Author Topic: Developer's Journal  (Read 70156 times)

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Offline Grafton

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #20 on: January 12, 2006, 09:53:48 PM »
I have CC2, but am interested in what you have in total. Sounds great, I'll keep my eye on this forum.

I sincerely hope that you complete the ideas here and it gets published for those of us looking for worlds, not having the energy anymore to make them ourselfves from scratch.

Good Luck, Grafton

Offline Norin

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #21 on: January 12, 2006, 10:54:34 PM »
I too have CC2 but I have never gotten that great of a result from it as I have little to no CAD (computer aided drafting) or Art skills! So I will be rather anxious to see what you have produced with it.

On the whole the whole setting looks to be very cool, I am awaiting preview #2 as the Ulcver preview blew me away (We have been using a similair concept in my home-brewed campaign for awhile, the ulcer'shave worked well in the Deadlands system!)
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Offline Defendi

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #22 on: January 13, 2006, 01:19:03 AM »
GRafton, at this point I can't imagine the setting wouldn't be finished.  The remaining wordcount is relatively low.  Whether the setting has legs depends on sales, of course, but I can only see it not coming out if I die.  :)

I don't think I've ever played deadlands.  I hear its a great game.
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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #23 on: January 14, 2006, 02:25:34 PM »
Anyway, not a bad week.  This week:  Maps!!!!

Sure two years after I asked for them!!!

And now that I am not in the playtest!!!

 :o

Offline Defendi

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #24 on: January 17, 2006, 05:06:09 AM »
That's my business partner, everyone.  :)
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Offline Defendi

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #25 on: January 18, 2006, 11:16:40 PM »
Ok.  Another good week.  I finished the main map and now I?m looking to see if I need more.  You see, the main map is a little cluttered.  It?s ideal for a printing of about 3x3 sheets of paper, and I?m thinking I need two other sizes.  One, the one that will take longer, would be more like 5x5 or 6x6.  Basically, I?d shrink all the text and the symbols by half and redo them.  That would leave more white space and a little room to fill in things other than the biggest cities.

The second map is one that can be put on one page.  I?ve been asked to put the books out through a POD publisher and I don?t think I?m going to find a POD publisher that has a good map solution.  That means the printed copy in the book will have to be formatted for one page, as seems the norm with most settings this last year or two.  I?ve printed the original map on one page. *I* could use it, but I have the best eyes medical science can buy.  Even then, there are a couple city names I can?t read.

So I?m thinking about keeping the symbol size the same on the one page map, but deleting the river names (there isn?t room for them), taking off all but the capital cities (or the biggest city for nations with a moving capital).  Then labeling just those cities.

It?s a plan at any rate.

I?m also thinking how I will make the dungeon and interior maps look more professional.  I have some ideas.

I?ve set up demos at the local convention at BYU.  I?m also demoing Campaign Cartographer there.  I think I?m going to make up free demo disks that include all the Echoes of Heaven previews (to date), the demo adventures and all the maps I have lying around, for this world or for others.  The idea is to be able to hand them out for free and see how much business I can generate.

I just realized the artist is late on with the brand logo.  Hmm.  I?ll have to ping him on that.

We got exactly one battle done at the play test this week.  It lasted three hours.

Twenty orcs, an open room, and a doorway.  Three party members decided to charge into the room.  It was, as the military would say, Charlie Foxtrot from there on out. :)

They won.  It wasn?t a hard battle, really (54 levels of good guys against 80 levels of bad guys.)  If they would have set up at the door, it would have been over in 45 minutes.  They just didn?t.

Anyway.  Quick survey.  If you?re reading this on a board, post.  If not, e-mail me.

In Rolemaster, how many of you allow characters to parry multiple foes?  I?ve fought two guys at once and it doesn?t seem as hard to me as RM makes it (no to say it isn?t hard).  It always seemed to me you should just split your parry bonus up among the bad guys, and that?s what every group I?ve played with has allowed.  Still, what do you guys think?

Also, how many of you would be interested in POD versions, at a normal printed book price, if you could get the pdfs for 3-5 dollars?  Tell me for which system too (HARP, RM or d20)

Just curious.  With the Pod Versions, you might have to download and print the maps if you want big game-table versions.
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Offline lorenen

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #26 on: January 19, 2006, 02:34:42 AM »
let me suggest you one thing.. a simple geographical map, wthout names and cities can be very useful during gameplay!!  :D if the GM want to describe the world to players without telling thing regarding cities location or roads this kind of map can be very useful!! i make my players see the FULL map only when the y REALLY know the region (or if the buy a good map drawed by one who know the region..).



