Game #3

I'm excited to announce that I've settled on my next project, and the alpha is coming along nicely. I don't have a release date yet, but wanted to post this early so that you know I'm not JUST spending your money on hookers and blow. As always, everything below is subject to change as I build and playtest, but it should be pretty close to the final design. Also note that a couple things below might not make it into the first alpha. We'll see.

Rise of the Exalted

You play as a mind-controlling parasite with nothing but a host and the walking cathedral you call home. Conquer your way across a dark fantasy world, build your base, and breed an army capable of bringing this plane to its knees.

TL;DR: Rise of the Exalted is basically a fantasy take on the mechanics of Stationmaster, but refined based on the endless hours of playtesting feedback you provided.

Manage Captives:

Captives (from raids or conquest) are your primary resource. Though they will probably get their own training mechanics and events, they are designed to operate as anonymous fodder (much like the slaves in Stationmaster). Drain them of life force to power your magic, deploy them as your vanguard, or just sacrifice them on the spot.

Thralls are captives that have been given an Exalted parasite. They will be your generals, your inquisitors, and your concubines. Thralls will get more individual character development and personality (as well as experience and levels), but you can only have a limited number of them.

Build your base:

The main floor of your cathedral is a city. There will be around five building types in the first alpha, but there is a lot of opportunity for growth here, and I expect there to be many more as development continues (I have things ranging from dairies and fighting pits to glider bays and summoning circles in my design doc, and I expect this to become at least as diverse as Stationmaster over time). For now, though:

• The barracks holds your soldiers. A "Commander" with a parasite trains and leads a set of "Janissary" captives.
• The Pit lets your Inquisitors drain life force from your captives. Essence is the source of magic in this universe, and the primary diet of your parasites.
• The Nest contains your concubines, who will help you produce more Exalted.

Conquer the World

By infesting the leadership with parasites, you can bring farms, cities, and nations under your permanent control. Controlled settlements will send a steady stream of resources. Future updates will bring more options for settlement management (and possibly visiting in person).

Tidbits

Like Quid Pro Quo, you will be able to move around your cathedral and interact with your residents in a first-person view. Unlike Quid Pro Quo, construction will happen on a top-down "blueprint table" that will let you see what you're doing.

I heard the complaints loud and clear, and am scrapping the stylized characters. The new character base looks like Stationmaster's, but better.

Layout in Rise of the Exalted will be a lot more important to gameplay than it was in previous games. Stations for Exalted (for the commander, the inquisitor, etc) only confer their bonuses within a certain radius, so maximizing the number of captives that can be managed by each leader will be key to optimizing your base.

This is a fantasy universe, so the furry possibilities have gone from "almost endless" to "actually endless." I've also switched characters over to the Daz ecosystem, which opens up an enormous library of content I can buy (in other words, you won't have to suffer through my horrible character art anymore). That's a future patch though.

The buildable area is large, but no longer infinite. Combined with the "slave sink" that is essence harvesting, this should cut down on lag in the late game, and make the choice of which captives to keep more meaningful. I've also done away with the concept of rooms with limited furniture. Each thing you can build is a standalone structure.