Hey,
Sorry I disappeared for a while there. Life happened. I've recently come back to this, and found V13 to be absolutely excellent. The Aspect of Undeath's playstyle is a sheer joy, I must say. Also, I'm sorry about the Kickstarter. It's a shame. Nonetheless, what you've done is already incredible, and I reckon it could easily become something really special given time. Who knows, maybe the time will be right later?
Anyway, I hope to see you persevere!
As of right now, you actually cannot control the military at all, it's automated. I'm pretty sure that Bobby has mentioned that overhauling this is high on his list of priorities, though. Now I don't want to put words in his mouth, so I stand ready to be corrected, but that's what I though was the case.
I'll do my bit in mentioning it to my friends. I've already introduced three people, here's hoping for the best. As for the lore, well, I don't see a reason why you couldn't just start the game with a "select your Ancient Evil" screen, which changes what particular nasty is imprisoned beneath the ground/exists only as a shadowy wraith/etc? If you need ideas, well, you could always look into the Cthulhu Mythos, or if you want to take the short route, you could take a quick look at Arkham Horror (which draws so heavily from Lovecraft that it actually uses lots of his characters directly). One thing you might leverage is the fact that fishmen have a long and storied history in cosmic horror, since in Lovecraft they were basically Cthulhu's parahuman cultist "children". Just a few ideas:
*A sea deity/spirit/giant cosmic squid that gets a bonus to spawning and using Fishmen.
*A necromantic being that draws strength from death - perhaps stronger plagues/undead?
*A sort of Primal Entity that has influence over natural forces, like volcanoes and earthquakes.
*A Planetary Parasite that spreads a unique type of terrain that is useful only to itself and its minions, while being hostile to all other life.
All of this is just spitballing, of course. No guarantee that any of these are suitable for the actual game.
Also, I had one other question: one of the coolest purported features of That Which Sleeps was the ability to play as different kinds of cosmic evil - a planetary parasite that controls the minds of men, a trapped titan that can see the future, or an omnicidal deity whose shattered body forms the very planet. This kind of customization seemed cool, something akin to the different nations in Civ, with each giving a different way to play the game. I don't know how viable something like this would be to implement, but it'd seem cool. For instance, maybe one Ancient Evil has the power to create a unique kind of Thrall, with special abilities, or perhaps a certain other gets a new spell to call up a volcano or something. At the least, I reckon it's worth considering.
Excellent to see that you've got a solid plan in mind. All too many projects fall victim to an excess of ambition and an insufficient plan to accomplish it all (and not only inexperienced indie devs - just look at the Broken Age fiasco). In any case, I look forward to Shadows! May it have a bright (heh) future!
Hey man, this is a really interesting project, especially after the disappointment that followed on hearing about That Which Sleeps, then learning that it might never come out. I'll be interested to follow a cool game all the way from its earliest days. Wishing you the best for the possible Kickstarter, or just, well, further development.
Also, while patchnotes make it clear that you already know this, the A.I should probably have some way to counteract the Climate Change spells. Perhaps Lightbringers should be capable of casting climate restoration spells, at least in certain areas? I'm pretty sure that if I became aware that a dark power was constantly raising the global temperature, the first thing I'd do is find some kind of climate magic.
