However, the project presentation to University of Virginia Student Game Developers was today and this is the notes for people who wants the information…

Here’s the presentation powerpoint.

The Imperium Project was actually started around January 2008 when I grabbed Honya and began planning for a VN game based on a scenario and storyline design I built up slowly over the past three and four years or so. It is a cross-platform PC RPG designed to combine the aspects of Visual Novels (storytelling) and Tactical Role-Playing Games (battles) using 2D Isometric projection.

For scenario, characters, plot, most Computer Science people aren’t really interested in that, so I’m not going to go into that in detail. If you are interested however, browse around this blog, the wiki & forums, and you’ll see plenty of details all around that.

The SGD coding aspect will be focusing on the game’s combat levels, which will involve a number of the typical Tactical RPG features (e.g. Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem). The main difference will be instead of combat being reliance on the party as with traditional RPGs, the game will heavily emphasize on more realistic tactics using elements from RTS/RTT games (except not real time at all). Two of the most significant differences will be a heavy emphasis on template ‘minion’ units, and tradeoff of resources between local and strategic battlefield scope (affected by certain character stats as well as special orders like call reinforcements, reserves, artillery and air strikes, etc).

The code responsible for game mechanics will be written in Python language (which unfortunately isn’t taught in UVA, but it’s a simple yet powerful language with both high code and runtime efficiency). The game will be built upon the Pygame Game Development Library and Renpy Visual Novel Engine, the two of which will take care of most of the fundamental implementations (like basic display, tile mapping, I/O, etc) so the project can focus on higher level code implementation.

The development team has been steadily building up since January, and currently our group Major Arcana has nine members. However, most of the current personnel deals with the development of the characters, story, graphics, and music, with very little focus on the coding aspect. I’m hoping to get some support through SGD to help me about that however.

I’m looking for:

• Coders/Programmers (2~5) - preferably with either coding experience in Python, or at least interest in learning this language.
• Designers (1+) - preferably with RTS modding experience, as this position will require significant attention in balancing game mechanics and unit stats.
• Artists (any I can) - some experience with GIMP or Photoshop, and maybe the willingness to learn another programs if we so choose one to aid in the making of sprite and tile sets.
• Writers, Composers - if anyone in SGD is interested, which I’m not really expecting.

Contact me via email if you wish to help. If you are interested in becoming an artist or composer, it be great if you can drop me off some examples of your work.

Check the ‘Project’ bar up top for more details on this project.

The most important decision made at this meeting was definitely the name of our now no-long-tiny game development group. With consensus from all and approval from most, we now declare ourselves the Major Arcana gamedev group (or Marcana for short from me).

As you probably noticed, the blog and wiki has been moved to a new domain name as part of all this, courtesy of Sajuuk’s hosting account. At some point we’ll probably work on a main page for major-arcana.org, but for now I don’t really see a reason. Maybe when we get closer to pushing a product out the door =P.

We could also use a group logo… just to toss that out there. It’s definitely not a priority need in any way, but definitely something nice for our creativity to chew on when it’s bored.

On another note, I’d like to announce the team changes. Bad news out of the way first, Narika has officially handed in her resignation and left us, thus depriving us of a ghost member.

However, we did manage to acquire two enthusiastic new members: Dokper and Garmana. Per will be helping Honya with CG coloring and shading, and hopefully with editing once he catches up with the story and get a hang of the characters. Mana is our new composer, and we’re all thankful here for his support, particularly me who never thought this project would gain a composer (lol).

However, although detailed long-term tasks are no longer on the agenda, I do have goals in mind for the project which I’d like to share.

