Exile Princes Closed Beta Testing

Started by Jubal, January 10, 2019, 10:58:23 PM

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SLiV

Just played through the tutorial. One thing that confused me a little: the text log refers to silver aspers as a currency, but the in-game events had prices in gold: Harionasis has "Hire 5 citizens (50 gold)", and I encountered a farm that offered food for gold. Is that a naming issue or is there an exchange rate? At least I was able to pay for them, it seemed.

Also I found a bug, I think: I had saved in the tutorial, and when I tried to load it, it asked for the hero's name, listing " Othko". I first tried "Othko", assuming that the space was part of the UI, but it said it couldn't find a hero with that name, so then I tried " Othko" and I saw a Python error in the command line that it wouldn't find a file.
Spoiler
Type START for a new game, or OPTIONS for the full options list.
OTHKO
Type the name of your character, as shown on the list, in the text box and hit enter. Type BACK and hit enter to get back to the MAIN MENU.
>>> OTHKO
Name not found!
OTHKO
Type the name of your character, as shown on the list. Type BACK to get back to the MAIN MENU.
>>>  OTHKO
Exception in Tkinter callback
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "tkinter\__init__.py", line 1549, in __call__
  File "mainfile.py", line 2385, in handlermain
  File "mainfile.py", line 3205, in loadgame
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: './saves/ OTHKO.txt'
Didn't really matter of course because the tutorial isn't that long, but thought I'd mention it.

I agree that transitioning when moving to the edge would be nice. For example now you can bump into mountains or gryphons that you can't see because they're just across the fold, so to speak. At least it's good that you can usually back away without penalty.

Found another bug:
Spoiler
The centaurs babble meaninglessly, giving no clear guide to the future at all.
You reach The Revetmirk Weald.
You are ambushed by a troop of yammering vorthals!
UNIT NOT FOUND ERROR
UNIT NOT FOUND ERROR
UNIT NOT FOUND ERROR
Exception in Tkinter callback
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "tkinter\__init__.py", line 1549, in __call__
  File "mainfile.py", line 1810, in handlershipl
  File "mainfile.py", line 7569, in mineparse
  File "mainfile.py", line 8230, in mineparse2
  File "mainfile.py", line 15466, in fightsetup
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not subscriptable

Resilience is an interesting mechanic! Also are there ways to influence which creatures spawn? Maybe it was because I was playing on a small map, but I started with a quest to slay Qualquales which I have only found one of yet, while the map was being overrun with Wiblenibs. I'll be sure to give this another spin later.

Jubal

Big and hopefully useful update today: by popular demand, the map now pans along with the player :) Needs more testing but seems to work so far, it feels a bit jumpier as the game is loading a lot more images each move, but it's very subtly so, so hopefully it's worthwhile.

Re SLiV's points:

  • The ref to gold is a throwback to older versions, I'll work on fixing that.
  • I'm not sure I've ever tried saving the tutorial, I'll look into that one.
  • The UNIT NOT FOUND ERROR with the vorthals is very odd indeed. It may be because of an issue with the units file, which I suspect doesn't get reloaded if you do the tutorial then start a new game. I'll check that.
  • You can't really affect spawns: on the smallest map size this sometimes mean some quests take a while to complete (small maps tend to make spawn quests harder and deliveries easier, big maps the reverse).

Thank you!
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Tusky

fyi I did play the last version for a while. Not anywhere near completion - mind. I still need to accomplish that!

Anyway I didn't find any obvious issues with that but happy to give the newer version a try if you would like
<< Signature redacted >>

Jubal

Yes, will happily send you another version sometime soon :) Spritelady and I did a discord hangout where I watched her play and took notes for a bit today, that was really useful so if you or anyone would be up for doing that sometime, it seems to be one of the most efficient ways for getting feedback for me.

This weekend I started on companion quests! They're still quite rudimentary but it's good to have gotten started:

  • Ranger characters will sometimes ask to go on a hunt for a particular rare creature - they have the same option set as for the trophy hunt quest, so you're either hunting a red quarquare or an albino kinklade.
  • Captain characters may seek out a member of their old unit. Currently this just gives a brief vignette of a reconciliation for old mistakes on the battlefield, but there will be other options too.

Once you complete a character's quest, they gain the loyal flag. This means that they will never desert no matter how low morale gets, and tend to always have a high opinion of the player.

I'm not sure whether, if the quest is multi-stage, the player should get the loyalty flag for stage one or for the quest-ending stage only.
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Tusky

Sorry didn't reply to this! I wouldn't mind, but I am busy with a top secret kickstarter project, and moving house. That's up till the 18th of Dec, then I'm meeting no more than 2 other households for a top secret religious festival until the new year.

