Day 4, Update 3 - 01.12.2011So 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...
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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!