Warsim: The Realm of Aslona News

So this week has been a little slow but I've been looking at a few different things for the combat update and also been planning out some possible marketing actions to get Warsim more visible, some of the suggestions my earlier post got me were very helpful and I'm still actioning them so thanks guys! (Still open to ideas on getting Warsim more visible btw!)



I've also been working on a little update chipping things off the Warsim to-do list while I've been planning out the combat stuff, I wasn't intending to do this but enough stuff has accumulated that it will make a nice little update so I'll try and roll it out later tonight!



I've been quite sick this last week thanks to a nasty flu so I haven't gotten a ton done, but I am getting the skeleton and bare plans for several combat features planned out!

WELCOME

Hello and welcome everyone to the first of our friday discussions, firstly I'm sorry that I haven't been so active the last few weeks but I've been super busy both in and out of Warsim.

COMBAT PLANS

So I've trawled through all of my notes taken over the past few years from Warsim fans and myself of everything combat related and broken it down to a few categories, before I get into this I don't want to do a Peter Molyneux and overpromise features that won't make it into the game, this list is a bunch of things I would like to attempt to add to the game but in all likelihood it won't be everything, it depends on how I can code it and what obstacles/limitations I come up against, so please take this as more of a concept list of stuff.

- Generals can be instructed to choose best option for combat including who to attack works best with spymaster giving info to you

ARMY COMMANDERS

To send an army you need a commander, their skill will decide the battle advantage
and army size, you can send as many of these as you want, troops on the attack should
not be part of the defence however

* A champion (based on battlescore * 25) ie 159 battlescore = 3975
* General (based on battlescore * 50) ie 159 battlescore = 7950
* Knight (Knight can take up to 1000 men)
* Soldier (Soldier can take up to 100 men) but will not fare well and be prone to issue

They can get up to things too:

* Your captain Ghoso Rhenson and his army of 200 men were defeated on their attempt to raid the Krut Lands
* Your captain Largak the Lofty and his army of 113 men succesfully captured a land from the Red Rovers bandit gang
* Your captain Erynar of the Sands and his army of 25 men have joined the rebellion

TROOP MORALE (credit Omer)

Troop morale being separate to normal public op could allow you to have strong army even if the people hate you
you will need to look at military events that are affected by public opinion and add the morale in it's place
a new variable that grows with victory, payrises, improved equipment. Decreases with losses, firings, etc.

BATTLE HEROES

Heroes can emerge, random units that turn the tide of a battle of complete a great feat
can be knighted and awarded high positions, enemy heroes should be able to be spawned too
it would be awesome to see an enemy champion/lord who was born of a battle where you
were humiliated.

ARMOUR & WEAPONS

Have possiblility of similar to the helmet, have armour and helmet that have aesthetic
and stat based differences, use random weapon generator, find a way to make this work
how much does it cost, how do you find/buy it and change it

BATTLE-LOOTING (all for men, split with men, only for you, no looting at all)

Gain direct gold from looting the battlefield, and decide how you go about it

PRISONERS OF WAR (AND CAPTURED ENEMY LORDS/LEADERS)

Capture prisoners and decide what to do with them, you can execute them to reduce
opinion of enemy, perhaps you imprison them, perhaps you try to hire them.
Also capture enemy leaders and lords in battle with effects

REBELLION

* Independent lords can have their own armies/income/goals/cultural modifications
* Add independent lords loyalty changes based on how well a leader leads (ie battle wins and losses) though some will be permanently loyal or hostile to their leaders based on pre-gen traits
* Lords can rebel and form their own faction (Ie Kingdom of Trog, new faction is Kingdom of Trog Rebels (Rebellion) but if they win they takeover the kingdom and can rename it or keep it same

LORDS AND KINGS IN BATTLE

Lords and kings should show up in battle and give their units perks and bonuses
- code faction leader aggression level and faction aggression (new variable used in the combat phase)
- Lords and kings should appear or flee when you invade

PRE-BATTLE SCREEN IMPROVED

The pre-battle screens can be more unique, Ie you enter the lands of Yagar the Mallet, he sends no envoy and
waits atop the walls for your attack, or you could have a lord who sends an envoy and offers peace, tribute
can be pushed to join you and rebel, can plead with you etc. (ROCK PAPER SCISSORS, TRIBUTE, DUEL)

PRE-BATTLE PLANNING

Choose who leads the army and consider calling on a friend (forts, militia, allies, blackmarket etc)