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Offline Defendi

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #27 on: January 19, 2006, 03:53:40 AM »
That's a built in feature of CC2.
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Offline Norin

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #28 on: January 19, 2006, 03:04:21 PM »
Ditto on the geographic map for playuers use, Something super easy to do in CC2 as you have the map labels on a seperate layer. As far as POD, Yes!.  In our HARP game we have been allowing people to parry multiple opponents and  I think that it tens to prolong combats as DB's get quite high (All of my Fighters have the Blade Barrier skill and and an appropriate weapon) and we are also using Arms Law Combat rules.

Finally I would love access to those demo adventures and maps any chance of posting them to the Vault?

Looking very forward to the final finished product!

P.S> do you own Profantasy Softwares Tome of Ultimate Mapping is it a useful item to have, cuz I realy suck at mapping and I am looking for anything that can help!
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Offline markc

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #29 on: January 19, 2006, 07:10:25 PM »
What I do is have the player recieve a -20 to their DB after the 1st opponet. I play RMSS with a custom second by second combat sytem so it is easy to see when the player attacks and when he is attacked. If the PC gets attacked by 2 people during the same second I give the PC his full DB bonus.
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Offline Grafton

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #30 on: January 19, 2006, 10:41:15 PM »
Defendi, I'll answer your questions, but know that I'm old school and still play RM2.

I would be interested in both PDF and POD versions, for the simple reason that I would probably buy the PDF version first to see what I thought of it. If it is good enough to use long term, which from what you've said here it does, then I would most likely purchase a POD version. No gaurentees, but the just the way I would do it right now.

Concerning the parry: Yes, In my games I've always allowed multiple parry. We use the 200 point initiative system from RMCI with parry decided at the time it occurs. So if a PC knows he is fighting 3 opponents he will allocate OB and DB appropriately whenever the first occurence is. That probably didn't come out clearly, but short answer is yes, I allow parry more than one opponent with the total OB and DB not more than the OB of the weapon used (plus modifiers). My understanding is that RMSS/RMFRP changed those rules, but I would leave that sure answer to those that actually play RMSS/RMFRP. Good Luck, Grafton

P. S. I'm assuming The Echoes of Heaven is written for RMSS/FRP as one option. It would be nice to have a page or two on converting to RM2 from RMSS/FRP.

Offline Defendi

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #31 on: January 20, 2006, 04:58:25 AM »
Norin, which system(s) would you be intersted in purchasing the pod versions of?

I definately intend to put the demos up, at least.  When they are ready.  There's a sticky bit with the end I have to work out.
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Offline Norin

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #32 on: January 20, 2006, 05:40:32 PM »
HARP primalry although RM would be cool too!
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Offline Defendi

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #33 on: January 25, 2006, 10:11:21 PM »
01/25/06

   This week was demographics madness.  I finished the main map, did a one page version with only capitals and larger text and prepare the poster map for symbols.  Haven?t started the poster map, though, that could wait until after we release, so it?s low priority.  I?ll have to go back and check the one page map, I think I changed at least one of the capitals during my work yesterday.
   So I?ve put aside agonizing over how long to make the history chapter of the main book.  Now I?m working on chapter four, the gazetteer.  That sent me headlong into demographics.  John Ross has a great website called Medieval Demographics Made Easy (http://www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm).  I spent a lot of time there this week.  Luckily the site is useful to me, because despite the post plague population figures, The Echoes of Heaven is a post plague world.  If I forget, someone remind me to post a preview on the Gray Death some week.  Still, all that you really need to know to understand demographics is that the Gray Death is a plague and that magic can?t heal it.  At least not God?s magic.  A direct miracle could, but they are few and far between in The Echoes of Heaven.
   I started this because Scott (my business partner) mentioned a few weeks back that we need to address how much healing magic there is.  It doesn?t take a whole lot of dedicated healers running around to greatly alter the way a society works.  So I sat down and hammered out some basic numbers, how many people join the church (1 in 10), how many of those can cast spells (about one in 400).  That gives me a place to start, showing me that it takes about 4,000 people to kick out a 1st level religious spell user.  I built a more complete treatment from there.  I?m sure to preview that.  Probably in a week in a half which means two-four weeks until you see it.
   So then I built a spread sheet around the information Ross had researched for his website and threw in some stuff of my own.  I already know how many notable cities there are per nation (the map) and so since then I?ve made a page for each of the 40 or so political powers and I?ve been plugging in numbers until I figures that make sense.  I finished the country of Nolinos last night and that leaves about 10 countries.  An evening?s work when I get to it (Probably tonight).
   Its been a good process.  Not only has it revealed to me certain issues, such as the fact that the free city of Felric?s Redoubt can?t possibly produce enough food to feed its inhabitants, it?s also pointed out some troubles on the map.  So far I?ve found two completely unamed cities and one that was named twice (different cultures, so I couldn?t reuse the name, alas).
   So, when I?m done with that I?ll go back over the map again.  The first time I used the largest settlement symbols for every community.  I?ll have to go through and compare actual populations to the map and adjust symbols accordingly.
   Oh, I also discovered that the river feeding the capital of one of the largest nations actually flows down and out through the second or third worst ulcer in the world.  That?s going to make for some interesting fall out.  We?ll see how it develops in writing.  Right now I see a city the size of Paris holding maybe one third Paris? 13th century population (One third of 80,000 that is).  I haven?t worked all the implications through yet.
   On another note, things seem to be progressing well with our fourth and final license.  I hope to be able to release an announcement in the next few weeks.
   Also working up toward Life the Universe and Everything at BYU.  Have demos set up there now.  I?m doing a campaign cartographer demo as well so I?m working up a dual demo disk of sorts.  I probably mentioned that last week, but its moved forward some more.
   More next week.
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Offline Grafton

