Battle

Started working on the thing I've dreaded the most.. Battles! Made quite a bit, but I have no idea if all the parameters are working as expected. Also it probably needs a lot of tweaking to get the balance right. As I start I just wanted the battle loop to work and it seems to do that.
What I'm doing is to have all troops get a random initiative based on their speed. The higher the number the better. Then I loop through all and randomize a defender of the attacker. Then randomize values based on attack and defense. If attack is higher the defender is wounded.
Still have to add modifies for morale and battle orders.

Heroes

Started a bit on heroes. There's three different classes of heroes:

• Warrior
• Archer
• Magician

Heroes will have a rank which shows how good they are. Ranks varies from Unblooded to Legend.
When a hero gains experience they will raise in ranks and also gain new skills. Heroes can lead armies or perform quests.
It should be possible to gain heroes that are not just humans, but other mythical races too.

Cruelty

Been thinking some about the cruelty of the game. The viking age was a cruel place to live in, so the game should reflect that. Slaves were common in the viking countries and their masters could do anything to them without repercussions. They didn't hesitate to kill defenseless people or women and children either when needed. Of course some were more cruel than others. One way to put this into the game might be that the player can decide how cruel his armies are.
A cruel army affects the moral of opponents, but also makes trading more difficult.
Also, when brining in the fantasy element, a cruel army might be more approached by the giants and evil creatures, while a not so cruel army gets approached by good creatures.

Rethink

I had to rethink some parts today. It wasn't good to have buy armed parties directly when you click on Manage Army. I moved the whole thing to a sub section under Manage Army called Manage Armed Parties. This makes more sense, since buying armed parties is just one of the many things that can be done with an army.

Started working on orders. Added the different orders I've written about before and made it possible to select an order when moving an army. Depending on if the region is your own or not the orders varies. Only when the order is to conquer, will the region be taken.

Inspiration

Here are som movies that gives me inspiration for this game:

• Erik the Viking - Comedy, but has lots of great stuff in it!
  
• Pathfinder - Might not have the best plot, but the vikings are so cool looking even though they are not historically correct.
• Outlander - Except the space theme... or maybe that could be an idea too.. could be an event that could happen. Have to think about that.
• The 13th Warrior - Lots of cool vikings and has a supernatural feel.
• Beowulf - Animated, and got the fantasy theme that I like.
• Beowulf & Grendel - Same basic story as above.
  
• The Vikings - Old classic viking movie.
  
• Hrafninn flýgur, Í skugga hrafnsins, Hvíti víkingurinn - Great Icelandic movies. Long since I saw them, but have some memory of how they were.
• Ofelas - Norweigan movie (which Pathfinder is based on). Long since I saw this too.
• The Norseman - Can just remember this one a tiny bit.

These are just some of the inspiration that I got. Also got from lots of book, role-playing games and other sources.

Improvements

Have been a bit busy lately since I'm rebuilding the kitchen, and also been playing some on my new laptop.
Have done some new things in the game though. Mostly fix so that Manage Region and Manage Army works better. Added a lot of code to check which improvements and armies that the user is allowed to build. Some regions can't build certain improvements and some improvements/armies requires other improvements to be built first.
The other day I was at Toys'R'Us and found some toys that gave me some ideas. It was a kind of action figures that mixed vikings and fantasy. It was the kind of look that I had in my head already but was cool to see it like that. There were sea monsters, mammoth riders, polar bears and so on.
Also got some other new ideas. I'm thinking of introducing two more resources: Treasure Items and Slaves. Mostly these can only be acquired by trading and fighting. The wont follow the normal rules for resources so maybe have to introduce a new type. Treasure Items can be used to raise moral. Either in the region or for an army. If the player can't afford to give the army enough resources they will grow angry. If they do, the player can bribe them with treasures (and maybe slaves) to keep them happy. Treasures and slaves can also be used for sacrifices to the gods.

Graphics

Not so much done today. Did a bit of work on the graphics today. Redid the buttons and added functionality for hovering and dimming. Here's some new screenshots at least.

Move armies

Did quite a bit today. Now it's possible to move armies around. You can move armies to specified regions by land or by sea depending on the region the army is in.
At the moment you don't need boats to travel by sea, but that could be added quite easily.
Also when you move an army into an enemy region you automatically conquer it.
Third thing is that you can move an army multiple steps in one round.

Also thought about one thing. There should be a possibility to sneak through an enemy region with a small army. Or just walk through with a big one without trying to conquer. Same on the sea. A fleet should be able to sail past enemy regions.

Refactor

Refactor is a word that's been used a lot. Mostly because I play around as I go and don't really have a plan. For a real project that would not be so good, but it's working quite fine so far. Plus, I get to do a lot of functions that I then take a away, so I'm learning more than I would have if I had done it right from the start.
Today I've worked a bit on the layout of the screens as well as managin armies. That page still looks like a mess though.
Here's a couple of new screenshots:

More ideas about armies

No idea why, but my creativity always go into overdrive when I shower :p Today I got lots more ideas about how to handle armies.

One thing is that you should be able to set the armies tactics. An army could have these tactics:

• Defend
• Raid and retreat
• Raid and hide
• Conquer
• Search for raiders
• Patrol
• Explore
• Trade
• Diplomacy
  

Some of them are done in your own regions, while others can be performed in enemies. Maybe the last three requires a hero in the army.

Second thing I was thinking of was tradelanes. You should be able to open up tradelanes with other regions. The better friend you are with that region's faction the better trade you'll get. You can disrupt enemies tradelanes.

Third was that I have to set up how to move armies. Two ways of moving should be by land and by sea. The XML needs to list which region has which regions you can move to in both way. To move by sea you must have an army with ships.

Buy army

Worked a bit on buying armies and now that is possible to do.
Refactored a bit of the code so the checks if the player can afford to buy something is only in one spot.
Next step will probably be to give armies orders and move them around.
Also need to work some on the graphics and texts.