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[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Is this a game yet? I tried .3 and you cpuld move, but that got old after a few minutes

There's now a massive encyclopedia you can view with a wealth of information about the in-game world - cities, civilizations, religions, cults, histories - and, as below, a very small piece of early gameplay has been implemented. I have to focus on the wordlbuilding aspect before much of the gameplay aspects can be implemented, unfortunately, but the world I'm creating is itself a core part of the future game.

Have you considered having chatbots for your NPCs? It's what I've been doing with my RL (using python+libtcod as well) and it's coming along nicely.
Although things like cleverbot seem pretty shallow and gimmicky due to needing to handle a massive variation of general input, game based chatbots don't need to bother about that, as all their conversations happen in the setting which you've created and can only respond to 'in world' stuff.
They also can easily wander off/have negative reactions if you derail the conversation too much away from stuff they know about, and they can have distinct personalities to help color their responses. 

It's not too tricky to do and it gives a much more immersive level of interaction than selecting options - just something to think about anyway!
 

I'm... not sure what you mean. NPCs haven't been implemented yet (though they are coming soonish), and once they are I'll just be writing all the conversation code from scratch. As with everything, a core design philosophy has been "Do things that others haven't done yet!" so I'm trying to think of some kind of very new conversation system. I've got a few pretty unusual ideas, but we'll see how it works out.

[Retropunch]

I'm... not sure what you mean. NPCs haven't been implemented yet (though they are coming soonish), and once they are I'll just be writing all the conversation code from scratch. As with everything, a core design philosophy has been "Do things that others haven't done yet!" so I'm trying to think of some kind of very new conversation system. I've got a few pretty unusual ideas, but we'll see how it works out.

I'll try to be a bit more clear. Basically, in my RL all my NPCs are all chatbots, in which you can type in a sentence like 'how are you?' or 'which way is it to xyz' and they'll respond. This is in much the same way as Cleverbot (http://www.cleverbot.com/) works, basically by parsing input and trying to work out what you mean. Although general chatbots tend to be a bit rubbish due to the vast amount of random and complicated sentences they need to understand, in game it's a lot easier - you've only got a set number of topics in your game world and the npcs don't need to always try to respond in the best possible way and their responses can be colored by things like allegiance, mood and so on.

I think being able to just 'talk' to NPCs gives a much more immersive experience than selecting from a list, and also allows you to just strike up random conversations with anyone in the street. It's not a perfect system, and certainly there needs to be a 'hints' system or something so the player isn't just stabbing in the dark, but I do think it'd be a very interesting way forward.

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

I'm... not sure what you mean. NPCs haven't been implemented yet (though they are coming soonish), and once they are I'll just be writing all the conversation code from scratch. As with everything, a core design philosophy has been "Do things that others haven't done yet!" so I'm trying to think of some kind of very new conversation system. I've got a few pretty unusual ideas, but we'll see how it works out.

I'll try to be a bit more clear. Basically, in my RL all my NPCs are all chatbots, in which you can type in a sentence like 'how are you?' or 'which way is it to xyz' and they'll respond. This is in much the same way as Cleverbot (http://www.cleverbot.com/) works, basically by parsing input and trying to work out what you mean. Although general chatbots tend to be a bit rubbish due to the vast amount of random and complicated sentences they need to understand, in game it's a lot easier - you've only got a set number of topics in your game world and the npcs don't need to always try to respond in the best possible way and their responses can be colored by things like allegiance, mood and so on.

I think being able to just 'talk' to NPCs gives a much more immersive experience than selecting from a list, and also allows you to just strike up random conversations with anyone in the street. It's not a perfect system, and certainly there needs to be a 'hints' system or something so the player isn't just stabbing in the dark, but I do think it'd be a very interesting way forward.

Ah, got it, thanks for the clarification! That does sound like an interesting system, but as I say, I'm planning to build from the ground-up for two reasons. Firstly because I'm trying to build everything myself that I possibly can (just because I want as much of the project to be "mine" as much as possible, and minimize external library use where I can), but also because I have some very specific things in mind for how I want conversations to work out, and I don't think that's really in line with my goals .

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Despite my relative quietude over the last few days (mostly due to being nocturnal), massive progress has been made - graveyards are almost finished, graves generate fully, the walls of the graveyard are appropriate for a civ's architectural style, slums generate (likewise re: brick style/colour being civ-dependent), and I've begun work on procedural graphics for keys. A big update this weekend (or I might split it into two)...

