Working title: Otherworld

[SekoETC]

The only tester who is reporting regularly is muidoido. The others probably logged in once and fell inactive.

[MonkeyPants4736]

This is sort of a conceptual question/observation. I'm posting here in case other testers are wondering, too, but will quickly edit or remove anything if something I say isn't supposed to be revealed.

Let's say my char travels to map coordinates (2,3). My coordinates do not change when I move within the 11x11 area of the minimap on the Environment page. So, I assume that the entire 11x11 minimap is considered to be in the coordinate (2,3).

Additionally, I made two observations when moving two tiles eastward within the environment minimap. Firstly, when viewing objects on location, I was shown that there was a pile of clay nearby and that the pile was west of me. However, the kiln I had built on the same location two tiles west of me was not indicated. It was only indicated on the actual tile it occupied within the minimap.

Now I'm wondering if built structures in general will not be evidenced unless the character is on the actual tile, which is presumably a subset of the whole (2,3) coordinate.

If so, this seems a brilliant feature. It would allow incredible diversity in structuring towns. Residential areas, industrial areas, town centers, etc., could all be separated and have different sizes. Towns could also have rules about where in the 11x11 area people are allowed to create various kinds of scenes (zones which disallow public displays of affection, fighting, etc.)

On the other hand, would someone see at attack on a person who is only one tile away from them? It would seem perhaps odd if your town was attacked and you were there but didn't know because you weren't on the right tile of the minimap.

So, I guess I'm just curious about how far the distinctions will go between the individual tiles of the 11x11 subset of the more largely defined (X,Y) coordinate location?

[SekoETC]

All the minimap (local) coordinates are considered to be within the larger (global) square, so if you walk around, your global x,y doesn't change. Globally you can only access coordinates divisible by 4, which you may have noticed. So for example 5001, 5002, 5003 all count as 5000 and will be displayed as such, where as 5004 counts as itself. Originally it was supposed to have fractional coordinates and even a spherical world where when you moved from a local map to another, it would adjust your position ever so slightly and the maps closer to the poles would have less squares in them. However, this idea was dropped as too confusing. If you are in say 2,3 on the local map, you will also be in 2,3 on the next map you travel to, unless that square is water, in which case the character will gradually jump towards the center square until it finds dry land or reaches the middle of the map.

Kilns, firepits etc. are fixed objects, which have general type 6. Movable items are 1, resources are 5, piles of resources that cannot be broken into smaller bits without tools are 8. The function was getting objects in general types (1,5,8), skipping 6. That was an oversight, so I went and fixed it.

Eventually it is intended that violence can be seen from a distance, but I haven't gotten that far yet. The original idea was that combat is a special type of scene, which pulls in everybody nearby, and they can choose to leave if nobody is primarily targeting them. However, currently if someone is attacking an animal and another person attacks the same animal, the person who is further down the timeline can attack the person who is behind on their timeline and they can do nothing to defend themselves. This is an oversight, but combat between humans wasn't supposed to be released yet. It's just a coincidence that the system that enables attacking animals also happens to work on humans.

Oh and also, technically the squares on the minimap can be further divided into a 10x10 grid, it just doesn't show anywhere. Currently every object is locally in micro squares divisible by 10, but in the future if you want to micromanage, the system supports it. The only problem is there is no way to handle an item being so long that it spans multiple squares.

[SekoETC]

There's one thing I should've added before opening the game for testing, and that is the mechanic that prevents a character from getting more than a month ahead on their timeline. As a result, my main character is in month 2, muidoido's is in month 6, vamking's are in month 2 as well and the rest are in month 1. This is too much separation to make it easy to catch up to anyone's timeline. So soon I'm going to advance everybody to month 6 and after that, people can only cross month lines when the next month is unlocked for everybody.

[Wolfsong]

Is there a better place than Slack to comment on stuff? Mantis bug tracker, maybe?

[SekoETC]

So far I haven't had the problem that several people would report the same bug before I have time to fix it. So far the preferred method has been PM, but Slack works as well.

[SekoETC]

Would some people like to brainstorm the custom object building system with me? I would like something with a lot of flexibility, so that for example for clothing, you can define the hem length, sleeve length, wideness, neckline, collar etc. and it would calculate the cloth usage based on that. I would also like to somehow enable people to craft custom items with certain features based on what was used on them, but the build requirements would be generated based on certain rules, so you couldn't for example use a gram of dung and call it a diamond, or if you used 10 kg of iron to make a custom war hammer, it shouldn't be possible for a weak person to wield it. I would also like to have a dye system where you can generate different shades by using or not using a mordant (iron/alum). I sort of like the system in Puzzle Pirates where dyes come from different sources, and affect the price of the items because some of them are more common than others. For example black is very hard to get, so it's the most expensive color of all. I would like almost everybody to have access to a few colors, but then there would be special colors like indigo that were relatively rare and could become valuable trade resources.

