@Rani Yeah, it’s indeed pretty complicated to manage the consequences of a god character’s actions… Well, I’m pretty confident in being able to manage it due to the plot-heavy structure of this game. It could be more difficult if the focus was mainly on management / creation.
Yeah, the title “Lord” is kind of masculine I suppose, although it’s technically gender neutral (there are many female Lords currently). I mainly associated it with the idea of the Domain’s ruling god being its “landlord” (kind of). Divinity = rent in a way. Any other opinions on this issue? I mean, is it important for the title to be changed and/or to be customizable? (EDIT: currently the pronoun mainly used for you is simply You, but also They/Them/Their are rarely used, but other options are possible to consider…)
The species inhabiting the continent are pretty much humans, although there are minor differences, like being able to sense divinity and having a high aptitude for communicating with deities and being less prone to exhaustion/injuries/sickness. Kind of like stronger and more religious humans. The reason for not allowing customization of the physical features for this species was that the story wouldn’t really make sense if the people from different Domains were physically different from each other. They’re supposed to be more or less the same as each other except for religion/culture. I’ll have to think about the idea of naming them though…
That’s a pretty interesting idea to customize the weapons for Templars. It shouldn’t actually affect the story in any major way, since it’s more about their numbers/divinity/faith than tactical skills or weapon training (mostly). I only chose hammers as the main weapon for them since a blunt weapon fits the idea of using raw divine power to damage the enemy. It doesn’t exactly have to be a hammer though.
I agree that altering the Domain’s environment is a bit… basic… right now.
The current plan is for there to be 3 chapters, with the first chapter (currently playable) being maybe 10-20% of the whole story. Chapter 2 would be perhaps 30-40% and chapter 3 around 50-60%. Chapter 1 is pretty linear though, without a lot of branching, whereas chapter 2 will have more branching and chapter 3 a LOT of branching. That means a single playthrough might be roughly equally long for all chapters, although chapter 1 is still the shortest of them, but especially chapter 3 would have many different paths to pick.
The most important choices for Domain management are related to spending divinity on it or preserving it for other uses, and also focusing more on either faith or Templars. In the first chapter you can also choose how death is managed, how hot/cold it is and if the government is more theocratic or more secular. Chapters 2/3 will have less focus on managing the internal affairs of the Domain, but there will still be more choices like that. Ultimately their fate will be more affected by what happens in the world in general rather than by your management choices, but all choices will matter (some more than others).
We’ll see how people react to the other Minor Deities in chapter 2. It’s understandable that more interest would be in guiding your own believers considering the content of the story so far.
There will be conditional events based on your earlier choices that happen during chapters 2/3. I’m not completely sure about this yet, like how many or how important they would be. I’ve been considering adding randomly selected minor events (like in The War for the West) or just focusing on less but especially important story events (kind of like what happens in the remote village you infiltrate during chapter 1). This is a question related to balance, preference etc.
There are (currently planned) 5 different main endings you can reach depending on your choices during the game. All Minor Deities have their own goals and relationships, many of them incompatible with each other. It’s possible to focus on your own divinity to dominate the world, but also to work with other deities to aim for common goals (either as a superior, equal or inferior partner in an alliance). There are external enemies that all(?) deities share in common. The Originator can also be either your ally or enemy in the end. I won’t spoil too much yet though!
. I become a bit controlling but its better than them fighting and doubting.