Game survey

[Scotterius]

Once the player starts changing the game world, by building his own structures, I think the game world needs to adapt to him. Lets say the player builds his fort in the middle of the desert, soon afterwards a holy empire crew builds a watch tower nearby in order to effectively annex the player. The player at this point has to choose between being annexed and paying taxes, abandoning his structures or all out war with a more powerful opponent. On the up side, he does get some protection. Since the player is being 'observed' by the 'hosting' faction it makes since for him to play a flexible percentage of the players income. This percentage could be changed according to the factions global fortune. If they are losing troops to the united cities, they may need to raise taxes. This gives the player a motive to help its host, and draws him into global events.

Slowly lowering ground moment speed as a response to encumbrance is something that will make trading and looting more dangerous and exciting. The player will never be able to sacrifice movement speed if he fears he will encounter an enemy he cant overcome. This should reduce the amount of resources the player can vend, lowering his return from raiding and trading. This should swing the balance back to buildings, which I think is what you want.

Tolls are just a bad idea. They don't make sense, and will annoy the player with interruptions. You as a player, are bringing is goods that you sell for a fraction of what the vendors sale for. This makes a lot of money for these gentlemen, and the nice people who tax them. Children should meet you at the gates, lords should invite you for dinner, women should throw themselves at you. The gate keepers should not give you any reason to go anywhere else. Now, I can see why they would toll a pilgrim (but, the player will never be one).

[aattss]

Once the player starts changing the game world, by building his own structures, I think the game world needs to adapt to him. Lets say the player builds his fort in the middle of the desert, soon afterwards a holy empire crew builds a watch tower nearby in order to effectively annex the player. The player at this point has to choose between being annexed and paying taxes, abandoning his structures or all out war with a more powerful opponent. On the up side, he does get some protection. Since the player is being 'observed' by the 'hosting' faction it makes since for him to play a flexible percentage of the players income. This percentage could be changed according to the factions global fortune. If they are losing troops to the united cities, they may need to raise taxes. This gives the player a motive to help its host, and draws him into global events.

Slowly lowering ground moment speed as a response to encumbrance is something that will make trading and looting more dangerous and exciting. The player will never be able to sacrifice movement speed if he fears he will encounter an enemy he cant overcome. This should reduce the amount of resources the player can vend, lowering his return from raiding and trading. This should swing the balance back to buildings, which I think is what you want.

Tolls are just a bad idea. They don't make sense, and will annoy the player with interruptions. You as a player, are bringing is goods that you sell for a fraction of what the vendors sale for. This makes a lot of money for these gentlemen, and the nice people who tax them. Children should meet you at the gates, lords should invite you for dinner, women should throw themselves at you. The gate keepers should not give you any reason to go anywhere else. Now, I can see why they would toll a pilgrim (but, the player will never be one).

Why do you say that the player can't be something that npcs can? The player does start out as a poor peasant, after all. Also, why can't the men throwthemselves at you too?

[hammy]

my friend found a bug in the demo version where he could click around in the shops backpack and it drops the item so he gets the item for free not sure if you know this and i have not tried it myself so he has the best stuff you can buy straight away.

it would be sick if you could build your house buy getting all the stuff and actually constructing it as well as the option to hire a worker to do it for you of course a bit of extra $$ but two ways to get it done and the more construction skill you have the better or more bigger the buildings will be.

love the game i have a few ideas but your game design looks awesome so ill leave most of it up to you and the other loyal fans unless i feel the need to make a comment

great work i am telling all my friends about this game.

[Captain Deathbeard]

it would be sick if you could build your house buy getting all the stuff and actually constructing it as well as the option to hire a worker to do it for you of course a bit of extra $$ but two ways to get it done and the more construction skill you have the better or more bigger the buildings will be.

You can in the next major update.

[dnme]

i cant wait for it, what will the time frame look like for buildings? actually time, game time?

[Captain Deathbeard]

I want building to be a slow process, a lot slower than a normal RTS. This will be more of an investment. You will be vulnerable in the meantime, and have to plan carefully. You can't just spring up a huge base overnight.

[dnme]

it'd be cool to actually watch you/your workers build the building, (put up scaffolding, lay down foundations, put up walls) Is that your plan or is it ("put a drape" over the outline of the building and *wala!!" a building after 3 days??).


are there plans for more than just sleeping/researching in your house?

[Blxz]

I want building to be a slow process, a lot slower than a normal RTS. This will be more of an investment. You will be vulnerable in the meantime, and have to plan carefully. You can't just spring up a huge base overnight.

Exactly what I was hoping for. Hope it takes a damn long time and we can have some of our guys out of commission for a while. Will also make the 'bodyguard' order more useful since we can leave extra guys back to watch the builders while whoever is left continues running around the land cutting people up.

