It is the sixth month of the year, so I thought that it is time to give you an update. Where should I start?
Whenever I write these posts I have a desire to write about things I added in Empire Of Devil, But past few months things were difficult for me. I was working on EOD since last year full time sitting in the home, cutting myself from the outside world and focussing only on the game. My parents were/are supportive but at one point I was completely burned out by developing game daily without taking any break. Well tbf that time was difficult for me, I never experienced such desired to run away from everything. After a month I recovered a bit and did a careful analysis of the game. Game is not bad but I was not satisfied with the result and understood that It will require more money, experience, time. Honestly, I lack the first two. So here's what I did.
Got a Job
Created a new small scale tycoon simulation game.
The job gave me the financial stability to continue working on my games but I can't work full time for the time being. Also, I made a small game which I will release in August on Steam. Please note that I am not abandoning this game but development will be bit slow for next few months.
Animation Update
Hello,
Sorry for not making an update post last month. Last month was pretty hectic I did an internal beta testing and took a short break of 2-3 weeks.
I am working on EOD since last August full time daily working on the game for 8-10 hrs exhausted me which result in burnout. Thatswhay I decided to take a short break in May to recharge my batteries.
After internal beta testing results were not promising for me. The game feels rough around edges and consists of game threatening bugs. I could have released the game and with the label of "Early Access" made some excuses and promises update etc. but doing such things are not worth it. I set some standards and I am not releasing the game without matching it. I am well aware of my limitations and not expecting to release a masterpiece or something but releasing a broken game in the name early access is not something I want to do as it will not represent efforts, I put in the game last year.
Animation Update
In past blogs, I explained the swordplay system sword is controlled from the input of the mouse and it will rotate with the mouse direction but In past system animations were static that means if you move the mouse in left direction animation system will play left targetting animation but with the new system and introduction of ik, animations are much flexible. The player can target a specific part of an enemy body like legs.hands.neck, head etc. Which gives different tactical options to both Ai and players.
Tactics Manager
Hello there, Sorry for the late update I am sick since last 2 days making hard for me to post announcement or even use computer.
With Tactics manager player can set tactics for every single soldier to whole group of soldier.
First you need to set position of of whole unit like in Rts games. Each unit max consist 1000 soldier.
For Ai after lots of research I set on five main formation according to which Ai sets Up his army.
Hammer & Anvil
Frontal Attack
Flanking Double
Flanking Single
Bull Horn
There are many things Ai consider before selecting any strategies but main is availablity of certain units like fast moving units for flanking or comparing army size of army for bull horn.From this well basically next strategy node is decided individually for every soldier like ex if ratio is 2:1 for opponent unit then soldier ai will try to form group of 2-3 and attack single individual soldier, Same goes for archers unit they always maintain some distance form their target unit.
There are many things Ai consider before selecting any strategies but main is availablity of certain units like fast moving units for flanking or comparing army size of army for bull horn.From this well basically next strategy node is decided individually for every soldier like ex if ratio is 2:1 for opponent unit then soldier ai will try to form group of 2-3 and attack single individual soldier, Same goes for archers unit they always maintain some distance form their target unit.
The basic things in tactics are pretty much self explanatory but in next blog I will explain them even further also I will improve Ui panels once I become's healthy:)
Edit: I wrote about how 1v1 combat works here Also I captured a few small snippets to understand how it works for video blog here is one Hitbox Note that it is still half baked I am going to add a few things before release and sheer size of battle(thousands of soldiers runtime) it is difficult for me to simulate realistic physics I need to sacrifice something.
Video captured in editor and video capturing software also working so it reduces performance bit.
World and Trade System
Hello, Although I wanted to make a video blog to explain systems I cannot able to make one(My voice really comes weird also text2speech makes it looks robotic) SO I am writing this huge blog explaining many things.
PS: I am attaching some videos at end of this blog so if you hate reading you could just skip this part. but It is important to read it.
World I made this image to show power hierarchy in EOD.
EOD simulates the whole country who is in chaos and player start from the bottom ladder with a goal in the mind to become emperor.