FLEEING AND SURRENDED

Chance that if a battle is significantly skewed, one side breaks off and flees
or surrenders (figure out how this works)

TROOP UPGRADING (can be enabled or disabled but some troops will rank up) (3 options Disabled, Disabled for peasants, Enabled for all)

ALTERNATE WAYS TO DISPLAY BATTLE (instead of just mash troops vs troops)

Try one screen showing the numbers of your men and theirs disolve
Try doing different coloured stuff
test and allow multiple different styles

WAR STRATEGY

Factions should be able to launch multiple attacks and should recognise weaker enemies to invade, they should
also be able to hire mercenaries and do things with their gold, would be helpful if you could tether
these systems to difficulty and have them far more intelligent at higher levels (ie always invading and sending their full army if it's big enough to ensure not losing all)

ALLIANCES IMPROVED

Alliances should be able to join you in battles, and attacking an enemy with an ally chance the ally will join
also if they are in a league, the league should fight together. You should also be given
alters when allies and vassals and fellow league members are attacked to offer you to join

POLITICS
Factions should be able to make peace, form alliances, go to war and do various things
with eachother and with you.

ARCHERS

RANDOM BATTLE EVENTS

* Lightning strikes (killing x, or causing one side to fully flee)
* Farmers passing decide to join
* Peasant falls on his sword and dies
* group of soldiers turn and join the rebels mid battle
* band of local hunters join the defence
* Big fire divides the battlefield and ends the fight
* Wild bear charges into the fight

ENVIRONMENTAL ABILITIES (NIGHT BATTLES, RAIN, FOG)

SEIGES INSTEAD OF DIRECT BATTLE

Seiges could require equipment built and could take some time (1 year or longer) some equipment could be used in non seige batltes too

POSSIBILITY OF 3 WAY BATTLES SOME HOW



In summary you can see what I mean, there's a huge list of stuff and I'm not sure it can all be done, but that being said I really enjoy playing Warsim and I would love nothing more than it becoming far more advanced and complex in it's core area and namesake (the war simulation aspect) so I will do my very best to deliver as many of these things as possible, but these features are large and intimidating and I'm a one man team so I will be taking my time and may require further feedback and help coming up with concepts and details of these features, still I hope you guys like the ideas here.



Hey everyone, a little bit of my time this week was dedicated to pushing forward on the plans I made previously, I decided to rework the games store page 'about this game' section which was just a this block of text.



I wanted to have it themed and filled with graphics, the main drive was to be more gripping and interesting and to really show off what Warsim is about while also looking professional.

It's not perfect but It took a huge amount of work and during the week I had to take breaks as at least 26 times I couldn't test the store page beta due to http errors on steams servers.

Please check out the new store page about section and let me know what you think, do you guys think it represents warsim well? is there anything I've missed or that you don't like, Or do you like it :)

Your feedback on this is invaluable

https://store.steampowered.com/app/659540/Warsim_The_Realm_of_Aslona/?beta=0



While making the new steam storepage I kept getting errors in chrome and cleared my cookies to resolve it, I resolved the problem but triggered some 2 faction auth thing on discord, discord support tells me without some weird additional code I don't have I'll have to make a new account so that's fun! (currently no discord)



I'm going to continue tweaking and working on the combat plans and get stuck into the more basic of the structure very soon, while I'm open to ideas about the combat plans, I'm most interested in feedback regarding the new store page so please let me know what you think. (or why not feedback on both :P)

Thank you for reading

All the best
Huw Millward (Warsim dev)

Hello Everyone!

I want to start this with a thank you to everyone that has made Warsim what it is. To so many bug reporters and those who've shared their awesome ideas, and to the many people who have followed along the development and motivated me to work on it further. All the support recieved has changed my life for the better and has been the main reason Warsim is where it is today!

I've said this before but when Warsim was in its earliest stages it was never even planned to become a commercial game. I never thought anyone would be interested in it. As I worked on it and shared it online I began getting donations and after a while it opened my eyes to the possibility of Warsim one day ending up on steam.

As you all know that possibility became reality, and for the last two years I've somewhat been able to support myself from Warsim development alongside selling things online and the occasional part-time job, this has allowed me to spend a reasonable amount of time on Warsim.

