EPTThe idea follows the core concept of the game: A player’s most important unit - the player’s virtual representation - is the Witch King. It walks around the map, capturing Coven - which make units. So really the King must move.
But, as in Chess, a player loses the game if their King falls. With traditional RTS maps, the King would easily be trapped/contained somewhere, which is close to game over. That can be a fun game to play, but we wanted the possibility of longer, larger games that are about huge armies clashing - with the King’s health more of a measure of how much pressure has been endured. Basically, the King’s health be more like victory points than something to singularly snipe. Now, even when building the terrain openly, a map’s corners and edges are just natural places to get trapped in.
So how about removing all corners and edges? Where the map ends on one side, we can just warp around to its other side. This gives the possibility of infinite corridors, where a King can keep moving away in one and the same direction without ever hitting a wall.
Playtesting this, turns out it is stupidly complex to wrap the head around.
There are consistently so many directions to move into - while at the same time the map feels smaller, as the maximum distance between points is just half its size. Players reporting a certain spooked, uneasy feeling.
But it’s also incredibly satisfying when it starts to click and the mind incorporates the new kinda space, the new routes, into its planning.
So the feature’s there, in multiplayer it’s optional, who knows if it’s any good? In the end. Solo mode has it enabled, as it’s by itself a very relaxed design that can use the spice.
By the way, looking for mappers, drop me a DM if interested.
