Isles of Drought

Last edited - Sept 2015  
Whats all this about - Designing a simple browser based multiplayer board game with a fantasy setting.

This has been in the hard disk for some time, waiting for me to fix here and there, add some artwork and refine some ideas. While still not complete as there are few things are missing (like spells and items section) and it could benefit from couple more artwork  but I guess its good to post instead of letting it rot within cobwebs.

Introduction

 
I would like to remind that Isles of Drought is designed to be a browser based game. Meaning it is meant to progress slowly so people can log in from their browsers during different times a day and take their turns. 

Another aim is to keep things simple. There are a lot of things that can be added like tons of different races, different skills, items, more complex mechanics and so on but for a browser based experience I would prefer a game which is easier to learn and simple to play rather than experiencing tons of different stuff squeezed into a single game.

Highlights of this game should be;

• Browser based game that can be played from anywhere with custom pace and speed
• Multiplayer game with a computer controlled "wild card" enemy (the undead)
• 16 different races with 2 different skills each
• Simple combat and economy rules for easy browser based experience 

Index

1. Story
2. Game Setup
3. Gameplay
4. Races
5. Winning and Losing
6. Conclusion
   

Story

Did not spend much time on this as the game is not story based. However it would be nice if there was some lore behind the game and its denizens. 

Floating Isles is an alternative world made by the high-father as a heaven for different races to live and prosper without disturbing each other. The isles float above the clouds powered by various mana crystals. The races living on these isles collect and use these mana crystals as resource to keep their islands afloat. There is enough crystals to live happily forever so there is no reason for any race to assault the other. Everyone is happy and full of joy until the High father turns it's interest from the floating islands. Slowly these mana crystals start to become scarce. "The age of Drought" plagues these lands as every race finds itself in the blink of destruction and rushes to harvest as much mana as possible. With decreasing mana, the isles begin to lose power and some parts start to crumble.

So its a game about various fantasy races killing each other to harvest mana and keep their parts of the island floating.

Game Setup

SPEED & PACE

As it is a multiplayer browser game, the pace will be slower compared to most other games. However i dont like games that force you to take a turn and come back in 5-10 hours time. Game speed should depend on the choice of the host. If I can take 10 turns per day why should I have to wait for a 10 hour game? I can just join (or host) a game with 10 minute turns etc.

Probably ideal game speeds should vary from 5 minutes per turn (fast) to 24 hours per turn (super slow) and players should be in control of their speed and pace by voting during multiplayer games 

MAP SETTINGS

(See gameplay section below for better understanding of terms)

The game map is divided into several isles, and each isle is divided into regions with a castle in the center. These castles connect to each other castles in the centers of other islands via floating bridges. Some regions may also contain extra items and other types of loot or resource bonus.

Map settings are straightforward stuff like;
- starting height / health of regions (low med high random) - random by default
- percent of resources per region (low med high) - med by default
- army recruitment delay (set time / turn limit)
- undeads (on / off) - on by default
- speed and pace (set time / turn limit)
- fog (on / off) - on by default
- seasons (on / off / delay) - on by default

FOG OF WAR

Should be on by default, can be toggled off before game starts. With the arrival of the age of drought, floating isles where covered in black shroud. Shroud Covers the entire map in black fog, reveals as armies explore.

SEASONS

Should be on by default, every set number of turns season will change and winter will come to the floating island. (bit strange to have snow when you float over the clouds but whatever :) winter will cause units to move slower and resource output will be halved for the duration of winter.

- set season on / off,
- set season delay
- if delay = x turns then roll dice 1D6 = meaning every x + 1 to 6 days seasons will change between winter and summer.


INITIALIZING THE GAME
Rather straightforward stuff;
1- create map (random seed or selected) depending on size desired
2- add player starting castles depending on the race chosen by each player.
3- seed map with towns and castles belonging to random npc races
4- seed regions with resource bonus and items

Gameplay

MAP AND TILES
Map consists of a castle (node) joining the tiles around them to form a region. Production and resource collection is made by these towns or castles while armies move from node to node using the roads that connect the nodes (calling them bridges would be more accurate) to other nodes.

