The year 1600 is flowing by in the spirit of eager anticipationAny day from now, the selected betatesters get their hands on the player UI. The backend is also getting finished. But the intent of this post is not to go into details on these, nor guess the dates. The goal of the game is not to get one version released. It is rather the beginning.
However uninteresting the graphics and music, or even the theme, of the game were in the Ancient era, it still captivated several people by its intrinsic fundamental (and quite unforeseen) qualities of the 1) economic subgame model and 2) closed economy with no external stakeholders. This basis is very strong and allows everything to be plugged in as soon as there is the need and resources to do it.
Even before having any players but me and David, I laid out a future release scheme with lots of new features. After the current release is fully working, we get to concentrate on them. I have been thinking much about the playable scope lately. I have heard that some players are dreaming about becoming full-time in CK and making their living out of it, as I have also said that I can do with the architecture designs, or could do with the businesses (which are mismanaged because of "intentional neglect" to concentrate on the matters crucial for the success of the Game, and also to not compete too ferociously with the dear nobles, whose King I am).
It is good to expand the depth so that people can make the decision to be fulltimers, but at the same time the systems need to be easy enough to allow wealthy non-fulltimers to play when they have time and achieve their objectives. If we retain only the hobbyists but lose the other supporting pillars, it is a great loss to the Kingdom.
Then the entry needs to be compelling for several types of players as well. Everybody wants to have much more players. I have been thinking what are the things in the game that would be interesting and make us stand out from the competition, which is strong. In addition to the 2 points mentioned above, I believe our strengths are 3) sense of "uncompleteness" and 4) genuine interaction and community.
The world where our current players come, mainly USA and Europe (acknowledge some Chinese and Russians), is a built-up world. It is not a world of opportunity. Typically young people start their life in relative security and abundance, and when they reach the age of 30, the life is not really any better, and what's worse - often does not offer realistic chances to go forward (both because there are no promotions available, and because the starting level already was pretty high in world scale). In my thinking, these people are drawn to the game not despite of it being in construction, but even
because of it. Although the early adopter financial mindset suits the game very well, and if the game goes big, every early adopter is compensated also in financial terms, I don't believe money is the primary motive for these people. Building something new is.
The other thing that I see is a genuine asset is the interactive play: the fact that most of the time spent in CK does not go to micromanaging NPCs or even to thinking of your next plan, it is actually spent in leisurely setting chatting with high quality people about the various game issues, forging plans, negotiating, storytelling, telling stories of events in ancient times to aspiring nobles - it is clearly evident that it's not possible to play this game without very deep interaction. And this is another thing that many 30-somethings in the western world lack. Even if they had a family and job. Which is totally sad, but I feel that offering this game for tapping to that need is a good thing to have. Changing the society outside of us is hard, creating a better one is perhaps not easy, but at least it can realistically be tried! Just that we make the rules which allow the player to vary the intensity of the experience.
The future versions will offer the following new features (exact placement across versions is not locked in, also there will be lots of minor stuff that makes it more playable, and also old features will be streamlined or scrapped if necessary):
Version 5: Economy
New resources
8 types of food, perishable
Wool, customizable clothes
* Sustenance
Characters must eat and drink, and can select where they do it (totally revamped Resta game)
Health is dependent on living conditions, sickness reduces health
Stuff in GoogleDB integrated to gaming software (Bank, Stocks, Renting, Dividends, Donations, all Items)
Quarry comes back, perhaps applicable to a lot of any size
Terraforming, concept of elevation for land
Building company, to make NPC's produce BLD points that replace "labor" in building
Building editor, to automate making buildings
Version 6: Skills and Businesses
Commoner PC and NPC integrated skill management with ~15 skills and at least 6 levels on each, combinable for killer combos
- enhance skills by online activity, by attending education, and by doing work
Functional Items
Creation of "artesan" Items by forging (skill, tools, time => new items)
Industrial production of "resource" Items (ordinary windows etc.)
* Businesses/proprietorships
- Shipping
- Tailor
- Goldsmith
- Doctor
- Distillery
- Stables
& more, for skill-based economic subgames
* Countryside
- Farm management subgame
- Administrative division in Earldoms, Marquessates and Dukedoms run by nobles
- Nobles get about 15% tax of the farm produce and divide it among themselves
- Countryside travel delays
- Armies are located in the countryside, keeping order in small numbers and combining to larger forces to combat insurrection (teamwork)
* "Sandbox" for implementing player-defined functionalities in city plots
Random events
...and more to come.What I see clearly is that we need to keep the fundamentals and our competitive advantages. The path in front of us is not paved, and already things have taken much different turns than first envisioned. Whatever we now do, let's keep true to the principles so if we meet success, we have made a difference. If failure, at least we offered to make a difference.