Next Soldak game (game 8)

[Shadow]

Originally Posted by Jorlen

Did you have anything else in mind for game 8, other than this? I'm asking out of curiosity only, of course, and I understand if you'd rather not discuss it here.

Every time between games I consider a bunch of things: sequels, console ports, remasters, etc.

Originally Posted by Bluddy

I assume you'll keep the general quest structure intact. One thing I've thought about is that one variable that's missing in all the previous games is how much time is left for a quest. For example, in Drox, if I can see that a quest is about to be over one way or another (even if the roll will just determine that the quest remains as is as an option), I can prioritize much better. That kind of information helps the player decide what to do next, increasing player agency.

The timer doesn't even have to be displayed directly: it can use fuzzy terms like 'no pressure', 'imminent', etc.

In general, yes the dynamic quest structure will be there. I am toying around with an idea of a threat meter, like we did in Zombasite, but for each quest. Whether or not this shows the general chance of a town attack or just for the quest to cause more problems I don't know.

[Bluddy]

Another thing worth considering is trying to embed a scripting language like lua in your engine. It's not that hard, and it'll allow you to externalize more things (initially only the stuff you add for this game, but later you can expand the scope). Things like quests, status effect logic and UI can then easily be fully modified and fixed without recompilation, and this will really open up the community's ability to fix things like small bugs or to add variety in the form of new quests (which you can then choose to include if you want), allowing you to focus more on the game's design, on the main C++ engine, and less on maintenance.

[torikamal]

I'm really excited about this new game. It really opens up a lot of options, especially in terms of emergent gameplay.
Being able to change our environments will be amazing!

[BurningSheep]

Just a quick idea:

Have you ever thought about making a game in the style of Depths of Peril/Zombasite, but with the larger developments being fixed?

What I mean is that dungeons and other dangerous areas would get more active in a specific order and settlements on the map would progressively get overrun. The player could prevent these developments by getting rid of the source of the problem, like in the Soldak-games we already know. But it would always be a fight against the clock and not everything would be preventable and some things would simply get out of control. Perhaps settlements themselves would also spawn fixed offensives against dungeons or try to take back villages that have fallen.

Alternatively it might also be cool if the player could work to improve the defenses of the various settlements as an alternative to having to completely solve a problem. I guess the guardian creatures and recruits of DoP as well as the other Covenants were already pretty close to what I'm imagining.

I don't know how technically doable this all is, but I just thought that while for a game like Din's Curse the "lots and lots of randomization"-approach works well, once you have a big open world it would be nice if it doesn't just boil down to "fun dynamic stuff happening" because of course you have no control over how that turns out and a lot of the time some random thing happening will be just that and probably not produce anything particularly interesting or memorable.

[Destro*]

For the 'increasing difficulty' comment, Din's Legacy definitely already gets that way over time if you ignore the constantly increasing number of unique mobs that cause problems.

I have very fond memories of towns getting raided, not only by other races, but by monster hoards too, and them being completely overrun without me being able to help at all.

Naturally, if you take care of all of the problems before they get out of control, or simply go to a different zone, you may not be exposed to these types of scenarios since they take time to build up.

[BurningSheep]

I don't know about Zombasite, but Depths of Peril already had some of what I mean. The reason why it worked there and not in Din's Curse was that the town was more resilient with the characters being immortal and the Covenants and guard creatures helping with defense. In Din's Curse the villages were simply too flimsy to produce anything interesting most of the time. Din's Curse was still the better ARPG of course. The hybrid system and simply not being as broken and unfair ()did definitely help make DC more enjoyable. But also perhaps a little less memorable.

What DoP didn't have was a wider world in which things were happening regardless of the player. I mean, there were no settlements out in the wilds and almost always it would merely be the player being affected by developments in the world and sometimes the town. It was still very player-centric, but at least the town could defend itself.

I'm probably making this too complicated. A simple* world map with Din's Curse-esque villages that would all be permanent (even the ruined ones) and extend the developments to affect the wider world might already do the trick. To introduce more permanence I mean. In DC the villages always just ceased to exist once the player was done with them. Having a good chance to have one or more strong characters in these villages/towns/camps would also help create a feeling that it isn't just the player acting. And it would of course be necessary to not have all the various places just die off while the player wasn't looking.


I guess though that I really should give Zombasite and Drox a try instead of making these suggestions. From what I hear they already seem a little closer to what I mean.

*Whenever I say "simple" I'm doing that from a naive perspective of someone who doesn't actually have a clue about game development, of course

[Notorious]

Any news about how this game is coming along? Is there a timeframe for release?

[Shadow]

Originally Posted by Notorious

Any news about how this game is coming along? Is there a timeframe for release?

It's going well. I post about it fairly often on twitter/facebook/tweet thread/discord.

It doesn't have a time frame for release yet.

[Cockbite]

Originally Posted by Shadow

I'm pretty sure our next game is going to be kind of a hybrid between Din's Curse and a game like Terraria or Starbound.

That sounds absolutely amazing.

Originally Posted by Shadow

I've run into an interesting decision for the next game. What happens when you start a level 100 world, the starting area is a forest, and you start mining? Is it basic level 1 dirt? Do basic blocks scale with the world level? Or are there several dirts with different names?

I'm concerned as to why dirt has a level in the first place because that sounds like a mess. I don't know of any 2D (or even 3D) sandbox game that uses levels for blocks.

[Shadow]

Originally Posted by Cockbite

I'm concerned as to why dirt has a level in the first place because that sounds like a mess. I don't know of any 2D (or even 3D) sandbox game that uses levels for blocks.

It really isn't a level, it's basically how much durability it has to you digging it with a pickaxe.