These floating tiles have different (random? set by the player before game starts?) levels of altitude. 5 being the highest while 1 the lowest. Every time tiles take damage (by harvest, spells or whatever reason) they sink by 1. If a tile reaches 0 that tile crumbles into the abyss below. Any resource on the tile is also destroyed with it. Roads or bridges aren't effected by such damage and cannot be destroyed. There is no way to disconnect a node.

   

RESOURCES
There are two types of resources found in the islands. Gold and Mana. Gold is used for everything as a generic resource while mana is used for specific race related stuff. Collecting resources is done at the beginning of each turn as an automated progress. Every town or castle controlled by a player collects the resources from the tiles in their region

HARVEST VS REGULAR COLLECTION       
Regular collection is the primary way of gathering resources, done automatically (end turn, every 5 minutes, 5 hours whatever) by default unless the player interferes and commands the castle to use the "harvest" command. With regular collection method the castles collect a small number of resources from their regions without causing any damage to the tiles.

When the player uses harvest, sages and priests in the castle cast powerful magic spells to gain a resource bonus from the area. These harvesting spells are so powerful that they spoil the unity of the floating isles in their regions, causing all tiles to sink down by 1 level. When used a couple of times it makes all tiles in the region to fall into the abyss. These fallen tiles do not provide resource bonus anymore.

TYPES OF TILES

Various bonuses can be found on some tiles:
 
- Castle - every region has a castle in the center. 

- Empty region (most common).

- Gold mine - provides gold bonus to region

- Mana rifts - provides mana bonus to region (same colour mana as the rift)

- Ruins - can be explored for random bonus (mana, gold or artifacts - ruins can also have hidden enemy encounters or could be deserted)

CASTLES (SETTLEMENTS)

Every region has a castle (node) in the center

Castles produce resources (gold + mana colour of the race occupying.) Capturing a settlement will grant the control of the entire region around it.  

Castles produce armies (army type of the race living occupying - so a human settlement can only produce human army) 

Castles have levels from 1 to 5.  A level 1 castle collects low amount of resource from regions around it and provide less defense but increases with each upgrade. Upgrading each level costs resources and time / turns.

 

Castles also allow the players to use the "harvest" command. Harvest order collects double the resources from the region but will have a negative effect on the soil of the tiles in the region and will cause the land to become unstable and crumble, making impossible to collect resources from the region. This can be used as an economic boost or an offensive tactic. (Offensive if you capture an enemy castle and start harvesting to damage the soil so the enemy wont be able to use the region even if they recapture.) 

Undead can turn castles into "tomb of souls" that will destroy the region around it and start producing large number of undead units each turn (minute, hour, whatever) If recaptured by a player, the Tomb of souls will be destroyed so the spawning of undead armies will stop but the castle cannot be rebuilt. It starts acting as an empty node.     

MOVEMENT

Movement is done from castle to castle (node to node), armies move using the floating bridges that connect islands. Regional tiles around the castles do not effect movement. These regions are for harvesting only.

It will take time to travel from castle to castle (node to node). (its a browser based game so time limits can vary from 5 hours to 5 minutes, 5 turns or a single turn depending on the game speed chosen before game start.)


ATTACKING
A battle will take place when two opposing armies meet on a road (bridge) or a node. If the armies meet on the node the defender will benefit from terrain / town bonus while If they meet on a road (or bridge) the attacker or defender will not receive any terrain bonus.

Roughly unit stats should be as follows;

• Cost - how much gold or mana required to produce 
• Health - hit points
• Attack - combat value
• Initiative - shows who attacks first, higher means faster. value should be between 1 to 10 (can effect movement on map?)
• Active - always active ability
• Passive - on / off. passive skills that require mana to activate and have a cool down after each use.

Combat is handled instantly once two armies reach each other. Procedure is as follows:

1) check the initiatives of both armies.
2) roll bonus 1D6 dice for both armies to add randomness (optional?)
3) apply item / artifact / spell bonus if any
4) whoever has higher initiative total attacks first. (becomes attacker)
-  ATTACKER strikes -
5) deduct attacker's total "attack" value from defenders "health" value
- DEFENDER retaliates - (even if its dead)
6) deduct defender "attack" value from attackers "health" value 
- if both parties are still alive -
7) repeat 5 to 6 until an army is destroyed. (health value reaches 0)

notes:

• step 2 is totally optional. some people enjoy a little bit of randomness instead of relying on direct maths.  It also helps greatly to resolve "who goes first" if two armies have the same initiative

MERGING ARMIES
Armies occupying the same nodes can be merged together if they are from the same race (human army with human army, elven with elven etc.) When armies are merged their health is multiplied.

