So is this project dead? Really sad if so. So many great idea´s and i love the art.
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He was still working on it as recently as late September. This thread on javagaming.org is probably a better place to look for future updates.
Work is still proceeding, albeit slowly. I'm just reluctant to post further updates without something to download.
We waited almost a decade for a Majesty sequel (some might say we're still waiting for one); I think we can endure a little while longer.
Alright. This probably counts as the most unholy form of thread necromancy... but under the circumstances, I think it's allowable.
I have, at long last, put together a 90%-functional demo version of this game. The following caveats apply-
* This is no longer particularly closely based on the Majesty franchise per se (though I have borrowed a few of the basic gameplay ideas, with significant modification.)
* There are no sound FX, whether music or voicelines. I need someone else to work on those.
* For now, it only runs on Mac OSX. I am working on a windows version, but as you can see, instant gratification is not my forte. Stay tuned.
...With all that said, here it is-
https://github.com/Morgan-Allen/Presidium_Demo_Mac
Just click on 'download zip', and double-click Presidium_App to run. The codebase is accessible here-
https://github.com/Morgan-Allen/Presidium
Barring some extra polishing and content updates over the next month or two, I believe I have now taken this project about as far as I can by myself. There are a couple of places I could shop it around, but for the present, what you see is pretty well what you get.
At any rate, for anyone still reading- thank you for your patience, and any feedback is welcome. It's been... very educational.
I have, at long last, put together a 90%-functional demo version of this game. The following caveats apply-
* This is no longer particularly closely based on the Majesty franchise per se (though I have borrowed a few of the basic gameplay ideas, with significant modification.)
* There are no sound FX, whether music or voicelines. I need someone else to work on those.
* For now, it only runs on Mac OSX. I am working on a windows version, but as you can see, instant gratification is not my forte. Stay tuned.
...With all that said, here it is-
https://github.com/Morgan-Allen/Presidium_Demo_Mac
Just click on 'download zip', and double-click Presidium_App to run. The codebase is accessible here-
https://github.com/Morgan-Allen/Presidium
Barring some extra polishing and content updates over the next month or two, I believe I have now taken this project about as far as I can by myself. There are a couple of places I could shop it around, but for the present, what you see is pretty well what you get.
At any rate, for anyone still reading- thank you for your patience, and any feedback is welcome. It's been... very educational.
Hello all (like, 2 of you)-
After due consideration, I'm afraid I've decided that I'm going to have to cancel (or at least indefinitely postpone) my development of this project.
Part of the reason for the delay in pushing new releases has been that I was hoping to recruit some assistance with web development and tools/engine programming, and unfortunately the individuals who volunteered for the purpose haven't maintained their commitments in that area. That, combined with the strain on my limited time and finances and the continued apparent disinterest of publishers or developers means that I can't really justify the effort any more.
I know I haven't always been the most gracious and tactful of individuals, but I have to confess to some mixed feelings about this project. I was hoping to see more interest from fans of the original Majesty than actually materialised, though it's possible the slow pace of the project undermined that goal.
I hope, in future, I can do better.
After due consideration, I'm afraid I've decided that I'm going to have to cancel (or at least indefinitely postpone) my development of this project.
Part of the reason for the delay in pushing new releases has been that I was hoping to recruit some assistance with web development and tools/engine programming, and unfortunately the individuals who volunteered for the purpose haven't maintained their commitments in that area. That, combined with the strain on my limited time and finances and the continued apparent disinterest of publishers or developers means that I can't really justify the effort any more.
I know I haven't always been the most gracious and tactful of individuals, but I have to confess to some mixed feelings about this project. I was hoping to see more interest from fans of the original Majesty than actually materialised, though it's possible the slow pace of the project undermined that goal.
I hope, in future, I can do better.
Hi Alfryd,
I'm sorry to hear that your project didn't work out, I've always kept an eye on these Majesty forums, and I've greatly appreciated most of the ideas that you've posted concerning Majesty. Hopefully you have better luck on your next project, if you pursue another.
I'm sorry to hear that your project didn't work out, I've always kept an eye on these Majesty forums, and I've greatly appreciated most of the ideas that you've posted concerning Majesty. Hopefully you have better luck on your next project, if you pursue another.
Well, I appreciate the sympathy. I'm gonna take a week or two to think about this and see if I can maybe release a very cut-down version, if only as a portfolio piece, or something. Just... uh. Don't hold your breath.
That would be awesome if you could! I took a look back further in this thread, and at your GitHub page, and you had a ton of stuff done on this project. Would be a shame to not see a release of all the work you put into this project.
Alright. First things first:
You can find the most up-to-date releases of the game in it's current condition below. (The 0.9.2 version might be the most stable, but some folks have reported problems running on OSX, and 0.10 has a couple of extra features. The Windows build may need further testing, and there will be bugs, so use at your own risk.)
https://github.com/Morgan-Allen/Presidium-Graphics-Overhaul/releases
If anyone is still interested in helping, I would suggest playing through the tutorial and giving me your impressions. My own take is that the complexity of the existing codebase has reached the limits of what I can viably manage by myself, and probably needs a rewrite. (Gameplay complexity is part of the cause here, which I can only blame myself for.) Therefore, if I proceed with this project, I'm going to have to cut the feature set right down to the bone and see how much I can simplify.
