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Vae Victis - Khan: metagame discussion

Deleted member 440241

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Feb 14, 2018
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Not to take away from the rest of the complaint, but this is wrong. There are explicitly enough troops to station 20 of them in each territory with an additional 10 troops placed wherever you wish.

The subversion style raids, morale & obedience, are new in v0.7.x. I believe the idea was largely to use the Shadow Institute functions to offset them and as a way to bleed off excess gold.
0.7.4 is the first version I've played, and until I conquered everything I didn't have excess gold. Also, I'm certain that there isn't always enough troops. There were multiple times I had 20 troops in most territories with 1 or 2 empty and 10 or 0 troops available for my main army. It wasn't until after I took Limtinia that I had enough for everywhere.
 

Stil996

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Jan 11, 2018
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0.7.4 is the first version I've played, and until I conquered everything I didn't have excess gold. Also, I'm certain that there isn't always enough troops. There were multiple times I had 20 troops in most territories with 1 or 2 empty and 10 or 0 troops available for my main army. It wasn't until after I took Limtinia that I had enough for everywhere.
when you have your territories properly garrisoned (20 in each with 30 in the one you need a boost) you don't have an army. Only transfer troops to your army when you are ready to attack.
Then you have a few days where everywhere is vulnerable unless you have the garrison upgrade that represents a 10 man minimum garrison.
 
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gojira667

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Also, I'm certain that there isn't always enough troops. There were multiple times I had 20 troops in most territories with 1 or 2 empty and 10 or 0 troops available for my main army. It wasn't until after I took Limtinia that I had enough for everywhere.
No, your impression is wrong. The troop limit starts at 30. It is increased by 20 every time a fiefdom is conquered and decreased by 20 anytime one rebels. Conquering Limtinia, as fiefdom #x, wouldn't make the numbers sync up all of a sudden.
Now, troops in transit also count toward the limit. If you weren't paying close attention you may have had troops on the move that you hadn't properly accounted for.

0.7.4 is the first version I've played
This brings up another point.
B. ...I think it's a good tool for introducing features to the players but the ties to the Wenches leave something to be desired in most cases.
This works well enough as a mechanism for returning players, but does nothing for a new player starting this version. Alana's seduction quest is a long time to wait to showcase/find out about the Shadow Institute functions. Even if it's fiefdom number 5 and not 7. For the Shadow Institute case it could probably use a mini-tutorial for the first one built in a new game...
 
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Jaike

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Aug 24, 2020
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I don't see why Sumya, or Alana, care about how the Shadow Institute works.
Sumya could be interested in the aspect of repressing the population. Hawatia likely did enough of that before Karder took over. Ironic, because in the real world slave labour works against free labour markets and tends to remove the demand for labour-saving innovation.

+1, instead of a hard cap, maybe make make a soft cap meaning the army cost nothing to maintain when it is below that mark, but for each soldier above that costs a certain amount of gold/moral per day. to represent the extra bureaucracy & import of resources required to feed/manage excess manpower.
I don't mind a hard cap, but only a surplus of 10 troops is maybe a little strict. Maybe some bigger fiefdoms could give a few more troops than 20.

A soft cap with increasing upkeep would be (a little?) more work to implement, because troop growth is "automatic" now based on fiefdom productivity and yield. The game would need a new mechanic to buy and probably disband troops.
 
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Doorknob22

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Alana
I'm surprised there hasn't been any mention of a Navy yet, are you going that direction at all? Alana seems ripe to be our Admiral of the Navy once we build her some ships.

PS
Angilia, being so Pious, maybe extra rewards from her for every temple you build instead of a single "build up my kingdom" quest.. Maybe some major construction to the glory of the gods... a Grand High Temple/Statue or something that goes above and beyond normal places of worship.
Dian, I like the build up the garrison quest it fits with her ethos, but like Angilia, maybe make it a progressive thing, the more garrisons you upgrade the more she likes you... maybe an arena too? or some other venue where warriors can measure themselves against others.
1. Maybe I should stress this more, but the Waikokipia quest bonus, capturing the Dark Harvest fleet, gives your army a nice -1 movement bonus.

2. Having Angilia's bonus increase with each temple is cool and in theme with the character.

For Nahir, limiting the seduction condition to Marbia and linking it to the morale bonus yield could make it fit better. Like earn 30 gold in Marbia from morale rolls.

The 4 temples for Teniya feels a bit random, maybe replace temple with a specific elven building from Tinpingia? Like you could call it a grove or something, it doesn't need to have any function outside the seduction quest.

Maybe if the condition for Sumiya is about forcing yields 5 time outside Hawatia, it would feel more appropriate though it kind of goes against her character arc. The quest reward could be more relevant if Hawatian troops are a lot stronger before the quest or it could be a short small military boost from escaped slaves (+5 troops?) for like 10 turns that can go over the troop limit.
1. Nahir: maybe keep Morale in Marbia higher then 20 for 20 turns.
2. Teniya: I'll reply later re: Wench specific buildings
3. Sumiya: I love the "freed slaves bonus" idea but the quest is about draining/damaging the fiefdoms's High Aracana so I'll need the reward to be tied to this theme.