Short Term Goal

By the end of July, which is only three weeks away, I’d like to get far enough in scripting to allow for a full expansion of all three routes. By this I mean up to the point of Exelar’s Birthday or Federation Day, with introduction scenes for all three heroines done. With that, it means that me, Honya, and Citrus would be able to plan and write scenes simultaneously, without having the work all stacked up on the main story (althought most of it will still be main path). Also, I’m hoping around that time I can begin handing off the main story writing to someone else and simply act as a planner/editor/scriptor, seeing as that I’m hardly the best choice when it comes to writing out Exelar’s personality, behavior, and lines anyways.
Also, beginning August I’ll be delving into preliminary TRPG coding and preparing the presentation before the University SGD (Student Game Developers) club in order to gather some more interest, which will definitely cut down my time available to work on writing by a considerable amount.

Long Term Goal

The original intended finishing date of this project is still April/May of 2009. However, I’d be happy just to have a completed TRPG mode by then and continue to work on the story for a summer release. There’s obviously no point rushing the process too much when we could strive for some better quality to make it more enjoyable. But at the same time that’s also not reason to procrastinate more, in cause you’re getting the wrong ideas already.

However, in a much closer note, I plan on getting a demo finished and released by the near end of the fall semester (late November / early December). For one thing, the SGD will have their fall game expo, in which I’m suppose to have at least something functional to show off. I’m hoping to get the local TRPG system done by then - small scale skirmish orientation. I doubt the people at the expo are going to want to flip through a visual novel so that’ll be left out completely. The other thing I’d like to get done is a full project demo (VN + TRPG), available for distribution both online (ren’py forums and OELVN community in general) as well as to the University comics & animation club. The purpose of this is to - 1. gather more interest and support if possible and 2. to have real proof that we’re getting some things done and not merely talking about it.

Scope wise, I’d like to see the the demo cover everything up to the conclusion of the Breakout Battle (which is also the first real battle in the game)… when one of the first dramatic moments of the game occurs. The time constraint here is mostly due to graphics, composing, and coding, for I expect that we SHOULD be a lot further along in story writing/scripting at that point. At the very least we should have finished the Earth Arc by then, if not halfway through the Astraea Arc. Reminder that detailed planning for Penthiaen Arc starting during Christmas vacation / winter break.

By starting, it means we’re actually going to get work done that will be on the product, and not just designing how work should be done for the product. Still confused? Here’s an example: I’ve just finished the first 1k words in TIP yesterday - most of the 1st scene in the game.

Any and all updates to the game will be posted on the forums (which I just did some renovations on), thus if any of my team members hasn’t developed the habit of checking it often yet, you SHOULD now.

Look forward to the meeting this Friday, we have a lot to discuss, the top of the list being our groupname.

I discovered Ren’py today when I was checking out our planned C++ coding approach using Allegro Library and GTK+, while at the same time taking a look at the pygame library my friend suggested I look at. Since I haven’t really settled for C++/Allegro yet as of the moment, I can still change engines without dealing with much wasted time. But what I’ve noticed about pygame definitely impressed me.

Apart from python being a more powerful and flexible programming language than C++, pygame is directly utilized in the making of Ren’py, which I believe will solve a lot of headaches I’ve been having lately as far as planning and development for VN goes. Furthermore, Renpy has builtin support for integrating outside games directly coded in python, which makes transitioning rather easy. My only worry is that while I have a decent hang of basic coding in python, I have no experience in building projects in it… well I guess there’s a first time for everything.

The investigations will continue for now. I recommend my team members download Ren’py and try it out. The game has a very good demo =).

…

Actually, I think Ren’py just made my decision for me. This engine is excellent, with plenty of room for added functionality. It may not scan in external files, but the syntax is very simple to use and probably a lot easier to manage than that formatting stuff I wrote a few weeks ago. The ONLY thing I don’t like it the lack of flexibility in certain parts, for example the game menu, but I can fix the code to work around that.

Therefore, we’re switching from the GTGE engine to the Allegro Library ( see Wiki, Library Wiki, and Main Site ). It also means that we’ll be using C++ instead of Java as the main language, and I intend to use Python bindings for additional support.

