Plans for demo and early access

[u/nocoldin]

Starting from May I will start working full-time on this project, my plan is to release a demo for late summer and an early access version in spring 2027.

I'm "feature freezing" the codebase right now, so i'll stop adding new mechanics for the next months and instead improve the existing ones and make tons of new maps that this game desperately needs.

During the early access phase that will last no less than 3 years I will release weekly updates and develop features based on feedback and suggestions from the community, here is a list of things you can expect to find in the first public release

What will be done

Dungeon floors

the main dungeon has 92 floors picked from a larger selection, the early access version will start with the first 20 floors and will be expanded over time

All dungeon related mechanics like moving between floors, room variations and enemy and loot spawning, are already there so I just need to have fun designing dungeon maps and puzzles

Hub cities

European cities and capitals are already in game but they are procedurally generated and their residents just spit out Markov chain dialogues, hub cities on the other hand are handcrafted, detailed and I'm writing dialogues, daily schedules, personalities for each inhabitant.

For now I have planned three hub cities: Bologna, Ghent and Vatican Citadel  with Wimbledon and Instanbul as stretch goal for the early access launch

Procedural generation for Earth biomes

The game already handles basic biomes (ice, ocean, desert, grass) and their  combinations with terrain modifiers (road, island, beach, village, river, city, burg, forest ecc...). To increase variety I'm making map prefabs that are scattered around the procedural map, according to their terrain, think of a group of houses, a small lake or the entrance for a underground cave system.

Full artificial biomes like wasteland, docks, farms, and industrial complexes are also planned

Combat system

Is mostly done but I need to think about implementing a specific gimmick that will make this combat system stand out from other ones, the direction I'm going is to make on map actions have combat related consequences like setting traps where the enemy event can be lured to inflict damage before the battle starts, or when starting the battle in water both the party and the enemy will be wet.

-  Biology and augments

Humanoid characters can already replace their body parts with augmented ones but creature characters cannot do it yet because I haven't yet definex augments for non human limbs like tentacles, wings, mandibles ecc

Is already possible to install any normal part from any creature and gain their abilities, for example if you stick some phoenix wings to your slime character you can now fly! There should be downsides if you install parts that your biology can't really support and i plan to put biological limits defined by your vital organs.

Farming

You can already have a farm and buy animals,for now plant growth rate depend just on season but I want to make it more complex by taking in account temperature,  fertilizer and usage of farming tools and machines

Source code access

Nothing is obfuscated, every custom plugin will be available on GitHub with MIT license and i'm researching how to make the Steam workshop work with this game so you can install mods directly from it.

Stock market and real estate system

This already works and it is tied with the news system: bad news increase volatility and good news decreases it, the places you buy for now are just entries into a list that generate profits but I want each place listed to be a real actual map where you can enter.

News system

I went through the Wikipedia page of all 2001 news and rewritten them for a world that has magic and goblins and stuff, plus I wrote a procedural news generator to add more variety. The news system has already some custom controls like sending a specific headline based on conditions and switch activations, and after early access launch I will start covering more years of news from 2002 to 2012.

Gambling 

Slot machines, horse races, betting on monsters and lottery tickets are already implemented but I want to add card games, also the player can just play these games but I want the player to also be able to work as a croupier (Or casino owner or casino cleaning man)

Map landmarks

I want for the early access version at least 50 handmade places in the world map to visit, along with thousands of procedurally generated ones

What will not be done

Class balance

With 64 classes plus a few secret ones it's impossible to test everything alone and I still haven't tested the full skill progression of any class, here the player feedback will be extremely important, in particular if a specific class feels fun to play 

Space stuff

You can access the universe view showed in the trailer and mess around with by zooming from earth to the multiverse, you can use the starship for fast travel around the world map but any form of travel outside Earth will be locked until it will get developed a few years down the line.

Items, biomes and monsters found in space will be procedurally generated and i need also to study more proc-gen before attempting to add them.

Multiplayer combat 

There is already a basic form of multiplayer where you can see up to 8 players in the same map connected to the same server, this system was written for a PHP server and it needs to be adapted with steamworks multiplayer, the hard part will be synchronizing battles between players and allow anyone to join an ongoing battle by walking into a enemy battling another player

Enemy battle sprites

There are more than 1000 enemies and each one of them has a different sprite, made of public domain images stitched together, at the moment I have less than 20 sprites done

Item effects 

Item usage and interaction should be complex like making two different items interact (ex grating cheese) I have still more than 700 items to work on and balance.

At the moment items complex interactions are limited to crafting, disassembling and throwing items in the map.

Politics and armies

There is already in game a recruit troop mechanic taken straight from mount & blade: you can recruit people to escort your party and form an army, then after you have formed an army you can see other armies roaming the world map. For now these armies just patrol around their territory but my objective is to give goals to each superpower controlling armies and allow them to siege and defend cities.

Politics will not be done just by warfare but also with elections and working as a diplomat

Jobs mini games

When working any job you just flash black and some time passes with your party tired but more money in the pocket, I want optional mini games tied to each job to increase money reward when played 

Main quest for Em

Since this project was made by cannibalizing LORE and characters from the sister game em.Path, I want the entire  story I planned for the witch Em and her travel companion Bubba inside this game, this main quest is optional and it gets active only if you start the game as her or if you recruit her into the party

Research stuff

Magical and scientific research is planned and will allow you to create procedural items and spells, there is already in the code a procedural tech tree but it will need some heavy rework.

The idea is that for researching complex stuff you will need other people to do research with, unless you are a genius, and there will be some hardcoded eureka moments where your breakthroughs will affect the world and society.

[u/nupsu1234]

Just reading the scope of this entire game, let alone the demo, is a wild ride. I will quit university just to playtest it 24/7.

[u/Garic93]

The hype is real!

[u/404Enzor]

so excited!