Heart Of Muriet News

Progress update - Part 1 - UI and Game Improvements

[h3]Hey there,[/h3][p][/p][p]Sorry for the long silence. There have been massive improvements on the game since the last update. It would be too much content to fit them all into one post. This one will focus on UI and overall game improvements.[/p][p][/p][p]Please note that I conducted internal playtests via our discord and decided to move an official playtest to a later date.[/p][p][/p][p]The content editor has been expanded to cover all game data entry. This is helping to get new content into the game much faster.[/p][p][/p]

[p]Improved Research, Building, Building Upgrade, Unit, Projectile, Spell and Weapon Data Editor.[/p]
[p]Added and refined Aura, Bags, Tool, Shield and Armour Data Editor.[/p][p]Added and refined Loot, Traps, Special Ability, Battle Stance, Spell Effect and Budget Data Editor.[/p]
[p]Added and refined AI Personality, Wizard Skills, Skill Trees, Traits and Events Data Editor.[/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][p]
[/p][h3]General[/h3]

[p] Improved mini-map UI province selection.[/p]
[p] Resource tooltip now shows current gold price for all sell-able goods.[/p]
[p] All UI widgets now fade in and out to prevent flickering.[/p]
[p] Some UI widgets automatically adjust to the size of the information.[/p]
[p] Improved Save UI and Skirmish UI by showing date and time on save games.[/p]
[p] Improved the Pause UI with clearer button names, added a "Quit to desktop" button, and removed unnecessary text.[/p]
[p]Removed all the dynamically scaling UI elements in the scene which did obstruct gameplay sometimes.[/p]
[p]UI looks a lot crisper as I got rid of a separate UI camera and only using overlay UI.[/p]

[p]Additional 3D elements inside the UI only use render textures, so I can control their post processing in a separate way.[/p]

[p]Escape key is now consistently used as a player would expect. E.g using Escape key now closes all open windows before going into pause menu. [/p]
[p]Improved the formatting and look of all tooltips.[/p]
[p]Added a morale tooltip which tracks the last 8 changes of morale of a unit. This way player can finally find out why their troops high or low morale.[/p]
[p]Added several new tooltips for wizard traits, skills, spell effects and more which I will talk about in one of the upcoming posts.[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[h3]Progress Bars[/h3][p][/p]

[p]Added gradient shaders for applicable progress bar like tax and rations and also improved their overall look.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Province UI[/h3]

[p]Province UI is has improved significantly as player can now activate the tab they want to get information on.[/p]
[p]Added a worker prioritisation UI. It enables the player to change priorities of all worker task via drag & drop.[/p]
[p]Once a priority changes all workers get their job cancelled and get assigned new jobs. [/p]
[p]Priority settings can be reset to default with a button and copied to all other provinces in the empire.[/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][p] [/p][p][/p][h3]Marketplace[/h3]

[p]Integrated marketplace UI into empire UI and reworked the layout as more space is available. [/p]
[p]Buying and selling buttons now have proper sound effects.[/p]

[p] [/p][p][/p][h3]Placement of Buildings[/h3][p][/p][p]More detailed feedback is now provided when buildings cannot be placed at the current position and the preview movement is now a lot smoother than before. [/p][p][/p]

[p]Integrated Place Building UI into the empire UI, which again gives a lot more space to the UI.[/p]
[p]Building, Building Upgrade and Unit tooltips show the amount of resources missing.[/p]
[p]Place Building UI now shows missing resources.[/p]
[p]Detailed information is provided on why something cannot be placed at the current position: e.g. Placing Crop fields shows how many cycles it takes to earn any food from them.[/p]
[p]The movement of the object preview is a lot smoother.[/p]

[p][/p][p] [/p][p] [/p][p] [/p][p][/p][h3]Army Tents and Guard Houses[/h3][p][/p]

[p]Improved UI for Army Tents, as a lot more units have been added to the game and the UI had to be adjusted.[/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][p][/p]

[p]Army Tents can now be replaced with Guard Houses once research. They have a lot more protection and upgrades available. [/p]
[p]Added field hospital, field blacksmith, additional armour and defence upgrades to the Guard House.[/p]
[p]Removed the guarding option as the benefits were minor and the feature was complicated.[/p]

[p][/p][p]
[/p]

[p]Double clicking on a squad brings up the new UI to look at the basic squad stats. Very detailed information about the squad can be accessed with another click on the extend info button. This works also for enemy squads.[/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h3]Tutorial UI [/h3]

[p]Tutorial text has been replaced with short video tutorials.[/p]
[p]All tutorial steps are now handled by the quest system.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]The improved Battle UI[/h3]

[p]The battle UI has been integrated into the Empire UI so a lot more space is available to show all the info at the same time without the need to press buttons.[/p][p][/p]

[p] [/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]The improved Send UI[/h3]

[p]The improved send feature solves a long-standing issue, as many players had problems figuring out how to send troops.[/p]
[p]Troops can be sent by clicking on a target province.[/p]
[p]Buttons are shown next to the province UI when selected. The buttons show options to explore, reinforce, conquer, etc.[/p]
[p]The possible provinces from which players can send troops are put into a drop-down in the send squads UI dialogue.[/p]
[p]The send dialog automatically looks for the closest province to send the troops from.[/p]
[p]Provinces that are missing certain troop types, e.g. exploration/combat, are filtered out automatically.[/p]
[p]The old send method is still in place and has also been improved, e.g. showing on screen errors when no troops are available so players understand why the dialog is not opening.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Spell Indicator Improvements [/h3][p][/p]

[p]The spell projector had to be reworked to show any info why a spell can't be cast on a certain target or position also including the name of the current selected spell.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h3]General[/h3]

[p]Player borders look significantly better due to adjusted texture generation.[/p]
[p]Removed unnecessary flags from provinces without buildings.[/p]
[p]Realm books can now spawn randomly as loot.[/p]
[p]Army tents can no longer be moved to better align with the current game mechanics.[/p]
[p]Added a Hamlet founding festival bonus lasting 8 cycles, adding 4% happiness per cycle, to prevent immediate revolts when founding new hamlets.[/p]
[p]Added a capital flag to the first created hamlet to prevent revolts; this flag can be moved to other hamlets later.[/p]
[p]Scouts exploring bases now spawn loot upon full exploration, primarily gold and research points.[/p]
[p]Changed resource points colour to differentiate from mana resource colour.[/p]
[p]Wizards now receive experience points only when active.[/p]
[p]Significant performance improvement by removing unnecessary code from fog of war asset updates.[/p]
[p]Adjusted safety calculation curve for better scaling with higher population values.[/p]
[p]Reduced militia curve ratio to prevent excessive unit creation at higher population levels.[/p]
[p]Improved calculation for research points. draft point and populations using proper logarithmic algorithm to make end game more interesting.[/p]
[p]Worker now have different mining speeds for stone, ore, mana and gold. The speed roughly matches the starting gold values of each resource.[/p]
[p]Damaged residential buildings decrease happiness of the population. The more damage the more happiness is lost per cycle.[/p]
[p]Switched to Unity 6.x which brought massive performance improvements. [/p]
[p]The exploration features has been completely reworked. This will be covered in one of the upcoming post, as it counts as a new feature now.[/p][p][/p]

[h3]Power Source Changes[/h3]

