Thanks! I feel the Pachisi-esque video games, within the sport, are very Mankala-esque, really… however you are proper, there might be one other!

Some very thrilling developments this week! Ships have been reworked for 0.9 and made a couple of hundred instances extra numerous, and extra attention-grabbing, and have some precise gameplay round them now. So firstly, in 0.8 I created a system for establishing journey and commerce routes that ships would use, as seen within the image beneath (gamers wouldn’t see this straight in-game). The system was particularly designed in order that each time a brand new route matched up with an current route, it might cease producing a brand new route, in order that ships would journey solely on well-plied commerce traces and so forth, which result in one thing like this:

That was effective in fact, particularly as this was partly an under-the-hood factor that gamers didn’t percieve too strongly, and in 0.8 ships had been free to journey on and easily served to assist the participant get from one a part of the world to the following. Now, nonetheless, as we start to implement mechanics round time, cash, and journey, ships wanted to be made a bit extra detailed. Firstly, in fact, real-world ships within the kind of 1600s-to-1800s world URR exists in, didn’t all go along with actual commerce routes. You would get loads of variation relying on winds, the seasons and the time of 12 months, which manner you had been going, and naturally generally ships travelling to and from comparable instructions would possibly take totally different paths for political causes or different causes. As such, I began by remodeling this a bit bit right into a system that will nonetheless group ships in sure areas, however enable additionally for a variety of paths to and from comparable locations. That yielded one thing like this:

So you’ll see this appears much more natural and real looking – there are nonetheless clear, most optimum paths that many ships take (in the true world these would in fact be delivery lanes, primarily) however there’s additionally numerous variation from ship to ship, even these working in the identical kinds of areas. I feel that is nice. Now, if we rework this right into a heatmap displaying us what number of ships go alongside a sure path, the place pink = one, yellow = a number of, inexperienced = a number of, blue = tons and violet = an enormous quantity, we get this…

…which I’m very proud of! Some apparent and busy delivery lanes, some much less plied routes, and a few within the center. The subsequent step was to generate the ships themselves, give them photographs, personalities, names, histories, crews, and so forth (and naturally speeds and costs) and thus make the collection of ships and journey routes one thing to truly take into consideration and weigh into your motion all over the world, as a substitute of one thing that takes place immediately and requires no actual consideration. I set about constructing a ship identify generator, and after a short while, you possibly can see a few of the debug outputs from this generator right here, in addition to their coordinates, and the size of their paths. Keep in thoughts the world map is 250×250 tiles, so < 25 is a brief journey, < 75 a middling journey, something > 75 a protracted journey, and something over, say, 125 or so typically means you’re actually going to the opposite aspect of the world.

Would you sail on the “Red Kraken” or the “Grief of the Ocean”? I do know I might! As a part of this ships additionally now possess traits, a few of that are lively on this launch and a few of which can come quickly in 0.10. Again, the aim right here is so as to add extra strategic depth to choosing which ships you go on, and I hope will really get the participant remembering and fascinated with particular ships they’ve discovered to be particularly helpful: possibly a ship that goes between the 2 cities the participant is spending a lot of their time in, or a ship that’s particularly quick or low-cost, or a ship that offers a reduction to a specific demographic the participant is in, or a ship that’s well-armed and helps the participant journey by areas of piracy (coming later…), and so forth. Here’s the present listing (you would possibly must open the picture in one other tab, relying on the way you view this web site), and their results:

The availability of those traits is in fact decided by the insurance policies and different traits of a civilization, so for example solely a civ with the “Literary” trait can have the “Poetic Ship” risk, just one with the “Theocracy” trait can have the “Holy Ship” risk, and so forth. There are some actually attention-grabbing combos which ought to yield attention-grabbing strategic decisions. You can see these if you go right into a dock in a metropolis or a city and look over the obtainable ships. Whereas in 0.8 you simply had an inventory of locations and clicked on the one you wished, the ship choice display screen has now been massively overhauled! You can see the listing of locations and what ship will take you there; textual content (white when you can afford it, pink when you can’t) displaying you the worth of passage, the place the ship is now, and the way lengthy it is going to take you to succeed in that vacation spot; who owns that ship, the place it travels from, and so, and so forth; a picture of the ship (procedurally-generated, naturally!); and an inventory of the ship’s traits, that are colour-coded relying on what they apply to (e.g. faith, armament, price, ship-board tradition, and so forth). In phrases of ship traits I estimate there are round 150,000 potential ships that may generate with totally different combos of traits, and I feel that ought to hold issues attention-grabbing for a while!