I'm currently surviving with Warsim but I genuinely believe with a bit of work it could expand beyond its relative obscurity in the gaming community to a more well known Indie title I understand that an CMD Ascii based game is never going to top the charts but I think it could still become better known among RPG players and fans of resimilar games. Over 14000 copies have sold online and our subreddit has over 1000 subscribers so Warsim and it's community aren't completely obscured but I really think it could grow far beyond.


My current plan involves a number of different steps:

* The Trailer [previewyoutube][/previewyoutube] - Warsim's trailer is terrible, it doesn't show any of what the game is about, it just flickers through some screens, I have a plan to rework this trailer with the help of a small team and will hopefully get it finished soon. I think this is important as the trailer in its current state doesn't scream professional legit indie game, it screams crappy indie game that isn't worth your time. The trailer was made when it first went on steam during early access in 2017 and it absolutely doesn't reflect the game as it is today.

* Improve the Quality of Warsim's store pages - I plan to further critique the store pages and try to update them where relevant because I feel it needs to look the best it can.

* Price increase - After the next few big overhauls I will consider increase the price of Warsim from $4.99 to $7.99 or somewhere there abouts, I am not entirely comfortable with the idea as I don't want to appear some scummy moneygrubbing dev but I really feel the game is worth more, having it at a higher price assuming sales mained a similar level would allow me to work on Warsim more so it's something I'm considering.

* Overhauls and a push to Full Release - For the longest time my approach to Warsim development has been just clearing through ideas of mine and other people, and adding stuff that I want to see in game, generally I've not been working on clearing the unfinished parts of the game and bringing us to full release which I feel I should. The goal going forward will be to complete all unfinished parts of Warsim, to add the major planned elements of the game and get it to the point where it can stand firmly as a complete and well rounded game... don't worry though I would most certainly continue developing and updating it for a long time post EA.

I also have some other ideas to expand Warsim's reach that I will try to pursue:

* Android Port - This has been requested by a fair number of people, I will need to work on evolving the Warsim code to be less windows only but if I can try to get the game emulated to the point it could be played on an Android Tablet I think it could really help create a new and fun experience on the platform and would also hopefully add an additional stream of financial support for the games development.

* Mac and Linux Port - This has been something heavily requested for a long time, although its been possible to run it through Wine it would be nice to be able to get Warsim some official Mac and Linux builds.

* A Limited Release of Real Copies - This has been something I've toyed with for quite some time, I may look at doing this once the game is out of early access but I'd love to properly release a limited run Warsim special edition boxed version, It would come with a steam copy, a disked version of the game, and a bunch of limited edition Warsim goodies at a reasonable price

Here are some concept copies:





* Patreon - I'm currently against this as I don't see what I could possibly offer but the thought has crossed my mind, I thought at one point of doing something similar to Toady of Dwarf fortress and sending Warsim concept notes and little sketches as a thank you for donations.


Unlike a lot of bigger studios, there's no PR firm or marketing department, just me

Hello!



My experience marketing video games has come mainly from trial and error but the gist of my experience is that the more people know about it, the more people are likely to play it. I have thus sent 100s of emails to youtubers, streamers, gaming media, blogs and so on with relative success. I have also tried my hand at writing interesting articles about the development of the game and some of its features.

A mix of steam sales, articles, and youtube coverage have been responsible for the bigger jumps in sales and new players but again this is just from my limited attempts at marketing. I've generally avoided massive youtubers as they are very hard to actually get through to, though large youtuber coverage virtually guarentees a giant jump in new players.

So, to the chase and the main point of this, just as I am open to suggestions about the game itself I am absolutely open to any suggestions about increasing Warsim's range online, please PM or comment if you have any ideas or if:

* You have any ideas at all for getting the game more visible
* You know of any youtubers/streamers who would be interested in Warsim
* You know of any websites/forums that would be good to post Warsim on
* You are a youtuber/streamer/blogger who would like to cover the game
* You have any criticisms of the store page and can think of better ways to word the descriptions of the game
* You can think of any aspects of Warsim and it's community areas that could be improved (aside from the trailer because I already know its terrible)
* You have any ideas at all that could help, I am open and I want to hear them

So that's pretty much it, While I working on the Combat update I wanted to address and figure out my plans for moving Warsim forward and here we are, and genuinely there are no stupid ideas, I've spoken to 100s of people in the Warsim community over the years, through reddit and steam comments, pms, twitter threads, discord, emails and so on and have already had so much helpful feedback that has already meant the world to me.

