FINALLY AN UPDATE! Copied from the blog.
Firstly, many thanks to everyone who responded to my consultation thoughts about permadeath. Between here, Twitter, Facebook and a bunch of forums I had about fifty responses about the three-lives idea. Most people were against it, whilst a small number lamented the fact the game is gradually becoming less open world (more on this in a moment) and a few said the three-lives thing could work with some kind of story reasoning behind it. Quite a few also thought that a minute or two of rolling a new world – given that early-game death will be rare in URR, and that length of time is certainly nothing on DF – wasn’t too bad. I’ve tried to put as many of these comments as well as my own thoughts together, and I think I’ve found a good solution.
So, firstly, something about “open-world”. As I’ve been thinking about this, I’ve come to realize that there are perhaps two different things encapsulated in that term. On the one hand you have a world with a great degree of freedom – one you can move around in any direction you like (though with perhaps limits on certain buildings/dungeons early on) – and on the other hand you have a game that is “open world” in the sense of Dwarf Fortress. DF is open world in that first sense, but also in another sense – there’s no plot, no story, no objectives, etc. Maybe there are two distinct terms and I simply don’t know what they are, but I think it’s worth distinguishing between games where the world is open, and where the gameplay is… “undirected”? This puts me in mind of Mafia II – that had a wonderfully realized Goodfellas-esque “open world”, but because there was nothing to do except the main story missions, the gameplay was very linear (and the world was, I think, somewhat wasted).
Anyway, URR is most certainly staying an open world in the first sense of a planet with few restrictions on movement and exploration, and partly so in the second sense. I am keen to involve a story, but I do not want to fall into the Mafia II trap of having an impressive world with little do outside linear story missions. There’s a bunch of ways I’m navigating this – firstly, by simply making the plot a lot “wider” and requiring quite a lot of the world to be explored to complete. Secondly, obviously, the procedurally generated aspects mean more exploration of the world is required and there’s no way to know up front (except in quite broad parameters) what parts of the world will be involved. Thirdly, it’s not at all a linear story/plot, and will be playable in a large number of different orders and sequences (think Dark Souls if you have the Master Key). Fourthly, I plan for each area/challenge to be conquerable in a number of different ways depending on your character’s skill set, and the player’s preferences. There will also be a lot of optional activity which might make later activities easier – for example, if you need to move through a war zone, you don’t have to try and intercept some intelligence beforehand, but it’s probably going to help.
I am firmly fixed on the story idea. I have some ideas for that (I think!) are interesting, original, and can provide a lot of challenging gameplay. I therefore put out a consultation about lives and reloading. As above, most people didn’t like the three-lives idea, and I agree with most of the criticisms leveled at it. Thus, the model we’re going for is that of one life, permadeath, and you need to roll a new world upon death.
I was concerned about this system for one major reason – that it takes a minute or two to roll a new world. From talking to friends who don’t play RLs I have increasingly realized that my concern over three-second load times in-game and the like are maybe a little misplaced; however, a few minutes is still a chunk of time. However, I think this will be an acceptable solution for two reasons. Firstly, world generation does show you its progress, and once history generation is fully implemented, I intend to include counters and rapid updates showing you its progress. Based on my early experimentation of this, it looks pretty neat. But the second (and rather less trivial) reason is simply that although there is permadeath, and I intend to ensure there’s a lot out there that can kill you, there probably won’t be that many particularly early in the game. Unlike a lot of RLs which struggle from the problem of that early game being the hardest segment, I’ve been planning seriously to make sure this isn’t the case. A new player is unlikely to encounter rapid death both because they won’t necessarily be aware of where to travel and what to do, but also because the early game will be relatively (relatively) friendly. Having to reroll a world will be reasonably rare as a new player.
So that’s the model. I don’t think rolling a new world upon death will be too annoying as it should be relatively rare when you’re a new player, and as a more experienced player you should get much longer games before you do expire (if you do, that is). Also, due to the procedural generation, dying once after uncovering a small part of the plot will likely mean the next character in a new world might come across a different aspect of the story first. It will be interesting to see how players try to put components together, especially if they’re new to the game and only seeing small fragments of the plot with each character as they learn the game. I’m very much looking forward to this shift for the game – I think it’s a good way to meld the open-world I want to make, but also the narrative I want to write and maybe more importantly that sense of real progression you get from playing something like Crawl.
Lastly, a more general note. I’ve been very ill the last few weeks, and whilst I thought it had largely cleared up, it has un-cleared in the last week (hence why this update was so badly delayed). Once I feel better I think I’ll be able to get back on track, but I don’t know when that will be. Still aiming for an August release, but it’s probably going to be towards the end of August. Thanks everyone for keeping with me during this unusually long release – I do still aim for six month releases a maximum, and after this one and normality is restored in my non-URR existence, hopefully I’ll be able to stick to that.
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Topic: Dwarf Fortress meets The Outer Wilds? "Ultima Ratio Regum", v0.10.1 out Feb 2023 (Read 634860 times)