Imagine you had the choice of paying 400 Food and choosing one deity to advance to Classical or paying 550 Food and getting some of the benefits of both deities (every Age advancement would work in an analogous way). You would not get to cast both GPs. They would both become available, except as soon as you cast one of them the other would be gone. You could, for example, decide at casting time whether you wanted to cast Pestilence or Cease Fire. You would get access to both of their mythological units and technologies, except would still have to pay for them if you actually wanted to use them. You could pick and choose which ones from each that you wanted to purchase. You would also get the regular units associated with both deities. You could have access to both of their Heroes for each Age, except it would be an either/or deal just like with the GPs. As soon as you got one of their Heroes for a certain Age, the other would be disabled until the purchased Hero was killed. For example, you couldn't have Bellepheron and Polyphomous at the same time. You could purchase Bellepheron, get her killed, and then purchase Polyphomous.
Is there a price that would work in a balanced way and make it a legitimate strategic choice (Maybe 550 would be too cheap or maybe it would be too expensive to be worthwhile)? Would it add anything to the game? It's a lot of extra power, except paying extra resources to advance can be a mistake. You could leave yourself without the ability to actually use all of the versatility.
Imagine being able to field an army of Medusas protected by Colossi. Imagine being able to reserve the potential to choose whether you wanted to cast Earthquake or Lightning Storm when the time arose. Also, your opponent wouldn't know exactly what GPs were coming at him and you could come at him with a lot of different combinations of units.
Also, you could do things like a versatile advancement to Classical, a fast advancement to Heroic, and a verstaile advancement to Mythological Age.
2.
A GP that would be a cross between Dwarven Gold Mine and Nildhogg. The Dragon you would get would be stronger if you cast it in a later Age. If you cast it in the Archaic Age, you would get something along the lines of a really slow Pegasus with a meager attacking ability. If you waited until the Myhtological Age, you would obviously get much more.
3.
Naval Caravans. You could also choose what resource you wanted the Caravan to return.
On a side note, maybe their could even be a Naval Caravan GP. It would create a Naval Cravan unit that would not count towards your population limit. It would work sort of like the Vault of Plenty GP, except you would have to manage it and it could be destroyed. You could also select which resource you wanted it to return.
4.
The new civilization (if there is one) could have one of their Mythological Age GPs be that their first three GPs regenerate over time after expired. The first three GPs would have be balanced accordingly so that not only was there not a potential for abuse, such as someone annoyingly firing off Cease Fire after Cease Fire etc., except were also worth repeating. For example, what use would another Lure be in the Mythological Age?
The GP would have to expire. In the case of something like Nildhogg, the unit would have to die. After the GP expired, you would have to wait a certain amount of time before the GP could be repeated.
It would be like forfeiting your Lightning Storm in order to let your Bolt, Restoration, and Curse regenerate every so 5 minutes or so after each use.
5.
How about a researchable technology which would allow you to share one of your basic unit types with an ally? No Temple, Migdol Stronghold, Hill Fort, or Fortress units could be shared. Only Classical Age units from basic military structures could be shared. For example, a Greek player could invest a certain amount of resources in order to “teach” their Norse ally how to create something like Toxotes, Hippikons, , Hoplites, etc. on a one time basis. They couldn’t “teach” them how to create more than one different unit type. Also, your ally would have to be in at least Classical Age in order to use the unit since it is a Classical Age unit. You wouldn’t get the chance to research it until the Heroic Age.
Would the ability to utilize Greek units such Hoplites or Toxotes be of any use to a Norse player? How about Slingers for a Greek player? How about Raiding Cavalry for an Egyptian player? I see the Norse having the most to gain here.
I don’t know about this idea myself, I just thought I’d throw it out there and see what you guys thought.
6.
How about the ability to select more than 30 units at one time?
7.
How about the ability to select 10 villagers, then hit something like Shift + 3 in order to select just three of them? Right now, I have to separate them and get three selected the hard way. Is there a way to do this already that I don’t know about?
8.
How about a cross between Dwarven Gold Mine and a destructive GP? If you cast in the Archaic Age, you’ll probably take half the hit points off of a Granary and do a little damage to a couple of villagers. You could maybe get lucky and severely damage a house or something. In the Classical Age, it could actually take out a Granary or something along those lines. If you waited until Mythological Age, it would obviously be a lot more powerful.
I think it would be neat to watch a mini-Earthquake shake the foundations of a House or Granary, except not be able to take it out by itself. How about a couple of flaming pebbles falling out of the sky and smacking a Granary and the villagers around it? It could make all the difference in an early raid.
This idea probably isn't too practical either, I just think it would be kind of neat.
P.S. - I like #1 the best. What do you guys think?
[This message has been edited by Newbie (edited 12-17-2002 @ 04:57 AM).]