Brenda Romero breaks down Empire of Sin’s complex relationship system
[PhilNote: not being a gamer, I don't know if this is news or not. It arrived in my Autonomous Character news feed.]
The main idea that sets Empire of Sin apart from other management sims is a deep and autonomous character interaction system. Throughout lengthy campaigns, you can recruit NPCs to help guard stash houses, fight alongside you, and carry out hits. These NPCs can suffer and benefit from a long list of passive and active effects throughout a run.
"I would hope that players become attached to their characters, that they do develop favorites. That they know that these two characters are sort of uniquely suited to each other and if they're left together, odds are that they might fall in love," Brenda Romero told Gamasutra. "But I also love the idea of surprising players with the stories that are told. If you play a game and say with Maria Rodriguez that by the end of the game your Maria Rodriguez is different than my Maria Rodriguez."
Units can become alcoholics, fall in love with someone else, go insane from continuous violence, and even get a sexually transmitted disease. Each effect has different impacts on characters, ...
"You can't have human-on-human conflict at scale without a system," she added. The system in Empire of Sin is completely built off the player's choices -- how they choose to build their empire will influence what their soldiers do. Own too many brothels and you could contract more STDs, put someone in work at a brewery for too long and they could become an alcoholic.
Romero doesn't know how many traits and effects she'll have in the game as she wants to "get as many as she can fit in" up until the game ships in 2020.
See the full story here: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/354810/Brenda_Romero_breaks_down_Empire_of_Sins_complex_relationship_system.php