The game allows you to micromanage things also possible to decide strategy based on many things.
The Emperor controls the whole country with his province divided between counts, Counts manages province with every count has his separate court with his province is divided into a number of settlements(villages/towns etc.). Lord control this town they are vassal of the count.
Also, Emperor and his every count have a separate council who works for their liege.
Council Positions are:
Chancellor
Marshal
Tresurer
Jury
Jailer
Every council positions requirer certain attributes like to become chancellor character must have Diplomacy trait higher than other characters.
Titles
Titles are another important part of hierarchy with every settlement have office with which his owner rules.
Player start as Commoner i.e from a low level of hierarchy but can move upwards on the power ladder, With every title comes with certain benefits
and more power.
Three titles below Lord are
Baron
Nobleman
Commoner
Titles are how every citizen is identified and it allowed him to perform various actions like to open a business you must have nobleman title, Or to run for office you also need Baron title
Here are the Office Positions
mayor
Marshal
Treasurer
Jury
Jailer
Every position comes with certain benefits like you can bribe Treasurer to raid your opponent business, Or If you are Jury then you can demand a bribe from a criminal for low punishment etc.
Here is actually how it looks in game
With clicking on every province will take you to detail info about that province. Right side shows the Owner of that province with his name age clan he belongs to, Alos his different traits, gold, army size etc.
Below two dropdowns give the option to the player to sort his vassals based upon different parameters, same goes for family list also you can sort with different parameters such as his grandparents, wife, children, uncles, siblings etc. Left side shows settlement info with his population info from every citizen divided into different class/Religion etc.
Population So now a population of settlement is divided into 3 classes(Low, Middle, Upper) every class have different needs like low and middle class needs common items(Food items like Salt etc, Metals for workers like Iron, Copper, Bronze etc)
while Upper class needs luxury items(Gold, Silver, Spices etc.)
Also, every settlement now generates different Resources so first generated good will be consumed in common market then allowed to sell in world market so the price of a good in that particular region will be dependent on Supply-Demand rule. So if player trade perfectly(buying an item from surplus supply region and selling in high demand region for profit). Also player now needs to have certain Title to able to trade, Player could buy a title from regions office.(It also allows for black marketing goods)
Tariffs and Spending Every owner of settlement decide tariff applied on imported goods which sometimes makes goods more costly and deteriorating relationship with that regions owner basically it allows you to become Tarrifman
Also need to allow basic %spendings on different factors such as Education, Administration, Military Budget, Building Budget etc.
Trade
Trade window shows trade info for every resource with where it produced throughout the map and need vs population also a chart showing past 6 months activity for the price, production, need.
This becomes huge blog though :)
Here are a few more videos showing npc daily activities they have their own different schedule and ai for behaviour.
Planting tree Activity 2
Also, hd version is very much is in works here is a small video
Standing FPS capture
Also I am going to release beta just fixing and balancing things sorry for delay.
The Vision
Hello there, Beta seats are full now form will not accecpt further responses now
About Game
From tommorow I will upload series of video blogs daily for beta testers it contains gameplay and I will try to explain many things happening in the game. I do not want to make same mistake I made with my first game,It was too much complex and many things happens in the game world which player dont understood. I did poor job explaining how things works, why you need to do this etc. But I learned my lesson complexity of EOD is also too much like I added few more things like Population,Tarrifs,World-Trade,Different Laws.
Population So now population of settlement is divided into 3 classes(Low,Middle,Upper) every class have different needs like low and middle class needs common items(Food items like Salt etc,Metals for workers like Iron,Copper,Bronze etc)
while Upper class needs luxary items(Gold,Silver,Spices etc.)
Also every settlements now generates different Resources so first generated good will be consumed in common market then allowed to sold in world market so price of good in that particular region will be dependent on Supply-Demand rule. So if player trade perfectly(buying item from surplas supply region and selling in high demand region for profit). Also player now needs to have certain Title to able to trade, Player could buy title from regions office.(It also allows for blackmarketing goods)
Tarrifs and Spending Every owner of settlement decide tarrif applied on imported goods which sometimes makes goods more costly and deterioting relation with that regions owner basically it allows you to become Tarrifman Also need to allow basic %spendings on different factors such as Education,Administration,Military Budget,Building Budget etc.