I gotta say I'm not a fan of "do something you were going to do anyway" as a seduction quest, those quests should put the player in the position of choosing between spending their resources on strengthening their position (like building the kingdom infrastructure), or seducing their Wenchs, it shouldn't happen in the same sweep, there should be some kind of sacrifice/effort on the players part.

Maybe special building that can only be built for them that represent their special skill sets
something expensive & oppulent.

Angilia
Oryeonguk Cathedral

Nahir
Marbia Gardens

Tenlya
Tinpingia Spires

Sumya
Hawatia Training Pens

Dian
Limtina Champions Arena

Alana
Waikokipa Naval Yard
I actually am a fan of "do something you were going to do anyway" as a seduction quest since some players will otherwise not bother to build temples or use Shadow Institute but we are both in agreement that the current implementation leaves a lot to be desired. I like the idea of "novelty buildings" but they are essentially just big gold sinks (not that there's anything wrong with this). And I still haven't given up on "tutoring them without shoving it down their throats". But gojira667's argument from a few comments down is going to put another nail in this concepts' coffin. Stay tuned!

The subversion style raids, morale & obedience, are new in v0.7.x. I believe the idea was largely to use the Shadow Institute functions to offset them and as a way to bleed off excess gold.
Yes. In earlier versions you'd hoard unneeded gold until it became practically worthless. Additionally, they provide opportunities to give the Wenches some ass face time, which remains one of my unfulfilled goals: engage the players more with the Wenches before conquering them.

0.7.4 is the first version I've played, and until I conquered everything I didn't have excess gold. Also, I'm certain that there isn't always enough troops. There were multiple times I had 20 troops in most territories with 1 or 2 empty and 10 or 0 troops available for my main army. It wasn't until after I took Limtinia that I had enough for everywhere.
Interesting. I'll need to run some metagame playthroughs to check the balance again.

when you have your territories properly garrisoned (20 in each with 30 in the one you need a boost) you don't have an army. Only transfer troops to your army when you are ready to attack.
Then you have a few days where everywhere is vulnerable unless you have the garrison upgrade that represents a 10 man minimum garrison.
This is by design. It add some tension. Also, now raids are less catastrophic than they were in previous versions so I feel raids are in the sweet spot of generating tension but not frustrate.

This brings up another point.
<Seduction goals work> well enough as a mechanism for returning players, but does nothing for a new player starting this version. Alana's seduction quest is a long time to wait to showcase/find out about the Shadow Institute functions. Even if it's fiefdom number 5 and not 7. For the Shadow Institute case it could probably use a mini-tutorial for the first one built in a new game...
Ouch. This hurts because it's true. For a new player, it makes no sense to be introduced to basic features late in the game. Theoretically, I could tie the seduction quests to the order of the Wenches seduced: first Wench will always get a basic seduction goal (#1), the next will get goal #2 etc. This will be a nightmare to correlate to their character though...

Sumya could be interested in the aspect of repressing the population. Hawatia likely did enough of that before Karder took over. Ironic, because in the real world slave labour works against free labour markets and tends to remove the demand for labour-saving innovation.

...Maybe some bigger fiefdoms could give a few more troops than 20.
I personally don't think the hard cap is a major issue. Yes, it forces you to shuffle armies around a bit but that's the gameplay.

It's crucial that we/I don't lose focus: this is a fapping game, not Crusader Kings or Civilization. Players don't want to lose pussy because they suck at empire management. Gameplay should be simple and not-too-hard. Why is it there in the first place? Because I do believe it adds a healthy tension and sense of achievement to conquests, and more importantly: the the sex afterwards. That doesn't mean I'm not looking to improve the gameplay (look at the size of this response) it's just that I want to be very careful before making the game more complex/hard.

My interim summary:
1. Consider changing Seduction Quests to Novelty Buildings. At least for those I'm unhappy with their current seduction quest.
2. Consider having Angilia's bonus increase somewhat with number of Temples.
3. Nahir: maybe keep Morale in Marbia higher then 20 for 20 turns.
4. Who is the bitchiest Wench of them all? Perhaps give her a similar seduction goal, only with Obedience (120 for 20 turns?)
5. Not entirely related but give additional, unique images to the Subversion raids. Get the players hot for the Wenches.
6. Meta game balance: I encourage you all to start a new game just to test this, using Skip 'N Win to skip the quests. Or play them again :) I'm interested to hear your feedback on the current balance.
 
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Stil996

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Jan 11, 2018
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I actually am a fan of "do something you were going to do anyway" as a seduction quest since some players will otherwise not bother to build temples or use Shadow Institute but we are both in agreement that the current implementation leaves a lot to be desired. I like the idea of "novelty buildings" but they are essentially just big gold sinks (not that there's anything wrong with this). And I still haven't given up on "tutoring them without shoving it down their throats". But gojira667's argument from a few comments down is going to put another nail in this concepts' coffin. Stay tuned!
Why not set an advisor? Thats what the wenches are supposed to be when you place them in your council... right? any one of them should be able to advise on basic game concepts, Even Snarky comments could work e.g."you are pathetic, you don't even realise how important religion is to keeping your people obedient".
maybe make specialist roles you can choose to recruit them into, Lead Advisor, Domestic advisor, Military advisor, Logistic advisor,... etc. (include your buddy and girls you bring home as options for these roles in case the player wants to put everyone in the dungeon)
Make the Novelty building the defining act that secures their belief in you.
 