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

This week I’ve made a lot of headway on generating graveyards and have started to generate the graves as well. Graveyards generally have one main entrance (this can sometimes be two, with the other on a different side of the graveyard) then a selection of interconnected areas. As with everything in the game, this is a completely new form of generation that isn’t used again in any other kind of settlement or area – I wanted to give it a feeling that the graveyard had been built up over the time, and that different areas placed graves in different patterns in various eras (note the various patterns for grave placement), whilst farms/towns and everything else have their own algorithms behind them. In a way, I suppose I want to almost “hide” the fact the game is procedurally generated – I want each area to look sufficiently unique that one can be fooled into thinking a region was hand-made. I also have begun to fully implement the generation of architectural styles (brick styles, colours, etc) for each civilization, so the colour of bricks seen here will be unique to this civilization. The road does not yet connect properly with the graveyard, but that is being worked on, whilst the tiny closed-off section of grave in the top-left corner will be removed during generation once I’m finished. Anyway, graveyard:



As for the graves, there are twelve different headstone styles, twenty different “base” styles, thirty different patterns (the little flourishes on the grave, like spirals or diamonds or whatever), and each headstone style may be undamaged, slightly damaged, or heavily damaged. A zoomed-out picture of all the headstone variations is shown before, but once you include the number of possible patterns and bases, there are over 20000 possible graves, more than enough to service any playthrough. I’ll soon be adding a little bit of moss and general overgrowth at the base for the older graves.



The graves note three things – the years the person lived to and from (the date of birth may not be known, and older graves are more likely to be damaged), their name, and – if appropriate – what they died of (so naturally with these three aspects, the permutations are almost infinite). Obviously things like “He died of a horrifying wasting illness” would never be mentioned, but things that most would think merit commemoration, like falling in battle, or a duel, or whatever, might be mentioned, along with graves relating to important historical events like disasters. Thus, importantly – and rather nicely I think - these now link up to the histories! If you see a civilization fought in a particular war, you can check out the graveyard by their capital (and likely the minor graveyards in towns) and, indeed, find people to died in that war within the years that war was fought. Ditto for diseases, civil wars, whatever. I’m still working on thinking about tombs, catacombs, ossuaries and the like for wealthier people, rulers, etc. There is a good chance that graveyards which have catacombs below (which may not be all of them) might connect to the subterranean regions of the game (in the future), but these are still early plans right now.

Equally, as with all the history stuff, this will later have gameplay repercussions – maybe you hear somewhere of something buried in a particular grave, or in a particular tomb or ossuary? Or possibly that a particular set of graves are in a particular pattern that has some deeper meaning? As with other things like this relating to the in-game histories, you’ll always be making a choice: do I have the time to explore this little side-aspect whilst you’re passing through a city, or do you need to continue? The overall global clock (which I know I haven’t said anything about yet in detail) will give you time for some side exploration as these explorations of the world will be key to building up your character, but it’ll be up to you to decide which you can/cannot risk.Graveyards as a whole will also serve other functions. Maybe particular cults, religions, smugglers or other individuals might meet there? Perhaps there is treasure to be grabbed from any remaining tombs?

So there you have it. Next week’s blog entry could be at pretty much any time since between the 8th and 12th I’m in Berlin for the International Roguelike Developers Conference! Thus, the next update will either be whilst I’m in Berlin, some time a bit before, some time a bit after, or SOMETHING ELSE. It will likely be on slums and the early graphical generation of keys, and possibly something about the system of keys/doors/civilians I’ve been thinking about for a little while now. See you all next week (at some point)!

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Graves of nobles/aristocrats/etc now display an engraved version of their sigil/coat of arms:

[Askot Bokbondeler]

the graveyards are comming out nice, but maybe you could do some more interesting things with dead people, for example, often big aristocrats and royals were buried in religious monuments they'd built or sponsored. It'd be cool if some national heroes got a more public resting place rather than being tucked away in a graveyard.

[Neonivek]

Awww no Kings Quest style ironic tombstones? I am almost disappointed

Ok not really

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

the graveyards are comming out nice, but maybe you could do some more interesting things with dead people, for example, often big aristocrats and royals were buried in religious monuments they'd built or sponsored. It'd be cool if some national heroes got a more public resting place rather than being tucked away in a graveyard.

Thanks! I really like the idea of heroes maybe being buried beneath a special statue in the town, for instance. There will be catacombs beneath some graveyards, but my intention is for those to primary contain those from very, very early history, many of whom's names may have been forgotten. Still working on the specifics, though.

Awww no Kings Quest style ironic tombstones? I am almost disappointed

Ok not really

Ha, I am afraid not . Though the odd gravestone may contain a secret or two...

[Neonivek]

Will villains tend to have unmarked graves?

[Retropunch]

Could graves/graveyards be impacted by religion as well? Many religions have their own special graveyards (or parts of larger ones) and often have grave stones with religious motifs (like the obvious Christian Crosses) IRL, and it'd make a lot of sense as well as add more depth to the religions.

However, I'm guessing you probably don't want to spend too long on graveyards as I don't imagine the player will be constantly visiting them/exploring them in as much depth as other areas. Just a thought though!

