Attributes, vol 2

Attributes, vol 2 

In the previous volume we talked about the first 6 attributes in Brunelleschi . Those attributes are primarily found in Commander and Noble Characters, but all characters gain some amounts in these scores. 

The interplay of Attributes and Equipment will be discussed in a later entry, but needless to say there is a great advantage in staying mobile, and keeping one's Settlement actively political. The most Active, highest Level, and best Equipped (aka Wealthiest) Lords will be the most desirable Minster candidates, and negotiation of private salary is entirely between the Sovereign and their Ministers.

Back to the Attributes! 

Arithmetic

Arithmetic is a representation of a Character's general ability with numbers, and can be used in surprising ways.

Improve Profits

Do you want to make more money? Sure, we all do. Simply do the math and you'll make more money with the same Income buildings. Solid Bookkeeping will improve your yield, and this can translate pretty quickly into market power.

Impede Crime

A Minister who is numerate is still a rare thing in these times, and nothing so effectively prevents criminal behavior as an eye for statistics. You'll experience fewer burning storehouses and keep more of your gold for yourself with this mod. 

Range Bonus

There's an odd correlation between certain types of intuitive math skill and projectile firing accuracy. Mathematically gifted Characters can get a little extra range from their weapons, which helps when the Mightier Heroes get upset with them. 

Management

The Management skill is a general representation of a Character's ability to Manage people, property, and money. Careful Managers get a variety of benefits, and some of the more lucrative Scenarios rely on this Attribute.

Resist Critical

All Equipment, including Retainers, Mounts, Arms, and Spells require some amount of upkeep, and powerful equipment can get pretty expensive. This Attribute takes the sting out of those weekly upkeep payments and keeps your Gear in good shape.

Improved Production

This one is free money. Better Managers produce more Goods for the same Resource cost, directly lowering production costs. Drive your competitors under or maximize profits by utilizing Trader Lords as Ministers in buildings with a lot of Brickmakers, Stonecutters, and other valuable facilities.

Reduce Unit Upkeep

Good Management tends to keep Military costs down, and you'll be very glad at the lessened payment required by Units that are well led, provisioned, and confident. 

Acumen

Acumen represents a general competency in life. Acute characters are precise, accurate, and on top of situations. It's an Attribute greatly valued in business as well as a host of other situations, and may be the Trader's most versatile advantage. 

Contribution Bonus %

Simply put, Acute folks are good at getting more for less. Your contributions (or detractions) will go farther and you'll find yourself on the top of the list in Scenarios more often. Higher contributions also means more chance of success in War, so a Trader can serve in a lot of roles.

Prosperity

Money flows easily through and out of the hands of a competent Minister, and those with Acute senses tend to bring up the general opulence of a region. This can have a similar effect to Caster attributes when it comes to speeding Construction, proving once again how generally useful Trader attributes will be. The nature of the class system means that Trader/Casters will of course build very quickly indeed!

Resist Critical

It's hard to put one past an Acute Character and this can make them particularly tough for Noble characters or anyone who relies on a 'Crit Build' in dueling. Critical hits represent a sort of randomness that no real Merchant wants to deal with, especially when the downside is death (even the temporary kind). 

Fervor

Fervent Characters are generally more effective in Combat and Spellcasting, and it is in fact the Fervor of the Church that gives it strength in these troublesome and fractious times. Fervor is used for more than a few of the most intense Military Scenarios, particularly those having to do with Conquest.

Scenario Trigger % chance bonus

Characters who go about their day with a Fervor, weather it's from their Class training or Gear such as Manuscripts and Illuminations that they have equipped, will have a better chance of triggering Scenarios. This can be a double edged sword, but it will make wandering Friars and Clerics an interesting addition to Settlement life.

Faith

Ministers who have a lot of internal Fervor are more likely to pass this to the Populace, with the corresponding benefits offered by that form of Happiness . Clergy ministers won't put up with Forbidden rituals like Necromancy or Kabbalah , reducing their disruptive influence on a Settlement

Resist Critical

Your Faith is your Shield against supernatural and spiritual attacks. Enemy Clergy and Casters will have less chance of a spectacularly damaging attack against you if your Fervor is strong. 

Philosophy

Philosophical Characters will benefit from a deep love of Knowledge and Learning, which will tend to influence their decisions and increase their chances of spotting and benefiting from opportunities that others would miss.

Action XP

More contemplative Characters learn faster, and as such they advance in Level more quickly when taking the same actions. The long term benefits of this are considerable, and it may be worthwhile to use Philosophically enriching Equipment such as Manuscripts and Spells when attempting to gain Level.

Crafting Speed

Thinking about how to do something right long enough brings benefits. Like the Natural Philosophers of old, the thinker can derive best methods from first principles and improve Quality. In practical terms, you'll get your equipment from districts managed by a Philosophical Minister more quickly and for less overall cost. 

Magical Attacks per Round

What Celerity is to Melee Combat, Philosophy is to Magic. If you can think of more ways to attack, you can attack more often, and this can be devastating. The Clergy can bring massed power in the form of Holy Light and Elemental spells to bear with some quickness, if they so choose.

Grace

Characters with this Attribute are both Graceful and Gracious, a pleasure to spend time with and be around. Their assurance of God's Love has made them beacons of calm and composure, a feature much sought out by Commoner and Exemplar alike.