M1keXL

New Member
May 30, 2020
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8
Suggestions that might be helpful:

1. Construction of a building may take time. Building time reduction can be a wench council bonus.

2. Conquering a fief probably should also take time and it may depend for example on a fief fortification level (which is a number of turns to siege). After victorious field battle, the siege begins. Siege time reduction may be a wench council bonus and it can also be a target for an infiltration quest.

During the siege, there may be an interaction with the wench standing on the wall. She can troll, threaten, curse you, etc. depending on her vibe.

3. Consider introduction of a new building: Arcane University (potential bonus from Sumiya). It may provide scientific or magical functions such as:
- prediction of raids;
- prediction of battle outcome (main army vs target fief troops);
- creating of a potion of oblivion - extremely expensive potion that erases all the bad memories of a wench, which allows you to return her from dungeon to the council;
- and so on.

4. Possible wench seduction conditions (not all of them must be focused on buildings):
- Mini battle quest: defeat the legendary beast in her former fief. Kill it or banish depending on the wench's vibe.
- Throw a rival wench in the dungeon and keep her there for at least X days.

The attitude of a wench probably should change gradually as the seduction conditions are met.
 

Doorknob22

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Some thoughts after/during playing a metagame from start in 0.7.5 (Skip 'N Win quests, VN Mode - off (duh), Wenches in council)
1. Several players complained about not making the connection between finishing the Oryeonguk infiltration mission and actually attacking. I should make a counter about turns left until running out of bonus. Maybe even Barlin warns if only 10 turns are left and no fief attacked.
2. As the developer, I automatically started building Oryeonguk after I conquered it. Perhaps add a tip after the first fiefdom is taken, advising the player to build it and redistribute the army.
3. Wench reactions work nicely, but I should make sure that Nahir's scene is higher priority than Teniya since Nahir is more likely to get conquered next (and the scene lost).
4. The inability to attack fiefdoms with which you don't share a border is a nice touch but I feel we're missing by not being able to parley with the Wenches and infiltrate them. Especially since some of the parley/infiltration text specifically describes how Karder travels by boat.
5. After taking a fief, I had to contemplate which building to build. This is a good thing. I chose Shadow Institute.
6. Losing the Shadow Institute first in case of mobs (low Obedience) severely handicaps the player's ability to get the fiefdom under control. Consider making it a lower priority for the mobs.
7. Turn 150, Two strong fiefdoms under control, was raided only once, a Subversion raid.
8. Turn 251, first raid-raid.
9. Turn 274. Three fiefdoms all fully built, Gold grows in leaps and bounds. Allowing Morale to reach 30+ is probably too high.
10. Turn 300. After taking Tinpingia things started to get get interesting. At 70 (+ Domia) Vs. 65 I paid a high price for my victory and the mobs in fiefdoms were getting restless without troops to keep things under reign. However, my huge war chest + generous bribes to clergy (too) quickly brought Obedience levels up. Consider making Bribing the Clergy price correlate to something, either the size of your treasury or number of fiefdoms.
11. And again: when Morale starts at 38 (before attacking a fiefdom), dropping by 20 (to 18) due to the attack is barely an inconvenience. The fiefdoms resume yielding (too) quickly after war.
12. Turn 350. I was raided only once or twice. Four fiefdoms under my control. The only "interesting" moment was the few turns after taking Tinpingia. Todo: Add an internal debugging counter for different types of raids and rebleeions, this will help understand the amount of pressure the players are under.
13. When going Oryeonguk -> Marbia -> Tinpingia -> Waikokipia, Limtinia and Hawatia are a cakewalk becasue you meet them with 110/130 troops. Consider have fiefdoms' armies grow with correlation to the number of fiefdoms you control (reinforcement from dear mother Queen Remy).
14. With the ridiculously low pressure from raids I never bothered with garrison upgrades.
15. Finished the game in 443 turns. I only felt some tension once, after taking Tinpingia. After that, I was too strong and too rich.

I'll try again later with no Wenches in the council.
 

Stil996

Conversation Conqueror
Jan 11, 2018
6,347
5,776
Some thoughts after/during playing a metagame from start in 0.7.5 (Skip 'N Win quests, VN Mode - off (duh), Wenches in council)
1. Several players complained about not making the connection between finishing the Oryeonguk infiltration mission and actually attacking. I should make a counter about turns left until running out of bonus. Maybe even Barlin warns if only 10 turns are left and no fief attacked.
2. As the developer, I automatically started building Oryeonguk after I conquered it. Perhaps add a tip after the first fiefdom is taken, advising the player to build it and redistribute the army.
I kinda feel like those are No Brainers, I always attack ASAP after seeing the terms of the win, and Always Build ASAP whenever I conquer a kingdom (1st get that obedience UP, then moral, then making a profit {though order may vary depending on Income & Stats}), but I guess you should always play to the lowest common denominator, A nice bright counters could work nicely for that, something Big & Bold in the Center that catches the eye. and maybe a Bright Hints in a similar vein like, "Obedience is very low, maybe "build a temple"/"station more troops" before they rebel?"