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #34 on: January 26, 2006, 09:14:19 PM »
Good stuff, Denfendi. I also looked at the Medieval Demographics Made Easy info, but then I realized the results didn't make sense for the city I was making. Remember, that article is written based on those business that paid taxes, not necessarily what was active - at least in my mind, though the taxes thing is stated at the start I believe.

I made an Excel spreadsheet that determines building occupation based on the Cities publication by Chaosium Inc (1984?). I liked it much better for what it gives, it just seemed more realistic to me. Email me and I can send it to you if you want, but its probably more detailed than what you need at this point. The stuff about feeding and such in the Medieval Demographics I thought was good, but have to admit I never actually calculated it for my game.

What struck me is how BIG an actual city is. In my world, a city that I thought was 100,000 people actualy turned out to be 10,000 when I finished the map. Maybe I got tired of making the map, but it showed how large a city has to be to support that amount of people.

Keep up the good work, Grafton

Offline Defendi

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #35 on: January 27, 2006, 12:51:24 AM »
What do you mean by big.  What strikes me is how small they are.  I lived in a town that had a thousand people in about a square mile as a kid.  In a medieval setting that would hold about 38,000 people.

I'm sure that's not what you meant, though.  Explain.
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Offline Defendi

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #36 on: January 27, 2006, 12:52:31 AM »
Oh!  I promised one of my playtesters that I'd mention that they got much more tactical this week.  They made it through all of the response troops actually.  Now they can explore the rest in a bit more peace.
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Offline GerikGnome

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #37 on: January 27, 2006, 11:33:35 AM »
As the playtester noted above, I'd like to say that my request was not to make up for a lack of tactics on my part. 

Just to keep the record clear, I didn't charge into a room with 10:1 odds a couple weeks ago.  I stayed on the happy side of the door.

Offline Grafton

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #38 on: January 28, 2006, 03:23:38 AM »
What do you mean by big.  What strikes me is how small they are.  I lived in a town that had a thousand people in about a square mile as a kid.  In a medieval setting that would hold about 38,000 people.

I'm sure that's not what you meant, though.  Explain.

Correct, I did not explain it well  :-\ The big difference I saw between Medieval Demographics and the Cities system I used was in how you account for population. In Medieval Demographics it appeared to be by shear area, i.e. "how many people can we fit given ideal growing conditions?" :o

In the Cities document, they base the population on the number of buildings that are present. This is a HUGE difference! :o I scaled the buildings probably x2 larger than what they should be on the map (so I could more easily see them), I didn't get anwhere near the population I envisioned for the area - it was short by 90%. In this area, agriculture was not an issue because portions of it were the "breadbasket" of the continent. But, once you start figuring an average building density of 10 people/buildng it really impacted the map and thus the population. I had the map mostly filled with buildings and I only had about 800 buildings. In order to get to a population of 100,000 I would have needed about 10,000 buildings - WAY too much mapping for this guy :P

Edit: changed portions of above after I reread this morning. Orginally wrote it after coming back from the bar :-\

Hope this is more clear, sorry for the confusion. Good Luck, Grafton
« Last Edit: January 28, 2006, 11:50:51 AM by Grafton »

Offline Defendi

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Re: Developer's Journal
« Reply #39 on: January 28, 2006, 03:37:57 AM »
Yeah, the figure they give on MDME is 38,000 per sqaure mile.  As I said earlier, that's 38 x denser than the town I lived in as a kid.  :)
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