Will comment once more on this discussion later, BUT FIRST:
After a mere four months of development, I am proud to announce the release of Ultima Ratio Regum 0.7! This release procedurally generates the interiors of every single building in the world – from cathedrals and mansions to slum housing and shops, and everything in-between – and the graphics for a vast range of items and features within those, ranging from ordinary chairs and tables to rare altars and underground sarcophagi. You can download it here (
http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/game/downloads/), and read more detail about the release notes below.
This is the last worldbuilding release! From this point onwards I’ll be pushing onto gameplay, starting with NPCs in 0.8. This release now establishes URR as one of the most detailed procedural worlds ever rendered – and one unparalleled in procedural cultural, aesthetic and religious detail – and marks the end of generating the immense world over which the player’s “quest” will play out.
Highlights:- All buildings now have procedurally-generated interiors, where every single building has its own algorithms, archetypes, and items on the inside. This means everything, from cathedrals to slums, can now be fully explored, and in many cases span over many floors.
- All features within these buildings are also procedurally generated, from the most lowly of chairs, tables and candlestands to the rarest of altars, reliquaries and sarcophagi. All of each are dependent on the cultural norms for each nation.
Full Changelog:- Procedural generation of cathedrals and religious buildings, distinct for each religion but consist across iterations.
- Generation of religious altars, religious reliquaries, and incense holders.
- Crypts now generate beneath graveyards in monarchies, and underneath cathedrals in theocracies.
- City centers how have all interiors generated for embassies, courts, galleries, mercenary guilds and mints.
- Generation of large family mansions in upper-class housing districts, for both dominant and “ascending” noble houses.
- Generation of middle-class housing and lower-class housing, as well as slum housing outside city walls.
- Taverns, arenas, jails and slave quarters spawn in lower-class districts in nations with the appropriate policies (taverns, however, are universal).
- Military hospitals, Officers’ Quarters, Stables, Barracks and Armouries can be explored in feudal military districts.
- Shops and warehouses can be explored in market districts, although they do of course currently lack any items!
- Banks spawn in middle-class districts.
- Parliamentary buildings spawn in city centers of democratic nations.
- Farmhouses can be explored in the farms outside cities and towns.
- All buildings in hunter-gatherer nations now generate – longhouses, chieftain huts, and general houses – although they remain currently sparse.
- In fortresses, the player can now explore barracks, housing, and most importantly the oasis-like citadels at their centers.
- Altars for all religions now generate, aesthetically varied according to the archetypes and beliefs of each religion.
- Cathedrals and lesser religious buildings contain procedurally-generated reliquaries, incense holders, ornate vases, and much more, each distinct to a given religion.
- Everyday items like chairs, tables and beds also generate, with shapes and wood types distinct to each nation.
- Several buildings now contain candle stands which offer external sources of lighting that can be seen, even if the tiles between you and them cannot.
- Crypts are filled with sarcophagi, each with a unique generated image, within which is buried a figure from the world’s history.
- Save files are no longer in a single monolithic file, but now spread out so that no matter how many map grids may have been generated in a given playthrough, saving/loading speed never slows down.
- Various bug fixes, improvements, optimizations, etc, and a whole host of under-the-hood things implemented in preparation for 0.8.
I’m now working on 0.8 – the introduction of NPCs, conversations, face generation, clothing, the works – with an approximate target of four/five months from now, give or take. To finish off, here are some nice illustrative screenshots of 0.7 as it currently stands. Enjoy!