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[rylen]

Those are some nice maps. Will she also be doing the game-manipulated assets for the procedural?

Ascension sounds neat. How will it interact with scenarios?

I'm looking forward to galleons and galleys and catamarans and more. How hard would it be to create an aquatic or semi-aquatic race? A periodically accessible POI. (Usually drowned landbridge. Rises from the depths. etc.)

[KingDinosaurGames]

Those are some nice maps. Will she also be doing the game-manipulated assets for the procedural?

Ascension sounds neat. How will it interact with scenarios?

I'm looking forward to galleons and galleys and catamarans and more. How hard would it be to create an aquatic or semi-aquatic race? A periodically accessible POI. (Usually drowned landbridge. Rises from the depths. etc.)

Nope she's just doing the high-level cartography work for the scenarios.  We have three separate artists who have produced fantastic sample assets for the map so far, one of them is hex-based along the lines of a war game and it resembles the current map but with flatter, but higher quality, sprites.  The other two are more stylized/painterly.  We'll be getting those up on the forums within the week for people to review.

If you enable the Rival Old Ones then the Ascended will be in that scenario (unless you play as him).  Their wont' be any custom interactions with the scenarios, rather the struggle of the Ascended will play out across your normal game.

If you mean a "Map Race" (a race that can have a civilization on the map), it is always somewhat tedious to make a race because of how complex they are but we DO have an aquatic flag.  It is not fully tested as of yet, but is part of the second Scenario so it will be getting a thorough testing. 

You can raise/lower landmasses or just create artificial bridges, it's also a big part of the second scenario (it pivots around a rising isle that lures adventurers there) so it's very extensive.

[puke]

Okay, I've procrastinated as far as I can.

I would like to follow the development of this game, but I do not have time in the next six months to actively play or make constructive comments on the beta.

I would, however, like to read the development forum as it updates.  Is there a backer level that would allow me to do so?  I do not feel the need to post or have input, as I do not have the time to devote to this in any meaningful way.

I would like to passively consume some of this information, as small-shop product and software development and especially game development are in my interests.

Is there any sort of backer level that would let me read the dev forum?  Will this be publicly readable, or will someone need beta access to even see changelogs and what the dev's are posting to the community?

[Rutee]

Can you, the player, skip the emergent-ness of the Ascended and just add them?  I imagine if I bend a game to having a Lesser Evil eat me who wants to eat me, it'd be hard to fail, but it seems needlessly time consuming.  I actually have no interest in this and may never see them (I have a habit of abandoning games well before I lose, which is a poor habit, I'm aware), but I'm pretty sure others will care.

More questions: I want to understand the basic mechanism and realize I do not: Is Ancient Power just currency, or also a timer to awakening?  I know you can use it to fund agents, for instance, and some other actions, and if it's also your timer to awakening it adds some pretty ...  harsh bits to some actions.  I guess sometimes, you just REALLY need something done, if some actions are done with 2 or 3 Ancient Power.

Can Agents be de-activated?  If so, what is the cost?  I assume that the answer is either 'no' or 'yes, and high', or there'd be no incentive not to use all the early game agents and then switch as you get betterer options.  I'm aware that you can willfully have them killed by continuing to take very high risk actions as a sort of Great Conqueror, but I mean more simply (and potentially with the option to rehire in the future)

How does Profile work?  How much of a risk does it represent?  From what I've seen, a Profile is either a modifier to having your nature as an agent of ULTIMATE EVIL seen, or a modifier to Fame gain. Can you reasonably have, say, the Peddler wander around with any help whatsoever and Not Be Seen?  Similarly, are there Minions who really just don't attract attention (and similarly don't really have high power and can only realistically screen or MAYBE kill/provide some labor)?  I imagine that, if not heroes, you can find sellswords or thugs for a Peddler to not instantly die when confronted, but still have at least a bit of cheap labor.