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Will villains tend to have unmarked graves?

Hmm, an interesting question. I am not sure yet - more likely, I think, is that they will fallen somewhere out in the world where you can find them.

Could graves/graveyards be impacted by religion as well? Many religions have their own special graveyards (or parts of larger ones) and often have grave stones with religious motifs (like the obvious Christian Crosses) IRL, and it'd make a lot of sense as well as add more depth to the religions.

However, I'm guessing you probably don't want to spend too long on graveyards as I don't imagine the player will be constantly visiting them/exploring them in as much depth as other areas. Just a thought though!

Ah, now that's an interesting thought. I think I will definitely add religious symbols to some graves (maybe only to those who are denoted as having "died for the faith" or "are now with [godname]" etc), I really like that idea. No, indeed, graveyards are just one of many areas for this release! I'd say I have only one day's worth of work left on them for this release, as any catacombs and whatnot that go beneath them - and connect to parts of the nearby city - will all be coming later.

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Where last week’s update was focused squarely on graveyards, this week we have a variety of new things. Firstly, I’ve begun work on slums. Some cities will have a single slum tile next to one of their walls (just as some cities will have a large dedicated graveyard in addition to any smaller ones within the city limits) which will contain a huge number of small buildings jammed into a single map grid. Whilst the cities may contain “lower-class housing”, this will be one step “below” even that – those the city does not officially acknowledge, or those who are not even affluent enough to move within the walls. In the picture below you can see an early version of a generated slum. Do please note, however, that there are a) currently no doors to the buildings and b) there will soon be part of the city wall at the top of the image to which the slum will connect. However, from the image below I’m sure you can get an idea of how slums are eventually going to look. It should be impossible for an area of the slum to generate in a “closed off” manner (I think) and some areas are slightly more sparsely populated with buildings than others. The area inside the slum is generally soil – all vestiges of plant life having been long-since trampled down – whilst there are sometimes a few small fragments of roads. As many buildings are connected I’ve had them vary in shade a little in order to make it a lot simpler to distinguish where one building ends and another starts (though obviously doors will help in this!).



I also did a little bit of work on generating keys. Although these will only be relevant from 0.7 onwards once I start to generate building interiors, I’ve been starting to implement small bits of the relevant infrastructure for it up-front. The inventory has changed to have a “Keys” section, for example, and I decided to work one day on generating keys. As with almost every other item the images for keys are procedurally generated, so each key should be unique. There are four “tiers” of keys – unique keys which will have their one special graphics (which I haven’t shown here) and then three levels of keys for all other buildings in the game. The top category of keys are for buildings in city centres, in castles, and other places of wealth and influence; the second category are the “middle-class” keys for buildings you’d find in markets, some parts of docks, medical districts, maybe military districts too; the last row are keys for lower-class housing, slums, many parts of recreational districts, and the like. All three tiers of key shown here have their own sets of possible handle designs (though the top/middle share one or two and the middle/bottom share one or two), while the top keys have their own unique set of “bits” (as the part of the keys that go into locks are apparently called!) and the middle/bottom keys share a larger set of possible bits. Lastly each set has its own possible colour schemes which will give you an immediate hint about the purpose and value of any key you should happen to find.



Now I must depart, for I have a flight to catch for the Roguelike Developers Conference; I’ll upload my slides (though they are lacking in text!) once I return. By next week I should have finished up graves and graveyards since they still need some religion-related graves, full integration with the in-game histories, and a few other tweaks (such as making sure trees cannot obscure the entrances, adding a few more entrances, etc) and have hopefully moved onto another aspect of 0.6. I think there’s a good chance I’m going to start working on hunter-gatherer settlements next, both generating the settlements (with another new algorithm) and working on the appropriate textures and graphics to display structures made of stone, wood, bone, etc. See you all then!

[Retropunch]

As always - awesome! That's a very big slum! A few observations from having worked in slums myself (admittedly not medieval ones ):

1) Slums tend to be wider than they are thick as they tend to expand/snake along the city limit so as to be as close as possible (although they're sometimes constrained by walls/things).
2) Slums tend to have set parameters, without many houses just laying as outlyers, this is again because they're built up trying to be as close to the city as possible and there would be little incentive to live further out.
3) They tend to have main paths as well as lots of small offshoots. These tend to be a bit random, but they'd be say three 'dots' thick in your rendering. These are still dirt kind of roads, but they're often big enough for cars (or in your case carts) to go up or down without problem.

Again, these are all modern slums and I'm sure there are variations, but most of these make sense logically I guess. People want to be nearer the city walls/limits for work/services/protection and the wider paths are required to move stuff around. Outlying buildings probably make more sense in a medieval context with farming/huts and stuff though.

[Neonivek]

To admit I don't think the game has the typical city "main road" or all important city center (Modern Cities tend to have the dead center)