First play & some questions

[Dizzard]

There's probably going to be heaps of these kind of threads coming in over the coming days but here's another anyway.

I've been playing through the demo a while now and I'm really enjoying it It does remind me like others have said of a kind of Metroidvania + Dwarf Fortress (Adventure mode) setup. I've been reading the forums too and I have some thoughts and other things I'm curious about.

1. I've read that you want to include funerals in the game, so does that mean you would include marriage too? Might be extra incentive for your character not to die knowing they have a spouse and child waiting at the home settlement for them.

2. That leads me to my second question, will npcs (in your settlement and maybe outside) have any sort of significant relationships with each other at any point? Or will they have no interaction with each other and you just have to imagine that they know each other. I get a little nervous asking these kind of questions just in case somebody asks me if I want to turn the game into the sims...but I think having a relationship system would be very useful for setting the mood. I would feel more proud of my civilization building achievements if I can see the civilians coming together like that and having that little something that makes them more than just your standard RPG npcs. (rather than them just walking back and forth aimlessly and throwing out short quips that don't really mean much every time you approach them)

Just wanted to give my two cents, I know the game is at an early stage so you're probably not really thinking of these kind of features yet. Keep up the great work!

[x4000]

Welcome, and glad you're enjoying it!

In terms of things like NPC marriages, relationships, children, and things of that nature... maybe.  I think that it's out of scope for 1.0 of the game, honestly, as the focus there is more on the adolescent (in the literary sense) "hero's journey."  That's in keeping with, say, most every adventure game (Zelda, I think Diablo, any sort of "save the world" game). 

The more adult (again in the literary sense) themes about marriage, family, and those sorts of things are certainly something worth exploring, but they are a lot more complex and I think are worth waiting and doing right, rather than doing something half-baked that is really just sort of a... I guess trophy is the right word.  Having the wife/pet/child be a trophy for your adolescent adventurer is really not something we'd want to encourage, as that's really not a very good social message in my view.

Not that we're trying to preach or really force any specific social agenda -- you're free to be a sociopathic psycho murderer in the game if it pleases you -- but if we were to represent something like marriage and children, the only way I could think of that being interesting is if we really put a lot of effort into it and did it right.  That's taking the game to a whole different emotional plane, of course, and one that I think is really cool.  It almost seems like an entire expansion for the game could be built around that, making almost a whole new game right in the existing base adventurer game.

I dunno -- it's fairly far off either way, I think, but it's interesting.  Cheers!

[Dizzard]

It's nice to know it's something you're not against, even if it is in the distant future.

I never really thought of a wife/child being like a trophy. I guess if it was done right a wife/child in this game would be no less a trophy than a wife/child in real life.

It would certainly be a "blown wide open" kind of feature to include in the game. (or any game really) Firstly you'd have the satisfaction of saying "Those two npcs married and had children, if it wasn't for my efforts that wouldn't have happened." There would be a lot of interesting achievements to come out of it. Then secondly there would be other benefits (that I probably can't/won't ever think of) like having quests that centre around npc relationships. (and the conclusion of which can alter those relationships in some way)

So you talk to an npc and they want to give you a quest, it'll check their relationships and give you a quest relating to somebody they know.

[x4000]

Oh yeah, I quite agree on all that.

And without naming names, I was referring to the implementation in some specific other games with the wife/pet/child being a "trophy."  I don't like that model any more than it sounds like you would.  But the reason those other games did it that way is because it's the easier way to go (upgrade your armor; buy a pet; get a wife while you're there!), which isn't something I want to remotely duplicate, heh.

[c4sc4]

Oh yeah, I quite agree on all that.

And without naming names, I was referring to the implementation in some specific other games with the wife/pet/child being a "trophy."  I don't like that model any more than it sounds like you would.  But the reason those other games did it that way is because it's the easier way to go (upgrade your armor; buy a pet; get a wife while you're there!), which isn't something I want to remotely duplicate, heh.

Heh, my favorite is King's Bounty where you can marry a wife and she gives you passive bonuses. Plus, you can equip her with a variety of items that you get the benefits from so she essentially increased your equipment slots. If you talked to her, she would occasionally ask you to have a child with her and once you did she would get a baby that took up one of her equipment slots permanently but the babies also had enchantments on them. You could even divorce your wife in that game and she took some percentage of your gold you had when you did so.

[x4000]

Wow, that's... wow.  It's clever, game-mechanics-wise, but it's very abstract and isn't at all about real relationships, obviously.

[c4sc4]

Wow, that's... wow.  It's clever, game-mechanics-wise, but it's very abstract and isn't at all about real relationships, obviously.

Yeah, I found it amusing. There is one wife that you can even turn her into a zombie and back again at will.

[Nalgas]

Heh, my favorite is King's Bounty where you can marry a wife and she gives you passive bonuses. Plus, you can equip her with a variety of items that you get the benefits from so she essentially increased your equipment slots. If you talked to her, she would occasionally ask you to have a child with her and once you did she would get a baby that took up one of her equipment slots permanently but the babies also had enchantments on them. You could even divorce your wife in that game and she took some percentage of your gold you had when you did so.

Yeah, that's pretty silly when taken out of context like that, but within the game it actually worked quite well, mechanics-wise.  I still have fond memories of running around with my pirate wife's crazy stat boost and wreaking havoc with my sea dogs' three-hex slash to open every fight for like 60% of the game.  Sadly, she/they had to get booted from the team to make way for the demon wife/demon army at the end, because they're just too ridiculous to pass up.

Awesome game, though.  It's like the HOMM series, only even more fun.  I need to get around to playing Armored Princess/Crossworlds one of these days...

[NefariousKoel]

This may be something interesting to add into the strategic game, in the future. 

While it may not initially sound like anything interesting to the head-smasher within us, there's a case in which dynastic gameplay is actually interesting (and can have rather back-stabbing family politics) in Crusader Kings.  While that game's great focus on the matter is too much detail for something that may be intended to be a small part of this game, it gives an idea of how much fun it can be.   I wouldn't expect it to be much of a priority, however;  more like an expansion or something.