Guilds of Aren

[megane]

Well, with the Windsong almost finished (and at very least no longer requiring of any coding by me), what's megane to do? Obviously, a new faction must be undertaken.

After considering various possibilities, I feel that the Arenna would make for the most interesting choice. In the long and deleterious war with Keher (the country across the sea), a number of small kingdoms on the Aren peninsula joined together for mutual defence. When peace came, they chose to remain united in one nation. This came to be ruled over by seven guilds, each headed by a huge and powerful extended family, and all competing for control of the others. They are, of course, all fully devoted to working together to make Aren a powerful nation... but everyone has a slightly different vision of how that should happen, and intrigue, espionage, conspiracy, blackmail, and assassination (including of others within one's own family) are all considered perfectly valid options when diplomacy fails... or when diplomacy might take too long... or if you're in a bad mood. Whenever, really.

The Aren military is controlled entirely by the guilds, who each maintain a standing army of mercenaries and followers, and contribute their troops whenever war threatens the country (if they feel like it, of course). Due to the highly disparate training members of the various guilds receive, the Aren as a faction are notable for having very specialized units, each with a unique role in a conflict.

• Sellswords are frontline fighters; they're hard-hitting and cheap, but, due to their expendable and reckless natures, lacking in survivability. Sword magic allows them to wreathe their swords in flames, when the need arises.
• Warders, the loyal troops trained as bodyguards by each house, are tankish archers; they can roll loyal as a trait, and gain either steadfast or protection upon leveling.
• Messengers are quick, mounted scouts, notable for their agility on horseback, as well as their ability to cross hard terrain. They prefer short spears to lances.
• Arcanists are the magicians of the Aren, but eschew the flashy, fireball-conjuring sorcery of "less civilized" societies. Instead, they manipulate the laws of fate in order to increase the accuracy of nearby soldiers. They carry small daggers for self defence, but are essentially useless in direct combat. While most Aren units are lawful, Arcanists happen to be neutral.
• Scions are the haughty, often spoiled children of the Aren "nobility" (they rule not through titles, but rather wealth and political influence). Unfortunately for them, their position in life is a dangerous one: their high birth brings with it numerous enemies, but their parents and family members often view them as disposable and easily replaced, and are more than willing to use them as bargaining chips to further their own goals. Thus, they often take to the battlefield to win their elders' respect (and the safety that comes with it). They are good, all-round mixed fighters, but expensive and somewhat fragile, and should always be protected by cannon fodd-- I mean, by their loyal retainers.
• Spies are trained by the secretive and influential Gellinar guild in the arts of subterfuge and assassination. On the battlefield, they appear to be normal Sellswords... until they unmask themselves, revealing themselves to be skirmishing backstabbers (and chaotic, unlike the lawful Sellswords ). Note: I'm still trying to work out exactly how to do this, so as to avoid giving away their true natures before they switch, but the switching itself is easy.

Feel free to comment. Hopefully I'll be putting them together over the next few weeks.
Edit: hmm, they need a swimmer or flyer. Imagine, if you will, the sound of megane thinking hard.

[Vendanna]

Well, with the Windsong almost finished (and at very least no longer requiring of any coding by me), what's megane to do? Obviously, a new faction must be undertaken.

Oh bummer! I was waiting to see more windsong love and animations
Well, a fan still should cheer you and hope to see another nice work from you.

After considering various possibilities, I feel that the Arenna would make for the most interesting choice. In the long and deleterious war with Keher (the country across the sea), a number of small kingdoms on the Aren peninsula joined together for mutual defence. When peace came, they chose to remain united in one nation. This came to be ruled over by seven guilds, each headed by a huge and powerful extended family, and all competing for control of the others. They are, of course, all fully devoted to working together to make Aren a powerful nation... but everyone has a slightly different vision of how that should happen, and intrigue, espionage, conspiracy, blackmail, and assassination (including of others within one's own family) are all considered perfectly valid options when diplomacy fails... or when diplomacy might take too long... or if you're in a bad mood. Whenever, really.

Are you going to make an entire era with each different guild as payable faction on their rise to power? they are still part of an entire nation but they have their grudges against other guilds, for stepping on their toes (after all, some would want to get all the "protection" fees)

The Aren military is controlled entirely by the guilds, who each maintain a standing army of mercenaries and followers, and contribute their troops whenever war threatens the country (if they feel like it, of course). Due to the highly disparate training members of the various guilds receive, the Aren as a faction are notable for having very specialized units, each with a unique role in a conflict.

Is this smelling like some funny specials? while I do not expect this to be the case, I'm waiting to see how you surprise us.

