Pathos, A living world and a campaign Idea.

I posted the below in another thread but felt it best to create it's own so we can discuss it. It aim is to help give our companies a living world to play in so they become more than pieces on a board. Some have named it Pathos, I've named it a living world

A living campaign.

1. As a development team decide on a story line.
- You could run a best story competition on the forum which means you don't even need to do anything but read or let us vote for a winner.

2. Set goals each faction are aiming to achieve through the storyline.
-Both minor and major over all ones.

3. Set a time frame for this campaign ( At least across a month maybe 2. No longer)

4. Post the story somewhere in game or even the website.
- Update the story each week based on what each faction achieves.(5)

5. Now track each faction.
- Maybe only the first game of each player in the top 50-100.
- Maybe a different game mode is tracked every week.

Now you don't actually have to modify the game in anyway you are just giving value to the games already played. You are also giving more pathos to our mercs since they now contribute to something. You are creating a living world for us to play in.

In future this could be tied into the mail events we received. Different ones based on the success of failure of our faction. New scenario maps could be introduced specifically for that campaign. Fixed companies that each player creates and enters with ongoing injuries that cannot be healed during that campaign. Mercs could gain badges that shows up when clicked on. Most kills, most friendly fire hits,

On the developers side it allows the community to contribute and invest not only into your game but into their companies. You don't actually have to put up in game tangible rewards unless you choose to. (I'd advise not other than a campaign medal.) You would also get feedback on the meta and preffered factions and their performance.

I'll try and keep a list of all the suggestions made here so that as a final post I can create a single easy to read list of them.

I agree that add some "great stage" to the game like a world war or world history would be epic but i don't think this could work like you said. Using forum, email etc.. is a bit too selective and don't attract many player that don't read the forum.

I think that to be effective this could be implemented in the game itself.

What would improve the pathos, the feeling of being part of a great pattern and because of that the will to play are goals : objective.

I'll add to this topic some suggestion for devs for improve this part of the game.

a) Weekly rankings are very anonymous, you can reach first position in one week and after that everything you do is deleted from history! Nothing remain other than just a few anonymous cyans in your bank.
Player generally play to challenge themself in something that made them feel good, important, that feed their ambitious and of course they must have fun doing that.

We need different and multiple goals in this game and some kind of reward to those goals.

Montly ranking would work great to improve challenge. It would be great if there is some kind of hall of fame that keep record of every season. Also you could add medals to the player|army profile. Some like olimpic medal, who reach first position get a gold medal, bronze and silver that will be permanent and showed in the player profile and in some hall of fame. This would make permanent every effort someone spent in the game and set it in the stone of history.

b) Faction war would add a total new dimension to the game. Let the three paths challenge for a montly (or 3 month - season) win. This is easy to add to the game, just adds every result of ranked match for every faction and display that in another ranking. In the end of every season add a reward to the faction that win, something that is usefull in the game but not game breacking. What about a +1 faction stance for the paths that win? (Tide of death, natural selection etc...)
This will give some meaning to the faction war.

c) Statistic : PLAYER LOVE STATISTICS!
How many game i've player? How many game i've played with my undead vs other army? How many win? How many game on each map, on what mission etc...? Have some kind of player statistic will stick ppl to the game and give them the will of improve them, and also the feeling that all the game they played had some impact on something and this would keep them to the game i think, better than have they're score deleted after a week.

d) Money consumption and the will to become rich.
This game lack a foundamental thing. Something to buy with your money. After you buy every color, every unit and every faction and you gather enought healing card and shard, ducats become useless. In a game where you had to stick ppl and try to drive them to play a lot of game and also you want to made money with this game, you had to put some consumable effect to the game that made ppl spend ducats in something usefull and that not last forever but that don't put the game into the Pay 2 Win category.
Some suggestion :

1) Add the ability to buy max 1 stance (army based, not offensive or defensive stance) before a game for an certain amount of ducats or cyans. This would not become a game breacking but also let you made some money selling cyans or keep players burn ducats. (this would add very well to the faction war mechanics as the faction reward of one more stance will not give a big advantage to that faction but just let them save ducats for the next season)
2) The items or artifact that you removed from the game would be a great addiction to the game. How?
Made artifact that are not too powerfull, but mainly a customization instrument. Something like +1DAM -1TOU, +1 will -1 dod, +1 ATT -1 DEF etc... Also those artifact need to be erased when your unit die in the game or maybe every game. The ability to customize your army would be epic without giving to that army an huge advantage vs other player. This is also a way to let ppl burn ducats, made some money if ppl want to buy with cyans and made every game different as ppl could customize their army without break the game with permanent bonus or overpowered effect.

All those suggestion could improve the feeling of being part of something that's living and moving on and where you're win or loss could made some difference for you and the world around you.

1) Add the ability to buy max 1 stance (army based, not offensive or defensive stance) before a game for an certain amount of ducats or cyans. This would not become a game breacking but also let you made some money selling cyans or keep players burn ducats. (this would add very well to the faction war mechanics as the faction reward of one more stance will not give a big advantage to that faction but just let them save ducats for the next season)
2) The items or artifact that you removed from the game would be a great addiction to the game. How?
Made artifact that are not too powerfull, but mainly a customization instrument. Something like +1DAM -1TOU, +1 will -1 dod, +1 ATT -1 DEF etc... Also those artifact need to be erased when your unit die in the game or maybe every game. The ability to customize your army would be epic without giving to that army an huge advantage vs other player. This is also a way to let ppl burn ducats, made some money if ppl want to buy with cyans and made every game different as ppl could customize their army without break the game with permanent bonus or overpowered effect.

while im against od disproportion and buying additional stances or free bonus - a option to buy something that costs additional AP (items) can be nice... good old rune of Healing (like a mobile sparkling/Vip) skill for 15 AP or 10ap sword giving master fencer...
of couse more comlicated and harder tu use items costing both ducats/cyans AND ap will be nice - but i dont exacly see how can they have limited duration without being annoying

also briging Confrontation Nexuses (healing, mana recovering or simply providing Cover) could be interesting - immobile shrines able to deploy inly in certan map location that could be destroyed by enemy..