Diplomacy is Not an Option News

The sea monster was exceptionally curious but very inexperienced. An excusable thing to say about the being that only lived in the world for the fourth day. Natural curiosity and youthful merriment caused the beast a lot of trouble. Just imagine: who would want to swim in a race against a fifty-foot monster with the appropriate breadth of the maw? Of course, no one would. Don't even try to convince some coralfish, that it's not going to be your prey. In truth, coral fishes don't work for sea monsters nor as a snack, nor as an appetizer. But fishes are mostly dim-witted and taciturn creatures. Perhaps that is why the monster could not make friends with them.
Having seen him, squids were letting out ink, disappearing in an unknown direction. Sharks were scurrying away and whales were rushing to the surface. In general, everyone was scattering from him. Which made Monster feel lonely all the time. And quite often, hungry. So hungry, in fact, that he almost always had a nasty feeling in his stomach. This, however, had no effect on his character. Despite the troubles, Monster remained optimistic, humble, and well-mannered.
On the fourth day of his life, Monster swam the familiar route, at a depth of about twelve feet, hoping to reap couple or three cheeky hogfishes, which recently made hunting near the coral reef a trend for themselves. The sun was pleasantly warm on Monster's back, the water was clearer than Inverland moonshine, and the beast was in a good mood. He was already anticipating his next treat. If it could drool, it would drool. But it could not, so it only squinted reverie.
Suddenly the sun stopped warming its back. "A cloud and nothing more," Monster decided. It would have swum on, but then a sound it had never heard before caught its attention. A low rumbling or creaking sound. The beast lifted its eyelids.
Right above him, a large and very strange fish was floating and casting a shadow, barely touching Monster's dorsal ridge with its belly. The beast became curious, so it moved up and followed the fish. The fish did not react in any way. More sounds were added to this creaking and humming. Somewhat of the roll call of dolphins, coming from the part of the fish that was above the surface of the water.
"Maybe we can be friends?" - Monster thought. And licked the fish in greeting. Its belly was in a state of disrepair - all covered with barnacles, crustaceans, and algae. It tasted disgusting. And there was disgusting slime on the tongue. "How can you be so filthy?" - Sea Monster grimaced. Suddenly something pricked him at the very ear. It didn't really hurt. More like made Sea Monster a bit sad. But How would you feel in his shoes? Just when you started getting to know someone, you got pricked in return. The beast knew that some fish were defending themselves that way. He also knew that some of them were electrocuted. But to do it like this, cheekily and without a real cause?
"What an impolite fish," the beast decided and was about to dive deeper when something pricked him again, at the other ear. The sounds similar to the roll call of dolphins became louder. Then a third prick followed. This, the third one, really pissed Sea Monster off, because the needle of some kind (now the beast saw what it was pricked by) hit it right next to its eye. "That's it, you asked for it," Monster finally lost his temper

Guys, thank you very much for taking part in the drawing contest! We were very pleased to see such an activity of yours. You've sent us your creations on different social networks, so to pick a winner was not an easy task. However, it's time to share the results with you:

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I will send the key to each winner. Thank you for being with us!

Guys, we need to know your opinion. A few days ago we released the December update. And would like to get feedback. We are especially interested in your opinion on the late game in Endless Mode. How many days did you last? Were you able to fight the reinforced waves of enemies? Did the new infinite sources of Stone and Iron help you? Maybe you have some wishes or ideas? Please, specify which maps you are talking about.

Diplomacy is Not an Option has been in Early Access since February 2022. In other words, almost a year. During this time we've gathered a lot of stories about the development of the game. About the difficulties we encountered. About how our plans were revised. Today we will share a couple of such stories with you.

