Forgotten Lore

Soren Johnson of Civ and Spore fame made a recent post on his Dev Blog “Designer Notes” about the Seven Deadly Sins of Strategy Games. His first sin on the list was too much scripting arguing that used unwisely (as a core feature) scripting undermines the rules set/mechanics architecture by dirtying up the decision space aesthetics with lots of exceptions… like triggers and other “story hooks.” I tend to agree with him on this point. Over at QT3 there’s a good thread discussing the whole list and the first sin in particular.

I’m very interested myself in “Emergent Narrative” in strategy games as it’s often called. The ultimate idea would be to have a text/image based story produced at the conclusion of the game that chronicled all the important decisions made by the player and the outcomes of those decisions as well. I think that the old canceled space opera game “Stars Supernova Genesis” promised an HTML type newspaper to be generated during the game and at its conclusion. This would be the Holy Grail of emergent narrative for me. Just how much effort it would be to accomplish something like this is something I’m not exactly sure of. With my limited resources and time I’m not about to take this on…. as the famous saying goes “Don’t look at me. I’ve got my own problems.”

A good question that arose in the QT3 thread is “What are some examples of scripting done well in strategy games?” I’d like to think my Cults of the Wastelands free mini expansion pack could stand muster. Basically the idea was to augment the free form random sand box of the vanilla AE game with some scripted narrative elements…various cults pursuing some type of special agendas. The payoff was the ability to force players to make some interesting decisions like the confrontation with the messengers of the Great Kabaagh. The downside was that once the script has fired the surprise is over and the repeat enjoyment value is diminished.

What triggered off this whole blog entry was a combination of Soren Johnson’s post, the discussion on QT3 and my own work over the last couple of days on Solium Infernum. I’ve returned the the Events system and have been fleshing out some of the more involved and intricate events and there’s a huge scripted element with some of them. For a little background on all this you can read this post here where I discuss my original intentions to have some type of event system for Armageddon Empires. The short of it is that I cut it to finish the game but when I took up the design gauntlet for SI, I was intent on working the events idea into the games mechanics.

So in Solium Infernum events are actions that are played by the players as one of their possible turn orders. You can’t just play any old event though. You draw an event “card” each time you are named Regent, an honor which passes from player to player as the game goes on in a clockwise direction. You can easily see who is the current Regent by looking at your Diplomacy tab or reading the turn log entry that is generated each turn making the formal announcement. Depending on the level of your Prophecy power you can keep one or two event cards in your “hand” at any time. If you have a full hand and draw a new card you’ll have to choose one to discard.

The events fall into a range of categories and costs. Generally the more targeted the event’s effects, the more it costs to play. Many events don’t cost any resources at all to play because they affect all players or a random player (sometimes including the player who played the event). The effects are also usually doubled edged swords with a “screw you” twist. For example, many of the events are posed as “Decrees of the Infernal Conclave” which as a Lord of one of the Great Houses of Hell you are compelled to comply with. The “Infernal Legion Tax” decree forces every player to pay a tribute card for each legion that it controls on the board or lose Prestige points accordingly. Not a bad event to play if you have a warlord neighbor who has put together a large collection of legions and you only have a few to whip the Lemures into shape.

Some of the events are more involved and this is where the scripting comes in. For example you can play the “Angelic Host of Divine Retribution” event and a host of angels will descend on the board and start causing trouble for the players with the most prestige points. The challenges here were very similar to those I encountered with the Great Kabaagh. Pick your targets, do the pathfinding, dish out some retribution, check your status and when your mission is accomplished fly back to Heaven. Special scripted events like this often get their own piece of artwork. Here is the art for the Angelic Host event

I’m coming up for air after a very intense coding run over the last few weeks. Solium Infernum is in that phase of development where the flesh has to be grown on the bones and the little details have to be carved into the fancy woodwork. One of those little details is the special abilities.

I love special abilities. Just the name indicates that they are interesting and unique (special) and full of action (ability). Special Abilities are often all about breaking the rules that have been set up…the game’s mechanics. They are also the ornaments on the tree. So how did the tree get built. My approach to the whole design process is probably a bit unconventional. I start with the Theme. For Solium Infernum first there was the idea based on a simple thematic sentence:

“To reign is worth ambition though in Hell, better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”

From that starting point I sat down with a bunch of cannibalized board games and started tinkering. I built the major mechanics systems and integrated them… map, player avatar, agents, rituals (super powers), bazaar for bidding, event system, and victory system. These were bare bones systems though. All the fleshy detail had to wait for the computer implementation.

