November Review
A bit of a smaller update this time. As expected, things are unfortunately going a bit slowly right now. What I'm presently building also doesn't translate well into update posts just yet; hopefully more on that next time.
In a few previous posts I wrote about vassal interactions. There is an entire system for meeting with others in your kingdom. One major goal I have is to ensure that the other characters in the realm aren't just amorphous, interchangeable entities. To that end I actually expanded the taking counsel part of the feast I wrote about last time. Those at the high table can give you advice: some of it is generic based on their traits, some of it is specific based on things that are going on in the realm.
I reworked some of the random events at feasts to show vassal personalities as well.
And, as always, there are some continuation events. This one is rather rare and based on some literature written in the same time period as the game. Kudos to those that recognize it!
I recently read some online discussion about the topic of "too much information" in strategy games. Specifically the idea was put forth that having exact numbers and percentages turns a lot of things into spreadsheet management. I'm not sure I'd quite go that far, but deciding to obscure information to some degree was a decision I took very early in the development of the game.
I've written previously about era-appropriate fog of war. Additionally, I don't say exactly what happens when you make a choice before you make it, but, as seen in most of these update posts, risky choices tend to get marked with redder letters. As yet another example, under the hood all traits and skills are integers. All relationship values are numbers too, though not necessarily integers. However you can only gain a general sense of these when looking at someone's "character sheet."
Moreover outside of your kingdom and its immediate English neighbors, only very high level information is available about other realms. If you've noticed, there aren't even hard internal border lines drawn within Wales, as the exact political conditions there weren't especially clear to the Anglo-Normans.
I certainly understand why some games do provide very clear information about everything. However I'm trying to take a somewhat different tack here. For a game like DGR I think it will work well, even if it might not in other strategy games.
I'm not ready to set a date, but I am very motivated to see this finished. One of the major blockers is courtship and family events. I put these off for some time so that I could have more entry points to their sections, especially for courtship. In the same vein as the above section, I don't want marriages to happen by pressing a button and searching a database of women. At this point I think I have enough of those entry points in place.
If health holds, I expect to have some things to write about on that topic next month.
Feasts part 2
In a few previous posts I wrote about vassal interactions. There is an entire system for meeting with others in your kingdom. One major goal I have is to ensure that the other characters in the realm aren't just amorphous, interchangeable entities. To that end I actually expanded the taking counsel part of the feast I wrote about last time. Those at the high table can give you advice: some of it is generic based on their traits, some of it is specific based on things that are going on in the realm.
I reworked some of the random events at feasts to show vassal personalities as well.
And, as always, there are some continuation events. This one is rather rare and based on some literature written in the same time period as the game. Kudos to those that recognize it!
Information obfuscation
I recently read some online discussion about the topic of "too much information" in strategy games. Specifically the idea was put forth that having exact numbers and percentages turns a lot of things into spreadsheet management. I'm not sure I'd quite go that far, but deciding to obscure information to some degree was a decision I took very early in the development of the game.
I've written previously about era-appropriate fog of war. Additionally, I don't say exactly what happens when you make a choice before you make it, but, as seen in most of these update posts, risky choices tend to get marked with redder letters. As yet another example, under the hood all traits and skills are integers. All relationship values are numbers too, though not necessarily integers. However you can only gain a general sense of these when looking at someone's "character sheet."
Moreover outside of your kingdom and its immediate English neighbors, only very high level information is available about other realms. If you've noticed, there aren't even hard internal border lines drawn within Wales, as the exact political conditions there weren't especially clear to the Anglo-Normans.
I certainly understand why some games do provide very clear information about everything. However I'm trying to take a somewhat different tack here. For a game like DGR I think it will work well, even if it might not in other strategy games.
What's next
I'm not ready to set a date, but I am very motivated to see this finished. One of the major blockers is courtship and family events. I put these off for some time so that I could have more entry points to their sections, especially for courtship. In the same vein as the above section, I don't want marriages to happen by pressing a button and searching a database of women. At this point I think I have enough of those entry points in place.
If health holds, I expect to have some things to write about on that topic next month.