How much do your resources matter?  How do you gain resources?  You don't control a whole lot directly for a while, so I was curious.  Gold's utility is obvious, as is Lore's, but what are you going to do with food?  Lumber?  Edit: What you can plausibly do with it given 100% free reign is one thing, I'm wondering what we know the game actually permits right now.

There's what, 22 agents now, counting stretch goals and Backers?  What's the highest amount you can POSSIBLY get [Edit: In-game]?  What about REasonably?  Idle curiosity, this one.  [Edit: Obviously the potential number of agents to exist at all is incalculable, thanks to modding]

Not really a question, but reading the older posts did remind me how much other gamers sometimes amuse me.  Ah, my people.

[KingDinosaurGames]

Okay, I've procrastinated as far as I can.

I would like to follow the development of this game, but I do not have time in the next six months to actively play or make constructive comments on the beta.

I would, however, like to read the development forum as it updates.  Is there a backer level that would allow me to do so?  I do not feel the need to post or have input, as I do not have the time to devote to this in any meaningful way.

I would like to passively consume some of this information, as small-shop product and software development and especially game development are in my interests.

Is there any sort of backer level that would let me read the dev forum?  Will this be publicly readable, or will someone need beta access to even see changelogs and what the dev's are posting to the community?

Just being a regular backer will get you into the forums where we'll be posting videos and talking about the progress of the game.  The Beta Backer forums will mostly be for game direction, asset review, and discussion of bugs.

Can you, the player, skip the emergent-ness of the Ascended and just add them?  I imagine if I bend a game to having a Lesser Evil eat me who wants to eat me, it'd be hard to fail, but it seems needlessly time consuming.  I actually have no interest in this and may never see them (I have a habit of abandoning games well before I lose, which is a poor habit, I'm aware), but I'm pretty sure others will care.

More questions: I want to understand the basic mechanism and realize I do not: Is Ancient Power just currency, or also a timer to awakening?  I know you can use it to fund agents, for instance, and some other actions, and if it's also your timer to awakening it adds some pretty ...  harsh bits to some actions.  I guess sometimes, you just REALLY need something done, if some actions are done with 2 or 3 Ancient Power.

Can Agents be de-activated?  If so, what is the cost?  I assume that the answer is either 'no' or 'yes, and high', or there'd be no incentive not to use all the early game agents and then switch as you get betterer options.  I'm aware that you can willfully have them killed by continuing to take very high risk actions as a sort of Great Conqueror, but I mean more simply (and potentially with the option to rehire in the future)

How does Profile work?  How much of a risk does it represent?  From what I've seen, a Profile is either a modifier to having your nature as an agent of ULTIMATE EVIL seen, or a modifier to Fame gain. Can you reasonably have, say, the Peddler wander around with any help whatsoever and Not Be Seen?  Similarly, are there Minions who really just don't attract attention (and similarly don't really have high power and can only realistically screen or MAYBE kill/provide some labor)?  I imagine that, if not heroes, you can find sellswords or thugs for a Peddler to not instantly die when confronted, but still have at least a bit of cheap labor.

How much do your resources matter?  How do you gain resources?  You don't control a whole lot directly for a while, so I was curious.  Gold's utility is obvious, as is Lore's, but what are you going to do with food?  Lumber?  Edit: What you can plausibly do with it given 100% free reign is one thing, I'm wondering what we know the game actually permits right now.

There's what, 22 agents now, counting stretch goals and Backers?  What's the highest amount you can POSSIBLY get [Edit: In-game]?  What about REasonably?  Idle curiosity, this one.  [Edit: Obviously the potential number of agents to exist at all is incalculable, thanks to modding]

Not really a question, but reading the older posts did remind me how much other gamers sometimes amuse me.  Ah, my people.

The Ascended may be a mechanic that most people never encounter, but if you play through the game multiple times you are bound to encounter it - the Ascended can rise not just from slaying you but ALSO from slaying another Rival Old One.  However, in creating the Ascended we will expose all of the effects necessary in the editor for another person to make a similar fashioned Old One if they had that desire.

