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Author Topic: Dwarf Fortress meets The Outer Wilds? "Ultima Ratio Regum", v0.10.1 out Feb 2023  (Read 585463 times)

Dorsidwarf

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum - roguelike/Borges/Eco, v0.7 released!
« Reply #3090 on: August 26, 2018, 04:52:21 am »

Glad to hear you’ve got your stuff in order (although site navigation flat-out doesn’t work on iPhone), and especially the return of URR
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Ultima Ratio Regum

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum - roguelike/Borges/Eco, v0.7 released!
« Reply #3091 on: January 26, 2019, 04:36:40 am »

Hello everyone! Long time no see.

Firstly, 0.8 is back in development, finally, and things are being finished off now! Just some tweaks to go until it's ready to release; been putting in consistent coding hours regularly for the past month or two, really "back into it", and things are coming together. I'll have more to say on this soon.

In other news, my book is out, where I talk about lots of PCG stuff! You can read about it here...

https://www.markrjohnsongames.com/2019/01/23/the-unpredictability-of-gameplay-is-out/



...including a sample chapter. It would be awesome to get any thoughts on this! A big URRpdate is coming next month, and I'll be back with that in a couple weeks :). Hope everyone is otherwise doing well!
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FakerFangirl

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum - roguelike/Borges/Eco, v0.7 released!
« Reply #3092 on: January 26, 2019, 08:30:48 pm »

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Dorsidwarf

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum (0.8 back in development!)
« Reply #3093 on: January 28, 2019, 06:33:51 am »

The text in the book sample was somewhat weighty for my unacademic mind, but I found the topics covered to be quite interesting?
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Ultima Ratio Regum

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum - roguelike/Borges/Eco, v0.7 released!
« Reply #3094 on: February 12, 2019, 05:27:46 am »

YES!

I KNOW!!!

The text in the book sample was somewhat weighty for my unacademic mind, but I found the topics covered to be quite interesting?

I'm glad! It was a weird one to write, as I wanted to really dig into some concepts, but make it as accessible as possible, but do so without sacrificing detail, BUT also give it a wider readership than academia... you get the idea. I don't know how well I pulled it off, but I'm glad you found it interesting.

Update coming tomorrow or the day after!
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Ultima Ratio Regum

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum (0.8 back in development!)
« Reply #3095 on: February 12, 2019, 04:33:22 pm »

It is with immense pleasure that this month’s blog entry is going to be a long and pretty thorough update on what I’ve programmed into URR in the last little while. As many of you readers will know, the latest version – 0.8 – has been about 90% done for over a year, until I restarted development, slowly, a month or two ago. It is now sitting at somewhere around 95% or so, I would say, although I have also reduced the scope of the remaining 10%, so that I can just get it released as soon as possible – if there is a 0.9, I’ll return and fill in the blanks then with a much smaller release.

Nevertheless, here’s a rough log of the things I’ve done since resuming development, quietly, slowly, in the background:

– Names of artworks now generate, and NPCs can talk about them.
– Names of books and poetry now generate, and NPCs can talk about them.
– Names of relics now generate, and NPCS can talk about them.
– Everyone can name and talk about the rulers of their nations.
– Friendly NPCs will warn you to be wary when asking potentially sensitive questions.
– Rulers have appropriate titles and sets of roles and responsibilities.
– Asking a soldier or officer about their job no longer results in a crash.
– Removed the ability for the player character to change dialect; if implemented, this will be a 0.9 feature.
– Monks and abbots can tell you about the history of their monasteries and what they produce.
– NPCs can tell you appropriately about their past, their upbringing, etc.
– Servants and slaves correctly discuss whoever they serve.
– Officers tell you about their histories and how they were promoted.
– Shopkeepers will tell you what they have in stock (for, er, once they have items in stock!).
– Removed the possibility of NPCs recommending you talk to someone else (i.e. an expert on the topic you’ve asked about) instead of them; again, if implemented, that’ll be 0.9.
– The mood of NPCs talking to you declines more slowly than before, even if you ask them daft things.
– NPCs can talk about their current and past jobs, and their backgrounds and origins.
– Guards will tell you about what they guard, who they guard it for, who is allowed in, and so forth.
– Mercenaries will give you ample information about their skills and abilities if asked.
– Relevant NPCs have lots of information about their religions, holy books, festivals, and so forth.
– Military figures will tell you about their armed forces (if appropriate).
– Mercenaries, military figures and other relevant NPCs can tell you about weapons, armour, how their people fight, etc.
– NPCs can talk about travel, where they’ve visited, where they were born, where they grew up, etc.
– Farmers can tell you about farming (which, I’m sure we’ll all agree, is absolutely vital).
– Innkeepers and jailers tell you about their jobs and the histories of their taverns or jails.
– Various titles for rulers and religious leaders and the like are handled correctly whenever an NPC needs to talk about them.
– Prisoners will tell you all about their crimes (which they may well insist they didn’t commit, of course), when they were imprisoned, and when they will get out.
– NPCs can tell you about the plants and animals found in their areas, and what plants/animals (if any) might be sacred to their people.
– Handled a number of broad answers for big questions, which now serve as placeholders until more detail can be added.
– Checked that a number of bugs relating to speech patterns have been fixed.
– Added a lot of new information about civilizations and religions that NPCs can talk about, mainly preferences for/against certain things.







