A bit more spice to the Outpost system ?

[klantai]

Like many people during the past months of waiting for Edain 4.0 I read and reread the updates on modDB, especially those on the new outpost buildings and the mini-factions, until I couldn't stop drooling, and I was very impressed by the Edain Team on every aspect of their work and method.
Not only did they do a great thorough job at designing each and every new feature, but they also went out of their way to present them to us through detailed updates with lots of pictures and videos and most of all they carefully explained the reasoning behind their choices, the balance of book-lore, film-lore, personal preference and game design they found best fitting. For that, I can't thank them enough and I hope they'll continue doing so in the future, as their time allows : ).

It's precisely because of that that I felt a little disappointed when I played my first games of the demo and most outpost buildings (save Mordor's) came across to me as a little bland. I very much like the idea of creating a desirable place to conquer outside of your base, that allows you to further develop your faction both lore-wise and strategically, and as incentive to explore and fight far from home. As such, I believe a number of the outpost buildings proposed for the 4 factions featured in the demo are lacking, especially when compared to those of the factions yet to come, and I would like to try and voice some ideas I had to change them and make them more interesting and worthwhile to build.
As someone who likes both Tolkien's work and RTS, though I'm not especially skilled at playing them ^^, I'll endeavor to provide satisfactory lore-wise and strategic justification to my propositions, to match the Edain Team's method I so much admire : ).

Finally, it might be worth mentioning that I mostly play games alone or in a team with a friend, against the AI, and am not especially skilled, so while I'm familiar with the notion of balance, I am less so when it comes to balancing the game for matches between human players and as such I may suggest things that seem reasonable for my way of playing but are not well balanced overall, though I'll do my best.

Here I'll post general ideas, and the ideas for each factions I'll post on the right suggestion boards : ).

So, from reading the updates, I believe the outpost buildings are strategically meant to lure players into conquering the map, create alternative hot-spots for epic battles, and offer additional development to each faction's history and military/economic power. As such, I believe each faction has equal rights to interesting and unique outpost buildings, which is not yet the case, in my opinion.

- Mordor : feels the closest to achieving that goal, with two uniquely designed buildings with their unique units and granting access to additional unique Nazguls. While I do find those buildings satisfactory with regards to units-recruiting and lore, I think maybe a few mechanics could be added to them (extension plots maybe, or small scale special abilities ?).

- Isengard : while the Steelworks feel right with the faction's industrial design, as an outpost building it feels lacking, offering no new unit and upgrades that are only further enhancements of already existing ones (though I do not doubt their great strategic importance). Furthermore, there's only one possible building, against Mordor's two.

- Gondor : like Isengard, offers only one possibility, that feels a bit uninspired (no offense meant, I can only guess how hard it must be to manage being inspired for every little aspect of the game, and that's almost what you guys managed to do : ). The units and hero are nice, but I believe there are better ways to gain access to them.

- Rohan : poor them, they don't get any special outpost building, I know they're not from a rich, vast country, but still : P.

Overall, I believe that :
- Each faction should have access to at least one building that brings out it's characteristics and is interesting enough economically and/or militarily to warrant conquering the outpost, paying to make the building, and defending it, still without being absolutely essential to the faction. After all, as I understand it, outposts are both meant as a weakness and a strength : a faction is not truly whole without them and has to lessen it's defense to acquire them, but then they give additional and unique strength, as well as make the game flow more dynamic, so it isn't fair for them not to be equally present in each faction.
- Despite what I just said, straining lore and strategy to find two buildings for each faction at all cost doesn't seem reasonable, all the more reason to have at least one very well designed outpost building for each faction : ).
- I believe this can even be done without much addition to what's already in the game, just by modifying what's available where.

That is all for this post here, as I'll proceed to suggest what I have in mind for each faction on the appropriate boards. As of now, I don't have ideas for all four, but I think about :

- Making the signal-fire of Gondor an outpost building and reworking the importance of the reinforcements from the fief, especially by making the Dol Amroth units and hero available there (and removing the fortress), and by possibly adding access to trade and/or upgrades there.
Maybe making a small outside plot version of the Dol Amroth fortress to compensate for its removal from the outpost plot, as a Dol Amroth Watchtower or Guardtower with limited versions of the fortress's possibilities.
Maybe making the Ithilien ranger camp and outpost building as well, with improved abilities.