Brass Golem Games

I’ve also gone with abstract representations of naval fleets and sea transport, somewhat akin to classic Diplomacy mechanics. Seas are split up into provinces roughly the same size as land provinces, except that sea movement is from province to province, with the individual hexes not mattering. Players control fleets, which can either be in ports, or sea zones. Naval battles are handled via abstract roll when opposing fleets occupy the same sea zone.

Sea transport comes after naval movement, and is allowed from any coastal land hex to any other coastal hex within a range of 2 Sea Zones chained through a player’s fleets, at least in theory. In practice, most factions have no inherent shipping capacity, and so must make use of Ports, which provide extra shipping capacity for entering/leaving the Port. Port Capacity is increased by any fleets making the same move as transported units. Gibraltor/Bosporous style straits also allow some extra shipping capacity across them.

A couple of extra twists: Walled Ports cannot be besieged unless their sea zone is blockaded. Some Port Resource production (e.g. Fish) can be blockaded. Factions have varrying bonuses in basic shipping capacity (Vikingar!), naval battle bonuses (Greek Fire!), sea zone range (range 3 allows deep sea moves), as well as the number/quality of ports and fleets. I’m also considering piracy mechanics, but that’s probably more complex than it’s worth.

I’ll be back in two weeks (once a week was overly ambitious!), with details about faction creation and faction experience.

I’ve accepted the afore mentioned job at Alsea Geo; details are to be worked out Tuesday, and I should start soon after.  The hours are flexible, and I’m not yet certain whether to work full time to build up some cash, or part time to allow more time to work on Legacy of Magic.  I’m leaning toward full time at least to begin with, so that I get to know the people there better.

One of the side effects of having tactical battles is that you need seperate mechanics for siege battles, as the sorts of defense bonuses used to represent walls in more abstract games like Civilization or Warlords don’t work. I’d long considered either having a seperate tactical siege game, or working walls into regular tactical battles, but in the end decided that this either meant too much extra complexity, and/or siege battles that had no interesting decisions. I’ve instead gone with abstract siege battles, of the sort usually found in boardgames.

Walls are assumed to contain any other sites present (like cities and ports), and have two upgradeable stats: size for how many military units they can fit, and a defense bonus used for siege rolls, representing how easily the defenders can hold out. Cities/Sites within walls have a control rating representing how loyal the populace is to the defenders, and how long they are willing to hold out.

When opposing armies meet outside a castle, the defenders have the option to retreat behind the walls. A large enough attacking force can then lay seige, making a Siege Roll each season (turn). Various factors modify Siege Rolls, including faction siege bonuses, the walls’ defense rating, any heros’ siege bonuses; I’m also considering engineers that can build siege engines in forests for further bonuses. Succesfull siege rolls accumulate Siege Points, causing the defenders to capitulate when siege points are equal to the defended sites’ control/loyalty, which can happen either by adding siege points, or by reducing the defenders control politically.

Defenders are allowed to sally at any point, which is treated like an ordinary field battle. I’m debating allowing besiegers to storm before a siege is completed, using an abstract mechanic resulting in heavy losses, but I haven’t yet been able to decide how to handle such a roll and what the range of results should be.

Yes, I am still hacking away! Thanks to everyone who’s written to enquire whether I would ever update brass-golem again. It’s nice to have the occasional kick in the seat of the pants as motivation.

My reticence to post has largely stemmed from uncertainity about the future, as money runs low and I’m force to choose between butting my favorite features in order to rush to release, or hunting for work so I can finish things well. Some time ago, I decided I’d be happier with a combination of positive income and the leisure to add the features that I hope will distinguish Legacy of Magic from other games in the genre (i.e. Legacy, and Magic!).

So, I’ve been looking for work, which has taken longer than I’d like, and is still ongoing. The really cool job at My Strands that I was seeking fell through, as they ended up switching over someone already working there (dang it Frank! ), but there’s another less interesting but still cool position there I’m looking into. I’ve also recently had a lead from an old co-worker at Alsea Geospacial, which also sounds cool. So unfortunately I’m still standing at the crossroads, uncertain how to finish Legacy of Magic — but this should resolve itself shortly.

As for Legacy of Magic, it’s going well, but the list of changes over the past months is fairly low level, and to be honest I just can’t be bothered to sift through the SVN logs to remember just what changed when. Instead, I’m going to start posting here every week, whether it’s what I’m working on, planning to work on, game mechanics, or whatever.

Until next week,
-Jasper

The past month or so has been spent largely knocking off small tasks, with a fair sized detour to rework the economic design into a form that gives more flexible results but with less complexity, and also requires less code/maintenance. Fairly dull work, but the upside is that I’m finally working on specific things to build and their exact effects/prices, as opposed to just kinds of things that can be built, and vague text descriptions.

So less coding for a while, and more content and game design. This sort of metagame design is very important for balance and play flow, and when it’s done I’ll both have a solid foundation for what artwork is needed, and something that’s beta testable (as opposed to just programatically functional).

First stop is a central content repository, to keep everything organized, easy to maintain, data driven, and moddable. After that, it’s the army and “faction character sheet” of Shekemesh, which will be loosely based upon the Empire of Alexander and his Succesors (Diadochi).

I recently learned of Birth of America, which my friend Philippe Malacher worked on. Looks like a fun game in a little seen genre, and I’m definitely envious of the map artist! I haven’t yet had a chance to play it, but hopefully soon.

At long last I’ve built a central location for information about Legacy of Magic, rather than the random emails and screenshots I’ve stumbled by on in the past. There’s not much here now, but I plan to post monthly milestone progress, and anything else that seems worth mentioning.

At present the core game is mostly fleshed out, including the Economic/Strategic level, tactical battles, networking, and client GUI. Next to come are a variety of parallel tasks, aiming towards early beta testing and getting artwork. For the most part this will involve hacking the specifics of various factions, and designing the system for faction creation/evolution.