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?
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.
[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]
[h2]Base Attributes[/h2]
More base attributes have been introduced. Buildings, upgrades, auras, spells, and units might influence those attributes.
[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]
[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.
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.