3. Wench reactions work nicely, but I should make sure that Nahir's scene is higher priority than Teniya since Nahir is more likely to get conquered next (and the scene lost).
Can't you time it by infiltration? maybe as an interval scene when leaving the area, before rejoining your army

4. The inability to attack fiefdoms with which you don't share a border is a nice touch but I feel we're missing by not being able to parley with the Wenches and infiltrate them. Especially since some of the parley/infiltration text specifically describes how Karder travels by boat.
This seems like a dangerous idea to me, sure it would be nice to interact with them sooner (maybe recruiting them as allies), but your already dealing with players struggling with basic concepts, having them be able to interact with more territories sooner will just make that worse.

5. After taking a fief, I had to contemplate which building to build. This is a good thing. I chose Shadow Institute.
Really? I tend to go Temple. :/ but then I love Nuns... so maybe I'm biased...
PS are we ever going to be able to raid those for tasty virgin nuns/priestesses???

6. Losing the Shadow Institute first in case of mobs (low Obedience) severely handicaps the player's ability to get the fiefdom under control. Consider making it a lower priority for the mobs.
TBH I tend to forget the Shadow Institute, sure it makes my game very inefficient, but eventually I notice and correct the mistake, but I never noticed a massive penalty for doing this (other than Time).

10. Turn 300. After taking Tinpingia things started to get get interesting. At 70 (+ Domia) Vs. 65 I paid a high price for my victory and the mobs in fiefdoms were getting restless without troops to keep things under reign. However, my huge war chest + generous bribes to clergy (too) quickly brought Obedience levels up. Consider making Bribing the Clergy price correlate to something, either the size of your treasury or number of fiefdoms.

What about some kind of direct bribe? sending a message to one of the enemy generals offering some cash incentive for being late to the battle?

11. And again: when Morale starts at 38 (before attacking a fiefdom), dropping by 20 (to 18) due to the attack is barely an inconvenience. The fiefdoms resume yielding (too) quickly after war.
If you are aiming for some kind of realism, there really should be a much bigger penalty in the aftermath of a battle whether it is successful or not, nothing like blood in the streets to upset that normal ebb & flow of a city.
More so when you suddenly find yourself under a new regime.

12. Turn 350. I was raided only once or twice. Four fiefdoms under my control. The only "interesting" moment was the few turns after taking Tinpingia. Todo: Add an internal debugging counter for different types of raids and rebleeions, this will help understand the amount of pressure the players are under.
Over the course of my play through I think I was only raided maybe 6-7 times, only hurt me once (while I was amassing my army), are they all RNG? my game took a long time (6-7 hundred turns because I kept forgetting the shadow institute abilities) so it feels like I should have been raided a lot more.
Have Raids been lessened? They seemed a lot more frequent in previous versions.


14. With the ridiculously low pressure from raids I never bothered with garrison upgrades.
I'm the opposite, I'm OCD about getting all the buildings/upgrades.
 

Deleted member 440241

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Turn 350. I was raided only once or twice. Four fiefdoms under my control.
My save for .7.4 is on turn 332, and that's after impregnating all my wenches and doing the pregnancy/birth side quests. Since random pregnancy was turned on it had probably been about 100 turns after I conquered all territories that I did the quests and saved. Maybe some of my problems came from capturing too quickly. Once the parley and infiltration were done I'd invade as soon as I had more troops than the enemy.

Also, I was raided 5 times before capturing Limtinia (turn ~175). 1 slave raid by Hawatia, 1 raid raid by Waikokipia, and 3 subversion raids by Limtinia.

After taking a fief, I had to contemplate which building to build. This is a good thing. I chose Shadow Institute.
I always did gold mine first (need gold to build) then Shadow Institute to fight low obedience.

When going Oryeonguk -> Marbia -> Tinpingia -> Waikokipia, Limtinia and Hawatia are a cakewalk becasue you meet them with 110/130 troops. Consider have fiefdoms' armies grow with correlation to the number of fiefdoms you control (reinforcement from dear mother Queen Remy).
Hawatia isn't part of the Khaganate or the Wakabian faith. They wouldn't accept reinforcements. Maybe provide Hawatia a big attack boost when defending thanks to their Arcana tech.

With the ridiculously low pressure from raids I never bothered with garrison upgrades.
With how quickly I expanded I never had enough gold for garrison upgrades until everything was conquered. After that I could just store gold and build while knocking up my wenches. I was somewhat surprised there weren't any discounts on buildings with the elfkin running Tinpingia. Not even the upgrades in Tinpingia itself.
 
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Doorknob22

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Why not set an advisor? Thats what the wenches are supposed to be when you place them in your council... right? any one of them should be able to advise on basic game concepts, Even Snarky comments could work e.g."you are pathetic, you don't even realise how important religion is to keeping your people obedient".
maybe make specialist roles you can choose to recruit them into, Lead Advisor, Domestic advisor, Military advisor, Logistic advisor,... etc. (include your buddy and girls you bring home as options for these roles in case the player wants to put everyone in the dungeon)
Make the Novelty building the defining act that secures their belief in you.
It's definitely something to consider, however it ties a function to a Wench and if that Wench is unavailable (due to being in a Dungeon or not conquered yet) the function is unavailable as well. Having more prominent advisors can add more depth to them and be a great launch pad to Act two quests, though.

