Not sure if this belongs here, but I'm looking to create

File: the_normans_2.jpg (76KB, 770x434px) Image search: [Google]

76KB, 770x434px

>>54450021

The actual mechanics of the game are as follows, so far:

>> Start out with 1000 points.
>> These points are used to buy land, and other upgrades.
>> These points are further spent deciding how to utilize the land, from farmland, to pastures, to mines, to simply leaving it as wilderness
>> Lastly, points are spent on family members.
>> Some family members are free, having more will cost you. Not having the free members, or having members with bad traits, will give you back points.

>> Main resources are crops, cattle, metal, and bullis (short for bullions).
>> 1 acre of farmland produces 3 crops. 3 crops are consumed per person in your land, so you need 4 acres per person.
>> Max amount of land 1 pop can work is 30 acres, so population size should only become a problem if you're raising a lot of people to fight.
>> Mines require minimum amount of people to work as well, though haven't decided yet how many that should be.
>> 1 mine produces enough metal to arm 500 basic spearmen, or pay for the upkeep of 1000 for a year. They are appropriately expensive in points.
>> Lastly, cattle. Valuable, being worth 15 crops, but requires pastures to be fed. Otherwise, need to be fed with crops. On paper, more efficient than farmland, but can be stolen, and replenish at a small rate of 1% each year.

>> Land can be parsed out to knights.
>> This land does not directly provide you anything, except a skilled heavy horseman who is always ready to fight (more on that in a sec).

Cont.

File: sweden_and_norway_12th_century.jpg (124KB, 611x850px) Image search: [Google]

124KB, 611x850px

>>54450188

>> Combat works as follows.
>> You start out with half the amount of the metal you produce each year to be spent on your initial weapons stockpile.
>> To get your army, simply call up your peasants, and arm them with your stockpile. Feeling cheap? They come with their own shitty armor and billhooks if you don't provide them with anything.
>> Have knights? Congrats! These guys start out at Skill 1 (as opposed to your peasant levies, who start at Skill 0).
>> Troops gain experience through battle. Knights continuously gain experience, since they're always training.

>> Battle is simple. I go to random.org, and put in the highest number a unit's stats allow them. Troops start out with a base of 20. This is the percentage of their unit size that scores a casualty against the enemy.

>> If enemy sustains a certain amount of casualties, morale is rolled for in a similar fashion. Roll under the max number, and you're good. Experienced units are obviously less likely to run.

There are a lot more details to this game that still need to be worked out (supply lines, raiding/pillaging, taxation, using money to buy from foreign merchants, etc.).

Is this project to ambitious/autistic? Because I'm trying to make this game a relatively realistic simulation of what being a medieval lord is like, but doing so is a complicated affair. It doesn't help that so far, the people I've asked about it love to give "advice" (new features they think would be cool) without giving any solid reasons for how the mechanics should work.

I had a similar experience, down to trying automation on the third try

Best advice I can give is start small, test often

File: norman_4.jpg (37KB, 539x351px) Image search: [Google]

37KB, 539x351px

>>54453056

Elaborate? What was your game?

File: azazel__angel_of_sacrifices_by_petemohrbacher-da4ttd5[1].jpg (323KB, 514x800px) Image search: [Google]

323KB, 514x800px

Medieval with some supernatural elements. Angels, demons, the like...

People had fun, but I was too breezy on the mechanics. A royal couple had a wedding and invited someone who burned it all down with a dragon, so yea, better rules were needed.

File: 10th_century.jpg (889KB, 1200x853px) Image search: [Google]

889KB, 1200x853px

>>54453817

I'll say. This stuff is hard enough with no magic, I couldn't imagine adding in supernatural stuff.

My problem was more stuff like "if the battle happens over the course of a day, and each turn lasts a season, how do we proceed?" or just stuff like naval battle mechanics.

File: desert_demons_by_sandara[1].jpg (393KB, 975x638px) Image search: [Google]

393KB, 975x638px

>>54453908
Yea, magic is pretty hard to balance by nature.