[p]They have a maximum power pool which can deplete.[/p]
[p]The power pool is required for very specific spells and to replenish the power of the Wizard.[/p]
[p]They regenerate power when depleted automatically. Once in regeneration mode, they don't replenish any power for the wizard and cannot be used for spells.[/p]
[p]Regeneration and replenish mode have different particle effects.[/p]
[p]Added a power health bar to the building UI, showing how much power is left in the pool.[/p]
[p]Power sources get a lot more important with higher level spell casting.[/p]
[p]Spells have been added which require a certain power source to be available in the cast area.[/p]
[p]Updated the building tooltip to reflect all the changes.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][h3]Trees and nature props[/h3]

[p]Improved how trees are planted using a min and max height for terrains like grassland, ridges and mountains.[/p]
[p]Trees have a growth rate and a yield value, which defines how much wood a certain tree type supplies (including its size).[/p]
[p]Some trees can be planted in multiple heights while others are bound to lower or higher ones.[/p]
[p]Some trees can drop mana when chopped down.[/p]

[p]All new tree data can now be manipulated by nature realm spells and passive policy research.[/p]
[p]All nature props (stones, bushes ,trees etc.) got a new beauty modifier. The size and the modifier decides how much it contributes to the province nature beauty.[/p]
[p]Trees and bushes can burn down but there are trees which are immune to fire and others which have a higher resistance to it. [/p]

[p][/p][h3]Stealth Gameplay[/h3]

[p] Added new shaders to fade in/out units when in stealth which is need for stealth attacks, spying and exploration.[/p]
[p] Stealth mode squads are shown less transparent. [/p]
[p] Enemy units in stealth mode are invisible to other players.[/p]
[p] Reworked squad overhead UI to hide squad icons for stealth enemy units.[/p]
[p] Improved unit shaders for better compatibility with instancing when using different glossiness and metallic values.[/p]
[p]Added a spell which hides units before entering the enemy province. [/p]
[p]Invisible attackers will only be revealed if a stealth check fails (depending on the province perception) or they start to attack buildings/units.[/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][h3]Province Neighbour Safety Changes[/h3][p][/p][p]Neighbour Safety calculation has been revised for provinces. The neighbouring provinces now have significant effect on the safety of a province:[/p][p][/p]

[p] Unexplored neighbour provinces have a slight negative safety rating.[/p]
[p] Explored provinces without troops provide positive safety ratings.[/p]
[p] Explored provinces with troops may have negative ratings depending on troop size.[/p]
[p] Owned provinces now provide significantly higher safety ratings.[/p]
[p] Provinces without neighbours are treated as if adjacent to owned provinces.[/p]
[p] Note: Troop count updates need adjustment to only update when the spy feature is in.
[/p]

[h3]Population Happiness[/h3]

[p]Happiness only increase to the point where it reaches the beauty or safety state. [/p]
[p]To get to higher happiness states it's now necessary to further improve safety and beauty as well as a lot other thing like [/p]
- [p]Tax and Food Rations [/p]
- [p]Prevent fire and damaged buildings [/p]
- [p]Explore neighbouring provinces and conquer them. [/p]
- [p]Always pay your up keep costs.[/p]
- [p]Have enough space available and more.[/p]
[p][/p]
[p]When lower or higher happiness state are reached then a mood change kick in which neuters some of the positive (on higher states) or negative (on lower states) effects.[/p]

[p] [/p][p][/p][h3]Better Collision Meshes[/h3][p][/p][p]Complex building structures required better collision meshes. I've reworked all building colliders for better collision accuracy. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3][/h3][h3]Building foundations[/h3]

[p]Buildings could not be placed on rugged/uneven terrain, which wasn't very player friendly.[/p]
[p]Each building got it's own foundation as sizes of buildings vary.[/p]
[p]The foundations have special render settings to prevent any z-fighting.[/p]
[p]The foundation are placed into the terrain and have a seamless look.[/p]
[p]They are only used if the terrain isn't flat.[/p]
[p]Very steep terrain is still not allowed for most buildings.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Load / Save[/h3]

[p]Loading saved games while playing a skirmish map.[/p]
[p]Improved Quick Load/Save system with cycle-numbered save files.[/p]
[p]Added ability to load any save game directly from Pause Menu UI.[/p]
[p]Added auto-save options configurable in the settings menu.[/p]
[p]Added confirmation requests for overwriting or deleting files.[/p]
[p]Damage over Time for units is now included in the save.[/p]
[p]Spells which take a few seconds, are now saved via a spell container.[/p]
[p]Forest fires are now properly saved and loaded.[/p]
[p]Saves which are not compatible with the game version will not be shown in the loading screen anymore. [/p]
[p]The map editor loads levels in fast mode if the saves are compatible.[/p][p][/p]

[h3]Graphics Settings[/h3]

[p]Reworked the graphics settings so FSR3 can be correctly configured and detected.[/p]
[p]Added compute shader check for FSR3 compatibility.[/p]
[p]Reworked refresh rate settings as it can only be changed in exclusive full screen mode.[/p]
[p]Reworked brightness settings as it has to be executed after post processing.[/p]
[p]Added proper V-Sync and target frame rate configurations for more options and to match monitor refresh rates.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Here is comparison of Unity's Temporal Anti-aliasing (left) vs "FSR3 NativeAA" (right). The effect is visible even on the screenshot. It is a lot more visible moving the camera around. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Gameplay Settings[/h3]

[p]Added a setting to allow/disallow mouse border panning.,[/p]
[p]Added a setting to set the message severity. Messages below the severity are written into the message log, but will not appear on screen, nor trigger a sound.[/p]
[p]Added auto pausing when an attack happens[/p]
[p]Added the possibility to switch of spell effects for provinces.[/p]
[p]Added option to auto pause game when it looses focus.[/p]
[p]Added auto saving option.[/p][p][/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]The next post will be about the development of the AI player. [/p][p]Thanks for reading.

New playtest coming soon.

[h3]Hey,

More progress has been made in the last 4 months. The new playtest and demo are getting closer.[/h3]

Only units with exploration speed can now be sent to an unexplored province. For now, that is the scout squad.
Once the scouts reach the new territory they go into stealth mode. Their walk speed is greatly reduced.
A multi-threaded algorithm gets the best exploration points on the province which are currently not explored.
Each squad in the scouting formation gets one of the exploration positions and starts sneaking towards it.
Once a scout squad reaches its assigned exploration position, the exploration % increases.
If no valid exploration points are found, the exploration is concluded and the province is fully revealed.
The exploration can be more time-consuming with different terrain, a lot of forest etc.
Sending more scouts will speed up the exploration but will make detection more likely.
Once the province has been fully explored, a message is generated, a revealing sound is played and the player can send other units.
The send dialogue and the formation UI have been adjusted accordingly.
If multiple formations of scouts are sent to the same province they are automatically merged into one formation as it would be very ineffective and confusing for the player to have multiple scouting formations in the same province.
A message is sent to the player if the scouts have been detected and started fleeing.
If several players explore the same province, they might detect each other. The detector can keep scouting, the other scouts will flee.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Scout formations automatically flee when their stealth is broken during the exploration.
The bigger the formation of scouts, the higher the detection probability, as each scout has to make a successful stealth check every game tick.
Stealth units (like scouts) can now be detected by the buildings and stationed units depending on their perception attribute.
Each building and unit type now has a stealth and a perception attribute.
Added the new parameters exploration speed, stealth and perception to unit/building tooltips and made icons for them.
If a scout stands inside a forest, the stealth value is increased during stealth.

Added all animations and icons for the scout.
Added several research options for armour, daggers and the special ability back-stab.
Back-stab can only be executed from behind and is a guaranteed critical hit with up to 300% more damage.
Added a position requirement for special abilities to make sure e.g. a back-stab is only used when the enemy is attacked from behind.

