And thus, we have a new Race! Now, the question is, what can we do with the last 3 days?
As for what I have see so far, I also prefer Minotaur. I like the lore surrounding them the most, but as the potential that they might unwittingly know how to defeat you, even if they don't know who you are, via ANCIENT ORAL TRADITION.
One of the reasons we cut Minotaurs from the original design plan is that it seems to ALWAYS MAKE SENSE to crush them right away. They are an exotic culture with a foreign race so no one cares about them, and they threaten to give yet another type of Lore bonus to the civilized world if they are brought into the fold. Still, it was a somewhat painful loss because we had a whole system designed around their unique lore and multiple interactions with slaver states and magocracies/mage guilds.
We put them back in as part of the stretch goal because a) Tribal Humans needed another interesting party to make their areas more diversified and b) with rival old ones they now can become an early point of "cold war" contention between the old ones, since they would make powerful tools to use against other dark gods.
That sounds cool. I suspect they need the right scenarios. Set them up so you can choose to build up their grievances, strengthen ties with the orcs and others who will fight against the civilizations, and otherwise bring them into contention, versus ignoring them and hoping they do not develop in ways that undermine you. Other places, they would be the minor nuisance you want to crush before they get bigger.
For me, the above is why I have "no love" for the Dragonkin. TWS is making heavy use of existing fantasy tropes and I don't see where they fit. The Minotaurs are Noble Savages and your choices are push them towards savagery, build a civilization to include them, or hope they do not go against you. The Mindflayers represent the unknowably eldrich in a tidy package. But what are the Dragonkin? I have not been following the Hasbro/Wizards/D&D fiction line, but I cannot think of any literary half-dragons besides the Dragonlance books. And those were heavily tied into the stories lore. They felt tacked on, to me, in 4th ed. D&D.
I don't think I asked my question about turning procedurally generated worlds into scenarios well. Having stopped generation, will I be able to open it up in the editor, modify some leaders, add a POI for the Baron, and otherwise tweak things. It would be a bit more work than sharing a DF seed and map location, but much less than a full custom scenario. I can see the community wanting to distinguish the two, but it makes for a potential core to build a story out of.
In terms of your next stretch goal, I'm also not a big fan of Voice Overs. I have no idea about pricing, but FTL benefits hugely from the sound. Would more tracks be a valid goal? I'd also like to see a commitment to post release scenarios.
Yep, the Genealogical Process creates an actual Scenario File and a flat image (right now it does but we may import the tiles as stamps or otherwise more granular) which is used to load into the main engine. You can save it, edit it, make a template out of it, whatever you'd like to do. The two steps are complete black boxes to the other.
We are lucky enough to have a talented composer who is also a good friend of ours, so we have a variety of music we can use. To be honest I don't share the opinion that VO work, when done judiciously, wouldn't enhance a Grand Strategy game - but we have decided to not go the VO route. We've narrowed it down to a couple of proposed features, a really "weird" fusion Old One we had developed but said 'no chance', and just more content or supporting art/effects.
I do wonder why Dragonkin fell so flat, I think we didn't sell them properly. As the only flying race they naturally have unique gameplay, and they "emerge" from any terrain that can host Dragons - appearing like a swarm to immediately colonize adjacent spaces. The "sudden threat" of this unknown race spawns unique AI reactions - it isn't like Minotaurs appearing (which are known) or orcs raiding - it sends terror across the citizenry. Raise an army to attack them? They migrate elsewhere, looting and raiding in their wake.
As for Lore, they are the forerunners of a lost age, following desires to find certain elements that then spawn campaigns. If the Dragonkin succeed they will bring back the petrified/lost Dragons of their ancestry. A "shock the world" event.
I go back and forth on blatantly describing mechanics vs trying to give some mystery and theme - never sure which approach works better, but perhaps I should have simply laid out the Dragonkin abilities.
On a side note, I was heavily influenced by the Dragonlance books when I was a kid ("Look Raist, bunnies") though it lasted even more so because I played Arctic, a MUD from.. two decades ago? I'll never forget the terror of fighting Draconians, or of falling off the Flying Citadel over and over and over.
On "commitment" to post-release scenarios, we will never absolutely commit because there's always the possibility of extenuating circumstances. I don't want to promise something I can't ABSOLUTELY deliver on. That being said, we intend to continue to support the game with additional scenarios, agents, content, and mod effects.
I don't check this for one day and 5,000$ was added.. Wow, all stretch goals seems easy now! I'm so very excited for this game, thank you Kingdinosaur for presenting this to us so openly the entire process. Made it easy to back. :]
Glad to hear it, we will continue to be this transparent (though less responsive) when the Kickstarter ends.
Author
Topic: That which sleeps- Kickstarted! (Read 368662 times)