Battle of the Bards Devlog

Objective

For Red: Eliminate other players.

For all other players: Reach the tavern you started from with your main hero at level 30 (level requirement TBD).

Player Setup

Human players start with no resources at all.

Each player except for Red starts with a level 1 bard (Basic Herbalism and Basic Stealth) and a level 3 "secondary hero" of their chosen alignment. E.g. the Life player gets a Paladin. Players start with a free Scroll of Town Gate (picked up within the first couple of turns) and level 1 dwelling.

HACK: the players own their level 1 dwelling at the start. This allows their alignment to be set correctly (the game won't let the mapmaker set a player's alignment to e.g. Life unless that player owns a Life creature/hero/building).

The player alignments are fixed.

• Purple: Life
• Green: Nature
• Orange: Chaos
• Teal: Death
• Blue: Order
• Red: Might

Players must complete a quest (kill a particular neutral hero with an 80-PEON army) to gain access to the town in their starting area. The town has a City Hall and Fort, but no other buildings.

Players can get a Bag of Gold within the first couple of days by defeating a level 1 monster.

Players have access to two level-2 dwellings and one level-3 dwelling in their starting area.

Global Events

• Day 1 - zero resources for all human players but Red
• Day 1 - Exposition
  • Shows a message to give players the backstory
• Day 1 - Set up (COLOR) CPU
  • Runs on (COLOR) player's turn if they are a computer
  • Deletes wall in front of town
  • Triggers "Unlock (COLOR) Town" to change the town's owner
  • Gives secondary hero
• Day 1, then every 7 days on Red's turn - Start of Week
  • Adventure objects can subscribe to the Week Triggerable Event to do something every week.
  • Mines in neutral areas add creatures to their garrisons on Week.
• Day 3 - explain XP rules
  • Shows rules explanation

Map Structure

• Free resources and campfires are scattered around to reward exploration.
• There are placed events scattered around the map that give XP to the first hero to encounter them.
• Each player starts near a Sanctuary so they can resurrect heroes who die.

Ideas

• scroll of Town Gate
• a higher-level combat hero who can help you through the early battles (but takes half the XP!) and resurrect you if you die.

Victory Script

if (current army has hero named Bob) AND (experience level of most powerful hero in this army >= 30) {
    if number of heroes in current army > 1 {
        display "Bob must enter the Battle of the Bards alone (there are too many heroes in your army)."
    } else {
        display "You wow the judges with your epic performance and your tales of
        daring-do. You are, hands down, the winner of the Battle of the Bards!"
    }
}

Connascence

The level needed to win is hardcoded in the "(Color) Victory" scripts, and in the "Explain Special Rules" timed event.

Skill Paths

Creature strengths:

• level 1 200 PEONS
• level 2 250 PEONS
• random 300
• 360
• 432
• 622
• 746
• 895
• 1074
• 1289
• 1547
• 1856
• 2227
• 2672
• 3206
• 3847
• 4616
• 5539
• 6647

Likely Hero Classes

• Bard (nature + scouting)
  • Hero always has maximum luck
• Demonologist (nature + death)
  • +50% to all demon summoning spells
• Enchanter (nature + order)
  • +20% to all summoning and illusion spells
• Summoner (nature + life)
  • +20 XP of creatures per day (slightly less than 2 wolves or 3 sprites), or slightly more than 1 water elemental every 4 days
• Fire Diviner (scouting + chaos)
  • +20% to fire-based spells
• Prophet (scouting + life)
  • always has spiritual armor, defense +25%
• Seer (scouting + order)
  • +2 scouting radius
• Guildmaster (scouting + nobility)
  • stunning attack
• Beast Lord (nature + nobility)
  • +20% summon wolf and white tiger
• Warden (nature + tactics)
  • +10% creature defence
• Field Marshal (scouting + tactics)
  • +10% creature attack
• Beastmaster (nature + combat)
  • +20% summon wolf
• Warlock (nature + chaos)
  • +10 spell points, regen +1 per day
• Ranger (scouting + combat)
  • +5 ranged attack
• Ninja (scouting + death)
  • poison attack

Strategic Artifacts

These are artifacts that synergize well with a particular hero class, strategy, or army composition. They should be available (or at least visible, via Windows of the Magi) somewhat early in the game so players can plan a strategy.

• Demonary
  • Doubles the effect of demon summoning spells
  • with Scarab of Summoning — triple the effect
  • with Crown of Enchantment and Mage's robe, spell costs reduced by 33% + 1 point
• 4x Viewing Crystal, Breeze the Falcon
  • gives the maximum scouting bonus (GM Scouting + Seer + these items = +17 scouting radius)
• Seaman's hat, sextant, logbook of the master sailor
  • lets the hero have a sea-based army - only good with lots of connected seas, lakes, rivers, islands.
• Boots of Travel, Equestrian's Gloves
  • with Pathfinding, gives ridiculous movement bonus
  • Wayfaring Boots
    • strictly better than Boots of Travel
• Ring of health, ring of regen, breastplate of regen
  • +50% health
  • 40 HP regen + 4 per level
• Adamantine Armor, Neener's Invulnerable Cloak
  • makes hero nearly unkillable — probably very OP combined with regen items above.
• Ring of Flares, Supreme Crown of the Magi
  • +10 spell points, -2 to all spell costs
• Ankh of Life + Saint Ranan's Staff
  • resurrects 25% of creatures after combat
  • with GM resurrection and Nobility + Life (Cardinal), 80% resurrection total
• Ring of Greater Negation
  • Counters Neener's Invulnerable Cloak - probably the only way to kill a high-level combat hero.
• Druid's Chain
• Staff of Summoning, Ring of Elementals, Scarab of Summoning
  • Reduces cost of summoning spells by 50%
  • +100% effect of elemental summoning spells
  • +100% power of summoning, raise, illusion spells
  • Crown of Enchantment and Mage's Robe reduce cost further, making it dirt cheap to summon elementals.
• Bow of the Elf King
• Mayhem Staff
  • Chaos direct damage spells do +50% damage
• Shackles of War
  • TODO: does this prevent Town Gate from working?
• Harmonic Chainmail, Necklace of Muses, Aiffe's Mandolin
  • The TGS expansion has special rules for this combo. The hero's attack casts Song of Peace on the target.