Just to prove I’m every bit as inexperienced as every fanfic writer out there… except I don’t write fanfics, self-insertion is definitely not allowed ( and in case you’re wondering, I started using the name Zanaikin after I created Aoric, because it was the first original character I made and the first original name I created ).

Anyways, with last post I believe Lothair’s role should be cleared up enough, and anyone who still has questions or suggestions toss them at me. Amongst the rest of the Heirs: Exelar and Aoric have very apparent roles that need little explaining ( and the most detailed bios thus far ). Canan, Hikari, Aorin, and Sofiya have all been clarified up pretty well given the amount of combined effort that went into them, or because they’re heroines, although I think I still need to write a bit more on Aorin to clarify. The only person remaining that’s left short in my belief is… Rika.

For most if not all of the development group, the only thing you know about Rika is that she’s the METAAC pilot ace of the TIP crew ( METAAC = MEchanized Tactical Armored Assault Chassis ), and you may or may not know she’s the “mascot” of the heirs, their propaganda image, if you will.

Rika has a set of wonderful traits that comes to her in all the easy ways: naturally, genetically, instinctively, environmentally, etc etc. She didn’t have to particularly work hard to obtain these good qualities or habits, although she is a hard worker by nature. She’s meant to be good-natured, friendly, tenacious, loyal, and courageous. She also hesitates not to speak her mind, which is both a good and bad thing. The good part being that she’s a great help to anyone wise enough to accept and take advantage of constructive criticism. The bad part being that it makes her rather blunt and impulsive.

Well, these traits make a great person, a great friend, and definitely a great subordinate and follower. But where is Rika’s major contribution to the Imperium Project that makes her role vital enough to be assigned to one out of the eight slots? It’s certainly not the combat ace, as valuable as that is militarily, there are also thousands if not millions of combat aces throughout the World’s history, and most of them failed to affect history on anything more than a local scale. I’ve actually been confused myself for a long time when I first designed her concept, and it took me a while to fully narrow down on the exact reasoning. It’s still hard to explain, which is why I had to scour the wikipedia for an example as backup.

Rika’s main role is simple, and focuses upon her last trait: her bluntness and sheer ability to bravely speak her mind, even when others can’t. In effect, she’s is meant to be a mirror of Exelar, the other Heirs, and the TIP system as a whole - a mirror that reflects the truth, particularly in a circumstance when one may try to deceive themselves. This is a particular problem for rulers, especially those who has gained years of experience and gained confidence, many of them firmly believing that the actions they have chosen is the right one, and even convince themselves that the action they’ve selected for other reasons ( emotionally or otherwise ) is the logical conclusion… when others may see that it’s obviously not the logical or best plan of action but may be simply too afraid, or even self-doubting, to speak up.

Trying to tell your superior that they’re wrong is no easy task. Now try to walk up to the President or Prime Minister or Premier or whatever of your nation today and tell him his latest decision is wrong… If you manage that, try putting yourself in the same position attempting to talk to an Emperor with absolute power who can easily have you and all your family beheaded with one word.

You get my drift?

Now to bring out my reinforcements from the beloved wiki for further support: meet Tang Dynasty Chancellor Wei Zheng, a senior and extremely valued adviser of Emperor Tang-Taizong ( title; his actual name: Li Shimin ), an emperor my words could do nothing but humble. Here’s wikipedia’s description of Emperor Taizong:

He is typically considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, emperor in all of Chinese history. Throughout the rest of Chinese history, Emperor Taizong’s reign was regarded as the exemplary model against which all other emperors were measured, and his “Reign of Zhen’guan” was considered a golden age of Chinese history and required study for future crown princes. During his reign, Tang China flourished economically and militarily. For more than a century after his death, Tang China enjoyed peace and prosperity.

