It's summer, the sun is out for the three days of summer we get in Denmark, and a bunch of different things are happening in Dinolords.
This month we are revisiting and expanding a little on the subject of basebuilding, we are looking at some more cool art, and then we are scratching the surface on defensive gameplay and what elements are going to have a big impact on the battlefield.
So get comfy, maybe have a mug of mead, and come along in this edition of Dinolords Monthly.
Expanding Basebuilding
A couple episodes ago, we looked at how basebuilding got streamlined and made a lot more direct than it initially was, by removing intermediary steps and opaque resource refinement that made it unclear where your resources had gone when you wanted to use them on something else.
And that really worked; we discovered a core set of buildings that makes for a basic base, sort of "jack of all trades master of none". And now we are about to start opening up how that can then be specialized and made more interesting by upgrades and alterations to that core set.
We always wanted to infuse more dinosaur-energy into the project as we do believe it is very much a case of "more is more". We also like to think that having, or at least attempting to, domesticate dinosaurs would influence many facets of the world, just like how the livestock of our timeline has affected us. And one of those would be improved/upgraded versions of some of the buildings in the game, starting out with the lumbercamp!
I am not quite sure if it's all because of the 90s "Dinosaurs" sitcom tv-show, but almost universally everyone has an idea about the Triceratops being the perfect beast to help with lumberyard work. So we are currently working on the first dinosaur-infused building, which is an upgraded lumbercamp with a great Triceratops pulling out trees by the root and bringing them back to camp, accompanied by a rider sitting on a special saddle with logging-truck-esque accoutrements to help lug the logs.
And how would a hunter work if they got assisted by an apex predator - I imagine the biggest challenge would be to avoid the dinosaur eating the prey before you get to it yourself. Or maybe a Sauropod or Plateosaurus could assist farmers in reaching and picking fruit from trees with some sort of clever saddle-contraption!
It's so quick to form ideas and images of how this could look, and we hope we can bring it all to life, at least in a digital version.
Art Showcase
We have done it before and we will keep doing it because the art is just too cool to keep internal. So here is a showcase of some of the assets currently making their way into the project!
Different footprints for different dinosaurs!
Some new dinosaur-inspired buildings, blacksmith, armorsmith and fletcher now all looking absolutely amazing!
Defenses
This is a big subject for us, and it is ever-developing as we discover and explore new ideas, but one thing was set from the beginning: We want the act of defending your base to be interesting and engaging.
Working towards that goal has led us far and wide in search of things we could add to the game that would contribute towards making defenses more than just palisades and walls, and in this segment we are going to have a look at some of the ideas we have been toying with. Do note that this is not finalized, and not a guarantee that these will be in the game and if they are, they might not be implemented in the exact way described, but they are indicative of some of the overarching thoughts we are putting into defensive gameplay.
Starting out with arguably the coolest of the bunch; the Ptero-tower! A tower that houses one or more flying dinosaurs that fly out and attack enemy units. We are playing around with them having the ability to pick up units and drop them from high up, causing damage but also potentially dropping them into dangerous territory (maybe this can work with some of the other structures outlined below, who knows?). A potential upgrade could be having the dinosaurs drop exploding clay pot bombs for ultimate carnage on the battlefield!
Next up is a net-throwing tower, with the ability to immobilize even the fastest units at range, allowing for your other units to get in a good hit! Generally, controlling movement of the enemy (aka Crowd Control) is super powerful in a game where a lot of the combat is oriented towards positional advantage and dodging strikes left and right. It could be some sort of big ballista where the bolts are a sort of bola-esque net, prioritizing big and fast units.
We are also playing around with the idea of allowing better control of the ground itself around your base, one of them is an upgrade for buildings that lays down cobblestone around them, increasing movement speed within your walls. And perhaps this could be upgraded further, making it impossible for certain dinosaurs to dig underneath, thereby protecting your base from nasty surprises.
Going further than that, moats around your walls would put a hard stop to heavy armored units that would just sink and drown, or even some hidden spike pit traps. Those might be a great place for a flying dinosaur to drop an enemy into, come to think of it.
Some of these are still at early idea-stages, but some of them are returning favourites that keep popping up at regular intervals in the form of "hey, wouldn't it be cool if you could place moats?". And yeah, that would be pretty cool, we think!
That's all, folks
And just like that, we have reached the end of this edition of Dinolords Monthly!
As always, a big thank you to everyone following along.
Catch you next month!
-panxter