Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown Dev Blog: Expanding and Defending Your Borders
People of Nysamor,
Following on from our successful publishing announcement and trailer launch at Gamescom 2023, our team has been hard at work giving players new ways to stake their claim over hard-fought territory, be it through diplomacy or by the sword.
Make sure to check out our recent Dev Update Stream where we covered Expanding and Defending Your Borders in greater detail
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AI TOWNS
Our Strategic Map is filled with provinces ready to be claimed, or already inhabited by AI or human players. Given combat and alliances are key pillars of Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown, having rich interactions with AI Players has been high on the agenda for the development team.
A zoomed out shot of the Strategic Map, with all of the provinces and Wyrmaxan kingdom on display. n.b. some names are placeholder (looking at you Tacotown)To that end, players can now have both friendly and hostile interactions with AI towns. Conducting trade and fulfilling town requests can strengthen the bonds between your kingdom and native Nysians, while those looking to instill fear and sow discord can attack neighboring towns and make demands.
Trading and Requests
Players looking to establish new friendships throughout Nysamor can examine the Strategic Map to locate nearby AI towns. By selecting a town on the map, players can gain insight into its current status. This includes its alignment (neutral/Wyrmaxan, Benevolent, Tyrannical), allies, needs (requests), and available resources.
In order to trade with and fulfill requests from these towns, players must make good use of their caravan. The caravan’s Trade Menu is used for buying and selling, as well as exchanging requested goods. Engaging in trade and fulfilling requests will increase the player’s standing with these towns, becoming allies, and strengthening trade relations.
Attacking and Making Demands
Formations allow for greater tactical flexibility and improved survivability.If striking up friendships sounds a little too wholesome for you, violence and intimidation are also an option. Players can bring their units to selected towns and Declare War to begin their attack. Players will need to come prepared with a variety of formations and troop types to break through defenses and exert their will on their fellow Nysians. Once a town has been brought to its knees, it will Surrender, and the player must then decide how to claim their victory. They can demand tribute (coins), demand resources, switch a town’s alignment, or even raze it to the ground. While AI towns will reset after a few days when their demands or alignment have been adjusted, towns that are destroyed will be gone forever…
MILITARY UPDATES: WALLS AND RATIONS
Of course, attacking is only one part of the equation. Players will also need to be careful to not overextend themselves or neglect critical defense infrastructure lest they be conquered themselves.
Manning walls is a great way of galvanizing your defences.Players can now construct and utilize walls to defend their kingdom. These walls provide great protection for those dwelling within them. Their effectiveness can be increased through the addition of corner ladder pieces, which will allow troops (swordsmen and archers) to be assigned to patrol them.
Rations have also been introduced, and are essential to a military’s endurance and strength. Players must ensure their units are within the radius of a caravan or barracks to keep their rations full. Each unit, regardless of type, can carry up to three rations at a time. This ensures that troops not located near a caravan or barracks can still engage in battle with full health and heal, but it is always wise to keep a caravan nearby to ensure that these units can be well maintained.
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Look out for our next Developer Update in the coming weeks as we push towards Early Access in 2024. Make sure to join our Discord and learn the details for our upcoming Playtest if you’d like to check out all these features for yourself!
Until we next meet…
Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown is available to Wishlist on Steam now!
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