Suggestions that might be helpful:

1. Construction of a building may take time. Building time reduction can be a wench council bonus.

2. Conquering a fief probably should also take time and it may depend for example on a fief fortification level (which is a number of turns to siege). After victorious field battle, the siege begins. Siege time reduction may be a wench council bonus and it can also be a target for an infiltration quest.

During the siege, there may be an interaction with the wench standing on the wall. She can troll, threaten, curse you, etc. depending on her vibe.

3. Consider introduction of a new building: Arcane University (potential bonus from Sumiya). It may provide scientific or magical functions such as:
- prediction of raids;
- prediction of battle outcome (main army vs target fief troops);
- creating of a potion of oblivion - extremely expensive potion that erases all the bad memories of a wench, which allows you to return her from dungeon to the council;
- and so on.

4. Possible wench seduction conditions (not all of them must be focused on buildings):
- Mini battle quest: defeat the legendary beast in her former fief. Kill it or banish depending on the wench's vibe.
- Throw a rival wench in the dungeon and keep her there for at least X days.

The attitude of a wench probably should change gradually as the seduction conditions are met.
1. Construction time for buildings is logical, this will be addressed in the future.

2. Conquest sounds cool but it adds a layer of complexity that at this point I'm not sure I want to tackle.

3. Prediction of Raids is something I've been contemplating for a while now. What if the Main Army was smaller but you would receive "Intelligence Reports" that certain fiefdoms are under threat in X turns, allowing you a more calculated approach to army deployment instead of "Keep 20 troops". There's a lot to think about here. Higher Intelligence could mean narrower and more accurate warnings, it could be something to invest in. To summarize: this is a cool feature but the current, simple system of "keep 20 troops" also works so it's not going to be a high priority.

As for Arcane University, I'll need more ideas to make this feasible.

I kinda feel like those are No Brainers, I always attack ASAP after seeing the terms of the win, and Always Build ASAP whenever I conquer a kingdom (1st get that obedience UP, then moral, then making a profit {though order may vary depending on Income & Stats}), but I guess you should always play to the lowest common denominator, A nice bright counters could work nicely for that, something Big & Bold in the Center that catches the eye. and maybe a Bright Hints in a similar vein like, "Obedience is very low, maybe "build a temple"/"station more troops" before they rebel?"
I think this comes from you being a veteran of the game and maybe strategy games. Bear in mind that many players are new and Vae Victis - Khan might be some people's first taste of a strategy game...

Can't you time it by infiltration? maybe as an interval scene when leaving the area, before rejoining your army
I could, but it is not realistic IMHO since infiltration quests are not necessarily tied to the conquest. Additionally, since Karder goes incognito, it makes no sense that the ruling Wench is upset about his actions. Finally, not every quest (like robbing Fahda) should come to the attention of the ruling Wench (and again, it makes no sense that even if Nahir is aware of Fahda's robbery that she connects it to the userper.).
This seems like a dangerous idea to me, sure it would be nice to interact with them sooner (maybe recruiting them as allies), but your already dealing with players struggling with basic concepts, having them be able to interact with more territories sooner will just make that worse.
As you probably remember, this is how the game worked since 0.1. The limitations per borders were only introduced in 0.7.

Really? I tend to go Temple. :/ but then I love Nuns... so maybe I'm biased...
PS are we ever going to be able to raid those for tasty virgin nuns/priestesses???
Temple is also a good strategy, since it indirectly affects both your Gold and Troops output.

TBH I tend to forget the Shadow Institute, sure it makes my game very inefficient, but eventually I notice and correct the mistake, but I never noticed a massive penalty for doing this (other than Time).
This is probably the biggest pain in 0.7.5: the Shadow Institute MK2 was designed to help you balancing Obedience and Morale. The fact that you forget ab
What about some kind of direct bribe? sending a message to one of the enemy generals offering some cash incentive for being late to the battle?
This could be a very cool feature, having the ability to bribe enemy generals before combat. Again, the amount of gold should be high enough to have players consider the move's worth.

If you are aiming for some kind of realism, there really should be a much bigger penalty in the aftermath of a battle whether it is successful or not, nothing like blood in the streets to upset that normal ebb & flow of a city.
More so when you suddenly find yourself under a new regime.
We need to be wary of overcomplications but in past version low Morale worked good: after conquering a fiefdom Morale in all of your dropped so low that for many turns afterwards the yield was very low. I need to check what cahnged.

Over the course of my play through I think I was only raided maybe 6-7 times, only hurt me once (while I was amassing my army), are they all RNG? my game took a long time (6-7 hundred turns because I kept forgetting the shadow institute abilities) so it feels like I should have been raided a lot more.
Have Raids been lessened? They seemed a lot more frequent in previous versions.
Yes. I need to increase them a bit. Not too much, though; I want evolution, not revolution.

I'm the opposite, I'm OCD about getting all the buildings/upgrades.
OCD is nice but I want players to want the buildings. If they don't, something is wrong either with the "world" or the buildings.


Hawatia isn't part of the Khaganate or the Wakabian faith. They wouldn't accept reinforcements. Maybe provide Hawatia a big attack boost when defending thanks to their Arcana tech.
This is awesome. Great catch!