Follwoing is lists of video and topic I am going to cover
1) World Map, Population,Tarrif, Trade etc.
2)Interacting with NPC(marriage,Love,Daily life of NPCs)
3)War-Diplomacy
4)Interactions with characters (counts,duke etc)
5)Crime empire
6) Battle and Tactics Manager(v1 of Tactics creator will be included in v1)
Beta-Testing
Hello, If anyone is interested in beta testing EOD please fills the following form
(Google Form)
Reason for beta As you all know I am one guy who is developing the game and at this scope of the game, it is very hard for me to test game in-depth, even if the game will be released as EA does not mean to release an unpolished or buggy version of the game.
I will test by steam or via itch you will get an email containing a key for testing.
Seats are limited if you are actively participating in the forum you will get an advantage. That's why I also asked for the steam user name.(It is okay if you dont want to share just give me email address where I can send key).
I will create hidden sub-forum for all beta testers where they can submit their feedback.
Contributing in beta testing will get your name in the credit section.
Key will get expired once the game goes to full launch
Please see System requirements before opting for testing graphics card must support Dx11.(As many rendering massive crowd it requires dx11 or above)
Beta build will be available next week.
Few features will be activated later stage of Beta
Please note that, By filling this form you agreed that you will not share the game with anyone and not post video or image
Thank you!
New WorldMap and UI: Part 1
Hello, I yesterday I made some drastic changes in world map it looks now like this.
Earlier It used to look like this.
Reason
Even new map does not look as good as old one it changes whole game dramatically. In previous map there are total 20 provinances I cant place more as they are limiting map size and looks conjusted but with this map now 108 provinances possible every provinance contains one main City and depends upon size 5-40 villages. It also changes characters count as now more than 1000 characters are present consisting woman character and childrens.
I will show Ui changes as clicking on tile it shows full details of character (Grandparents,parents,childrens,Siblings,Vassal list,wifes etc.) and town(holdings list,current building list,populance mood,Trading details,Crime level etc.)
I want to show UI changes in this post but I am still making potraits as now more than 100s of potraits needed.
PS: Every color of map represent different rular of provinance
Release Date and purposed HD update
Hello guys, I am aiming to release the game on 7th March, Also One Good news I was testing for adding HD update in the game and my initial test results are successful you can see above screenshot. I am still testing many things but it is not possible to release it in 0.1v update as integrating it right now will break too many things and fixing them might take too much time also it will require even modern graphics card anyways still I am aiming to create a separate branch for HD pack in late early access schedule.
Combat System
Hello, In EOD swordfight is direction based you can control sword by mouse means the game will track mouse movement and move sword accordingly. If the player moves the mouse to the right direction then the player will attack from the right side. If the mouse moves to the upper left corner then the player will attack enemy head from the left side, If low right corner then the sword is positioned to attack the right leg of the enemy. It is a straightforward system but my end goal is to make it more physics driven I am planning to complete it by 0.4 or 0.6 beta version. Enemies also have the same system implemented to them, Every part of the body have some modifier value what it basically does is If a certain part of the body is targetted continuously then it will increase damage done by the blow, So Ai will try to target already damaged part.
Family:Wife
Hello, While developing EOD coding family feature was the most fun part for me it is not feature complete. In the old blog post, I said that player can marry up to 5 times and can have concubines etc. But while developing the game I noticed that capping limit to the only one makes the game much more challenging.
Wife
TO marry player must have a certain relation with woman While forging the relationship with powerful family through marriage helps a lot in diplomacy but managing such wife can be difficult as they gave birth to your heir and mothers traits are passed on to the child. So If you marry disloyal woman her child also have that trait which makes difficult to rely on him for future.
There are also other things you need to do to keep your wife happy(good house,gifts etc).
PS: If you have some suggestion you like to see in this feature comment here
