I’ve just rolled out version 0.1.5 of RPG Tycoon this afternoon and I’ve made some fairly big changes to the game this week.

Most importantly and most noticeable is the brand new approach to the Quest system. The changes include removing the sliders and replacing them for a less confusing and (in my opinion) much more fun “Strategy” mode, as well as the support for sending more than one Hero on a quest!

You might also notice somewhere there that the quest now has a custom name. This is also a feature I’ve started working on this week and now in addition to custom kingdom names, you can now create a name tag for each quest. It’s not fully fleshed out yet however as I’ve had to disable the “Previous Quest” section of the Quest Menu to get this update out, but will eventually be incorporated into the whole thing. For now, it’s a fun way to keep the quests interesting and I’ve always loved being able to name things the most ridiculous thing I can think of. (I wasn’t trying very hard here)

How the New System Works

“So why did you change it?”  You may ask. Well put simply the old system just didn’t work, it was ugly and impossible to understand. The great thing about this kind of development is that the feedback helps iterate new ideas and moulds these systems from their base idea into a more functional, more improved one that help develop the game further.

I literally spent a few days sitting, planning and calculating how this system scores you and what it actually does to feel challenging, but at the same time fun and how it would relate to taking Heroes on quests with you. You’re only ever going to be able to do one quest at a time, and as the game progresses, quests will get harder and harder for just one hero to accomplish and I wanted to start implementing this. The new system is the first step towards getting this in place.

At the moment there’s no tutorial explaining how these work, they’ll probably get put in a bit further ahead, but without giving too much away here’s how the system  basically works…

STAGE ONE:

Each quest requires a level of AP to each section as does each settlement. Your assignment to these areas are calculated based on the average that the combo you pick requires. So each combination of settlement and quest will require a different minimum designation of AP so no two combos will be the same. You’ll also get a bonus modifier if you apply more AP to an area that the combo favours. So if both Settlement and Quest type favour horses and you fill the horses bar you’ll get more points HOWEVER if you’re moving AP from somewhere that the combo also requires there’s a chance that this might actually be ineffective for you.

STAGE TWO TO FOUR: 

Each stage you’ll be asked to pick a leader and a strategy, at the moment there’s only three strategies for each stage, but as development continues you’ll be able to unlock and custom build different strategies for different quests and end up with different outcomes. The strategy you pick will favour you again on how each combo favours them AND each strategy relies primarily on a different kind of statistic, so pick your leader wisely. If you pick a strategy that favours logic and your leader has next to none of it, you’re not going to do as well.

Hopefully this new system will be a little smoother to use and a little more fun to experiment with. I’ve disabled a few of the features that were in place to help get this working better but it’ll start re-implementing them in future updates now that this has been re-done.

FEEDBACK: 

At the end of the quest, you’ll get feedback. Including a rating of the quest. The more stars you get, the better your rewards will be. Heroes will now also level up here and levelling now actually has an effect on your Heroes! Their stats will be upgraded upon each level, hopefully allowing for better performances in quests. This will be developed further in future updates and include things like health, fatigue and using items/equipment.

Other Improvements

I’ve also made some minor adjustments to the way that the game handles and begun adding and setting up the framework for upcoming features. Including implementing a very basic road building tool which stops you having to constantly re-enter the build menu to place a road block. I’ll at some point develop this further into a click and drag interface but this should suffice most people for now.  Tara the Bold has now been re-skinned as the Valiant class and all of the heroes now have working statistics.

From here I’ll actually start adding new and improved content into the game as well as fixing some bugs that keep happening. I’ve actually began this with a new feature that makes the Hero walk around the kingdom when they’re idle just to add a bit of life to the place!

I’d like to start working on a couple of new buildings, including the Barracks and maybe looking towards Steam Integration and supporting Achievements and Trading Cards. So let’s see where we’re at again next week.

Thanks for the support,

Skatanic Studios