With how quickly I expanded I never had enough gold for garrison upgrades until everything was conquered. After that I could just store gold and build while knocking up my wenches. I was somewhat surprised there weren't any discounts on buildings with the elfkin running Tinpingia. Not even the upgrades in Tinpingia itself.
Interesting concept!
 

Stil996

Conversation Conqueror
Jan 11, 2018
6,347
5,776
It's definitely something to consider, however it ties a function to a Wench and if that Wench is unavailable (due to being in a Dungeon or not conquered yet) the function is unavailable as well. Having more prominent advisors can add more depth to them and be a great launch pad to Act two quests, though.
I wasn't suggesting that wenches have a preassigned niche. have open slots that you can drop people into (anyone you have available), make it so you get some minor bonus for having a slot filled, with a bigger bonus if you match a person with a post that reflects their strengths.

You don't need to put Wenches in these slots (though Wenches would be best), Barlin could be a good Senior advisor (maybe make this his default starting role so the player can get advice on how advisors work along with the common stuff), though maybe his special skills would be better as a spy master (to control the spies that give you intel on potental raids coming your way), Domia is a strong pick for a military adviser (though I really want to prep her as Karders Bodyguard), Alam could work as a Domestic advisor etc.

(I suspect I might have said this before, if so forgive me, but I'd like to revisit people you interact with on your infiltrations, you can draw some of these into advisor roles too, they are likely Karders best chance at getting loyal people in these roles after all)

Anyone in an adviser role can deliver hint & tips to the player
I could, but it is not realistic IMHO since infiltration quests are not necessarily tied to the conquest. Additionally, since Karder goes incognito, it makes no sense that the ruling Wench is upset about his actions. Finally, not every quest (like robbing Fahda) should come to the attention of the ruling Wench (and again, it makes no sense that even if Nahir is aware of Fahda's robbery that she connects it to the userper.).

Fair enough some of these could get tricky.

As you probably remember, this is how the game worked since 0.1. The limitations per borders were only introduced in 0.7.

you mean when everyone was a neighbor :p
Yeah I know there have been a few versions with kingdoms that are removed a little, TBH I'm not sure I've ever tried clicking on anyone I wasn't ready to attack, and I've never tried to attack anyone I wasn't sharing a border with (RTS conditioning I guess)
This could be a very cool feature, having the ability to bribe enemy generals before combat. Again, the amount of gold should be high enough to have players consider the move's worth.

Don't forget the RNG risk, just because someone takes your bribe doesn't mean they will honor it, maybe make it a range, offer to little and they will either laugh in your face or take and betray you, offer them a lot and they might still betray you, but they will be much more likely to honor your deal particularly if they think they might get some continued benefit after you win (a profitable post like advisor, general or even a noble title).
We need to be wary of overcomplications but in past version low Morale worked good: after conquering a fiefdom Morale in all of your dropped so low that for many turns afterwards the yield was very low. I need to check what cahnged.

I think moral might be the wrong stat for this (people tend to hunker down to bear through most tragic events), commerce is probably the thing that get hit hardest during a war, then obedience as you have to deal with loyalist elements making attacks on collaborators/traitors/sympathizers, people sabotaging your infrastructure, assassination attempts, etc

Stamping your mark on a new kingdoms is expensive in manpower both in soldiers and builders repairing shit.
you could lessen the impact with propaganda campaigns or sheer force of might (more money), but rebel cells will always be a factor that slowly fades in relevance over generations.

Though even as I say this I don't have any clear ideas right now how this might manifest in the game without being overly complicated.
OCD is nice but I want players to want the buildings. If they don't, something is wrong either with the "world" or the buildings.

Yeah it's a tough balancing act, I think for this version the garrison upgrades are too expensive, by the time you can afford them you don't need them. Maybe their price will be more relevant when the map grows.
 

Doorknob22

Super Moderator
Moderator
Game Developer
Nov 3, 2017
2,152
5,203
Some thoughts post 0.8 PVNUser Stil996 gojira667

1. Fame: I wanted a fresh playthrough player to be able to reach Just/Dark level after four fiefdoms and Saint/Terrible 2-3 fiefdoms later. Did you get to experience with Fame? Did you feel the effects of bonuses and penalties? Do you feel they make a difference?

2. Currently, the player spends much of his time in the World Map repeatedly clicking "next turn" and watching stats grow. I feel we could use some starter "next turn" button(s), such as:
-Skip 10 turns
-Skip turns until the next Message/Event

3. I'm thinking of eliminating death from the game.
3.a: In case of a military loss, you are back in the world map with 0 troops. This is challenging enough.
3.b: In case of R/P/S combat, you restart the combat.

Thoughts?
 

PVNUser

Newbie
Jan 22, 2022
41
64
I haven't had a chance to play recent versions of this game so I will have some more thoughts on mechanics after I am able to. However, I will continue some response here.


A quick announcement. If you only play the game in VN mode, feel free to stop reading: there are no boobs in the rest of this message.

I try to spend 2-3 weeks after releasing a version resting and doing something with is not related to the quests and the story. And for 0.9 I have decided to focus on integrating a new army Vs. army combat system, one which will emulate basic principles of desktop games, with some terrain, movement of forces, dealing and receiving damage etc. The system will only be used when attacking a Wench ruled fiefdom (i.e. not in raiders combat or attacking an empty fiefdom) and each combat takes about 2-3 minutes.

