So yeah I was playing red alert 2 yesterday and I suddenly realised a nice game mechanic which isn't implemented into any other game (of which I know atleast)
When you play faction A and you capture a tech lab from faction B, then you gain acces to a new type of unit so the game kinda "combines" tech from two factions.
So I was thinking wouldn't that be a nice idea for Fallen Enchantress?
The next beta will have faction differentiation and this would be a nice add-on on that.
Ofcourse every faction should have some faction specific stuff to research, so adding a fourth tab next to the other 3 research tab would be nice.
I imagine this combining would be something like this:
As we all know the empire of Magnar will go along with slaves. Then they will be able to research something faction specific enhancing the slaves (maybe make them stronger or something).
Once they've researched it other factions will be able to steal this and combine it with one of their own faction specific research.
As an example the empire of Resoln is playing against the empire of Magnar.
In every game you get the chance to "steal" a race specific tech (either through capturing a city/capturing the capitol/add a mechanic with spies/hire spies etc.). I would imagine by capturing a town it will give you a X% chance of stealing a random technology, by hiring spies this X% will be higher but it will cost more and so on. Also there has to be a cap on how many technologies you can steal. Also the player should have a choice if he wants to steal after capturing a city, since early in game the opposing faction might not have unlocked their best technology yet, so you can choose for an early game advantage, or a better combination of faction specific technologies later in the game.
Since Resoln is kind off the undead-ish faction their faction specific researches will probably envolve necromany or something like that.
If Resoln has researched for example "necromancy" and then by chance will steal the technology "empowered slaves" then the player will be able to combine these two and research the combined technology. This technology will give Resoln a spell to create slaves themselves which they can transform into wraiths by a spell, or transform with a race specific building. The slaves will be added to a city and can't do much, but will add to the population.
If it's the other way around and Magnar steals "necromancy" then they will be able to research a technology enabling a spell to transform slaves or militia into skeletons which have more damage or other stats.
I think a mechanic like this will drive a player more into defending a city or capturing one, and think strategically about stealing a tech in early or late game.
I imagine this idea would probably involve revamping a lot of stuff, but still it's an idea nothing more. I don't even know why combining researched technologies is a mechanic in more games. Isn't it obvious that if you steal a technology and then try to combine it with a technology from yourself to make something even better?
Stuff like this would make faction differentiation more in depth in my opinion, and would really fit in a game like this.
Like I said it's just an idea and the example i've given might not be too good.