Once I got the major systems coded and functioning the basic game ideas were set in place. But I didn’t have a list at this point describing all the details (special abilities, perks, bonuses, events). These all needed to be brainstormed, implemented and tested and would flow from the theme.

The Legion power up system is a great example. Legions are the fundamental agent of the game. They are hired by the players in the Infernal Bazaar via a blind bid system. They are placed on the board and move across it to claim/control territory and key locations called Places of Power. I started with a list of legion names. The list was divided into archetypes such as Melee Bruiser, Ranged with mobility, Infernal Power focused (magic), hybrids, devil’s bargains (cost Prestige/Resources to keep in your service) etc. At this point the art was commissioned and then shortly after I commissioned background text descriptions for each agent. Only then did I sit down and start creating special abilities for select Legions. I had a good idea what they would be since they focus on bending and breaking rules but each special ability often requires that I go into the code base and hand craft special functions, data structures or exemptions. In general I tried to match special abilities to the flavor of the legions’ stats, image, and flavor text.

The same process was followed for the Power Up system that permeates the game’s mechanics. Legions are the sole agents on the game board but you have a lot of room to customize them to your strategy goals or compensate for any built in weaknesses. Legions get one attachment slot for every two levels with a maximum of four slots. You can attach Praetors (a Demon Hero, but only one per Legion), Artifacts or Combat Cards (which you create yourself).

Places of Power also allow for attachments but in this case only Praetors (max 1), Relics or Combat Cards. Since places of power almost always generate some type of Prestige bonus per turn (through a special ability), Relics are a great way of powering them up to increase their Prestige generation. Here is an example of an Unholy Relic that you might purchase in the Infernal Bazaar and place in one of your conquered Places of Power.

The Bowl of Abject Darkness
What was once part of you is now part of me. Look into the liquid and see what squirms beneath its surface. In my body swims the little creatures that was made from your flesh. You put them inside of me, and now I must let them grow. Do not look at me with disgust when you have finished. It is because of you that I take this shape.

–Etched into the side of the Bowl of Abject Darkness

Limited actions is an important part of the Armageddon Empires design and it’s fundamental to Solium Infernum as well. The basic idea is that it forces you to prioritize your strategy goals and that mental process is supposed to be both challenging and fun. As a design choice it has some nice side benefits as well. It’s a great way to speed up gameplay. It also minimizes micromanagement in that you don’t have to adjust the position/state of 100 agents on the game board. The game simply won’t let you micromanage. From an AI standpoint it helps to focus the decision space within which the AI must operate and that’s a big plus.

The limited actions mechanic is a common feature of Eurostyle games. On any given turn you can pick from some finite action menu a limited number of times. Or you can claim a “role” card for a given turn and get its benefits. This is opposed to a classic hex based wargame where you can move almost any counter on the board unless it lacks supply or some such other action limiting state is involved. AE was a nice mix of both of these styles. For Solium Infernum I wanted first and foremost a Grand Strategy type feeling and I felt the limited actions mechanic fit perfectly with this.

All players start the game with 2 Order Slots. The maximum number of order slots available is 6. You can gain additional slots by powering up your avatar attributes. You can also claim places of power that might occasionally give you +1 Order Slot. Some rare events can give you more (or less) order slots as well. In general an additional order slot is a precious commodity. +1 is a big deal and players running around with all 6 slots available is designed to be a rare thing. The advantage of having 4 slots versus 2 is also huge. Since ordering your minions to bring you “tribute” requires an order slot you will have to plan carefully. You can try the feast or famine approach or some type of hybrid but you will need to balance your need for gathering resources with your need for more direct actions that earn you prestige and interfere with your opponents’ prestige activities.

Here is a screenshot of what the Orders Tab looks like on the Main Interface Viewer. The orders tab shows you what orders you have queued up. When each turn is processed all orders are processed in sequence of their phase number starting with the player who is currently Regent and proceeding clockwise. This can have a big impact on whether your orders are successful. If your opponent moves a legion first that blocks the path that you had plotted out for one of your own legions then a collision will take place that you had not forseen. The results could be combat if you are in Vendetta or Blood Feud or it could mean that your legion must halt its movement unexpectedly. Early in the game when the great land grab phase is in full swing this can be a big deal and you can be faced with a lot of “game theory” type mutual interaction situations when deciding where to move your legions and which territory you should try and grab first.

