The Nemesis Party - How *best* to be a calamity to the player?

So, on Sara the Shieldmage, one of the things I've been working on a lot recently is something called the "Nemesis Party" system. Pretty much, instead of forcing players to read the drivel I would write, I'm instead writing an AI that runs a series of characters who are pretty much the evil twins to the player-ran party, to make each player have a different, and hopefully memorable experience.

The thing is, Sara the Shieldmage has sort of gravitated towards a strategy game expressed by Eastern RPG mechanics. While I've had the battle system figured out for a while now, where I'm having a moment of un-clarity is the out-of-battle actions of the Nemesis party.

The "strategy game" bit of Sara the Shieldmage comes from completing quests for a nation state, in order to curry favor with them, and shut down the operations of the other party (given that I'm using Eastern RPG mechanics to express the game, I'm sure that's not such a shocker; the basic unit of action in an RPG, regardless of geography, is the quest.) There are interactions between the player party and the Nemesis party as described below that accomplish these goals.

More specifically, the player party's goal is to destroy two of three Citadel Shields, and defeat the other faction's leader before he can do something the whole world will regret; the Nemesis party's goal is to delay everyone else until that can happen.

The actions that the Nemesis party can take are:

1. Move to a new city state (takes a moderate amount of time. Causes "Agents" that the player party recruits in city-states to be made aware of where the Nemesis party is. This step cannot be prevented, even if you're on the world map standing directly between the two cities; they're undermining you, possibly literally.)
2. Quest in their current city state (takes a short amount of time; on completion, lowers the player's rep in that city state. "Agents" are made aware of what the Nemesis party is up to. Nemesis party questing does not interfere with quests that the player-ran party can take in a given city state, unless the player's rep drops low enough. If the player becomes "Allied" with a city state, the highest possible association rating, the Nemesis Quest phase in that city is guaranteed to fail, because the people will dislike them enough to not offer any quests. As a result, this step cannot be interrupted by attacking the Nemesis directly.)
3. Lie about their current activity, to throw the player party off their scent. (Takes a short amount of time to do. The lie always expires in a "moderate" amount of time. Players have a similar mechanic available through "Agents", which may cause the Nemesis to "rethink" their plan, but not in a beneficial way.)
4. Explore a mini-dungeon, in pursuit of the bit of loot in it (Takes a long amount of time. If the Nemesis succeeds, that party gains a boost to their power; subsequently the player-ran party can't claim whatever that dungeon's penultimate item is. For the duration of this step, the Nemesis party can be encountered in whatever the minidungeon is; defeating them causes them to fail this step.)
5. Attack the player party directly, by coming to where they are and starting a fight. (Takes a moderate amount of time to realize. Can cause you to game over and restart from your last save. Upon realizing this step, the Nemesis will bar the entrance/exit(s) to whatever map the player is on to precipitate the battle.)
6. Repair a Citadel Shield that the player party has previously wrecked (Takes a long amount of time. The player party has to down at least two of three of the Citadel Shields to enter the final dungeon. This step cannot be interrupted; the Citadel Shield that they're repairing will be walled off due to their repairs.)

This is tailored to mirror the player party's capabilites in the game. That being said, the point of the Nemesis is to lose in a way that's entertaining to the player, but also to pose a reasonable threat to the player's operations.

My question is, have I missed any interactions in this model that can cause the Nemesis to be a threat to the player that is present enough to have the player always be keeping in their calculations? If so, what are those interactions?

 

I like that. It's all about the experience.

Could the Nemesis do anything to cause strife within the player's party, such as sowing distrust, or luring away a party member?

 

Actually an idea I had was to make some companions "contestible" - if the Nemesis starts on a quest that will gain one of those contestibles, you better disrupt them, fast.

Would that satisfy the "character-to-character" hook you're describing, or would it be better to have some sort of "interparty morale" system as well?

 

I like your quest idea. Morale/influence systems can be tricky to pull off; they tempt to the player to try to game the numbers rather than getting into the story.