[muidoido]

Wow! It'll be quite a journey!

[SekoETC]

Recently I made it so that it's possible to roast cocoa pods by putting them in a firepit with an active fire. Currently that's the only thing using that mechanic. There will be more in the future. The same mechanic will be used to fire pottery.

I also changed the age descriptions so that 14-19-year-olds are considered young adults. In the future this means that they will be able to procreate. You shouldn't think of them as equivalent to real life 14-year-olds because people in Otherworld mature more quickly. If some cultures want to dictate that one must be 18 to mate, that's their business, but the mechanics are not going to prevent 14-year-olds and up from mating, because they are physically more mature than real life humans.

[SekoETC]

I'm starting to consider a complete redesign of the world for the final release ( = when the game is open for real testers ). One reason is because the current system forces rivers to be 5 km wide and there's no way to circumvent that. The second reason is that testers get very familiar with the areas they can access, there being no tiredness or hunger restrictions, so they might have too much of an advantage in the real game knowing the geography.

[vamking12]

To be fair as a current 15 year old I can safely 14 year olds can mate irl as well

[SekoETC]

I was once a member of a website where the main purpose was to post pictures of yourself and hope that other people rate them highly, but the site also had polls and one person posted a poll "how old were you when you lost your virginity?" The first category was 13 or under, and that got the most votes. But a lot of girls that age have very narrow hips and would have a hard time giving birth.

[SekoETC]

I would like to bounce back ideas with people because I'm again going through a dry spell. Also I will be traveling in a few days and then I won't have time to work on this. I probably won't work on this at all during my vacation. But there would be a few days before that to go through ideas and maybe someone can make me see things from a new perspective. One of the major problems I'm seeing at the moment is that the farming system requires a fast progression of time, but role-playing-wise things need to progress more slowly and also traveling is very fast in the current system. With the one month per real life day system, people are unlikely to roleplay things pertaining to each individual day and instead concentrate on key events such as meetings, arguments, love scenes, celebrations and organizing work/hunting parties. It can be assumed that most days will be mundane and not necessarily even every month has a day when something significant happens. I'm still thinking there should be an option to manage routines, but I'm not sure how to program it. For example, people should be able to specify that their character spends a certain amount of AP a day taking care of their personal hygiene and neatness. This will free them from having to do things like click on a comb 24 times a day, or specify each time when they bathe or wash their hands, but if the player didn't assign the AP, the character would be stuck with visible tags such as dirty, sweaty, smelly, unkempt. Over the course of several months or years, not tending to hygiene would lead to acne and even boils and warts. I remember in Sandman comics, some character was complaining that Medieval Fairs never get it right that people used to have huge warts on their faces.

Another thing I would like to include is the possibility of grooming other people and giving massages and haircuts. Getting touched would improve the morale of the characters, unless it occurs against their concent in which case it would lower the morale. For example you could punish criminals and people who break social conduct by cutting off all their hair. Or some communities might have a custom that all members of the elite shave their heads regularly, while the lower class has unkept hair and long beards. Or the other way around. Like in Sword of Truth where long hair is a status symbol. It would be very interesting if cultures developed with the opposite symbolism, so that when their representatives met, they would misinterpret each other's social status. Compare to Firefly where Mal mistakes a bodyguard for a councilor.

[pulkownikarnold]

http://gamesfromwithin.com/prototyping- ... g-it-wrong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_design_document
https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/ar ... -cms-23545
http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/

and finally

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0123694965/?t ... verfl08-20

[SekoETC]

I already wrote a GDD in August, but it doesn't cover all the aspects. In addition to that, I have about 200 various (non code) files regarding different aspects of the game. Some of them have expired ideas.

Story:

Small societies of stone age people pop up in different corners of the world. They explore their surroundings and slowly evolve themselves, optimally reaching bronze age and finally iron age.

The first societies will be primitive and rely solely on hunting, scavenging and hunting small prey. They will be naked or dressed in hides and fur.

Later new societies will be formed either by people who migrated away from their birthplaces or were placed on earth as the seeds of a new nation. Different cultures will have different values and customs, and these can cause conflict between them.

Characters:

There will be both PCs and NPCs. The meaning of NPCs is to generate workforce and swords for hire. NPCs should only be in supportive roles, while leadership is left for PCs.