Reduce Scenario Failure Penalty

If a Scenario can't be completed or goes badly for the Character's team, they'll experience less overall loss from the failure. Over time, taking setbacks Gracefully can be a powerful performance boost.

Increase Citizen Action Importance

Graceful Ministers and Sovereigns are better at sharing credit for Achievements, and their Exemplars will gain more recognition from the Populace as a result. The increased Importance will make Government more powerful and useful in that Settlement, regardless of the actual behavior of the Sovereign and their Ministers.

Slow Magic

One's spiritual Grace stays the hand and slows the casting of an enemy in Combat. Clergy are somewhat limited in their ability to hurt one another, but the same power works well against the raw Damage output of the Caster classes.

I'll finish up with Attributes, Vol 3 next time and then we'll move on to some more detailed information about the individual gameplay mechanics of Brunelleschi's various subsystems. Thanks for Reading!

Competitive Scenarios and War

Competitive Scenarios introduce some friction into the prosaic world of Brunelleschi, requiring players to pick a side, Contributing or Detracting from scenarios with their Attributes. The Scenario will have a Threshold, a target number for both attributes that must hit + or - 100% for the Scenario to End.

Players can wind up spending a lot of action points this way, and as such the Scenarios usually don't have much in the way of Contribution or Detraction rewards. Only the team able to push the Scenario to the finish line will get completion rewards, and sometimes this will also come with penalties for the losing team. Additionally, the bonus (or penalty) from completion for the whole Settlement or possibly the entire World will be determined by the outcome. Some Scenarios create week-long advantages for the winning team, and could be essential to upsetting the balance of power! Other scenarios have greater rewards for the outcome that penalizes the settlement, allowing a small group of players to gain advantage at the expense of everyone else in the Settlement.

Military Scenarios

Military Scenarios are by nature competitive, and will be one of the major uses for high leveled Characters' Action Points. It takes 25 AP to even contribute to this assault, and my powerful Commander Lord isn't able to make much of a dent in the battle even without resistance. If I were being opposed in this battle, the Combat engine would kick in and there would be a Battle, but there will be more on that in a later post.

 Here I've contributed to the scenario. My Character is a well-equipped Commander Lord with high Attributes, but it looks like it'll take at least 3 more full AP cycles to complete the assault! Large wars will consist of thousands of players in dozens of active scenarios.

 My AP is exhausted so I switch to my Hero. He's not very powerful and is a Mercenary, not a Soldier, so he's balanced somewhat towards Trader Attributes. His Acumen and Arithmetic will still help in Battles with other players though, and he'll be extra useful if this assault turns in to a Raid. Make sure your Citizens support the battles you initiate. They can detract from the scenario internally, and you may have to punish 'traitors', or allow that form of dissent. It's your call, Sovereign.

He can contribute a few times, but his Level ~100 Attributes aren't going to do much. You'll need dozens of powerful Heroes and Lords to accomplish even the simplest of Assaults, and that's without any Resistance! Combat favors the Defenders numerically, but then they have nothing to gain and everything to lose.

Contributing takes some time so I'll upvote my Liege's contribution. It's not a lot of Importance since it's Pledge-to-Liege Upvoting, but it passes the time and every little bit helps when you're going for Top Rank.

Discordian's Attributes are a drop in the bucket, it's going to be a long night of Assaulting this Forest Outpost if we don't get some Reinforcements! If the Scenario ends without completion, we'll have failed to assault and worked ourselves into a quagmire even without resistance. The ensuing 'Standoff' scenario would give the defenders a chance to jump on our mistake and do some damage.

Rafiki is typical of the test account Citizens of Opher Thyre. He's not going to be much use in this war, as his minuscule AP and negligible attributes just won't have any impact. He'll have to Level up and prepare for next time.

Speaking of Next Time, I'll be talking about the next 6 Attributes and what they mean for Heroes, Ministers, and Sovereigns, then back to Warfare for more detailed information about the Combat System. Thanks for reading, please drop by http://BruneGame.com and try the game! 

Attributes, vol 1

The 18 Attributes in Brunelleschi are each useful in a variety of ways, to truly get ahead in the game you'll need to know how they work and which are applicable in any given situation. Here are the first 6, the Commander and Noble attribute sets.

Might

Might has 3 basic functions that can benefit every character. 

Carry Capacity

This is your basic storage, and if you leave a settlement you'll only be able to take with you what you can carry. Anything above this amount is in danger of being Looted during raids or lost in the event that you are Fired from a ministry. For Heroes this stat is critical, as they usually will not own any buildings.

Increase Harvesting

This is perhaps the most desired effect in the beginning. Mighty Sovereigns increase the yield of every Harvest building, and and having a Commander Lord commanding the Fields or Mines can be very profitable indeed!

Physical Damage

In Duels and Warfare, physical damage from Ranged and Melee attacks are augmented by might. 

Celerity

Celerity is a very powerful Attribute with a variety of benefits. Lords and Commanders tend to have more of this physical attribute than other classes.

Lower AP cost

Reducing the cost for every action in the game is an amazingly powerful effect, and those Heroes with the highest Celerity scores will be able to maximize their AP efficiency. Combined with bonuses from Highways and other buildings, the bonus can approach 40% at the end of the game.

