Game Framework
1. Mouse and Keyboard Map: LMB – Movement/Performing an Action, RMB – Array of Actions, Q – Jumping/Climbing, WSAD - Movement, Spacebar – Pause, Shift – Running, Ctrl – Sneaking, J – Journal. Including Shortcut Keys for actions chosen with the Mouse.
Array of Actions - Interact, Converse, Inspect, Attack, Journal, Skills, Craft.
2. Engine Details: Within the video game, the Player's focus is on the Playable Character which is, by default, placed at the centre of the screen.
This is as of the Bird's Eye view camera which is a moveable Isometric camera which can be rotated in a full circle around the PC as well as zoomed in or out.
As the Player rotates the 3D environment, the Player might find something obstructing the view of the PC and its surroundings and in that case, the obstacles become translucent or a 85% opaque.
While it might seem that the days of Isometric RPGs are long gone, the genre of Real Time Strategies will never leave the Isometric camera.
That is where innovative techniques such as the one described in the next sentence come into play. A system of seamless loading between cubes that would average at around a 27 Isometric game screens at maximum zoom out.
The one which the Player Character is within and all the surrounding ones to allow for travel between these cubes.
This means that the models and textures, as well as the entire graphical side of the game, would be processed by the Personal Computer only in the cube in which the PC would currently be in. The movements and actions of Characters would be processed without graphics in the entirety of the sandbox map with the exception of the cube in which the PC is within.
As the Player leads the PC to move into a new cube by moving into the border subcubes, the previous one is cleared while the new one is loaded. When the PC moves into a border subcube, 9 subcubes are deactivated while 9 are loaded, maintaining a procedurally projected game world.
In other words, the entire 3D map of the world within the video game is divided into cubes and only the one in which the Player Character is will be the one fully loaded. The PC can move back into the subcube in which it was because it is still fully loaded.
Only widescreen graphic display resolutions are available in the graphics setting of the video game.
In a 3D environment there is more than the directions of a compass, there is also altitude.
To represent altitude in the video game, subcubes exist upwards as well as downwards in order to allow for buildings to have many stories or floors, for rooftops to be an area available to the Characters and for dungeons, tombs and caverns to be explorable.
FPP and TPP cameras would allow looking up, the distance covered by the cube would be followed by fog of war.
3. Light Source and Shadows: The Light Source system is based on day and night as well as light sources smaller than the actual light source of the setting and so, it calculates shadows. Shadows allow for more efficient sneaking and can also allow invisibility for the Character whom is hiding within.
A person standing in the light of the day will not notice a person sneaking in the shadow of a building's west side while the light shines from the east.
The shadow will essentially be too dark to pierce with eyesight unless someone enters it and adapts to the darkness.
The shadow system is not a real time shadow simulation yet instead a collection of translucent engine objects that define whether an area classifies as an area within shadow.
As the Setting's Light Source continues its cycle, some of these objects disappear in order to appear elsewhere unless there are light sources present in these places.
Carried torches and lanterns function in the same way a static torch or lantern does. All of the small Light Sources remove parts, in the example of a torch, a circle around it, of the preset shadows which function as the aforementioned objects or overlays upon the projection of the map.
A Circle of Vision which is meant to represent both sight and hearing of a Character. It can be improved with Skills or Characteristics and it works against other Characters' Skills and Characteristics when a Character sneaks.
The circle of vision does not pierce shadows which might disappear when a Character carrying a lightsource enters a shadow area/object.
Shadows cast by characters are cosmetic and do not appear within shadows.
4. Animations, colliding models: The Simulation is also meant to offer fluid animations and an array of movement within the video game, walking through crowds, jumping and running, climbing and sneaking, skimming between Characters or objects as the Character models collide within the environment.
5. Generic Adventures: Events that happen around a Character are recorded in that Character's Journal based on the database of events that might happen within the video game. In example, a script activates when an NPC dies and the death is recorded into the Journal of all the Characters who were present or found out.
Similarly, a script would activate if the PC stole something from an NPC and the NPC would note and offer the quest to the guard. Or the other way around, after all, NPCs can steal from the PC.
This allows for Generic Quests and adventures to happen in the simulation. The database aforementioned contains all possible types of quests and events and scripting allows for these quests and events to happen as artificial lives progress within the simulation.
Countless adventures await based on random occurrences, or events, happening based on the NPCs travelling and the work that the NPCs perform. This includes animals and beasts. These events exist beside the actual quests which form the Plot as well as an abundance of side quests which can merge with AI created events within the storyline.
In example, the antagonism of 2 Characters leads to a side quest appearing while it may also not appear or disappear within the passage of events and advancing time.
A character will seek out the people, directions and even lore upon having a need to learn of any of the aforementioned matters. A generic quest, side quest or even need for items or a place to sleep at. A drunk stumbling upon his way home as an example.