Where does this leave us? Well, the conversation system is more complete than ever, and more bugs have been fixed. As before, I’m now not giving deadlines or anything, but the 0.8 version of this mad sprawling worldbuilder is finally on its way in the not-too-distant future. More soon!
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Retropunch

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum (0.8 back in development!)
« Reply #3096 on: February 12, 2019, 05:10:05 pm »

All seems very impressive as usual!

if there is a 0.9, I’ll return and fill in the blanks then with a much smaller release.

It sounds as if 0.8 may be the last release we see of URR? This would be a real shame for a number of reasons, especially as I think you're only a very short amount of work (especially compared to what you've done) away from having a game for the history books.
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Mephansteras

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum (0.8 back in development!)
« Reply #3097 on: February 12, 2019, 07:46:14 pm »

Nice to see that you're able to pick this up again!
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FakerFangirl

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum (0.8 back in development!)
« Reply #3098 on: February 13, 2019, 12:48:39 am »

Greetings from the monastic nation of Ghofonma.
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Ultima Ratio Regum

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum (0.8 back in development!)
« Reply #3099 on: February 24, 2019, 03:54:20 pm »

All seems very impressive as usual!

if there is a 0.9, I’ll return and fill in the blanks then with a much smaller release.

It sounds as if 0.8 may be the last release we see of URR? This would be a real shame for a number of reasons, especially as I think you're only a very short amount of work (especially compared to what you've done) away from having a game for the history books.

Firstly, that's incredibly kind of you :). Re: future releases, I'm not sure - if I do, they will be SMALL. Like, say, 0.9 would be just adding graphics for weapons, armour, plants and a few other things, and some more conversation options, say. Nothing more. Then if there was a 0.10 it would be equally small. I haven't made a decision yet - I just need to get this out first and then take stock! There are also hopefully some good changes going to happen in my life in the next 6 months (fingers crossed) which could, COULD, free up more time.

Nice to see that you're able to pick this up again!

Thanks my friend! It's such a pleasure to see the final few things coming together now.

Greetings from the monastic nation of Ghofonma.

And to you!
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Retropunch

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum (0.8 back in development!)
« Reply #3100 on: February 24, 2019, 07:26:00 pm »

Firstly, that's incredibly kind of you :). Re: future releases, I'm not sure - if I do, they will be SMALL. Like, say, 0.9 would be just adding graphics for weapons, armour, plants and a few other things, and some more conversation options, say. Nothing more. Then if there was a 0.10 it would be equally small. I haven't made a decision yet - I just need to get this out first and then take stock! There are also hopefully some good changes going to happen in my life in the next 6 months (fingers crossed) which could, COULD, free up more time.

Glad to hear you're not thinking of abandoning it completely! If you did find time to do future releases, I'd really suggest some sort of...gamifaction of it - even if it was something as straightforward as 'find the 10 secret relics hidden around the world' which you could find through clues in conversations etc. It wouldn't need to even have proper quest giver NPCs or the like, you could just have them as an 'achievements' screen (visit the 5 temples of Ghof, find the 10 secret relics, make contact with the Ghofona tribe...) which would get ticked off once you'd achieved them.

As it looks from my perspective, you obviously had all sorts of incredible (and ambitious!) plans a few years back, and at the time it made a lot of sense to concentrate on the world building and the mechanics as you were planning pretty much the most detailed sim ever created, and so there was no point in doing 'quests' and the like because of all the potential for natural, interlocking mechanics and the like. However, as that's no longer really on the table in the same way (which is completely understandable) then I'd hate to see it fizzle away due to it not really having any goals/things for the player to do - I think this is a real risk because as much as people will enjoy wandering around the world, it's often difficult to really get absorbed without any sort of purpose (regardless of how basic that purpose is).