So if a human army has 120 hp and it merges with another human army with 120 hp they will become a single army of 240 hp with the most experienced unit as the leader. Artifacts and items will also  be kept with the new leader.

If a 120 hp human army merges with a 50 hp human army, the newly merged units hit point would be 170 hp and so on.


CAPTURING REGIONS
kill defenders on a castle (node) to take over the entire region.

LEVELING UP
Units level up as they gain xp from combat. Each level bestows additional damage, HP or initiative to the units.

RECRUITING ARMIES

New armies can be recruited from castles (nodes) once per day (or whatever time limit is set for "recruitment delay") Damaged armies can be  healed back to full health but healing costs gold and mana (cheaper then buying a new army)

Races

Each player picks one of the following spheres of magic before the game starts.  (blue, green, white, red) and a starting race that belongs to the mana sphere chosen. 

Depending on their choice they will be given a starting castle that can produce the armies of the race they have selected. Also the player gains access to the spells offered by the sphere.

Each race has an active (free) ability which they can always benefit and a passive skill which needs to be activated (with a mana cost and cooldown to use again).  These abilities will either affect the unit itself, the region they stand, a radius around the unit or the neighboring regions.

Some races may be slightly unbalanced but it would have been awkward if every race was perfectly balanced turning things into chess. Players may see this balance issue as a way to make their game harder or easier by picking stronger or weaker races.  Plus the only proper way to maintain balance in these kinds of games is to keep playing and testing and this is only the concept phase, making it only possible to balance on theory.

Blue Sphere - Involves races that are ideal for building a strong economy. Blue mana domains are represented by grassland regions.

Human Knight -

With the arrival of the Age of Drought and the lack of the High Father's influence, Humans returned back to their nature and became filled with obsession of ruling, growing and conquering. Due to the nature of human special skills they are best used on settlements to boost economy or defense.

• Cost - high gold no mana
• Health - med
• Attack - med
• Initiative - med
• Active skill - defensive formations allow them extra defense bonus on any castle
• Passive skill - taxation allows human armies to collect more gold from castles they occupy
• Castle bonus - human castles generate more gold compared to other races

Manhawk Scout - 

Manhawk's are a strange race that consist of giant hawks with humanoid features. Due to their fragile wings and thin body features, the Manhawk are not a warlike race. However The arrival of the Age of Drought has brought the necessity to fight for scarce mana, forcing the Manhawk to take offensive actions despite their fragile nature. Manhawks are cheap to purchase but are physically weak so they are best used as support units with their ability to find resources or used for hit and run tactics as they are immune to attacks and special abilities while moving between regions

• Cost - low gold low mana
• Health - low
• Attack - low
• Initiative - high
• Active skill - Their wings allow manhawks to fly without being seen by the enemy. (immune to attacks and special abilities while moving between regions)
• Passive skill -  can find a random amount of mana (random colour) once a while in regions
• Castle bonus - Manhawk castles generate more blue mana compared to other races 

Titan Defender -
Once responsible of keeping the order in the floating isles, with the arrival of the Age of Drought, Titan Defenders felt abandoned by the high-father. Left aimless, they decided to gather all resources they could find believing high-father would award them by rebuilding the isles and allow them to rule once again. Titan Defenders are expensive but strong.

• Cost - high gold high mana 
• Health - med
• Attack - high
• Initiative - low
• Active skill - immune to enemy special attacks
• Passive skill - double damage against red sphere races  and undead for a short while
• Castle bonus - Titan castles give extra defense to any unit when defending against red sphere races and undead

Green Sphere - Involves races that have a good balance between attack and defence. Green mana domains are represented by forest covered regions

Elven Ranger -

Elves ruled most of the forests found on the floating islands and even during the age of drought they were generous with the lesser creatures and nurtured all life even if such actions caused their downfall. They have strong wards protecting their forests from harmful magic, they can also call the power of elven magic to dispel negative spells.