• Sellswords are frontline fighters; they're hard-hitting and cheap, but, due to their expendable and reckless natures, lacking in survivability. Sword magic allows them to wreathe their swords in flames, when the need arises.
• Warders, the loyal troops trained as bodyguards by each house, are tankish archers; they can roll loyal as a trait, and gain either steadfast or protection upon leveling.
• Messengers are quick, mounted scouts, notable for their agility on horseback, as well as their ability to cross hard terrain. They prefer short spears to lances.
• Arcanists are the magicians of the Aren, but eschew the flashy, fireball-conjuring sorcery of "less civilized" societies. Instead, they manipulate the laws of fate in order to increase the accuracy of nearby soldiers. They carry small daggers for self defence, but are essentially useless in direct combat. While most Aren units are lawful, Arcanists happen to be neutral.
• Scions are the haughty, often spoiled children of the Aren "nobility" (they rule not through titles, but rather wealth and political influence). Unfortunately for them, their position in life is a dangerous one: their high birth brings with it numerous enemies, but their parents and family members often view them as disposable and easily replaced, and are more than willing to use them as bargaining chips to further their own goals. Thus, they often take to the battlefield to win their elders' respect (and the safety that comes with it). They are good, all-round mixed fighters, but expensive and somewhat fragile, and should always be protected by cannon fodd-- I mean, by their loyal retainers.
• Spies are trained by the secretive and influential Gellinar guild in the arts of subterfuge and assassination. On the battlefield, they appear to be normal Sellswords... until they unmask themselves, revealing themselves to be skirmishing backstabbers (and chaotic, unlike the lawful Sellswords ). Note: I'm still trying to work out exactly how to do this, so as to avoid giving away their true natures before they switch, but the switching itself is easy.

Feel free to comment. Hopefully I'll be putting them together over the next few weeks.
Edit: hmm, they need a swimmer or flyer. Imagine, if you will, the sound of megane thinking hard.

Playing the spies could be rather fun, especially if they gets specific animations in which they put their masks over upon dusk and remove them upon twlight. (tought that's a tad too much work)

Anyway, the concept looks nice, and probably the outfits will be also coming from you, tought I whonder how they will look on sketch, etc.

I think I'll follow this thread, like the windsong one. It looks that it will be full of awesome

[megane]

I think I'll follow this thread, like the windsong one. It looks that it will be full of awesome

Oh man.

Oh, and this doesn't mean I'm going to stop doing Windsong art, it just gives me more options; when I don't feel able to progress on one thing, I can work on the other.

Right! Behold: Science!

Edit: anti-aliased

[thespaceinvader]

The whole thing looks a little skinny to me, but it has a lot of character. Thickening the limbs a little would improve it. NIce work. i like the head and the sword design.

[pauxlo]

• Spies are trained by the secretive and influential Gellinar guild in the arts of subterfuge and assassination. On the battlefield, they appear to be normal Sellswords... until they unmask themselves, revealing themselves to be skirmishing backstabbers (and chaotic, unlike the lawful Sellswords ). Note: I'm still trying to work out exactly how to do this, so as to avoid giving away their true natures before they switch, but the switching itself is easy.

If not for AI use: Let them be usual Sellswords, and add a context menu option for switching to Spy (filtered on description).
(Maybe have a recruit/recall event to switch them initially to Sellswords, or another Menu option to switch them this way.)

How to let the AI use them, I have no idea.

[Sapient]

you could morph them to sell swords in the prerecruit event, then you could morph them to spies during the "attack" event, then morph them back if they move outside of enemy vision.

also, since the "select" event is not synchronized across the network, you could use that event to reveal the true nature of the unit to the player controlling it.

[Temuchin Khan]

[*]Scions are the haughty, often spoiled children of the Aren "nobility" (they rule not through titles, but rather wealth and political influence). Unfortunately for them, their position in life is a dangerous one: their high birth brings with it numerous enemies, but their parents and family members often view them as disposable and easily replaced, and are more than willing to use them as bargaining chips to further their own goals. Thus, they often take to the battlefield to win their elders' respect (and the safety that comes with it). They are good, all-round mixed fighters, but expensive and somewhat fragile, and should always be protected by cannon fodd-- I mean, by their loyal retainers.

Is "scion" the right name for this unit? I don't think so. "Scion," after all, can mean "heir," and the heir to the estate would NEVER, NEVER, NEVER be seen as dispensable by his family. We need to find a word that means "disinherited younger brother."

[thespaceinvader]

Scion doesn't mean heir explicitly, it means descendant, and may refer to the first born heir, but not necessarily.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/scion