6. Quests: Each Quest is in fact a topic within the journal which has a description. This means that each quest is a journal entry, the generic adventures as well.
7. Reading: When the PC opens a book or a letter, any form of script, the journal opens and the text is presented therein, under Lore. Time passes at 50% when the journal is opened. Bookmarks organise the journal.
8. Journal Bookmarks: Characteristics, Skills, Lore, Locations, Characters, Inventory, Inventories, Events, Quests.
9. Characteristics and Skills: Strength, Agility, Endurance and Intellect as well as Sense, these are the Characteristics of a Character.
The Skills are based on movement, combat and dialogue as well as work and the Array of Actions and are divided into the usable Skills and the passive Skills.
Stealth, climbing, physical endurance, melee and ranged combat, haggling, work related Skills, lying and sorcery to name a few.
Knowledge points are spent on a passive Skill as all Characteristics are essentially passive in order to spend knowledge on usable Skills and Passive Skills or a few.
Sense is a variation on sanity and wit in speech merged into one. It is the valid reasoning of social behaviour and norms, even the world past intellect which constitutes knowledge and natural predispositions.
Sanity takes its toll through gaining stress in combat, work and life. In diplomacy and deceit all is possible through exactly wit and cunning which are sense.
Skills are connected to the possible occupations or work, in the end there are 35.
The Strength Skills cover Blacksmithing that includes production of metal trade goods, nails, horseshoes, hinges, locks, perhaps even coated rooftiles as well as Melee combat, Farming, Mining and even manipulation of objects as well as a set of special skills named Heroic Strength.
All Characteristics include the same amount of skills. This leaves 5 unique Heroic Skills.
The Usable Skills are not neccessary nor required, the point of the Skill Lists is to govern artificial lifes similarly to the percentages of health, fatigue and so on. Passive Skills define all a character might know, Usable skills are an addition and gameplay improvement.
In example, Melee: Cleave, Skewer, Bash (Usable Skills) that replace a normal attack in order to achieve some goal. Dodge, counter and parry can affect any of these usable Melee Skills. Parrying, Shield proficiency, Wielding two-handed. (Passive Skills)
Might affects Melee in the same way that Stealth might affect Archery or Fortitude might affect Carpentry.
10. Characteristic Skills:
Strength – 1. Melee 2. Might 3. Carpentry 4. Construction 5. Fishing 6. Blacksmithing 7. Heroic Strength
Agility – 1. Archery 2. Athletics 3. Stealth 4. Thievery 5. Tailoring 6. Leatherworking 7. Heroic Agility
Endurance – 1. Vigour 2. Fortitude 3. Courage 4. Perception 5. Farming 6. Mining 7. Heroic Endurance
Intellect – 1. Wit 2. Cunning 3. Herbalism 4. Shopkeeping 5. Management 6. Intelligence(Sorcery) 7. Heroic Intellect
Sense – 1. Haggling 2. Deceit 3. Lyrical 4. Art 5. Strain 6. Sanity(Sorcery) 7. Heroic Sense
Usable and Passive 'Feats' to each Skill within each Characteristic. Perfection in Wit is a 100% as Unawareness in Carpentry is a 0%.
11. Knowledge Points: Emerging victorious over a group of bandits, successfully crafting an item or finishing work on something allows a Character to gain some SAEIS Knowledge Points.
Knowledge is divided into the 5 groups based on how it was earned as well as general knowledge and is automatically distributed into the appropriate characteristic.
When accessing the journal, the Player can obtain new Skills with a characteristic's KPs and improve the Skills that are already known.
Although KPs might come in abundance, perfect Characteristics and all available Skills cannot be attained by a single Character during a playthrough. It is possible to be skilled in many professions yet not in all.
As was mentioned, Knowledge Points amassed through deeds are used to improve Passive Skills and unlock Usable Skills. Forging a sword would amount to a few KPs, the same amount that shooting an arrow successfully at a living target would.
In example, a blacksmith gains 5 KPs upon a successful finale to forging a longsword, a hunter gains 5 KPs upon killing a stag with a longbow. A vital source strike and killing the stag in one strike would amount up to a 10 KPs.
In general, "heroic" Skills award more KPs than "mundane" ones. Thievery, Combat, Sorcery are the "heroic" Skills.
"Mundane" tasks award less KPs as the Passive Skills improve. "Heroic" tasks award the same amount of KPs, always.
A stronger blacksmith will take less time to forge a, for example, claymore. A really good blacksmith might even forge an artefact. Items that are more difficult to craft award more KPs than the ones which are easier.
There are more Usable Skills and Passive Skills in combat than in work and so, more experience is earned in combat related Skills rather than in, for example, carpentry.