Ancient Power is both a timer and a currency, the timer element is your "maximum available" and inside that you your "available Ancient Power" fluctuates.  It is definitely a precious commodity, and choosing when to use it is crucial to your strategy.

You cannot de-activate an Agent, though you can deliciously sacrifice them which accomplishes the same net effect.  You cannot deactive and then reactivate.

One of the main effects of Profile is that it adds to the Heroes' skill in hunting you, having a very high profile means a Hero may find you in two or three turns, whereas Low Profile you may see them snooping around but have plenty of time to finish your business and go.  Absolutely, the Peddler could simply wander around without any profile and no one would take any notice.  Many of the diplomatic or infiltration focused minions do not raise profile, and in fact some can lower it - and in answer to the second part you will find most often you are recruiting Minions for their out of combat ability than their combat ability. 

You gain resources by several methods - you could directly control a production method (boring), but you can also raid villages or cities for their stored goods, siphon them from a nation, rob trade routes, or pillage the land.  Food can feed human armies, or more often is used to gain corruption in famine-starved cities ('oh look, here's some food for you!') - lumber can be used to build a navy, or to construct some unique buildings or Elite Units. 

The current max at one time is 10 for the Old One with the most Agent slots, but most other Old Ones are significantly lower.  You can reasonably expect to go through 8-10 on a standard play through,  the number fluctuates a lot based on balance.

[Rutee]

Ancient Power is both a timer and a currency, the timer element is your "maximum available" and inside that you your "available Ancient Power" fluctuates.  It is definitely a precious commodity, and choosing when to use it is crucial to your strategy.

Hm, so spending Ancient Power does not cause you to remain asleep?  I realized that was possible, so I was wondering if the long-term costs vs. short term gains you guys seem to talk about was that, vs. 'You accomplish it quick and easy but with lots of clues for Heroes to figure out'.  This is a sincere question, since I think I missed some foundational conceits, but the game's basic concept really appeals to me, so I'm glad to throw money at it.

Unrelated, what ridiculous scenarios do people want to include via modding?  I'm a bad person, so aside from Touhous, I seriously wonder if it'd be possible to do Earthbound as a Scenario.  The problem is I'd actually feel really bad putting in a way to crush those cheeky kids.

[Jalak]

So what sort of system is there going to be to make sure that these ascended don't become over/under-powered compared to the rest of the old ones (outside of how over/under-powered they're supposed to be)? I remember there being talk of a necromancer lesser evil, so if it were to become an ascended, what would stop it from being just as unbalanced as the death god you had to cut?
Also, are the abilities that these ascended are going to have different from the abilities that the normal old ones get, or are they essentially taking the abilities from different old ones that already exist and just mix up the order in which they get them with maybe a name change and the order of which they can use them?

Another question aimed at the official scenarios; you mentioned that one of them was based around an island (or continent) suddenly rising up from the sea. What is the method planned for this new land to be treated with the panicked curiosity that attracts colonials and explorers like it would garner in real life?

[puke]

In a world where ancient mad gods are a tangible thing, people might be less likely to colonize random islands emerging from the sea.

If the process to raise the island isn't directly inspired by The Magic Candle, I'm going home.

[Cthulhu]

Ancient Power is both a timer and a currency, the timer element is your "maximum available" and inside that you your "available Ancient Power" fluctuates.  It is definitely a precious commodity, and choosing when to use it is crucial to your strategy.

Hm, so spending Ancient Power does not cause you to remain asleep?  I realized that was possible, so I was wondering if the long-term costs vs. short term gains you guys seem to talk about was that, vs. 'You accomplish it quick and easy but with lots of clues for Heroes to figure out'.  This is a sincere question, since I think I missed some foundational conceits, but the game's basic concept really appeals to me, so I'm glad to throw money at it.