Increase Training Speed

Military Units are trained faster by Sovereigns and Ministers with high Celerity ratings. This can be very important during a difficult war or when switching your workforce into the Army (calling up the reserves). 

Melee Attacks per Round

More swings means more chances to hit and do damage in duels and war. 

Toughness

This well rounded Attribute has many benefits, but will not become essential until combat begins in earnest.

Faster HP Regen

When Dueling, Warring, or adventuring with Scenarios you can use up a lot of HP, and it takes a while to regenerate. Higher Toughness will get you back into the action faster. 

Security

A Tough Sovereign raises the effective security score of their entire Settlement, and at least a dozen Ministries allow Lords to add their Toughness bonus to District or Settlement Security. A Military Settlement run by Commander Lords will be harder to commit crimes in. 

Resist Physical Damage

Might vs. Toughness is the basic equation for damage in the game. Stack on the Armor to raise your resistance, and remember that Magical attacks won't be impacted.

Charm

The Charm score is quite useful and applies to both Combat and daily life. Nobles will tend to benefit from the highest scores in this Attribute.

Improved Importance from Actions

More Importance points from every action is hard to argue with. Nobles simply seem more Important while doing even trivial things.

Improved Income from Buildings

Charming Ministers and Owners tend to have better Pubs and Theaters, and as such will bring in more Currency for the same amount of Population. 

Slow Opponent

Your opponent will be so dazzled by your smile that it will sap away their Celerity score, and you can use your social skills to distract them, reducing their attacks per round. 

Guile

The 1500's is a great time for intrigues, and the Guile score can be essential to Success for any character, especially the Nobility.

Lower Market Prices

Guile reduces the costs associated with the World Market, and can allow Characters to purchase items at a lower cost than the seller intended! Don't worry though, everyone gets their money. Only your character will know where the difference came from. 

Detect Crime

You have to be pretty slick to get past a Guileful Noble, and the Settlements and Districts overseen by these Lords will have a greater chance of Identifying the culprit when a Crime is committed. 

Critical Hits

Deft placement of a weapon matters almost as much as the strength behind the blow, and some characters will be much more likely to strike vulnerable areas than others. 

Mettle

Personal strength of will is essential to success for any Exemplar, and there are a variety of ways in which this essential value can be applied. 

Scenario XP Bonus

Heroes and Lords with firm resolve will get more XP from overcoming difficult Scenarios. Their fortitude of spirit allows them to focus more clearly and gain insight that the frantic would miss.

Health

The Health of a Settlement or District is directly affected by the Mettle score of the Sovereign and possibly Ministers. It takes a sound mind to deal with the issues of disease and death, and only the most stalwart can make the correct decisions for the benefit of the many. 

Resist Magic

The shadowy tendrils of Magic are a terror to the weak minded, but those with a sturdy spirit and resolve of self can stand up to any such onslaught. Wizards power is reduced by Mettle, in the same way Charm reduces Celerity or Toughness reduces Might. 

I'll stop there for the moment. Coming up next, Scenarios pt 2. 

Population and Happiness

In order to successfully operate a Settlement in Brunelleschi, it is necessary to understand the mechanics of Population, Happiness, and Housing. By managing these variables you can custom tailor your Settlement's economy and culture, putting your own distinct leadership philosophies to work with not only NPC simulated citizens, but actually Human Player Heroes and Lords.

New Citizens Immigrate to the Settlement based on the following formula. Immigrants = (1/8th of the available space * the current average settlement happiness as a percentage) + 2 .

Homeless and/or Unemployed Citizens leave the settlement at a rate of 15% of the Peasants, 30% of the Yeomen, and 50% of the Peers. In small settlements this may not even be noticeable in the population numbers.

Classes of Citizen

Humans in the western world mostly used 3 basic tiers of society after the fall of the Roman Empire. In our societies we tend to refer to these as 'upper , middle, and lower class'. In the Renaissance, the Bubonic Plague had created unprecedented power for the lowest class, hugely increasing number of 'Middle Class' individuals doing business, owning houses, and clamoring for political power. The defining rule of the Dark Ages had been concentration of power at the top with almost no Middle Classes to speak of (sound familiar?). Ursinia Pestis changed all that, making Labor expensive in a way that had not been seen before.

How does all this history impact the game? Well Citizens aren't just going to accept Serfdom anymore, you have to give them nice places to live, even the Peasants, and they're going to demand 5 things from you quite strongly! You'll have to spend some portion of what they create for you on their needs, or they're going to make your Reign miserable.

Peasants

The Hardy Peasant, salt of the earth and worker of the land. You won't get far without them, and they don't care much for Lords who squander their output. Peasants like cottages, will cram into Tenements, and are inclined to settle naturally around the Grainery, as are all other Citizens. Your heavy industries and resource gathering buildings are going to use up a lot of these guys, but fortunately they don't have a huge impact on happiness. They'll put up with low-quality services if you at least build a few chapels, though well educated and healthy Peasants build much faster than sad, starving ones. It's your call, but be prepared for Riots, Plagues, and waves of Ignorance if you ignore their needs too much. Peasants make for cheap, fragile troops. Don't send the Fyrd or Militia into battle without preparing for some casualties. Peasant soldiers need only food and Bronze coins to stay loyal, so they make good Garrison troops for mostly peaceful settlements.