Each order is represented by an icon specific to the order. In this case you see that phase I has a specific ritual called “Lies and Rumors” being performed. This will create decoy icons of a designated legion in a series of hexes chosen by the player performing the ritual. How long the decoys stay on the board and how many are placed depends on what level the player has achieved in the “Deceit” power. The second phase slot has a diplomatic order as you can see the two demons arguing across the table. You can also click on the “eye” buttons next to each icon and get an exact text description of what the order entails.

I made some more steady progress this last week on Solium Infernum. My wife has been out of town attending a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark so my “duties” list expanded significantly. I grudgingly rose to the occasion and kept the house from burning down while she was away. It’s not very clean though. But I’m going to try and explain that life is full of trade offs.

This week’s work was piggy backing on last weeks work which had to do with presenting the results of single combats that resolved Vendettas. At the beginning of each turn your default view is your “Ministerium” tab which is set to show you the turn log. The turn log is a list of messages that chronicles the results of the last processed turn. Most are just text informational. Some have buttons that let you make choices to respond to some type of situation. For example if you requested that your minions bring tribute to you then there will be a button that lets you select so many items of tribute from some set of offerings. The tribute is usually resource cards.

One of the buttons can be a “view results” icon… shaped like an eye. This lets you get more detail on an event like a single combat. This week I worked on presenting the results of legion combats… either legion vs. legion or legion vs. the garrison of a Place of Power. So what is the combat system like? Here is a brief overview:

When a legion enters the hex of a valid enemy target, either another enemy Legion or Place of Power, then a combat ensues. It’s important to note that in order to even move into an enemy hex you either have to have a Vendetta or Blood Feud diplomatic status with the owner of the hex (which are called Infernal Cantons in the game). Each Legion or Place of Power has 5 key stats for combat: Level, Ranged strength, Melee strength, Infernal Power strength and finally Hit Points. These stats are all public knowledge and can easily be ascertained by rolling your mouse over the icon on the map.

Here is the flow of combat:

First the Battle Field Advantage (BFA) is determined. Each side rolls a die six (d6) and adds the level of its combatant. The winner gets advantage and a small random bonus is applied to one of the combatant’s non-zero combat stats. For example, your legion which has Ranged: 0, Melee: 6, Infernal: 0 wins the BFA and gets + 2 to it’s melee stat which is now 8.

Next all attached combat cards are resolved. These are cards that you can create and attach to your Legions and Places of Power before the battle as one of your turn actions. How effective these are is determined by your “Wrath” power. These cards can increase your stats, decrease your opponent’s stats, or even change the flow of the battle (as you will see below). These cards are not public knowledge unless you have some special ritual or game condition active that lets you see them so generally you will not know what is attached to your opponent’s legion but you can see how many cards are attached (they can be dummy cards as well with no effect).

So let’s say you have a card that gives you +3 to melee. Now your melee is +11.

Support is now determined. If you have friendly Legions (but not Places of Power) in an adjacent hex then they can lend support to the battle. The Ranged, Melee and Infernal stats of all adjacent units that can lend support is added up (without any combat cards that are attached being counted) and then divided by two. These bonuses are then added to the combatant’s stats. So let’s say your stats are now Ranged 2, Melee 13, Infernal 2 because of the contributions of a supporting legion.

Next the number of rounds of battle is determined. This depends on the special abilities of the combatants to some extant but the base calculation is a random number between 2 and 4 (1 + random(3)).

A round of battle is conducted by comparing the combatant’s battle stats in the following order Ranged, Melee and finally Infernal. Some legion special abilities can switch these around. If two special abilities conflict then each legion rolls a d6 and adds its level. The highest roll has its special ability take precedence. The combatant with the higher stat applies the difference between the two stats as damage against his opponent’s Hit Points. So let’s say your opponent has the following legion stats Ranged: 4, Melee: 6, Infernal: 6. The first round of combat is conducted:

So you have brought your enemy to 0 Hit Points and destroyed his legion. It was a close fought battle. One thing that wasn’t in play but might be is the special abilities the combatants can have. If your enemy had had a special ability that resisted “Melee Damage” then the outcome might have been different. Some special abilities can modify combat attributes (positively or negatively) as the combat proceeds. Others can regenerate hit points, amplify damage, or even reflect damage. Special abilities can really interact in fun ways to radically alter the outcomes.