[Captain Deathbeard]

You've seen the picture in the news post a while back? First a scaffolding goes up then the walls gradually go up. Its not 100% realistic but its pretty good.

So yeah, the idea won't be that you spend your time staring at them waiting to complete, you leave some guys to do it then you can go off and do other things at the same time.

[Captain Deathbeard]

Oh yeah, and more than sleeping and storage to do. You can mine stone and ore and create building materials. Soon you'll also be able to craft weapons and armour and do research. I have an artist making the models as we speak.

[Blxz]

Sounds a bit like the old game 'Constructor' in regards to building. Sounds good. Far better than just having the building materialise from the ground up like say, the settler games or something.

Also, is this mining/crafting/research actually slated to be in the next release or was that more of a 'future plans' statement?

[Captain Deathbeard]

mining will be in the 1st release as a minimum.

[1337]

yay nice

some nice ascii to celebrate (not mine obviously):

Code: Select all

                   :                                 :        
                 :                                   :       
                 :  RRVIttIti+==iiii++iii++=;:,       :      
                 : IBMMMMWWWWMMMMMBXXVVYYIi=;:,        :     
                 : tBBMMMWWWMMMMMMBXXXVYIti;;;:,,      :     
                 t YXIXBMMWMMBMBBRXVIi+==;::;::::       ,    
                ;t IVYt+=+iIIVMBYi=:,,,=i+=;:::::,      ;;   
                YX=YVIt+=,,:=VWBt;::::=,,:::;;;:;:     ;;;   
                VMiXRttItIVRBBWRi:.tXXVVYItiIi==;:   ;;;;    
                =XIBWMMMBBBMRMBXi;,tXXRRXXXVYYt+;;: ;;;;;    
                 =iBWWMMBBMBBWBY;;;,YXRRRRXXVIi;;;:;,;;;=    
                  iXMMMMMWWBMWMY+;=+IXRRXXVYIi;:;;:,,;;=     
                  iBRBBMMMMYYXV+:,:;+XRXXVIt+;;:;++::;;;     
                  =MRRRBMMBBYtt;::::;+VXVIi=;;;:;=+;;;;=     
                   XBRBBBBBMMBRRVItttYYYYt=;;;;;;==:;=       
                    VRRRRRBRRRRXRVYYIttiti=::;:::=;=         
                     YRRRRXXVIIYIiitt+++ii=:;:::;==          
                     +XRRXIIIIYVVI;i+=;=tt=;::::;:;          
                      tRRXXVYti++==;;;=iYt;:::::,;;          
                       IXRRXVVVVYYItiitIIi=:::;,::;          
                        tVXRRRBBRXVYYYIti;::::,::::          
                         YVYVYYYYYItti+=:,,,,,:::::;         
                         YRVI+==;;;;;:,,,,,,,:::::::

[Kamos]

Is that Bill Nye or Adam Sandler?

[1337]

nah its spock

[Blxz]

mining will be in the 1st release as a minimum.

Sexy. Any hints as to how it will work? ie. dig anywhere and hope for the best or designated mining sites or a set prospecting skill? Or are you still keeping the details nicely tucked away in your beard?

[Captain Deathbeard]

Theres going to be prospecting involved, which I haven't done yet.

[Mattk50]

Sounds like you've been doing a bit more than what was in the blog posts, you sneaky dev you...

[Hentz]

I need to balance building costs, but I also need to think about balancing money in general and I need to know how its working out so far.
Specifically, I want to hear from players who have made tons of money in-game, and how did you earn it (eg trading, looting, killing traders..) and how long were you playing, how much time and effort did you put in to making that money.
What are your opinions on the various ways of making money so far, and how it is balanced? Is trading too powerful? Or useless compared to something else? Do you think certain things are too expensive or too cheap? How much do you think a small building should cost?

The way I always earned my money was through trading, I would buy an item when the price mark up was in the greed (usually around 60-70%) and sell the same item in a different place that had the price marked up higher (usually I tried for at least 105%) this could be very time consuming, but it was pretty easy... it's also REALLY boring xD but when repeatable quest/missions are added (like hunting down a certain bandit or capturing x amount of bandits for interrogation for the military or something like that) I would gladly do those instead I figure a small building should probably cost at least um...I dunno, 30k or so? maybe i'm setting the price to high? ^.^ we should have a vote on that maybe? probably be the best way I think :3

30Kfor a small building... I don't know about that. Maybe 15k for a very small base.

[Blxz]

30Kfor a small building... I don't know about that. Maybe 15k for a very small base.

I suspect you don't know how easy it is to acquire money in this game. Once things get rolling you can make some money very easily. 30K is very early midgame.