The glorious Evolution of Master of Mana - The Red Desert of Cruoris / First screenshot of standalone version / Feedback needed

[Felis catus]

Marvelous and awesome!!!

 

[Sephi]

I have finished the terraforming system now. You start terraforming by activating the terraform mode on the worldmap. Then every tile has an icon that shows to what terrain you can terraform the plot. The icon has a special effect a bit like hot air in the desert, sadly it doesn't show in the screenshot.

Here 6 different terrains/features are shown so they are a bit hard to read. Usually you will probably only have 1-3 options but for testing I gave my leader a lot of terraforming magic. Once you click on the icon a selection screen will open and provide details over the spells.

Each spell has an efficiency that depends on your leaders skill, bonuses from buildings/tech and adjacency effects. Scorch efficiency for example improves when there are forests nearby. For every additional 100% efficiency the spell transforms another tile. One thing I changed is how terraforming magic is animated. Instead of displaying the terraforming magic only once the spell finished you now see an animation on the tile once you start to cast the spell. For earth magic there are little explosions and rocks flying around, water magic has water shooting in the air, air magic has tornados moving randomly on the tile and fire magic has flames and smoke.

Since settlements are on multiple tiles I created special higher level terraforming spells for settlements that terraform the whole settlement and adjacent tiles. The terraforming animations are displayed on all tiles that will change. To scorch a whole settlement you need the firestorm spell.

Since you can loot one-time use terraforming spellscrolls you will probably do atleast a little bit of terraforming magic every game.

Next on my list are visual effects for the city enchantments.

 

[Sephi]

I have added three ways to display city enchantments. The first and most obvious way is to have a magic effect on the city. For example the cloud district enchantment is displayed by a few clouds. The second way is to display the enchantment on the defenses of the city. Wall of Fire is displayed by a lot of fires burning. The third one is to display the enchantment on the tiles it effects. For example the fair winds enchantment increases the food produced by all fishers and since fishers require lakes or ocean tiles the enchantment is displayed on lakes and ocean tiles (a few clouds). You can see it on the screenshot but the clouds on the lakes are a bit too small so it's too difficult to spot them. I have to finetune the graphical effects but the idea is that if you use a lot of air magic then you see a lot of clouds and stormy winds in your lands, if you use water magic you see a lot of rain and so on.

The gamelogic of city enchantments is changed quite a bit. City enchantments now effect only a single city but cost no mana upkeep. You can also find spell scrolls of city enchantments that you can use only one-time, so you have to choose carefully which city you want to buff with the city enchantment. One of the roles of city enchantments is to specialize cities.

 

[Calavente]

mama mia.
so much happened in the past year
all that sounds awesome !
I had one comment on the tech map... you plan to have each civ with a different tech map ?? or "merely" have different bonus on (some) techs ?

 

[Sephi]

mama mia.
so much happened in the past year
all that sounds awesome !
I had one comment on the tech map... you plan to have each civ with a different tech map ?? or "merely" have different bonus on (some) techs ?

Yes, each civ will have it's own tech map. Of course many techs will appear on many tech maps, like mining, farming etc.

I also want to give each civ their own way to unlock "techs". I call them advancements in code because they do not necessarily have to be a technology. Only few civs will have scholars and libraries and so on. For the orcs for example I plan that they gain a resource like glory from battle and they can use that resource to purchase "technologies". So with glory in battle they can attract stronger units to their clan or wise shamans will join their clan and bring their knowledge with them.

 

[Sephi]

I spend about a week iterating on the grasslands textures. It's finally at a point that I like. There is still improvement potential with better grass, flowers, trees etc.

I had also added some dungeons tiles some time ago where you can find monsters to fight (and loot). They have some flickering light and sometimes also some mist. It looks pretty cool when a dungeon is at the edge of the fog of war (left side of the screenshot).

 

[Sephi]

All features are mostly implemented now. Development focus is now testing, polish, artwork and tutorial stuff. For my next testgame I decided to create a custom leader as an airmage to make a build focused on dexterity and test air / water magic.

Name, Title, Motto and Empire Name are flavour texts that are referenced in dialogs and events. This leader I only use in testing in a single game so I did not spend much time on these texts. As starting knowledge you can only pick certain more powerful technologies, currently about 40. For bodyguards there are about 8-10 choices for each race and there are currently about 40 combat abilities you can start with. So lots of choices you can experiment with. The custom leader you create is saved in a separate file and cloned when the game starts so if you make changes to the custom leader it will not affect savegame where the leader is used. So for example you could easily create a leader, play a game, then for the next game use the same leader just change the starting tech.

 

[Guru-Meditation]

So, how is the development going?

(Thrilled for Updates )

 

[Sephi]

I will post another update soon. Development is going great. I want to put out a demo as soon as possible so everyone can give feedback. So I am burning through everything that needs to be done for the demo. This week I added the game settings screen where you can select mapsize and gamespeed and other leaders and those things. I have added a system so you can save multiple configurations. In civ4 I think it only save the last configuration. It's mostly art that is missing for the demo now. A few terrain graphics and visual effects for combat abilities like fireball etc and portraits for battle captains. Oh and more victory conditions need to be done.

