The idea is to use a creature slot to hold the leader of a group of expendable types, whose number grows and falls with combat and in-game events.

This could be Sargent & soldiers, Guide and native bearers, Chief and Indians, Chairman & yes-men, Captain & red-shirts, Thug and gang members, Spiritualist & haunts, etc.  The flavor could actually matter, or just be window dressing set at time of  recruitment (depending upon where you recruit them).

In combat, every "loss" loses you a party member.  It takes so many "wins" to be able to recruit an new member.

In game, you could be struggling through rough times and lose party members, find a sanctuary and recruit more, or possibly heal wounded ones.

On 7/30/2021 at 6:00 PM, Fyrd Argentus said:

The idea is to use a creature slot to hold the leader of a group of expendable types, whose number grows and falls with combat and in-game events.

can you give a clear example? i'm not sure i got it and it sounds interesting - further customization of creature page didn't cross my mind (like, have 'houses' inside of it and 'owners' i.e. crit leaders)

Okay, an example:

You go to the "Barracks" and recruit one "Master Sargent" that fills a creature slot.  He is alone, so has a base strength of N.

You use him in 1 winning fight, and you may then recruit 1 soldier to follow him.  The strength of the "unit" is now (square-root of 2) x N.  Formula is N x square-root(1+X) where X is the number of active soldiers following the 1 leader.  So each new soldier gives a smaller effective addition to the unit strength.

4 wins gets you #2, 9 gets you #3, 16 gets you #4 and so forth, but you have to go back to the Barracks to actually find them to recruit (costs AP & winertia), the cost going up as the square of the number in line.  So each added soldier gets exponentially harder.

If you LOSE a fight, you lose one soldier, but you may go back and recruit a replacement.

You wander through the woods and encounter "poison ivy".  One soldier goes on sick call, and can't be replaced, but if you find "calming ointment" then they return to active duty.

So: The Master Sargent works just like a normal crit except he has 3 numbers more - max soldiers, current soldiers, and sick soldiers.  His attack is calculated based on the formula N x square-root (1+current-sick).

So the unit could be "Boy Scouts" or "Grasan Daycare" or "Archeologist Party" or "Alien Reconnaisance" or whatever, and the only real difference would be the words, the pictures, and maybe you'd adjust the base stats of the leader depending on flavor.  

Not really examined yet which stats would go up with number of soldiers.  Attack yes, Defense maybe, others haven't thought it out.  I originally assumed physical attacks only, but if it's a coven of witches, it might have non-physical attacks and the power would go up with numbers.

 

i had something slightly different in mind (because i was thinking of how to minimize the actual coding needed - but then again, it's not the difficulty of coding that stops our devs from doing things, but the appeal and consistency of changes)

an interesting idea, adn this way there's interaction between the creatures and the realm (via clickies or triggers, who knows); it may also be used in wars, but it looks like something that needs a few other things in MD to progress first