Yeoman

The Diligent and Moral Yeoman is your middle class citizen. A nod to the unusually egalitarian social structures forming in the traditionally repressive culture of England, the Yeoman (or Townsman) is a crafty, useful person. They've trained in a trade and expect better housing than the lower classes, Apartment Buildings and Houses are their preferred dwellings, though other more exotic structures will bring them in. Any upgrade to the Grainery will inevitably bring more to your Settlement as well. The middle class is essential to Crafting, Production, and Administration and a well tended Yeomanry will make you wealthy with silver coins from Pubs, Auction Houses, and the Forum.Yeomen expect better treatment and use up a greater amount of your happiness services than Peasants. You'll need to build Chapels and Libraries to satisfy their greater need for stimulation. Yeoman units like the efficient Crossbowman or the hardy Trooper can survive more damage and equip more Gear than Peasant troops, but they want Silver for their pay and more food variety as well.

Peer

Snooty Peers have worked hard to get ahead in life and they don't live just anywhere. Expensive buildings are needed to bring them to your Settlement, or large grants of Land which they will not share much of the output from. Latifundia are the basis of any early settlement, as the Sovereign has little to offer Peers other than territory and workforce. Peers gobble up Happiness points and won't settle for overcrowding at all. They'll be a pain to recruit for much of the game, with expensive Mansions buildable anywhere but generally other Peer housing is District exclusive, though there are 2 options for that in the early game. The Villa of the residential district isn't cheap, but on the plus side the Marble and Stonecutter infrastructure you create will also help create the coveted Marketplace. Peers make terrifying troops, but are of course the most expensive to recruit as Cataphracts, Thegns, Charioteers, and a dozen more elite gold hungry Peer Units. 

Hero/Lord

Your Human Player Citizens will need places to live as well. The grainery offers a 10 person initial limit, so that teams can get assembled and started. Harvesting enough Grain to get another grainery level shouldn't be too hard, so getting a 20 person settlement going might take as few as 2 or 3 days for a dedicated group.

Ministers

These are special cases of course, but they do use up a population slot. You can recruit a minister if your settlement is 'Full', but you won't be able to recruit more until you're back under your limit. Ministers also gain control of a whole district including output and storage. If you want some of their product directly as a Sovereign, you'll need to set Taxation on Harvest Buildings in the government screen.

Happiness

There are 5 essential types of Happiness, and a 6th non-essential type. They each have wildly different effects on a settlement. Happiness is determined in ways so complicated they'll have to be the subject of a whole post later, possibly by the programmer. 

Security

The Security rating of a district is essential especially to Peers, who always suspect the lower orders of coveting their wealth (perhaps rightly so). Raising Security will also decrease the success chance of Illegal Actions in that district, or for higher level actions the Settlement aggregate security rating will be used. Riots and Crime are the inevitable consequence of lowered Security, and many hostile or disreputable actions will temporarily lower the security of a district. An especially secure settlement will tend to have Parades.

Health

Health is an important aspect of city management, and as such you'll want to make sure plenty of Orchards, Hospitals, and Fountains are built in your settlement as soon as possible. Plagues will occur when this falls below 40, so try to avoid that if you can. If the rating goes above 80, the people will be more likely to have a carnival, after all it's easier to celebrate the flesh when it's healthy. 

Prosperity

Poverty really saps the joy out of life for most people, and the growing affluence of the 1500s is reflected in the Population's demand for goods and services. Build them lots of Bazaars in the Marketplace and keep them upgraded! Poor Citizens (Prosperity < 40) will suffer more Famines, as they cannot afford good food or storage facilities. Above 80 prosperity, however, spontaneous Fairs will break out, providing rewards to player Citizens who participate in them. District Prosperity modifies building cost, so keep it above 50 to avoid paying more for buildings. 

Education

An educated populace builds things more quickly, and this can really become important on later Building projects (some buildings take weeks to upgrade). A wave of Ignorance will afflict Districts that fall below 40 in this value, while those above 80 will enjoy Festivals of art and culture.  

Faith

The Faithful reject heresies and it is harder to conduct Necromantic experimentation or Judaic research into the origins of Christianity when the Faith rating is higher. A District falling below 40 in this value will fall into Heresy, rejecting the right of the Sovereign to rule as an agent of God. Districts going above 80 will experience Holidays paid for by the Church. 

Respect

Respect is not necessary, but it brings up average happiness without being required, making it a 'Buffer' against negative consequences of a low total score. Settlements can use Statues initially to raise this value, and eventually buildings like the Senate or Piazza Del Signoria will allow pervasive use of the bonuses. 

Thanks for reading, please check out my previous post about Game Objectives, and try the game today at http://BruneGame.com

Scenarios, vol 1

Today's post is some information about scenarios, how they work, and what they mean for overall gameplay. Scenarios come in 4 varieties, the first 3 or which we'll cover today. Today's post is inspired by a question player 'FuriousGeorge' asked in the game forums.

Random 'Event' Scenarios and Basic Mechanics

Every time an Action is performed, there is the slight chance that it will trigger a random scenario. These Scenarios can be beneficial, negative, or neutral and have very little chance of causing a negative effect if ignored. These are 'Bonus' scenarios that players can participate in as they wish. Most of these will be 'Cooperative' scenarios, which have only the option to Contribute. If you have the Materials and Energy Points (AP, MP, HP) needed, you can contribute your Attributes to the scenario. All scenarios use only 2 of the 18 total attributes, and as such you'll rarely run into a scenario with the same combination.

