The Ancients is a game set on Earth. In 200BC. The Roman Republic is slowly taking the mediterranean by storm, the second of the punic wars has just ended, yet the war against Macedon has just begun - and this is just in Italy. Travel and explore the land and peoples, from the Lusitanians of the Iberian Peninsula to the ancient Ainu of Japan.
Early Map Editor
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Description
Introducing, Lightning's Map Editor in action.
Now, the tileset is still very bare, and the editor is only in workable phase at the moment. However, I decided to show one and all that it's up and working, and we're that step closer.
nice!
Are we going to get our hands on it too, or is it just for you and Lightning?
This is dev-side only. Players have no need for the editors. :)
But it would be fun to play around in.
You should really reconsider keeping the editor proprietary.
"Possibly" is my statement for now, on this matter.
The reason I say that is because to keep your game (and your profits) going, you're going to want to build a community around it. If you have a linear campaign, your game is shelved as soon as it's been beaten. Making the map editor available to your fans enables subsequent campaigns to be developed and released. That's why games like Minecraft and Age of X are so popular: people like making ****.
That's one way of going about building a community; the other being to offer a sandbox to them, so that the player won't need to make their own mods or alternate servers. They can have all the fun and possibilities of modding in one place. This also strengthens player-to-player bonds.
We aren't just chewing out an MMORPG with NPCs who tell you to fetch a useless item that'll disappear when it is returned to them, or to kill 20 boars.
We're making a simulation sandbox. We set rules and ways the world can work, and then setting trigger conditions to trigger world-events; such as quests.
If there are bandits in the area and the town has <X strength, bandits may attack of their own will. If players are in the area to save them or not, is down to chance.
Players can craft the world to their own will. Build their own houses, forts, walls, ditches and defence structures. Wage war anywhere and with anyone. Work your way up the political path and affect the decisions of national forces amongst the Senate, and play political intrigue to strengthen your ideals.
We are making rules for a sandbox to continuously evolve around player input and output, we aren't just making another MMO.