I have recently found this (just now, in fact) and I am, suffice to say, extremely excited for this project.
I would like to ask, will you be able to command forces from a sort of overview map? It could help visualize where your forces will go and such.
Awesome, thanks! There is a minimap which shows you the world map, from which one can command forces; there are also a number of ways you can view your forces on the ground, and a number of views on the minimap in terms of terrain, territory, height, points of conflict, and other factors which I plan to come later.
I'd like to see this, but retaining the delay of sent or received messages. Not like all of the RTSs out there where your army magically knows where you want them to go.
I 100% intend for that to exist. Orders take time!
Also, some questions and suggestions for the dev.
Will combat be just mauling somebody to death by hitting their arms/torso/whatever, or will there be some lethal blows and counterattacks? I would like to see some legendary fighter just plowing through the battlefield with two swords and killing everybody in one lethal hit. And some counterattacking. Something like this
-The swordsman slashes at your head
-You block and counterstrike
-You stab the swordsman through the forehead and into the brain
-The swordsman dies
And some mounted movement. My best idea is horses or other faster than man creatures would take less than a turn to move. Say a rider should take half a turn to move one square while you and other non-mounted people take one. Attacking would also take one turn. So now mounted people can move two squares and attack in two turns (or move one square, attack, and then move one more square), while people on foot can only move one square and attack. This half a turn movement eliminates the cavalry becoming separated from each other while charging. All in all if horsemen are moving slowly (walking) they would take one turn to move one square, and while charging they take half a turn. And now with facing certain directions you can eliminate cavalry from going to somebody, hitting them and then returning back without giving their opponent a chance to fight back if he manages to dodge the attack. You can make charging cavalry take one turn to start facing backwards before they start moving. If this was your idea also, then I am most pleased with this mechanic. If not, can you explain how it's going to work because I'm curious?
Currently, limbs have various components, each has 'health', successful hits take off one health (components only have 2/3 health each, so you 'injure', then 'badly injure', then 'break' a bone, for instance). In 0.0.2, particularly strong hits will be able to instantly destroy a body part. Counterstrikes and similar will exist, as well as shields to block hits (which are in 0.0.1) and a few instant-kill hits with brains, hearts, etc.
In terms of turning, yes, turning completely around takes one turn, so cavalry will not be able to attack then flee (additionally, I think I will give mounted units, if moving rapidly, a 'turning circle', which I think could be an interesting/realistic mechanic). In terms of attacks, cavalry will be able to move several squares a turn, but the person riding them will be able to get one hit in like any other human could, and the usage of the two turn counters are separate. The current intention is to allow horses to travel between 2 and 4 squares per turn, depending on the speed they are running and the 'quality' of the horse (as in, health, breed, etc), but that's one of those things that needs a lot of playtesting. Do say if my answer wasn't clear, and I shall elaborate!
no there isn't, but I am trying to figure out a way to introduce sound in some way
How about you do it in a similar way as it has been done in Catacylsm (the roguelike one)? When someone behind your back is making a noise, a "?" mark appears near the source. Or you could add a panel "Hearing" and make messages like "you hear a woman scream south-west" or something.
The '?' idea is closest to the one I'm considering, and having it in a location close to, but not necessarily exactly on, the source, and the colour/size or something is dependent on the noise. On the other hand, I can see the strength of messages, and I am debating having a second sidebar on the left, as there is an increasingly significant amount of information I think it might be useful to always have on hand. Additionally, there isn't much value to having lots of unseen land in the main window (since the FOV size isn't going to change), so a second sidebar with things (including sound) may appear.
I like the Cataclysm-like idea. Imagine what something like the Teutoburg Ambush would feel like. The ? would begin to cause more fear than a &, at least for me. With the panel though, I think we're going to be having to receive a good bit of information anyways. It's a fine idea, but I think things may start to get a bit cluttered (though I'm not sure how things look anyways, so there may very well be plenty of room for a hearing panel. If there is, that is definitely a solid idea in my opinion).
And adding on to the ? idea, there could be some way to differentiate between what you think may be friend and foe. It wouldn't be 100% accurate though. Maybe have it depend on what intel you have, your terrain, etc. Though I'm no programmer, so that may be a little too much work.
I agree, I don't want clutter, but at the same time I want there to be enough information for the player, and in a large battle the main window is going to be quite full, so there is (perhaps) the strength of sound in a sidebar. Hmm. Interesting idea re: friend/foe - that wouldn't be any effort, but I'm not sure how it would work. Do you mean if you know a friend is roughly where the sound came from, you guess/assume it was likely a friend?
Are there any totally original races? It's always nice to have some kind of distinguishable race that people identify games with, or are just memorable, much like the Bronze colossus, fluffy wambler (and several cave creatures) of DF, or goombas and koopas of Mario, or various other things. They don't have to be completely off the rocker weird, just unique.
Yes, there are, and they are staying secret for now. There are two major ones - one is a subset of Fiends (demonic creatures) and one a subset of the undead, which is a kind of walking siege weapon. They will be unveiled at some point
A hearing pannel could be cluttering since not many players would pay attention to it. A "?" mark popping out when you hear about something that's not in your line of sight would be better. Maybe the "?" mark could be colored to give the player an idea about the loudness of the sound. For example, white could be used for quiet things like a kobold sneaking around and red could be used for loud things like a magical earthquake or something. An earthquake would generate a big line of question marks on the map if the player isn't looking at that direction. That would really add some "What the hell? My army is getting flanked by skirmishers! *turns around* OMGEARTHQUAKEWTFFACEPALM" moments for the game.
I don't know how that would be implemented. Everything has a "loudness" value or something? I'm no programmer and I'm just throwing some ideas around.
If you are going to add a key that enables the player to look at tiles, (and since it's roguelike you are going to have to do it even with tilesets) players could look at ? tiles and it would give some ideas to the player. Like "This is a howling sound. You don't know what it is." and if you have the required skill (I don't know, forest lore?) it will be like "This is a screaming sound. It sounds like it's a wolf"
Again, just brainstorming.
A skill or some kind of a modifier for hearing and sneaking is essential too.
This is turning into a good debate about sound! I do know what you mean; would one always check the sound panel in the heat of battle? Lighter/darker sound icons would certainly be more visible, I think. I'm not sure about loudness, but I guess that is what I'd do - the louder a sound is, then the brighter the ?, and that would be determined by a whole range of factors. Again, maybe very loud sounds would get a 2x2 grid of ?s, say, instead of just a single ?. I *very* much like the 'Looking' at ? idea; there is a function, it exists in 0.0.1, and the part of that function that deals with terrain is in fact what I intend to program in today once I've finished these replies! But I very much like the 'examining' sounds idea; there are many skills relating to stealth, also. I'm actually considering significantly retooling the skills list, but that's such a big job it's going to have to wait
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I would like Lizardmen and not crappy ones that look like its mother was a garden lizard but ones that had crocs for ancestors.
There were lizardmen, but I'm afraid they're gone!
Excited for stealth. Being able to sneak up behind people and stab (wherever I WANT to stab them - Take THAT, Skyrim) sounds like it's going to be a blast.
Yes, definitely, stab anywhere. This also relates to the 'facing' value for stabbing people in the back, for instance, or in the legs and damaging hamstrings and similar (this is all 0.0.2 stuff). Now, to programming!