Although it was charming and evocative, the annual Tula screen (which showed the clan lands as an overview) won’t be in King of Dragon Pass for iOS. The graphics would be hard to scale effectively to the smaller screen. And the screen was insanely complex. It had hundreds of graphics (for example, 114 different temple elements, and 51 different elements in the town), which were placed on an isometric grid (the illustration shows what some of the fortifications looked like, on that grid).
And of course, it was sensitive to game play (besides the obvious of showing more cows as your herds increased). Some of your land could turn to swamp, and that was shown on the Tula screen!
I’d rather spend the time supporting iOS features, like fast task switching and Game Center.
It’s possible that some of those graphics can be reused elsewhere, but a 21 pixel high horse probably won’t work anywhere else.
Hum... or you may just keep all those features for the big update you'll publish a year after the release of iP.KODP ?
ReplyDeleteSad too see the Tula screen go. Not only was it a display of your accomplishments this far (growing village, defense, cattle), but it also served as a warning when something was wrong, like having too few weaponthanes on guard, or too little land for my cattle, or a reminder that the palisade was burned last summer, or what blessings are active. Information not always readily available somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteTrue, I think all that work produced something that was useful. The visual summary really did convey a lot of information.
ReplyDeleteDon’t forget though that on Mac and Windows, the screen relied extensively on rollover, which is not an option on a touch device.
>> The visual summary really did convey a lot of information.
ReplyDeleteit did. please consider bringing it back.
i miss it very much.
I think it would be awesome to have a Tula Screen in the iPad version. I've never been at all keen on the City View option in the Civilization series of games (even though I've played 1, 2 and 4BtS a *LOT*), but there's a certain appeal in KoDP.
ReplyDeleteMaybe for a big update, paid for with an in-app purchase (2-3 bucks?) that adds Tula screen for iPad users, plus new game content for all IOS versions, such as 2-3 new advisors (I haven't played that much yet, but I still keep seeing the same familiar faces every time I start a new game) and some new events, some of them with new art. And a little new music maybe. I usually like computer game music (I'm very strange in this regard) but KoDP's music is mostly awful.
Upgrade KoPD to v2.5 for 3$? Sure!
More likely: content that all players can access.
DeleteMusic is clearly a matter of taste (others wanted to download it).
I don't think I ever used this screen on the Windows version for some reason.
ReplyDelete