Game Development: Salem & Haven

[rye130]

everyone understands that the FEP system works well, serving its intended purpose even though the crappy results you sometimes get make you hate it

Fixed that for you!

Damn straight!

Fixed!

[Grog]

na, its fun, like dying

[Potjeh]

Food is the single best system in Haven and Hearth, and I was a bit concerned when I heard J&L are discussing a new system for Salem, since I frankly can't see how it could be improved (small tweaks aside, such as boosting the food diversity bonus).

[Saif_Mahlik]

Heads are too big, not cool bro and also will there be guns?

[Jackard]

perhaps they will add blighted crops

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergotism

[Lahrmid]

Eating plagued grain will cause you to transform into an undead zombie with your jaw hanging, back crooked, and weirdly shaped and colored hair.

Then kel'thuzad will recruit you.

[Daktoria]

Will there be slaves? SOUTH VS NORTH!

You're a century or two off, depending on exactly when the game is set.

Edit: Thanks Resture, I can't wait to try Salem, but if it is worse than H&H, I'm not moving New Haro.

Indentured Servitude was rather fundamental to American development, especially when freedom of religion was the primary reason pilgrims were emigrating from Europe.

Likewise, the slave trade had its roots in that. From indentured servitude came debt financing and merchant banking, and from that came the basis of catalyzing supply for demand of tobacco and textiles to Europe.

Hence, the birth of slave staffed plantations beyond the Caribbean where return on investment was very easy and royally subsidized. It doesn't take much to make money off fruit and sugar.

Yes, it will take place in New England which was rather behind of the times in widescale slavery employment (as well as how Spain, not England, initiated slavery despite how Britain expanded upon it), but it did use slavery for more menial and personal services.

Employing slave NPCs and sustaining morale to hold off revolts could be interesting though. Could also be interesting to see how player characters end up competing with NPCs and vying for abolitionism.

[Daktoria]

The biggest problem I have with 3D graphics is they tend to make economic processes much more clumsy. The top down 2D style is ideal for simplicity and it lets you view a wide amount of space and click easily through it.

If 3D graphics are being implemented, automated controls should really be enhanced like picking a field of crops or laying a path of stone. Would be nice to have an alternate 2D map or camera to path automation as well. You can include random bumps to make sure players don't just set a path and go afk either.

[loftar]

The biggest problem I have with 3D graphics is they tend to make economic processes much more clumsy. The top down 2D style is ideal for simplicity and it lets you view a wide amount of space and click easily through it.

Salem, though in 3D, is meant to be played most of the time with a view very similar to that of Haven, as can be seen e.g. in this screenshot. The camera can, however, also be zoomed in to get a closer view of one's character, as seen e.g. in the screenshot in the OP of this thread. You can see the camera control in real-time in the video I posted earlier (though it doesn't display to full range of the controllable zoom). The default zoom setting as seen in the beginning of the video of the camera gives, I think, a field-of-view very similar to that of the Haven client. It's worth noting that the trees are much larger than they are in Haven, however; I think that is as it should.

[Kinky]

perhaps they will add blighted crops

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergotism

And hopefully we can have chemistry to make lsd from ergot