Welcome to the first Friday Scroll for The Rebellion; we'll be posting these to give updates on development, to key you guys in on some things that we think are pretty solid, and when we get further along, to show progress of the game. Friday scrolls will also will be great spots to receive suggestions/feedback on what we're working on, so we'd love to hear more from you guys!
-cazeoj
The Gameplay Loop Revamp
Initial Design
The Rebellion was conceived primarily with the Rebel and Empire players in mind; the intention of the Commoners was to be a "human resource" faction that the two warring factions would leverage in order to defeat the other and achieve victory. As you probably noticed; the lore presence of these two factions is in game, however we have not implemented any wartime factions yet, so the gameplay loop is incomplete. I think that was one of our biggest failings; being unable to provide this initial experience.
Current Problems
At the moment, The Rebellion struggles to find a compelling gameplay loop; especially in the case of long term fulfillment. There is really only one avenue forward; which is to craft items and attack your opponent, or to defend against AI attackers in the case of wave defense. The micro of the game is nonexistent, third person gameplay is stale, and the macro aspect is poorly paced with little meaning in player choice. There is nothing of interest on the map outside of outposts, which hardly provide any respite besides a small encampment to produce units, items, or resources. There is no stat tracking outside of the game; once you leave a skirmish, there is little incentive to keep playing; and little incentive for improvement or progression.
The Goal
The idea of the gameplay revamp is to provide a more meaningful experience to the game, both inside and outside the battlefield. We want to create interesting gameplay interactions naturally, allow for meaningful choices, and provide more activities for players to entertain themselves with in game. All of this should have a mutually beneficial relationship with a long term, non linear progression system that will enhance the enjoyment of the game, and provide incentive for players to come back.
Solution : Long Term Progression
The biggest change in design philosophy is a light extraction mechanic that will allow you to take items, resources, equipment, and most importantly, gold back with you into a persistent and safe "base camp".
I know what it sounds like, but I'm very confident that if pulled off well, it can make this game something that can provide experiences you won't find anywhere else. This won't be like typical extraction shooters, where killing everyone in the lobby is nearly always the best option; and those who do do this won't go unpunished.
We want to promote cooperative elements and neutral player interaction in order to create more casual/industrious routes for players. The wartime Rebel and Empire factions would still be sworn enemies, and those who want a more dangerous lifestyle will have their options as well. We want complete player freedom, but we also will have ingame systems that can make things more challenging if you are a player with bad intentions.
- There will be stat tracking and online dedicated server play. We've come a long way developing certain aspects of a new backend to do this, and I believe that we can perform it in a very cost effective manner until player counts rise (in which case, we have a good problem) and we need a more comprehensive solution
- You guys still deserve the ability to just play single player. A lot of these awesome games out there have these intense multiplayer experiences, but are online only with no learning tools so players get intimidated or never try it at all. We will take time to have aspects like the inventory, map generation, and performance hybridized to work in a persistent online environment or locally on your PC.
- Escaping the map will be as simple as leaving off the edge, at one of several locations. Players can create or buy caravans to take more loot with them as well; we will put safeguards in place to make sure caravans take effort/time to obtain so that large transfers can't happen too quickly.
- When returned to your base camp, crafted equipment, base resources, and other typical ingame only designated objects would no longer have the ability to be brought back. These items instead could be stashed, sold, or used in special interactions to generate new gear.
- Certain objects will also be qualified as returnable items, these could be special creature parts you use in alchemy or loadout items you have to enhance a unit type.
- If you end up losing your base and hero ingame, you will lose the items you bring in. Likewise, with consumables used ingame. Other players can loot you, however there will be systems in place to make sure that this is an interesting mechanic with potential consequences over a simple trade.
We have a lot on itemization and extraction to talk about; so we're gonna save that for another blog. Our intention is to maintain the integrity and balance of the gameplay loop, while still creating interesting playstyle options through obtained gear. With this new system, we are intending to solve a long term progression problem that would have appeared in The Rebellion regardless; while remaining true to some of our initial concepts created over 5 years ago now.
In Game Loop Changes
In game we will have new systems and content additions to help move towards the meaningful long term progression goal. We're going to fill the levels with more interactable objects, promoting interesting activities and more "up time" in the gameplay loop. As a Commoner player, we want to join the game and have multiple avenues of success; you could trade and attempt to make money off of conflict, you could hunt creeps and try to achieve wealth/items through PVE objectives, or you could raid other players and take what they have received.
Extraction and the "Zone"
Typically, in an extraction type game, there will be a zone that applies pressure to the players and controls the pace of the game. The Rebellion will not have a "zone" mechanic; however there will be factors that will function to fulfill that role, albeit in a more fitting and interesting way. We want a fun sandbox environment, but we also understand the need of controlling the pace of a game to a certain extent. Finding the happy balance is the goal.
Villagers
We are developing a system to have several hundred villagers with procedural behavior all around the game world. The player would interact with these villagers in various ways; they will have desires, wants, and allegiances to a certain extent and will move to towns that meet their desires properly. These towns could be neutral NPC towns, or your own town as a commoner.
There are many, many cool interactions and possibilities with this system but for now we're going to keep our ideas to ourselves until we're ready to show.
Food and Happiness
Food will no longer just be a gate behind production; we are changing food to be required by active units and villagers in your town. Units away from food for too long may need to stop at a neutral town and feed up; or perhaps you bring a cart with your traveling forces that keeps them fed.
Farming will also be expanded upon, so that a farmer player is valued for their ability to produce large amounts of quality food. Ultimately, there may be ingame mechanics that make food more difficult to receive/grow over time.
Happiness would be tracked by things like health, temperature, hunger, quality of life, entertainment, etc. When low on happiness, certain interactions occur with the NPC. A villager might defect and move to another town if his happiness is low; a mercenary in your warband who is unhappy might attempt to take your head.
PVE Objectives
We want to breath a bit more life into the world of The Rebellion, and we can help do that through NPCs, creeps, creatures, and wildlife. These will drop anything from gold and gear to powerful reagents used in recipes; depending on the creature or character.
There will be large "dungeons" in each level which will be very challenging and treacherous environments that contain tough boss encounters. The meat of valuable items will come from these locations; however they are meant to be tackled with multiple players or with significant gear.
NPCs could travel from off the map and change up the gameplay; sometimes it could be a humble traveling merchant; other times it might be a posse of bandits looking for trouble.
Closing
There is a lot more to talk about, and we hope to show you more soon! We'll be posting a friday again soon with more information (likely about how we're changing the base mechanics like combat and the RTS camera). Thanks for your support, and we can't wait to get this over to you guys.