Yeah that was me.
And you call that poor quality!
Though I do agree, if we some elements of city builders (like my favorite Pharaoh) for Majesty 3 it would be amazing but it seems that Majesty 2 is an update to increase the Majesty fandom. Which isn't really a bad thing.
The .gif is only in 16 colours.
Thanks for the feedback, anyways. I agree there's nothing specifically wrong with just refining existing aspects of majesty, but I think future development may have to split along separate directions, for reasons I've
covered before.
Nerdfish said:
Really nice A.
I'd imagine upper level housing would serve some other functions beside providing residence. Fortification and guild halls come to mind.
draxynnic said:
Interesting idea. Inns should remain separate buildings since they have a specific purpose, but housing having different levels could be an interesting twist (with, presumably, higher-level housing providing more taxes or some other benefit).
The big question here is how much detail you want to invest in the economic side of things compared with the adventuring/combat side of things.
At one extreme, the only purpose of this system is to allow for settlements that 'look natural', and also encourage control of territory (as opposed to turtling) by making your overall economic strength dependant on how many peasant holdings you can establish away from the base. This goes back to my quarters/fiefdoms ideas from months back. With a system like this, the economy can be almost entirely atuonomous and needn't be too detailed. That frees the player's attention to deal with babysitting heroes, coordinating military operations or setting commissions, and could probably be adapted to multiplayer.
At the other extreme, you'd have a full-blown heavyweight simulator combining the economic complexity and management of the Citybuilder series with the behavioural minutiae of the Sims. This would be almost impossible to adapt to direct, competitive multiplayer. Individual citizens would emerge from buildings, get the resources needed for their households from markets or individual vendors, look for entertainment, sanitation, safety, etc., build up savings, and eventually upgrade their homes when conditions are right. In this case, you might have several extra intermediate housing levels.
One solution could be for the houses to have a set block size regardless of the level of the house. A block with level 1 housing, for instance, could be a cluster of huts or a single farmhouse with surrounding fields.
My thoughts have been going somewhere along these lines. In fact, you'd
rely on those fields (and possibly wharves or mine entrances) as the foundation of your economy- instead of having gold just auto-generate, revenue at your markets/inns/etc, would be directly proportionate to resources harvested from peasant holdings of this type.
As a general rule, instead of placing individual buildings, you'd place quarters (say, 16x16 tile areas, shrunk in cases of overlap) in which many buildings would develop. Things like rogues' or rangers' guilds wouldn't be manually
placed at all, but develop spontaneously within particular areas if conditions are right. Same goes for brothels/gambling dens, city dumps, and maybe even certain temples.
An alternative/complementary system, as you suggest, is that initial peasant holdings would develop spontaneously in areas that 'feel safe'. (Anything you place directly would automatically overwrite/demolish low-level peasant holdings.)
Iximi said:
I've always wanted an "auto evolution" for a lot of the buildings in Majesty- I think the only evolution that is directly controlled should be the Palace, Warriors' Guild, beatification projects, and other things that you would tie directly to the King's immediate control- while temples, the market area, and housing would develop on their own (but still be influenced by your ruling actions, such as building zones) and also gain an cultural influence over your kingdom determining the overall "feel" of it- if you catch my drift.
My thoughts exactly. The direct management in this system might consist of hiring on workers into your direct employ- smiths, masons, almoners, taxmen, as well as becoming a 'patron' for various heroes that can't be directly recruited. This gives you a measure of influence over an economy that's otherwise 'on autopilot'.