Thank you all for reading this, This will be posted on all of the major Warsim community areas: The Steam page, the Subreddit, the Discord server, our Audiogames.net thread and on Itch.io

All the best

Huw Millward

Alright so let me start by saying, this week has been interesting and troublesome to say the least. I have come into multiple problems and setbacks with my laptop and I'm awaiting a new keyboard after some keys got accidentally destroyed, there have also been some other issues I'm trying to solve so the workpace hasn't been where I've wanted it to be...

...However, I'm still super excited to bring this update which breathes a bit of life into an area that was flat and devoid of any depth for so long, it wasn't planned but after visiting the minor bandit code to put in the ability to hire the groups directly as a bandit king (thanks to a suggestion by Defender) I saw just how shallow the whole system was and decided to put and end to it.

New kinds of bandit leaders

So this system was somewhat modelled on how the Goblin Slaver update was done, meaning there are numerous different traits available each having a different effect on how the leader acts. There are 10 different personalities total, some are similar like recruiter and expert recruiter, and some allow for special abilities like Mercenary captain or Land merchant.

* Recruiter (Double units each year)
* Hordevassal (Supports Phenor's Bandit Horde if it's active)
* Brutal Trainer (Half recruits, Men have +60% stats (120 battlescore bandits and 200 battlescore Warlords)
* Expert Robbers (Take more gold)
* Honest Men (No robbery)
* Expert Recruiter (Triple units each year) (option to sell them your bandits, at 10 gold each)
* Merry Men (Doesn't rob as much gold, and never robs you if it means you have nothing)
* Moneygrubber (+20% Gold gain from rents and robberies)
* Mercenary Captain (Option to buy bandits from him, Occasionally runs merc contract events)
* Land Merchant (Sells any lands above the one they have, if they have only one land he invades automatically)

So you'll now see a group a honest men who won't rob anyone, right next to a bandit group with an expert recruiter growing in number fast only to be replaced by a brutal trainer who turns that large army into a feared unit where a warlord could kill one of your knights with ease.

* Added expert robbers take twice the gold
* Added moneygrubber leaders gain 20% extra rental gold each turn
* Added honest men don't rob anyone
* Added land grab factions always invade when attacking and on only one land
* Added updated battlescore for brutal trainer units (125 and 200)
* Added merry men dont' rob you if it would leave you broke
* Added moneygrubbers gain +20% of normal stolen gold
* Added recruiter leaders get double units each turn
* Added brutal trainers get half units each turn
* Added expert recruiters get triple units each turn

New stuff you can do with minor bandit groups

This update hasn't just changed what they can do, but also what you can do with them. Now you can view additional stats, you can talk to the leader directly, you can speak to random local bandits and if you have the 'Bandit King' backstory you can actually attempt to hire the group with a chance of gaining it's leader as a personal champion whom you can send to the Arena/to run a fort/etc. It's also now possible for you to try and have your diplomat broker a truce with a group instead of just paying gold, but there are risks!

* Added ability to buy land from land merchant bandit leader (if truced)
* Added ability to buy men from merc captain leaders (if truced)
* Added ability to sell men to expert recruiter leaders (if truced)
* Added ability to view all stats for bandit leaders
* Added ability to hire bandit group if you are the bandit king and (public op lower than 20 or group is merry men or honest men) (credit Defender)
* Added ability to speak to random bandit (25 dialogues)
* Added 36 unique dialogues (4 for each bandit leader type)
* Added ability for bandit group leader to join you as a knight if his group is assimilated with you
* Added ability for bandit group leader to head off into the world if his group is assimilated with you
* Added ability for bandit group leader to join you as a champion if his group is assimilated with you
* Added dynamic refusal from bandit group leader if you ask them to join
* Added ability for diplomat to broker truce with the bandits
* Added ability for diplomat to be killed brokering truce with bandits

New bandit leader random events

Now there are several events with at least one for each trait that can happen at the end of a turn, and some pre-existing bandit events have been improved upon.

* Added rival group join event for recruiter bandit leaders
* Added successful robberies event for expert robbery bandits
* Added new potion merchant raid event
* Added new old artifact seller raid event
* Added robbed nobles for village event for merry men bandit leaders
* Added defend village and gain recruits for honest men bandit leaders
* Added impassioned speech event for expert recruiter bandit leaders
* Added call for the bandit horde event for hordevassal bandit leaders
* Added half men to horde event for hordevassal bandit leaders
* Added brutal training regime event for brutal trainer leaders
* Added land capture event for land merchant leaders
* Added merc contract event for merc leaders
* Added 1 in 3 chance event for successful scam to double gold for moneygrubber bandit leaders

Minor bandit bugs and tweaks

A couple of bugs and tweaks done during the development, also a little cheat code for testing different types of bandit leader!

