What? An early blog post?! A lot of movement happened in September. I’ve finalized the map for the game. I needed to meet many criteria, and honestly, I think I’ve met them all. I will be going into more “deep dives” of the interconnected systems in the game, for which there are so many. One thing I won’t be doing is showing you the map. Oh no, my dear reader, that is the part of the game that you will just have to explore yourself.
As of this blog post, I have over 200 resources in the game. This is raw, processed, manufactured, etc. Practically, 200 items, are currently in the game. That doesn’t seem like a lot for a role playing game, but this is a grand strategy MMO, so 200 resources to keep in a production chain is a lot. Also, remember, this is for the game version 0.0.1, which is the start of when I will bring it online for testing.
Speaking of testing, my thought currently is this. The game will start with a group of 8-12 cultures in game. Like reality, these cultures will be dependent on geolocation and history. The initial game, 0.0.1, will have the main cultural epicenters playable by players. On the website, there will be login information with each culture, and players will be able to play those cultures only. No creating civs or people, only play what the others have played before. My plan is to test the server with these basic cultures first. Make sure that the game plays, the server handles what it’s supposed to, and bugs are found in this test. If any other players want to play, they will have to wait until one of the cultures is open for other players. Then, in theory, by version 0.0.5, I will have the players be able to log in and create their own tribe. This includes their first leader, choosing one of the 8-12 different cultures to start in, and settling down on a plot.
As for the cultures, I will discuss later what each culture provides initially, as well as what constitutes a culture in game and how the culture system works. This isn’t a typical grand strategy game and relies heavily on multiple interconnected systems to work.
Next month, I will discuss the foundation of the world. Some lore and behind the scenes data. Nothing that will give things in the game away, but design choices I made and why I made them. I honestly can’t wait to share this, even though I can’t really talk much about it because this game relies heavily on player exploration and discovery. Unlike many strategy games, this game doesn’t hold your hand or guide you. The world was here before you, and will be here after you. What you do with the foundation of this planet is up to you. That is the game.
