Lots of recent developments once more, so let’s have a look:

Buying provides

When you enter or depart cities now you can refill on provides. These take 4 kinds – canteens, meals, water, and gear. Canteens, meals ration baggage and gear have generated photographs whereas water is a barely extra summary picture. In the case of canteens, these are empty containers that may be crammed up with any liquid, and the participant begins off with a canteen crammed with ten models of water (which permits for ten days spent in desert). The photographs are in fact generated with round 1,000,000 or so permutations I consider – so hopefully you’ll by no means see the identical canteen, as they’re handmade in any case! – and are fairly costly objects, however they’ve a number of worth for exploration so I believe that’s justified (once more, as an increasing number of gameplay parts are available in by means of 0.10 and 0.11, all of it will want balancing in a while). Food is the one one that’s wanted within the on a regular basis for transferring round outdoors of settlements (besides when on ships) and is consumed at a fee of 1 unit a day, and you purchase meals in blocks of ten; meals, like water and so forth, just isn’t wanted if you’re in settlements, however solely if you’re out within the wild. The picture used right here is an alteration of the graphics used for the gunpowder baggage, and I’m positive I’ll discover some extra worth for the “bag” picture archetype additional down the road. Water is purchased individually and can be utilized to refill canteens, and is once more pretty low-cost, and required when exploring desert with the intention to keep away from dehydration and sunstroke (see hopefully my subsequent replace for information on these types of illnesses and so on!). Finally, gear is the equal of water however for polar and mountainous areas, consumed at a fee of 1 per day, in any other case frostbite and hypothermia might be lurking simply across the nook. I don’t see many video games that mannequin fascinating circumstances and diseases and I believe these will make for fascinating strategic concerns (with some gentle alterations from how these work in actual life), however that’s all to return later. Finally, as a part of this the participant now additionally begins the sport with a provide of meals, and a canteen crammed with water, however not with any gear nor any extra canteens.

Location discovery

As a part of what I mentioned final time – building-specific quick journey – I’ve additionally made modifications to how areas are recorded. In 0.9 merely setting foot right into a map tile would instantly inform you (on the world map) what was in it, i.e. getting into a market tile after which going into your world map would inform you exactly what outlets have been on that tile, even when you (the participant character) had not but truly seen them. This labored nice for some time as a foundation however given the brand new stuff I’ve carried out above about permitting you to fast-travel to particular buildings inside a map grid, it appeared to make sense to additionally return and make this nice reasonably extra finely-grained than it’s at current. To do that there’s now a system in place that, whereas rendering an out of doors space, takes notice of any doorways you occur to see after which seems over these doorways to see whether or not any of them are noteworthy doorways (i.e. they don’t simply belong to regular houses, for instance). If the sport finds a noteworthy door inside your line of sight on a specific flip, it then checks to see what that could be a door to (e.g. a store, a cathedral, no matter) after which checks whether or not or not that constructing has already been saved within the participant’s information of constructing. If it has then it does nothing, but when it hasn’t, then the sport provides it in and posts somewhat message within the textual content log beneath alongside the strains of “You have discovered a new X”, after which you’ll then be capable to fast-travel again there subsequent time you’re on that map tile. URR subsequently now retains monitor of each necessary construction you discover, and when coupled with the above, this makes exploration – and transferring backwards and forwards – virtually ludicrously sooner than it as soon as was.

Image enhancements

I’ve improved a few the outdated generated graphics within the sport that simply weren’t as much as the present commonplace. Firstly, archery targets at the moment are accurately shaded, which brings them somewhat extra “up to date” with the standard of the opposite procedural graphics within the sport; I’ve additionally optimised the picture code right here to make them generate / draw sooner, as they have been painfully gradual. These are a particularly uncommon factor to see within the sport – although now that I’ve put within the time to enhance them like this, I’m actually incentivized now to make them seem in a couple of extra locations! – however they now not stand out as a really poor graphic. Similarly, fountains have additionally now been considerably enhanced with the intention to carry them in keeping with the standard of the generated photographs within the sport. These are reasonably extra widespread so I believe this was much more time well-spent, because the participant (presently) begins in an upper-class housing district filled with fountains, and lots of the most fascinating areas of cities and the like have fountains. These weren’t vastly time-consuming issues, however I’m glad to have them accomplished; readers will do not forget that within the 0.9 launch I redid the graphics for the world era as a result of the unique graphics have been very outdated in comparison with the standard of visuals I’m making now, and it didn’t actually do for the very first thing the participant sees to be one thing so garbage! I’m unsure whether or not these meet my high quality requirements for the long-term, however for now updating these simply provides somewhat little bit of polish and smooths off a tough nook remaining from the sport’s a lot earlier days.

