We've got our Humble Store account setup for the non-DRM version, but enough people have asked us to go to GoG that we've already applied.
Everything happens in the POIs, it's really the "secret" to our ability to have so much content - by reducing the actual gameworld to just these locations it makes the amount of content and the believe AI feasible. Effects do cross the POI boundaries but that's because the Nations/Regions compute areas based on the boundary POIs, just to allow for things like the dynamic Country names and particle effects to help with visualization.
We visualize almost ENTIRELY at the POI level, with the connections sometimes used to show supply/trade. There has been discussion of adding a colored regional display, but I don't think we'll end up taking that route. I think you'll find that the zoomed out view POI visualization (for guilds, population, culture, etc) actually is functional and looks pretty good too.
Alright, so Procedural... I have written a lot but I'm as lost as you are when I try to find it. It breaks down in two ways.
1) We will commission 2D Painted-Style tiles to be used for map construction, this takes up the majority of the money accounted for by the stretch goal. We assemble these tiles OUTSIDE of the main game itself, and they are assigned values based on their location and neighbors. POIs are then spawned "logically" (this is the part that is annoying to test) and we begin our second phase.
2) We aren't going Dwarf Fortress full on genealogical, it's just not possible for either in the timeframe provided or to even do justice to it. What we have come up with is an interesting way to do it that pivots off the POI structure already in place. Essentially we begin with the beginning of this world, generally the birth of the elder races and human tribes. Turns pass automatically, and every turn each power on the map "takes an action" which can range from expanding, to developing its culture, learning a spell, etc. These are dictated by the governmetn type and culture - for instance a Tribal culture has a max count of 3 POIs, if it is at 3 it will either develop its culture or one of its POIs will break off to a new tribe with the same culture. This process continues over time, and you will have an ebb and flow of your power which can be used to "influence" events as they happen. Eventually your "rise" occurs which lets you almost freely interact with the world, followed by your "fall" and then the world moves along as normal. We plan on adding in simple mechanics like a "golden age" for cultures or to spawn a famous leader who will temporarily provide a bonus, and who will leave "artifacts" or spells with their name on it when the game begins some time later.
That may seem like a lot, but it's not - once again using the POIs as simple data structures we have already managed to POC this. The main game itself is not altered because we import the resulting sprite from the tiles into the game with the POIs just like any scenario. A discussion is ongoing on whether or not we upload this tool so everyone can see it, it's VERY ugly at this point (I built it in native NGUI windows like our original alpha) but it really does let you see how it would work with relative ease.
It will add development time, but we will be addressing it "after the fact" - that is after an early access build without this feature is running bug-free.
Endless mode frees the game from its dependencies on the Old One rising as the main crisis point of the game. We would redesign elements of the game to let your old one operate like more like a "peer" in the world as long you play your aggression properly - lay forever asleep and watch the world or rise up and try to be a benevolent ruler. There's a LOT of backend work done on this stretch goal, which will let its true potential be unlocked by modders and scenario builders. We also will be adding in a Prophecy Randomization that gives you "strange" goals to achieve that will unlock the prophecy of your return, essentially providing additional challenges to the game (though they certainly feel rather gamey).
Both of these are fully configurable - with Procedural Generation you can simply choose to play a regular scenario, and the elements of Endless Mode will be added to the already existing Game Mode system which lets you customize your experience.
After 53k? The only thing I would consider adding is more art tiers, because they would involve no work on our end simply contracting. I would love to add Voiceovers to the Agents and Heroes but there's just so much involved in that process, the budget isn't even the major constraint.
Author
Topic: That which sleeps- Kickstarted! (Read 370599 times)