DevBlog: Feudal Activities

The life of Margrave of Amberspiel is full of concerns and worries. You have to balance between the interests of your vassals, resolve crises and at the same time remain an exemplary ruler worthy of the Sovereign's trust. That's quite a feat!

But even busy feudal lords sometimes get an evening of leisure. Do you want to breathe a sigh of relief and press “End of Turn”? Do not rush, because soon you will have many opportunities to spend the time with benefits… or at least to have fun.

Now we are actively developing core gameplay and we are pleased to introduce the Activities. This mechanic gives you more control over gameplay, more customization options, and lets you play your character the way you want.

Work on this mechanic started with the thought that our Margrave, like a prospector in an adit, is constantly working: resolving disputes, executing and pardoning, organizing city building and dealing with plenty of other state issues.

Such a gameplay had two significant issues: firstly, the player mainly reacted to external events such as crises, conflicts, demands, always taking the role of the responder. In addition, as our testers noticed, suffered the immersion - it felt not like the life of the feudal lord in its entirety, but rather like an unceasing job. Truly, where have you seen a feudal lord who does nothing but works? That's how we arrived at the idea of giving the players control over what Konrad does in his spare time.

First of all, we asked: what, in principle, can a feudal lord do at his leisure? We thought, read and googled and an approximate list appeared (It is typical that the first one there is the activity “get drunk”).

The list looked like this.

This list was to be reworked into mechanics. At the very least, all this splendor had to be categorized. After all, we won't force the player to choose from a few dozen options every time. We tried different options. For example, we divided the areas of activity into economy, war and religion, into duty and leisure, into regular and unique activities.

Ultimately, we decided to divide the activities according to their gameplay functions or, in other words, according to the game parameters that each group affects. The end result is this system:

• Faction-related activities: temple visits, entertainment, and walks around the city will change your relationship with the Church, the Holders, or the Trade League, respectively. Most of the time the change will even be positive! Moreover, it could affect both a faction as a whole and its specific representatives.

• Resource-related activities: such as conducting an audit and holding the trial will test your worth as a ruler and give you a good chance to earn gold or raise authority.

• Activities related with Margrave himself: reading books from his father's library, self-improvement and… sleep. These activities do not seem like the others, and for a good reason. We'll tell more about them soon!

The Margrave's leisure will begin with a window like this

But how does all of that translate into gameplay? In quiet moments, the game will give you a “Free Evening”, opening a separate menu where you can choose something to your liking. The chosen activity will not only give you a direct and known effect (for example, visiting a temple will have a positive effect on the loyalty of the clergy), but will also let you play a small, two or three stages long, thematic event with unforeseen meetings, incidents and dilemmas. You will run into your old acquaintances or ordinary subjects as you walk the streets; discover unexpected items of expenditure during audits; be forced to choose between utility and justice during a trial.

During any event, even recreational, you should follow common sense and knowledge from the game's Codex. Unfortunate decisions could inflict heavy losses. After all, the world of Demesne seems calm and blissful only at first glance. In fact, it is harsh and does not forgive mistakes. We hope you will appreciate this combination of story-based roleplaying and “numerical” game mechanics.

That's not the end of Margrave Konrad's leisure, because the next dev diary will be devoted to the mechanics of Ambition. Unlike Activities, Ambitions require constant time investment (maybe you'll even have to miss a couple of feasts!), but in return, provide long-term benefits that change the characteristics of your character and domain.

Stay with us!

And make sure to add Sovereign's Will to your Steam wishlist if you haven't already for some reason!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1047560/Sovereigns_Will/