Added all apprentice animations and icons.
Added a special arcane spell similar to the arcane missile for the apprentice as its standard spell.
Apprentices have a weak magic shield from the start, 4 units are in a formation.
Added Apprentice Fireball, Ice Sphere and Poison Missile upgrades (Epic) which can be researched depending on the magic realm books available.
Added the special ability Magic Protection (Rare) which buffs the unit with some protection against realm magics like fire, water etc.
The apprentice is the first unit using ranged spells, more units like this will be added over time.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The temples will get a random aura when spawning.
Fire and Nature temples have a chance to drop realm books when destroyed.
Arcane and Water temples will be added soon.

This is probably one of the most important features for this update as it helps to make tooltips smaller and gives the player a lot more information on buildings, units, spells, research etc. I took a lot of inspiration from Crusader Kings III, as I liked the tooltip system.

Better positioning of tooltips
Tooltip manager which can trigger a multitude of tooltips over another.
Tooltips will trigger with a configurable delay. (Gameplay settings)
Tooltips which will lock after a configurable amount of time. (Gameplay settings)
Tooltips slightly changing their frame when locked, also progress when the tooltip locks. (Gameplay settings)
Tooltips which can be locked via a configurable key press instead of time. (Gameplay settings)
Locked tooltips can be hovered over and trigger another tooltip.
Tooltip triggers via marked words or text.
Fading out below tooltips, when a hovering level of x is reached.
Most of the tooltips will show less info, but hovering over icons/words will reveal more details.
Rework and improvements of all tooltip types in terms of layout and readability.
A more reliable DPS calculation for tooltips including mods, critical hit chances etc.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The Empire UI supports navigation by double-clicking on an entry; the camera will jump to the position of the object.
This is especially useful for squads which are inside tents, which can't be easily selected via mouse.
Reworked Research Selection UI and added it to the Empire UI
Added wizard character UI to empire overview
Provinces, Buildings, Resources, Squads, and Formations are listed in the new menus giving the player a much better overview of their empire.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

To make sure the borders look good, I decided to go with decals.
Created a texture generator which generates all 64 possible hex borders as texture masks.
Added a decal to all provinces to show the border when necessary applying the mask depending on neighbors' owner.
Borders are updated for the provinces and all neighbours when the owner changes.
Improved the look of the selection decals.
Replaced the hex grid drawing with decals.

Squads/units can now be selected and a squad UI appears, which shows similar information as a squad tooltip.
The squad UI now has an additional button to disband the squad.
Disbanding will show a requester and tell the player how much of the resources they will get back when disbanding the unit. Currently 30%.

Added an epic research "Magitech Siege Mastery" to unlock the special ability "Spellstorm Bolt".
Once unlocked the ballista receives a StormboltUpgrade behavior.
The behavior is triggered every x seconds shooting a bolt causing an Arcane explosion anytime the bolt hits something, doing additional splash damage.
Added a ballista projectile and several icons for siege armour, damage, arcane bolts etc.

Added a legendary research "Volatile Siege Engine Alchemy" to unlock the special ability "Firestorm Finale".
The research needs a certain amount of fire realm books to get unlocked.
Once unlocked the ram receives an ExplodeOnDeath behavior.
The behaviour is triggered as soon as the hit points are below a certain threshold.
The explosion can trigger burn DoTs and start forest fires.
The explosion hits all enemy targets in a certain radius but spares allied units.

Added an epic research "Burst-Fire Mechanics" to unlock the special ability "Scatter Shot".
Once unlocked the catapult receives a ScatterShot behavior.
The behaviour is triggered every x seconds and shoots multiple stone fragments at a target within a specified radius.
The positions are calculated with a "Poisson Disk Sampling" algorithm to make sure they are evenly scattered.
Added an icon as well as 4 different stone fragment projectiles which are used randomly.

Added an epic research "Lethal Precision Mastery" to unlock the special ability "Precision Shot".
Once unlocked the archer receives a PrecisionShot behavior.
The behaviour is triggered every x seconds and increases the critical hit chance to 100% doing 200%-300% extra damage, depending on the currently researched bow.
Added an icon for the precision shot skill.

Added an epic research "Advanced Defensive Posturing" to unlock the special ability "Iron Stance".
Once unlocked the pikes receive an IronStance behavior.
The behaviour is triggered every x seconds increasing the melee and projectile protection for the shield by 300% lasting for y seconds.

The map was created in less than two days. However, adding and testing quests took a bit more time.
The new map features swamp, desert and ice biomes, which are currently achieved using mainly decals and specific props; this will change once more map tiles are added.
It has 144 provinces to conquer and can host up to 4 AI players, which are placed randomly.
Playtime for several hours.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The new AI is currently in development.
As the old design wasn't as complex and demanding as the new design is, I decided to work with a different approach.
I am using a framework called Fluid Hierarchical Task Network (HTN), which enables tree-like planning structures for complex decisions.
The old budget system has been adjusted to work with all the new resources.
I have also incorporated a fuzzy logic library to create linguistic variables for scoring certain decisions, e.g., which building to pick, which unit to train etc.
Budget system, HTN domains and decision scoring work well together, as the budget system constrains the AI to certain goals, the HTN makes the plan and the decision scoring leads to more interesting AI behaviour as the values are influenced by personality data definitions.

Reference

Added Faster Tree Chopping upgrade (Rare) which increases the wood chopping speed but decreases the tree yield.
Added Efficient Tree Chopping upgrade (Rare) which increases the tree yield but decreases wood chopping speed.
Both upgrades can be researched and are mutually exclusive.
When trees are chopped, tree decals are automatically removed.
When trees grow after planting, tree decals are automatically added depending on the density of the forest.
The navigation mesh is updated when a certain number of trees have been chopped or grown back.
Added a multi-threaded "Poisson Disc" sampling algorithm to plant trees for better tree distribution.

Added a vegetable garden (adds X amount of food per cycle) upgrade for large residential houses (Uncommon)
Added beauty upgrade to all residential houses (Epic)
Added population space upgrades to all residential houses. (Epic)
Added research options for all upgrades.

Additional training slots (Uncommon) upgrade is now available for Town Hall when researched.
Added a Town Hall Community guard upgrade (Epic) which increases the militia ratio for the hamlet, but reduces the hamlet's population space bonus.
Added a Town Hall Population Efficiency upgrade (Epic) which increases Hamlet's population space bonus but reduces the militia ratio.
Added additional training queue upgrade (Legendary).
Added research options for all upgrades.
The Town Hall can recruit scouts for exploration. No research is necessary.

Added Overflow trading upgrade (Legendary) which automatically sells harvested food (only at the province of the marketplace), which does not fit into the food storage.
Added Efficient Trading upgrade (Uncommon) increasing the gold income of the market
Trading and overflow trading income is shown in the gold resource tooltip.
Added research options for both upgrades.
Introduced a global resource market which controls the prices for all player marketplaces.
Selling and buying resources now adjust the buy and sell prices no matter if the AI or the player makes a transaction on the market.
Adjusting means buying increases prices, and selling decreases prices. There is a minimum and maximum price.
Selling and buying comes with a 30% tax. The tax can be reduced by research options.
Resource exchange rates are persisted when the game is saved.
Added persistent statistics of how much a player is buying and selling resources.
Added quest types for selling and buying resources.

Generates a small amount of research points.
Armor for all units can be repaired immediately by spending resources. Armour repairs cost ore and wood.
Upgrade Iron Anvil (Uncommon) - Armor repairs are 50% cheaper.
Upgrade Hotter Furnace (Rare) - Research points are increased by 50%.
Upgrade Magic Forge (Epic) - Add a fire aura damage effect to all melee units in the province. The effect wears off after a certain amount of time when leaving the province.
Each of the upgrades has to be researched first.