In docks, as elsewhere, now you can enter forex exchanges the place you’ll be able to swap currencies you possess for currencies you don’t. Each dock will solely settle for the forex of its dwelling nation for journey (although possibly I’ll change this later and have some cultural trait, e.g. “Internationalism”, let you spend any forex in that port?) and so one of many strategic parts of the sport will come from build up shops of required currencies, and planning forward. Whenever you commerce forex you lose a bit little bit of total worth from the forex you might be buying and selling out of (as in the true world) and so that you’ll wish to change currencies hardly ever and in giant volumes (once more, as in the true world). Again, I’m positive I’ll add traits afterward for barely higher or barely worse change charges, and different issues of this kind.

Once you’ve received your cash (this subsequent screenshot is clearly from a distinct world / port), a few of your journey choices will present up as white slightly than pink:

And then you choose your ship and the sport offers you a remaining affirmation you wish to spend that cash.

Once you say sure, you might be given a bit story about your time on the ship (as in 0.8 ) and you might be ferried to your new location.

I’ve extra to write down about this later, however I’ve made large optimisations to the velocity of the sport in 0.9, and thus journey not takes many seconds for the sport to calculate, it’s as a substitute now (successfully) immediate, as is travelling on the world map! But extra about this at a later date. This was an replace about ships and docks and currencies, and I hope you all loved it. See you all quickly for one more replace for what must be a (thirty first of) December 2021 launch!

My first plan for 0.10 was procedural ebook technology. We already had the books producing as gadgets and – when you’ll enable me – they’re one of many issues I used to be proudest of within the 0.9 launch:

This was all the time supposed to be a central a part of the sport – I wish to get the sport producing texts that had been logical and significant and related carefully to the sport world, and to get the participant studying these as a central a part of studying concerning the world and discovering the clues to the core thriller. However, as readers will know to some extent, 2022 has not precisely been the 12 months I hoped it might by way of my well being, and whereas issues is likely to be choosing up now, I usually really feel like I’m in a perpetual back-and-forth between “unwell” and “getting again to the place I used to be earlier than I received unwell once more”, with little time to truly construct one thing and construct on what I’ve been doing beforehand. I’m now again within the “gbtwiwbigua” part (as we name it) as soon as extra, however I do not know what the remainder of the 12 months holds. This is necessary as a result of the technology of the ebook contents is one thing I’ve made some progress on – some extremely thrilling progress, really – however realistically there isn’t any manner I can now end it earlier than the tip of the 12 months. Even if I did not have a full-time job to contemplate, and even when I did actually nothing else for 0.10 besides the ebook contents, I nonetheless do not suppose I might get it completed in time. I actually do not wish to half-arse the ebook technology because it’s one thing that basically excites me, however I additionally am now decided (as mentioned in previous weblog posts) to maintain to 1 main launch a 12 months, it doesn’t matter what.

So, as a substitute, 0.10 goes to be the “every part I wished to place in 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9, however did not have the time to” launch! I’ve been making some good progress easing myself again in, constructing some new code and a few new content material, and refamiliarizing myself with every part, so here is what has been added to date prior to now couple of months:

New Items

To start with, now we have some new gadgets! These seem in a wide range of logical outlets and are gadgets that contribute to your navigation of the world and to surviving on the planet (see beneath). The first of those is the compass, which (like every part) might be present in numerous qualities and numerous shapes relying on the civilization you purchase it from. The compass reduces how a lot water the participant consumes when transferring by desert – the logic being you can extra precisely plan your actions as a substitute of stumbling round uncertainly. The high quality of the compass – low, medium, excessive – determines how correct it’s and thus how a lot water is saved, with the bottom high quality saving the participant 25% of their water, the medium high quality saving 33%, and the best high quality saving 50%.

The second of those is the binoculars, which improve your viewing distance as you progress all over the world map utilizing the “journey” perform. The lowest high quality binoculars gives you one further map tile across the participant as you progress; the medium-quality binoculars gives you a number of extra further map tiles in every path as you progress; and the highest-quality binoculars gives you a number of extra map tiles in every path than that. It’s arduous to explain, however consider a circle the place every high quality stage provides on a pair extra tiles on the fringe of the circle than the one earlier than it.

