Upper-Class Housing, Banks, and the Panopticon news - Ultima Ratio Regum

This week’s main project has been on upper-class housing. There will only be one of these districts in each city and will contain three manors for the most important families in that civilization (including your family); a number of smaller manors for the “second tier” of wealthiest family within that nation; then a range of large houses (larger than what any other district offers) for other wealthy families but ones who cannot quite afford one of these ostentatious manors. In this version you will begin the game in the courtyard of the manor for your family, whilst in other versions once the early-game story introduction is in place, you’ll spawn within the manor (though once you know what the introduction is, you will naturally be able to leave right away and begin the game).

For the sake of interest I also put together an image to show the four different levels of housing. Note that this is four screenshots stitched together – hence why the roads do not match up between districts – but remains nicely illustrative of the four different levels. I’m very pleased with the kind of variation between upper class/middle class/lower class/slums and can’t wait until the point where I can put together an entire image of a city in all its glory. Markets as discussed before are finished, recreational and medical districts are being removed (and absorbed into others), and my next district is probably going to be military districts, though that requires quite a bit of thought first about what exactly I want spawning there. Do be sure to view this one full-size!

Banks and Currencies

For the most part currencies are scheduled for a few releases hence (at least the generation of their images, exchange rates, etc), but since I came up with an interesting idea for banks on the strategic level of the game, I realized I need to implement at least the names of the currencies now even if their full realization would have to wait. As in the real world, the overwhelming majority of coins are metallic, though there are a very small number made from rather more unusual materials that you may come across (no more than one or two per game). Each currency is termed according to the material of its construction and the image that will be on the coin – you might encounter civilizations that deal in Golden Stags, Silver Wolves, Steel Fires, Bronze Axes, Copper Dragons, etc. Some also break down into lesser denominations like shillings, pence, cents, etc (a quick Google for a large number of these terms proved incredibly helpful).

Now, each civilization (Feudals only) will have a central bank with branches in some of its middle-class districts. I wasn’t sure at first what role these could play, but I had an interesting idea for the strategy layer of the game. As I’ve talked about before, the strategy layer of the game will involve navigating the world map in a range of difference ways. Different terrain types and elevations will take different periods of time to go across; some nations will be friendly, some hostile, some unknown; whilst mountains can only be crossed with a mountain pass, deserts with a caravan, and the ocean by finding a trade route and someone willing to accept you onto their ship. One other aspect of this layer is money – different districts will cost different amounts to enter, some exchange rates will/won’t be in your favour, and as you move around the world, you’ll quickly leave your home civilization far behind. Thus, once the strategy layer is implemented you will be able to invest your money into the bank in any civilization you pass through, and interest will accrue, but only in increments of one month and can only be collected if you pass back through that civilization again. The one-month requirement prevents farming (there is no way you can wait around a full month!) whilst it will raise another interesting strategic decision. Do I leave some money here on the assumption I’ll come back later to collect it? How much currency do I think I’ll need on my journeys before I next return to this city? Etc. It’s just a small aspect, but banks now spawn in middle-class districts, ready to receive future customers.Special BuildingsSome more work on special buildings. There are going to be roughly twenty-five in total, and whilst they will not all spawn every game, a decent number of them will; they will then be distributed through-out the world’s cities. This means not every city is going to have one, but most cities will, and these special buildings will be especially prominent in world histories. Some will relate to the core quest, some will relate to other things, and they’ll generally add a little more variety. They will also allow me to further explore some of the sociological themes I want to get at in the game, so below is a screenshot of the player walking around the outside of the Panopticon prison (which this time happened to spawn in a near-polar nation):

Next week, I can safely predict (for once) I’ll be talking about nomadic fortresses as I’ve been working on those the past couple of days. They’re starting to come together and have also helped me come to some conclusions about the role of military districts in cities, certain things to do with weapons (coming a few releases hence), and also to think through some other things about the strategy layer I’ll share next time. Until then, hope you enjoy the Ominous White Pentagon and the city districts, and let me know what you think. You can keep up to date on my devblog, Facebook page, or Twitter feed. The devblog is updated weekly on Saturdays (or sometimes Sundays), Facebook a few times a week, and the Twitter roughly daily. Stay tuned...