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[Trollheiming]

China is mountainous. Blame the Indian subcontinent smashing into Asia. It's extremely rare not to see a mountain on the horizon here. There's no flatland equivalent to America's Great Plains region. All those great rivers, like the Yellow River, are surrounded by mountains and gorges on every side for most of their lengths. And terraced farms.

[Eктωρ]

I stand corrected, then.

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

In all seriousness, you are promising a lot and I hope you deliver. You've made good progress, and there are many active people ready to bully you into finishing this game, so I hope you will.

I am promising a lot. There's no doubt about that. And it's weird, because no matter how much I say "I will deliver!", it cannot actually GUARANTEE to anyone else that I will deliver. All I can say is that I have no intention of stopping any time in the next decade, so make of that what you will

Do you know about a podcast called roguelike radio? A while ago they made an episode about designing for the visually impaired. Here's the episode with some worthwhile links included. It's not a personal problem for me but I figured that it would be easier for you to include this in your design decisions while still in alpha. That is, if you choose to design for people with less than five full senses.

Glad to see this project going forward, still following with interest.

I do, and it's an interesting question. I've added Dvorak support, but I could definitely try to adjust colour options. I hadn't really thought about it, but now I am. In some later version (it won't be that hard to add in retrospectively, I don't... think?) I may just give it a shot.

I'd be sincerely happy with it as long as you can talk to be people and they'll talk about their civ, culture and things like that. I'd consider it playable in an alpha level.

NPCS IN THE NEXT VERSION?! Steady on

Also, yeah, for a a suggestion, you should have weather not only dictate things like "spicyness" of the food, but also what kind of food a civilization bases itself of. Tropical areas should have either Sweet Potato, Manioc, Corn, Black Beans, areas that are far from Europe but are temperate should have Rice, large plains should have well developed ranching and knowledge in meat preservation.
Also, thinking of that, if you could make a trase system based on a realistic supply and demand system it would be grand, think like, a city has 1000 people, those people need X amounts of food to survive, and they consume X units everyday, if weather conditions alter crop development and all of that, you could even have famines or so.

That's a great idea re: food types. In terms of cities and things requiring food, I fully intend to have a system like that. Not enough food means starvation, food stockpiles can be created, weather conditions affect crops, etc etc. Some of these mechanics will be abstracted out for history generation (which is to say, there will be famines, but the mechanics behind them will be far less intricate), but once you reach the gameplay era, the mechanics will be fully present.

Will land affect that kind of stuff? Will isolated people develop less weapons/be less warlike?(More likely the former)

Yeeeeees... within limits. Isolated groups will, I think, be less likely to pursue weapons technology. I'm still considering the tech tree (though it's looking good at the moment - will post a photo at some point) and some parts of it are strongly influenced by your surroundings.

This game looks really promising, I can't wait to see the final version of it ! I really hope you'll "finish" it ( if a game of this scale can ever be finished ) . URR, I wonder, do you know any other language than Python ? If so, why did you pick Python and how much time did you take to learn it ? I am actually quite interested in programming and I tried learning C++, but well yeah it's kind of hard and I wonder if it would be a better idea to learn something a little bit simpler to begin with.
Anyway, good luck with your project !

Thanks - as I said, I have at least a decade of work in me yet! I do not; I knew no programming language before Python, and URR is the first programming project I've ever undertaken. I picked Python because it had a nice roguelike tutorial, basically. It took me a month or so to get to grips with the basics, then four/six months of improving, and now I am still improving, but slowly. That four/six months had a lot of re-writing old, terrible code, as I learnt better ways to get the same results. I think Python is really good because it's very clear, very explicit in how its functions work, and - let's not forget - has a roguelike tutorial

I love the look of those trees. I'm waiting for this to get a bit further along before taking the plunge.

Thanks - and not a bad move. Next version has myth/history/language generation, then the version after that has ruins and dungeons and the earliest "gameplay" aspects. Although... whisper it... I might end up combining those two coming versions...

I stand corrected, then.

I always learn something new in this thread...

Meanwhile, here's a work-in-progress screenshot of territories at "Year 0", ie. the start of history generation:



Full size : http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/game/files/2012/12/Valid3.png

[varsovie]

In all seriousness, you are promising a lot and I hope you deliver. You've made good progress, and there are many active people ready to bully you into finishing this game, so I hope you will.

I am promising a lot. There's no doubt about that. And it's weird, because no matter how much I say "I will deliver!", it cannot actually GUARANTEE to anyone else that I will deliver. All I can say is that I have no intention of stopping any time in the next decade, so make of that what you will

Now you're screw for a decade! 

Funny how Santa have a country in north-east : http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/game/files/2012/12/Valid1.png

P.S. We should stop a bit with those giant images, my poor 3G is crying.