Flavour messages

As additional a part of making navigation of the in-game world each simpler and extra fascinating, I’ve taken a leaf from the e book of video games like NetHack and launched messages that seem if you enter a brand new space. Naturally in NetHack (and different video games that do comparable issues, like Spelunky and Noita) the thought is partly to warn the participant upfront of one thing developing in that space or acknowledge an uncommon procedural era alternative, whereas right here it’s partly about flavour, but in addition partly about letting the participant know {that a} specific factor is perhaps current on this space which they may need to pay attention to. At the second this takes two kinds. Firstly, an “introductory” message will now at all times seem if you enter a district of a metropolis, a city, a fortress, a settlement, and shortly on issues like mines, universities (see beneath), and so on. This provides you with some flavour and also will level you in direction of necessary issues. For instance, upon getting into a decrease class district in a metropolis, it would say – relying on the cultures / insurance policies of the realm – one thing like…

“You enter the lower class housing district. As you watch the people in this area, you see items and goods often being traded from hand to hand. In the distance to the north-west you see a tall building with barred windows.” (A “barter” nation, and a jail with its location recognized)

“You enter the lower class housing district. A call to prayer is being sung out from the north-east, and to the south you hear the roar of a crowd.” (A location trace for a spiritual constructing, and a location trace for an area)

“You enter the low class housing district. You hear people talking about the outside world, and notice that their comments doesn’t quite match up with your ideas of lands beyond this one.” (An “isolationist” nation)

…and so forth. By my calculations there are a lot of a whole lot of hundreds of those attainable messages throughout totally different areas with totally different units of combos current, and simply from doing my very own playtesting world wide these add an actual lot of texture and really feel to the world, and provides a way of better weight and consequence to every specific space the participant may go into. When coupled with the invention messages talked about above, the message log in URR is now much more full and much more lively, and has issues consistently being advised to the participant reasonably than simply an infinite sequence of “it is a new day!”, which might appear somewhat bit foolish typically. I believe these are a very necessary addition for, once more, dashing issues up, serving to the participant have a way of the place they may need to go in that space, and likewise deepening this sense of the world being somewhat extra alive and somewhat extra lively as you stroll round it.

The different kind is what I’m calling “ambient” messages present up each x turns for the reason that final message has confirmed up, and take the same kind to the above messages, providing you with data however on a a lot smaller scale. So, for example, in a metropolis centre district you may see messages like…

“You hear nearby an argument between some clerks about taxation for the outer areas of the empire.”

“You see in the distance an individual wearing fine clothes, who seems to be an emissary of some other land.”

“You notice a fine ring on a local passerby, marking them out as a person of high rank.”

…and so forth. These once more rely upon the particular of every nation however are far much less basic than the primary form and don’t level to something particular, however give much more life to every space. I’ve written numerous these, together with permitting them to fluctuate and alter relying on the particular place and context, and there’s additionally code in place to guarantee that they don’t repeat too quickly. Both of those programs are comparatively small additions, however I’m truly actually proud of how they’ve come collectively, they usually give a heck of much more life to the world! Also, within the case of those ambient messages, the sport retains monitor of which of them have been just lately used and doesn’t recycle till a big quantity have been gone by means of; it additionally barely randomly generates the exact wording of every one with the intention to increase variation; and the time between these messages will get longer the extra time the participant spends in an space, with the intention to make the total choice last more and since a participant spending fairly some time in a single map space might be engaged on one thing particular, reasonably than essentially exploring. I believe these are one other very nice addition, and whereas the database of those isn’t completed as I write these – although there’s already a whole lot! – I’m actually proud of how these have labored out thus far.

(A big quantity are proven in these testing screenshots, however in apply, they’re far rarer, and have extra variation in phrasing!)

Starting Relic Generation

One of the aims for 0.11 might be producing spiritual relics. These might be crucial objects, having a number of worth (clearly) to specific religions, but in addition a number of commerce worth if you will discover the correct individuals to promote to, a number of potential for religions to develop into very happy with you if you’ll be able to return a relic that maybe is being bought in a distant land, and relics may also typically be the rewards that one can get for determining the situation being referred to in a treasure map. I’m actually eager for these all to be very fascinating, putting, distinctive objects, that actually get the participant’s consideration and sign clearly that that is one thing of excessive significance. As such, I’ve begun laying out the essential foundations for producing the pictures of the relics. As talked about beforehand there at the moment are a number of dozen totally different archetypes for spiritual relics, some tethered to specific archetypes of deity or faith (e.g. a “Lovecraftian” relic or a “Demonic” faith) whereas others can seem for any faith kind, or most of them. I’ve posted a bit about how the picture era course of in URR works earlier than – each within the sense of “how do I design them?” and the sense of “how does it work under the hood?”, and I’ve simply been making somewhat little bit of progress starting to sketch out some very fundamental preliminary textual content grids. Even with out the slightest diploma of color or shading or the rest, a few of these preliminary drafts are already giving a way of how fascinating and color and distinctive a few of these objects are going to be, and I’m actually proud of this preliminary groundwork I’ve been laying now for subsequent yr.

