AAR – Katie Bond – #3

Rebellion!

The story so far:

Zeta Ophiuchi

Oh heck … this leadership lark is full of hidden pitfalls!!!

A noble called Orson Glass is asking me to help him overthrow Ruler Leland Davis on one of my colonies, Zeta Ophiuchi.

As you know, I don’t really respect Leland much (-7), but I recently agreed to the marriage of his father and my stepmother – which puts me under kinship as well as feudal obligations to support him.

I like Orson (the guy rebelling) much more than Leland, but it would be wrong to support his rebellion, so I refused him.

Groan!! … Orson won the fight!

Leland hired mercenaries but he still lost the battle. He didn’t bother to ask me for military support interestingly, I guess he thought I’d ignore him which is fair enough. He knew I didn’t like him much.

SO … I now have a new ruler who is unhappy with me for not helping him in combat. Going well!!

Two Years Later

Good Lord … what is going on over there in Zeta Ophiuchi?!!

Leland Davis is now rising up in retaliation and trying to wrest power back from Ruler Orson Glass again.

In the meantime, Orson and I have built a small but healthy mutual respect for each other, and frankly, I would prefer to keep Orson as my ruler. However, Leland has more military support locally than his rival – Orson will almost certainly lose unless I respond to his plea for help.

Plea for assistance from Ruler Orson Glass

Ours is a harsh world, you need to be strong and well-connected to hold on to power against your rivals. Skirmishes and wars are inevitable and expected; our society respects those who protect their colonies from attack.

This is an interesting twist of events actually!

Orson has no legal right to rule the colony because he grabbed power by force, but over time his status will become accepted if he continues as ruler. Leland, however, has a strong legal claim to rule Zeta Ophiuchi and could reasonably expect me to uphold his right.

Other leaders and rulers will be watching to see whether I respond to Orson’s call for help or not!

In the end, I did support Orson, and of course, he easily crushed Leland’s rebellion with the addition of my military forces which increased his defence to four times its initial strength.

Orson is proving to be a demanding ruler!

Straight after the skirmish for power, he asked me to invest resources in the infrastructure and economy of Zeta Ophiuchi from my central funds. Cocky or what?!

It crossed my mind to tell him to stop fighting, and spend more time running the colony better – but I know a refusal would make me unpopular, so I bit my tongue and sent him money. Oh well, his opinion of me has soared (+44), so I guess I am his NBF!

Mizar – Another rebellion!

One of my other colonies, Mizar, is in turmoil too now.

Ruler Riley Moyer was outnumbered 26 to 51 against local rebel, Noble Montague Rodgers until I responded to Riley’s call for help and thankfully, we won the skirmish. Our ships fought well, and we wiped out the opposition convincingly with almost no military losses on our side.

The End

Note: Sorry …. that’s all we will ever know of Katie’s fate as a faction leader in the post-apocalyptic world of Star Dynasties.

At this point in my game, the prototype version I was using crashed. I might have been able to continue if I had remembered to ‘save’ more often, but I forgot (my bad!).

For those who are wondering what might have happened … I think eventually, Leader Odele Ayers would have attacked and conquered her (i.e. game end); but I was building Katie’s military strength, alliances and reputation as a ‘good leader’ so other leaders would probably have responded to her call for help in combat, possibly overturning Leader Ayers instead?

Footnote:

This AAR is a light-hearted story playing Star Dynasties in Story Mode. See Jory Hutchinson for an example of playing the game in Strategy Mode where the player has access to all actions and full control to choose from any.

Star Dynasties is in development; some of the game systems in this prototype are incomplete or may change in the future. Christine Cooke is a playtester for Star Dynasties.

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July 19, 2017September 22, 2018

AAR – Katie Bond – #2

Love is in the Air

The story so far:

#1 – Katie Bond: A Young Leader with a Lot to Prove

When I took over from my father, I decided to focus on increasing the goodwill of my family and rulers towards me as a matter of domestic policy to strengthen my authority.

In fact, I am a loyal, hardworking and compassionate person, so it is in my nature to do the best I can for my kin and rulers anyway, and I do genuinely care about what they think of me.

Ruler Leland Davis

Ruler Leland Davis approached me first.

