Diplomacy is Not an Option News

Good Lords, fair ladies!

A quick announcement, if you please. This week, April 10th-17th, 2023, Diplomacy is Not an Option is 20% off. If you missed previous sales, now is a great opportunity to make up for that and buy our game at a lower price.

Moving on to other news. More precisely, we continue our story about the upcoming Spring update. Today it's high time to talk about traps.

Once you've built Town Hall III, you'll be able to place in your enemies' path Barrel mines. As the name hints, these are Barrels containing explosives. The most "smart" medieval weapon you can ever imagine. Absolutely invisible to the enemy and equipped with the "friend-or-foe" recognition system. Your troops and civilians can walk on these barrels freely. But once an enemy steps on the mine, it will explode. The short damage radius is compensated by the impressive damage rate.


The second level of the Town Hall unlocks the Slowing trap. Basically, these are stakes sticking out of the ground that reduce the enemy's movement speed. While enemies are trying to make their way through a Slowing trap, it slowly loses durability. Sooner or later, the trap will break. Unfortunately, these stakes cannot be repaired.


The new Pipes inside walls research gives all your stone fortifications the Boiling oil perk. The skill is passive and has a cooldown. Portions of boiling oil will be poured on the heads of enemies attacking your stone fortifications, dealing a lot of damage to enemies right under the pipe and a little less to enemies nearby.


That's all we wanted to tell you about for now. Thank you very much for your attention. See you next time!

Yours, the Door 407 dev team

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Good Lords, fair Ladies!

With this post, we're starting to reveal details on the upcoming Spring update. And today we'll tell you about the abilities of cavalry units that will arrive in the game in the very near future. To unlock and/or improve them, you've got to build Stables II and do some research.

Firstly, Horsemen are getting 'Equine health' passive skill, increasing their regeneration speed. It also reduces the interval between the time Horseman receives damage and the moment when the regeneration starts.

We've suspected that our game lacks Rambo vibes. So in the Spring update, Diplomacy is Not an Option will get... exploding arrows. They will come with the active skill of Horse archers. The damage area is small, but the blast ignores any kind of resistance: no enemy armor is able to reduce the damage received this way.


Mounted knights are getting the 'Horse dose' skill which greatly increases their movement speed. There is, however, a but. Activation of this skill damages Mounted knight. No worries, it's not that he could die from it. The worst that may happen is the Mounted knight's health reduced to 1.


We've got more things to tell you. Stay tuned, fresh details on the Spring update won't be long in coming.

Thank you for your time. See you soon!

Yours, the Door 407 team

Good Lords, fair Ladies!

Today we have tremendous news!
The time has come. Your longing and devotion are about to be rewarded. We're finally ready to announce when Diplomacy is Not an Option is leaving Early Access! Let's celebrate this with a new dead serious trailer. The answer to the question of when awaits you there.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

But we've got more. Remember us saying that there will be no major updates? Well, we were wrong. It's going to happen very soon!

Wait for a while, please. This spring, in our game:

• Sandbox Mode. Want to decide who and when will attack your settlement? Go ahead, this mode is right for you. Experiment and create without limits!
  
• Traps. Use land mines to blow up your enemies, stake and spray boiling oil on them.
  
• Expanded Research tree.
  
• Enemies who know how to infiltrate your settlement through the Gates (well, if the Gates are open).
  

Thank you very much for your attention, see you soon!

Yours, the Door 407 dev team.

Good Lords, fair Ladies!

Today we continue the story of making the cutscenes in Diplomacy is Not an Option.

Last time we stopped at the concept art stage. Allow us to proceed, shall we?

The task of the concept artist is to make the first impression of the character's look and to make him fit the script. For example, if the character is physically weak, but the script requires him to carry a weapon, it is necessary to understand what kind of weapon he can use - definitely not a heavy two-handed sword. It is also important to take into account the accordance of the drawings to the DiNaO world. If we're introducing a rebellious peasant in the cutscene, he should look about the same as he does in the game itself.

Concept art is not only about the characters, but also about the environment. At this stage artists also draw the details to help the Player to understand where the action takes place. The artists, with the writer's assistance, decide, for instance, what paintings hang on the wall in the Lord's chambers and what color the tablecloth in the King's throne room is.



When the concept art phase is passed, the modeling of the characters and environment begins. And don't forget about animation either. Thanks to the sketches, the technical requirements for each character's model are clear to the people in charge. For example, our Lord always sits with his back to the camera. Which means he doesn't have to walk around and wave his arms around. In addition, this means that the main detailing of his image falls precisely on the mantle, the back of the crown, and his haircut.



Each scene is created by hand, and most of all it resembles a movie shoot. Once the "pavilion" is set, whether it's the Lord's chambers or the ocean shore, the lights are adjusted, angles are selected, and characters are arranged. When the shooting is done - we get the same clip that you see in the game. With one slight difference. There are no text lines in the filmed and rendered cutscenes.

As you know, our game has no voiceover. The characters talk to each other via text bubbles, just like they do in comics. The next task is to place the desired lines in the cutscene editor and set their duration and timing. The only difficulty we may encounter at this stage is the difference in the number of characters and the duration of the phrase that may show up in the translation. The default version is the English text version, but often it happened that even the English lines had to be slightly changed to make the meaning of the texts remained consistent in all languages.

In conclusion, we'd like to say that the making of the game is a collective creative process. Not all of the solutions that look good on paper can be transferred to the sketch language. And not everything that looks cartoony works as well for the low-polygon graphics and slowed-down manner of in-game cutscenes. At each stage, something adds, something disappears.

We hope you enjoyed the story. Thank you very much for your attention.

Yours, the Door 407 dev team

Good Lords, fair Ladies!


Once again we decided to share with you some details of how we create Diplomacy is Not an Option. Let's talk about the cutscenes that you can watch at the beginning and end of the campaign missions.

Like a lot of things in collective creation, it all starts with writing the script. However, there are many "buts" to consider. In the case of DiNaO, the script may be subject to adjustments, for example, if we realize the difficulties of implementing a certain victory condition. Or, when a game designer gets an idea on how to make a mission more interesting. Information about an upcoming or completed mission (and the mission itself) is also a part of the narrative. Accordingly, changes in the mission lead to a rewriting of the cutscene script.

But let's stick to the main topic, shall we? The mission settings are approved and the script is written, presenting both, the general storyline and the compositional properties of each cutscene. Now it's time to make some sketches.



Why do we need these silly cartoons, you may ask? Here comes the answer. Artists do the modeling and draw the environments. With these sketches, it will be easier for them to understand the characters, the composition, and most importantly - the timing (for example, how many seconds the characters look at each other in prostration). Before starting to "shoot" cutscenes, a spreadsheet is also made. Based on the sketches, this table reflects the times and durations of the characters' lines. At the sketch stage, we also cut off excessive script details. The cartoon author has to ease the task for artists. Sometimes the same joke can be shown more simply with the help of the language of the visualization. So many of the minor details from the literary version of the script meant to create a mood or add piquancy may be changed.

Finally, the artists step in. This is the most time-consuming and labor-intensive stage. First of all, it is necessary to create the concepts of the characters. Let's say without spoilers, most of the characters in the cutscenes are the same. However, some of them make their appearance in the game once or twice. And they should be modeled with the same neatness as the main characters.



And this is where we stop for today. Rest assured we'll continue to talk about the making of cutscenes a bit later.

Yours the Door 407 dev team.