Generates a small amount of research points.
Increases the overall beauty of all buildings in a province. (Standard aura)
Upgrade Aura: Optimize Storage Space (Uncommon): Increases the amount of storage space for mills, food silos etc. decreasing the beauty of all affected buildings.
Upgrade Architecture Research (Rare): Increases the research points by a certain amount.
Upgrade Aura: Optimize Living Space (Epic): Increases the amount of population space, and decreases the beauty of all affected buildings slightly.
Upgrade Aura: Optimize Beauty (Legendary): Increase the beauty of all buildings of a province, reducing either storage or population space accordingly.
Added new icons for auras and upgrades.
Added a building category to aura data to filter special types of effects to certain building categories.

Static building auras can now also handle guarding squads.
Added Small Tavern upgrade (Common) which slightly improves the morale of all squads in the province.
Added Reinforced Walls upgrade (Uncommon) which adds decent armor to the building.
Added Deadly Spikes upgrade (Uncommon) which hits enemies attacking the building with melee weapons.
Added Magic Wards upgrade (Rare) which gives guarding units decent magic protection.
Added all research options and made new icons for all upgrades.

Generates a small amount of research points.
Added vegetable garden upgrade which generates food (in spring and summer, as soon as seasons are in).
Added greenhouse upgrade which generates food all year round.
Added library upgrades which increase the number of research points generated.
Added the corresponding research options.
The missing units for the monastery (Warrior Monk, Shaolin Monk etc.) will be added before the EA release.

Building auras can now also affect units/buildings inside an influence or sight radius of a building independent from the province the building is on.
Watch Towers have a physical defence aura, protecting all units in its sight range.
Add Watch Tower upgrade Reinforced Walls (Uncommon) - Adds armour plating to the tower.
Add Watch Tower upgrade Hawk's Gaze (Rare) - Increases the sight range of the upgraded tower
Add Watch Tower upgrade Warden's Bastion (Epic) - Increases the physical damage output for all units in the sight radius of the building.

Added Wind-Lance Extension upgrade (Rare) - Increases the range of the ballista arrows.
Added Arrow-Storm Winches upgrade (Epic) - Decreases the load time for ballista arrows.
Added Steel-clad Bulwark upgrade (Legendary) - Adds excellent armour plating.
Added research options for all the upgrades.

Added Expanded Archer Platform upgrade (Common) - Increases the amount of arrows shot from the tower.
Added Eldritch Range Expansion upgrade (Uncommon) - Increase the range of the arrow shot from the tower.
Added Ironbark Battlements upgrade (Epic) - Provides a decent armour plating for the building.
Added Fire/Ice/Poison Arrow upgrade (Epic) - Improves the projectile shot from the tower.
Added research options for all the upgrades.

Added "Power Experiments" upgrade - Converts research points to wizard's magic power.
Added "Extended Laboratory" upgrade - Increases the research point output.
Added corresponding research, buffs, behaviours and icons for new upgrades.

Previously the whole rectangle of tiles were blocked, this has now been optimized.
This was especially important for big rotated props (map editor) and buildings.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Reworked the UI to make space for more tabs.
Added headers to sort options properly.
Added the first gameplay options.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Improved the research selection algorithm as this is needed for certain building upgrades (blacksmith, architect etc.)
Added global probability table for research categories and subcategories.
Probabilities can change via building upgrades and additional research.
Research selection now works with probabilities for categories and subcategories.
Research options for building upgrades only appear if the building is available in the empire.
Added about 150 additional research options.
Renamed most of the old research options to fit the new design.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Add player messages for quest solved, quest solved with reward and quest failed.
Added a scroll view to the Quest UI, so that it can handle a large number of quests.
Quest UI: now shows the number of solved quests in one item, clicking on it will open the quest details UI with all solved quests.
Quest details UI: solved quests are filtered out, but can be viewed with an on/off toggle.
Added new quest types to introduce new game mechanics: Searching ruins, founding hamlets, population size, population happiness, province beauty and safety, exploration, picking up loot, realm books, temples/shrines - auras, troop morale, food production and more.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Bases are now called Provinces.
Provinces have a beauty ranking, depending on the "theme" of the province.
The following themes have been introduced: Hamlet (Roads), Desert, Swamp, Ice, Forest, Grassland, Ridge, Mountain, Mountain Path, Mountain Forest, Mountain Desert, Mountain Ice, Coast, Ocean. More might be added later.
The calculation of themes uses navigation data and height to identify, which theme the province has.
The nature calculation has changed; only 75% of the area needs to be covered with props to have 100% beauty.
Themes add or remove additional beauty: E.g., a swamp reduces the beauty by 50%, a grassland increases it by 25% etc.
This change makes it more interesting to find provinces where a hamlet should be built.
Separated navigation area costs and theme travelling costs for units. Crossing a swamp-themed province is now less likely if there is a better way, for example.
Added a new navigation layer for mountain ramps.
All units can walk those ramps, just a little slower than normal terrain.
No buildings or resources can be placed on those ramps neither in the editor nor in the game.
Road decals now change the navigation mesh and add a road navigation layer which is faster to travel on for all ground units.
Swamp decals now change the navigation mesh to add a swamp navigation layer, which increases the travel time.

Improved performance by around 20%.
My rig is old: 2060 RTX + I7-6700k CPU with 4GHz, game runs above 60fps most of the time.
Optimized how decals are pre-culled and drawn.
Optimized the layers used in post-processing effects.
Removed a lot of unneeded lights from the scene.

Hamlets now generate a certain amount of research points depending on the size of the population.
Hamlet's name will not change the name of the province as this could lead to problems for quests.
Adjusted several UIs to show the hamlet name instead of the province name if there is one available.
Wizards generate a certain amount of research points now, but only when they are active.
Resource Tooltip now shows where the research points are generated (Wizard, Hamlets, Buildings)
Added research points as a stat to the wizard selection UI and wizard character UI.
Improved how research data checks if unlocked/affected data types exist while adding them.
Removed decimal places for gains in player resources UI for better readability.
Building UI now shows upgrade icons with a tooltip trigger to display the corresponding upgrade tooltip.
Enchantment/Curses data can now have a modifier for each effect, so they are a lot more flexible.
Removed buff displays from the small tent squad info as they are now shown in the tooltip.
Node attributes for arcane, fire, water and nature magic resistance are now working as intended.
Added a bunch of new console commands for better debugging.

Province layouts can now save all objects at a province including props.
Props are not spawned on water or over buildings, resources or other props.
Loading a layout checks if a building can be spawned in terms of constraints, e.g., provinces can only have one market, army tent etc.
Loading a layout removes props around buildings and resources.
Improved how props, which block buildings and resources, calculate their blocking cells.
Improved the look of map details dialogue.
Reworked how the player editor is displayed, as it took up too much space in the map editor.
Reworked the map settings dialogue and gave it a bit more space.
Map settings dialogue can now be moved out of the way for even more space when editing the map.
Now allowing up to 7 players, 1 human player, 1 neutral player and 5 AIs.
All hexagons now have the same size no matter what map size.
Map sizes small, medium, large and huge have been adjusted - 6x6, 9x9, 12x12, 15x15 hex cells.
Adjusted camera settings to new map sizes.
Adjusted province border, frame and selection sizes.
Hexagon cells are now slightly bigger, and can now fit more buildings.
Improved hex grid/cell settings to make testing of map sizes faster.
Prop placing randomly scales and rotates the selected prop after placing, enter key resets to defaults.
Provinces would not show the correct beauty and safety when adding or removing props. This can now be fixed by running a navigation update.

