This week in "Descobrimentos Portugueses" we going to introduce you to the game map.
Hello everyone, first of all we would like to thank all of you for your interest and support, thanks to you guys our project was in the front page of Indie DB and it was even referenced on their twitter page.
MAP FEATURES
We start our journey in lisbon and right off the bat we have a ton of information displayed. On the top right corner we have our total crew number (Pawn icon), current available food (Chiken leg icon), and current available gold (Bag icon). Right below we have the crews sickness indicator(Sick face icon) and the crews moralle indicator (ThumbsUp icon). Lastly on the top left corner we have the reputation meter.
All these variables have to be under constant management from the player.
Now the game map is divided by zones where each zones is comprised of different commercial items, and different events.
We implemented this change because players felt alot of pressure regarding important decisions, to atempt to solve this issue we created a zone1 that if its the player´s first attempt at the game, this zone serves as a "false" tutorial with scripted events that will guide the player regarding the important decisions.
Each destination has a food cost for the journey :
The food cost of each journey can vary based on : Distance, Water currents, and Cooks/Sailors abord the ship.
Along the journey certain events can happen :
Each random event has a set of actions the player can take in order to best deal with the problems at hand, some actions have a requirement such as Resources, Crew members, and the current state of the main variables(food,sickness,moralle,gold,crew size,reputation).
Each decision the player makes in these events has different effects on the crew and the game variables.
Upon reaching a destination safelly the player may attemp to trade with the natives :
This step is extremelly important in order for the player to manage his resources, and have the hability to hire new crew members along they, make some money, and have food to feed the crew.
Each destination has some resources in abundance and some in scarcity, the player can use this information to plan his resources and his path.
Conclusion :
The map is the core elements of the game, it interacts with every other system and feature.
Its still a work in progress there is much we can improve, we there are many things we wish to add.
See you guys in the next DevLog where we will showcase the crew selection and its impacts.