12. Health, Stress and Fatigue: Wounds or damage as well as pain dealt to a Character equals loss of the health percentage and a rise of the fatigue percentage respectively.
Pain lowers a Character's fatigue percentage as a Character receives it, resulting in possible loss of consciousness at a hundred percent fatigue.
Wounds can be treated with Herbalism knowledge and appropriate medicine while resting only alleviates pain which also represents bruises, long term rising of the fatigue percentage.
Fatigue regenerates slowly, health does not. Thirst and hunger as well as stress complete the 5 percentages that rule life within the setting.
Alcohol inebriates the Character who uses it. Not only does the Character who has partaken lose some social Skills, they also receive a penalty to all dice rolls within the system. The status of inebriation starts after a Character has drunk a bottle of hard drink or 4 of a softer variant.
The penalties all vanish in time or through sleeping. One cannot decide how long one sleeps as when sober, it is always the maximum value of a one night sleep while Characters that are not drunk can nap as well through deciding to sleep less than the maximum resting period of 12 hours.
There are no benefits to being drunk past reducing stress even though it is a popular activity. Tobacco drains fatigue and offers only a reduction of stress lesser than alcohol in the form of an activity that Characters enjoy partaking in, the same as drinking alcohol.
As for hemp, it raises the maximum fatigue while rising the current amount the Character has besides being an activity of the aforementioned sort as well.
It is a peculiar substance that is not used by most yet it allows for a deep waking rest and so, has its place within the world of the setting.
Hemp and some other herbs as well as alcohol heighten the pain threshold or when pain activates and lessen the pain acquired by a Character as well. Open wounds cause pain over time.
Furthermore, if a character becomes obese, which is possible through eating more than hunger requires daily, the character loses some agility and has an additional agility cap which prevents the character from becoming too agile.
Hunger and Thirst will, upon draining fully, affect Fatigue, raising it.
13. Array of Actions: The Array of Actions is a list or menu that allows for the following 6 options which expand into further lists: Use, Talk, Inspect, Attack, Skills, Craft.
In example, the action of "Cutpurse" is not visible in the Array of Actions until KPs are spent on acquiring the usable skill within the skill of Thievery.
All Usable Skills are a part of the Array of Actions and depending on the Skill in question, need to be acquired or learned.
14. Dialogues: Conversations within the Simulation work through the 8 points of the Dialogue Star: People, Lore, Directions and Work, Friendship, Romance, Trade as well as Grouping.
All of the aforementioned continue into lists of topics that have descriptions and can lead towards further lists of topics.
The descriptions of topics are essentially dialogue lines that are randomised with each conversation. These should be 1 or 2 sentence long for a quick exchange of words, the statistic of Sense and the Skills that it governs would allow for different options instead of the generic, quite similarly to Intellect or Stress.
Characters and items, locations present in the setting, trade and thievery, romance branches such as flirting or dedication, friendship branches and so on are the topics present in the lists at the points of the DS.
Chosen topics affect the availability of future topics as does the Relationship System. Group conversations can happen as well. Up to 5 Characters can talk simultaneously with the Characters speaking in turns.
Essentially, the Player Character can approach same as he or she can be approached by Non-Playable Characters.
The Player uses the right mouse button to pick the option of dialogue out of the Array of Actions in order to converse with an NPC or a group of NPCs, that is how the radial menu of the Dialogue Star appears upon the game screen.
The Player chooses the option of Lore which is visible only as a randomised dialogue line of the sort, ie. "Might I ask you of..." and this way a list of topics appears, quite similar to the Inventory system.
Locations, as one example, work through Characters giving one another directions from the nearest landmark, location, building or road sign.
The Player can choose, for an example, the Morgrayn Castle topic which is visible as "the Morgrayn Castle." and this way the dialogue continues with the NPC answering the PC based on their Journal.
If the NPC does not know of the location, only the topic that would be visible to the player as "I do not know of Morgrayn Castle." is available to the NPC and it chooses this option or a rude variant of "I do not know." based on the variables.
"I do not know." is essentially the topic but the sentence might appear as a dialogue line. If the NPC does have Morgrayn Castle Lore or Directions within their Journal they might answer with the information the Player is looking for.
If the Character which was asked does not know of the location, a Lore topic, the Character gains the Lore topic in its Journal.
Non-Playable Characters stop their loitering to talk to other Characters in their free time and stop their tasks to talk when in need to do so.
The Player Character encounters NPCs wanting to speak to him or her and stopping beside to indicate the possibility of a conversation through the dialogue line or description of the topic the engine chose appearing above the head of the NPC.
Dialogue choices are not recorded in the database of events, only relations between people and Generic Quests are. Both small Intellect as well as insanity would make a Character speak poorly rather than well.