Hey guys,
So I've really been wrestling with this stuff. I've said various stuff about "storylines" lately, and that's all going to die. It's good that I was focusing on the data creation for that prior to actually trying to get code in place. There are still some pieces of code that were costly to create that are going to get tossed out (argh!), but mostly not too much of that happens. And mostly the bulk of the data we've created thus far can get translated over into the new system.
Rather than trying to explain things too much, here's just the main bulk of an email I sent to John, who is working with us as a writer for a lot of things coming up in the game (and he's done an awesome job so far, too, not that any of it is public yet):
Note to John:
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I hope you're doing well. I have to confess I've been in a bit of a panic mode all this week, just at the sheer volume of stuff that I'm trying to cram into this game in the time period that is currently available. I really can't afford to push the timetable back yet again (for I think what would be the 5th time), as that costs me tens of thousands of dollars each time.
Anyway, this isn't just about your part of the scope -- though your part is related, at core, to what I'm talking about of course. It's the #$%#$ diplomacy stuff in general.
Some of that comes around to being an issue with things on the art side, or on the coding and design side -- especially the latter two. There just aren't enough hours in a day, good grief. To get this thing properly tested, it needs to be pretty much coded within the next two weeks at the latest.
Overall I've just not been very happy with how things are turning out with the storyline stuff in general, from an overall design standpoint: it creates a TON of work for you and I both, and the number of possible variations is still shockingly low.
It also requires the use of this totally-other screen for diplomacy, which I'm not fond of. During vacation and in the evenings I've been mulling other games, and TerraTech and KeeperRL have been the two most catching my attention lately. There are good and bad points about both of them.
The thing about TerraTech that has been so interesting to me is how you get the pieces you need in order to build your vehicles and your base: you destroy enemies that spawn somewhat randomly. So the main point is that there is a RNG that's determining what is available to you at any given time.
That can be kind of annoying at that game at the moment and is only partly the mechanic because it's in alpha right now. But the main point, as I take it, is that it's interesting coming across little gems of opportunity or challenge in that world, and then dealing with them in various ways.
More on that in a sec.
Looking at KeeperRL, I love how I kind of get a vague sense of each little guy in my keep. They take on individual roles and strengths and weaknesses. I honestly could not care less about equipping them and doing all the other little micromanagement stuff with them that seems incredibly boring. But they seem to mostly handle that on their own, at least well enough for me to enjoy myself and focus on planning my keep, etc.
Anyhow, what is really cool is that it takes a bunch of guys that are ostensibly the same -- Orc #11, despite the fact that he has a name and a level associated with him, and whatever equipment, he still looks the same on the map -- and makes them feel more individual. He has feelings of happiness from when I took control of him and murdered a bunch of gnomes. I have some fondness for him since he actually won where this other guy died, and so I have him in the training room buffing up even more so that he'll be extra awesome later.
That's a very different kind of game from SBR, too, but I've really been looking in a variety of different directions to try to figure out why I'm so unhappy here.
The key pain points that I've come to feel with the current planned approach are:
1. We ONLY ever talk to the leaders of other races, which is clearly limiting in terms of getting any sense of them as real societies.
2. We have to go to this other interface to see what's going on.
3. The arc of the stories has to be really kind of forced and complex. And that thus requires a huge amount of content before it's functional at all, because more than one playthrough really is going to be an issue.
4. As you've pointed out, the interactivity between multiple races is frustratingly low.
5. Right now, when I run into a monster, it's just a matter of if I fight it or not. So these are just kind of random things sitting around on the map for me to fight, yawn.
6. There's not a really clear way for me to interact with the planet, either.
7. The whole idea of "doing something with a race to become secure with them" is a challenging thing in general. It's vague, and gets into "attitude" areas, muddling up the two. It's going to be an ongoing issue.
8. There is no immediate call to action on the main map itself. The new approach does create roadblocks for me that make me engage the other races in order to win, which is good; but it's all off on some other screen, which I don't like. It doesn't feel as integrated as I want.
9. Oh, also: all of this is completely externally-focused, with no interesting stuff going on in your own citizenry at all. They might as well be robots.
Therefore I find myself searching for a completely other approach, and this is what I've come up with, broadly speaking:
1. You'll win the game based on "removing all instabilities" in the civilizations of other races AND your own. That will either be based on doing some things to help the various races, or by killing them.
2. There will be no overall diplomacy or trade, per se, in the general "do whatever you want at any time" sense. That stuff is boring and I hate it in other games anyway.
3. Instead there will be a big focus on "events" at specific types of buildings, for specific races. These events will be things that are instabilities. You can resolve them various ways, or not, as you choose. They might involve monsters, the planet, other races, your own citizens, etc.
4. There will be a system, as-yet TBD, that increases or decreases a "stability meter" for each race as you complete those things or choose not to. The details there still need to be worked out, but that's basically a matter of scoring more than anything else. The core thing that is FUN and interesting is the events themselves.
5. Based on the need for events in #3, we'll be able to design those and have a core set fairly quickly. Within a couple of days I should have enough for a prototype, along with a revised prototype design. This is KEY, because then testing and whatnot can proceed, and the game moves on. And your job then shifts away from being something that is a bottleneck to having the game work at all and instead into being something that is enriching something that is already good. A really REALLY good thing for my peace of mind, and I imagine yours.
6. Based on all of this, this also gives us FAR more flexibility in the sorts of stories that we can tell. They don't have to be civilization-wide, and they can involve all sorts of different individuals and some unique personalities within each race. They are also much more singular in nature -- a thing happens and that's that, it's not tied immutably into some larger story arc. Rather it just becomes part of the meta-narrative that is your unique game playthrough.
I'm going to have a lot of reworking to do based on this. The short-term message for you is basically: please don't do anything more on the spreadsheet yet, but instead focus on the race personality bible last bits.
I'll then be having more stuff for you by tomorrow night (Thursday night), and we'll go from there. The overall style of work you'll be doing is the same, but it should be a lot more flexible for you, and the structure of said work will be a lot easier for both of us to manage and digest.
