Bay 12 Games Forum

My personal opinion is that you should include options 2 and 3 or some other form of "partial knowledge" choice. A really intriguing way to do it in my opinion would be to tie the knowledge given into the character you start as. I.e. if you start as a general you know all about the size of the territory and the army etc, but next to nothing about the economic side of things, or if you start as a diplomat or lawmaker of some sort you know all its policies but relatively little about the army.

That... is an interesting suggestion. I'll mull it over. Hmm. Yeah, that is an interesting idea! Maybe I'll have a 'Character Knowledge' option as well as total knowledge, which is dependent on the kind of class you start as...

So I started playing, and immediately ran into a cyclops.  I figure I'm dead anyways, but meh I'm still gonna fight.

Is your character supposed to be retarded at combat?  I attacked the left leg every time, but I did more damage to the torso and the right leg than to the left leg!  I mean, a bit of skill-based randomization might be neat, but statistically speaking I'm hitting my intended target less often than if I were randomly swinging.

And I know it's in alpha/beta, but are there like key game elements missing?  Claiming to be a strategy roguelike, but it seems that the skills and army management screens aren't in yet, and there appear to be no towns or cities at all.  So it's neat and all, but it currently doesn't do anything it wants to, or am I just missing it?

Well, no - as I've said assorted times, 0.2.0 is going to address that and totally redo combat. And you aren't hitting the intended target less over a sufficient sample size; even with low skills you currently hit accurately more than you don't. Also, again, see above - one man development team, part-time. Those components are not in yet, and will not be until 1.0.0 at the earliest; 0.2.0 is going to redo combat and skills, 0.3.0 implement remaining individual mechanics (hunger, thirst, tiredness, etc) and then 1.0.0 will start with history generation and civilizations. And by "currently doesn't do anything it wants to" - apart from the world generation, user interface, inventory systems and a huge amount of under-the-hood work on saving, loading, data structures which have about fifteen months work behind them...
 

it's a sort of 'tech demo'

it's nowhere near complete, it's just a sort of download that shows what some systems are like.

This is accurate. I have started what will probably be a project for maybe a decade, and not all features are going to be in from the start.

A big design, theory, brainstormy entry, about the future of the game:

http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/game/2012/08/06/brainstorming/

Enjoy!

Quote from: pilgrimboy on August 04, 2012, 11:07:03 am

I can't get my screen to allow me to see the bottom of the game window. Is there some trick that I don't know?

I have that problem as well.

Huh. This is a new one. Do you have a screenshot?

If you do get a forum, please keep posting the changelogs here as well. I'm interested in a lot of games, and I just can't check all their fora/blogs regularly.

Worry ye not, I definitely would/will keep posting here and on other sites too!

Just updated the development plan for 0.2.0 - here's what I'll be working on:

http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/game/development-plan-2/

Something tells me you'll be suffering from sleep deprivation for the next 6 to 8 months 
Don't push it too hard, man. We can wait.

I think you're right - two/three months for skills, another two after that for mechanics, then history. I mean, history MIGHT end up way easier than expected, but... I wouldn't count on it. Thanks - don't worry, I'll take the time to get it right.

I think he mentioned he was a Grad Student. Sleep deprivation should in theory be his default state.

I also noticed 'undead civilization' mentioned several times on the world gen options. Can't wait to see how undeath will be handled without magic.

Yes, I am indeed doing a PhD, which is my priority for the coming month, as I have 40k words to submit before the next academic year starts, and I'm working on a paper to try and get published in a journal. There's a blog entry up today on z levels (go read! http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/game/2012/07/24/faux-3d/) and there will be another in a fortnight, but development is slow at the moment. This is also because I'm doing a lot of concept work on how I want skill trees to function before I actually go around and implement the things. Yes, if you enable mythical creatures, the undead will appear, but I'm not sure about the specifics...

