Version 0.2 - Arnaden Rises
Well met!
I know you've all been waiting a long time for the next release. We've been going a bit slower because several of the devs have been experiencing personal upheavals, and some are now on a summer break. But everyone has contributed to this new version, and it's time for an interim release, as promised. This version has fewer things dummied out than before, fixes several crucial bugs, and expands the range of playable realms. As the subtitle indicates, the whole of Arnaden - the land to the north of the Lake of Steam - is now playable, all the way north to newly enlarged realms of Chondath and Sespech on the southern shores of the Vilhon Reach. The Zhentarim is now on the map too, with existing holdings in the western Moonsea and around Llorkh, and a campaign of expansion around Mintar.
What's next?
For you the players, please enjoy this new release! If you find any bugs, please go on reporting them here. I'm going to start a more formalised system of change logs and bug reports, starting from this version as a baseline.
After Zarathustra's recent sprint on the character and combat systems, it's time for tsf4 and me to concentrate on lore work. I'm going to provide proper title histories and vassalage relationships in Calimshan, Erlkazar, Tethyr and Amn. While I don't intend to add actual wars to the history files yet, the next phase will include the consequences of the Tethyrian Unification War, the Castle Trinity conflict, the Living Gem War, and the rise of the Sothilisian 'Empire'. Then I'm going to turn east, to populate Solon and Khazari, and document the ebb and flow of the war between those nations, Semphar, Ra-Khati and the Tuigan Horde. Also on the list are a working electoral monarchy in Thay, more Zhentish holdings in Anauroch, and populating the city-states of the eastern Moonsea. I'd like to have all of those done for 0.3.
We will be reworking the religions in the game at some point, as they're still extremely generic. However, given that Holy Fury will include better system support for enatic succession, along with other desirable tweaks, we will probably leave that overhaul until then.
I will also return to the development of new playable species when time and resources permit. Genasi, saurials and gnolls are my highest priorities, as all three have holdings on the map on our main start date, and genasi are also a prominent minority in Calimshan, Arnaden and Zakhara. In tabletop canon, saurials are divided into at least four mutually infertile subspecies, but as they start as an OPM, that's not worth modelling. (Contrast yuan-ti, who have three subspecies, all mutually interfertile, and will in due course have a kingdom-level realm.) So saurials are likely to be a single species with a variety of static portraits, unless someone has dynamic portraits for dinosaurs that they're willing to share with us. I'll also add nagas, and do the long-awaited yuan-ti portrait overhaul. However, I can't promise that all of this will be in 0.3.
Thanks for your patience, and enjoy!
All my best,
nd
Well met!
I know you've all been waiting a long time for the next release. We've been going a bit slower because several of the devs have been experiencing personal upheavals, and some are now on a summer break. But everyone has contributed to this new version, and it's time for an interim release, as promised. This version has fewer things dummied out than before, fixes several crucial bugs, and expands the range of playable realms. As the subtitle indicates, the whole of Arnaden - the land to the north of the Lake of Steam - is now playable, all the way north to newly enlarged realms of Chondath and Sespech on the southern shores of the Vilhon Reach. The Zhentarim is now on the map too, with existing holdings in the western Moonsea and around Llorkh, and a campaign of expansion around Mintar.
What's next?
For you the players, please enjoy this new release! If you find any bugs, please go on reporting them here. I'm going to start a more formalised system of change logs and bug reports, starting from this version as a baseline.
After Zarathustra's recent sprint on the character and combat systems, it's time for tsf4 and me to concentrate on lore work. I'm going to provide proper title histories and vassalage relationships in Calimshan, Erlkazar, Tethyr and Amn. While I don't intend to add actual wars to the history files yet, the next phase will include the consequences of the Tethyrian Unification War, the Castle Trinity conflict, the Living Gem War, and the rise of the Sothilisian 'Empire'. Then I'm going to turn east, to populate Solon and Khazari, and document the ebb and flow of the war between those nations, Semphar, Ra-Khati and the Tuigan Horde. Also on the list are a working electoral monarchy in Thay, more Zhentish holdings in Anauroch, and populating the city-states of the eastern Moonsea. I'd like to have all of those done for 0.3.
We will be reworking the religions in the game at some point, as they're still extremely generic. However, given that Holy Fury will include better system support for enatic succession, along with other desirable tweaks, we will probably leave that overhaul until then.
I will also return to the development of new playable species when time and resources permit. Genasi, saurials and gnolls are my highest priorities, as all three have holdings on the map on our main start date, and genasi are also a prominent minority in Calimshan, Arnaden and Zakhara. In tabletop canon, saurials are divided into at least four mutually infertile subspecies, but as they start as an OPM, that's not worth modelling. (Contrast yuan-ti, who have three subspecies, all mutually interfertile, and will in due course have a kingdom-level realm.) So saurials are likely to be a single species with a variety of static portraits, unless someone has dynamic portraits for dinosaurs that they're willing to share with us. I'll also add nagas, and do the long-awaited yuan-ti portrait overhaul. However, I can't promise that all of this will be in 0.3.
Thanks for your patience, and enjoy!
All my best,
nd