He is proposing marriage between his father and my step-mother, with the married couple setting up home together on my colony.

This looks like a good opportunity to make me more popular with one of my rulers, as well as my stepmother, Rosaline Kerr (as long as she approves). The couple don’t know each other, but they seem compatible – both are considered loyal, and good-looking (lucky them!) Double win!

One slight fly in the ointment is that Ruler Leland’s father is an ambassador for him, living on Situla as a diplomatic guest of Leader Odele Ayers, our very powerful neighbour.

This marriage will recall Onslow Davis from Situla, which Leader Ayers could take as an unfriendly gesture – although to be fair, any disapproval would be targeted at Ruler Leland Davis. I could be dragged into the conflict to support my ruler if hostilities occurred between them, but the risk is very small.

I want to please Leland Davis, so let’s crack open the champagne and have a wedding between Onslow and Rosaline!

Note: Locating your ambassadors at other colonies earns positive approval for diplomacy, the idea being that it signals a desire for a peaceful relationship.

Grandma Tanya Bond

OMG … this is so fantastic! I am so happy!

More wedding bells in the air apparently ?

I’ve been feeling a bit miserable about refusing to look for a marriage partner for Granny Bond. The topic keeps being suggested, and I keep avoiding it.

I did promote her to my council as my Head of Administration as a sweetener, in spite of the fact that she is notoriously irresponsible and fickle! Even that didn’t improve her mood much.

Note: happiness in indicated in the bar to the left of the character’s portrait. Red is unhappy, Green is happy

Now my grandmother has taken matters into her own hands and has asked me for permission to marry my stepmother’s father, Noble Cheney Kerr!!

Wow, talk about love affairs happening under your nose!

Apparently, he was attracted to her a year ago, but then I guess he wasn’t sure, or something happened – I don’t know why, but his feelings for her cooled for some reason.

It seems he couldn’t get her out of his mind after all! 3 months ago, he revealed that he does fancy her again (perish the thought that perhaps he was influenced by her promotion as one of my council members?)

Well, whatever the reason, Granny Bond has pounced on the chance to get a ring on her finger!

Why not, I say! In fact, ‘good on you, Granny and Step-Grandad!!’

They like each other, they’re similar ages, it will make them both happy AND the cherry on the cake is that this marriage will create an even stronger tie of kinship between the relatives from my father’s first and second wives, which can only help our family loyalties to each other. PERFECT!!

Other Matters of State

Over the next couple of years, I steadily gained in power and earned greater respect as a faction leader by investing in the economies of my rulers’ colonies; giving my family members (and other key individuals) roles and influential positions suited to their skills; and marrying my relatives off into aristocratic and ruling houses around me. Everyone likes to marry into higher status and greater wealth in this world!

After two years, I finally became pregnant and my baby daughter, Isabelle, was born (and became my heir). Leader Odele Ayers’ wife had become pregnant 3 months before me, and rather inappropriately, Leader Ayers propositioned me to have an illicit affair with him! I imagine he didn’t realise that I was also pregnant? Obviously, I refused, which he didn’t like, so I am half expecting he may cause me trouble in the future.

Note: sorry, I forgot to take appropriate screenshots here!

As I sign off for now, I’d like to tell you that Granny and Cheney lived happily ever after; but actually, poor Cheney died two years later so my grandmother is a merry widow again.

Look out mankind!

Footnote:

We’re running two AARs in parallel to showcase what Star Dynasties is like to play. This AAR is a more light-hearted look at how you can play Star Dynasties. I am playing using Story Mode, where the game presents possible actions in a choose-your-own-adventure approach to interaction.

Our other story, featuring Jory Hutchinson, takes a more analytical approach to the game and also showcases Strategy Mode.

Star Dynasties is in development; some of the game systems in this prototype are incomplete or may change in the future, and more content will be added as development progresses.

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Please share your feedback about Katie Bond’s After Action Reports and join in discussions in the Star Dynasties reddit

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July 12, 2017September 22, 2018

Character Emotions Model

Today I am describing some of the most central components of Star Dynasties which make it a game about humans – Happiness, Approval, Empathy and Contact; and how these interact with each other.