Regardless, can't wait for 0.8!
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George_Chickens

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum (0.8 back in development!)
« Reply #3101 on: February 24, 2019, 09:08:50 pm »

Aww, damn. That's kind of depressing. If you ever have to completely stop working on the game, or if it becomes completed, will you ever open source it so that the community can add what was never able to be finished?
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Shonai_Dweller

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum (0.8 back in development!)
« Reply #3102 on: February 25, 2019, 04:04:07 am »

Firstly, that's incredibly kind of you :). Re: future releases, I'm not sure - if I do, they will be SMALL. Like, say, 0.9 would be just adding graphics for weapons, armour, plants and a few other things, and some more conversation options, say. Nothing more. Then if there was a 0.10 it would be equally small. I haven't made a decision yet - I just need to get this out first and then take stock! There are also hopefully some good changes going to happen in my life in the next 6 months (fingers crossed) which could, COULD, free up more time.

Glad to hear you're not thinking of abandoning it completely! If you did find time to do future releases, I'd really suggest some sort of...gamifaction of it - even if it was something as straightforward as 'find the 10 secret relics hidden around the world' which you could find through clues in conversations etc. It wouldn't need to even have proper quest giver NPCs or the like, you could just have them as an 'achievements' screen (visit the 5 temples of Ghof, find the 10 secret relics, make contact with the Ghofona tribe...) which would get ticked off once you'd achieved them.

As it looks from my perspective, you obviously had all sorts of incredible (and ambitious!) plans a few years back, and at the time it made a lot of sense to concentrate on the world building and the mechanics as you were planning pretty much the most detailed sim ever created, and so there was no point in doing 'quests' and the like because of all the potential for natural, interlocking mechanics and the like. However, as that's no longer really on the table in the same way (which is completely understandable) then I'd hate to see it fizzle away due to it not really having any goals/things for the player to do - I think this is a real risk because as much as people will enjoy wandering around the world, it's often difficult to really get absorbed without any sort of purpose (regardless of how basic that purpose is).

Regardless, can't wait for 0.8!
I would argue that this isn't necessary. There's enough of a fanbase (such as "the two of us and that guy in the corner" can be called a fanbase ;) ) that are happy to play follow-the-devblog for decades to come. The plan is there on the page, we know an actual gamey game will occur eventually if progress continues. The devblog shows that something is happening and the occasional release featuring more stuff helps to remind us that we're not crazy (not entirely, anyway). Mark is a visibly active person on the Internet, not some faceless corporation promising Half-Life 3.

I follow Aurora 4X, Unreal World, Dwarf Fortress and URR. In some ways it's much easier to be invested for the long-term when updates are years apart.

So, please do as you think best, Mark (and let us know if you decide to throw in the towel, of course). But know that some of us don't need to be hooked on "gameability". We've already got one madman providing that for us in Toadyone.
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Retropunch

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum (0.8 back in development!)
« Reply #3103 on: February 25, 2019, 04:29:34 am »

I would argue that this isn't necessary. There's enough of a fanbase (such as "the two of us and that guy in the corner" can be called a fanbase ;) ) that are happy to play follow-the-devblog for decades to come. The plan is there on the page, we know an actual gamey game will occur eventually if progress continues. The devblog shows that something is happening and the occasional release featuring more stuff helps to remind us that we're not crazy (not entirely, anyway). Mark is a visibly active person on the Internet, not some faceless corporation promising Half-Life 3.

I follow Aurora 4X, Unreal World, Dwarf Fortress and URR. In some ways it's much easier to be invested for the long-term when updates are years apart.

So, please do as you think best, Mark (and let us know if you decide to throw in the towel, of course). But know that some of us don't need to be hooked on "gameability". We've already got one madman providing that for us in Toadyone.

I agree that's the case if Mark is planning to continue development (even if in the long term) - however, if he's going to pretty much finish up (which it's unfortunately sounding like) and there won't be an actual gamey game at the end of it, then I'd encourage something to wrap it all together.

This is mainly because otherwise URR will be relegated to 'the game that almost was', rather than something that's a finished game. I'd imagine a finished product would be more helpful to Mark (in terms of him having a fully released game under his belt) and get the game a wider player base which is always good for everyone. Other than the DF crowd, I feel most of the gaming community would say 'this is a fantastic world but...what do I do?'.

Obviously if Mark ever wanted to come back to it, he could rip out any quest stuff he didn't like or incorporate it into some sort of 'explorers guild' without too much trouble.

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FakerFangirl

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Re: Ultima Ratio Regum (0.8 back in development!)
« Reply #3104 on: February 25, 2019, 06:23:34 am »

I think the most fulfilling achievements are the ones that affect the world. Going down in history for killing a monster, fighting for territory, upgrading or destroying structures, or having my name and achievement written down in public. Dwarf Fortress's death and retirement mechanics are really fascinating, inspired by Angband tombstones. Being a founder of something and coming back to see it still there is also really cool. In Dwarf Fortress I made families of endangered species and retired them in my forts.
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