Competitive Scenarios

Competitive Scenarios are contentious, with one team 'Contributing' and the other 'Detracting'. This can create direct but friendly competition within settlements, at the cost of some efficiency in AP expenditure. These scenarios will usually have a Duration effect, which applies to the Settlement or District in which the event is occurring. World Events provide worldwide bonuses to all players while active, and as such are quite powerful! 

Scenario Rewards

Every contribution to a scenario (or detraction from in the case of Competitive ones) gives a reward of some sort, though it may be a larger or smaller part of the total reward depending on the nature of the scenario. Additionally, the most effective contributors will get a special bonus for completion (usually the 20, 50, or 100 most effective Characters). Players of 'Castle Age' will be familiar with the basic mechanic, which resembles Castle Age 'Boss Fights'. Eventually you'll be able to post these to your social media accounts and request help from friends, drawing them into the game and earning referral bonuses.

In the case of competitive scenarios, only one team can win, either the 'Contributors' or 'Detractors'. This later plays a major part in the Warfare engine, as almost all Military Scenarios are Competitive. Usually there is a penalty for the losing team, so it's not risk free to get involved in these scenarios even during peacetime.

There's almost always a District, Settlement, or Worldwide bonus for the completion of a co-operative scenario. The victorious team will need something to celebrate, after all. 

Hopefully this has shed a bit of light on Scenarios and how they factor into game play. Next time I'll talk a bit about Population and Employment, then back to Scenarios and War after that. Thanks for reading and please join us at http://BruneGame.com

Fealty and Importance

Advancement in the Lordship section of Brunelleschi: Age of Architects is heavily reliant on the concepts of Fealty and Importance, which while similar to the mechanics of other games are uniquely implemented in Brune.

Fealty

Fealty is several things in Brunelleschi, all of which are basically inter-related. A Lord has a Fealty Cost, which is how much Fealty they 'use up' when pledging to another Lord. All Heroes (regardless of rank) have a Fealty cost of 1. This is one of the things that makes a Hero useful to have around. Since Heroes can't have pledges themselves, they can only add as much IMP to your total as they have personally obtained. That said, a high Level hero might have built up several hundred thousand Importance, which is certainly a bargain at 1 fealty. 

This mechanic forces an up-and-coming Lord to make some hard choices. Ideally, your Pledges would have their own Pledges, meaning that there's *theoretically* no limit to the amount of Importance you can get from other players at any time. In practical terms, Lords will want to be Ministers and Sovereigns, and that limits Lord to Lord pledging to about 2 'deep'. In an 'optimal' settlement, the Heroes will Pledge to Ministers who serve as their direct supervisors. Obviously this will happen only in the most organized settlements. 

A Lord will need to possess profound Organizational skill to make the best use of all their Fealty, and it is our hope that the most creative and intelligent players will enjoy the challenge and distinction offered to the uppermost Ranks. 

Importance

Power is ultimately a matter of Objective Strength tempered by the Collective Will, and Importance has been designed with that dichotomy in mind. High Level characters have access to Actions which provide much more Importance, but a brand new character can theoretically gain multiple ranks in a single day by posting a popular enough forum post. That same Importance can be lost if enough people 'Downvote' an Action, Scenario, Building choice, or forum post. This makes staying powerful an interesting balancing act for Populist Lords, and some will choose to live Despotic lives in Settlements ruled only by force and threat (Upvote the King or be Exiled!).

Will you tolerate Downvotes from your citizens knowing that it could limit Rank/Settlement advancement and ultimately lead to Military Defeat? Players will be asked to make the decisions that face all Human leaders, including the basic Continua of 'Security vs. Freedom' , 'Honesty vs. Support', and 'Truth vs. Morale'. We sincerely hope some players will be up to the challenge.

Brunelleschi: Age of Architects is available free at http://BruneGame.com

Account Creation Tutorial
Settlement Creation Tutorial
Facebook Page
Facebook Application
Android App <---- Very slow, in-game purchases unreliable and not advised.

Game Objectives in Brunelleschi: Age of Architects

Brunelleschi: Age of Architects is a game full of options, but it may be initially somewhat difficult to determine how to get ahead. The game has so many possible courses that it is necessary to pick something and stick to it to make any real progress. Players trying to accomplish everything by themselves will quickly discover how important teamwork is for a game like this. So, here are some of the more central ways to advance in the game, which can be used to find all the little optional advancement paths.

For a new-player tutorial, check our newb guide.

Building a City

Brunelleschi is not that different from the majority of city building games in that you collect resources and use them to construct Buildings, which then in turn provide Bonuses, Resources, Equipment, Troops, and monetary Income. There are 65 district options in Brunelleschi, though even the largest Settlements will have to chose 50 or less of these. Since each District is composed of Buildings, they can also be customized, making it nearly impossible that 2 settlements will ever be exactly alike. The Buildings you construct will attract Citizens, both computer-generated NPCs to run your buildings, and Human Heroes and Ministers who want to benefit from your economy, use your District Actions, or just enjoy the design you've come up with. We intend to have full maps for the districts in a later update, which will allow even more visual customization.