Happy to do something on a weekend in January though?
<< Signature redacted >>

Jubal

Yeah, that sounds good, I should have another version by then :)

So today's addition is another new hero/companion type - the scholar! You've been able to escort them on missions for a while, but now they can be part of your party and may offer their services at the end of an escort quest. Scholars have the worst statline by far (literally straight 1s) of the heroes, but they have a maximum of four abilities and start with two (rather than max 3 start 1 with the other hero types), and will offer a range of party management and information bonuses via their skills.

I think I've also fixed the bug where squires could get combat stances despite already having an attack or defence skill in place.
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Jubal

I've had some feedback that in trophy hunting it's annoying if you can't find quarquares especially. I've added some code to give them a spawn bonus if you've got a trophy hunt targeting them active - I don't know if that'll work or if I should actually force-spawn a bunch, but we'll see how it goes in testing.
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Jubal

Added the bare bones of a loyalty quest for clerics - they have to go and find and retrieve a relic from a spawned special location. Currently they just find it and that ends the quest, but that certainly won't be the only outcome!
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Jubal

Finally broke through mental deadlock and did a couple of things.


  • You now have a higher chance of healing at taverns, and can heal multiple hit points at a time.
  • The Hire Troops button no longer says "for X gold", and is no longer automatically 5 - it takes you to "you find X citizens, for Y gold" as a separate decision.
  • You now sometimes get decisions as to which route to go down when going to a tavern, so you get a pick of two taverns to choose from. This should make it easier to a) find good taverns when you want to heal, and b) find specific taverns when they need to for a quest.
  • The descriptions of places in the tavern routes give you more info about those districts, which should hopefully make it easier to learn about the different parts of a given city.
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Jubal

Got a tiny bit done this evening - almost all bugfixes and minor improvements based on feedback from testing to try and make information more easily available and allow hotkeys to be used in more places (so for example hitting z for stats now still works on decision screens so you can check how wealthy you are while deciding whether to buy things).
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Jubal

Today I did a bunch of work redesigning the taxes/spending systems. The new system is more complex and more "real" in that the AI actually has a budget number somewhere and generates taxes etc much the same way a player city does.

Ultimately this will allow me to add some more complex/interesting spending options which will be available to both the AIs and the player. Currently it still needs some balancing though I think, I'm getting too many AI players deciding to keep everything in balance by slashing taxes back to the minimum and keeping very few troops.
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Jubal

OK, both the AI and player can now build buildings :) And when you own a city you can still get quests to go and defeat nearby bandit parties as local merchants petition you to get rid of them - this is really useful for improving your relations with your own city if they've taken a hit from you being away too much.

I think the next step is probably going back to the companion quests - there's definitely more late-game stuff to add, but the addition of building projects definitely makes the city management feel a bit more fleshed out and dynamic.
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Jubal

Today I've finished adding an extra stage to the menu system: faction confirmation. You get a little loadout screen giving an overview of your faction's quirks before choosing what to select.

I think I'm also going to replace, eventually, the map screen with a number of options, whereby clicking the banner will cycle through the options (so e.g. map size, player gender, possibly allowing the player to change death mode for a bigger challenge). Not got the relevant stuff implemented for that yet though.
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Jubal

I've been working a lot on improving the player's access to information: readouts now give you additional info (in particular which region you're in), city leaders provide hints for some quests if you go back to them before the quest has finished, city rumour mills often give information in more condensed ways. These changes should at least in theory improve ease for new players by exposing much more effectively what the player.

I'm thinking of further adding to this by making the hotkeys section also contain a hint which will be tailored to where the player is through the game and what quests they have active. Might that be a good plan?

Additionally I've been working on the city event model, which now does some minor things in cities as proof of concept. In particular, ruthless and ironfisted rulers will often put the heads of fugitives you bring in on pikes, which can cause rumour dialogues or be seen when you enter a city, and new building construction will also be a rumour talking point for a while after it happens. I need to add events for changes of ruler and AI elections as well ideally.
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...

Jubal

I have now finished recording the initial set of tavern songs! There are eleven in the game now - four (Saint Oraphas Was A Wood Sprite, Oh Forest Tree, Princes of Exile, and I Courted A Maid) can be found anywhere, one (Balderdash the Blemmye Pirate) can be found only in taverns in port districts of cities, and the remaining six each fit to a house and only appear in that house's cities: The Howling Lay for the House of the Wolf, The Making of A Princely Man for the House of Princes, The Song of Scribes for the House of Scholars, The Old Comrade for the House of Generals, The Dragon's Mead for the House of the Dragon, and The Phoenix Knight for the House of the Phoenix. :)

Next thing I need to get back to is the companion quests, I think, and maybe also improving companion generation: I want the way you meet companions to give more hints about their personality.
The duke, the wanderer, the philosopher, the mariner, the warrior, the strategist, the storyteller, the wizard, the wayfarer...