Hello, IndieDB community!
We are working to get more of our Guild System up and running for Alpha, and the Altar is part of that.
Early 3D Implementation
It's been a while since we last talked about this important feature of territory domination in Profane, so here are some important info we shared before:
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Building one of these will be a vital milestone for a guild, since it will give access to two fundamental mechanics: Protection Zone and Domination Zone.
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The Protection Zone (the circle area you see in the video) will grant protection to any building (and only buildings!) inside of it, meaning they won't need individual protection (such as flags/banners that would otherwise add shields and offline protection to a player-built structure). It will be a circular area around the Altar.
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Walls will only be buildable once a Protection Zone is available and can only be built within this area. However, walls will not be protected by the Altar's Protection Zone. Instead, they will have a similar system to houses with individual protection, and an X% amount of HP will be depletable before it's protected from further attacks. After a Y amount of time, players will be able to attack it again. This process will repeat a few times before a wall is destroyed, granting access to the inside of a settlement and exposing the Altar to attacks, so the Protection and Domination Zones can be weakened and eventually extinguished. The size of these zones might expand or shrink in case of battles or invasions, but we will get more into these details in the future.
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The Domination Zone will determine a guild's grasp over the land. The controlling guild will be able to access a menu through the Altar that will let them configure some rules for this zone, such as gathering and housing taxes. If a guild has this enabled, other players will be charged a certain amount (determined by the guild) when gathering resources within this zone or building their houses here. The guild might also build unique structures in the Domination Zone, such as lumber mills (that will add a bonus to wood collection in the area), guard towers, and mines. All this is to encourage some kind of symbiosis between the guild and other players: one providing protection and bonuses, the other paying for these benefits to have a steadier journey in the region.
The Guild System, Altar and other related features are some that we are super excited to test and get your feedback on.
Early UI
We also wanted to show how the Profane Altar Menu is coming along. Its MVP version (more about this in a bit) is finally done, and we're so excited to show it to you! But before we dive into that, let's talk about something really important: the MVP strategy.
(in case you want to learn more about the Altar feature in Profane, check out this post we shared before)
You may have heard of MVP, which stands for Minimum Viable Product. It's a widely used term in the design process, and it's all about testing the viability of a product before investing too much time and money into it.
Now, when it comes to the User Interface of a game, like Profane, there are a lot of things that we need to consider and figure out before we get to the final version. It's all about making sure that the UI is easy to understand, follows good usability practices, and makes sense for the players.
We need to decide on things like font choices, colors, accessibility, and even the size of basic UI elements like buttons and tabs. It's a long list, and that's why the MVP strategy is so important - it allows us to test these ideas before committing to a final design.
You see, the goal of MVP is to save money, make the product viable, and use the budget wisely. You don't want to spend a lot of money on something that may not work, right? And that's why the MVP versions of the UI will not be as polished or beautiful as the final version, but that's okay.
We expect some players to have concerns or even be shocked by the MVP version of the UI, but that's all part of the process. With the help of user testing and feedback, we'll build the UI from simple to complex, making sure that it's the best possible for the Profane community.
And speaking of user testing, that's where you come in! We need to hear from you, the players, to build an awesome game. User testing is your chance to play with the MVP version of the Altar feature and give us your feedback. It's essential to our design process, and it's also a lot of fun!
So, how did you like the Altar and its MVP Menu? We can't wait to hear what you think, and answer any questions you might have.