Establish a Political Empire

Bonds of Fealty and Ministerial Jobs can allow a player to expand their influence and Importance, thus gaining rank more quickly. It will take a strong leader to guide dozens of Ministers and hundreds of Heroes, but you just may be the person to do it. Take control via the forums, private messaging, or the complex network of Diplomacy and Warfare. You'll need to keep advancing in Level stay on top, with more powerful Forum Actions and Importance gaining abilities, as well as critical equipment for Lordship such as Crowns, Rings, Charters, and Banners.

Become Amazingly Wealthy

There are a lot of different kinds of wealth in Brunelleschi, from buildings to Resources to high grade Equipment. Careful management of Buildings, Actions, Markets, and Scenarios will have you on the top of the economic ladder quickly, but watch out where you store your stuff! Settlements can be raided and private wealth is on the table for the victors of such battles.

Have the Best Gear, and Highest Stats

There are hundreds of different items in Brunelleschi, each player craftable and tradeable on the Market. You can get gear that costs more than most people's Settlements if you try hard enough. Level up and Min-Max to your heart's content, and discover how valuable you are to Sovereigns when you can complete Scenarios all by yourself!

Raise a Grand Army with Which to Pwn the N00bs

There are a huge variety of Units in Brunelleschi, each coming in 13 different levels for maximum carnage. The Units have their own Special Abilities which take Strategy Combat well beyond Rock, Paper, Scissors, and into a realm of complex planning and careful deception. I enjoy a good war game, and I've tried to create something that other Wargamers will Love.

You can Equip your units also, leading to a Military-Industrial interaction that will drive the economies of most settlements. Lost Equipment and dead soldiers can become quite expensive, and someone will need to replace what is destroyed.

Profit from the Deaths of Fools

Many Buildings and Districts in Brunelleschi cause their owner to gain Currency from the deaths of Characters and NPCs in the settlement. Move to a Capitalist Settlement, buy an empty lot in some off-brand district, set up a Burial Chamber, and profit from the mistakes of others! Be the dead cart guy if you want.

Or Lead the Virtuous to Paradise

Blessings abound in Brunelleschi, as it puts forth a time of Racial and Gender equality overlapping the Renaissance we know. Casters and Clergy work side by side, and barring player created divisions have no basic enmity. The Old Gods of the Pagan world still thrive, not driven by the Stake and the Sword into seclusion, while the Light of Christ is felt in every corner of the Mythic Renaissance. Lead the world to a place of Peace and Glory in the name of God, or split the Church asunder with questions that shake the Hierarchy of St. Peter. 

Reach the Top, and Hold It! 

Only five Characters can hold the top Lordship positions. This alone will make them points of contention, and the effort involved in getting the Billion Importance points to unlock this rank will be non-trivial. These characters will have greater Fealty Limits, further enhancing their power, and it will take a very powerful movement to unseat one of these masters, if they defend their positions. Your Lord will have to climb a long path and make many alliances to hit this point, so get started today!


Check out http://BruneGame.com to start playing, and thanks for reading!

Account Creation Tutorial
Settlement Creation Tutorial
Facebook Page
Facebook Application
Android App <---- Very slow, in-game purchases unreliable and not advised.

Diplomacy and Settlement Relations

Diplomacy is a huge part of what goes on in Brunelleschi: Age of Architects, and has been made complex enough to keep even the most jaded strategy gamer busy. In this post I'll outline some of the Diplomatic features of the game and how they can be used.

Standings

Characters and Settlements can form relationships, but the mechanics they use are very distinct. Settlements have Standings, a numeric representation of their relationship, that is separate from but linked to their Diplomatic status. You can see that even though my official relations with Opher Thyre are Neutral, the current standings are quite low (indicated by the red text). Mousing over reveals that Discordia's standings with Opher Thyre are -2255! This would be sufficient to launch a full conquest war, but we would have to stage up toward that level of conflict. This isn't modern warfare, after all, the speed of military logistics was rather slower in the pre-Napoleonic days. These Standing are affected by things like Duels, Forum Votes, Denunciations, Praises, and other diplomatic actions. You'll need positive standings to initiate things like Trade Treaties or Defense Pacts, and negative standings to begin Wars or Embargoes. This means that the Citizens of a Settlement can prevent their Sovereigns from taking diplomatic paths they don't support.

Relations

The relations between Settlements have a huge effect on the commercial interaction between Citizens of those settlements, as well as determining the military actions that are available between them.

Each Relation Category has an Escalation and De-escalation action which can be performed by the Sovereign or a suitable higher-ranking Minister. These Relations can only change once per 24 hour period, meaning that an Alliance represents not only military protection, but a several day long buffer against aggression. The prices in Platinum are split evenly between participants in friendly Relations, while the price of War is borne by the aggressor alone. The military mechanics of Alliance are complex enough to warrant their own post, but among the benefits of higher-level friendship is Tourism, and full Allies can participate in one another's wars of Aggression, while members of a Friendship or Defensive pact will only be able to fight in defensive conflicts. 

Like most of the more advanced actions, Diplomatic Actions can only be accessed from the 'Diplomatic Council'. This expenditure of AP represents the effort taken in such bureaucratic events as treaty signings, and rewards players who can organize their Character's activities effectively. 