The content editor helps me to improve data entry for buildings, units, spells, research, building upgrades, buffs, weapons, projectiles, shields, worker tools, bags etc.
Data entries can be copied, renamed, or removed and it also provides a far better edit experience, improving the speed at which I can add content to the game.

Basic AI.

Decent AI.
Reworking all old spells and adding 20-30 new spells.
Preparing Localization.

[h3]Missing features for the demo - In a few months[/h3]

Official Steam Demo.
Random map generation.
Localization in 8 languages.

Seasons, a variety of crop fields, pests, droughts.
Seasons influence province temperature and population growth.
More Spells and research options.
A bunch of new units and buildings.
NPC hideouts and gates.
Hamlets can annex bordering provinces.
More shrines and temples.
Configurable key shortcuts.
More localized languages.
Polish and bugfixes.

Thanks for reading

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1368160/Heart_Of_Muriet/

Six month of progress - second edition!

Hey all!

The new playtest should have gone live ages ago, unfortunately, I am a slow poke or I just blame that I am working solo on the project. ːsteammockingː It just takes a lot of effort to make a switch to a new design mid-development I guess. ːsteamsadː

[h2] New Voxel Importer[/h2]
I implemented a new voxel importer, which can handle animations inside models. This was not possible before. All the animations of multiple units can now live in a single Vox file. Finally, the model names are now converted correctly from Magica Voxel to Unity, which is a great help.

It was quite a big unplanned task, but in light of needing to add more units in the future, it was a decent decision to invest the time.

[h2]Better dev console[/h2]
I wrote a better developer console, which has more flexibility. It eases debugging and improves the speed of testing the game.

[h2] UI redesign, tooltips[/h2]

Improved the look of the UI.
Removed a lot of clutter and made it more readable.
Removed any overhead UI from objects as it was not consistent with the rest of the UI.
Reworked most of the tooltips and added new tooltips for hamlets, equipment, special attacks, battle stances and more etc.

[h2] Planting and growing trees[/h2]
Once a forester is placed and built, the player can choose between planting and chopping trees.
Don't forget that chopping down trees will make your base look awful. Your local population might hate this.

Foliage is moving in the wind again. This feature got lost over several unity updates and changes. Fortunately, it's back now.

[h2]Alchemist Building Changes[/h2]

The alchemist has been reworked to fit the new design. It is an important building for bases focussing on mining or crop fields. Alchemists are not very popular among the population as they drain the beauty of bases significantly. More upgrades for certain magic realms, like monster creation, are coming.

Adds research points to the player every game tick.
Has a negative morale modifier for the base it lives.
Only one alchemist building per base is allowed.
Converts Mana to Gold.
Upgrade to improve Mana to Gold Conversion.
Upgrade to convert Ore to Gold.
Upgrade to improve Ore to Gold Conversion.
Upgrade to improve the fertility of a base by sacrificing some of the base's beauty.
Upgrade to improve the mining of a base by sacrificing some of the base beauty.

[h2]Hamlet Feature[/h2]
The hamlet is an undertaking and still needs more work. A few features are missing, like the annexation of surrounding land and the upgrading process to towns and cities.

Clicking on a base will show the Hamlet UI if a town hall is available.
Hamlets can only be created on bases with a decent population.
Hamlets can be named, taxes can be adjusted, the population space increases and the population happiness improves.
Taxes influence population happiness, depending on the political research and the current state of the empire.
Hamlets can annex directly neighbouring bases and cannot be found next to each other. (Planned)
Hamlets have either the status loyal or revolting. Revolting means that it has a chance to convert to neutral depending on different factors.
Revolting hamlets can mainly occur due to a mad population or enemy wizard spells.
Depending on the size of the population, militia squads are automatically recruited.
Militia units cannot be controlled by the player. They will fight only in the interest of Hamlet's population.
Militia gets automatically added to the build queue of town halls, depending on the size of the population.
When the players remove the added militia units from the training queue, the population happiness decreases significantly.
Added gold building upkeep label to hamlet UI.
When the town hall gets destroyed, Hamlet will disband shortly afterwards. The UI shows a timer when the hamlet disbands.
When a hamlet disbands, the remaining population not fitting in residential houses is now distributed to the rest of the empire bases.
When a hamlet with an ongoing revolt disbands, the revolt calms down.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Hamlet revolts and militia squads[/h2]
Hamlet Revolt happens when your population gets mad for a long time. Successful revolts can lead to independent bases.

Hamlets get into a revolting state when the population is mad for a certain amount of time and with a certain chance.
The militia training increases (currently doubles) if enough resources are available.
The player has no access to training queues of any building in the hamlet.
The player cannot destroy any buildings.
The player cannot place any military building.
The population immigration to the hamlet stops.
All militia squads convert to a neutral AI and attack stationed military units and buildings.
If no defensive buildings or units are at the base, the militia will change the hamlet to a neutral/independent state over time.
Revolt has a minimum time. Once it starts, it takes at least a certain amount of time to end.
The revolt ends when no militia is left or the population gets happier.
During a revolt, the Militia is trained using the Hamlet draft resource. The draft is calculated by the available population and a special revolt multiplier. A 50% revolt multiplier and 100 population means that 50 "draft" resources are available for the revolt.
If a militia costs 5 "draft" the hamlet trains up to 10 militia with a maximum of 5 militias parallel due to population limits.
After a revolt the happiness of the population is reset to calm. A cooldown is set to make sure to prevent a chain of revolts.
The tax slider is not enabled during a revolt. No taxes are paid to the empire.
During a revolt all troops will leave the reserve tent.
Workers cannot moved from the base during a revolt.
Workers cannot sent to a revolting hamlet and don't get attacked.
Workers can build buildings during a revolt to improve the beauty of the base.
Placing of civilian buildings is allowed during a revolt, but military buildings are not.
A revolt tooltip describes all consequences of the current revolt.
The militia trained during a revolt reduces the population. The amount is defined by the militia unit draft cost.
The Hamlet UI shows if a revolt happens after a certain amount of game cycles.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Population and resource upkeep[/h2]
Finally the population and the buildings are now connected to the resource upkeep.

Missing upkeep for buildings is now damaging buildings over time.
Missing upkeep (food) for the population is decreasing happiness over time, growth rate and immigration are reduced to 0.
Longer food shortages can lead to a starving population.
Missing upkeep (gold) for Hamlet's administration decreases the population's happiness over time.
Added population and hamlet upkeep to tooltips.
Hamlet's upkeep drops to 0 during a revolt, though food upkeep for the population stays the same.
Population starvation: immigration and growth of the population stopped for the whole empire.
Once a certain threshold is reached, parts of the population will die from starvation each update cycle.
The starvation status is shown in the population tooltip.
Taxes influence the happiness of the population. This incorporates the hamlet tax and its expenses for troops and buildings as well as the overall income and upkeep of the empire.
Taxes which are too low (upkeep is higher than income) or too high (income is a lot higher than upkeep) will affect happiness.
Indicators showing if the population mood is going up or down at several places in the UI.
The node info tooltip shows why the population mood changes in detail.

[h2]Research[/h2]
The research system has been reworked and is now similar to the one in Stellaris. The player gets 3 - 4 random research options. Each research has a rarity. Epic and legendary research options are harder to get and cost more research points.

Research points are generated by different buildings like Alchemist, Wizard Laboratory, Blacksmith, Architect and others.
Each wizard has a different amount of research points it generates.
The more research points are generated, the faster the research is done.
Research points are not collectable as they only apply when a research is active.
Research can stop and resume anytime.