* Reworked the hire attack screen
* Fixed bandit group 5 giving all of their end of turn gold to bandit group 1
* Fixed capitalisation bug in minor bandit group screen
* Reworked layout of minor bandit screen
* Merged minor bandit code and made it 5x more efficient
* Added secret code 69 in bandit group choice screen which spawns a random set of bandit leaders


Some bug fixes suggested by you guys! and one I found

* Fixed Flag of Aslona reference (credit u/Dargonsploof)
* Fixed broken bluetrii screen (credit HisShadow)
* Fixed hirelings unable to be ignored or trap doored (credit HisSHadow)
* Fixed hiring more units than intended (credit HisShadow)
* Fixed niklas text line bug


- New screen with a hostile group
- Diplomat convinces bandits to a truce
- New menu for a truced group
- Viewing the troop tree
- Talking to a minor bandit leader
- Selling units to an expert recruiter leader

So today before I got to work on some concepts for the Combat update I cleared a few more references to Aslona and tried to finish off clearing through my list of bug reports and suggestions, got quite a bit off the list and tomorrow will likely begin some more serious concept work. After a while into it today I realised I had enough stuff done to justify another update so here we are!



It was pointed out that you can disable every faction bar bandits in a custom game, now you can disable them too!

* Added new option only minor bandits no bandit horde (custom game or at random)
* Added new option no bandits or minor bandits (custom game or at random) (credit Defender)



The hiring scum in the Blackmarket screen was terrible, now it's been revised!

* Added new screen to asking to hire too many troops from slums
* Fixed 10 grammar and text bugs in hire slums scum screens
* Added new sound effect to hiring scum
* Added new screen and dynamic graphic to hiring slums scum



I had some left over plans for Knightly orders and now they are fully complete! You can now order your knights to battle the demons but expect heavy losses.

* Removed hidden knight recruit option on hall of order
* Added new screen for issuing order to attack rebels in hall of order
* Added new screen for issuing order to attack bandits in hall of order
* Added new screen for issuing order to defend lands in hall of order
* Added new screen for issuing order to assist the main army in hall of order
* Added the ability for the knightly order to fight the demon horde (credit u/Ceasar15)
* Added new screen for issuing order to fight demon horde



The arena betting screens were flawed, now thanks to Ursur's report they are much better!

* Fixed autoblocked from betting if you enter an amount too high (Credit Ursur)
* Added new screen for entering a higher bet than the arena has gold
* Added new screen for entering a higher bet than you have gold
* Added new screen for betting nothing at all



I thought this event was due it's own screen, now it's got one and has been reworked a little bit.

* Added new screen for Blackmarket being captured bloodlessly from you at end of turn
* Added new screen for Blackmarket being captured from you at end of turn
* Added new screen for new Blackmarket leader once captured from you at end of turn
* Added new screen showing Blackmarket flags changing once captured from you at end of turn
* Added random number of troops for new garrison between 80-120 when captured from you



Another pile of bugs fixes, thanks everyone for the reports!

* Fixed 4 miscapitalisations in Arena intro text (credit u/TheGamingDictator)
* Fixed 11 grammar issues in Arena intro text (credit u/TheGamingDictator)
* Fixed 2 intro to laws screen grammar and text bugs (credit u/TheGamingDictator)
* Fixed 10 text bugs in laws screens (credit u/TheGamingDictator)
* Fixed savage wildwood events showing up even if you havent discovered the locations
* Fixed drylands nomad demon kills showing up in turn report even if you haven't met the nomads
* Fixed 3 references to bandit related stuff when you're bandit king replaced with alt encounters (credit Defender)
* Fixed stoll at night shaian text bug (credit Defender)
* Fixed venture south Arasuk text bug (credit Defender)
* Fixed gor the bandit Arasuk text bug (credit Defender)
* Fixed Council meeting wordwrap, grammar, and colour bugs
* Fixed minor bandit advice available even if minor bandits aren't in game



A couple of uncategorised stuff!

* Made goblin slaver removal events a little rarer (credit Ursur)
* Made it clear you can enter 0 to bet nothing in Fighters pit and Brawl pit
* Removed references to bell sounding in Arena
* Added recruiters to troop report (credit u/TheGamingDictator)