Happiness

Characters have an overall happiness score, which is a measure of mood based on emotional reactions to events in the game.

Players can see the list of emotions with +ve or -ve modifiers that aggregate (non-linearly) to create a character’s happiness.

Emotions are generated by events. Updates show the direct emotions (not empathy – see below) that are created on key characters related to update.

To prove the point, let’s show what happens when you (playing as Leader Cristy Molina) unjustly torture one of your house members, Melodie Haynes.

You can tell at a glance that Melodie is in a bad place from the colour and size of the bars to the left and right of her portrait – red is bad, green is good (mouse-over shows the values).

Approval

Emotions create opinions, based on how credit/blame is attributed for an emotion. For example, each time, Leader Cristy Molina tortures Melodie, she thinks less of him by -25 for each torture event (“Actions” opinion).

Actions which have a moral dimension, i.e. that significantly break or reinforce the social code of this world, also trigger a public opinion reaction shown here under “Reputation”.

In the example above, a neighbouring faction leader has a -9 (Cruel) opinion of Leader Molina because of his actions. Each character that knows of Leader Molina will form these opinions (to varying degrees, based on Contact – see below).

Opinions are also generated by other mechanisms, currently; personality, attraction, diplomacy, liking happy / disliking unhappy). These are all summarised under “Personal” opinion. Other sources will be moddable.

For example, Melodie’s “Personal” opinion of Leader Molina, ironically, is positive (+10) because their personalities are similar.

Now let’s say, you regret torturing Melodie and start doing nice things for her.

4 years pass. You gave Melodie a position on your council as your Head of Medical. You arranged for her to marry your son (and heir), and a year later they had a baby boy. Then you granted the couple permission to try for a second child (a favour in this world where living space is rationed).

So now Melodie is personally very happy …

Melodie – Effect of Positive Emotions on Happiness

… and now she is also close kin; your daughter-in-law, wife of your heir, and mother of your grandson which allows me to explain Empathy and Contact more easily!

Empathy

Empathy is, as it sounds, the ability of characters to feel happy or sad based on their understanding of the feelings of others.

Star Dynasties models four variations (friend-happy, friend-sad, enemy-happy, enemy-sad), e.g. if you are my enemy, and something bad happens that makes you sad, I will feel happy at your misery. Conversely, I will share my friends’ emotions and feel happy (or sad) when they do.

The amount of Empathy a character feels is modified by how much they like/dislike the other character. For example; following the birth of his grandson, Leader Cristy Molina feels more empathy with his son, Jake, whom he has a higher opinion of than he does for Melodie (but he does feel some empathy for her too).

Empathy also generates approval so if A does something nice/nasty to my friend B, I experience a reduced version of the +ve/-ve approval emotion that B experiences towards A.

For example, because of Leader Molina ‘s +ve opinion towards his son; he experiences a smaller +ve “Empathy Approval” emotion towards Melodie for events which make Jake happy (e.g. birth of their son), i.e. he is grateful towards Melodie for making his son happy.

As an aside, Jake really dislikes his wife’s personality!

His “Personal” opinion of her is negative (-21) because although compassionate, she is also fickle, irresponsible, content and dull. However, his overall opinion of her is +ve (+18).

This is a good example of how opinions layer.

Contact

Contact is a calculation based on distance, importance, and social/political relationships between characters. It provides a heuristic of how much mental attention a character pays to another character (before factoring in how much they like/hate each other).

This is both realistic and necessary; otherwise, characters would experience empathy with every other character in the universe (e.g. no matter how far away, or how distant their relationship to each other is)

Contact affects Empathy, and Approval from Empathy, i.e. the amount of Empathy/Approval which a character experiences for another character is reduced sharply as Contact is reduced.

Leader Cristy Molina, his son, Jake, and daughter-in-law, Melodie, have high contact because 1) they are living together in the same colony (proximity dimension) and 2) they are very close kin (social dimension). Other factors contribute to Contact as well, for example, political dimension measures the relationships between Leaders and Rulers.

Note: Apologies for the lack of a visual here! Contact has not been included in the UI in the current prototype yet

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Please share your feedback about the Character Emotions Model and join in other discussions on the Star Dynasties reddit

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