After the battle your combat cards are discarded. You will need to use your turn action slots to create and attach more if you so desire. If you win the combat you gain prestige. How much is determined by a bunch of different factors among which are your “Wrath” power level, the level of your opponent’s combatant, Avatar perks chosen and special abilities of the combatant. Your victorious legion (but not Place of Power) might also have the opportunity to “Level Up” in which case it gets to choose from a menu offering enhanced stat bonuses or new special abilities.

That’s a down and dirty overview of the combat procedure. My design goal was to incorporate both known and hidden information into a system that let you try and get a feel for how combats might resolve but had enough uncertainty to make them interesting and dramatic. There is also an extra strategy element involved in equipping your legions with power up items and combat cards so that the combats resolve in your favor… you can augment strengths or ameliorate weaknesses.

Here is a sneak peek at one of the many legions that you can hire in the game:

The Fallen
The men of the Fallen walked between the pillars outside the marble temple. They were tall, they were 5,000 in number, and they bore the faces of human men. To an outsider, this band would look like a patchwork of righteous warriors that spun the length of a millennia, for in their hands were the byproducts of metal refined to its different functions: gladii, claymores, a few harquebuses, and pikes. But within Hell, the normalcy of their faces created a falseness with which no observer could feel at ease. It was as if they had something to hide.

–From “Accounts from the Invasion” by Anonymous

An additional week was just about the right guess. I’ve wrapped up the last major component of the single combat module. You can now respond to the message from the Infernal Conclave that you have been challenged (or initiated the challenge) to resolve a Vendetta via single combat. You have 2 turns to pick your champion or hire one in the Infernal Bazaar and get him ready. Once both players submit their champions then the duel is processed on that next turn….and we see who is still standing and who is banished to the Abyss. I’m sticking to the common mythology that demons are immortal. The penalty for being vanquished in Hell is eons of pain in an incorporeal form in the Abyss… solitary confinement of a sorts. At any rate, the losing Praetor is removed from the game and the winner gets the chance to “level up” his champion and the benefits of winning the Vendetta… a nice Prestige Point bonus.

I’m going to hold off on discussing the specific mechanics of single combat. In general, you choose a chain of up to six combat moves that depend on how your Praetor is kitted out in three attributes, any gear and special abilities. 6 rounds of combat are resolved, wounds are assigned and if nobody is eliminated then the sequence starts again until there is a winner. Because some “Combat Moves” have random elements the outcome isn’t guaranteed and programmatic but the goal is that good strategy in selecting the right moves and combos is rewarded.

I’ve also advanced a few klicks on the UI front. The art for the Avatar Powers display has been finalized and will be in place next week. The Avatar display is a sub tab on the Main Dialogue Display that deals with the stats and powers of your chosen Archfiend Avatar. As you play the game you’ll constantly be confronted with choices on how to spend your tribute to “power up” in the 5 power disciplines of Wrath, Deceit, Prophecy, Destruction and Diabolism. Powering up to the next level in a discipline almost always opens up some new ability, ritual or benefit. To accomplish the power up you select it as one of your open phase slots for the turn and then pay the cost in tribute cards that you have collected. That’s the basic idea. I’ll discuss the concepts of phase slots and tribute cards down the road so don’t worry about those. Here is a glimpse of the Avatar Powers matrix that lets you see your ranking in each of the disciplines. You roll over reach icon to get a description of what benefits you accrue for each power level. If you have achieved a power level in a discipline then a thin metal frame is placed over the icon.

As soon as the thought popped into my head I knew that I was in trouble. So far it’s been at least a weeks worth of trouble and I’m probably looking at another week as well when all is coded and done. And this happened despite having a very strong desire to keep a simple elegance to Solium Infernum. I worked hard to keep things elegant, symmetrical and just downright focused as far as the design elements were concerned. I didn’t have one of Soren Johnson’s design rules of thumb on the white board, but I really did vet every “addition” with a keen eye for interesting simplicity. And then the idea came along.