Next time I'll discuss some Game Objectives, and what sort of goals you might find to pursue in a world as complex as the Mythic Renaissance. Thanks for reading and please remember to invite your friends to play at BruneGame.com

About Brunelleschi, Vol 3 : Dueling, Enmity, and Warfare

For the first 25 levels, everything in Brunelleschi is focused on advancement, around half a week of familiarizing yourself with the interface, possibly posting in the forums a bit, and for Lords building a few initial structures. Once characters hit level 20, they begin to unlock additional 'Life' and 'Aggressive' actions as well as their Class Actions.

Declaring Enmity

By choosing the forum action 'Declare Enmity' and then selecting a target settlement and a character, the groundwork for a duel is established. This sets the relationship between the two characters to 'Enemies' and allows the declaration of duels in the future. 

There are a large variety of Relationship statuses that characters can have, including Enemies, Neutral, Friends, Lovers, Handfasted, and Married. The latter two options require assistance from a pagan Caster and member of the Clergy respectively.

Challenging an Enemy to a Duel 

Once you've declared an enemy and reached level 25 it becomes possible to launch a duel challenge. The other player must accept the duel for combat to initiate, if they refuse they will lose importance relative to the level difference between your characters. If you challenge much lower characters to duels, they can refuse without penalty.

Keeping track of Duels

Characters can always see their active duels and challenges from the 'Duel' tab on their home screen, as well as in their personal forum menu.

Fighting The Duel

Once the duel is accepted, the characters will have options based on their equipment, but at the very minimum the option for 'Close Combat' will always be available, even to unarmed characters. If both characters have chosen a strategy, the round is calculated and the next round's strategy is chosen. This repeats until 10 rounds have passed or someone dies. 

Hits and Damage

I don't think Ophelia's going to win.

The character's attributes are calculated to determine hits and damage per round, with a variety of factors such as ranged attacks, spell damage, and melee attacks factored in and displayed in the forum.

And on to War

As characters advance beyond level 50 non-consensual PvP becomes possible as Lords gain 'Military Action'. This complex action invokes the 'Military Council' and enables Lords to assemble their Brigades of soldiers. Lords can always train 'Peers' from the population as troops, and Commander classes are able to train Peasants and Yeoman, but these civilian units will be no match for the units produced in an actual training ground. Heroes will have to wait until somewhere between level 150-250 to gain 'Military Action', and the Regiments they lead will allow somewhat less troop variety than Lordly Brigades. 

Sovereigns and Minsters have a great deal of control over troop recruitment, and can theoretically turn a profit training and selling units to their Citizens and Allies.

Of course, in order to use any of these shiny soldiers against anyone, it will usually be necessary to declare some sort of official war. The Chivalric culture of the Renaissance doesn't really allow for 'Sneak Attacks', though certain higher level characters will be able to flout those rules.

Errant Raids, on the other hand...

Once Lord character hit level 75 they will be able to 'Errant Raid' any settlement in the game, including their own! This can have catastrophic effects on the security of the region, but some Sovereigns may choose to turn a blind eye to their Minsters' raids, or even engage in such things themselves. Errant Raiding a foreign settlement will have negative effects on the Standings between the two settlements, and can serve as a precursor to War. Sovereigns should take care to ensure that their Citizens don't spoil existing treaties with opportunistic raiding. 

In the next post, I'll explain Diplomacy and Forum Interactions, and we can begin to get to the actual point of the game, Politics! 

Brunellechi: Age of Architects

Account Creation Tutorial
Settlement Creation Tutorial
Facebook Page
Facebook Application
Android App

About Brunelleschi, vol 2

The overall gameplay dynamic of Brunelleschi is intended to be very political for most players, and in order to understand that the game's concepts of Importance and Rank should be clearly understood.

Rising in Rank

Characters in Brunelleschi inevitably begin at Rank 1, and can only advance this by gaining Importance. Not all Actions give importance, and in fact a great many (Beg from Travellers and Pickpocket Peasants for example) will lower a character's importance. For Heroes this can result in some very interesting effects, which I'll leave the adventurous players to discover, but for now we'll focus on Gaining Ranks, which is really much more straightforward.... at first.

All a new character needs to do is gain 1,000 importance, roughly 250 'Harvest' actions at the beginning of the game, and a whopping (and conveniently round) total of 1,000 Action Points. The ratios won't always be so straightforward, but in the beginning I tried to make sure things could be easily understood, that way the first principles being applied would be clearly visible. AP, XP, and IMP are locked in a constant three-way struggle, and there's no guaranteed 'best' way to approach that balance. Collecting rocks will gain you about 60 experience for 4 AP, while Harvest only offers 50 for 4, but the difference in the amount of actual resources gained is pretty significant. The game asks players at every step to determine what is most important to them, and ultimately strong leadership will be needed to ensure that less informed players don't 'waste' their daily AP.

Ultimately, only those who can obtain a Billion IMP will achieve the highest ranks, which is functionally impossible without understanding and using Fealty.