Pitons are the equal of the compass, however on your use of provides in mountainous or polar terrain, slightly than your use of water within the desert. Pitons can be utilized to scale back your use of provides in mountainous and polar terrain by 25%, 33%, or 50%, relying on the standard. Unlike the compasses and the binoculars pitons will very slowly be used up, however at a price that also makes them a really worthwhile buy in comparison with simply utilizing bigger volumes of provides.

We even have canes! These scale back meals use in all of what I’m now calling the difficult terrains – desert, polar, and mountainous – by 25%, 33%, and 50%, once more relying on high quality. These might be bought at carpenters’ outlets and just like the pitons will ultimately put on out, however solely as a particularly sluggish tempo. On a aspect word I’ve to say I’m notably proud of the generator I constructed for these, as it’s (un?)surprisingly troublesome to consider some ways to range and make attention-grabbing and merchandise that’s, primarily, a stick of wooden. Nevertheless, I feel I did fairly effectively right here!

And, lastly, now we have grenades! Modelled after pre-gunpowder and early gunpowder historic grenades, these shall be obtainable in powdermaker outlets in civilizations with the suitable applied sciences and insurance policies. Shown right here from left to proper is a hallucinogenic grenade, an explosive grenade, and a smoke grenade, and I’m engaged on a few different sorts as effectively. As I’ve stated earlier than, I actually am enthusiastic about engaged on fight when that begins coming into play, and these are a class of merchandise I’ve been wanting ahead to including into the sport for some time now.

Speech

Part of what I’ve deliberate for this launch is de facto increasing and growing the speech choices. As a part of this, subsequently, now you can ask NPCs open questions of the kind “What do you concentrate on [X]?”. This means now you can query NPCs about any alcoholic drink, any prisoner (when you’re speaking to a jailer), any historic occasion, any ship (when you’re speaking to a sailor), any monastery or monk (when you’re speaking to monks or monks), any political get together (in related nations), any main household (in feudal nations), any gladiator (in related nations), any feudal nation, any tribal nation, any nomadic nation, any identified illness or plague, any spiritual relic, any faith, any particular person, any metropolis, any city, any space of the world map, any animal or plant, any weapon, any paintings, any ebook, and any political ideology. Here’s an instance of those kinds of questions within the listing of questions, after which an instance of the way it at the moment appears if you’re choosing what to ask:

One of my subsequent duties, in fact, shall be to develop the responses to those questions! More on this quickly.

Survival

I’ve all the time hated the trivia and the fixed must hold your self from dying in most “survival video games” – eat meals each jiffy, drink water each jiffy, and many others. It’s tedious and repetitive and does not actually add an excellent deal (besides in a number of uncommon instances the place it’s so tightly built-in into the sport design, as in one thing like Don’t Starve). By distinction, the survival mechanics in a sport like The Curious Expedition, which was certainly one of my favorite video games from final 12 months, struck me as very totally different. In transferring survival from the fixed to the strategic, the query in TCE is as a substitute framed way more as “planning for an expedition” and ensuring you will have sufficient to outlive, making good use of your assets, planning forward, and so forth. These kinds of framings actually entice me and actually slot in with the kind of factor I’m seeking to do in URR. It should not be one thing the participant is considering each second of the day, however given the sport’s give attention to exploration and the dimensions of the sport world, I’m actually drawn to the concept that with a purpose to push out from one’s base metropolis you’ll want to be sure you have what you’ll want to survive, and that to push out into more difficult terrains (desert, polar, mountains, and many others) you’ll want to make sure you’ve received what you may want to have the ability to correctly discover them.

So, progress has begun on the “planning for expeditions” aspect of issues by including three meters into the sport which you’ll see now on the sidebar on the left – meals, water, and gear. None of those are required in cities, cities, and on ships, however to move out your self, you may must top off on provides. Food is consumed every day you are out of a settlement / ship; water is consumed every day you are within the desert (the belief is that exterior of the desert yow will discover plentiful water sources), and gear is consumed every day you are in polar or mountainous areas (once more, it is assumed that is simpler elsewhere). These might be purchased in cities if you enter/exit by the town gate (which is the a part of this I’m now engaged on). These are fairly low-cost items, however naturally if one runs out and is not in a settlement or a ship, dangerous issues would possibly start to occur – which must be fairly enjoyable to code. More on this quickly!

