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Indie Dead Monarchy: Open-World | Turn-Based | Mercenary Management | RPG - Fully Released May 19th 2023
- Thread starter Bantichai
- Start date
Hey guys, so have an update today detailing the beginnings of the world map and challenge/tournament mode. Tournaments are an integral part of core gameplay although they only appear mid-game and are used to determine the power structure of the kingdoms and domains. They are mid-game because there are precursor events that lead up to triggering tournaments, so challenge mode just skips the first part of the game and focuses on the tournaments themselves. There will be a tournament ranking ladder (which I've nearly finished) that showcases the participating groups and will update as you progress further up the ladder.
Each fight in the tournament is more or less a death match between two groups putting everything at stake to have a shot at obtaining lands and wealth. Between each tournament round you will complete tasks to gather intel on your opponent, such as who their leader is, their group strategy and classes. You will also have time in between each fight to train up your mercenaries and explore the map outside the village. You will also have to deal with the day to day struggles of just trying to survive until the tournament fight day, you will be able to receive contracts from various questionable individuals and when interiors are implemented, you will be able to "plunder all sorts of holes", in the ground like caves and dungeons.
The combat UI has also gone through another update, although it is a small one. Also a note on the world map, the towns are represented on a 1:1 scale, I've decided to go with this route because the overall scope of even the largest cities won't be so large that they are unpractical to portray on the world map. The world in Dead Monarchy is more or less recovering from a crisis which decimated most of the population, so the towns and cities are built around to cater a smaller population. This will help add more detail on the map, because the overall detail will be kept to a minimum. The finer details of the town will be abstracted like roads inside or people, but the layout is the same. There won't be grass on the world map but trees are presents and hopefully rivers in the future. I think this is more or less a nice balance.
The map is fully nav-meshed and a model will represent the player allowing you to traverse the map. As you traverse the map you will encounter random events and at all times the world clock will keep on ticking. Each day at 12pm, food and gold are deducted and if the requirements are not met, morale will drop. The further morale drops the higher chance members will leave.
While the clock has been implemented, time of day lighting hasn't yet, nor weather which I hope to implement as well later. Shadows are "disabled" or to put in better words not implemented yet as I am implementing shadows differently to how you would project them in default Unity workflow.
The demo is shaping up to be:
1. One town, that hosts the first tier of tournament or tourney. It determines the local champion of that specific town. There are 3 rounds or 3 battles. Tournaments are not to be underestimated, a lot is at stake, like your own life. You can prolong the fight date of your tournament fight by bribing officials.
2. A small portion of the map surrounding the outlying areas of the town.
3. A few dungeons and caves to plunder.
4. 10 armor sets, weapons which are hosted in a shop in town.
5. Random events on the world map.
As usual things are subject to change, but at this point this is what it is shaping up to be.
Each fight in the tournament is more or less a death match between two groups putting everything at stake to have a shot at obtaining lands and wealth. Between each tournament round you will complete tasks to gather intel on your opponent, such as who their leader is, their group strategy and classes. You will also have time in between each fight to train up your mercenaries and explore the map outside the village. You will also have to deal with the day to day struggles of just trying to survive until the tournament fight day, you will be able to receive contracts from various questionable individuals and when interiors are implemented, you will be able to "plunder all sorts of holes", in the ground like caves and dungeons.
The combat UI has also gone through another update, although it is a small one. Also a note on the world map, the towns are represented on a 1:1 scale, I've decided to go with this route because the overall scope of even the largest cities won't be so large that they are unpractical to portray on the world map. The world in Dead Monarchy is more or less recovering from a crisis which decimated most of the population, so the towns and cities are built around to cater a smaller population. This will help add more detail on the map, because the overall detail will be kept to a minimum. The finer details of the town will be abstracted like roads inside or people, but the layout is the same. There won't be grass on the world map but trees are presents and hopefully rivers in the future. I think this is more or less a nice balance.
The map is fully nav-meshed and a model will represent the player allowing you to traverse the map. As you traverse the map you will encounter random events and at all times the world clock will keep on ticking. Each day at 12pm, food and gold are deducted and if the requirements are not met, morale will drop. The further morale drops the higher chance members will leave.
While the clock has been implemented, time of day lighting hasn't yet, nor weather which I hope to implement as well later. Shadows are "disabled" or to put in better words not implemented yet as I am implementing shadows differently to how you would project them in default Unity workflow.
