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batiali
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« on: November 27, 2011, 02:14:29 AM »

Being one of the Lords in a randomly generated world, you will try to get more lands, discover better technologies, have bigger army and crush your opponents! That's pretty much all about "The Lord".

Inspirations: Game of Thrones(books), Civilization, Rebuild

- Technologies -
- Lord Portraits -
- Fog of War -
Videos:



Devlog Video 2

Screenshots:

 

 



« Last Edit: October 07, 2012, 10:56:45 AM by batiali » Logged

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« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2011, 01:21:23 PM »

Day 1 - 27.11.11

So, first thing I did was to generate random terrain. The only challenging part in that is to define the "islands" on the map.

What I want to do next is to generate a hexagonal grid on the map where each hexagon has an island id (which island it's on) and a lord id (who owns that land.) Currently it's done with squares but I really want to try hexagons since I've always wanted to use them but never did.

After that I want to create some random lords around the world, giving random amount of lands to them.





« Last Edit: November 28, 2011, 04:56:47 PM by batiali » Logged

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« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2011, 03:59:55 AM »

Hey there - welcome to the forums : )

Terrain generation looks cool. 

If you haven't done hex stuff before, here's my recommendation - once you have the basic hex coord stuff done, add a bunch of helper methods so you never have to deal with the individual coordinates directly again (so have a "neighbours" method that gives you all the neighbours of a certain tile, and a "neighbourindirection" one that gives you the tile neighbouring one tile in a given direction).  Once you do this, most of the code won't care whether or not it's hexagon or square-based, and your brain will thank you for it.
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« Reply #3 on: November 28, 2011, 04:26:23 AM »

Hello Stephen, thanks a lot for the advices, I will definetly add more helper methods. I currently need helper methods to transform coordinate to hex. By the way, you are like a hero developer for me. Thanks a lot for all the inspiration you have given so far Smiley

Here, I managed to make the map hexagonal. HexMap calculates average value of the bitmap under every hex and decides if that hex is a LAND or SEA. After that the world assigns Islands to each hex and calculates the number of islands in the world.



It's possible to decrease the size of those hexagons, but I believe it's good for now. It doesn't count every small land piece as seperate islands though. If the gap is close, it's considered one landmass.



For example, the image above has only 4 seperate islands. (1 really big, 3 small islands)
It's possible to treat big&small islands seperately in the game.

Here's areally strange terrain that I randomly generated a minute ago

« Last Edit: November 28, 2011, 04:57:15 PM by batiali » Logged

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« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2011, 05:04:51 PM »

Day 2 - 28.11.11

 
1. A random generated terrain.
2. Dark gray hexagons represents LAND hexagons which lords can own. Blue ones are WATER.


3. Some random generated lords with different colors and random amount of lands.
4. Grid off.


5. Demonstration of lords growing to nearby locations as years pass by.
6. Currently they don't take lands from eachother, only grow if it's possible.
And those lords spawned on small islands has no chance to grow more. (for now)


7. Only yellow, orange and purple continues to grow.
8. I think orange has the most land. So we have a winner.



That's all I did today. Let me know your thoughts.
« Last Edit: November 28, 2011, 05:14:51 PM by batiali » Logged

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« Reply #5 on: November 28, 2011, 05:12:04 PM »

I like the looks of this a lot. Hexagons are great!
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« Reply #6 on: November 28, 2011, 05:15:42 PM »

I second that this game look really good.  Hand Thumbs Up Left

This seems like something that would just be fun to watch. To watch the lords fight for land a supreme control over time~!! Muahahah!
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« Reply #7 on: November 29, 2011, 04:36:38 AM »

Thanks a lot guys, I'm glad you liked it!

Managed to record a devlog video. More updates coming today. I'd like to talk more about how the gameplay will look like later.





Do you guys know anywhere I can find a list of middle-earth lord names list or a good name-generator for that purpose?
« Last Edit: November 29, 2011, 06:11:43 AM by batiali » Logged

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« Reply #8 on: November 29, 2011, 09:12:19 AM »

really cool! I like how you mix hexagons and the generated heighfield so hexagons do not look so "blocky".

