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    Your Elvenar Team

New Guest Race: The Luminescent

Ashrem

Oh Wise One
The Luminescent (formerly Dwellers in Darkness )have been observing your city’s growth, and see that your technological advances and the power of your magical denizens may finally offer them a way to return to the reality they left long ago and share the new magics they have discovered in the dark world. In return for your city offering them a place to which they can return, they offer to bring unique new magical techniques and their experience with working in the darkness to your magical city.

Their first act will be to train your spellcasters in the construction of the black hole portal, which temporarily hides your city from the sun, removing the light from your city so that it is in twilight and allowing them to visit, so that together you and they may work to return light to their people and yours. The Black Hole also serves as a collection point for the new magical materials they will teach you to manipulate, starlight and moonlight, allowing you to build up a supply of these magical resources for use in advancing your city.

Their experience in capturing the faintest light of distant stars and the moon lets them teach you new methods of construction, including roads that glitter and sparkle with starlight, casting a soft illumination about them on all the buildings of your city.
  • (Roads are added immediately before the portal, and a quest to upgrade them confers soft illumination on the city when it is plunged into near darkness at completion of the Black Hole Portal (first quest is to replace a minimum number of roads))
The construction methods of the Luminscent will soon be incorporated into your other buildings. Upgraded residences, manufactories, and workshops, are infused with a natural, ethereal light, which allows your people to fill spaces that were previously unused, increasing population and productivity without any changes to size or shape.

Edit: Adding list of potential elements to fit the theme
  • Comets
  • shooting stars
  • Firefly-like beings/avatars
Totally stealing Soggy's mechanic suggestions until we can edit his stuff and mine into a cohesive whole
I love all the story stuff, but I've been thinking more about the mechanics of it since that's a little more in my wheelhouse.

Guest race buildings:

Luminous Street:
These replace existing roads in your city and increase your Luminescence casting light upon adjacent buildings. Additionally, productions from workshops that are adjacent to luminous streets release Lumens, a resource needed to feed the guest race buildings.
(Luminescence is like culture for settlement buildings similar to prestige from the Amuni chapter and is required for building all settlement buildings)

Refracting Pyramid:
Lumens
produced by buildings from around the Refracting Pyramids pass through them and are released as Spectral Light.
(Refracting Pyramids can only gather Lumens from 1 building per level starting at level 2)

Reflecting Pool:
These reflective surfaces use light from the moon and stars to provide a passive source of Lumens for your Refracting Pyramids.
(these do not count towards a Refracting Pyramids limit)

Focusing Lens:
Focusing Lenses within range of a Refracting Pyramid redirect the Spectral Light as Radiance into the Void Portal
(Larger Focusing Lenses are able to capture more light from Refracting Pyramids that are further away, and more effectively send it into the void from a greater distance)

Void Portal:
This is the gateway between your city and the Luminarians(Luminari?). As The Void absorbs more and more Radiance the Luminarians are able to bring more of their people through and with them their knowledge of new technologies until eventually the void becomes infused with so much light that they are able to complete their escape from darkness.

The heart of the new city design challenge is that having all of your workshops bunched together is no longer effective and you need your settlement buildings spread out as much as possible for maximum effectiveness. Also, the limits of the settlement buildings range make having the Void Portal at the center of your city a more effective strategy than shoving your settlement in a corner as we often do.

Notes:
  1. If the gathering radius of 2 Refracting Pyramids overlaps, they cancel each other out and are unable to gather Lumens.
  2. If there are more Lumen producing buildings within a Refracting Pyramid's radius than it can handle it shuts down and is unable to gather Lumens. E.g. If you have 3 workshops inside the radius of a level 2 RF, the RF will not collect Lumens from them or Reflecting Pools.
  3. If a building is moved during production, the production continues, but it will not create Lumens similar to how moving a set building resets production. This prevents players from constantly swapping buildings around to game the system.
  4. Buildings produce Lumens in a similar way that making beverages/toolboxes gives medals in the challenges event, but scaled based on the level of your workshop
  5. A Luminous street must at some point touch the void portal for it to be effective on a workshop
  6. Radiance is not a resource in the traditional sense. It is not consumed by unlocking technologies but rather has a running total, and you can unlock technologies once certain thresholds are met.
  7. Radiance, Lumens, and Spectral Light all decay.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(possible event to launch the new race/chapter)
Soon after the arrival in Elvenar of the Dwellers in Darkness, the magics they bring will begin to spread through the land, just in time for a great eclipse that lasts for two to four weeks and results in a worldwide celebration in which some of the resulting constructions will be infused with Starlight, lending an ethereal air to the buildings that are left behind by this event.
 
