Preparation for 0.9 Beta test
Hi all,
the past few weeks were focused mostly on finalizations and visuals so there's not many new things to show. But a handful of features are still probably worth mentioning.
[h2]Wonders redesign[/h2]
One of the problems of existing wonder system is that you can always build all wonders you unlocked. In some sense this prevented the wonders to become economically powerful, otherwise your wonders could overshadow your workshops productivity. With a few more wonders added the game could easily become centered on them and not on workshops.
To address this, as of 0.9 Wonders will undergo a complete redesign of their ability powers. Some will be affected more than others, but generally wonders will be thoroughly buffed to get economical significance. That huge economic buff has however three drawbacks.
First drawback is that wonders will now use workshop slots. So building a wonder will force you to decide which workshop you will not build (or demolish).
Second drawback is that wonders will be unlocked with technology, so you can no longer build Eiffel tower in neolithic era.
The Third drawback is that Wonders can be Destroyed by Crises and cannot be rebuilt. Some crises may later even specialize on destruction of wonders.
As a result Wonders will now be able to fine-tune your build when you specialize your economy. So this opens a way to introducing more Wonders to the game with more significant economical powers.
[h2]Stonehenge and Ceremonial Wonders[/h2]
The existing Stonehenge Lotus gaining ability is relatively fool-proof. You build it and by using its mechanism you simply gain Lotuses right away.
In the new version, you will have to keep the Stonehenge intact until ascension to gain it's lotus value. Also the lotus value itself will be increased through it's Ceremony ability which will have it's own problems and risks attached.
There will be a few similar wonders (each for different era), that allow Lotus gain through their Ceremony ability. The trick is that as was mentioned above, each wonder takes up a workshop slot. So having four Ceremonial wonders may yield you a great reward in ascension, but it may slow down your progress significantly if you have no way to compensate the workshop loss.
[h2]Forts redesign[/h2]
Fortresses Shield ability was designed to be simple. Block a single attack. However as the game grew bigger and difficulty had to scale up, it forced the introduction of Unblockable attacks. This did not feel right to introduce this early.
So to allow more flexibility in balancing difficulty, shield ability on forts will now have a percentage chance of success. Instead of increasing instances of shields with Fort upgrade, Forts will improve their block chance.
Since this drastically lowers the usefulness of forts, some collateral rebalancing will have to occur. Forts will be made cheaper (0.9 already makes it easier to increase the cap) and some tougher Crises most likely will be nerfed (era bosses for instance)
[h2]0.9 Beta coming in about 2 weeks[/h2]
The current 0.9 version is relatively close to being publicly playable. At the minimum though it needs 2 weeks work to finalise all gaps and fix all known bugs. After that unless there are some new problems I would release the 0.9 into the experimental branch.
It will contain all the map stuff we talked about so far. If possible I will add some of the planned Tier 2 features throughout the beta. But the plan of that bit is still vague.
[h2]What's next[/h2]
Besides testing and balancing, the only remaining major feature to finish is the Diplomacy redesign with the use of Dilemma cards. This redesign will affect Tribal Villages and other Civilizations (added in 0.9) and the way you acquire Trade Routes and other boosts. The mechanism of dilemmas will stay the same, but the card effects will be more impactful (especially towards the Map).
This all for today,
See you next time,
Ondrej
the past few weeks were focused mostly on finalizations and visuals so there's not many new things to show. But a handful of features are still probably worth mentioning.
[h2]Wonders redesign[/h2]
One of the problems of existing wonder system is that you can always build all wonders you unlocked. In some sense this prevented the wonders to become economically powerful, otherwise your wonders could overshadow your workshops productivity. With a few more wonders added the game could easily become centered on them and not on workshops.
To address this, as of 0.9 Wonders will undergo a complete redesign of their ability powers. Some will be affected more than others, but generally wonders will be thoroughly buffed to get economical significance. That huge economic buff has however three drawbacks.
First drawback is that wonders will now use workshop slots. So building a wonder will force you to decide which workshop you will not build (or demolish).
Second drawback is that wonders will be unlocked with technology, so you can no longer build Eiffel tower in neolithic era.
The Third drawback is that Wonders can be Destroyed by Crises and cannot be rebuilt. Some crises may later even specialize on destruction of wonders.
As a result Wonders will now be able to fine-tune your build when you specialize your economy. So this opens a way to introducing more Wonders to the game with more significant economical powers.
[h2]Stonehenge and Ceremonial Wonders[/h2]
The existing Stonehenge Lotus gaining ability is relatively fool-proof. You build it and by using its mechanism you simply gain Lotuses right away.
In the new version, you will have to keep the Stonehenge intact until ascension to gain it's lotus value. Also the lotus value itself will be increased through it's Ceremony ability which will have it's own problems and risks attached.
There will be a few similar wonders (each for different era), that allow Lotus gain through their Ceremony ability. The trick is that as was mentioned above, each wonder takes up a workshop slot. So having four Ceremonial wonders may yield you a great reward in ascension, but it may slow down your progress significantly if you have no way to compensate the workshop loss.
[h2]Forts redesign[/h2]
Fortresses Shield ability was designed to be simple. Block a single attack. However as the game grew bigger and difficulty had to scale up, it forced the introduction of Unblockable attacks. This did not feel right to introduce this early.
So to allow more flexibility in balancing difficulty, shield ability on forts will now have a percentage chance of success. Instead of increasing instances of shields with Fort upgrade, Forts will improve their block chance.
Since this drastically lowers the usefulness of forts, some collateral rebalancing will have to occur. Forts will be made cheaper (0.9 already makes it easier to increase the cap) and some tougher Crises most likely will be nerfed (era bosses for instance)
[h2]0.9 Beta coming in about 2 weeks[/h2]
The current 0.9 version is relatively close to being publicly playable. At the minimum though it needs 2 weeks work to finalise all gaps and fix all known bugs. After that unless there are some new problems I would release the 0.9 into the experimental branch.
It will contain all the map stuff we talked about so far. If possible I will add some of the planned Tier 2 features throughout the beta. But the plan of that bit is still vague.
[h2]What's next[/h2]
Besides testing and balancing, the only remaining major feature to finish is the Diplomacy redesign with the use of Dilemma cards. This redesign will affect Tribal Villages and other Civilizations (added in 0.9) and the way you acquire Trade Routes and other boosts. The mechanism of dilemmas will stay the same, but the card effects will be more impactful (especially towards the Map).
This all for today,
See you next time,
Ondrej