Thrones

Thrones – regardless of having been generated over a 12 months in the past – now, really, seem in-game if you have a look at a throne. So that is good.

Bug fixes

I’ve additionally accomplished quite a lot of bug fixes, reminiscent of:

-Resolved a difficulty the place urgent ‘@’ to take a look at your character didn’t correctly provide the identical navigation choice for taking a look at your character that urgent ‘l’ or ‘;’, after which manually taking a look at your self, would.

-Removed a debugging choice within the “Export” menu that I’d by accident left within the sport – whoops!

-Hopefully fastened an issue with the world technology sequence very hardly ever freezing (not crashing) when you transfer the “focus” in your laptop away from it to a different app; I feel this has been resolved, nevertheless it would possibly want a bit extra testing.

-Fixed bugs the place a number of speech choices resulted in crashes.

-Fixed a bug the place urgent the “Exchange” choice in a dialog would result in a crash (although I shall be coming again to this in additional element later).

-Fixed a bug the place the sport would crash upon going up stairs (!).

-Fixed some typos within the technology of monastery names.

-Changed the identify generator for mercenary guilds, since a few of the generated names had been a bit bit… iffy.

-Fixed an issue the place generally asking troopers about their armour brought on a crash.

-Standardised the spelling of “civilization” to the American English model – most phrases within the sport are British English, however I’ve all the time appreciated the look of the ‘z’ in that phrase (I blame Sid Meier) so I made a decision on that one as a substitute.

-Fixed shading on indicators exterior buildings in metropolis centres.

-Fixed a bug with a crash upon getting into a fortress.

-Fixed bug the place a cult ring would generally attempt to generate for a non-cultist civilization, leading to a crash.

-Fixed a BIG and long-running crash bug with some cities on the coast not producing sufficient properties for individuals to reside in, leading to a crash! This was as a result of the sport couldn’t discover someplace to place a dock in time, after which ran out of “can I place a building?” cycles earlier than it was in a position to get to inserting homes (which come after the bigger, extra necessary buildings). I’m actually happy to have lastly solved this one, as this now means there are only a few remaining identified main bugs – actually, solely actually one.

-Fixed a bug the place turquoise mines didn’t show accurately within the encyclopedia and brought on a crash, and in addition generally appeared as “metal” mines as a substitute of “gem” mines (regardless that I’m fairly positive turquoise just isn’t a steel).

-Fixed a bug the place taking a look at a mine within the encyclopedia belonging to a nomadic, as a substitute of a feudal nation, brought on a crash as a result of it was attempting to print the fallacious form of flag.

-The listing of ships within the encyclopedia now exhibits the photographs of the ships alongside their names, locations, homeowners, traits, and many others.

0.10 Begins

So: I’m happy to say that 0.10 is now going to be a launch centered on the stuff I could not get into the previous few releases, plus a load of recent gadgets, some new mechanics, plus a load of polishes and refinements and fixes for bugs and issues of that kind. Again, I feel it is actually necessary for me to settle into a daily annual launch schedule of any measurement, slightly than specializing in big releases throughout any time interval. I simply do not suppose after being fairly unwell for eight months that 4 months – even 4 months of focus – is solely sufficient to do credit score to the ebook technology concepts I’ve began engaged on, and that I’m excited to deploy. With that stated I’m positive I shall be persevering with to do a bit of labor on ebook content material technology, since that excites me and I’m extremely eager on growing this method I’m constructing for this – which I feel is distinct from others? – and seeing the place it will probably go. However, my precedence shall be on this 0.10 content material, constructing on 0.9, sprucing, fixing, bettering, growing, and fleshing out, what’s within the sport proper now. 0.11 is likely to be ebook technology; it would even be fight; it is likely to be some mixture, or one thing else; however 0.10 goes to be a launch of serious measurement, deepening each the gameplay interactions within the URR world, and the sport world element, and I’m excited to get engaged on it.

Thanks for studying everybody, and I’ll see you in a few weeks – I promise! – for the following replace!