( Note that Li Shimin was the one who helped his father build the Tang dynasty as the forward major general; that he, in the same life during his reign, extended tributary and vassal states of the Chinese Empire all the way to the Caspian Sea; and that throughout his lifetime of military campaigning in which detailed accurate records were provided, Li Shimin lost only two battles - one because he fell sick and the other because he could not take a particular well defended city before his supplies ran out ).

Feel free to read the full summary articles on Emperor Taizong or Chancellor Wei Zheng if you wish, for Li Shimin definitely influenced my beliefs on how a proper ruler, and henceforth Exelar, should act and make decisions. However the following are some excerpts from Wei Zheng’s article that reflects upon his importance, as well as Rika’s entire role in TIP:

In 638, Emperor Taizong, celebrating the birth of a grandson, held a feast for imperial officials, at which he made the comment:
Before I took the throne, it was by Fang Xuangling’s ( general & military counselor, similar role to Aoric ) assistance that I was able to seize power. After I took the throne, it was by Wei Zheng’s assistance that I was able to have my errors corrected.


On one occasion, after Emperor Taizong returned from an imperial gathering, he was angry and yelled, “Let me find a chance to kill this farmer!” (Wei Zheng was of humble birth) Empress Zhangsun asked whom he was referring to, and he replied, “I am referring to Wei Zheng. He always find a way to insult me in front of everyone in the imperial hall!” Empress Zhangsun retreated to her bedchambers and put on the official empress gown; standing solemnly, she prepared to bow to Emperor Taizong. He was surprised, and asked her what the reason was. She responded, “I have heard that only a most able emperor will have subordinates who have integrity. Wei shows this much integrity because you are an able emperor. How can I not congratulate you?”.

(After his death) Wei was buried near the tomb of Empress Zhangsun, where Emperor Taizong would eventually himself be buried. He (the emperor) also commissioned a stone monument for Wei, and personally wrote the text of the monument. He missed Wei greatly and stated:
Using copper as a mirror allows one to keep his clothes neat. Using history as a mirror allows one to see the future trends. Using a person as a mirror allows one to see what is right and what is wrong. When Wei Zheng died, I lost a mirror.

I hope this gives everyone a better outlook at Rika’s role in TIP. The Imperial Charter also defines Rika’s ( and her role in general ) as being the one member, whom, if died under the direct or indirect cause of the Emperor’s hands, then the matter must be investigated and the Emperor’s removal from power may be necessary.

[TIP Spoilers Alert]

I’ve mentioned times prior that amongst the TIP Heirs, Aoric and Lothair are Exelar’s two most important advisors and subordinates, effectively his left and right hands. The reasons behind Aoric is simply to visualize: he is the supreme military commander for the needs of TIP, and anyone who understands the meaning of the word Sovereignty will know that control of the military is one of the fundamental prerequisites for the existance of any stately power. As a matter of fact, when Exelar reaches Astraea and the demands of the Overseers’ prepared Imperial Charter ( effectively a constitution for the TIP project and system ) begins being put into action, Aoric gets automatically promoted to Star Marshal, rank of the Imperium’s supreme military commander. Of course, because the reasons behind this ‘promotion’ was out of ordinary context, Aoric’s problems with Tolkin starts henceforth, whom was the only officer in the FEF that once outranked Aoric.

Lothair’s power in the Imperium is not quite as obvious. After the Arcanum Order’s evacuation to Astraea, Lothair is supported by the other knights of the order to become its next Grand Master for a few reasons:

1. He is one of the highest ranking Knight commanders ( procurators and dispatchers ) amongst the Order who survived the Insurgency, and the one with the best connections with the Federation military leadership on Astraea.
2. His contributions brought about the means for the Arcanum population to leave the planet and seek survival elsewhere.
3. He’s the heir of the past Grand Master and is also part of TIP ( something other important members of the Arcanum Order does know ).

While the support of Aoric is neccessary for Exelar out of obvious need, Lothair’s support is required for two reasons, both of which dealing with the system pre-established by the Imperial Charter.

