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Author Topic: King of Dragon Pass  (Read 1001 times)

rylen

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King of Dragon Pass
« on: October 12, 2006, 06:11:00 pm »

Since we're talking relevant games...

King of Dragon Pass (review)
is another settlement game, thought at a higher level of detail.  For instance, you still control things like farming, land clearing, and crop selection but using sliders for general behavior instead of direct specification.

Aside from being a great game, it provides two interesting takes on how to implement magic in a community.  (A third, Heroquesting, is extremely setting specific.)

The first sounds like Toady's talk about artifacts.  Treasures are acquired by the clan (your settlement) which improve their lives in various ways.  Some make them better hunters or help train warriors quickly.  Some  amuse them or make them less prone to conficts.  Some are carried by war bands and help those in the fight.

The other is investment of community resources in temples.  These are part of a bronze age (multiple diety) style or religion where maintaining shows the clans priorities.  If the clan is warlike, it invests heavily in war gods.  Peaceful, more emphasis on agricultural dieties.  You can make one-off sacrifices for specific blessing effects or, if the temple is large enough, get that effect full time.  But these things are too expensive to have too many of them.

Hope the game is interesting to ya'll.  As far as I know, it's still sale-ware (plus demo).  Given how long it's been, I wouldn't surprised if you could talk to the publishers and get a good price.  And it still plays well.

Rylen

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Toady One

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Re: King of Dragon Pass
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2006, 11:03:00 pm »

I played this a long time ago...  I don't remember the context...  but when I went to their web site I remembered all the screen shots from the game.
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Aquillion

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Re: King of Dragon Pass
« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2006, 01:01:00 am »

You know, that game does have one thing that could be neat if adapted into dwarf fortress: it has a real neat advisor system.

The way it works, if you don't recall (or for those here who never played), is that you have this group of seven people from your clan whose portraits constantly appear at the bottom of the screen; at any time, you can click on them to get their advice on whatever is currently on the screen, as well as what they think you should do next.  In addition to being your advisers, though, they're represented as people in your tribe, with their own petty hatreds, agendas, and so forth.  And from time to time they can die.

Maybe at some point, Dwarf Fortress' nobles could fulfill a somewhat similar role?  There could be a 'table of nobles' that the player could pull up by hitting the right key, where the various nobles would give the player advice.  Guild nobles could tell the player how nobles in their guild are doing,  trade ones could advise the player on what the fortress needs, while military ones could try and give the player advice about holes in their defenses or something.  Various dwarves could also warn the player if they lack a workshop of a particular sort that they ought to have, or if the fortress' supplies of a vital ore or material are running low or nonexistent.

Of course, it can be a lot of work to get advisers like that to give meaningful advice... if the guild nobles just tell the player to have more jobs for their guild every time (the way those worthless Civ II advisers used to just tell you to devote all your civ's output to their respective category), then it doesn't really help the player at all.  One of the things that makes the advisers in King of Dragon pass useful is that (at least for the smart ones) their advice is often useful.

I recall that at one point, my oldest and wisest adviser died of old age, and it actually felt like I lost something important.  Her replacement wasn't nearly so helpful.

Oh, and there's usually a 'fool' on the council who worships the trickster god and whose advice is always bad.  They serve an important purpose, though; you can often to well by doing the exact opposite of what they advise, and they're frequently entertaining.  I recall that I had to take mine off my circle for a while because he'd offended someone with his jests, and I missed him the whole time.

Another nice thing is that advisers like that can add a 'human' level to the game, so to speak.  They could help ensure that the numbers and symbols that the player is manipulating feel like real dwarves.

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We don't want another cheap fantasy universe, we want a cheap fantasy universe generator. --Toady One

Thunderstick

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Re: King of Dragon Pass
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2006, 01:05:00 am »

Looks like my kind of game, but try as I might, I can't find it to buy on the MacTreasures site  :(
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Skyrage

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Re: King of Dragon Pass
« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2006, 02:47:00 am »

Hey, this game looks pretty neat. Gonna see if I can get my hands on it somehow once I get my own computer up and running.
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Thunderstick

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Re: King of Dragon Pass
« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2006, 11:20:00 am »

I'm pretty sure it's not being sold any more, since I saw four used copies at Amazon.com, two of which are 64 bucks, and the other two over 100
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rylen

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Re: King of Dragon Pass
« Reply #6 on: October 14, 2006, 02:48:00 pm »

quote:
Originally posted by Thunderstick:
<STRONG>I'm pretty sure it's not being sold any more, since I saw four used copies at Amazon.com, two of which are 64 bucks, and the other two over 100</STRONG>

Since I started this, I went and did a little homework.  Here's an email I got (in under an hour) from the A-Sharp customer desk:

We are sold out, and I think most others are as well.

We can make a copy of the CD, but don't have any printed manuals (or boxes) left (the manual is available as a PDF). If you're interested, you can pay by check (in US$, drawn on a US bank) or PayPal (to dunham@pensee.com). Cost is $19.95, plus shipping (US is $5.95; other countries is $9.95). Please note we're not a retail operation, and can't always ship promptly.

Much less then the boxed sets are running.

Rylen

[ October 14, 2006: Message edited by: rylen ]

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w

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Re: King of Dragon Pass
« Reply #7 on: October 14, 2006, 03:15:00 pm »

KODP is a fantastic game.  It's well worth $19.95.
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Thunderstick

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Re: King of Dragon Pass
« Reply #8 on: October 14, 2006, 08:15:00 pm »

Rylen, I love you.

(as a brother... not romantically  :))

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