A few days overdue from what I had planned, but here is the latest build. There are quite a lot of bug fixes in this one, as a number of areas were pointed out by a few people, who took the time to play-test and give a very useful recount of their findings. Very much appreciated! Not all issues identified have been fixed, but those are a minority, and being worked on. I will be making a list of known issues to make play-testing easier.
There is also some new functionality – improvements to the diplomatic system, with emissaries improving relations to neutrals slowly over time, and an event system for neutral minors. The first fully implemented event involves the emissary being challenged to a duel. There are up to 6 options available as a response, depending on what traits the emissary has – honorable fight, dastardly ambush, parlay, going underground, etc. The consequences include among other things: a diplomatic crisis, glory and fame, a dead emissary or an emissary getting so badly hurt, that he or she decides to become chaste, avoiding romantic drama in the future.
In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, the duel and the events leading to it can result in the character gaining the new True Romance trait, a basis for further events and subplots. Will Cupid’s arrows leave your follower heartbroken and melancholic, inspire to deeds of legendary daring or cause them to elope and leave your service? It remains to be seen.
Other events will involve workers, mercenaries or hirelings offering their services; proposals for trade; requests for exploration of dungeons; pleas for gold; etc.
Character items have been implemented. Normal equipment like mundane weapons, armor, etc. are not tracked, but special, rare, plot-relevant or magical items are. The first item added is the Bag of Holding, which gives a 10% bonus to the amount resources hauled out of a dungeon run. It can be found… in a dungeon. Beware that a follower with the greedy trait will make sure to grab the bag before anyone else.
The dynamic naming engine has been improved, specifically in regards to naming regiment types with elemental modifiers and naming planes. But there are also general improvements to character and regiment naming.
Balance-wise, grey oozes have been made slightly more expensive to create and maintain, and the price of many exotic resources has been lowered.
Misc. other additions: Archery Range is a new building for cities, unlocking ranged units. Multi-selection is now possible in the Army Reorganization dialog to reduce the number of clicks necessary to split or join large armies. Dungeon exploration can be automated on a per-follower basis.
With half of February gone, it is looking pretty good for reaching the goals for this month. Still a handful of battle spells to implement. The main priority is adding more stuff to diplomacy and AI, as well as making dungeon bosses and ancient evils active participants in the world. This should allow March to focus on opponent player AI and getting save game functionality enabled again.
One tester asked about the status of city-targeted spells. Most of the strategic spells are buggy or not fully implemented. I will try to find time to work on getting some of these in better shape during February, but realistically it will probably be March before a majority are functional and tested.
Zip with build: http://wizardsandwarlords.net/files/WizardsAndWarlords0928.zip
Wizards and Warlords 