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[gimli]

Project Update 6-8-2015.

...aaaand finally, some info about the bloodlines system!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The bloodlines system will track certain traits and maintain their relative strength (with a value of 100 to -100) when they exist for a given character. When two characters breed, they will compare for identical, and then similar, traits to produce a new relative strength for the trait - this allows for rare, powerful traits to slowly decline over time without the proper breeding and for more predictable offspring for typical traits. Training for children, which we discussed in a prior video, will allow you to "push" a child towards favoring inheritance from one of their parents. This effect can also be achieved through certain rituals and events, and randomly traits that would "die out" by falling below -100 would instead gain a resurgence.

An individual character will also have a "bloodline" icon on their sheet representing their relative strength of racial blood (and special blood types, which we will get to later) and racial traits will be updated with the same "lesser, minor, major" system currently used for half-breeds to allow greater granularity in mixed blood. The favored blood (not necessarily the majority) will determine the basic portrait used but all other stats will derive through the relevant percentages so that multiple generations of interracial breeding will be possible for notables and heroes. Racial effecting items and spells will be adjusted to have lessened effect on those with mixed blood. This is a light-weight modification yet it creates a lot of potential within the existing system for interesting characters to emerge.

Rare "heritage" traits can emerge based on the presence of certain traits in a given quantity or strength. For example, a dwarf with several strong physical traits may manifest "Son of the Mountain," a part of the Dwarven Heritage. These special traits are extremely powerful and have extra utility both within the culture/race group but also with spells and effects - some rituals will call for specific "Lost Bloodlines" while other bloodlines may draw the characters possessing them down certain questlines. While the Elder Races have ancient bloodlines dating back to their origin the Lesser Races will have multiple bloodlines that draw from Lore - some human societies may be descended from the blood of a great kingdom which gives them a very mild +1 Will bonus when present only as a vestige, but if it manifests strongly they may find themselves blessed with powerful unique abilities or greatly enhanced stats.

This system opens up a lot of potential interaction for the player, from the Biomancer quickly creating progeny to force complex bloodlines that might otherwise take ages to accomplish to creating "cowardly" traits that corrupt "pride" traits and take their place within a population. We're excited to explore these in the future, but don't expect to see much beyond the more straightforward implementations mentioned above in Beta. We're finalizing the representation now, and we wanted to make sure that the newly added complexity doesn't detract from the game for players who choose to ignore this part of the game. To accomplish this we're representing the bloodlines as a simple "pie-chart" esque visual showing percentages of racial blood. However, to draw the eye in the more unique occurences we're tying Ancient Lore and Heritage Bloodlines to special effects and graphics - if a Dwarf Queen is blessed with Heritage Blood her icon will take on a stony apperance (the same used in POI designation), or if a Human suffers from the Blood of Shadows their icon will cast dark flickering shadows around it. In addition "recessive" weak traits are not shown unless you cast a certain ritual at which point you will see the potential emergent traits for each Hero.

This is still an early implementation and will need to be rigorously tested by the Beta Testers so expect many changes down the road.

[Majestic7]

I must say I'm a little worried about all these bells and whistles like bloodlines. It reminds me of some P&P RPGs where the focus of the developers wanders from the main things to adding million different little rules on top of the core game. It has the risk of losing the sight of the main meal and getting lost among the details. I hope they'll hone the basic stuff to work fine instead of jumping from one system to another and leaving all half-assed.

[nenjin]

I'm kinda starting to agree. I'm normally the guy that is thrilled by extra features, but TWS wasn't exactly light on features to begin with. Now would seem like the time to feature lock and get into beta. Then again, we don't know the entirety of their development road map. Maybe bloodlines was allotted for some time ago.

[Puzzlemaker]

Feature creep:  The bane of deadlines everywhere.

[dennislp3]

The extra features are things they had planned...they are technically only doing what they promised and didn't estimate the time it would take to add all the kickstarter stuff into the game properly. I have yet to really see any reason to worry just yet

[Xantalos]

While I normally might agree with you, nenjin, I'm too excited over the prospect of having the Chosen One come at me with everything he's got only for me to activate the horrendous mutation I put into his bloodline a billion years ago to be activated at the perfect moment.

[dennislp3]

lol true...at least they are good features

"Sorry guys delayed because adding facebook connectivity is taking longer than usual" *shoots self in face*

[Zangi]

While I normally might agree with you, nenjin, I'm too excited over the prospect of having the Chosen One come at me with everything he's got only for me to activate the horrendous mutation I put into his bloodline a billion years ago to be activated at the perfect moment.

If I'm understanding the mechanics of the game.  It would be more like -
Old One #1, screwing around with bloodlines. 
Old One #1 eventually put back to sleep. 
Centuries/Millennial later, Old One #3 comes forth, finds descendant of one of the bloodlines Old One #1 screwed with. 
Old One #3 takes advantage of it.

At least, what with all the simulation, defeat is not the ultimate defeat and victory is not the ultimate victory.

[gimli]

The extra features are things they had planned...they are technically only doing what they promised and didn't estimate the time it would take to add all the kickstarter stuff into the game properly. I have yet to really see any reason to worry just yet

Yep, and I guess it's clear, that this system will shine in endless mode, which will be added later on.
Here is a reply by Josh[dev]: "In the current scenarios you won't be dealing with more than a generation or two so you're mostly interacting with the Heritage and Ancient bloodlines, but the depth that this will bring to both Procedural/Endless as well as future scenarios with a grander scope seems very rewarding."

[Lapoleon]

A lot of the delays have been because features for the Stretch Goals have had to be added now because it's easier to do it now than to rewrite the code later. The main one being the fact that due to the addition of rivals the entire event and interaction system  has had to be rewritten so the AI can also use it.

The bloodlines have been in for a while, since the feature lock has been in place for more than a month. Current delays are due to a problem in the data structure of the code.

[Xgamer4]

I must say I'm a little worried about all these bells and whistles like bloodlines. It reminds me of some P&P RPGs where the focus of the developers wanders from the main things to adding million different little rules on top of the core game. It has the risk of losing the sight of the main meal and getting lost among the details. I hope they'll hone the basic stuff to work fine instead of jumping from one system to another and leaving all half-assed.

They mentioned off-hand last time bloodlines were mentioned that the system was implemented to help properly realize what one of the high-level kickstarter backers wanted.

[forsaken1111]

added now because it's easier to do it now than to rewrite the code later

Well yes, that is literally the whole point of the alpha phase of software development. The worry is the sheer amount of feature creep, not that features take time to add which I think we all understand.

[StupidElves]

This has nothing to do with That Which Sleeps.


Whenever I see forsaken1111's avatar, I cannot help but sit and stare until it loops so that I can see the perfect game of snake.

[forsaken1111]

This has nothing to do with That Which Sleeps.
Whenever I see forsaken1111's avatar, I cannot help but sit and stare until it loops so that I can see the perfect game of snake.

I do it too.

I've tried to change it several times but I never can bring myself to do it.

Great now I'm staring at it again.

[Puzzlemaker]

I always wonder what the algorithm to yield the best snake game (AKA shortest time to complete coverage) is.  I should write some ascii program that does it at some point, just to see.