• Cost - low gold med mana
• Health - low
• Attack - high
• Initiative - high
• Active skill - army strength cannot be seen by enemy when elven army is in a forest region
• Passive skill - can remove negative spells and effects from friendly armies
• Castle bonus - Elven castles have protective wards that stop enemy spells so armies standing on a an elven castle cannot be targeted by enemy spells

Ancient Treeman - 

Ancient protectors of the forests, some say they were a kin of titans sent to guard the floating isles, cursed and turned into giant trees after their extreme interest in forests made them forget to fulfil their duties. Being such ancient beings, the treeman will take root if they wait in a single region for a long time. Player will have to keep the treeman moving from region to region in order to keep them combat ready.

• Cost - low gold high mana
• Health - high
• Attack - high
• Initiative - low
• Active skill - can take root if  stands in a certain regions for a while receiving +10 defence but has to rest (unpack) for a while before it can move again.
• Passive skill - can entangle enemies with roots, stopping them for a certain period of time
• Castle bonus - Treeman castles cause less damage to ground tiles when using harvest command  

Centaur Charger -   

Savage creatures of the forests, they can move with enormous speeds and attack their targets before giving them a chance to prepare. Ideal for hit and run attacks but castles have less defensive bonus forcing the players to play aggressive.

• Cost - med gold high mana
• Health - med
• Attack - med
• Initiative - med
• Active skill - double speed when moving
• Passive skill - Can charge and deal double damage on roads / bridges
• Castle bonus - Centaur castles provide 50% less defence bonus. 

White Sphere - Involves races that are good for defending and turtling. Their domains are represented by snow covered regions

Proud Dwarf - 

Dwarfs are a hardy mountain kin which live in rugged mountains of the floating isles. They value strength and hard work and create sturdy fortresses adorned with the treasures discovered deep within their mountains.

• Cost - high gold low mana 
• Health - med
• Attack - med
• Initiative - low
• Active skill - lowers gold cost of improvements in regions
• Passive skill - can build a single level of fortification to a region
• Castle bonus - Dwarven castles also provide small amount of attack bonus

Frostling Shardscaper -

With the arrival of the Age of Drought the fate of the Frostlings remain on the blink of destruction as they live in regions covered with ice. Despite their limited means, they have a natural ability to harvest magic

• Cost - low gold high mana
• Health - low
• Attack - low
• Initiative - high
• Active skill - Invisible on snow regions (white mana controlled regions or all map during winter season) uneffected by winter season or frost spells.
• Passive skill - can freeze enemy squads for a short period. Frozen squads cannot move or use special abilities.
• Castle bonus - Frostling castles generate regular resources during winter season

Frost Giant -

Big guys running around with a tree trunk in their hands. Frost giants can cause earthquakes that damage troops and destroy improvements in enemy towns. 

• Cost - high gold high mana
• Health -high
• Attack - med
• Initiative - very low
• Active skill - not effected by fortification bonus (both when attacking and defending)
• Passive skill - can cause earthquakes that damage settlements back to level 1. has a chance low chance to damage the region tiles by 1.
• Castle bonus - Giant castles provide additional defense bonus

Red Sphere - Armies consist of strong races ideal for offensive play. Red sphere domains are represented by "lava themed" regions

Fallen -

The fallen were once Titans who were responsible of keeping the order in the floating isles, with the arrival of the Age of Drought, Titans felt abandoned by the high-father. Left aimless, some decided to rebuild the isles while some rebelled and turned away from the words of the high-father. Being creations of pure good alignment such actions caused them to transform into twisted "Demonic" beings. Blaming the high-father for all that happened to them, they cause chaos, destruction and mischief. Fallen cost more mana than any other race.

• Cost - low gold high mana 
• Health - high
• Attack - high
• Initiative - low
• Active skill - Fallen cannot be targeted by enemy or friendly spells
• Passive skill - Shoots fireballs that burn the target and deal burning damage over time
• Castle bonus - Fallen castles generate extra red mana
  
  

Catra Hunter -

Catra are a strange race that mixes humans and tigers. They usually have the faces of tigers with human bodies. Not sure about the designs but they could be influenced by Egyptian and Hittite culture. Catra are masters of hunting, they can march restlessly after their targets and can hunt them for miles by their scents.