Do you favor army combat systems over political systems? Like, on a scale of Game of Thrones to Age of Empires 2 where do you want to be?

File: lancelot.jpg (1MB, 1632x2326px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1632x2326px

>>54454178

Neither. I mean, I guess Game of Thrones, but I don't like that show.

My caveat is to avoid gamey-stuff wherever I can. If a player does something, it should give them an actual benefit, instead of just applying a modifier or bonus.

Example: In Age of Empires II, there are random upgrades you can get that just increase your production of stuff for no real reason. Building Barracks allows you to buy troops with money that comes from mines, because apparantly you are mining magical gold that can create human beings from thin air.

File: Maximillian_Plate_Armor.jpg (37KB, 241x640px) Image search: [Google]

37KB, 241x640px

>>54454672

I know this is pretty hard to do, and ultimately since I don't have the time and technical skills to create every single person living in the land and having them act accordingly, there's going to be some abstreactions. I'd just prefer to avoid them if possible.

File: dragon__s_fury_by_benwootten-d574oag[1].jpg (685KB, 1600x500px) Image search: [Google]

685KB, 1600x500px

>>54454672
>>54454721

Have you ever played Victoria 2? Instead of modelling individuals, they had demographic groups (pops) that had needs, produced goods, and formed your armies.

I see you already have a system kind of like that, but it might be good source of extra implementable ideas if you want realism without going crazy.

File: big_ass_knight.jpg (259KB, 800x745px) Image search: [Google]

259KB, 800x745px

>>54455126

I've played Victoria 2. It's simply not feasible for me to emulate. Not toally, anyway.

In order to do what Vicky 2 does with pops, I'd have to make an object which could make make money, be taxed, buy goods, suffer negative effects when not getting those goods, retain their experience from combat while not raised, etc.

I mean, I can just tell that players will be bugging me about the skill system. But in order for your army to retain their skills, I would have to keep track of each individual person who had gained experience. It would be tedious. I'd be better off just making Knights automatically superior by giving them a bonus, or only allowing experience in armies while they're raised.

And that's just one conundrum.

File: fantasy_egyptian_babe.jpg (266KB, 943x1200px) Image search: [Google]

266KB, 943x1200px

Bumperino.

File: springs_of_cresson_by_wraithdt[1].jpg (248KB, 1600x800px) Image search: [Google]

248KB, 1600x800px

>>54455704
Hmm, so how are you planning to handle persistent elements? Do you have much programming experience with databases and cronjobs or are you doing that part by hand?

File: halberd_girl.jpg (402KB, 1000x1514px) Image search: [Google]

402KB, 1000x1514px

>>54456317

I know how to make objects in java, and I know how to make them work with oracle SQL. Beyond that, I don't really have much of a clue. What's a cronjob?

File: the_name_of_the_wind_by_marcsimonetti[1].jpg (40KB, 600x392px) Image search: [Google]

40KB, 600x392px

>>54456864

Cron is a way to make a script run at regular intervals automatically. Once an hour... once a day... etc. For example, you could use it for the knights' continuous XP award.

To retain XP, skills, and sundry, you'll definitely want to figure out databases, or at least how to read and write from text or JSON files.

File: handsome_young_adventurer_in_renaissance_clothing.jpg (21KB, 300x300px) Image search: [Google]

21KB, 300x300px

>>54457322

My God, that sounds perfect. I could have turns set to end at midnight at the end of every week, and automatically update EVERYTHING.

So little bookkeeping. . . oh, yesssss.

Brb going to learn cron.

File: knight_by_digitalsashimi-d7lo9ry[1].jpg (224KB, 1024x1449px) Image search: [Google]

224KB, 1024x1449px

>>54457364

Glad I could help. Good luck!

I wonder if a play-by-post could work for solo adventures where the players never encounter one another? I wonder what that would be like.

>>54450021
>> King will have to walk a fine line
This is doomed, of course.