positive and negative effect on controlling a General Demigod. Although they would not be able to spread their influence as a General directly over the whole battlefield, their presence will greatly influence the immediate area around the General based on the size of the radius. This being said, the size of the Command Radius should have the ability to be increased by the level of the General and perhaps Skill upgrades and General specific items.
Possible ideas for Command Radius influence:
Within the Command Radius some of these possible effects can occur.
- The General's Aura's can be taken into effect, or an increased effect.
- The Demigod himself can be powered by the amount of minions inside his local influence
- Minions that are fighting along side of the General can be given increased damage
- The Generals could have a type of "Targeted AoE" ability they can use to the maximum range of their radius, for example a small AoE Fear or Empowering Roar ability that will allow the Demigod to have some direct abilities to use within this area, that will assist their minion's in battle.
- All minions in the radius can be given a minor health regeneration (A suitable ability for Oak)
- All enemy minion in the radius can be given an Armor penalty, minor life degeneration or other negative effect (A suitable ability for Erebus)
Minion's outside of the General's Command Radius can suffer these penalties.
- General Aura's may not effect minions outside of their influence, or the Aura may suffer a large penalty
- The General itself will be weakened without the power of controlling minions nearby
- Minions specifically summoned by the General, outside of the General's influence can suffer from not being in direct control of the General that summoned them, making them weaker in battle or perhaps have their life slowly drained away over time.
- The General may not be able to assist a battle outside their influence, not being able to cast spells or abilities that can assist their minions or hinder their enemies.
Benefits/Changes due to the addition of the Command Radius:
- Will allow for General Specific Items and skills that can benefit the size of the Command Radius and the influence of power within it (for example: increase Aura effect within command radius by 10%).
- Give's the Generals a more differentiation compared to Assassins, although not a major change that completely rewrites how a General is to be controlled, but will allow the General to be just that, a General on the battlefield that spread's his influence and has the ability to increase the chance of victory for his minions if they are nearby to lead them.
- Just by having a Command Radius, many comparisons between Assassin and General are removed as the Assassin does not have a need for spreading of his influence, only his own personal abilities compared to a General's overall control of a battle that they take place in.
- An enemy Demigod will have to take into consideration of their Rival General Demigod's field of influence when planning to enter battle with them or if they wish to keep themselves safe from harm.
Conclusion: Many of us have different opinions on how much Generals should be changed. Some people think they are fine the way they are and only need minor tweaks and some people think they need a major overhaul. I agree more on the side that the need an overhaul although i can understand that people don't want such a major change because they like the gameplay mechanics of an Assassin with more passive abilities and being able to summon minions. With the implementation of the Command Radius it gives some to both sides of the arguement. Mostly they will keep the same control and mechanics to the Assassins but with this key feature implemented, will make the people who play a General have to think differently to what they will have to if playing an Assassin. They will have to be more passive and keep in mind how large their influence is over the map and move their General accordingly. This gives them more of an actual role of a General, allowing the player to influence battle's with their presence, instead of just being an Assassin with different abilities.
Thank you
Evanescent