The demo is shaping up to be:
1. One town, that hosts the first tier of tournament or tourney. It determines the local champion of that specific town. There are 3 rounds or 3 battles. Tournaments are not to be underestimated, a lot is at stake, like your own life. You can prolong the fight date of your tournament fight by bribing officials.
2. A small portion of the map surrounding the outlying areas of the town.
3. A few dungeons and caves to plunder.
4. 10 armor sets, weapons which are hosted in a shop in town.
5. Random events on the world map.
As usual things are subject to change, but at this point this is what it is shaping up to be.
Been working on the world map, which also doubles up as an exploration map. Zooming in shows all the details and you can zoom all the way out, interface isn't finished but I like how progress is coming along. Cities and towns are shown on a 1:1 ratio on the map, but entering them loads up another zone, which contains all the finer details like people etc, which haven't yet been done.
It is important to note that first and foremost this is the overworld map, you can zoom all the way out and plot out your path etc, right now I just haven't done the location names and other interface elements. The difference is that it also doubles up as an "exploration" map in that you can zoom all the way in. After doing more tests, I found out the grass textures were not that performance heavy, but obviously there will still be a grass toggle. I'm pretty happy how this map has turned out.
It is important to note that first and foremost this is the overworld map, you can zoom all the way out and plot out your path etc, right now I just haven't done the location names and other interface elements. The difference is that it also doubles up as an "exploration" map in that you can zoom all the way in. After doing more tests, I found out the grass textures were not that performance heavy, but obviously there will still be a grass toggle. I'm pretty happy how this map has turned out.
Just a small tease today, between working on the demo I've been working on a new shader with my modeler. Trying to get the metal to reflect better and well look more like metal, as opposed to plastic. I think the results are quite promising 
So it has been a busy month as I've been working away on the demo. Still aiming for an end of year release if not very early into the new year. Also preparing a trailer that hopefully should be dropping at the start of next year. I've got a few screenshots of how tournaments will look, the armor sets you see will also all be available in the demo.
Also yes, that is a Katana and as such there is samurai/eastern inspired armor. I'll be giving more details on the setting in Dead Monarchy towards the end of the year however it is safe to say that I am not sticking strictly with a medieval European setting and will be eventually branching into different cultures
The pictures below are showing the grand melee tourney which takes place outside of the town, there will be smaller tournaments with less combatants and more space to maneuver around in.
Also yes, that is a Katana and as such there is samurai/eastern inspired armor. I'll be giving more details on the setting in Dead Monarchy towards the end of the year however it is safe to say that I am not sticking strictly with a medieval European setting and will be eventually branching into different cultures
The pictures below are showing the grand melee tourney which takes place outside of the town, there will be smaller tournaments with less combatants and more space to maneuver around in.
This looks like it could really be something someday! It gives me a Mount & Blade vibe. Keep it up @Bantichal
Thanks a lot mate, I work on this more or less whenever I can and will continue to do so for many years however really aiming to get a combat demo out soon
Feeling conflicted...won 1/3 battle only. In XCOM 2 legendary, I considered losing 1 team member a pretty good set back, XCOM the first reboot I thought 2-3 losses was acceptable. What are your thoughts on combat difficulty? Should combat be difficult with some setbacks but easier to bounce back, or slightly more manageable losses (as I refuse to use the term easier) but harder to bounce back. This was a 12 on 12 tourney fight with only 5 survivors.
Also if you are wondering, blood pools will be in just having trouble spawning them when considering rotations. Also thinking about the time I spent with Battle Brothers, I quite liked their difficulty settings which didn't touch the AI at all, but rather just adjusted encounter size and economy.
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- Joined
- May 18, 2015
- Messages
- 5,132
Since your main influence was Battle Brothers I highly urge you to make it easier to cover losses somehow. In BB losing a 10 level guy is a real setback as you can never hire anyone higher than 5-6 level if I'm not mistaken.
This kind of "breaks" the Ironman nature of the game since it's hard to accept such a loss.
So, tl;dr : Losses should happen frequently but also be relatively easily replenished
hivemind
Guest
why is that bad
lvl 10 guy is veteran superhero that has been with you for ages, having people like that be easily replaceable ruins the emotional investment
lvl 10 guy is veteran superhero that has been with you for ages, having people like that be easily replaceable ruins the emotional investment
I agree, I do like losses personally as it gives me a good wake up call, but the death spiral isn't that fun admittedly.
