July Report
The first Saturday of the month has arrived, so let's look back on what happened in the previous month. It's a fair bit this time, so let's get to it!
As expected, much work was done on random events based on faction scores. I briefly touched on those last month. These events are caused by large factions in the realm, visible at all times on the scroll at the left of the screen. Sometimes they have disputes among themselves. Others times they directly petition for something from the crown. When things go badly, they can go very badly, like the noble rebellion I posted last month. Not all of these can eventually lead to a game over, but most can. It is not wise to antagonize one group too much.
It's not all bad though. Now and again, if they really like you, a faction can grant you a boon. These favors are sometimes rather powerful.
Quite a lot of these events have been created, but more are still required.
A lot of the work in preparing these faction-based random events is in creating effects and interactions. Among other things, this finally prompted me to code the legal system. Some of the things that are requested are laws benefiting a faction or reducing royal power. As you pass these, you might find your capacity to do things (at least without tyranny) wanes.
Other legal restrictions can be forced on you from outside. For example if you annoy the Church too much, the realm might be placed under interdict.
There are ways to revoke these decrees. If a faction likes you enough, it may decide it trusts you enough to no longer need a previous law, for example. It is a topic for another day, but with all this in place, I can build the Magnum Concilium feature to interact with the legal system. More on that another time though!
I made some improvements to the visuals. First, I found myself often losing track of characters. Which William was my friend, which Edouard was my enemy? Now relations information is communicated via color: redder colors are enemies, bluer colors are friends.
You might have noticed, but there are new page textures as well. The previous one was fine, but always looked to me more like paper than vellum. Additionally, there are now several similar-yet-distinct page sets for increased visual variety.
I also introduced a very subtle jitter in the text. There are occasional deviations in spacing and weight on letters. Even professional medieval scribes didn't make perfect, mechanical letters every single time, after all. Here's an event with a lot of text. You may or may not notice examples at normal scale, but you can definitely notice it zoomed. In this way, it is like the minor randomness in the rubrications.
Finishing this faction and law stuff! After that, I'll see what's left to do before starting testing. I don't think much remains to be done at that point.
More next time!
Faction-based random events
As expected, much work was done on random events based on faction scores. I briefly touched on those last month. These events are caused by large factions in the realm, visible at all times on the scroll at the left of the screen. Sometimes they have disputes among themselves. Others times they directly petition for something from the crown. When things go badly, they can go very badly, like the noble rebellion I posted last month. Not all of these can eventually lead to a game over, but most can. It is not wise to antagonize one group too much.
It's not all bad though. Now and again, if they really like you, a faction can grant you a boon. These favors are sometimes rather powerful.
Quite a lot of these events have been created, but more are still required.
Legal effects
A lot of the work in preparing these faction-based random events is in creating effects and interactions. Among other things, this finally prompted me to code the legal system. Some of the things that are requested are laws benefiting a faction or reducing royal power. As you pass these, you might find your capacity to do things (at least without tyranny) wanes.
Other legal restrictions can be forced on you from outside. For example if you annoy the Church too much, the realm might be placed under interdict.
There are ways to revoke these decrees. If a faction likes you enough, it may decide it trusts you enough to no longer need a previous law, for example. It is a topic for another day, but with all this in place, I can build the Magnum Concilium feature to interact with the legal system. More on that another time though!
Visuals
I made some improvements to the visuals. First, I found myself often losing track of characters. Which William was my friend, which Edouard was my enemy? Now relations information is communicated via color: redder colors are enemies, bluer colors are friends.
You might have noticed, but there are new page textures as well. The previous one was fine, but always looked to me more like paper than vellum. Additionally, there are now several similar-yet-distinct page sets for increased visual variety.
I also introduced a very subtle jitter in the text. There are occasional deviations in spacing and weight on letters. Even professional medieval scribes didn't make perfect, mechanical letters every single time, after all. Here's an event with a lot of text. You may or may not notice examples at normal scale, but you can definitely notice it zoomed. In this way, it is like the minor randomness in the rubrications.
What's next
Finishing this faction and law stuff! After that, I'll see what's left to do before starting testing. I don't think much remains to be done at that point.
More next time!