During the upcoming playtest, I will collect feedback and see how it affects gameplay and fun. The idea of the change was to make every playthrough a bit more interesting, as it's not possible to use the same build multiple times.

[h2] Worker Assignment[/h2]

Removed the overhead assignment worker UI and integrated it into the building UI.
Automatically assigned workers are also shown below the auto-assign slider.
When the manual assignment is activated, each worker can get assigned to a building or job.
This will enable worker specialization in the future e.g. farmers, tree planters.
Switching between auto and manual assigning does leave the workers in place as far as possible.
Buildings which have workers assigned and get damaged are now repaired by the already assigned workers.
Workers who get into a specific state like burn/freeze or pushback now stop their work animation correctly.
Workers whose jobs get reset while manually assigned (due to different circumstances) get reassigned after a short period.
Killed workers get automatically removed from manually assigned jobs.
Destroyed job objects like resources, buildings or units, get their manually assigned workers removed automatically.

[h2]Magic Realms and the spell system[/h2]
Magic schools are now called magic realms. Wizards cannot level up in a realm like before. They need to collect realm books to learn more spells from a realm.

The balance sheet shows how realm books affect the number of spells a wizard can learn. This idea is borrowed from the wonderful game Master of Magic.

Here is an example of the Nature Realm and all the spells it includes.

Spells have a rarity and can be researched.
Spellbooks can be found in loot.
Scrolls can be found in loot and used even though the spell has not been researched before.
Realm books are integrated into the loot system.
Chests can contain realm books.
All realm books have a legendary rarity.

[h2]Wizard Selection[/h2]
Players can select a wizard at the start of the game. Currently, six different wizards are available. More wizards will be added after the EA launch.

Checkout the video below:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Additional features like selectable traits, a broader selection of spells and realm books are planned. Selected magic realms might exclude each other, like Water and Fire, Nature and Arcane as soon as more realms are added to the game.

[h2]Wizard Character UI and levelling[/h2]

The Empire UI now has a wizard button to open the wizard character UI. The character UI shows the wizard and its attributes, skills and learned spells.

A wizard can now earn experience points and level up. Experience Points are now given to the wizard for the following activities:

Automatically.
Casting a spell (with a cooldown, to prevent spamming).
Conquering a base.
Winning a battle.
Placing buildings.
Recruiting units.
Researching spells.
During incarnation.
Creating a hamlet.
Solving quests.

The following wizard modifications can be raised during a level-up:

Power Costs
Casting Range
Area Of Effect
Projectile Speed
Incarnation Upkeep Costs
Damage
Healing
Enchantment Duration
Curse Duration

[h2]Forest Fires rework[/h2]

Forest fires spreading is less likely now - this might change for games with a higher difficulty.
When a tree burns, the fire ramps up and then slowly reduces the size of the tree while the fire stays at a specific scale.
The navigation mesh is updated once a part of the forest fire is extinguished, otherwise performance hits would be too significant.
All fire settings are configurable and can be adjusted with specific difficulty modifiers.
When growing trees are burning, growth will stop.
When the burning has stopped, and the tree hasn't burned, it will grow back to a normal size again.
When a fire is extinguished with a spell, the area is calculated more generously than when starting a fire.
Some projectiles (ice sphere) can now stop a fire at a grid position it's shot at.

[h3]More changes for forest fires coming with seasons: [/h3]

Worker will automatically extinguish fires.
Rainy weather will also stop the fire.
Scorched earth decals will be placed underneath fires and vanish over time once the fire is out.
Fires close to buildings will reduce the health of buildings.
Fire can burn down crops and destroy crop fields completely.
Seasons: In the winter season fires are very unlikely. In the summer season a lot more likely.

[h2] Scrolls[/h2]
Scrolls can be found in loot drops or inside treasure chests and are one-time usage spells. Scrolls don't have any realm book requirements.

[h2]Message UI[/h2]
The message UI has been completely changed and is looking like this:

Messages get sorted into a category.
Once right-clicked on, the player can dismiss it.
Left-clicking opening the message text again and jumping to the location of the event.
Up to 512 Messages will be saved in a history log and can be accessed via the Empire UI.
Critical Messages will open a message dialogue right away. This will be configurable in the settings later.

Here is a small video showing off the features.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Strategy UI removed[/h2]
The strategy UI is gone, and there are currently four different attack types when sending troops to enemy territory.

[h3]Conquering:[/h3]
The army will attack all military buildings and units and try to conquer the base. Economic buildings don't need to get destroyed to conquer bases.

[h3]Resource Raid:[/h3]
The army will try to raid as many resources as possible from economic building. The raid loot will be dropped into chests when the raid is successful.

At the beginning of a raid, a resource pool is calculated, depending on the player's resources and the buildings and resource nodes at the base.
Raiders will only attack economy buildings, and when a building gets to 50% health or below, each hit from a melee unit will steal resources instead of doing any damage.
Siege weapons and any ranged units will stop attacking once the building reaches 50% health, as only melee units can raid.
The remaining health of the building is used as a resource pool. Each time the building is raided it's reduced.
Depending on the number of units, the raiding formation can only carry a certain amount of resources.
If the whole formation gets destroyed during a raid, the stolen resources will spawn as loot at the last valid position.
Once the formation dissolves at its home base, the resources will drop as loot. Players will get a message about the successful raid.
It might be interesting to add a well-armoured wagon unit, which could increase the number of resources a formation can carry. This role is currently taken by the ram unit, due to its big carry capacity.
After a raid, buildings get a visible raid cooldown and cannot be raided until the cooldown wears off.

Here is a video of a raid. The feature is still in development:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Economy Attack:[/h3]
The army will destroy the economic infrastructure of the base, leaving military buildings alone and focusing on civilian buildings. Once the troops achieve it's, goal they will leave the base.

[h3]Military Attack:[/h3]
The army will destroy the defence and military buildings of the base, leaving economic buildings alone. Once the troops achieve their goal, they will leave the base.

[h2]Battle UI[/h2]
While reworking the attack strategy, I realized that it's sometimes hard to follow a battle. That is why the new UI was introduced.

It shows the enemy units, destroyed/lost gold values and the morale and health of the attacking or defending squads. The updating health bar of attackers and defenders also helps to understand how well or poorly the battle is going.

For attacking armies, the option to merge formations or command them to flee altogether was added, as well as buttons to incarnate a wizard to a selected formation or stop the incarnation.

[h2]Battle Stances[/h2]
Battle stances are an alpha feature, which means they might disappear again if they don't add enough fun to the game. They can influence the following attributes of your formations/base defending army and can be changed in the battle UI.

Attack speed of melee weapons.
Attack speed of ranged weapons.
Casting speed for magic units.
Shield protection.
Critical attack change.
Health regeneration.
Armor regeneration.
Morale buffs/debuffs,

Additional stances can be gained by research (for now) or a hero skill (later). The three common stances are available from the start.

[h3]Common Stances[/h3]

Balanced Stance - No changes.
Offensive Stance - Attack Speed +25%, Shield protection -50%, Critical Attack Chance +2%
Defensive Stance - Attack Speed -25%, Shield protection +50%, Critical Attack Chance -2%

[h3]Uncommon Stances[/h3]

Ranged Stance - Attack Speed Ranged +50%, Attack Speed Melee -50%, Shield Protection +15%
Melee Stance - Attack Speed Ranged -50%, Attack Speed Melee +50%, Shield Protection -15%
Magic Stance - Casting Speed +50%, Melee Speed -25%, Ranged Attack Speed -25%, Shield Protection +15%

The current stances are in the game for testing. More stances with different rarities will be introduced if it proves to be a fun feature.