If anyone is interested in playtesting this "mk2" combat, please let me know via a PM or Discord. You will have to start a new game and simply try to conquer the available fiefdom using mk2 combat and let me know how it went.

View attachment 2494256
As always, these are my own thoughts and feedback which are presented as-is with no warranty or expectation that you will use it or change any design of the game.

Thoughts:
  • I think creating a valid tactical combat of this nature will improve the game, but it will require a lot of other changes (including outside of tactical combat)
    • I am personally somewhat skeptical of tackling a complex subsystem inside of RenPy because I have some experience using RenPy/Pygame and I am not a fan of its limitations
    • Note: My experience is tainted because I know other game engines well and so acutely feel pain of not being able to do certain things
    • Before investing significant time into programming this I suggest building a small prototype using cards and playing in person with a friend to determine if it is at all successful when played

  • Tactical combat generally needs a few layers
    • Based on the image here, it seems there is only one troop type. I don't know how well this can work, because I've never seen tactical combat where there is only one unit type
      • As I previously suggested, I think combat would be more interesting with more than one unit type. In the game this could easily be represented by troop types such as archers, footsoldiers, cavalry, spearmen, scouts, siege engines, magic users, etc.
      • However creating other unit types requires retooling much of the existing game when you consider how the army works
        • It might be possible to (minimally) restructure the game while supporting multiple troop types by changing "Troops" into "Troop Points"
          • Under the "Troop Points" idea, as Khan you have an abstract number of points to allocate. At the beginning of a battle you can then choose from a menu on which troop types you want.
        • Otherwise I like the idea of having each territory have different troops available. This adds a nice benefit for expanding your territory as you get improved troop selection and is organically rewarding
    • The actual characteristics of troops need to be established.
      • For example, the most basic properties I expect would be Attack and Health values.
      • However it's easily possible to design arbitrarily complex system
        • e.g. Attack / Range / Initiative / Defense / Armor / Morale / Magic / Magic Defense / Movement Speed / etc
        • This can be a good system for representing progression through more territories in the late game
    • Terrain is a good thing to include and adds an important strategic layer to combat
    • I also suggest adding a "Commander" level where the Khan+Wenches have special powers that can be usedin a limited way to impact the battle
      • e.g "Lead the Troops" 1/battle Karder leads the troops and each unit gains +10 Attack rating
      • e.g. "Hawatian Magic" 1/battle increase troop defense by +10 but cannot move until the effect expires
Anyway that is enough for now so I will stop there.
 

preglovr12

Salt is a Way of Life
Moderator
May 1, 2018
2,188
5,831
So I'd like to give a couple replies to things after reading this thread.

Issue: buildings being built instantly​

I honestly don't hate this, but if we must change this, maybe there's a "tent" version of the building built instantly that gives half the bonus and the "real" one takes a few weeks to complete? Maybe instead of the building that makes it so none of your buildings get destroyed in raids, we can get a per building stone version upgrade that does the same thing and maybe adds a minor bonus to stats?

Idea: Unique wench seduction buildings​
I really like this idea in theory, much more than the current system. Maybe having a wenches building doubles her strategic bonus? Maybe if you build it, you get the one time option to take that wench out of the dungeon? Maybe you double her fertility stats too?
 

Doorknob22

Super Moderator
Moderator
Game Developer
Nov 3, 2017
2,152
5,203
I haven't had a chance to play recent versions of this game so I will have some more thoughts on mechanics after I am able to. However, I will continue some response here.




As always, these are my own thoughts and feedback which are presented as-is with no warranty or expectation that you will use it or change any design of the game.

Thoughts:
  • I think creating a valid tactical combat of this nature will improve the game, but it will require a lot of other changes (including outside of tactical combat)
    • I am personally somewhat skeptical of tackling a complex subsystem inside of RenPy because I have some experience using RenPy/Pygame and I am not a fan of its limitations
    • Note: My experience is tainted because I know other game engines well and so acutely feel pain of not being able to do certain things
    • Before investing significant time into programming this I suggest building a small prototype using cards and playing in person with a friend to determine if it is at all successful when played

  • Tactical combat generally needs a few layers
    • Based on the image here, it seems there is only one troop type. I don't know how well this can work, because I've never seen tactical combat where there is only one unit type
      • As I previously suggested, I think combat would be more interesting with more than one unit type. In the game this could easily be represented by troop types such as archers, footsoldiers, cavalry, spearmen, scouts, siege engines, magic users, etc.
      • However creating other unit types requires retooling much of the existing game when you consider how the army works
        • It might be possible to (minimally) restructure the game while supporting multiple troop types by changing "Troops" into "Troop Points"
          • Under the "Troop Points" idea, as Khan you have an abstract number of points to allocate. At the beginning of a battle you can then choose from a menu on which troop types you want.
        • Otherwise I like the idea of having each territory have different troops available. This adds a nice benefit for expanding your territory as you get improved troop selection and is organically rewarding
    • The actual characteristics of troops need to be established.
      • For example, the most basic properties I expect would be Attack and Health values.
      • However it's easily possible to design arbitrarily complex system
        • e.g. Attack / Range / Initiative / Defense / Armor / Morale / Magic / Magic Defense / Movement Speed / etc
        • This can be a good system for representing progression through more territories in the late game
    • Terrain is a good thing to include and adds an important strategic layer to combat
    • I also suggest adding a "Commander" level where the Khan+Wenches have special powers that can be usedin a limited way to impact the battle
      • e.g "Lead the Troops" 1/battle Karder leads the troops and each unit gains +10 Attack rating
      • e.g. "Hawatian Magic" 1/battle increase troop defense by +10 but cannot move until the effect expires
Anyway that is enough for now so I will stop there.
1. Different unit types: yes, but later. As I have always done with this game, I start small and I slowly expand, I don't want to bite more than I can chew and I believe my patrons (rightfully) expect me to focus most of the time on boobs, not maps.