As long as you don't Post-Morrowind the skill list (referencing The Elder Scrolls and the baleetion of a good 50-60% of the skills between Morrowind and Skyrim [not saying their skill list didn't need some clipping!]). I definitely trust you know what you're doing though.
This game being released, even in this barest of forms, has been one of my top highlights of this month so far (seeing Roger Waters perform The Wall is the only thing right now that I can think of that I was more amped for).
Even including the bugs that you've been stomping at an awesome pace, I find myself starting up URR before I realize what's going on.  As was previously stated, I can see this quickly becoming the game.

Also, you're awesome, and you should know that.

Oh no - and thanks, hopefully I do! I've been doing a lot of sketching and design work on skill trees this week (I've been helping out at a conference, and between talks there's a lot of spare time). I'll probably upload some blurry teaser photos at some point . Thanks so much, both re: highlights, and awesomeness; it really means a lot that you're that taken with the game. I think enough bugs have been stomped for the time being, so 0.1.3b is going to be the last until 0.2.0...

Finally got a chance to try it out last night. Looks great, good interface, played smooth. No crashes, but then I didn't get to do much. Mostly just walked around, picked up some random stuff (a wooden mace and an Amber? Halbard). Then got attacked by wolves.

Killed most of them, but died to the last one.

Fun! I'll have to try it some more. Although the random materials for items was a bit odd. How do you get an Amber Halbard?

Excellent! Ah, yes, materials need changing at some point. They were implemented in that fashion back when I thought it was going to be much more of a dungeon-crawling game. I have no idea how you get an amber halberd

oh awesome, B12 in acknowledgements!

trying to think of other quotes that'd be suitable. closest I got was 'before you criticise someone, walk a mile in their shoes, because then you'll be a mile away, and have their shoes.'

I need to work on finding more suitable quotes :/

Ninjaedit: 'I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy'-John Adams

knowing me though, you already go that one

Haha; I do like the shoes one. I've heard the pol/war one before, but it wasn't on the list - it is now, though!

Jurassic Park obviously. Which begs the question and/or suggestion. Can we have a secret volcanic island that would be home to dinosaurs on spawn. And perhaps neanderthals for a civ? Kind of like "The unclaimed new world" That would be a cool little adventure to have on a boat. Just saying. Then you could get amber-material weapons. Aww yeah.

I heartily endorse any and all Dino-biomes

Yeah, see Im not the only one who wants this lol. Of course itd be down the road, but something to think about.

It's... an interesting idea. I can't promise anything, but I may add in other external world generation sliders in the far future that would make something like that possible. If you pick younger human civilizations, there may be mammoths and things around, at the very least...

I don't recall if it was discussed, probably was knowing you guys, but I'd love to eventually have the opportunity to interact with tribal or civilizations similar to the Aztecs, Mongols, Native Americans and the like. They could have unique weapons and such, and of course their troops and customs would vary widely. It'd also add another interesting aspect if a base magic is introduced (I'm in favor of a magic system that remains mid(?)-fantasy, like alchemy and rituals and the like), especially with groups similar to the Central American tribes, centering it around a few high priests, sacrificial rituals, and neat junk like that. Of course, that'd be so far down the line (and unlikely to happen) that I feel silly mentioning it.

Yes - I 100% don't want all civilizations to have the same technological level, for one thing. Setting the age of human civilization will determine the *highest possible* technology, but it's unlikely all civilizations will have reached it. I have a massive file in notepad++ with civilization/political/social/cultural ideas, and these are very similar. However, I can guarantee magic is never going to make an appearance in the game, I'm afraid . Everything else about varied civilizations I fully want to implement, though! I'd like there to be a mix of empires, countries, city-states, tribes, civilizations cut off from the rest of the world, cosmopolitan ones... I think (especially in younger worlds) it would be really fun to play around with civilizations like the aztecs, and get a nice bit of culture shock going!

Volcanoes were still buggy, but FINALLY dealt with it. 0.1.3b tomorrow