[h2]Hundreds of smaller changes/bugfixes[/h2]
The list would be too long. During the testing phases, hundreds of issues and bugs were fixed, and performance improved. The amount of "technical debt" has been reduced significantly as the project is getting into is seventh year of development... ːstressː

[h2]When to expect the new playtest?[/h2]

I have tried to make predictions several times and failed. I guess it's a few weeks, probably two months away. Once all the features below are completed, the playtest will go in its first iteration.

Scouting and exploration feature.
Polish the following buildings: Architect, Guard Building, Town Hall, Temples, Blacksmith, Forester and Wizard Laboratory.
Apprentice Unit - Unit with a magic spell, depending on the wizards main magic realm.
30 newly designed spells and at least as many research options.
AI Enemy rework to cope with all added features.
Adding a skirmish test map.
Balancing and polishing.

The second iteration of the playtest will be conducted, once the randomly generated maps are in. All the other listed items are optional and a lot smaller.

Randomly generated maps - not started yet and will take at least a month.
Adding more biomes to the map generation.
Quest UI rework.
Solved quests will spawn specific loot or chests.
Further UI improvements and polish.
Skirmish UI will include map generation parameters and configurable AI enemies.
Adding a variety of military, support and npc units.

A few features I talked about in my last update will probably not make it into the playtest:

Seasons
Different types of crop fields.
Animal hideouts.
Arda Firin Gates and the forces of the dark (skeleton, zombies, ghouls etc.)

[h2]When to expect the EA launch?[/h2]
During the playtest, I will collect feedback from the players and evaluate what needs to be changed to make the game as much fun as possible. I will post news once the roadmap has been updated. The current goal is to release the EA this year.

[h3]I have changed the visible release date to 2024, as I am still not sure when in 2024 I can finally release the EA version.[/h3]

Thanks for reading!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1368160/Heart_Of_Muriet/

Six month of progress!

Hey!
Fiinally a big update. Sorry, this took so long.

The plan was to release the new playtest in six weeks, but I realized that the game had many more flaws that needed fixing.
After six months, I am still changing old systems, adding new features and polishing older ones.

What happened since then?

Changes

The following changes happend in the last few month. There more features planned, but for now I am focussing on the completion of the new playtest.

[h2]Hex grid[/h2]
The new hex grid opened up the game design and made a lot of interesting new systems possible.

A lot more attack vectors when attacking an enemy on the map.
Opened up the map for exploration features.
NPC buildings and hex field themes are now possible.
More resources make sense now.
Army tents had to be reworked due to space issues.
New and better building placement.
More control over army movement.
Loot system.
Population system.
Troop morale system and alot more.
The map editor is up to date with all the new features added.

[h2]Building Placement system[/h2]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Building plots have been replaced with a standard placement system known from most strategy games.
The building can be placed over smaller stones and trees that get removed automatically (might change later - workers need to clear the area first)

[h2]Army tents [/h2]

Army Tent is now a standard building. Placed by the player and built by the workers.
All units, including workers, use the army tent to get rest when idling.
Missing tents on hex fields reduces the morale of living troops or the health of machines.
Units in army tents get a morale boost and have reduced upkeep costs.
Upgrading the army tent with a field hospital heals wounded units.
Upgrading the army tent with a field blacksmith gets machines repaired.

New Features

[h2]Base Attributes[/h2]

More base attributes have been introduced. Buildings, upgrades, auras, spells, and units might influence those attributes.

Water Magic, Fire Magic, Nature Magic, Arcane Magic
Fertility, Defence, Mining, Research, Harvest, Population, Beauty, Morale

[h2]New Resources[/h2]
The following new resources were added to the game:

[previewyoutube]https://youtu.be/YbSodBdoO0U [/previewyoutube]

[h3]Stone [/h3]
Stone is a resource used for constructing civilian/military buildings and recruiting troops. Building a Mining Hub (former Storage) or a Wizard Tower is needed to start mining it.

[h3]Ore[/h3]
Ore is a resource used for constructing civilian/military buildings and recruiting troops. A Mining Hub or a Wizard Tower is needed to mine it.

[h3]Wood[/h3]
Wood will get chopped when placing a forester. Civilian and military buildings, recruiting troops and constructing machines need wood to build them.

Forester:

Forester Buildings can be placed on any base. The influence radius of Foresters shows in which area the forest gets chopped down. Assigned workers start chopping wood immediately. There are options to upgrade the forester for regrowing trees or increasing the influence radius.

[h3]Food [/h3]
Supply has been replaced with Food. Food is produced with crop fields and used by the population and troops as upkeep. Not having enough food will have severe consequences on population happiness and the morale or health of troops.

Crop fields grow based on the height of the terrain. Higher areas have lower fertility. Increase the fertility by placing a mill, building an alchemist and upgrading it with a fertility bonus. Seasons will also influence the growing speed of food.

Food is one of the resources which have a capacity limit. For this purpose, the Silo, a sturdy building that can store food for seasons with less or no harvests, got introduced. More variety for food-generating options, like vegetable fields/trees, might be added later.

[h3]Gold and Mana[/h3]
No changes. Gold/Mana is mined like ore and stone using a Mining Hub or Wizard Tower.

[h3]Population and Draft[/h3]
Once you place residential buildings, more people might migrate to your empire. With more population, more draft points get generated. With those points, specific unit types can be recruited.
Get more info in the population system section of this post.

[h3]Power (Wizards)[/h3]
Wizards now use Power (instead of Mana) for casting spells. It has a maximum value depending on the magic school level of the wizard and the wizard selected.

This prevents spam spell casting and makes room for challenging decisions when casting certain spells. Power regenerates over time. The regeneration speed is influenced by NPC buildings like power sources.

[h2]The loot system[/h2]
The new loot system has taken a significant time to develop, especially for the map editor, but it was worth the time.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Loot Types[/h3]

Any resource (except Draft)
Scrolls and Spellbooks
Lore
Research

[h3]Chests[/h3]
Chests contain multiple loot items and can be randomly generated, depending on the settings in the map editor. They can also include traps, which might be triggered when opening them.

[h3]Traps[/h3]
Traps can trigger spells, de-buffs or an enemy spawn. Reveal spells cast by the wizard can identify if a chest is trapped. A disarm trap spell makes sure to prevent the trap trigger. Trap trigger chances are configurable in the editor.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]NPC buildings [/h2]
NPC buildings make exploration a lot more interesting to the player.

[h3]Ruins[/h3]
Ruins are buildings which can be searched by workers. Searching will reduce the health of the ruin and reveal loot over time. Ruins can be trapped like chests. Once a ruin has no health left it gets destroyed.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Temples, Shrines and Auras[/h3]
Auras are a base wide influence which have a lot of different effects. They can buff, de-buffs buildings or units, change base attributes release random spells or spawn poison or lava floors. Auras are always connected to temple or shrines.

When a player conquers the base, he has to deal with the aura effect of the temple. Players can decide to keep or destroy the aura effect.

Destroying is a risky endevour as it might trigger temple defenders or traps. Traps and defenders vary depending on the rarity of the temple. Once the temple or shrine gets destroyed, a loot chest will appear, and the aura effect will fade away.

[h3]Power Sources[/h3]
Power sources generate power for the wizard. The more power sources owned the more power is generated. Power source belong to a magic school. They prevent any other magic casted on that base. A fire power source will only allow fire spells casted on that base.

