Hi everyone!
November has been a big, very busy month for me. I should probably stop saying that since on my accelerated development timeline, every month is going to be very busy. I wasn’t sure if I was going to squeeze this update into a video, but in the end I decided that a longer text post and shorter, punchier video works best, so expect a short video rundown of this update soon-ish.
TL;DR: The game is coming together, I put a day/night cycle in the game, finished a large portion of the overworld map, added a faction standing system, implemented dice rolls and added faction contracts.
Here is a short novel explaining the above.
Day/night cycle
The two options I was considering was a full day/night cycle with a calendar or perpetual darkness, which would have made development easier. I ended up going with the day/night cycle because:
My previous game, Memoirs, had it.
I wanted it personally
There will be no time-gated content, but it will impact when the player draws their salary (like in Memoirs) and also the mobs that may spawn in the overworld at certain times. I would like to keep time running at a realistic rate inside locations/hubs, so maybe 1:1 with real-world time or only a slight acceleration. Time in the overworld will be greatly accelerated to simulate traveling.
I should add that in this setting, vampires don’t burst into flames at the slightest touch of sunlight, but the drawbacks will be significant. And they can be mitigated too. No it’s not sunscreen :D.
There will be options for resting, forwarding time.
Created an overworld city map
One of the things I was conflicted about was how to recreate the map from my last game, which was made in a different engine. Then I realized I could just export the map and trace it.
I found that I liked making a city, although my lack of urban planning & design knowledge will probably come back to bite me, so I have continued to keep the overworld map a bit of an abstraction.
Faction reputation and standing system
One of my kickstarter stretch goals was to create living factions, or essentially factions that can react to the player in surprisingly and perhaps unpredictable ways. How this works is that the game would be conducted by a virtual dungeon master (I’m not using LLMs for this but scripting) so every playthrough would be unique. You could call it a lightweight version of what grand strategy games do.
Unfortunately, this stretch goal wasn’t reached, but I am still laying the groundwork for it so if early access is successful, and demand for it is high enough, I can add it to the game.
A fundamental building block for this is of course, the factions themselves, how they measure their attitude towards the player and each other, their available resources, etc.
Dice rolls
I am returning to and expanding the D6-based dice system I used in Memoirs. It’s a system I made myself, inspired by tabletop games, in a way I think is fun (but perhaps may lack some of the mathematical roundness of more balanced systems).
It’s also fully physically simulated. The game rolls however many die the check requires and then counts each one. Does Vampire Syndicate need this degree of verisimilitude? Probably not, but it’s already implemented :P.
Contract system and basic overworld AI
In Memoirs, the overworld was a very lightweight and non-primary part of the game. For VS, I would like it to be better, more fun and less tedious (as much as can be achieved). This includes the contracts the various factions can offer you.
[Massive, possibly unneeded text block:]
My current plan is for Vampire Syndicate to have 18 factions, 8 major and 10 minor. These factions all come into the game with pre-established histories, and a web of alliances, grievances, and deep-seated animosity towards each other. For example, the Slayer Order, which is quite proudly inspired by the Black Templars from 40k, would gleefully purge every vampire from MoonFall if they had the opportunity and means to do so.
As the player progresses through the game, the factions will pursue their own motives. For most, this means acquiring more power and resources, which means capturing vital locations on the map.
The player will run into factions aggressively protecting their territory, but also just going through the motions of daily life. So expect to see patrols, convoys, couriers, and other activity when in a faction’s space.
Almost every action the player takes on the overworld map will have a consequence. If you ambush a patrol or disrupt a courier, you not only antagonize that faction, but you could trigger a cascade of events that lead to a war of assassins, unexpected alliances, or more likely, death squads being sent after you.
The clearest example of the player’s impact will be felt through the contract system. Since you start the game as a freelancer, you can take contracts from almost every faction in the game by visiting one of their controlled locations.
These missions reward you with money and faction reputation, but can also affect the world in unexpected ways. Factions will always give contracts based on what their priority and status are.
Contracts should never be accepted without gauging the cost. While many are benign, low-level gigs that don’t hurt anyone (important), others will earn you the ire of another faction.
Taken together, this is a living ecosystem that is designed to make the game more immersive, more strategic, and can generate emergent narrative beats on its own. Coupled with my intention to create a stellar story with memorable characters, I believe it is one of the holy grails of RPG design. I plan on having a functional, if somewhat basic version of this for the Early Access release.
Okay, that’s it! That’s a lot of reading! I’ll have more news in December. Thanks again for checking in on this project.