[h2]Mountains (and their refreshed models)[/h2]

Of course, everyone has seen mountains in our game. But what stands behind them? Visually, when creating mountain models, we relied on a number of principles: readability of resources (?deposits?), simplicity of form - the model should not be overloaded with details, "picturesqueness" - actually the way these mountains look on the map and how their different models fit together and suit the environment.
All of the above define the amount of work that needs to be done to make the mountain models. Or in our case, to redo them.
Over the past year, we have made several attempts. The first was in spring. At that time we tried to assemble models from prefabs (a kind of template). The process was long, with lots of torment and created versions included. But in the end, based on your feedback, we decided to focus on improving the game mechanics. Visual adjustments could have waited at that point.
We came back to the issue only in autumn. This time with a brand new approach. Mountains were to be made not by artists, but... by programmers. We hoped to come up with an algorithm for mountain generation that would solve the problem once and for all. For both, the existing biomes and those yet to be created. However, having again wasted a lot of time, we didn't get a truly satisfying result.
At the end of autumn were looking for prefabs. Again. And who might have thought - it worked! In fact, you can now see the result in Diplomacy is Not an Option's current build.
What does this mean for us in practice? Firstly, it means that we are good enough to achieve our goal. But in the other hand, it means that it will now take a lot longer to create a new biome. After all, each biome needs its own hand-assembled mountain models.

[h2]About the front line[/h2]

Surely you know that troops and buildings have attributes. You can even see them - attack, defense, health (durability), etc. However, there are also hidden properties that remain unseen for players.
For example, the mass of a troop. Or there are 10 or so other attributes that affect how different game entities interact in space, such as how much space each unit takes and how they behave when they face each other or enemies.
Depending on how you adjust these settings, their behavior can vary. For example, a heavy Trebuchet moves a light swordsman when it moves. Knights can hold the ground in battle without falling back against the enemy. It's these parameters that make it easy for cavalry units to run through enemy crowds where archers get bogged down.
During one of the experiments on the unit collision model, some of the settings accidentally "leaked" into the main version of the game. This led us to watch in amazement as the enemy squeezed through the front line, pushing the player's troop formation backward. Playing with these settings was not exactly fun, but we actually enjoyed the visual effect. So we came up with adding one more parameter - the coefficient regulating the force of squeezing. We adjusted it so that melee units would hold their position better than ranged ones.
What does that mean in practice for you? During battles against numerically superior opponents, the front line shifts back, which makes the game look more realistic. However, this improvement appeared in the game because of a leak of experimental hidden parameters. With their subsequent refinement.

This concludes the telling of 'fun facts' from the history of DiNaO development. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much for being with us! Good luck in all your endeavors in 2023!

See you soon!
Yours, Door 407 team.