There are no classes or races for PCs, so everybody can develop in a direction of their choosing. Some characters have better genes than others, or are more inclined to be better at something than others.

Examples of possible roles include explorer, hunter-gatherer, farmer, rancher, smith, crafter, tailor, servant, town leader, soldier, sailor, potter, miner and various service industry people. It's possible to combine two or more roles, but it's not intended that a single character is good at every profession. You have to specialize or you end up being just mediocre at everything.

Environment / challenge levels:

The tropical region is considered an easy starter region. It is possible to survive on foraging alone, food is available around the year and clothing is optional.

Only the development of clothing and taming of fire will allow people to migrate to the temperate zone. Food to forage will be less abundant and will be completely absent three months in a year, forcing people to either find methods of storing food to last over the cold season or migrate back to the tropical region for winter. The temperate zone mostly consists of savannas and grasslands, areas that are easily converted into farmland, whereas the tropical region is mainly rainforests, making it hard to find spots to plant seeds.

The cold region features four months in a year when nothing grows, and there is only one growth season. Clothing is necessary for survival and during the coldest months, several layers have to be worn. Unprepared individuals will freeze to death, making this a challenging play area, only intended for experienced players.

The deserts are a special zone only for the most hardcore players. This includes the extra challenge of acquiring drinking water. Desert dwellers rely on herding domesticated animals and foraging date trees on oases.

The world consists of different terrains, which have different resources to forage. Most areas will have something edible to prevent starvation, but areas such as mountains and wastelands are generally devoid of edible resources, requiring people to carry rations or face starvation.

There is also the sea, which separates the islands and continents from each other. The coastal waters are relatively safe, but the high seas will often have storms that can cause a shipwreck. Sailing the high seas is always a gamble, no ship is unsinkable. Finding new lands unlocks new resources, allowing a wider range of cooking recipes and creating plant hybrids. I can imagine that spice trade might become a big thing once the game reaches the level where sea travel becomes common.

Gameplay

The game revolves around using AP, which is gained through resting. Resting comfortably gives you more AP per hour, allowing you to spend your time more efficiently.

The game involves flexible timelines: One day in real life is one month ingame, and inside that month a person can divide their time between different activities as they please. People might be on different internal times within a month (although everybody will start the same month at the beginning of each day).

The scene system allows people to interact with each other even after they have moved on on their timelines. Until a scene ends, anybody who was present back when it happened is allowed to participate and add content. Each scene follows it's own internal time, where 12 events are allowed per minute, after which it moves onto the next minute. Once the end time has been reached, nobody is allowed to add any more content.

Combat is also considered a scene, and participants are required to pick their action in 18 hours real time or an automatic reaction will be selected according to the character's settings. It is intended that each battle will be finished in 18 hours max even if new people join in in the middle. This will allow the survivors to play the rest of their AP after the fight without losing a whole month. Basically if you choose to participate in a fight, you accept anything that happens after your leaving if you only return 18 hours after it's initiation. Fights can finish early if one party dies, surrenders, loses consciousness or becomes incapacitated. The first winner to log in has a 5 minute window to enter a building or initiate travel, during which he is untouchable. After this, anybody can initiate another fight scene, which will have an 18 hour reaction period just like the first one. If there are several winners and they all manage to run away before another party has time to initiate another fight, the other party must follow the people to their new location before they are able to intiate another fight.

It is possible to follow another person who left within 18 hours real time, assuming your travel speed is equal to or greater than theirs. Catching up happens instantly, consuming a relative number of AP. The chaser must have enough food with them to avoid fainting of hunger, or they won't be able to reach the target. If the target stops to rest or forage, it can allow a chaser to catch up, assuming the chaser doesn't run out of AP before they reach the target.

Art description

At least initially the game will follow a simplistic, stripped design with minimal graphics. The local map will use symbols for trees, bushes and grasses, as well as buildings, people and paths. The farming view allows reading soil types by looking at the background color of the square. The game will try to be light to load and use as little bandwidth as possible.

Sound

If we ever make an intro video, it should concentrate on sounds that you would hear in the game world if you were physically there (such as the sounds of animals, rushing water, roaring fire, clinking of the hammer against the anvil and so on). The game itself should be silent, and all multimedia content should be optional. Generally there should never be sounds that force the player to turn off their speakers. This should be a game that people can even play discreetly at a work place and not get caught.

User interface and controls

Mechanically the game works through clicking links, submitting forms and writing text. It will optimally require a mouse and a keyboard, although it should be playable on touchscreen as well.