Maybe it would be cool to use a different gradient for the terrain so it looks more like a map in the elder scrolls saga: http://media.strategywiki.org/images/1/16/The_Elder_Scrolls_IV_Oblivion_Comlpete_Map.jpg
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« Reply #9 on: November 29, 2011, 10:59:40 AM »

Hi tamat,
That's a very good idea! I will give it a try and share the results in a day. Thanks.
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« Reply #10 on: November 29, 2011, 01:06:40 PM »

Do you guys know anywhere I can find a list of middle-earth lord names list or a good name-generator for that purpose?
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php
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« Reply #11 on: November 29, 2011, 01:09:09 PM »

Do you guys know anywhere I can find a list of middle-earth lord names list or a good name-generator for that purpose?
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php

A life saver you truly are  Hand Clap
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« Reply #12 on: November 30, 2011, 03:20:24 PM »

Day 4, Update 3 - 01.12.2011

So I managed to add some properties to lords and simulate those properties as well. All properties has an effect on eachother. Like, the more land you have, the more food you produce, the more food you have, more population you can get which leads more army (needs gold for that too) and army means getting more land. Also you can focus on getting tech points, more on technologies later. Some screenshots first!

 
1. I tried what @tamat suggested, and in my opinion it looked a lot better than the older ones. Changing the color palette was not the only thing to increase quality. Map generation now takes a lot more time (near a second to generate 50x50 hex-sized maps)
2. Just another map. (Maybe I can add some worn-like texture to add more of a map feeling?)

 
3. Just another map.
4. Just another map.


5. This one is full size. Actually it's possible to zoom for x4 in the game without losing the quality. I will probably won't show the whole map at the start of the game, zooming to only lands that player has at that time, and will zoom out as your lord gets more lands.


6. Added mouse_over functionalities for debugging mostly.


7. Simulation is a LOT slower than what it looked like in the devlog video 1. Lords don't just get a land each turn, they need army to get those lands. And they need money to get army...


---

So let me tell a little about overall gameplay and technology stuff.
There are 4 main elements in the game that your lord can focus. Economy (Trading ), Army (War), Food (Farming), Technology (Science).
You will be able to easily change the ratio of how much you want to focus on these elements. I decided to make the game realtime simulation rather than turn-based. At least I want to see how it goes. So you can change those ratios anytime you want and see its effect. Actually that's the biggest interaction player will do in the game.

But, there are lots of other things that lords must decide. Technology is one of them. There will be around 40 technologies with their own prerequisities. Pretty much Civilization style, you will decide which technology to discover and according to your tech rate & population & some other stuff, you will manage to discover that technology and select another one.

Technologies will affect the game in many ways. Let me give a few examples.
Writing: Allows to communicate with lords.
Mathematics: Allows to calculate income / outcome.
Migrating: Decreases the required army (10 / 20 / 30%) for invading empty lands.
Currency: Generates 3 / 5 / 7% additional income.
Mining: Generates additional gold per land each season.
Scouting: Allows to see 2 hex beyond your lands.
Sailing: Allows to sail to other continents.

So, technology was one of the things that player decides, what else?
There will be relations with other lords, they will demand something from you if they feel more powerful or even you will have the chance to demand if you have proper tech.

There will be completely random events (diseases, natural disasters, people disappearing, foods getting corrupted) that you can only read the result.

There will be simple YES-NO questions like "One of the villagers wants 10 gold for his loss of child fighting for you. Would you like to give the money / or kill the peasant."
(okay that was not a yes-no question.)
or, 15 soldier of fortune wants to join you for 100 gold. Do you accept?
stuff like that.

Oh, that was a big update for me. I haven't done much programming work but I know better what features I want to have in the game. I'm really curious of what you guys think all about these? Thanks a lot!
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« Reply #13 on: November 30, 2011, 03:33:35 PM »

Looks very promising, I like the idea of overlaying hexes on a regular, more detailed map.
Hope there will be a lot of politics included.
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« Reply #14 on: December 01, 2011, 05:23:01 AM »

I thought it would be a good idea to collect all technology ideas here and keep this updated.

The Lord - Technologies


Technology is one of the most important aspect of the game.
Discovering different technologies adds lots of variety to the game and unlocks different mechanics.

You first choose a technology to discover. All technologies have a technology cost. If you have a bigger population and more focus on tech, you will produce more technology point(TP) and discover that technologies faster. When you get enough TP and reach TC, it will be discovered, your tech will be consumed and you will choose another tech.

