NovaMundi is coming to Steam Early 2021, remember to Wishlist it if you like what you see. We also have a Mailing list now, so make sure to subscribe to it as well, if you want the news to reach your email directly. Now, let’s go to the news!
It has been about three weeks since the last update. I keep working towards the demo. As of now, the plan is for it to contain:
- The first scenario of the Children of Bachué Campaign: “The Pilgrimage to Hunza”
- This includes a lot of work we did for the FTUE which is something we need for the Demo.
- Also, this campaign is the one that more directly serves to share the culture of the Muisca to the world, a goal we are actively seeking (and we will strive to iterate to make it better every time.)
- The “1500 – Quyca Chihisaba” Muisca scenario of discovery.
- Much less narrative-driven, included in the demo to showcase scenarios that are heavier on gameplay elements (exploration and progression in an open world) while keeping the setting of the Muisca culture.
- A post-1750 European scenario of exploration from the coast to some frozen peaks.
- To make use of our developments for Sailing, as well as the procedural generator for Coastal regions, as well as broadening the scope of cultures to be represented.
- Still designing this one, thinking of modeling it after 1802’s Humboldt’s climb to Chimborazo, or earlier explorations of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
- Spanish and English
- Except for the audio of the Children of Bachué campaign cutscenes, which will be Spanish only for cost reasons (at least initially).
Fixes for Muisca Culture depiction
Following up on our previous post, we decided to aim for an accurate depiction of the Muisca culture and the highlands environment. We removed animals and items that were out of place and added support for “historical” cultures (vs procedurally generated).
We have also contacted some people both with Muisca heritage (or contacts with cultural organizations) and academic knowledge, and are organizing a first round of testing with them to get their feedback about the way we are depicting them.
The Pilgrimage to Hunza
At the end of the CREA Digital project, last year, we had a working version of this scenario (and three others), for which we decided to activate a “narrative mode” in which the player had to take less care about his expedition and could focus more on the story that was unfolding. I decided to disable it now for these campaigns to have more interesting elements. You now have to engage with the random events system and have to buy supplies and take care of your expedition members
Also, after almost a year of focusing the development on the other scenarios, reactivating this campaign required some big internal changes to get up to date with the new structure for the scenarios data, unifying loading routines, adapting to the new title screen flow, and providing active support for both types of character portraits.
I’m doing some good progress on it, it requires translating a lot of dialogs, and will also do further tweaks for gameplay reasons, removing the roads, and adding more random combat and perils.
Quyca Chihisaba
Progress on this scenario has required blending aspects of both the historical content-heavy campaign and the completely procedurally generated scenarios we had. This included adding a hybrid mode for town population, with premade characters but also procedural ones that can give directions to nearby map features.
Another related thing that was added was the possibility of having animal population and discoveries as part of the data for the different scenarios instead of having it integrated into the terrain generation.
I’m also working on the player flow, giving him a way to get started with the exploration instead of walking around randomly. Ultimately this will involve having a smarter placement of the towns, but for now, at least they will have a safe starting town and a known nearby town from where they can start exploring further.
Finally, I also added back the possibility to trade for goods in towns (as opposed to bartering), which could only be down at the hometown previously.
User Experience
There were also some minor but important fixes for the UI, especially with the status panel which now integrates the command buttons (so the HUD is less busy), and is more readable with bigger text and a change in the direction for the “hunger bar” (now it empties as you require food, instead of filling up)
The trade modal was also improved now displaying the person you are trading with, instead of a generic town icon.
Expedition to Santa Marta
In order to collect information for the historical campaigns, I decided to embark on an expedition to the beaches of Santa Marta; I’m departing Medellín next Thursday with a party of just two other explorers. I will report back my findings on the next update.
That’s it for this week-ish update! I hope to resume with a more fixed weekly rhythm now that there’s a more clear roadmap. Remember to wishlist the game if you haven’t, and let me know any ideas on Twitter or the game forums on Steam!
Slashie's Journal 