New suggestion: Elemental dragons

It has to be something realy hard o.O
if it is going to be that egg hunt thing the Dragon has to be very phyco..
And if it is techtree it has to be like bery expensive... And it has to cost a hell lot of food^^

Oh... maybe you gotta find a dragon egg and wait like 5 days for it to hatch into a whelp. Then after 5 days it becomes a drake and after 5 more a dragon etc.

Or maybe as the titans land hydra?? It got 0mana and for every kill it does it gets mana depending on the streng of the unit/ it has canabilism and gets mana instead of hp? And then it got like... 500 mana it evolves from hatchling to Drake and late from drake to dragon and the from dragon to
"the ultimate wepon of destroction and war!"
-Devil/Evil Conscience, Black & White 2

Well not really cause it has to be realistic xD
Doubt you grow up with experience... I mean physically. Although its a good idea, I don't think it's gonna work for RD.
Also, perhaps the units should die from oldness too? Just the mortals though - elves can't die from oldness. xD

I like the egg concept like burn described it. The mana way is unreliable because of the various mana regen modifiers, sometimes global, that you can find in RD.
Besides, the egg to drake-> to dragon idea sounds really fun and is definitely in the RD theme.

Moreover, i already have that system in Judgement of the Order (the SunDragon) without the egg part, so it's gonna be easy cake .

Offtopic: go and see cc's changelog 0.82, its pretty... crucial.

Okay Dj xP

Baby dragon- lvl from 1-10, upon lvl 10 it will grow up to a drake (must be around it's artificial nest)
Spells/skills-
Claws- has low damage
Snap- does small damage

A Drake- lvl from 1-20, upon lvl 20 it will grow up into a dragon (must be around it's artificial nest)
Spells/skills-
Bite- Much better than snap + leaves open wounds which lower the targets hp over time
Fire Wavel- A weak fire ball attack
Stomp- A weak Aoe stun
Slash- Attacks all the units in front of dragon Slowing them

A Dragon-lvl 1-30, upon lvl 30 it will grow up into a Elder Dragon (must be around it's artificial nest) Can Fly
Spells/skills-
Crunch- A much improved version of Bite + weakens the targets defense
Fire Waves- Shoots out continuos fire waves + leaves targets on fire
Greater Stomp- Improved stomp + makes targets have concussions which causes them to miss some attacks
Fury Swipes- Improved slash + multiple hits

A Elder Dragon-lvl 1-40, upon lvl 40 the dragon will gain major bonuses of all kinds
Crushing Bite- Improved crunch + slowing them and weakening their skills(the ones they get from fighting)
Fire Breath- Shoots out neverending waves of fire (when he runs out of mana or you turn of the skill)
Pulverise-Improved Greater Stomp + has a chance of instantly kill targets
Deadly Claws- Improved Fury swipes + cripples the targets making them do less damage

These would all be the dragons basics skills having nothing to do with their element and so forth. I would imagine you would have to buy upgrades for the nest to be able to evolve your dragon. Mabye dragons can only heal and gain mana at their nest. After some upgrade you can buy a priest unit that is able to heal the dragon. Well now my brainstorming is over.

Well again this is up to experience, not time. Although it's a good idea of you can reduce em with 5 lvls. People rarely get to lvl 30.

For one you can change experience and stuff I just put those for example to show how each time they get stronger they require more exp to surpass their current level. This would be up to time. It will take time to level it up and stuff. Plus you can make them gain so much exp each day so if you are to scared to use them directly in battle they could still level up. Plus I am not saying give them much exp from killing just a little so if you risk his life you get better faster than if you just wait.

These examples are nice, dunno if there will be enough models for all these though.

Btw i know got a plan: you find the dragon's egg somewhere specific on the map.
Like, Ice dragon's egg will be around the peak of the tallest mountain, Black dragon is in the sludge's giant swamp.

And maybe if noone gets them before an hour has passed, they spawn for neutral hostile.

No Dj!!
The mothers guard them. Or just one. A Red Dragon Mother guards 2 eggs or 3 dunno, it has to be balanced after all.
You gotta kill her (probably gonna need snipah teams for that) and steal the eggs that she drops with your hero. You put em somewhere (they get the model of zerg egg things, y'know) and you gotta wait or do sthg for them to hatch etc.

Basically, you mean it has to require a fight? or is it more about the dragon mother theme?

Both you need to fight for it and you can make it realistic
Or you can put the eggs there and the mother walking around them for even more realistic.
But this way someone can steal an egg which would be mega kool but still unfair for a fool who tries to kill the op dragon.
And maybe you gotta do just that. Steal the eggs or kill the dragon. And the mother is the strongest thing in the game. Even your babies can't get as strong as her, they'll be just Dragons (not elder dragons)

We'll see... i don't want RD to become a "dragon quest" so it's all gonna be about pulling it off correctly.

Lolz I doubt I'll waste army for the dragons anyway. xD