That's true as well, ahh the golden chalice of "balance".
- Joined
- May 18, 2015
- Messages
- 5,132
In theory you are right. In practice you just feel the urge to abandon the current run if that happens rather than continuing. The game should offer a way to recover from such losses without the need to grind for 3-4 hours
*This could be done for example by making some really high level mercs available for steep prices. So that the player can balance the risks by keeping a good amount of gold ready.
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Elhoim
Iron Tower Studio
Keep up the good work, really shaping up fine.
If we use BB as an example, it should be a bit easier to recover from losses at high level play. While it should be a NO-NO to have level 10 mercs available, they should go up to at least level 6-7. Plus a better training option. In that game they are definitely too short term.
If we use BB as an example, it should be a bit easier to recover from losses at high level play. While it should be a NO-NO to have level 10 mercs available, they should go up to at least level 6-7. Plus a better training option. In that game they are definitely too short term.
I'm with hivemind on this. Those higher leveled veterans are valuable, and shouldn't be too easy to replace. Maybe balance it out by having better guys have more upkeep costs of some sort, so when you lose one you can throw 2/3 more shitty peasants a battle at the enemy until one of them lucks into surviving through some battles and accumulates enough experience to be useful. It could provide some tactical options overall as well when you have to choose if you want to field large groups of weak troops or small groups of strong troops.
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Guys did you play Battle Brothers?
The thing is that the game is not like X-COM where individual soldiers are expendable units which you throw into combat one after the other and eventually some get a bit better and so on.
You have fewer mercs and it takes time and effort to level them up and losing one of them late means grinding for hours to get someone else up to par.
I always play Ironman and I enjoy it, but there should be some way to make the loss of some mercs more bearable and not basically a restart. As BB stands now, you either git gud and never lose anyone - which is not so much fun - or the game makes losses part of the experience and has a way to deal with them. That is a much better approach I think
The thing is that the game is not like X-COM where individual soldiers are expendable units which you throw into combat one after the other and eventually some get a bit better and so on.
You have fewer mercs and it takes time and effort to level them up and losing one of them late means grinding for hours to get someone else up to par.
I always play Ironman and I enjoy it, but there should be some way to make the loss of some mercs more bearable and not basically a restart. As BB stands now, you either git gud and never lose anyone - which is not so much fun - or the game makes losses part of the experience and has a way to deal with them. That is a much better approach I think
Ahhh... the son of Sir Orkslayah.
Thanks for your opinions guys, designing a game by yourself sometimes leads to tunnel vision so it is nice to get the thoughts of others. I agree with oasis789 that more or less death should be meaningful for the majority of the cases, there will always be an element of randomness as I think using no % for hit chances makes combat too predictable without any chance of the flow of combat turning if one side gets too far ahead.
I also do agree though that losses should be somewhat recoverable and not lead to a death spiral, as I've restarted plenty of ironman runs because of that, I never liked it before it was more or less an acquired taste. I think ironman is the way to go for any turn based game honestly, but to have it too brutal upfront would completely put off players, ironman is nice in that it more or less "helps" prevent save scumming or at least makes it harder but I do think it is an acquired taste, a taste that I don't want to make too bitter.
I also do agree though that losses should be somewhat recoverable and not lead to a death spiral, as I've restarted plenty of ironman runs because of that, I never liked it before it was more or less an acquired taste. I think ironman is the way to go for any turn based game honestly, but to have it too brutal upfront would completely put off players, ironman is nice in that it more or less "helps" prevent save scumming or at least makes it harder but I do think it is an acquired taste, a taste that I don't want to make too bitter.
SmartCheetah
Arcane
- Joined
- May 7, 2013
- Messages
- 1,102
Bigger rosters and easier "leveling" early should be enough to compensate for "big guy" loses late game. Also, those leveled up guys shouldn't be that easy to take down in the first place but - provided that enemy managed to kill him - it definitely should punish a player.
There is no fun if there is no risk of getting two step backwards.
There is no fun if there is no risk of getting two step backwards.
Very true, the setbacks are more or less what makes ironman fun, might as well call it masochist mode :D
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