1. The Arcanum Order, despite what problems they do suffer from, are the keepers of morality and justice within the Imperium. This is further boosted by the fact their public face, the Order of the Teutonic Knights, is officially ordained by the Church ( although the wrong one, I’ll stamp out this problem later ). As a result, the Overseers decide to form a system entitled the “Inquisition” within the Imperial Charter. Unlike the historically notorious Inquisition by the Catholic Church, the Imperial Inquisition is purely aimed at the government structure and the bureaucracy underneath, their job to maintain a supervisory check over the government officials and unravel any possible corruption to the attention of the Emperor and the public. This means the Lothair, being the Grand Master of the Arcanum Order, maintains significant influence and power over the government structure, particularly the civil legislature houses ( since their influence over the military is limited ).
2. Furthermore, as the premier government sanctioned symbol of justice and… on a lesser degree… religion, within the Imperium, it is the consent of the Arcanum which is required for an Emperor to be entitled and empowered. This influence is exemplified by the established ritual procedures that the Grand Master of the Arcanum Order be the one who place the crown upon the new Emperor, symbolizing divine granted right of rulership ( one word: Charlemagne - this is definitely a CG moment ).

In retrospect, the consent and approval score of Lothair in the main path isn’t an aid to help Exelar, it is a requirement.

Maybe I should take another note from Charlemagne and make Exelar’s title Emperor of Holy Terra…

…or not, the symbolism involved is awful as far as TIP’s circumstances go.

The news is simple: the setting technology descriptions for Federation ( which reflects Earth tech level in general ) and the Arcanum has been updated on the wiki, accessible through the List of Technologies page. I’m not sure if I’d actually classify the Fateseeker’s reverse-causality weapons as ‘magitech’, so I left it out for now.

On another matter, after Sylon informing me that the format I came up with seems too complicated for those without programming experience to easily grasp and use ( even if it is simple to those who have experience coding, particularly if you did low-level language coding like x86 ), I’m once again picking up the thought of using XML data scanned in via Python/Jython. More on this later once I do a bit of research.

A common approach would be to scale down military organizational units into smaller representations. By shrinking platoons into a single being and companies into small squads in the SRPG battle, an entire brigade, the central unit of the Steel Legion and later the Imperium Legion military organization, can be portrayed by the existance of only maybe a hundred or so units. Cutting out the fact that most logistics, supply, and support vehicles have no place in the battle control and this’ll cut it down to between fifty to a hundred - that’s certainly manageable, and those who can’t manage it has no place playing an actual tactics game.

I should note that I never did figure out where in the commonly accepted S/TRPG genre is tactics portrayed, not when the only “tactics” needed to beat the game were the simplicity of not overextending your offensive, dragging out the NPC forces due to their stupidity, prioritizing attack focus and healing, and managing basic linear formations. Seriously, these are concepts a peasant-turned-soldier Greek hoplite of the Hellenistic era of warfare could understand. In the end S/TRPGs relied on understanding how to level one’s characters properly more than anything else… which simply made a mockery of the word “tactics” or “strategy” conveniently placed in the genre name ( probably cause anything synonym to turn-based and grid-based sounds stupid ).

Back on subject. While scaled-down representation is certainly a viable option, I do not believe it is the best one, nor is the results very realistic. The reason is simple - the main characters / commanders certainly aren’t one-representing-forty ( or some similar ratio ). Should the common unit templates be massive scaled in stats to compensate? Another commonly done deal, although it feels put-off when your glorious party characters have trouble dealing with some common soldier, even if it does represent an entire platoon of them. And what about early game when a platoon of soldiers are resources Exelar does not have? How will this tradeoff be balance and transitioned from early to late game? Certainly not very cool when your Arcanum knight squad is suddenly shrunk down to one guy and seems more like another character besides Lothair and Farad rather than a small force of elite cadres.

And because of all these thoughts, my brain decided to consider another idea on how to handle “scope”.

