Part 2 of the design notes - this time, heroes.
No More Heroes
Heroes were implemented in the game quite a long time before it hit Early Access, but I removed them temporarily because the combat system changed dramatically. The good news is that they will be much more interesting with the combat system we have now, and even more so after that system gets some much needed additions as mentioned in part 1 of these design notes!
So, the key elements of the upcoming hero system:
Hero Class - There are three hero classes, and you can have one of each attached to your caravan. These are: scouting, organisation and combat. Scouting heroes can affect caravan speed or help it avoid combat, organisational heroes help with things like capacity and morale, while combat heroes are particularly specialised in smiting bandits.
Rapport - Your relationships with that hero. This works in a similar way to loyalty for fighters, but is much more granular and powerful. If you have a really good relationship with a hero then they can potentially work for free, if things get really bad then they may outright refuse to work for you again.
Rapport is affected by your personality traits, by choices made in special hero-specific events and by decisions made in general events.
Recruitment - Hiring heroes is generally more complex than hiring fighters. You need to meet them first, which can happen through a number of methods - through friendships with certain characters, reputation levels, decisions in events, discovering certain locations. You may also need a minimum level of certain personality traits before heroes will agree to join you.
Personality Bonuses - Each hero has a specific personality bonus that they apply to your caravan, which will be powerful modifiers and specialisms.
XP and Leveling - Like the player, heroes will earn XP over time and become more effective! This may include improving their combat stats, improving their personality bonus and gaining additional combat talents.
Preferred Enemy Type Each hero will gain a combat bonus when fighting against their preferred enemy type.