Winter is coming… or something. Or already here, if you live in the distant North, as I do. Anyway, herewith a short run-down of the plans over the next couple of weeks.
More Stories
With land combat now being resolve-able, I’ll be adding more and more story snippets and events to the game. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to do this on at least a bi-weekly basis going forward.
Combat Engine Refinement
The combat engine still needs work (if that wasn’t obvious). Firstly, to add in additional combat actions (swords will have a “swing” action, for instance); most weapons will have two, rather than the single one currently available. Secondly, to add terrain to the game, as well as additional graphics so that everything is not just a plain grass map. Thirdly, to fix the bugs that are still in the combat resolution and aftermath.
Character Development + Officers
The use of officers has been relatively limited so far; I plan to do something about during the christmas/winter, if time allows. I.e., hopefully it will soon again be possibly to recruit specialist officers, etc. Before that happens, though, I need to finish the work on the skills and trait system that I started when the skills were changed around. In doing so, I plan to change the way skill development is currently being handled in the game.
The current system, assumes a “semi-random” development of skills, guided by the users choices. The purpose was to reduce unnecessary busy-work, but instead it has turned out to be unfortunately opaque to you – the players. It is never a good sign when a player is not sure whether things a mechanism is buggy or they just don’t understand it. So, I’m planning to go back to the old, simple (and more RPG standard) approach used in the previous game.
Effective skill will still be attribute + skill + bonus based; however, skill levels will now be purchased directly with xp. Like in the previous game, you’ll gain a set number of xp during the game (1xp/month) up to a certain age – the plan currently is 35. In total, you’ll probably receive ~300xp during a game.
Currently, my plan is to make skill advancements cost a fixed sum – 10xp per level (rather than the sliding scale current). However, if you have not used the skill at all since the last level-up, the cost increases by 50%. If you have exceeded your aptitude for that skill, the cost is doubled.
In addition, it will also be possible to gain some additional traits by paying xp for them (e.g., specializations, combat abilities). Such traits will usually become available through event chains/story snippets.
There’s more stuff I hope to do, but better not get carried away. This is a busy time of year, so we’ll just have to see how it goes. Still a lot of work to do.