Hello,
I wanted to report on my plans for the campaign so you have some information until I can show you gameplay footage. So here are the most important points:
The campaign map is generated by my code from several image files which provide the height (derived from real-world satellite data), city locations, rivers, etc. Trade cart and ship traffic increases with trade volume.
On this map you can see my current settlement distribution (very much work in progress).
As you can see to the east, the map extends up to the Caspian Sea. I thought a lot about the map extents. At one time I even considered extending it to Japan so you could have the entire Mongol conquests in the game. But I felt that this bloated the game a lot. There would also be just so much empty space you could do nothing in. I prefer to have a more focused experience. The map is also asymmetric according to historical importance and population. The highest density is in Western Europe and northern Italy.
I also want to include the Americas (Aztec and Maya, maybe Cuba) even though this is a lot of extra work. But I just have to do it because it is so cool. Taking this land will be super impactful because they have a ton of gold resources. You can also get there quite early.
The battlefield is generated by the height data from the campaign on the fly. This means that not only will the battlefield be, for example, hilly when the campaign terrain is hilly, but you will see that exact hill from the campaign map on the battle map. This makes it possible to plan the battles exactly, meaning you will know if you on the campaign map attack, for example, from the left, you will have the hill advantage, while if you attack from the right, the enemy will have it. To support this, you cannot only inspect cities on the battle map but also every single game tile by clicking on it. Also, I added a topographic coloring option so you can see the heights better.
Settlements
All settlements are cities. However, you can build castles wherever you want by making an army construct a fort where they stand. You can then upgrade the fort to a castle. There will be two-ring and possibly three-ring castles. Castles cost upkeep but allow for recruitment of advanced units. If you take a city but an enemy castle remains in the territory, you will get a heavy public order and income penalty until you have taken it, so you can't just ignore castles. I think this is cool because you can place castles at chokepoints and on good hills on the campaign map.
Population is represented by real numbers and recruitment subtracts from the population. Disbanding adds to the population.
There will be special resources on the map; they will be very impactful but rare. For example: Gold mine, Famous Armorsmith, Yew forest, University.
Tech and units
I am not yet sure about either implementing a tech tree or introducing global "periods" that unlock technology for everyone. It is important to me that the medieval technology progression of the middle ages is represented. First, knight charges beat spearmen, then they were increasingly checked by longbows and crossbows, eventually pikes ended the dominance of cavalry. That being said, here are the units I have so far, all with a clear purpose.
I.
Levy Spearmen (defensive, can form shieldwall)
Levy Archers
Light Lancers (can catch horse archers, routing units)
II.
Billmen (essentially fast spear infantry)
Longbowmen (wooden stakes and special arrows like flaming)
Pavise Crossbowmen (slow reload but armor-piercing)
Dismounted Men-at-Arms (sword infantry)
Men-at-Arms
III.
Halberdiers (more general-purpose than pikemen, jack of all trades)
Two-handed swordsmen/axemen (best against lightly armored troops)
Foot-Knights with anti-armor maces
Knights
IV.
Handgunners (slowest reload but most armor-piercing)
Pikemen (ultimate anti-cavalry, vulnerable to flanking)
Horse Archers
V.
Catapults
Trebuchets
Cannons
Organ guns
Greek fire throwers
Skills
Right now I tend more towards making characters and agents gain skills organically rather than having a skill tree. Meaning instead of investing skill points in administrative skill rather than military skill, a character in a city will gain a lot of administrative skills automatically.
Multiplayer
A few words about multiplayer at the end. My goal is to make the game multiplayer-compatible including an 8-player campaign. The good news is I designed the code architecture for this from the ground up. But the way I do battles is extremely special, so I cannot at this point guarantee that it will be possible to provide multiplayer. Trust me, though, that I am doing everything in my power, basically programming black magic including custom-written Unity plug-ins, to make it happen. The first tests have been promising.
Final words
Q: When will you show footage of the campaign?
A: The terrain generation and core gameplay loop are mostly in place. However, as always, making the graphics is holding me back. I also want to implement some of the more advanced features first. So I expect to show it to you in about 6-8 weeks.
Until then!