• Cost - med gold med mana  
• Health - med
• Attack - med
• Initiative - high
• Active skill - can detect enemy presence in adjacent regions even if hidden by fog or stealth
• Passive skill - can become invisible for a short while (cannot be targeted by enemy skills or spells)
• Castle bonus - Catra castles do not provide any special bonus
  

Greenskin Raider -

Greenskin tribes consist of orcs, goblins, trolls and ogres making them ideal tools of destruction and chaos, constantly fighting among each other it is usually hard for the players to command greenskin squads as they have a chance to randomly attack other friendly or enemy greenskin armies that occupy neighboring settlements. Constant battling allows greenskins to earn more experience after combat.

• Cost - med gold low mana  
• Health - med
• Attack - high
• Initiative - med
• Active skill -  receives twice the xp bonus after each victory
• Passive skill - berserk skill will double the orcs attack value for a short time. has high cooldown penalty.
• Castle bonus - No special bonus (regular defense bonus is available)

NON-PLAYER RACES

These are the races and units that cannot be controlled by the players.

Undead - 
The undead are a non-player race with a single goal, to destroy all the living. They randomly wonder between regions and attack the living.

The undead have no interest in such possessions as mana or money, all they value is the number or corpses in regions. If a region has seen many battles with high casualties there is a high chance the bodies will rise and the undead will infest the region within a very short time. Once a castle or town becomes corrupted  by the undead, a tower of souls will be built which will start to produce more undead units depending on the total amount of casualties by draining the souls of dead people around the map.

Zombie Horde -
Animated corpses brought back to life. Zombies will increase their numbers periodically over time

• Health - low
• Attack - low
• Initiative - low
• Active skill - Squad strength increases periodically over time.
• Passive skill - Zombies will convert half of defeated enemy squads to their ranks if they are victorious after battles.
• Castle bonus - Any castles taken over by the undead are destroyed to rubble and cannot be rebuilt. (turns into empty tile) a special "pillar of souls" is built instead allowing the undead to reinforce their ranks globally all over the map.

Tormented Souls -
Tormented souls haunt the regions for revenge and have the ability to pass through walls so fortifications will not provide defence bonus when defending a region against them.

• Health - low
• Attack - med
• Initiative - high
• Active skill - enemy does not receive fortification bonus when fighting against ghosts.
• Passive skill - Can teleport (randomly?) to any region on map
• Castle bonus - Any castles taken over by the undead are destroyed to rubble and cannot be rebuilt. (turns into empty tile) a special "pillar of souls" is built instead allowing the undead to reinforce their ranks globally all over the map.

SPELLS (incomplete)

There are two types of spells. The ones that can be cast on castles and the ones that can be cast on armies. Spells can be cast on any visible castle or army on map. Casting will have cooldown timers to stop global spell spam.




Blue
Cast on castle to effect region:

- rises all regions by 1 (heals damage caused by the harvest command)

Cast on army:

Holy word - damages undead when cast on army

Green
Cast on castle to effect region:

Restore ground - rises all regions by 1 (heals damage caused by the harvest command)
Grow forest - turns all region tiles into forest (does not effect mines or mana resource tiles)

Cast on army:

Entangle - slows the movement of enemy army
Heal - heals a small amount of health of the damaged army

White

Cast on castle to effect region:

Winters fury - damages all armies in a region, turns region into snow

Divine Winds - slows all enemy armies and hastes all friendly friendly armies in region for a short while

Earthquake - reduces castle level - cannot reduce below 1)

Cast on army:

Increase Might - increases attack damage of the army for a short time

Red

Cast on castle to effect region:

Scorch Ground- turns region into lava
Destroy region - sinks all regions by 1 (same as damage caused by the harvest command)

Cast on army:

Fireball - damages army

ITEMS, LOOT AND ARTIFACTS (incomplete)

--- will add a list of items & descriptions here --- 


 

Winning and Losing

 

Player wins the game if all opposing players are destroyed.

Player loses the game when he doesn't have any castles left.

Undead do not count as an opposing player.

Conclusion

 

A simple and casual browser-based game with easy to learn, hard to master turn based wargame mechanics, lots of data sheets and server side operations. Best suited for playing in the office :)