Chains of Fealty

As Characters advance in Rank and Importance, the Fealty Mechanics will begin to encourage the pledging of fealty to powerful characters in return for their support and protection, as well as the offering of support and protection to weaker characters. This is accomplished by having Importance pass 'Up the Chain' to each Liege in sequence. Simply put:

If Character A has 100 IMP while Character B has 200 IMP, and character A pledges fealty to Character B, Character B will have 300 IMP, with 100 being passed 'up' as long as the fealty remains unbroken. Breaking fealty has a stout enough IMP penalty to discourage casual and exploitative usage.  This can get pretty complicated, as I'm sure you can imagine, as in the reverse example the pledging of Character B to Character A would result in Character A having 300 IMP, with 200 of that dependent on the loyalty of Character B. These mechanics have been tested and we've created a logical framework that should allow this to nest without looping, and avoids any of the obvious issues (Characters cannot be pledged to those who are lower rank, characters cannot be pledged 'In a circle', those sorts of things). Still, we're looking forward to seeing how our players will attempt to break the 'rules'.

In Brunelleschi, You Create the Rules

This is fundamentally a game about player-driven politics and as such we have left all the critical decisions up to the players. Control over immigration, employment, taxation, warfare, diplomacy, private property, and all other settlement decisions are made by the Sovereign and their Ministers. Since we couldn't possibly predict everything players would want, we came at the problem from a different angle. 

Every action a player takes, from harvesting to arson and sabotage, is recorded in their 'Personal Forum'. Some actions are reported in the 'Settlement' forum, which players can even write directly to once they learn to 'Report the News' and other useful civic information services. Anything that occurs in a public forum can be voted on by players, and these votes have a powerful effect on the importance and relationship ratings of the poster and the voter. This becomes especially important when dealing with world and settlement spanning 'Scenarios', as you could suffer badly at the hands of fellow players for triggering an unwanted event such as a swarm of locusts.

Since it's ultimately the opinions of other players that will decide your character's Importance, and as such their Rank, Lords will have to learn to wield public opinion carefully, and as such we hope that the game approaches a realistic simulation of the sociological forces inherent in civil administration. 

But enough about all that carebear stuff! Next post: Vol 3, Dueling, Enemies, and War! 

http://brunegame.com/

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Since the first day of Brunelleschi: Age of Architects 'Bootstrap' beta is going well, I thought I might create a list of useful links for individuals that might want to explore our game world.


First of, resource links:
Account Creation Tutorial
Settlement Creation Tutorial
Facebook Page
Facebook Application <--- Not fully functional as of 1/12
Beta version of the Android App <---- Very slow, in-game purchases unreliable and not advised.

About Brunelleschi vol. 1

Aesop Games is proud to announce our first offering, the all-new and improved Brunelleschi:Age of Architects. As an independent company we've had only our efforts to pour into this product, and it's certainly gone through a variety of incarnations over the years, but persistence seems to have won out in the end and we're finally able to offer a workable product to players.

We hope you'll enjoy the game, and in an effort to ensure that players are prepared for the gameplay of Brunelleschi, I've compiled some information that may be helpful to you in deciding whether or not to play during the 'Bootstrap Beta'.

1. Brunelleschi is a Low-Graphics, Content Focused Game.

While it's not a text game, and certainly is a 'real time' experience for the most part, Brunelleschi is not jam-packed with graphics. You'll find plenty of soft UI elements and lots of customization is available for the 'look and feel', overall this isn't some graphics festival. The game is deep, with potentially years worth of contents hidden in its mechanics. You won't find everything in the first day, and there's certainly no way a single character can explore all the content available. If you are an old school gamer and don't mind a bit of math, this is the game for you. If you prefer flashy graphics, then you might want to give us some time to build up our company and then we'll be able to offer you the hack and slash immediacy that you crave, backed up with some totally new calculations and mechanics.

2. Brunelleschi is in Beta, and was developed with no Money.

That's right, not a dollar. The 2 of us have built this up from an idea, and the original publisher failed without producing a usable product. My programmer buddy and I have been working on this with a fervor for years, on a budget of nothing! So, what you see right now is the game at its absolute infancy. If you join in, play for a while, and possibly even spend a few dollars, you'll see this thing grow and change and you'll be right in the middle of it. 

3. It's ultimately a social game, and it needs a jump-start from more technically gifted players. 

More than anything currently on the market, Brunelleschi is a game about joining with other players to collaborate on the construction of a City, and to some extent a Society. The combination of RPG elements, political simulation, macro and micro economics, as well as a totally new type of teamwork-focused warfare are pretty essentially tied to group dynamics. You won't get a lot done at first, the game can be very slow to get going. It can take a few days to build up a character worth playing, and at first you may wonder at the point. The game depends on Intelligent players to create settlements and establish a market. The first to master the complex mechanics has a chance at gaining unique rank, and there are 5 'top of the heap' positions that can only be held by the most successfully ambitious of each 'Lordship' class. This leads to the last and most compelling point...

4. The game has new and totally unexplored mechanics. Those who join early have the best chance to become 'Pope' or 'Khan'.

With player romance, privatization of city economies, massive diplomacy webs, a huge and complex market, as well as a totally unusual warfare system, the sooner you start learning the more powerful you'll ultimately be. There's a nearly endless variety to the competition and advancement offered within the game, and the complexity of the game's Fealty system makes forum communication an essential part of the game. Roleplayers and powermongers as well as statisticians and 'min-maxers' will find features specifically designed for their playstyles, and ultimately it will be up to the players to demonstrate which tactics are the most effective.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, it's completely free of charge at BruneGame.com.