University planning

I’ve made a serious choice right here for the sport – on condition that the sport is / goes to be about data, discovery, exploration, studying, cryptic puzzles, and so on, I’m unsure any extra how a lot sense it makes for the participant to start the sport in an upper-class district, or to start the sport in any approach as a part of a noble home. I’ve additionally been pondering for some time about including in “university” areas to the sport, just like “towns” or “fortresses” or “mines” and so forth, and the extra I give it some thought, the extra I like this concept. I believe beginning the participant off in a college can be a really novel opening; would allow me to develop a really cool and fascinating little opening cutscene (which I’ll say no extra about till I begin engaged on it); and would give the participant a really clear framing about what types of factor this sport is about. It would even be a logical solution to get the participant began on the primary quest and to present them a couple of preliminary objects – possibly a e book or two, a notice or two, a cryptic merchandise or two – to assist them out on the beginning of their journey.

My present pondering proper now could be that universities will include lecture rooms, halls, pupil lodging, libraries (possibly you possibly can pay to entry any e book there, but it surely prices greater than discovering the e book within the wild and shopping for it? Would be unusual in the actual world however makes extra sense in gameplay phrases!), school rooms, possibly a museum of some noteworthy objects (the University of Sydney, the place I’m primarily based IRL, has a variety of these), and I believe an observatory might be a cool addition as effectively (however I gained’t say any extra about that simply but). They may also fluctuate, in fact, throughout nations relying on their insurance policies. For instance, the college in a nation with “populist” politics might be going to be fairly restricted (no supposed commentary on the actual world inverse relationship between academic attainment and voting for populist candidates must be inferred) whereas a college in a nation whose tradition is way extra targeted on mental and cultural attainment will seemingly have a far bigger college. Nevertheless, all nations will spawn with one college – for the participant to start out in – whereas I would maybe have extra intellectually inclined nations to have an additional college or two elsewhere of their territories. Like cities and mines and the like, these buildings might be outdoors of cities and might be discovered someplace in that nation’s territory (although I’m going to set them to generate close to to the town to encourage new gamers to move into the capital metropolis of that nation first after they depart the college beginning location).

Anyway – at current I’m unsure whether or not this might be one thing for this 0.10 launch, or for 0.11, however I’ve begun sketching out the preliminary code required to generate these areas, populate them with individuals, and so on and so on, and I’m actually eager on this reasonably extra novel begin than what we presently had. More on this within the close to future, I’m positive!

Bug fixes / tweaks / and so on

– Resolved a long-standing bug that someway neither I nor any participant had observed for years (!) through which, hardly ever, the final letter in a sentence in a multi-line message can be chopped off and never displayed within the message window. In equity URR has till now had only a few multi-line messages, however I nonetheless can’t fairly consider how lengthy this one survived for!
– Fixed a bug with animal-archetype spiritual altars barely having any color distinction between the background and the foreground of the altar and the design on it – it was very exhausting to make out the picture, however is now a lot clearer.
– Given that I’m truly trying to do an enormous overhaul of the dialogue system to make it much more fluid and “human”, I’ve briefly eliminated the variable questions (“What do you think of [X]?”) with the intention of coming again to them in 2023. – – The preliminary work on the questions and the replies nonetheless will nonetheless be helpful – it simply gained’t be on this launch!
– Fixed a problem with sure objects very hardly ever not possessing the properties required to attract them accurately when within the participant’s stock, however provided that they have been added in a really particular method.
– Dealt with a bug that very very hardly ever brought about world era to crash when it was attempting to determine embassies in metropolis centres for sure sorts of civilizations (or reasonably, civilizations in sure contexts).
– Put in a couple of extra optimizations and enhancements to the programs that draw the terrain across the participant when the participant strikes; I’m eager to actually enhance this additional sooner or later, however one other little set of small refinements right here once more helps the target of constructing the entire sport a bit sooner, a bit smoother, and a bit simpler to navigate.

What subsequent?

I’ve determined to shift releases to January as an alternative of December, as a result of releasing between the twenty fifth of Dec and the first of Jan doesn’t actually get a lot visibility as a result of individuals are, typically, busy throughout that point. I’m subsequently going to attempt a mannequin of as an alternative releasing “some time in January” the default going ahead, and we’ll see how that goes. My subsequent goal is to engaged on meals / water / gear consumption out within the wild, and begin programming in some dreadful maladies to befall the participant ought to they enterprise too far past their means; I’ll additionally within the subsequent few weeks be engaged on bug-testing and refining these above programs and those from the earlier updates, and dealing to filter extra bugs and polishes on my bigger checklist of those as effectively. Next replace in a few weeks, everybody!