Building a party has always been one of my favorite activities in any RPG. I've spent um, many hours building characters, for skyrim, Wizardry 7, Might and Magic World of Xeen, XCOM, etc.. What we have here now is not at that level of depth, yet. But it's exciting for me to see it taking shape.
The other more prosaic thing about this screen is that it gives us access to configure the game as we start it. This is basically required functionality in order to iterate on campaign mechanics.
Mechanics like vision and scouting.
also real pathfinding! Funk little algorithm called Theta-star..
Instead of revealing the land as you walk around, we've added a Scouting step. You can scout at the edge of visible terrain. Scouting is a job that needs to be completed.
When scouting is complete, the terrain, and any hidden dungeons in the area are revealed.
The other major overland mechanic that's coming in to focus is Danger. The Lands are either safe, wild, or hostile. Safe lands automatically grant vision, but wild and hostile land is only visible if there's a hero nearby. We have a new fog of war visual layer to illustrate this distinction, which you can see above.
Funny thing is, as we do this work, our conception of what the campaign gameplay is all about has changed a lot. At least, it has in the details. We used to have a design for stations, resources, and a tech tree. Our current design doesn't need any of that. We like it because it strips the overland game to the bare essentials of exploration, defending and expanding territory, and it lets the individual heroes take center stage with their quests and stories.
In another way, our current conception of the campaign is pretty well in line with our original vision. You push out across the map, making it safe for the townsfolk under your protection, removing threats, finding hidden monsters, and dangerous lairs along the way.
There are more campaign changes incoming. Threats, Dungeons, Calamities, Monster Decks... Lots of fun stuff.
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