[h2] The population system [/h2]
The old farm buildings have been repurposed to residential buildings. The bigger the building the more population fits in.

[h3]Base beauty[/h3]
The base nature is calculated as base beauty. The more natural stones, trees and bushes are available the higher is the beauty of the base. Bases with shores get a beauty bonus. Buildings also influence the base beauty. Depending on the type of the building it can increase or decrease the beauty.

[h3]Base safety[/h3]
The more population a base has the more safety is needed. Safety is increased by stationing troops or building defense building on a base. Certain civilian buildings like statues also increase the safety. Allied neighbour bases increase, enemies neighbour bases decrease the safety.

[h3]Happiness[/h3]
Happiness is calculated by checking the beauty and safety every game tick. A happy population has more migrants and grows faster. A mad population does not grow and might revolt. (Hamlet)

[h3]Hamlets (WIP)[/h3]

Hamlets are created when enough population is on a base. Hamlets can have a town hall building. Once built, the player can charge taxes from the hamlet. It also has a higher population growth, increased population space and it automatically recuits militia squads.

Hamlets might revolt when the population is mad. In this state the militia destroys troops and defense buildings and tries to get into a neutral status.

[h2]The troop morale system[/h2]
Each unit has an upkeep cost, once the upkeep costs cannot be paid, morale is reduced step by step. Machines (e.g. siege weapons) do not have morale, but loose health instead.

Good morale will buff different stats and bad morale debuff stats. The stats can vary depending on the unit type.

Conquering bases, winning fights increases morale, loosing bases or fights decreases morale. There are a few more influence factors for morale which I will talk about in a later post.

[h2]New and repurposed Civilian Buildings (WIP):[/h2]
Civilian Buildings never get destroyed when conquering a hex field. They can still be destroyed once conquered.

[h3]Mill[/h3]
increases the fertility of all crop fields in its influence radius.

[h3]Well[/h3]
Increases beauty of the residential building in its influence radius.

[h3]Alchemist [/h3]
Convert mana and ore to gold and change base attributes like fertility or mining.
Generating research points but has bad influence on troops (morale) and population (happiness).

[h3]Marketplace [/h3]
Buy and sell any resources, get better prices when having good standing with neutral hamlets.

[h3]Wizard Laboratory [/h3]
Generates research points, increases the chance to get better research options for scrolls and spellbooks. Upgrade to recruit apprentices.

[h3]Architect [/h3]
Increase the base beauty attribute and generate research points. Increases the chance to get better research options for buildings. Reduces build cost and times with specfic upgrades.

[h3]Wizard Status (Fire, Arcane, Water, Nature)[/h3]
Increase magic resistances, beauty and safety of a base.

[h3]Warior Statue[/h3]
Increases troop morale, beauty and safety of a base.

[h3]Ponds[/h3]
Increase the beauty of the base but take quite some space.

[h2] Planned Playtest features [/h2]
Some of the features below are currently work in progress.

[h3]Improved Army control[/h3]
Workers can be assigned as before. Additionally, the player can assign by clicking (selecting) and right-clicking a building. The same mechanic applies when moving troops/workers to other hex fields. Troops can’t be micromanaged during a fight.

[h3]Map seasons[/h3]
The summer and winter season will make it into the playtest. More seasons will be added later.
This is mainly for mood, but will already have impacts on food growth, upkeep costs and morale.

[h3]New Research System[/h3]
The current research system will be replaced with a new one. The new system allows only one research at a time which costs research points, which can be accumulated through buildings and other means.
The player will be offered three research options, once the last research is done. Each research has a rarity, Higher rarities are harder to get. Research options can be rerolled with certain resources.

[h3]Scrolls and Spellbooks[/h3]
The old spellsystem gets reworked slightly. The wizard UI will get filters for a better overview and onetime scrolls are added. They will enable the wizard to cast spells from magic schools not yet learned.

Scrolls
Scrolls are one time spells which can be found in ruins or loot.

Spellbooks

Some spellbooks can be unlocked via research, but most of the spellbooks have to be found in ruins, temple, shrines or loot. Spellbooks also have a rarity system.

[h3]More unit types[/h3]
There will be a bunch of units added to the game before the new playtestlaunches, details will follow.

[h3]AI Enemies[/h3]
The enemy AI has to learn all the new features. This is quite a big taks which needs to be completed before the next playtestlaunch.

[h2] Playtest Bonus features[/h2]
Some of the listed features might make it into the playtests, others not.

[h3]Wizard Selection[/h3]
The player will be able to select the wizard he wants to play with. Wizards will have different strenght and weaknesses.

[h3] “Arda Firin” Gates[/h3]
A gate to the land of the dead is opened. Nothing good comes out of this! More info soon.

[h3] Animal hideouts[/h3]
Wolves/bears/spiders etc. spawn and attack anybody daring to enter their hideout. You can either kill them or respect them. Kill them to increase your empire, respect them. earn their trust and they might help out.

[h3]Battle reports[/h3]
After each battle against an enemy the player will get a small report to check how it went.

[h3]Random generated maps[/h3]
The new design makes it possible to generate random maps for a high replayability. Not sure if this will make it into the playtest. Propbably not the first iteration.

Thanks for reading.

Major changes are on the way!

Hey all,

after a fresh look into the game and talking to different developers and players, I have decided to redesign some significantly flawed game design systems in Heart of Muriet.

[h3]1. Why am I doing this so late in the development cycle?[/h3]

The game has grown big, and some game design elements have never got adjusted. There are some serious flaws which I want to point out here:

The map is not utilized well. Most of it is a dead zone due to the current base design.
The game lacks interesting decision-making other than: Do I have enough units and technology to conquer the enemy base.
No exploration is possible with the current map.
Troops can only stay in a few positions. Making tactical decisions is currently not possible.
Pathing of troops cannot be influenced, which is a big problem, as there is only one vector of attack most of the time, which makes most battles an attrition war.
Special points of interest are not possible with the current design, I tried to fix this with base sizes, but it didn't work out.
There is more, but the above points are the main problems.

[h3]2. What is going to change? [/h3]

TL;DR: A lot!!!11

A hex grid system will be introduced. Each hex is a small "base". Multiple "bases" form a territory for each player.
Building plots will be removed. Players can place buildings on a grid, as they are used to in other games. I will keep some of the conveniences the old system currently has, like previews that can get switched with the mouse.
Troops are pathing through the midpoint of a hex field. You can only walk to already explored hexes. Troops can get moved on any hex field and stay there.
Players can explore the map, find loot, and have lots of game-changing points of interest to discover, beside a strong AI opponent to watch out for.
Introduction of POIs like neutral hamlets, bandit camps, shrines, animal hideouts filled with loot, resources, technology and severe dangers.
More resources will get introduced, as well as a population to recruit your army from. "Supply" will also change into a more advanced food system with growing crops.
Moving of troops and fighting will stay but will be adjusted to the new grid system. E.g. ranged units and buildings will get their projectile ranges modified.
There will be more changes, which I will talk about in upcoming posts.

Teaser Screenshots:
Exploration:

Expanding territory:

Pathfinding on hex:

Closeup:

Fitting more content in a few hexes compared to the biggest map in the demo:

Seasons maybe?

[h3]3. When will we be able to test this?[/h3]

The good news is, I was able to make the switch from the base to the hex grid system in about to two weeks including the path finding. There is still plenty of work left as I have to add more features that underline the current concept changes. The tutorial and the AI need a proper rework as well. My current guess is about four to six weeks to the first playtest!

If you want to be part of the playtest, please join our community! The first few weeks it will be exclusively for our discord users.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1368160/Heart_Of_Muriet/