Questions

[Hector]

Quick question regarding character advancement: is it based around levels, or around skills? By that, I mean do characters improve on the fly, or must they reach a certain predetermined level of "experience" before they get to improve? Either way works for me, but I'm much more a fan of improving characters on the fly, mostly because it feels more believable than arbitrary levels but also because it means that one can't simply compare levels between two characters in order to decide which is the better fighter.

[Captain Deathbeard]

Its skill based, so they increase as you go, there is no overall level. Skills increase with use, but on top of that you also build up skill points that can be manually distributed.

I'll see how well it works, but the idea is that you will only be able to get a rough idea at best of how strong other characters are until you fight them.

[Hector]

Cool. Also, is weapon length intended to play any role? That is, is a person wielding a katana at a disadvantage against a person wielding a no dachi beyond the usual routine of "bigger swords hurt more"?

[Captain Deathbeard]

It will yes, it is mainly the balance between speed vs power, defense vs offense. A heavy weapon will be slower to block, but the block will be stronger, same with attack. Large weapons have an advantage against heavily armoured opponents. If you are outnumbered a large weapon will do sweeping damage to more opponents, but a smaller sword would be able to block a lot more of the incoming attacks. Generally a larger weapon means more attack power, weaker defense, and also requires a lot more strength and endurance to use.

[Hector]

I see, so reach won't be an issue then? Also, how heavy is heavy? I mean swords, for instance, aren't that heavy, regardless of design (assuming that it's designed for actual combat rather than ceremony). Even German dopplehanders, the heaviest swords that ever saw actual combat, only weighed 2-3kg.

Next question, how much of a hinderance is heavy armour? Something you may wish to bear in mind is that the heaviest armour that saw actual combat, as opposed to jousting, was no-where near as heavy as some people think, and falling to the ground was no more a death sentence in full plate than unarmoured. After all, if you couldn't get up from being knocked to the ground because your armour was too heavy, it was more likely to get you killed than save your life.

That said, such armour did give plenty of protection against almost all kinds of weapon, and cost so much that only the very richest of the nobility could actually afford it. The two main ways of killing someone in such armour were to get a weapon designed specifically for getting through plate, such as a poleaxe, or to grapple the person to the ground and stab through a gap in the armour, such as the armpit or the visor.

Don't worry; I'm not demanding to see such things in this game (in fact if there were, this would be the first game to include them). I'm just trying to provide food for thought.

[Captain Deathbeard]

Reach will have a little effect, but the results are going to be emergent, rather than planned, if that makes sense.

Heavy weapons will be pretty over-the-top heavy, at least if I can get the animations right, there will be some over-sized swords that only the strongest characters can use.

There are 3 classes of armour, no one class is better than the others, they are balanced for certain uses:
Heavy - Can only jog at best, must be very strong and very fit to wear it, and it will rapidly accelerate exhaustion and slow you down in combat. Offers great protection. Also most expensive.
Light - Unrestrictive, usually consists of metal plates covering over the most vital areas only. You can move fast so its good for theives, scouts, archers, assasins, medics...
Medium - A balance between the other two, good for all round use. The armour you see in all the screenshots so far is medium.

Exhaustion is accelerated by overall weight (armour + weapon), and is a major factor in combat.

[Hector]

Fair enough. While it goes without saying that I plan to buy this game as soon as it's available, I still wouldn't mind knowing how much of what I mentioned could potentially be modded into the game.

[Captain Deathbeard]

Hard to say really. You will have mod control over different weapon/damage/armour types, in fact the game could probably be totally re-balanced with just the construction set if you wanted.

[Hector]

Sounds good to me. Might I assume that in the construction set there is something there to adjust base prices as well? Obviously there'd be some variation in the prices from place to place and from character to character, but would there be a way to adjust the base value of a given object?

[Captain Deathbeard]

Haven't really gotten into money and stuff yet, but the idea is that I have as many global variables to tweek as possible to help me balance the game overall without micromanaging the value of every single item.

You have a good point, it will be a good idea to be able to globally adjust base values for classifications of goods and items, to help balance the economy.

[Suta]

Heres another question related to gameplay.

What features are already in the game? And what things do you want to add by the time it's released (even early, as you are doing it).

Thanks for your time, and a bigger thanks for releasing an unfinished game, seriously.

[Captain Deathbeard]

There are no real features yet, its all foundation stuff so far. The foundations for the AI are done, the combat system is as you see it in the video. Character editor with proportions is almost done. Oh yeah and I now have a full 400sq/km landscape.

So the first release will be just the bare bones. The combat will be functional enough, but over time I will add more animations, and wounded characters will be able to crawl, or be carried to safety by comrades. That is when it will really get fun because the survival of your squad will be about care and going out of your way for them, not about quick-saving every minute.

The great stuff will come later, all the different factions and careers, the ability to buy your own building in a town for an HQ or open a shop, the ability to build your own base or look after a village, making friends and enemies on both a faction and a personal level.

Over time also I will be able to tune the combat for massive battles, sieges, and of course add ranged combat.

The list can go on forever and there's loads of things planned that really excite me, but remember the first release is only going to be bare bones.

[Suta]

Wow, thanks a lot for the quick reply. This is certainly going to be interesting, 400 KM2 is definetly an eyecatcher. You've gotten my purchase.

[Captain Deathbeard]

Just for reference, Oblivion is 41sq/km.

The real work however will come with filling it.

[Lamoot]

Oblivion felt kind of small with its vast view distances so it didn't feel as big as Morrowind (which had that fog). In addition it was too crowded with "interesting" locations, such as tombs, dungeons, mines, elven ruins and all in a very uniform way so in the end it didn't feel like a world but a would-be RPG player's artificial sandbox.

Oh and I have a question, have you given any thought about the "ecosystem"? I mean where do people get food, water and such?

[Suta]

It looks mostly like desert so far, I would be interested in seeing the ecosystem as well. But I have another question if it's not too much of a hassle.

After I purchase the game (which I will ) Where will I be? What will I see? Whats the first thing I could do? I'm asking not what I should be doing, but what I will be looking at basically.

[Captain Deathbeard]

I'm still thinking about both. In the final game there will be loads of different starting positions to choose from, from simple things like starting in a peaceful home village, or a village preparing itself to fight against a predicted bandit raid, to starting out in the middle of a raid, or waking up with no memory in the middle of a monsters nest, or being staked out in the desert to die.

I will keep it simple for the first release, to start with there will be just a couple of villages, traders, shops, wanderers, muggers and bandits. You will be able to fight, loot, talk and trade, visit a hospital, thats about it for the start. The initial size of the world you can play in will largely depend on Windexglow, who's getting the buildings together.


As for ecology, there will be oasis's and pools around, sources of water will be fought over. As for food, there will have to be farming villages in the less sandy areas that are used to feed the big towns. These farming villages of course will be abused and milked dry by the bigger powers. And then theres always hunting, and digging up lizards.

[Hector]

Might I assume the ability to recruit followers is also there? I mean, it's a fairly important part of the game, and given that it's probably safe to assume that your enemies will be wandering around in groups too...

[Captain Deathbeard]

Of course!

[wazupwolf]

^ awesome stuff i cant wait. o and whats a euro exactly? i use dollars because im american. o and i feel special for making the first topic to get 2! pages lol