Hence, at the beginning, I'll start with the most basic gameplay, three melee-only units, and later slowly expand it. The engine actually does support long ranged units even now but adding such units poses problems like choosing units before combat, recruiting different units, opposing mixed units etc' and I'm not ready to invest so much effort into this engine yet.

2. Troops points: great idea! It solves me a question I've been struggling with, of "global troops" Vs. "different units". In the world map they'll be Troops but the number of Troops will be converted to Troop Points before battle.

3. Different fiefdoms provide different units. Great idea. War rhinos anyone?

4. Current properties are HP, Speed, Defense and Damage. Long range and magic are also ready.

5. Terrain is already present with a certain randomness before each battle. I'm thinking of having a Wench/Building bonus of having more terrain present, allowing you to easily isolate the (not-so-bright) AI troops.

6. Choose commander is a great idea, with different leader offering different bonuses.

I'll be very blunt: the AI is rather stupid. It will beeline towards your troops with little regard to any tactical considerations. However, it's your interest to win with as many surviving troops as possible, so it's not just about winning, it's about preserving your forces.

So I'd like to give a couple replies to things after reading this thread.

Issue: buildings being built instantly​

I honestly don't hate this, but if we must change this, maybe there's a "tent" version of the building built instantly that gives half the bonus and the "real" one takes a few weeks to complete? Maybe instead of the building that makes it so none of your buildings get destroyed in raids, we can get a per building stone version upgrade that does the same thing and maybe adds a minor bonus to stats?

Idea: Unique wench seduction buildings​
I really like this idea in theory, much more than the current system. Maybe having a wenches building doubles her strategic bonus? Maybe if you build it, you get the one time option to take that wench out of the dungeon? Maybe you double her fertility stats too?
1. Buildings. I get the "pain" and you're right. Perhaps the temporary/permanent building to the key.
2. Unique wench seduction buildings: we need these. The "tutorial by Wench Seduction" was relevant in the first few releases but now it makes no sense, to new players and returning players.

Having played the (strategy) game extensively after the release of 0.8, I now feel the pendulum of difficulty is deep in the "easy" side and once you have 2-3 fiefdoms stable (high Morale/Obedience, most buildings built) nothing will endanger your progress, making the experience a bit dull.

I don't want to increase the frequency of raids (both "raid" raids and "rumors" raids) because I think that when taking place too often they become distracting and annoying. I think I'll make the "raid" raids somewhat more devastating and the "rumors" raids more effective in the amount of Morale/Obedience they drop. Let's see how does the game feel then.

Also: Fame. The Just and Saint levels feel nice, I can "feel" the game behaving differently. The "Dark" and "Terrible" not so much. Another area to tweak.
 

PVNUser

Newbie
Jan 22, 2022
41
64
I haven't yet gotten a chance to play the latest version, but in response to comments about the strategy layer being too easy, I wanted to mention again the idea that either:
  • Recruiting Troops could cost money
  • Troops might require gold upkeep to sustain
One of the challenges of the current design is that basically you just "Pass turn" until gold accumulates, you build structures, then pass until you build the next, then you have everything and win.

Strategy games are better when you have to make choices. Currently gold doesn't really offer much choice -- It's always good to have. It's also always good to just wait around and accumulate more.

Wild suggestion time. What If:
  • Gold is never gained from passing turns
    • Gold is only received from events (e.g. story events) or from conquest of new territories (pillaging)
  • We add additional resources to the strategy game
    • ex. Wheat, Horses, Magic, Metal, Wood, Stone
    • Different territories might specialize in different resources
    • Raids on territories mostly steal resources, not destroy structures
  • We eliminate most of the repetitive structure building
    • Remember, we are only gaining gold from progressing the game
    • We no longer need gold-sink structures (e.g. Shadow Institute, Temple, etc)
      • Maybe we keep these structures, but now they cost other resources (wood/stone/metal) to construct
    • Gold Mines are eliminated.
      • Now if you want a territory to give you a resource, you put a "Lumber Mill," "Stone Quarry," "Iron Mine," or whatever else on it
      • Most territories only have access to one resource generator (e.g. "Lumber Mill," but no "Iron Mine")
      • Some special territories (e.g. starting zone) might be valid to produce multiple resources
      • All resource generators cost gold
    • When you build a resource-producing structure on a territory (using gold), it's a meaningful commitment of limited resources
    • Now you have a real choice: Do you want the extra metal resource from Marbia, or the stone from Geongoguogleuk?
    • This also affects choice of territory to attack. If you already have 3 territories that produce Wheat, you don't want to prioritize a 4th