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Lost in the Ashlands

Contains in-depth information about LITA and associated design philosophy. Pending updates.[lost-blog.com]

Trello Board[trello.com]
The Trello shows most of what I'm working on. It's out of context - but have a poke around.


The Empire, Shek Kingdom, and Holy Nation beat the crap outta one another. Hella fun, hella unbalanced.

Special note: The current build is old. There are many reasons the coming update has taken so long - the biggest is that it's massive. Expect an in-depth overview soon.


The next update is big. Really, massively, f--k off big. Here's a non-exhaustive list of what's coming:

• Procedural dialogue. NPCs vary based on their faction, race, and personality. There are around 100,000 lines and in the region of 200,000+ words to date. Dialogue isn't just varied - it's situational, professionally written and has unprecedented variability.
  
• Procedural reputation. Your reputation is influenced by everything you do. Factions have long-term memory. They'll remember betrayal and they value their friends. Earn titles like "Siegebreaker", "Face Eater", and "Silvertongue".
  
• The Adversary System(!). A "Nemesis-like" system whereby recurring NPCs remember your history and build a procedural relationship with you. They'll respond to your actions and how you interact with their allies. They can show up to save you when you're in a pickle, hunt you down across the map, steal from you, order your assassination - or beat you to death when you're down and wounded. A playthrough has up to 80 Adversaries.
  
• Procedural Bounties. Dozens of bounties to track down - and you can track them down. Some are Adversaries - and some will lead you into traps.
  
• Dynamic faction wars. What you've seen in LITA so far, but with a lot of balance. There are giant "setpiece" battlefields, sieges, lookouts and scouts. Factions defend their cities dynamically - even if it's you who are the aggressor and not another faction. Civilians hide, shops close up their doors, the front lines move around based on outcomes. Factions capture territory and vary their strategic approach based on the Adversary in charge.
  
• Dynamic quests. Be a mercenary for the major factions. Once you've gained their trust, they'll give you special assignments. Deliver messages and supplies, rescue captives, break sieges - and eventually, lead their armies yourself. But that's not all. There are the Rebellions to think about. Assist the Rebel Farmers, Flotsam Ninjas, and Kral's Chosen in upsetting the established order. Fight with Tinfist's Anti-Slavers to lead a slave rebellion. Usurp the Emperor and put the Rebels in charge. Or become a Dust Bandit and see the Bandit King capture vast swathes of the wasteland.
  
• Minor quests. There are dozens of small, "unmarked" quests dotted about to get involved in. Resolve squabbles between nobles, kick some bandit butt when they're threatening farmers, and investigate missing caravans for the Traders' Guild.
  
• Seed Randomisation. Every system - from Adversaries, to War Theatres, to Bounties, to Dynamic quests - is randomised at game start. In total, there are between 10,000 and 20,000 possible, meaningful combinations.
  
• Timestamping. Time matters. Events happen off-camera. Through an abstract system of timestamps, the game keeps track of how long you've been playing for. And the longer you play, the harder it gets.
  
• RPG Dialogue. You can Persuade, Intimidate, Bribe, Haggle, and Extort through dialogue. Interrupt events are common. Dialogues are highly procedural and repeatable.
  
• Dual-Wielding and Combat Overhaul. More than 50 high quality combat techniques. Blunt is replaced with Dual-Wielding.
  
• Animal Overhaul. Around 10 new attacks for various animals - as well as vastly improved animal AI and new, rare breed variants.
  
• AI Overhaul. The AI is a lot smarter than in vanilla. Guards remember you. Many characters flee or choose whether to attack. Some will give up and beg for their life.
  
• Ambient Life. More than 60 animations to bring the world to life. Bartenders pour drinks and bar patrons drink in bars. Shopkeepers tidy up and craft things. Guards fiddle with their armour, stretch and look around. The world feels vibrant and alive.
  
• New Game Start Overhaul. ALL new game starts have a proper "prologue" now - and some lead you directly into dynamic quests.

Uh, that's about it. See why it's been taking me so long? ;)

• When you import, resetting faction relations will cause minor problems. It's easier if you don't reset faction relations.
  
• Some quests may no longer be active if you import and reset faction relations.
  
• Resetting dead NPCs will effectively reset the war effort to its default.
  
• Importing, unfortunately, resets dialogue to its default. This won't cause many issues, but it will make some NPCs forget you.

For the best experience, try and avoid importing and resetting your faction relations. Dead NPCs are up to you, but they will revert to the start of the war.

• Until the override matrix is fully-implemented and unlocked, compatibility won't be a huge issue.
  
• Features like faction wars should trigger regardless of where you put Ashlands in the load order.
  
• The wars will work better the lower in your load order Ashlands is.
  
• For now, put Reactive World or Genesis or Living World or whatever lower in your load order.
  
• Compatibility patches are in the pipeline for UWE and Genesis. Tread, Atlas and I discuss it a lot. We'll announce some kinda hybrid roll-up in the future.

Here are links to three compatibility patches kindly put together by MothHeart. Heartfelt thanks.

• Animation Patch: Military Craft.
  
• Animation Patch: Animation Overhaul Mod
  
• Animation Patch: More Combat Animations (Genesis)

• Font Redux by Bayrock
  
• Dialogue Expansion Project by RustledJimm
  
• DarkUI by Eldryn, Dark Vanilla UI by _ikarian, or Minimal UI by Trist