[A17] Epic Omega - Fantasy Total Conversion (WIP - Build 13c) [29 Oct 17]

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Oooh, alignment. Very interesting. Can't wait to see how that works out!

Btw, spelled chaotic incorrectly in one of those (and correctly in another)

[MCreeper]

"good" healer AND chaotic berserker? How that should work?

[The-Eroks]

Oooh, alignment. Very interesting. Can't wait to see how that works out!

Btw, spelled chaotic incorrectly in one of those (and correctly in another)

Oh spelling... my faithful foe. 

"good" healer AND chaotic berserker? How that should work?

I imagine that surgery can get messy. 

[MCreeper]

1. When(roughly) and how(too) magic will be implemented?
2. When metallurgy will be implememnted?
3. Will there be biome unique resources? (except usual stones, leathers, etc) Civilization-like researches is confusing.
4. When goddamned everything will be implemented(i.e. ships, not much more left xD)
5. Do icecats and firecats supposed to emit light? Thay just spawning light thing under them once in big while.

[The-Eroks]

1. When(roughly) and how(too) magic will be implemented?

First, I want to disclaim that the design environment right now is slanted toward rapid iterations. So whatever does get implemented while we're a WIP might not be what remains. Furthermore, I believe in evolving game mechanics as the complexity of the project increases and as it gets playtested--so we'll continue to improve and change whatever does come out of the initial development process.

That being said, the short answers to both of those questions:

When... eventually, but sooner than later.

How... initially, we'll be designing a magic system within the confines of the RW .xml environment without too much coding. What this means in design terms is that we can recontextualize the existing turrets, traps, and projectile weapon systems to shoot fireballs instead of rockets, power word - kill runes instead of deadfall traps, and glacial spikes instead of mortars.  That system will be wrapped within an arcane crafting system that is parallel to an alchemical crafting system. These systems will be modulated by a system of arcane research where research speed is determined by collecting rare spell books, trinkets, and building a grand arcane library.

What that means in player terms is that when magic does start to become more fleshed out, you'll be able to craft magical arms and armor, craft trinkets and wondrous items, cast spells using implements, construct arcane defenses, brew potions and craft alchemical devices, and construct an arcane library.

You're questions makes me very happy, by the way. I would like to take a moment and praise the team... The question itself is pretty strong evidence that we've finally crossed an important threshold--that we look like a fantasy mod (finally  ). Now the new standard is where's the magic??

2. When metallurgy will be implemented?

As with the first question, the short version is that it'll be sooner than later. The concept of metallurgy is simple to implement within the existing structure. The holdup here is waiting for the pendulum of design effort and focus to swing back to stones, rocks, ore, and smelting. I'd guess this one is going to be sooner than even a deep magic system.

3. Will there be biome unique resources? (except usual stones, leathers, etc) Civilization-like researches is confusing.

Could you elaborate on this more--how do biome unique resources relate to the technology tree (I would really appreciate the feedback)?

The short answer is yes. A broad system of biome resourcing will be down the road a bit though. Currently the standard selection of biomes is hardcoded (although some talented modders have cracked the code).  Once we start to cross that bridge, biomes will be expanded for sure.

In general, the technology tree is not in its final iteration. I would like to rearrange it some to make it more useful to the player, improve it visually, add some long term functionality to the code in terms of AND and OR prerequisites, and, ya know... have each research project actually do [i[something[/i].

5. Do icecats and firecats supposed to emit light? They just spawning light thing under them once in big while.

I noticed this the other day as well. It's a bug, as their glow doesn't seem to follow them around properly.

4. When goddamned everything will be implemented(i.e. ships, not much more left xD)

I love the enthusiasm! I really do. I appreciate everybody who has taken an interest in the project--it's why I fall asleep dreaming about Epic Omega and wake up each morning and start designing.

Hmm... I can't put a firm date on that though. :-)

My only goal is to devote as much time as possible to the project, update it as often as possible, and iterate as many times as I can between updates to create the best project I can. We've come a long way since Build 1 and I think there is still a pretty long way to go before Version 1.0. But I am happy to say that Build 1 looks almost nothing like Build 13, Build 13 is without a doubt 100x better than Build 1, and I would guess that down the line Version 1 won't look much like Build 13.

I think that like any good game design, it won't ever be "finished". There will always be something to work on, something to refine, something to improve. In fact, I was so embarrassed with Build 1 that I nearly gave up on the whole idea. I mean, look how many years it's taken Tynan to make the actual RimWorld Core... and my simple goal is to take that masterpiece and create a separate but equal masterpiece in an epic fantasy universe... while teaching myself the work of game design, and OOP, and art, and sound engineering, and writing, and how to manage a software development team...

But every great game started as a crappy first build... and I have no plans to "shelve" the project either. Epic Omega will endure... and everything will be implemented when it's implemented 

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Seeing some groups doing the "showing up to help" thing. But when they show up the gear they are wearing is ridiculously over insulated. It is currently about 10 Celsius outdoor temp, some of them are succumbing to heat stroke because their gear has them comfortable from -193C - to -3C.