 

[Sephi]

after years of all kinds of tries I have finally settled on an interface style that I feel is good enough. Many games these days use some minimalistic transparency style but I am not a fan of it cause it makes every game look very similar. I wanted a style that is
- fantasy like
- pleasent to look at
- practical and easy for me to use on all kinds of screens. I think the game by now has somewhere between 30 and 50 different screens (counting any little menu as a "screen")
- doesn't distract frome the game. Some screens will display a lot of numbers/information so I need a style that supports that.
- that I can do without outside help. So development isn't blocked because I have to wait for someone to be available. And talented artists tend to be very busy.

Here you can see the game menu in the new style.

The interface also uses two shaders you cannot see in the screenshot. The page has a wave effect that makes it look like the wind moves the page a bit. The background picture has a distortion effect that is a bit like hot air in the desert. Both effects are very weak so you that they do not distract. But for example if you focus on looking at the background picture the effect becomes quite noticeable. A few screens use a dark interface style like the leader screen I posted before since these styles work very well together. The leader screen has style and if you select a new talent a sub screen opens that is visually very different so it's very intuitive which gui element is currently active.

My favorite screen currently is probably the cityscreen. Each civ still has a different background picture and with the new style the background pictures I feel mesh really well with the interface.

 

[Sephi]

I have also added some common post processing effects to the game as video options. Really like Ambient Occlusion (AO), it adds some nice shadows.

without AO

with AO set to high

notice the shadows at the walls.

 

[Sephi]

I have also added an optional day and night cycle. Length and how dark night becomes can be configured.

daylight

and at midnight with maximum darkness the deep forests start to glow a bit blue.

I guess some campfires and fireflies at night would be nice in the future.

 

[OzzyKP]

Awesome, thanks for the updates! Great to see all the progress! I think the UI style looks good.

 

[Sephi]

Well, the beacons are lit now. Ok, no grand beacons only small campfires, but they give the night a nice flair.

 

[Sephi]

Economy​

The goals I had when designing the economy were:

• bread and butter decisions that come up often should not be same every game. So that you actually make a decision everytime you build a building and not just follow some patterns.
• A lot of player agency that allows players to define what kind of economy they want to run. Focus on gold, specific weapons or armor, techs, espionage, magic, etc. or a mix of those.
• Intuitive mechanics that are easy to learn and hard to master
• Only abstractions when they are necessary. No boardgame feeling, the logic how the economy works should come from the world and not some artificial rules.
• Cities should be unique and memorable. Not 32433 cities all with the same buildings.
• No micromanagement nightmare in the endgame. Decisions should still matter in the lategame.

Cities​

The backbone of the economy are cities.They produce resources and train soldiers. Lets have a look.

 

[Sephi]

Population​

The population of cities is not an abstract number, but a concrete number. Small cities have a population of somewhere between 5000-10000 and large cities will probably end up with a population between 50000 and 100,000. Unlike many 4x games there are no dimining returns on population growth, it takes the same resources to grow your city from 10k to 15k or from 60k to 65k. You will have cities of all kinds of sizes in your empire depending on their importance and access to resources.

Population categories​

The population of a city is distributed into different categories: workers, militia, guards and unrest. Depending on the unrest in the city some of the population will notwork at all. Many buildings require guards as upkeep. Militia is population that does not serve as guards currently but is available to serve as guards in the future in new buildings. The rest of the population is available as workers who can work in professions to produce resources. Both militia and guards increase the city defense which helps when the city is sieged by attackers.

Population Growth​

Each race requires specific resources to nurture and grow their population. For most races this is food,but races like undead or golems will require other resources. Any additional food that is left over after consumption translates into population growth. However the population will only grow if there is available Housing. Each city starts with some basic housing,additional housing can be gained by constructing city districts.

Professions​

Most of your population will be workers and can be assigned to different professions. Each race has access to a unique set of professions that reflect their culture. Professions create or transform resources. Farmers create food whereas alchemists transform mana to gold. You can only employ as many workers in a profession as you have profession slosts. These slots are gained from terrain, technologies, buildings and influential organizations like a merchant guild. For food for example there are 4 different professions: farmers, hunters, fishers and animists. Farming is the most efficient one but takes the most investment. You need to set up farms first which require fairly fertile terrain. Fishing requires lakes or oceans. Hunting can be done pretty much everywhere but certain terrain like forests is more suitable for it. And animists turn mana into food, so it is a terrain independent way to gain food but you need a lot of mana to spare for it.

Resources​

There are local resources and empire resources. Local resources can only be used in the city they were produced, but you can transfer them to neighbouring cities by creating traderoutes. Empire resources are added to an empire stockpile and you can easily use them wherever you need them. What really spices up things is that what decides if a resource has an empire stockpile is not the nature of the resource, but the culture of your empire. Metal for example is for most races a local resource,but for dwarves it is an empire resource. If you play a race that is magically not talented then mana is a local resource, but if you decide to pick up the wizard leader talent then mana becomes an empire resource.