"With this underdo... I beg you pardon, 'Master Alchemist'?" - Mrak set the wine in front of his guest and leaned against the wall. The Ambassador's sense of smell was sharper than Garben's, and she immediately set the goblet aside. - "I haven't yet decided. But we have a... situation here. On the one hand, he should be sent quietly to the rack."
"Mmmmmmmm," Count firmly disagreed.
"On the other hand, if you and I are to talk about business, he is a third wheel," Mrak thought out loud, "By the way, I can deal with him not worse than the Inverland Executioner."
"Mmmmmmmmm," Parabalsamico protested even more loudly.
"Still, I have some doubts," Mrak suddenly fell silent, as he had no intention of informing Ambassador of the Count's 'key to the tricky cipher', "I may yet need him," the Garben concluded.
"Mmmmmm," the Count nodded, emphasizing his willingness to cooperate with the Spymaster.
"Do you have any water, Ser Garben?" Ambassador asked, "I'm not quite in the mood for wine tonight." Mrak looked around. Water, as well as food, was stored on the ground floor of the cottage on the moors. There was also her majesty's cloak and Lord Nero's gift scabbard. And a lot of other stuff that would be better to keep off Aida Saigaqh, the Gorgoth Empire's representative in Samreignia. "Should have bought a house with a cellar. Putting a torture chamber on the second floor was a bad idea!" - Mrak scolded himself. He would have looked from prisoner to door and back again for a long time if not for Ambassador.
"Ser Garben, I can go down for water myself..." - Saigaqh suggested. "The damned Gorgothian witch is reading my mind," thought Mrak obligingly smiling.
"You need not trouble yourself, Mistress Ambassador. I'll bring you whatever you want. Appreciate it if you'd read out the full list, though. So I don't have to leave you and my prisoner again"
"Chocolate," Aida nodded, "I would very much like chocolate." "So off you go to your beloved Za'Thras," Garben wanted to reply. But, of course, he knew the importance of etiquette.
"I'm afraid I don't have any," he lied.
"Indeed, Ser Graben?" - Aida pulled out a hairpin and put it on the table, "From what I know, your men requisitioned a cargo bound for Abberlore from Za'Thras," She parted her hair, "Are you trying to convince me that you've consumed all eight kilos of excellent Gorgothian chocolate in just two days?"
"I know nothing of the requisition. But I'll take a look through my private stock," Mrak grudgingly muttered and left the room, leaving the door open.
"Mmmmmmm?" - The Count pleaded.
"Silence!" - shouted Garben from the first floor.
When Mrak returned to the second floor a few minutes later with a mug of water and a slice of excellent Gorgothian chocolate, he caught the following picture. Parabalsamico, still gagged was standing by the window and trying to untie the knot in the rope binding his legs. Madam Ambassador was lying on the floor, apparently stunned. Or even worse.
Parabalsamico's eyes bulged with horror. Without hesitation he leaped through the window, ramming the glass with his head. Garben heard a distinctive crack and splash of water - it was the sound of Count's landing in the frozen swamp. Mrak wanted to rush after him. But before he did, he noticed that the ropes left by Parabalsamico near the fireplace were on fire. When he sorted that problem out and went in pursuit, Aida Saigaqh regained consciousness. She moved her leg so unluckily that the head of the Inverland spies sprawled out on the floor beside her. Outside the window, the Earl was flopping swiftly down the pathю The moment was gone as well as the prisoner. Mrak had no choice but to cheer himself up by the fact that he had after all regained her majesty's cloak (one unit) and the gift scabbard (one unit). "May the dragon devour him, choke with him, spit him out and devour him again!" - This time Garben did not hesitate to speak rudely in the presence of the noble lady.
Mrak could not get out from Aida what had happened while he was gone for water and chocolate. She was vague and confused, constantly clutching at the back of her head and complaining of a headache. When it came to business, however, she showed impressive poise and sobriety of thought.
At first, Garben thought he would be asked to "find" the cargo, which was "mistakenly" considered requisitioned. But matters were far more serious. According to Madame Ambassador, it was time to review the state borders of the Gorgoth Empire, Inverland, and Samreignia. The Emperor, she said, was tired of wasting money on maintaining the defenses of New Hardarm. He even agreed to hand it over to Inverland in the nearest future. Furthermore, the Gorgoth raids on the northern frontiers of her majesty's lands would also cease. For all these things to become reality Ser Garben just had to go along and accept Madame Ambassador's offer. Mrak, of course, asked if the Emperor was in good mental health and if his highness' appetite was alright. For returning all his hard-won gains to Inverland so easily didn't match up with the Emperor's former intentions. It turned out that the Emperor's mind was doing just fine. As well as his appetite. Because in exchange for his generosity he wanted to grab both, Cutthroat Castle and Aetherford.
"How's he going to do that? Last time I checked Gorgoth Empire had a peace treaty with Samreignia. As for Cutthroats and Aetherford they are under the protectorate of Samreignia" - Mrak inquired.
"I have a couple of ideas," Aida replied and took a bite of chocolate.

The event, which remains in Samreignia's history as the "Swamp Meeting," passed quickly and without significant bartering. Ambassador Saigaqh took her hairpin from the table, went down to the street, saddled her horse, and let it trot in the direction of Abberlore.
She was exceptionally pleased with the evening. Confused by this Parabalsamico, Ser Garben hadn't even noticed that the Gorgoth Empire was putting all the dirty work on him. If anything went wrong - the culprit could easily be handed over to Ferdinand II as a gift. Cutting Count's bonds was also easier than she had expected - a miniature dagger disguised as a hairpin was more than enough for this task. In addition, she took possession of Master Physalis' map. King Ferdinand II, with whom Aida has scheduled an audience in two months, was addicted to booze, gambling, feminine beauty and ...freebies.