I have a few suggestions about necromancy based on some other thoughts if you still haven't finished the magic\necromancy system.
-Having different kinds of raising dead. For example: a)Raising a mindless zombie with no abilities other than walk, hit and eat brain. b)Reanimating a corpse able to understand what you are saying and able to obey your commands. c)Making a zombie able to speak, not being oblivious of the world around it and able to inform you of what is happening on a distant part of a battle (other than sending a runner who can get himself killed, send a zombie). and d)Reanimating a dead person who still retains his memories and can continue on with his life or serve you in gratitude of you giving him life again.
-Like I mentioned before but the more advanced corpse raising methods can be used only by better necromancers and those who have practiced their methods for years. Say I'm a novice necromancer with not much knowledge of the act of raising the dead. I can only make a mindless zombie with no abilities. But a more advanced necromancer can reanimate a corpse with no effort and the zombie being unrecognizable from all the normal "living" people.
It would be great sending a zombie who can take an arrow or a sword in the head without feeling any pain to inform me or bring new orders to squad leaders to and from the far reaches of a battle instead of sending a runner who might get killed by a stray arrow or a dragon swooping by and breathing fire on the poor guy.
And about the alpha. Since you moved back the release date from before the end of 2011 to summer 2012, can we expect some features that wouldn't have been included in the first release date, or will we still have an alpha heavily based on combat with no NPCs?
Thanks for the thoughts! I fully intend to have degrees of zombification, as it were. That will also be reflected in the kinds of undead armies fielded, but that's still being worked on at the moment. And as you say, the more skilled you are, both a) the wider the choices for necromancy you will have, and b) the more effective you will be at putting those choices into action. I do really like your idea about the specific uses of zombies; that's an interesting suggestion, and fits nicely into my intentions to have different species/creature types competent or not at different parts of battle. You can expect the latter; the initial alpha will contain world generation, some creatures, and combat. Those are the big 3. And hopefully nice UI, too.
Wait... then everyone is broke?... But.... I wanted to kill the king and take his moneys on him... Sad...
Well, most people try to become the king after they kill the king
Exactly! Or kill him/have him killed for other political reasons, etc...
But Power... I require...
Then go raid one of those disturbingly common groups that are entrusted with some super-powered MacGuffin but are too cowardly use it and too incompetent to protect it.
Let me assure you there will be no such groups! If a group has a special weapon, that weapon will have a history (though you might not yourself know what it is) and it'll be there for a reason. And someone in the group will, of course, be using it.
I'm not sure if you've already answered this, but do you think if it would possible to implement a Multiplayer supported version, whether directly through the game or through an application like Hamachi?
If you can't, or choose not to dedicate any time to it until every possible other thing has been completed, tweaked and balanced, I won't shed a single tear.
Right now, the two things I care most about are not Multiplayer or in-game Politics.
They are Combat and Physics. THOSE are the two things I really hope can be perfected.
I have no idea if it would be, and I have absolutely no intentions of doing it. That's both far beyond my skill, and far outside what I want for the game, I'm afraid. Combat and physics are pretty much (along with world generation) the focus of the first alpha; you should be able to wield weapons, don armor, find creatures, fight them, use bows, throw things, fall off cliffs, knock them back, sever their limbs, get thrown around the map, eat, drink, be blinded, swim... I think that's the full combat-related alpha 0.1 list.