They also seem to be stuck on the map, it states they were leaving due to bad temps (again due to their clothing, not the actual environment) but they do not *actually* leave the map. They mill around over-heating and then start going into malnutrition because of not having brought multiple meals for their extended stay due to being stuck on the map.

Not running Hospitality or any other mod that should be influencing pawns actions, whether mine or visitors.

Not even sure what they were stopping by to "help me" with. Is this possibly due to the vanilla A17 bug with ancient dangers?

[MCreeper]

Could you elaborate on this more--how do biome unique resources relate to the technology tree (I would really appreciate the feedback)?

One that comes to mind is "spice trading". Say, you probably will not have black pepper in boreal forest, and to grow it yourself you need to make colony in jungles and transport it to main one with ships. Just got confused with current tech tree, really looking more like civilization tech tree then rimworld one. With vanilla rimworld growing system, this one isn't an issue, though.   

Wonder how my computer will handle multiple colonies, i have noticable slowdown with single colony in ~2 years.   

[Modraneth]

hi, first of all i need to say thanks for the invite to be part of the team in this project.

i want to ask the forum community this:
- What races would u like to see that will be living on ice, cold, tundra biomes?

[The-Eroks]

Could you elaborate on this more--how do biome unique resources relate to the technology tree (I would really appreciate the feedback)?

One that comes to mind is "spice trading". Say, you probably will not have black pepper in boreal forest, and to grow it yourself you need to make colony in jungles and transport it to main one with ships. Just got confused with current tech tree, really looking more like civilization tech tree then rimworld one. With vanilla rimworld growing system, this one isn't an issue, though.   

Wonder how my computer will handle multiple colonies, i have noticable slowdown with single colony in ~2 years.   

Funny you should mention a civilization style tech tree.. The tree was directly inspired by Caveman 2 Cosmos 

[The-Eroks]

Seeing some groups doing the "showing up to help" thing. But when they show up the gear they are wearing is ridiculously over insulated. It is currently about 10 Celsius outdoor temp, some of them are succumbing to heat stroke because their gear has them comfortable from -193C - to -3C.

Hah... that's awesome.  Next time that happens can you peak to see what their clothing was made out of? I do need to calibrate the leathers and wools at some point

They also seem to be stuck on the map, it states they were leaving due to bad temps (again due to their clothing, not the actual environment) but they do not *actually* leave the map. They mill around over-heating and then start going into malnutrition because of not having brought multiple meals for their extended stay due to being stuck on the map.

Not running Hospitality or any other mod that should be influencing pawns actions, whether mine or visitors.

Not even sure what they were stopping by to "help me" with. Is this possibly due to the vanilla A17 bug with ancient dangers?

Hmm... I know that the lingering thing is a known bug; but I have not doubt that EO isn't helping the situation either.

Thanks for the bug report!

[BlackSmokeDMax]

I saved during that and quit for the night, so I'm still in the middle of it. Started it up and snapped some screenshots, here they are in an imgur album showing some of their clothes. There are a couple who already died as well, think I got a couple pieces of their clothes as well after stripping them:

https://imgur.com/a/3N7op

[The-Eroks]

Thanks for the info! I'll try to get this worked out today (as I suspected, getting the trait-based alignment system and thought definitions to work just right is tedious )

And based on the team's feedback, I think that taking care of immersion breaking stuff (those danged glitterworld surgeons and their drop pods!) will need to be a higher priority, so expect at B13 release today that features the basic alignment system and B13b-z to focus on removing the rest of the "Rim" from the world as well as numerous bug fixes.

[The-Eroks]

Annnnnd 13a is posted... annnd time to sleep 

13a features the first steps toward a full alignment system, some alchemical slime (by AtomicRavioli), almost a dozen dinosaurs (by Spincrus), and even a few bug fixes.

Onward to Build 13b... the focus will continue to be get the last little bits of the outer rim replaced by the glorious chaos of The Shattered One.

[MCreeper]

Speaking of Shattered one, what memory shards supposed to do? Now they are seems to be just psychic soothers with diffirent name.
What special enemies are planned ( disaster unknown  )
And there are one wonky thing with traits. Colonists can have, for example, "very wise" that gives them +6 to wisdom, and backstory that disables wisdom.

[The-Eroks]

Speaking of Shattered one, what memory shards supposed to do? Now they are seems to be just psychic soothers with different name.

So the short explanation is that there is a divination spell that can pull memories from creatures. In game, they'll have a couple of purposes. As a questing item, if you capture pawns (say, raiders or you assault an enemy fortress or dungeon), you could use such a spell to extract their memories. If you collected enough of these from a particular group, you could ascertain the location of an item stash or maybe another dungeon or such. The system hasn't been fully designed or coded yet though... so don't quote me too much.
As storytelling items, they're there to help tell the world narrative. The one on the tribal start is one the first memories of Precipice Spectra. Read over the starting scenarios and some of the basic lore on the main thread She is one of the main protagonists/antagonists in Epic Omega, and the lore strongly suggests that she is directly related to the unfolding events.