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juniperknome

Well-Known Member
i think we need the alfa cetaurians on completion creates a new copy of the city in a plane of existence. we need someplace to put those neat buildings
 

Ashrem

Oh Wise One
Perhaps "Dwellers in the Abyss" might be a better title for the race? I was thinking of them as living in the space between the stars, but maybe something coming from under the world could be a jumping off point for a new city space?
 
Not sure I like the "Dwellers in the Darkness" or "Dwellers in the Abyss" names but that's just me. I like something that sounds a bit more upbeat but again, just me - someone else would think the names are cool as all get out. But on to your story. Having something that harnesses starlight & moonlight as resources sounds new for this game so that's a plus & kind of a neat idea. If I'm understanding your concept, upgraded roads & buildings lends light to your darkened city & that's also an interesting new variation.

Upgraded residences, manufactories, and workshops, are infused with a natural, ethereal light, which allows your people to fill spaces that were previously unused, increasing population and productivity without any changes to size or shape.

I'm not quite following this section totally. Somehow the upgrades highlight unused space? The idea of highlighting unused space or somehow helping players to make better use of existing space is interesting but I'm not quite following how this works or if that is actually your intention?
 

Ashrem

Oh Wise One
I'm not quite following this section totally. Somehow the upgrades highlight unused space? The idea of highlighting unused space or somehow helping players to make better use of existing space is interesting but I'm not quite following how this works or if that is actually your intention?
There's been discussion lately that there are no more grids available for expansion on the map, so we either have to find ways to increase population density in buildings, or come up with other solutions. Light in little used areas like basements and under staircases was simply a throw-away to explain having more people living in the same sized residence.
 

DeletedUser20709

Guest
Void isn't bad.

I really want to conjure an image of a magical space that only exists in darkness
Hmmm, that's going to be a task. Usually darkness and magical aren't 2 words you see melded too often, in a good context. Lemme give it some thought and maybe we can come up with something. I really like the premise.
 

DeletedUser20709

Guest
The Luminescent Void.

Covers the dark and the light...not sure about the magical..lol:eek::D
 

Ashrem

Oh Wise One
Update of the first/introductory paragraph

Centuries ago, as the first era began to fade on Elvenar, the ancestors of the Luminiscent left Elvenar in search of a new home. Their wanderings eventually left them trapped in The Void Dimension, and their descendants have been struggling to find their way back ever since. They long ago discovered a way to observe their lost home of Elvenar, and the Luminescent have been observing your city’s growth, and see that your magical and technological advances and the power of your magical citizens may finally offer them freedom from the eternal darkness in which they are trapped, and a way to return to the reality they lost so long ago, as well as a way to share the new magics they have discovered in the darkness. In return for your city offering them a place to build their portal, through which they can return, they offer to bring unique new magical techniques and their experience with working in the darkness to your magical city.
 

shimmerfly

Well-Known Member
Thanks. What I need is criticisms, so I can polish it. What don't you like? What would you like to see added?

There could be Comets. Shooting stars, Fireflies :rolleyes:?
I love the idea. Your explanation made a picture of soft glowing phosphorescent lights. (sp? my spell check isn't working and either are my fingers and I'm too lazy to look it up right now.) Anyway... I could visualize it.
It would work underground although I like space between the stars better. Some of us get claustrophic.
Can't think of any "buts" at the moment.:D
 
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