Technologies have prerequisites.
Prerequisities can be another technologies. For example a lord must discover Scouting to research Sailing. There is also knowledge prerequisite. Knowledge is the total amount of TP a lord got until that time. Some technologies also has Gold Cost(GC) to start researching.

Technologies also may have multiple levels, all requiring different TC & GC & prerequisites.


Diplomacy: Allows the communication with other lords.
Mathematics: Shows income&outcome of population, food, gold and knowledge through the game.
Biology: Increases population growth.
Medicine: Grants immunity to diseases.
Chemistry: Gives you ability to convert food into gold.
Education: Increases the knowledge gain.
Calendar: Shows calendar on top-right corner.
Compass: Gives ability to scroll & zoom in & zoom out to the map.
Anatomy: Heals some portion of retreating armies.
Paper: Gives ability to see reports of wars.
Engineering: Grants the ability to trade technologies between lords.
Statistics: Gives access to charts and other types of statistics after game.

Horseshoes: Gives the ability to expand more lands at a time.
Migrating: Grants bonuses for invading non-controlled lands.
Iron Working: Decreases the gold cost of army creation.
Gunpowder: Grants massive attack bonus to armies.
Crossbow: Gives attack bonus while defending.
Chess: Gives the ability to retreat when there is no chance of victory.
Plate Armor: Increases the defense of armies.
Chivalry: Gives a chance to charge enemies and deal damage in combats.
Artillery: Deals initial damage to enemy before starting a battle.
Flanking: Gives bonus damage when attacking from 3 sides.

Mining: Generates additional gold for each land you own.
Currency: Gives additional gold income.
Banking: Generates additional golds for each thousand gold you have.
Luxury: Generates additional happiness in return of gold when it's needed.
Masonry: Increases the percentage of max. population your lands can hold.
Artesian Well: Increases food generation
Construction: Gives the ability to construct buildings to increase population cap.

Scouting: Extends the map so that lords can see 2 hex beyond their lands.
Sailing: Gives the ability to sail other continents.
Spying: Allows spying on opponent lords getting information about them.
Mapmaking: Reveals the whole map, without vision.
Assassination: Gives the option to kill some of the population of enemy lord. Costs gold.
Poison: Gives the option to poison some of the food in enemy stocks. Costs gold.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2011, 05:19:10 AM by batiali » Logged

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« Reply #15 on: December 02, 2011, 08:33:54 AM »

Day 5, Update 4 - 02.12.2011

Partnered with Symphony of Specters who will be doing all audio needs of this project. Selcuk is a great guy and we worked on other games before. Also partnered with Devrim Kunter who is a great comic artist(also a friend).

Here are some lord portraits Devrim made. We added some variations to the lords so that there's no chance of seeing several variations of one lord on a world, but there is a chance you can see same lord with a mustache in your next game. We will probably add more hair&facial hair options for each lord.


The Lord - Portraits


     

     

     

     

     

     
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« Reply #16 on: December 02, 2011, 08:42:21 AM »



Sean Bean!
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« Reply #17 on: December 02, 2011, 08:44:17 AM »

Well,

Quote from: batiali
Inspirations: Game of Thrones...

There had to be a Sean Bean :D
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« Reply #18 on: December 03, 2011, 06:14:58 AM »

Day 6 - Update 5 - 03.12.2011

Behaviours have been added to lords. It's the AI for simulating lords.
Behaviours decide all lords actions'.
There are 6 behaviours right now (Merchant, Knight, Politician, Defender, Scientist, Scout), but I'm planning to have about 15 different behaviours. Some lords may also have hybrid behaviours.
Two lords having same behaviour doesnt mean they'll do same things, there are lots of other random factors.

Behaviours currently affect:
  • Focus ratios (army, gold, food, tech)
  • Technology to Research

Planned to also affect:
  • Attacking or Defending
  • Random Events
  • Political Decisions
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« Reply #19 on: December 04, 2011, 05:40:17 AM »

Here are some name suggestions, please share your thoughts on them. It would be awesome to get some other suggestions as well.

Terra Dominus
Lords of Mithra
Lords of Tiola
Lords of Thalon
Lords of Liora
Lords of Seven Seas
Lords of Crown
Lords of Parallax
Lords of Domination
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