What I might try to do over the next few weeks is put together a functional 'clone' of the original Majesty, then use that as a basis for further tweaks and refinement. Very simple economy, bare-bones skillsets and flag-options, plus a couple of sovereign spells. (I've had a small financial windfall and might be getting a new job, so the time and money available to me are still very much variables in flux. No promises.)
You can find the most up-to-date releases of the game in it's current condition below. (The 0.9.2 version might be the most stable, but some folks have reported problems running on OSX, and 0.10 has a couple of extra features. The Windows build may need further testing, and there will be bugs, so use at your own risk.)
https://github.com/Morgan-Allen/Presidium-Graphics-Overhaul/releases
If anyone is still interested in helping, I would suggest playing through the tutorial and giving me your impressions. My own take is that the complexity of the existing codebase has reached the limits of what I can viably manage by myself, and probably needs a rewrite. (Gameplay complexity is part of the cause here, which I can only blame myself for.) Therefore, if I proceed with this project, I'm going to have to cut the feature set right down to the bone and see how much I can simplify.
What I might try to do over the next few weeks is put together a functional 'clone' of the original Majesty, then use that as a basis for further tweaks and refinement. Very simple economy, bare-bones skillsets and flag-options, plus a couple of sovereign spells. (I've had a small financial windfall and might be getting a new job, so the time and money available to me are still very much variables in flux. No promises.)
Hello Alfryd!
I watched your announce a few years ago, and glad you didnt abandon your work till this moment.
Demo looks like a very ambitious project with a lot of depth an complexity in mechanics. Maybe the game should be more simple in general, for the first steps? With a mechanics working at the level of Warcraft 2, in example
A few notes, i dunno if i need to talk about them at the current state of game, and yet i ll try. The heroes wont walk outside the Citadel, and when i click on the grey flag over the base building, the game shuts down. The buildings also didnt costructed for me.
I tried a random map, recruited a few of heroes and suddenly i saw as they started to interact between each other. And i have SO MUCH FUN AND PLEASURE just watching at that silent conversation between units.
Still muxch better interaction than a Majesty 2 (dont take that as an insult please : ) )
Also, are the plants growing from the earth over time?
Sorry for my english.
I watched your announce a few years ago, and glad you didnt abandon your work till this moment.
Demo looks like a very ambitious project with a lot of depth an complexity in mechanics. Maybe the game should be more simple in general, for the first steps? With a mechanics working at the level of Warcraft 2, in example
A few notes, i dunno if i need to talk about them at the current state of game, and yet i ll try. The heroes wont walk outside the Citadel, and when i click on the grey flag over the base building, the game shuts down. The buildings also didnt costructed for me.
I tried a random map, recruited a few of heroes and suddenly i saw as they started to interact between each other. And i have SO MUCH FUN AND PLEASURE just watching at that silent conversation between units.
Still muxch better interaction than a Majesty 2 (dont take that as an insult please : ) )
Also, are the plants growing from the earth over time?
Sorry for my english.
Hey Polite_Orc- it's great that you enjoyed what's there. Dialogue between heroes was something I always wanted to see. And yeah, vegetation grows on the landscape over time.
I agree on the need to cut back to a simpler set of core content. Fortunately the rewrite process seems to be going smoothly, so I might have something to show there in the next week or two (or three.)
Regarding bugs- could you send on your most recent save and any log output (both should be in the saves/ folder) to ma.presidium@gmail.com? Was this a problem with the 0.9.2 or 0.10 build? I'll see if I can I iron out those quirks with construction/pathing at least.
I agree on the need to cut back to a simpler set of core content. Fortunately the rewrite process seems to be going smoothly, so I might have something to show there in the next week or two (or three.)
Regarding bugs- could you send on your most recent save and any log output (both should be in the saves/ folder) to ma.presidium@gmail.com? Was this a problem with the 0.9.2 or 0.10 build? I'll see if I can I iron out those quirks with construction/pathing at least.
It looks like the most problems of mine were because of lack of the settlers in Tutorial. I started the normal game instead of tutorial and everything is fine and smooth.
People constructing buildings, roads, walking towards the exploration flags. Looks cool.
Sent the log from the version for Windows, download it from the link for "v.0.10", ingame in credits it called "0.11". My OS is Win 8.1.
Good luck with your creations, i hope it will not meddle into your work
Impressive daynight system, by the way
Also, i found a few objects in the woods) Nice
People constructing buildings, roads, walking towards the exploration flags. Looks cool.
Sent the log from the version for Windows, download it from the link for "v.0.10", ingame in credits it called "0.11". My OS is Win 8.1.