The Steel / Imperium Legion utilizes a rather old, if not completely romanticized concept - field commanders who lead from the front. The Centurions are generals who are skilled in both their ability to fight in the front and their insight in tactical organization and command. Reminds me of the Panzer- and Fighter-Ace-turned-Generals of WWII ( such as the real Air Marshal Aleksandr Pokryshkin ) whom could command the battle while engaging in combat themselves. The concept does wonders for morale and force performance ( by shortening the excessively long chain of command ), but the costs are paid by the field commanders themselves when they forfeit their lives to the slaughter of mass combat. Although thanks to all the improvements they made in defensive technologies from EMS to better tracker/defense systems for LSDWs, the odds are nowhere as bad as they would have been during the renaissance and modern era.

Our focus is on the main characters, many of them either are ( well, only Aoric ) or would become Centurions of the Imperium throughout the storyline. During the battles, their immediate command is whom we focus upon, and it is this portion of the overall battle which will be the most significant and decisive, its results impacting the battlefield situation all across the line. Therefore my idea is simple: we narrow down the scope of the battle to the immediate circumstances around the main characters.

As a result, only a small portion of the battle as a whole is displayed, and the objectives ( mostly the frontline command centers ) of both sides would be compressed within said area. The starting units on both sides are those under direct control of each side’s commanding officer, which of course will also be a representation of each side’s unit density across the entire battlefront - the more total forces, the more ended up under direct control. This is somewhat similar to the other approach, except the units don’t have to be all hyped up in stats, and elite squads aren’t compressed to a single unit representation. Although no more hyped up stats isn’t necessarily true… since those fighting at the focal point between the two force commanders are likely their best troops. Furthermore to address the fact that this IS indeed only a portion of the battle ( and its most significant focal point ), reinforcements from both sides will continuously pour into the engagement from the rear. The reinforcements will obviously be affected by the Field Advantage score that your commanders may or may not be contributing through their Tactics score.

Another field to enhance this idea would be to add a meter that shows the overall progression of allied forces in the battle as a whole ( I’ll need to figure out a system + how to code this in if I plan on implementing it ). This’ll affect a few things:

1. Obviously, reinforcements. The amount you receive as the battle progresses is directly related to how well your forces are standing up in the battle. Reserves are obviously spread thin across the line if the friendly forces are doing poorly. While if they’re doing well, then you can call upon all the reserves for your own efforts in crushing the enemy command.
2. If the player’s side is doing poorly, an offensive time limit might be pressed. This will be an indication of how long you have to destroy the enemy command before your forces across the field are pressed to such a point where defeat is inevitable.
3. If the player’s side is doing well, a defensive time limit might be pressed. This is the reverse of the offensive time limit, and is how long your opponent has to defeat your command before they lose the battle automatically.

This actually makes for another interesting approach: whether to develop and select characters to maximize field potential in a battle, or would the player choose their best heavy hitters and attempt to break through and strive for a quick victory before the enemy can gain too much ground?

Furthermore, I’ve pretty much decided to remove all long range artillery units from the player’s direct control. Instead, the player will have the following options, accessible from the Command Unit:

• Call Reinforcements: This’ll call in additional reinforcements from along the line, which will boost your position at the cost of your battle meter. May also have the ‘Call Reserve’ function which will have similar use.
• Artillery Barrage: This’ll bombard a selected area with Imperial Zamburak heavy artillery, some delay after calling.
• Rocket Barrage: This’ll bombard a selected area with Imperial Katyusha MLRS rocket salvos, some delay after calling.
• Air Strike: This may get put in depending on graphics.

There might also be options that’ll allow the player to perform certain actions that either adds points or detract points from the battle meter, and the tradeoff will always come from their local combat - like going without reinforcements or artillery for a few rounds in order to grant support to the rest of the battle.

Well, I guess in the end this has became more of a way of explaining things rather than a new method of carrying it out. Interesting concepts born out of this brainstorming session though.