Logo Platform
logo amplifiers simplified
Endless Legend
Universe banner wording

ENDLESS™ Legend is a turn-based 4X fantasy-strategy game, where you control every aspect of your civilization as you struggle to save your homeworld Auriga. Create your own Legend!

[EL] GDD 21 - Naval Warfare

Reply
Copied to clipboard!
8 years ago
Sep 6, 2016, 9:58:59 AM

Naval Warfare



Sea battles


Sub-rationale

Everyone wants sea battles! However it would be unwise to add too much complexity to the game at this point: new players may be coming on board with no previous Endless Legend experience at all. Sea battles should therefore resemble land battles to a degree. They should, however, be kept separate from land battles to support the asymmetry of land and sea power, to allow for at least some special sea rules and to avoid cheesy pathing-induced stalemates.


Feature overview

Sea battles involve only sea tiles (except for ice-shelf tiles) and can only be instigated and reinforced by seafaring- or embarked-units (including those in nearby fortresses). Deployment areas and reinforcements points use these tiles instead of land tiles. Land armies in the nearby area are blocked as usual however, to prevent multiple battles from being fought on top of one another.


Sea battles will function by and large the same way as land battles: players have spent a lot of time and energy mastering this system so we don’t want to flip it completely. The weather effects and embarked units detailed below should add some novelty however, as should the new set of warship units.


Seafaring unit classes


Sub-rationale

For sea battles to be interesting players must be able to deploy a variety of units: the composition of their fleets should be meaningful, and not unit type should be inherently better than all the others.


Feature overview

As cavalry don’t make much sense on the ocean we’ll be adding new unit classes for the Fomorian and Morgawr warships (seafaring units).

There are 4 new classes in total. The speed and cost-effectiveness of Interceptors mean they are great at closing with and dragging down the larger Juggernaut class artillery ships, but “Frigates” will make match-wood of them thanks to crow control abilities. Meanwhile the aforementioned artillery are particularly good at sinking frigates:



There is also a final Submersible class, able to ambush enemy fleets and to hide beneath the sea during battle until the opportune moment. In practice Submersibles are invisible on the map and can traverse enemy units in battle. They also dive at the beginning of their turn, gaining a substantial defence bonus which lasts until their next attack:




Seafaring unit equipment


Sub-rationale

Compensate for the relatively small number of available seafaring unit bodies (compared to the land) by allowing players a greater level of customisation through equipment. Create some interesting trade-offs between load-out choices.


Feature overview

Ships have a weapon slot, up to two armour slots depending on their body (“hull” and “prow”) and 1 to 2 accessory (“officer”) slots, again depending on their body (an extra slot can be unlocked via the “Meritocratic Promotion” technology):



The hull slot will offer a choice between speed ("foil" type hull) and durability ("plating" type hull) while each body's weapon slot will provide a choice between two possible weapons. As a rule one of these weapons will focus on direct damage while the other deals less damage but applies some form of status effect or provides some sort of bonus:


Fomorian "Boarding Vessel"
(Interceptor class)
"Satchel Charges"
Direct damage.
"Boarding Spikes"
Reduces initiative , captures ships instead of destroying them.
Fomorian "Fireship"
(Frigate class)
"Endless Flames"
Cone, deals damage over time to affected units.
"Dust Focal"
Beam, reduces the attack of affected units
Fomorian "Artillery Ship"
(Juggernaut class)
"Broadside"
Direct damage.
"Trebuchet"
Damages units adjacent to the target.


A small set of equipment is available from the beginning. More advanced versions of all the equipment will be available as part of the three tier 1 strategic equipment technologies - other equipment will be unlocked through Fomorian and sunken-ruins quests.


Iron tier

These items are available from the start and cost industry .


Advanced tier

These items can be unlocked in Era 1 via "Advanced Alloys" and "Advanced Weapons" technologies and cost both Titanium  and Glassteel .


Uncommon tier

These items can be unlocked in Era 3 via "Uncommon Alloys" and "Uncommon Weapons" cost both Adamantian  and Palladian  .


Rare tier

These items can be unlocked in Era 4 via "Rare Alloys" and "Rare Weapons" cost both Mithrite and Hyperium  .


Sea weather


Sub-rationale

The sea weather layer will make strategic and tactical movement and placement more interesting, and should also emphasize the dangerous, fickle, fluctuating nature of oceanic territories. 


Feature overview

The expansion will add a new layer to the world called the “weather layer”. The weather layer is the size of the world map and laps around. Each hexagon tile in the weather layer has a weather type defined (“no weather” is a type of weather). The weather type defines a world effect to the terrain tile beneath it, but only if the tile is an ocean tile:




Unlike forests and mountains storms don't stay put. All the weather moves at the beginning of each turn 1 tile to the East (2 in winter). In addition the entire weather layer is completely regenerated at the beginning of each season. Below are the tile effects we're planning on including:


Lightning


  • On the map: Fleets take damage at the beginning of their turn, after the weather layer has been updated, if their tiles is affected by this weather type.
  • In battle: Units take damage at the beginning of the round, before any orders are resolved, if their tiles is affected by this weather type.


