Hello all, thank you for your posts Atoch and itsdat,
These days, I'm going through my long notes to make sure that I'm not forgetting anything important. Mainly, I have to work a bit more on scripts and then I will focus on the demo adventure. Concerning Kickstarter, I'm summarising my ideas at the end of this post, below.
Atoch wrote:Your description of the summoner-class reminds me more and more of the mentioned possible stretch goal "playable monster races". Just in a complicated way.
Yes, there are many similarities. But, the way I envision player races, a playable monster race would start in its chosen character class at level 1 just like the other races, and its power level should be roughly equal to that of existing races.
Therefore, I would feel limited in the special abilities, ability scores and hit points that I can grant to the playable monster race. On the other hand, if it's a monster race that comes from a Summoner or Necromancer, then I can balance things with several factors. These balancing factors include the gold cost, experience point cost, the monster's Class and the monster's number of Class levels, as in the Green Hag example given in my previous post.
To sum up, I don't see how I could have a playable monster race with six arms, but I can see it happen as a costly permanent summon with a preset class like Warrior, and available from a certain level (and not immediately from level 1).
Atoch wrote:Will there be extra illustrations of the monsters in these character sheets, or just the tokens?
Currently, the character sheet reproduces the creature's token and the Class illustration. It may be a bit of a waste to have monster artwork that you can only see in the monster's creature sheet. I guess it would be better to have more background environmental artwork, more monster tokens to play with and more story images, compared to using resources for extra creature-sheet artwork. IMO.
I can't make illustration screens for whole-body images, but that's okay, I think we'll just stick to monster tokens.
Atoch wrote:how you make 'high grounds' visible in the top-down view
Usually, you can see differences in altitude through shading in the background image. Sometimes, the change in elevation is obvious, as in the case of a pit trap or a tower. In addition, when you mouse over a square, the tooltip displays the square's elevation in feet.
itsdat wrote:The permanent summons will be hardcoded, or we can change the summonable creatures via modding?
I think that they will be hard-coded. But I can add permanent summons to the summoner's spell list in the future.
itsdat wrote:Excellent. Btw I think that the necro should have permanent summons as well, after all it is a mage who manipulates the dark energies & controls the dead. Also, imo other than the combat "only" summons, the necro should only use necro themed combat spells, debuffs & buffs for the minions.
Quite right. There will be a focus on cold, force and negative-energy damage, and some spells dedicated to boosting undead allies.
itsdat wrote:I can't find any information about towns/cities/fortresses etc. How will they work? Will there be wandering NPCs and guards in the towns?
I expect that cities and fortresses will work like they did in
Knights of the Chalice 1. Yes, there will be wandering NPCs and guard patrols.
itsdat wrote:What type of buildings do you plan to add in the vanilla release?
In the demo, there will be a castle and a town, so you'll be able to see how it all works out.
itsdat wrote:can we make building templates in the editor?
The editor has a template for a small ruined house. You can't create building templates in the editor as it's beyond the scope of the editor. Anyway, a building can be as simple as four thin black inter-square rectangles (for the North, South, East and West walls) and a thin brown rectangle for the door. You draw these in a paint programme, add black drop shadows, then paste the result onto a background image containing a grass or flagstones texture, and you've got your building.
Now about Kickstarter: after a good rethink, here is what I might have as KS goal and stretch goals (subject to review, of course):
Initial goal: £ 1 ($ 1.27).If this goal is reached, I'll make the
first KotC 2 module as part of the very first KotC 2 campaign. I don't need to seek funding from any other source, and no publishers or banks are involved.
Expected delivery times: immediate for the Windows demo and editor (and any other goodies that I can provide immediately), 7 months for delivery of the 1st module in Windows version.
Stretch goals:£ 10,000 ($ 13,000): I'll make the
second KotC 2 module as part of the very first KotC 2 campaign. Delivery time 14 months
£ 15,000 ($ 19,000): I'll make the
third KotC 2 module as part of the very first KotC 2 campaign. Delivery time 21 months
£ 20,000 ($ 26,000): Mac and Linux versions will be made, similar to the Mac and Linux versions of
Battle of the Sands. However, Windows versions will have priority.
£ 25,000 ($ 32,000): Hand-Drawn
Regional Maps with Hand-Drawn
Area Icons will be added.
£ 30,000 ($ 38,000): At least
20 Epic Feats will be implemented.
£ 35,000 ($ 45,000): Hand-Drawn
Story Images will be added to the first three modules.
£ 40,000 ($ 51,000): The
Iconised Combat Actions Menu will be implemented.
£ 50,000 ($ 64,000): The
Quick-Casting Spell Shortcut System will be implemented.
£ 60,000 ($ 77,000): The
Summoner Class will be added to the game.
£ 70,000 ($ 89,000): The
Necromancer Class will be added to the game.
£ 80,000 ($ 102,000): I'll make a
4th module, probably as part of a 2nd campaign. Delivery time 28 months
£ 90,000 ($ 115,000): I'll make a
5th module, probably as part of the 2nd campaign. Delivery time 35 months
£ 100,000 ($ 128,000): I'll make a
6th module, probably as part of the 2nd campaign. Delivery time 42 months
£ 110,000 ($ 140,000): I'll make a
7th module, probably as part of a 3rd campaign. Delivery time 49 months
£ 120,000 ($ 153,000): I'll make an
8th module, probably as part of the 3rd campaign. Delivery time 56 months
£ 130,000 ($ 166,000): I'll make a
9th module, probably as part of the 3rd campaign. Delivery time 63 months.
Any feedback on this plan will be greatly appreciated. Feel free to post any criticism or ideas. Thank you for reading and have a great week!
