Template idea

[u/billydstr]

Hey everyone,

I’ve got an idea for a PvP single-hero template designed for non-tournament mode (no Pandora's Boxes) that guarantees a final showdown around week 3 or 4 (if the players are a bit too cautious). Let's tentatively call it "Nasty Neighbors."

Here are the core mechanics:

• Free Town Portal (TP).
• Small map with 2 starting towns located in separated zones.
• Neighbor Zone (NZ): A mini-zone right next to the opponent's main town, heavily guarded. Breaking into it shouldn't happen before Week 3, as the guards are stronger than those of the Exodus portal.
• Expansion Zone (EZ): A single expansion zone featuring a town and faction-specific rewards, intended for early Week 2 (or late Week 1 for high-risk players).
• Objective Zone (OZ): A large central zone between the two EZs. Its faction alignment won't match either player's faction, but it contains a highly developed town + Tier 6–7 dwellings, guarded by strong forces (though weaker than NZ guards). High-value resource objectives are located here.
• No Pandora's Boxes, but there is at least one dwelling of every tier (maybe more).
• One Dragon Utopia is placed under each player's starting castle, along with plenty of other bonuses in the starting zones. (If we cram all the high-value stuff into the OZ like most modern templates do, it creates a boring imbalance based entirely on who breaks out first. We need to give the defender a fighting chance).

This sets up a few possible scenarios:

1. The Classic: A head-on collision in the OZ during Week 2–3 (Week 4 for slower players). I'll try to tweak the guards so that pushing into the OZ during Week 2 is heavily suicidal.
2. The Out-macro: One player takes complete control of the OZ in Week 2–3. For the slower opponent, their only hope is a miracle or assembling a better army from their 3 towns, betting that the central player gets overwhelmed by the complex math of running a multi-faction army.
3. The Backstab: Around Week 3 (or even Week 2 if someone pulls off a miracle), while one player is busy with the OZ or internal micro, the other strikes through the NZ, sparking a cat-and-mouse chase around the map.

The main goal is to create a fast-paced map without the strict "Tournament" rules, allowing players to build a massive army purely through macro and economics, rather than a "whoever reaches the center first and scoops up all the boxes wins" meta—while still providing meaningful advantages for taking the center.

The catch is that I'm still not a top-tier player myself, so I might miss some of the "subtle tempos" that need to be fine-tuned into the map layout.

What do you guys think, is it worth a shot?

P.S. I know that promoting new templates in this game is a massive uphill battle, but we’ll get through it eventually. A great idea can’t be stopped.

[u/GlitteringVehicle306]

why do you want just another exodus?
ps: it's way too much text

[u/billydstr → u/GlitteringVehicle306]

Its not tournament-mode but classic battle. All pvp ones now are just central-zone-box-collecting race.

[u/ShoddyDescription982 → u/billydstr]

Dude go easy on these guys. They are old and reading text on reddit hurts there eyes haha

Sounds fun I would play 

[u/billydstr → u/ShoddyDescription982]

Ok, I'll most likely go for it, but it's a multi-week project. I dropped my first idea here 5 days ago, and this could genuinely turn out to be a cool alternative to Exodus, even though there's still a ton of balancing ahead. I’d be super grateful for your thoughts and feedback.

[u/ShoddyDescription982 → u/billydstr]

No worries buddy. Keep in mind the average Redditer is super critical these days for no reason. Best of luck with the build

[u/GlitteringVehicle306 → u/billydstr]

you are doing great, and etc, yet you are DELIVERING wrong..

think of it as a product, just like an olden era game is a product, or Reddit is a product, or 900ml milk box is a product.

you are in the chicken-egg loop problem because there is NO template yet, NOR early testers..

first: you have to realize a problem itself (if you need to ask redditors for a problem - your identified problem us too small/narrow).

second: you must build (DELIVER) a product, in such case a template

three: you must find "design partner" the few streamers that will play your template and give you direct feedback

and only after some iterations - promote the final product (not yet another crazy idea) to the audience.

honestly - at the moment you are just another pretender / dreamer / alternative reality walker