The idea grew out of something I noticed after doing some crude simulations for AI interactions in the diplomacy model that is currently built into Solium Infernum. As I have described in here and here, the game is designed to channel player interactions in that you must follow the Protocols of the Infernal Conclave when you want something from your rivals. You can’t just go and take something. No, there is an infernal Kabuki dance that must be observed. The focus of course is on acquiring Prestige for yourself while diminishing Prestige for your rivals. Like complimentary particles, demands and insults work to either shift the prestige directly or place you in a position where a claim of Vendetta lets you hammer your opponent in the process and thereby gain Prestige. What I noticed during the first AI simulations that I started running was that something was occurring which my limited conceptualization during the board game prototype stage had not identified. Namely, some odd times an AI player couldn’t always figure out the best terms for a Vendetta… conquer hexes, destroy enemy legions, or capture an enemy Place of Power. The reason was because although the warp around maps encourage lots of border contact sometimes your worst enemies ended up not lying exactly on your borders. Doh!

A successful Vendetta against such an opponent wasn’t impossible since there does exist a line of “Destruction Rituals” which can be used to harm and even destroy enemy legions at any location on the map (sort of like “Ring Powers” if you are familiar with the RTS genre) but that’s not an easy path and you have to have some real strength in that ritual discipline (which isn’t a trivial investment). So what I needed was a way to resolve a Vendetta… a dispute of honor short of having legions march all over the game board. A nanosecond later it hit me. “Excalibur!” Trial by Single Combat. Each Archfiend selects a Champion. Two Champions enter the arena and only one leaves. The Vendetta is resolved in favor of the winner.

The obvious choices for such an instrument of infernal justice were the Praetors. They already functioned as a type of power up for Legions and Places of Power either acting as generals or garrison commanders. I had toyed early in the design with giving them their own game board pieces to conduct “special ops” but nixed that because I really wanted to keep the board clean. Such actions were moved to the “Deception Rituals” discipline and abstracted a bit as well. But the idea of using the Praetors as Champions to resolve Vendettas was too good to pass up so the last week has been spent adding the feature.

Of course, determining the outcome of a trial by single combat necessitated some additional design work and modifications of the Praetors, who now proudly boast dueling stats, special abilities and hit points (only used for the trials and not legion vs. legion combat.) I’ve also taken the Praetor concept one step further and built in some ways to customize your Champion by using tribute cards that your minions will bring you.

So the cool idea had some serious costs but I think it has been worth it. Vendettas just got a whole lot more interesting and a new dimension to their resolution has been added. If you are taking the deception path or gluttonous accumulation (wealth & power broker) path then rather than investing in expensive legions you might consider grooming a gladiator super combatant or two… of course you can’t always control the terms of a Vendetta so it’s not a sure fire strategy by any means. You also have choices to make about how to fight the Champion in the arena. I’ve created a small game in and of itself for how the two Champions battle it out so that there is a strategy element involved. But I’ll save that for a later entry. Here’s a brief glimpse of what a single combat for the honor of an infernal house in Hell might look like. Enjoy!

Cyberstratege has launched an online version of their excellent strategy gaming magazine. You have to be able to “Parlez” because the site is in French but you can see some of the great coverage they have given Armageddon Empires.

Inconceivable!

Placing at No. 97 is Armageddon Empires.

If you have just a free bit of time and you are looking for a great short story (with more chapters possibly coming) then check out this post in the Cryptic Comet forums by Grottnikk.

I’ve talked before about how an emergent narrative is one of the reasons that I like playing games like AE, Civ, SMAC, Dominions etc. This short vignette could more or less have occured in the game… perhaps some gameplay event like it inspired Grottnikk. At any rate a big thanks to Grottnikk for sharing the story in the forums.

Well the trains apparently don’t run on time in Hell. Between some family travel plans and some needed bug fixing for Tip of the Spear, I haven’t been able to advance the ball much for Solium Infernum. But as of today I am back in the saddle and if you are a parent you know just how good the approach of September looks and what that means. The sound of silence.

Tip of the Spear is being brought up to 1.08b. I released a stealth 1.08a last week to fix a couple of problems that had crept into the code and could cause the AI to not use certain AT Cards or worse use the Deep Strike breakthrough card on double attack cards (which caused problems in combat). But what I spent the most time working on for 1.08b was implementing a special damage reporting system for ground combat. So now you get feedback on just how much extra damage that energy weapon or neuro toxin did. This also helps out when some of the new “Infantry Rules” are going into effect. The Combined Arms Damage Bonus is now displayed so you don’t have to scratch your head and wonder where the extra points of damage came from.

The updates will go on the website soon but here are the download links direct from my Amazon S3 server.

PC Version 1.08b

Mac Version 1.08b