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Now you're screw for a decade! 

Funny how Santa have a country in north-east : http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/game/files/2012/12/Valid1.png

P.S. We should stop a bit with those giant images, my poor 3G is crying.

Haha; 1/2 were earlier versions I uploaded... maybe I should learn to delete the old files? I think I'll just leave them if you want to go hunting them down . I promise no more giant images on at least this page of the thread. Besides, the next blog entry will probably be myth-focused...

[Ivefan]

Meanwhile, here's a work-in-progress screenshot of territories at "Year 0", ie. the start of history generation:

I can't help it, But it looks like Capcha "CT.IT"

[The Darkling Wolf]

Looks more like CT .IC to me.

I think you might be a bot Ivefan.

[tootboot]

I'm also concerned about whether URR will deliver in the end since we haven't seen a good demonstration of actual gameplay yet.  What if you spend all this time making amazing procedurally generated worlds but can't actually make it a fun game?

[Ukrainian Ranger]

What if you spend all this time making amazing procedurally generated worlds

I prefer that to any game 

[Rowanas]

If he makes the most astounding procedurally generated worlds, I'll use them for tabletop roleplaying campaigns. I'm determined to behold the glory of URR, no matter what!

[Leatra]

What if you spend all this time making amazing procedurally generated worlds

I prefer that to any game 

Heh, me too. I mean, just look at how much fun Legends mode in DF is.

Still, I would want to create my own Legends too.

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

I can't help it, But it looks like Capcha "CT.IT"

Ah, the secret's out!

I'm also concerned about whether URR will deliver in the end since we haven't seen a good demonstration of actual gameplay yet.  What if you spend all this time making amazing procedurally generated worlds but can't actually make it a fun game?

If he makes the most astounding procedurally generated worlds, I'll use them for tabletop roleplaying campaigns. I'm determined to behold the glory of URR, no matter what!

What if you spend all this time making amazing procedurally generated worlds

I prefer that to any game 

Heh, me too. I mean, just look at how much Legends mode in DF is.

Still, I would want to create my own Legends too.

@ Tootboot: I fully see the concern. However, I genuinely consider an aspect of gameplay to be learning about the world. I think the idea of Legends in DF is a great one, but it's not very user-friendly, and detail is lacking; I want to get to the point where genuine narratives and stories are generated, or you can read about an entire military campaign and the ups/downs/defeats, or read a meaningful *narrative* history of a king's reign. Equally, every historical entry will have a quick "See also" function with it that basically hyperlinks you around the history database so you can quickly follow whatever interesting story you spot. However, as for more "traditional" gameplay, all this background is genuinely essential - I can't create dungeons until I know the history of that dungeon, and I can't create NPCs until I know what civilization they belong to!

@ Rowanas/Leatra/Ukrainian: glad you like it! As for creating your own legends, I think it's essential that what the player does is not just added to the historical database, but is added to the *narrative* histories like any others. You should be able to not just find factual statements of your deeds, but those deeds should be connected to stories. If there is a story generated about a particular battle you played a decisive role in, then your name should be mentioned within that story as the one who opened the gate/blew up the mine/killed the king/etc.

Meanwhile on history generation, here's an example of a completed territorial world:



Full size: http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/game/files/2012/12/Valid1695.png

I need to limit the extent to which a civ cares about expanding into polar regions, and obviously I need to introduce war, uprisings, blah blah blah, as currently civs just expand on the land they start on until they can't any longer, but it's a start! The next thing to do is to plan out the technology tree, and get civilizations moving along it. I'm drafting this on many sheets of large paper, but once I have something meaningful to show on it, I'll update...

[Neonivek]

I especially like that Atlantian kingdom you included in that screenshot 

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Dear God, its... like.. EUIII... BUT PROCEDURALLY GENERATED, this is revolutionary! My dreams are literally coming true!

.. do we get some sort of special christmas release? Im pretty sure that would prove santa existed. (and that you are santa)

[varsovie]

@ Tootboot: I fully see the concern. However, I genuinely consider an aspect of gameplay to be learning about the world. I think the idea of Legends in DF is a great one, but it's not very user-friendly, and detail is lacking; I want to get to the point where genuine narratives and stories are generated, or you can read about an entire military campaign and the ups/downs/defeats, or read a meaningful *narrative* history of a king's reign. Equally, every historical entry will have a quick "See also" function with it that basically hyperlinks you around the history database so you can quickly follow whatever interesting story you spot. However, as for more "traditional" gameplay, all this background is genuinely essential - I can't create dungeons until I know the history of that dungeon, and I can't create NPCs until I know what civilization they belong to!

Kinda like the history in Europa Universalis with the same details that Bastion achieve?

For those interested in procedural world creation, you should follow this blog.