Dev Diary #36: Intrigue Happenings

[Xerberus]

I wonder if development of this is why they have not said if we will get any new Story realms until the Archon expansion. It's possible Intrigue/Cosmic Happenings will be sold in future DLC's in place of Story realms since it looks like the same work goes into making them.

i think they focus on content & features rather than story realms because the majority of players want more features & content instead of story campaigns.

statistically only a small single digit percentage of 4x players even play story campaigns, most play the main game which is random realms. so i guess they work more in the area most people actually want. i am glad they don't waste time in every dlc to implement some story content.

 

[Xerberus]

Hmmm, I am tentatively hopeful about this. Some sort of quest-chain system has been a request I've been hoping to see for the longest time, and even though it is bitterly disappointing that you are keeping this as DLC exclusive, the simple fact it exists is a positive sign.

6 Unique Happenings does not sound too engaging... but having 90 different variants gives this a great depth, and we can see this system fleshed out further with more Unique Happenings to be found in future DLC or updates, which I am very hopeful will be done.

Beyond all this, however, I have one question: How moddable are these Unique Happenings going to be? Because I seriously hope the team have done the legwork to make this system Mod-friendly. This is the perfect subsystem to let people add their own Unique Quests/Happenings into the game and flesh out the game even more! Tomes? Who needs Tomes when we have Quests?

how is it bitterly disappointing that they ask for money for their work? do you work for free or do you ask for due payment for your hard work too?

they already give the hero skill system rework for free, they could've sold us that too with ways of war. go 10 or 20 years back and stuff like that would be in an expansion. also if you want a certain dlc then you had to buy the expansions chronological because they were build on top of each other. i honestly don't get the entitlement some guys have nowadays, thinking they are owed anything.

you paid for a product that they already delivered to you. everything beyond some bug fixing is extra content which should be paid for. if the devs are so kind and deliver free content then its nice of them, but i wouldn't stand here and expect several years of free work just because i feel entitled.

i don't know your age but maybe once you actually start working for a living or think about what it entails you start to understand that everything has a cost and nothing is free in this world, you shouldnt ask something of another person you aren't willing yourself to do.

 

[Xerberus]

This continuous appeal to the "majority" and not "wasting time" is such a slippery slope that leads to games feeling like they're produced by statisticians in a manufacturing line.

I'm not particularly fond of story campaigns (or content that is single-player only), but I can at least realize their importance to the game as a whole. Does the fact that the majority don't play multiplayer mean that Triumph should just stop supporting MP in their next game? Does the fact that the majority plays in easy difficulty (48%) mean that Brutal difficulty (6%) should be ignored?

I only recently started playing story realms during downtime between my MP games, and it's given the game a new lease of life that I didn't even realize I would like.

creating something the majority wants and focusing your limited time towards it doesn't have anything to do with a statistician in a manufacturing line, just common sense and business logic. why should they invest 90% of their time what only less than 10% want and rather have something else.

i have nothing particular against story content in 4x games, i just think that sometimes those stuff is detrimental to a game because it takes much more time to create and implement than features & content that adds more replayability to the game.

story events have no importants to the game, you can deliver the lore through different means, for example through the event system. that doesn't mean they shouldn't create them. by all means they can add story realms and i won't complain, i play them myself, although mainly for the unique leader unlocks. i don't care about their storyline, i like the lore of the game but if leader x battles leader y and is happy yada yada isn't relevant for me. if i want to watch a story and go watch a movie or play an RPG game. i and most gamers play 4x games for the sandbox to create a world and your own empire which you see to its rise.

there can be story content and i think the current one is in a perfect spot, i was just saying that only having 1 dlc including a new story ream or two is more than enough, not every dlc need to have a story realm. its not that important.

regarding multiplayer and story realms ....30% user playing MP and 8,8% of players actually finishing the story realm is quite a big difference. in most 4x games between 4 and 7 % of players do story realms. that is in most 4x games the campaign nowadays is either omitted or goes in later with some dlc. the reason they won't do a story dlc is because less than 10% of the actual player base would buy it, because most don't play these.

so your sense of "worth" doesn't equal everybody elses sense, which is fine, just that its understandable why they don't focus on it. i would've like Age of Wonders 4 as much as i do even if it didn't have any story realms in it. if they asked me if i want story realms or another ruler type or two then i would've gladly picked the ladder.

 

[Mammoet]

This continuous appeal to the "majority" and not "wasting time" is such a slippery slope that leads to games feeling like they're produced by statisticians in a manufacturing line.

People need to put in work to make things happen and these people need to be paid. Working on features that 'nobody' cares about isn't the best way to bring in money.

Don't get me wrong. I don't like it either, but it's the sad reality of a world where everything is about money. And especially in the games market, which is pretty saturated, it can be quite tricky to stay alive as a studio.

That said, I'm quite happy that there will be more flavour to random maps. I don't see myself playing the story realms more than once.

 

[seperamos]

This continuous appeal to the "majority" and not "wasting time" is such a slippery slope that leads to games feeling like they're produced by statisticians in a manufacturing line.

I'm not particularly fond of story campaigns (or content that is single-player only), but I can at least realize their importance to the game as a whole. Does the fact that the majority don't play multiplayer mean that Triumph should just stop supporting MP in their next game? Does the fact that the majority plays in easy difficulty (48%) mean that Brutal difficulty (6%) should be ignored?

I only recently started playing story realms during downtime between my MP games, and it's given the game a new lease of life that I didn't even realize I would like.

It would be far easier to have all the tools we need to create our own story realms, as opposed to expecting the developers to craft one for every dlc.

If it is possible to create a narrative for at least one planet, using realms chained together by constants, that would itself make for a perfect pantheon specific campaign.

 

[STARSDragoon]

It would be far easier to have all the tools we need to create our own story realms, as opposed to expecting the developers to craft one for every dlc.

If it is possible to create a narrative for at least one planet, using realms chained together by constants, that would itself make for a perfect pantheon specific campaign.

I am pretty sure you can make story realms. Though, you probably would need some kind of explanation what to expect and do. Like "story expects you to play as a faction like this "

 

[Arcantos_the_Storyteller]

90 Events means there are 90 of these content blocks, not 90 different outcomes/variations to these Happenings.
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As for it being moddable: I believe the modders can use the same tools as us developers. In essence these are elaborate quest and event chains, so if you can make those, you should be able to mess around with these Happenings as well ^^

Right, my apologies for the misunderstanding.

Well, most mods go for Tomes from what I see, but perhaps the addition of this system will encourage people to work on them? Especially, from what I know, most modders tended to avoid Story Realms? This is basically Story Realms, in any scenario, so it should be more open. Really hope so at least.

 

[johnny54321]

Looks incredible. Can't wait for this DLC.
Only critique is try to get it functioning in multiplayer.

 

[Astronlmo]

Btw.
Do we get new normal happenings in addition to that? Maybe, even affinity related stuff?

 

[Yavor]

Thank You for this improvement, Dear Devs! Especially a big Thank You for giving more love to the Singleplayer Godir! I know that I am one of them and the Intrigue happenings are now my favorite addition out of this DLC! Singleplayer rulers are silent, however we are numerous, so I am guessing many people will be happy for this gift of immersion.
Keep up the good work! You have done well, Michelle!