Good luck with your creations, i hope it will not meddle into your work
Impressive daynight system, by the way
Also, i found a few objects in the woods) Nice
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Much to my embarrassment, it turns out that the .xml scripts needed for the tutorial sequence to function correctly were stripped out completely in the public builds... I'll have a fix for that this evening and maybe a little video sequence as well for completeness.
@PoliteOrc: Thanks for the tipoff!
@PoliteOrc: Thanks for the tipoff!
Okay, the most recent build should have fixes for some of the most glaring bugs. Video walkthrough below, where I also discover my voice sounds 50% more pretentious than expected.
I think that'll be it for the next few weeks. The job came through, so I'll be a little occupied settling in and, uh... I guess I'll see what my schedule allows after that.
I think that'll be it for the next few weeks. The job came through, so I'll be a little occupied settling in and, uh... I guess I'll see what my schedule allows after that.
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Okay, it's been a couple of weeks, so here's a small update- settling in at the new job has gone reasonably well, but at the moment my schedule is a little busy for a sustained effort at developing Stratos much further. However, I *did* have time to put together a more streamlined codebase which essentially clones Maj1 mechanically and generally feels a lot cleaner. I'm also getting a new PC in about 2 weeks which might at least allow me to compile some more reliable Windows builds.
I've been thinking... part of the reason why the development process felt awkward before is that adding more unique variables to the heroes & citizens- i.e, practice-based progression for individual skills, plus personality traits and relationships- basically created far more data than the player can keep track of. In Majesty, you can supervise 20-40 heroes at a time because there are only 2 real variables to remember- class and level- which pretty reliably characterise their behaviour. If the heroes had 8 unique variables each (4 skills + 4 personality traits, say)- then the theoretical sweet spot for supervision goes down to 5-10 units. And if a character has 15 skills, 5 traits and 10 relationships each, then a given player can only keep up with 1 or 2. (At which point there's little justification for indirect control.)
One possible workaround is to accommodate complexity by only expanding the roster slowly- starting out with a handful of agents and adding a couple more troopers/runners/tek priests etc. with each mission. This would require significant changes to XP gain, challenge curves and the overall pace of base-building relative to either Maj1 or Maj2, however.
Another tack is to do what Crusader Kings does and hold dozens of nuanced characters in memory, but arrange things such that only a dozen or so matter to the player at any given time. I'm not certain how that would translate in a Majesty-style game, though.
In retrospect this should have been blindingly obvious to me (in fact, Spiderman warned me about 'citizen clutter' on the forums months/years ago) but, uh... it's something I'll have to take into account before I go tweaking the design.
I've been thinking... part of the reason why the development process felt awkward before is that adding more unique variables to the heroes & citizens- i.e, practice-based progression for individual skills, plus personality traits and relationships- basically created far more data than the player can keep track of. In Majesty, you can supervise 20-40 heroes at a time because there are only 2 real variables to remember- class and level- which pretty reliably characterise their behaviour. If the heroes had 8 unique variables each (4 skills + 4 personality traits, say)- then the theoretical sweet spot for supervision goes down to 5-10 units. And if a character has 15 skills, 5 traits and 10 relationships each, then a given player can only keep up with 1 or 2. (At which point there's little justification for indirect control.)
One possible workaround is to accommodate complexity by only expanding the roster slowly- starting out with a handful of agents and adding a couple more troopers/runners/tek priests etc. with each mission. This would require significant changes to XP gain, challenge curves and the overall pace of base-building relative to either Maj1 or Maj2, however.
Another tack is to do what Crusader Kings does and hold dozens of nuanced characters in memory, but arrange things such that only a dozen or so matter to the player at any given time. I'm not certain how that would translate in a Majesty-style game, though.
In retrospect this should have been blindingly obvious to me (in fact, Spiderman warned me about 'citizen clutter' on the forums months/years ago) but, uh... it's something I'll have to take into account before I go tweaking the design.
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This is really impressive and goes far beyond the concept stage that I last noticed on this, couple of years back. It is puzzling that so few have noticed it. Could you, please, pitch this build to Paradox? Its worth a try, they might take the opportunity to finance it.
Good luck with it, truly.
Good luck with it, truly.
Thanks. I appreciate it.
As for approaching Paradox- I didn't want to announce at the time, but I suppose there's no bridge to burn at this point- I was actually talking to Shams about getting Stratos funded/published maybe 2 years ago, but they were reluctant to invest in a solo developer outside of an established studio with some previous titles under their belt. My guess is that some bad experiences with other fan-led projects at around the same time (East vs. West, Magna Mundi), had made them a little more risk-averse than they used to be. I suppose I can't entirely blame them for that. But to my knowledge, no other person at the company has even looked at the demo.
Anyway, the other main option would be to try for a kickstarter, but social media and self-promotion have never been my strong suit. (This might account for some of the low profile.)
To be fair, I would like to keep the citizens & trade skills in some form- probably just scaled back a little.Probably years, I forget myself
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I wasn't trying to say "I told you so" or something like that, but more musing on how long it's been since you've been working on this - it's been a while, so I probably made that comment years ago, when you first started.