Fog


  • On the map: Fleet vision is blocked by tiles affected by this weather type. Note that fleets can see out of fog tiles, just not into them. This means that a fleet in the fog is effectively invisible.
  • In battle: Units in an affected tile gain a defense bonus against ranged attacks.


Seaweed


  • On the map: The movement cost of affected tiles is increased from 1 to 2.
  • In battle: The movement cost of affected tiles is increased from 1 to 2.


Rain


  • On the map: +50% Army Upkeep when starting the turn on an affected tile.
  • In battle: -3 morale to units on an affected tile.


Turbulence


  • On the map: The movement cost of affected tiles is decreased from 1 to 0.5.
  • In battle: The movement cost of affected tiles is decreased from 1 to 0.5. Units in an affected tile have an attack penalty imposed on them.



Embarked units


Sub-rationale

Land units are highly vulnerable when travelling by sea. This serve to create an asymmetry between land and sea power, as dedicated warship units must be used to escort land armies and to take control of oceanic regions.


Feature overview

Land units and seafaring units can be combined freely, but the attributes of all land units are set to a fixed value whenever they are embarked, and their capacities no longer apply. They are effectively replaced with a weak “transport ship” unit when travelling by sea:



The attributes of this transport ship are defined by the empire, not by the unit, but the unit’s level will influence the amount of life the transport ship has. Players we still need to pay special attention to protecting their veterans though, as they will only be marginally less vulnerable when at sea than their rookies.


The transport ship placeholder replaces embarked units during sea battles: it will have a weak ranged attack so that it can at least defend itself against opportunists. Embarked land units gain experience from sea battles as usual.

Embarked General-assigned heroes will have considerably stronger “flagship” transports and their skills, notably army attributes boosts, will continue to apply on the sea.




VIP Comments & answers


Seafaring unit classes

KnightofPhoenix wrote: 
I am a bit unclear as to what role the submarine will play in battle. Its use as a scout and ambusher on the map is obvious, but how will the submarine fit into the rock-paper-scissor dynamic? 

It should be good against Juggernaut class units, so in a sense it has a similar role to the Interceptor in battle. It is more of a utility unit though, and Interceptor units will get more of a bang for

Updated 7 years ago.
0Send private message
8 years ago
Sep 6, 2016, 12:12:44 PM

Wow, the information here is great! I can't wait for this expansion to be released. Though I do still wonder, can sea units be utilized to siege coastal cities? Not to directly attack them, but to assist land armies in reducing fortification?

0Send private message
8 years ago
Sep 6, 2016, 2:11:08 PM

Now I am really looking forward to trying this out. It sounds very interesting so far!


I am wondering if the Ardent Mages will be able to use their spells in sea battles or if they will get special versions for aquatic use. 

0Send private message
8 years ago
Sep 6, 2016, 3:41:15 PM
BlackBird1696 wrote:

Wow, the information here is great! I can't wait for this expansion to be released. Though I do still wonder, can sea units be utilized to siege coastal cities? Not to directly attack them, but to assist land armies in reducing fortification?

Quoting Willbefast here, from the Overview Thread

wilbefast wrote:
SireTriste wrote:

Wilbefast, you forgot to answer my question  You quoted it, but didn't bring any real answer; how will sieges work in this expansion? 

We're actually still looking into this at the moment. Currently there is no way for seafaring units to participate in a siege. We've debated letting certain warships help chip away at fortifications from the sea, but as I mentioned that's a hard situation for the defender to come back from. We also may not have time to implement and test what essentially amounts to a new type of siege given the number of hedge-cases which can interrupt the besieged state of a city. We'll have to see...


0Send private message
8 years ago
Sep 6, 2016, 4:55:40 PM

Great and useful information to get prepared for the game. Looking forward to beta/release

0Send private message
8 years ago
Sep 6, 2016, 8:43:02 PM

This sounds really fantastic, I really appreciate your approach of "simple" rules : naval warfare are different but need to be balanced nonetheless.


Quick question regarding modding: will it be easy to create more weapons and items for sea units?


Thanks for the good job!

0Send private message
8 years ago
Sep 7, 2016, 8:38:11 AM
FabienFMR wrote:

Quick question regarding modding: will it be easy to create more weapons and items for sea units?

Modding seafaring equipment will work just like modding the equipment of units on land - there are new unit classes and item slots/categories to consider but other than that it's the same system

0Send private message
?

Click here to login

Reply
Comment
0Send private message