What special enemies are planned ( disaster unknown  )

So the short explanation is that there is a divination spell that can pull memories from creatures. In game, they'll have a couple of purposes. As a questing item, if you capture pawns (say, raiders or you assault an enemy fortress or dungeon), you could use such a spell to extract their memories. If you collected enough of these from a particular group, you could ascertain the location of an item stash or maybe another dungeon or such. The system hasn't been fully designed or coded yet though... so don't quote me too much.

As storytelling items, they're there to help tell the world narrative. The one on the tribal start is one the first memories of Precipice Spectra. Read over the starting scenarios and some of the basic lore on the main thread She is one of the main protagonists/antagonists in Epic Omega, and the lore strongly suggests that she is directly related to the unfolding events.

A related, but equally important question is this: Who is Precipice? I don't want to reveal too much too early. I can say that she was once a Fateweaver, just as you are, but she earned a place among The Defenders Omega and devoted her existence to directly combating threats from The Void (sometimes called voiders). Loremasters claim that The Void is trying to destroy all of existance.

[Wait, What?]

Quick, Storytime:

In the first age, The One True Goddess had four prime divine powers and created a perfect universe—Epic Omega. But she grew bored with infinite power, until one day she discovered a thought she could not see beyond. For the first time in her existence, she experienced wonder. The more she dwelled on this possibility, the more fulfilled she became. This wonderment, however, would be her undoing. This thought marked the end of the first age and start of the second.

The One True Goddess, created three thrones and three siblings. She bestowed the full strength of one of her divine powers to each throne, losing each power in turn. As designed, whatever creature, in this case her siblings, sat on a throne could wield its power—becoming just as powerful as The One True Goddess. In the second age, her siblings created the multiverse known as The Grand Order. The Grand Order is predominately 12 continuums, with the 13th, Epic Omega, at the center. Her siblings created all the pantheons and deities, all of the various races, and countless wondrous inventions and spectacles. The multiverse was perfect, except that the One True Goddess, having kept the power of omniscience, foresaw her own betrayal. When the moment had come, she was prepared, as she still held dominion over the finite physical rules of The Grand Prime. Her destruction marked the end of the second age. But in that spark, The Time Immortal, the universe was changed again.

The exact start of the Third Age is harder to pin down. As creatures awoke from The Time Immortal, they appeared onto a universe that, from their perspective, had not changed at all. But it had...

Epic Omega was the most changed. Scarred is perhaps a better word. Scarred forever is maybe the best. In the moment of betrayal, The One True Goddess was nearly destroyed and she became The Shattered One—her consciousness and being broken into countless pieces and scattered about The Grand Order. Most of the pieces ended up in Epic Omega. In fact, The Shattered One, in a matter of speaking, became Epic Omega. As she dreams, the fabric of Epic Omega itself changes—though its inhabitants can never tell the difference, as their own memories and perceptions transitioned with her dreams and nightmares.

Additionally, The Grand Order was now surrounded of a powerful darkness, The Void. Some claim that The Void is the darkness of The One True Goddess herself, as she could perceive all and everything evil ever imagined, through all of eternity, using the power of foresight—and that her betrayed filled the infinite expanse of the multiverse in an depthless ocean of misery. Others claim that the powerful darkness was always there, and The One True Goddess had kept it at bay herself, in an unending struggle against an infinite, unknowable corruption. Regardless, now, beyond the edges of The Grand Prime, a terrible threat looms. To shield the universe from this darkness, a powerful magic was cast to create a barrier known as Heaven's Fence. Heaven's Fence is not perfect, and some think that it's even weakening. From time to time, creatures from the void slip through.

[Erok, Focus]

Yes, so... Fateweavers. Fateweavers and the Fatekeepers were created by The Thrones to protect against The Void and to act as agents to maintain balance and order in the universe. The Fates, as the group is called, are similar in strength and influence to individual deities, but are beyond touch and perception, and have the ability to directly influence any other creatures as they see fit. They can raise grand armies, guide adventurers, or construct bustling metropolises. These means, along with individual divine entities, are to defend against The Void and preserve the structure of the multiverse itself. The Defenders Omega are a direct combat arm of The Fates.

Precipice is the First Weapon Master of The Defenders Omega (basically, its most powerful champion), and she stands accused of murdering another deity for reasons unknown. The Fates want you to find her before it's too late.

Wait, what was the question again?

And there are one wonky thing with traits. Colonists can have, for example, "very wise" that gives them +6 to wisdom, and backstory that disables wisdom.

Haha, yep... we're tracking on that one. I hope to start working the backstories out for 13b with the excellent Editable Backstories. No more annoying ability scores disabled and no more glitterworld surgeons.