Traderoutes​

You set up traderoutes manually by importing or exporting resources from a city to a neighbouring city. You set up how much of a resource per turn you want to export or import in a city. Not all resources can be traded this way, for example you cannot set up traderoutes for mana. Each city also has a cap for how many resources that city can export every turn and you can increase that cap with some buildings. Now traderoutes do not have a 100% efficiency, if you export 5 food you only get 4 food in the target city of the traderoute. The traderoute will create as compensation a special resource called tradegoods in the city where it starts and in the city where it ends. The idea is that when your traders embark on their traderoute they will trade a small part someof their goods in every village they come across for local goods and services. The tradegoods you gain from traderoutes are particularly important for merchant empires. For example the merchant professiondoes not create gold from thin air, it transforms tradegoods into gold.

In the trade network screen you can see the imports and exports of every city.

Here Harmsmar exports food to Donlin and also exports metal to Valesward (the metal is bought on the local market in Harmsmar).

​

 

[Sephi]

Local Market​

Each city has a local market where a limited amount of resources can be bought or sold. You can also setup automatic buying or selling for specific resources. There are buildings that increase the amount of resources that can be traded on the local market or improve the prices. The local market helps you to get started in the early game. For example if you start without any forests but need lumber you can get small amounts at the local market which will be enough in the early game. If you need more lumber in the midgame you either want to expand your empire into forest areas or increase the capacity of your local markets. Buying resources at the local market is less efficient than producing the resources but using the markets gives you more flexibility.

​

 

[Sephi]

Traderesources​

Traderesources should not be confused with normal resources. Traderesources are located on specific tiles and to gain access to that traderesource the city needs to spread its influence on that tile. Traderesources give a specific bonus to the city where they are consumed. Some traderesources give a percentage bonus, like salt for example gives a bonus to food production and papyrus gives a bonus to knowledge generation. Luxury traderesources give a bonus to merchants and reduce unrest for certain races. Each traderesource also generates a certain amount of tradegoods in the city it is consumed. You do have a choice where you want to consume a traderesource, you do not have to use the traderesource in the city that harvests the resource, you can also consume it in a neighbouring city. This choice is not permanent, you can change it by spending some tradegoods. You could create an economy where all traderesources are funneled into a few big cities or distributed more equally, the choice is yours. Often times the optimal distribution of resources will change as your empire grows and you gain access to more traderesources.

​

 

[Sephi]

Buildings​

You can construct buildings in cities to make them stronger. Buildings cost resources and workers to construct them. Most buildings require guards to maintain them. Buildings like watchtowers and barracks train some population into militia that is used to serve as guards. There are four types of buildings: normal, unique, epic and districts.

• Normal buildings are fairly cheap and you can build multiple of each type in a city. For some buildings the number you can build is restricted by terrain like farms and mines, other buildings like markets or libraries you can build as many as you want as long as you have guards avaiable for them.
• Unique buildings cost more and provide powerfull effects to specialize the city, however you can only construct them once in a city. A sawmill for example increases the output of all lumberjacks in the city.
• Epic buildings are designed for the mid to lategame. They require vast amounts of resources and a lot of time to build and in return provide powerful bonuses for your whole empire to snowball it towards the finishing line.
• Districs have high costs and provide housing. They also unlock other buildings and often times provide a percentage bonus. Districts are a great way to specialize a city. You can build multiple instances of any type of district. So you could build a highly specialized city with 10 market districts or a diverse city with 10 different city districts or anything in between. Districts are fairly expensive to construct so you usually only want to construct a new district when you are running out of housing. Districts also have a maintenance cost that increases with each district in the city.

Soldier Training​

Each city can train a few soldiers per turn. This can be increased with buildings like barracks. Soldiers also require resources like gold, weapons, armor, etc. You can order a city to train a fixed amount of a specific unit type or to train continously and they will train the selected unittypes for as long as they have the required resources.

City Enchantments​

City enchantments provide powerfull bonuses to cities and can be used to specialize cities. There is no limit to how many enchantments a city can have.

 

[OzzyKP]

Population​

The population of cities is not an abstract number, but a concrete number. Small cities have a population of somewhere between 5000-10000 and large cities will probably end up with a population between 50000 and 100,000. Unlike many 4x games there are no dimining returns on population growth, it takes the same resources to grow your city from 10k to 15k or from 60k to 65k. You will have cities of all kinds of sizes in your empire depending on their importance and access to resources.

Population categories​

The population of a city is distributed into different categories: workers, militia, guards and unrest. Depending on the unrest in the city some of the population will notwork at all. Many buildings require guards as upkeep. Militia is population that does not serve as guards currently but is available to serve as guards in the future in new buildings. The rest of the population is available as workers who can work in professions to produce resources. Both militia and guards increase the city defense which helps when the city is sieged by attackers.

Not that I want to over-complicate the game, but have you considered population categories for children, caregivers, elderly and sick? They take up housing & food, but don't contribute production. Disease and famine could increase the number of sick, health buildings/resources/policies could decrease them. Cutthroat civilizations could kill (or eat?) the sick and elderly. A society with more caregivers could have faster population growth (or a stronger/more productive population) at the cost of fewer workers overall.