Unrelated, what ridiculous scenarios do people want to include via modding?  I'm a bad person, so aside from Touhous, I seriously wonder if it'd be possible to do Earthbound as a Scenario.  The problem is I'd actually feel really bad putting in a way to crush those cheeky kids.

I already mentioned wanting to do a Scramble for Africa scenario somewhere back with a mix of powerful but isolated colonial entities and various populous but diverse tribes of indigenous people.  With custom gods designed to influence the different groups in different ways (fomenting destructive greed in the colonials, maybe getting them to mine too greedily and too deep? or getting hte tribals riled up.)

[KingDinosaurGames]

Ancient Power is both a timer and a currency, the timer element is your "maximum available" and inside that you your "available Ancient Power" fluctuates.  It is definitely a precious commodity, and choosing when to use it is crucial to your strategy.

Hm, so spending Ancient Power does not cause you to remain asleep?  I realized that was possible, so I was wondering if the long-term costs vs. short term gains you guys seem to talk about was that, vs. 'You accomplish it quick and easy but with lots of clues for Heroes to figure out'.  This is a sincere question, since I think I missed some foundational conceits, but the game's basic concept really appeals to me, so I'm glad to throw money at it.

Unrelated, what ridiculous scenarios do people want to include via modding?  I'm a bad person, so aside from Touhous, I seriously wonder if it'd be possible to do Earthbound as a Scenario.  The problem is I'd actually feel really bad putting in a way to crush those cheeky kids.

Coupling ancient power usage to sleep timer ended up being too punishing, the clues you drop when you directly touch the world serve as a painful enough compromise.

In a world where ancient mad gods are a tangible thing, people might be less likely to colonize random islands emerging from the sea.

If the process to raise the island isn't directly inspired by The Magic Candle, I'm going home.

It's those crazy adventurers, never know any better

So what sort of system is there going to be to make sure that these ascended don't become over/under-powered compared to the rest of the old ones (outside of how over/under-powered they're supposed to be)? I remember there being talk of a necromancer lesser evil, so if it were to become an ascended, what would stop it from being just as unbalanced as the death god you had to cut?
Also, are the abilities that these ascended are going to have different from the abilities that the normal old ones get, or are they essentially taking the abilities from different old ones that already exist and just mix up the order in which they get them with maybe a name change and the order of which they can use them?

Another question aimed at the official scenarios; you mentioned that one of them was based around an island (or continent) suddenly rising up from the sea. What is the method planned for this new land to be treated with the panicked curiosity that attracts colonials and explorers like it would garner in real life?

There won't be, the Ascended one is meant to be a special, and unique gameplay element for people who want more consistency between the campaigns (to level up and build their Ancient One).  We will be attaching "effects" to existing abilities to alter them slightly, and creating some unique fusion abilities for specific combinations.

Adventurers will flock to the island if they are bold enough, but if few return the "threat" of the island increases luring only the powerful or foolish to land on its shores. 

[i2amroy]

*Reloads the page*
*Sees the money at exactly $75,000*
*YAY! *

[Jalak]

So, can we make an extra $10,000 in one-and-a-half days? Colour me impressed if we do.

[ventuswings]

Congratulations on reaching the second-to-last stretch goal! I thought $85,000 was unlikely and believed it would be fortunate to get Sea Terror and new race alone (which is what I really wanted since both Dragonkins and Minotaurs seem like they could introduce really cool strategic element to the game-play), but the progress at which funding shot up today went far beyond my expectations which were already pretty high to begin with.

[Cthulhu]

37 hours!  10,000 bucks!  Can we do it?!

That's almost 300 bucks an hour not accounting for the dead eight hours or so tonight.  Shit!

[Rutee]

It seems wildly improbable the kickstarter will generate 16.5% of its total funding in the last day alone.  But Terror from the Seas is pretty nifty and I'm glad we got it~