i was recently looking back on some of the posts i've replied to back in march when i came across a very interesting one.  basicly it was why Demigod Sucks compared to DotA (from a DotA fanboy of course)... made a bunch of claims and jabs but one thing i noticed that caught my eye was his thoughts on the lack or "neutral creeps".  obviously actual "Neutral Creeps" like in DotA are stupid and have no place in Demigod... however i started thinking about how it could work.

finaly i came up with this idea for the stone golem:

Stone Golem

Introduction

The basic idea would be to have large stone statues placed either next to portals or around the map somewhere.  These statues are neutral and do not move or attack anything around them.  if the statues are attacked (or some other condition is met) then they will step up from their platform and begin fighting anything and everything.  once defeated the statue will kneel on the ground... glow the colour of the team who killed it and then step back up and begin fighting for that team (more details ahead)

Appearance

Like i said this is a golem staue... so anything medival/mythical should do the tricki.  i found this pic which basicly fits the bill -->

Stats

This has to be strong but to too strong... so somewhere around a Giant i think.  size would have to be a bit bigger than a Giant thou, so maybe a head taller to make it noticable.

Placement

Two options come to mind when having something like this in the game:

• Having this as a Custom Game option, where game creaters can chose to have the statues or not.
• Having this as a Game Mode (like Domination) where players fight to controll as many golems as possible.

One in the game the Golem Statues would probably sit around key structures like portals, flags, shops etc.  they woudl be off ot the side and never move unless attacked.

I'd like to hear peoples opinions on this, however be sure to read how controll works before posting cause its not quite as simple as just dying.

Control

Tug of War and submission comes to mind when thinking about how these are controlled.  the ideas is that a golem can never be destroyed... only overwhelmed.  once beaten the Golem pledged loyalty to the victor and advances towards the enemy.  if the golem is them beaten while under control then it will retreat to its original posision and remain there untill challanged again.

The specifics are:

• Must be challanges to become active. 
  
• Once active they will rampage attacking anything.
• When beaten (1hp left) the Golem will pledge loyaly adn regain 50%(?) of its health and advance forward to the enemy Citadel.
• If Beaten by the enemy the Golem will fall to the ground, pick itself back up and walk back to its original position
• The golem will ignore all other attacks until it is back to its original spot and has recovered full health.

Strategic Depth?

How does this make the game deeper? basicly this neutral unit woudl serve two purposes...

• Firstly, it would act as a nice way to gain gold/exp withought being seen by the enemy when attacking grunts
  
• And secondly, it would allow for stragicly placed pushes from one side.  beat the golem too early hand he has no grunt support (easy exp/gold for the enemy too) but with a few friently grunt he can be a great early game tower pusher.

Other things like sending opposing Golems to counter enemy ones would be interesting.  say there was a map where each team had 3 or 4 golems in the back of their base, which they then send out to counter each other as well as oposse other DG's?

I just have this vision of a big epic, game deciding battle going on in the middle of Zikurat and then Rook walks over to a Golem Statue and hammer slams it (beating it in one hit) at which point it stand and begins swinging through its enemies...  at the same time Oak on the other team sees this happening and quickly goes for another Golem to counter... and so the battle becomes even more epic

Conclusion

anyway its just an idea... and i would love to hear feedback on what people think of it.  also on things like placements, modes, stats, appearnace... the whole package.