Version 10: Streamlining

A new version! Spent a while not working on the game, as I had a paper to write, and my collegue has an actual PhD thesis to work on.

I got a friend to play the game, under close observation, with no instruction from us, to see how a new player would approach it, and came to the realisation that it is in fact a very complex and hard-to-approach game. Guess that should have been obvious, but if you work on the code on a regular basis, you get used to its complexity, and just imagine it's normal.

As a result, this version tries to put together a "streamlined" version of the game. This removes the politics side of things, for the player, by removing the noble enthralled, and focuses instead on agents. The aim is to remove a bunch of UI clutter, and a bunch of decisions which don't need to be made. The AI is also a bit changed, to remove their internal reshuffling of nobles which can make infiltration unpleasant to deal with. Honestly, the resultant game is much nicer to play, in some ways, if you just want to interact with the agent game.

Going forward, the game will probably work towards having three game-start options. "Streamlined" which removes as much as possible of the non-agent gameplay; "Agent-first" which starts the player with a lot of agent slots unlocked, but requires them to use agents to enthrall a noble; and "Noble-first" where they only have a single agent at the start but can enthrall a noble directly, so they can get involved in politics as early as possible.

This version also sees two new units: A new agent and a new enemy.

The agent is the Seeker. They have to go searching for ancient secrets, in the libraries and churches of the world, trying to piece together The Terrible Truth. They are a late-game heavy hitter, but require help from other agents to survive to that point. They suffer heavily if they get exiled but with proper infiltration they can be kept perfectly safe until it's time for them to do their empire-killing work.  Designed to pair well with the merchant or vampire, as a result, and their end-game can work well with the plague doctor. Had a good time writing a bunch of lore for this agent, and found my graphics tablet to give them a picture.

The enemy is the Paladin. They can seek out your agents, and follow them around the map. Probably needs to be integrated better with the NPC's societies and awareness, but seems to be currently functional. They need avoiding and disrupting, if you play with them (disabled by advanced option, or by playing on "easy" in streamlined mode), as they'll harass your agents constantly.

Both of these will need tweaking, but that's usual for game dev. Plague doctor has been nerfed a bit, in response to feedback from previous version. Should be less of an instant-win, while hopefully still being viable and relevant.

Next version I hope to focus on politics. Ideally give people factions/families, so you can have allies, and perhaps mechanics for trying to get them into important government positions, where they can act as useful allies, boosting your enthralled's political capabilities. Might also try to get some better political responses for the NPCs. They need to be better able to handle crises, by holding emergency votes. We'll see what is possible and what works.

Anyway, hope you enjoy