Premise

Not sure how many of you know about a little game called Princess Maker 2, but the gist of it is that you must raised an adopted daughter for 8 years between the ages 10 to 18. At the end she becomes of age and then based on how you did throughout the game, she will get different endings. (So, she can go as high becoming an empress or as low as street walking prostitute)

I had an idea of doing something similar using rpgmaker, where you basically must play through the life of this budding teen and in doing so, eventually have your choices reflect upon who you become later in life.

So here's the basic set up:

Your parents passed away during the great war that decimated the nation and you were placed under the care of the local Duke, who is basically using you as a charity case to get on the people's good side. Naturally, being now under the care of one of the most powerful men in the region, you now have access to education and resources that are normally beyond the reach of someone at your station. Unfortunately, the Duke is at best a negligent parental figure and worst utterly absent. So beyond making sure you are clothed and fed with basic necessities, he does almost nothing to engage you in your life. Suddenly, finding yourself with such a modest income and all this time on your hands, you're really not quite sure what to do with yourself. And yet at the same time, the world has opened up it's horizons to you. All you need to do to have it all is to reach out and take it...

The day to day game play will happen in the town you live in, and you basically spend most of your time going to classes, talking to people, working, etc. The main restraining factor here is your stamina, will power, and time. Performing any task will take a bit of each.

The game will be about exploring the various avenues of life within this fictitious medieval society and navigating the relationships between the people you work and live with.

There are six major career paths you can pursue:

military
academic
political
artisan
religious
outcast

Some will be a cross between categories.

Players will work, study, earn money, adventure, participate in wars, build their community, make friends, make enemies, and somewhere in between, figure out how they fit into the greater society.

wow, the story reeks of cliches but all in all looks like a good idea. Can't wait to see if it comes out well.

that's the point. The story is meant to be as generic as possible to give the characters a blank slate. Besides, knowing me, I probably would end up spending more time making fun of game conventions.

right now I'm still working on another project, so I won't be actually putting together code for a while. But I am slowly writing up a design doc to help organize my thoughts.

Backstory

13 years ago, a dispute over borderlines between the kingdom of Salm and the dukedom of Klaros escalates into full armed conflicts. War was officially declared 2 months later, and both sides rallied their forces to fight an endless war. Countless resources and lives were devoted into creating even larger and more fearsome armies.

The dukedom of Klaros, however, was eventually drawn into another conflict with a nomadic tribe in the north, attempting to settle on their land. the additional drain benefited both Salm and the tribe, as Klaros resources quickly dwindled. By the 8th year of fighting, the Klaros, now severely ham-stringed by two wars and civil unrest, was eventually defeated. The duke of Klaros was executed and his head was set on a pike, then paraded through the city for days in celebration of the Salm's victory.

As the king of Salm and his retinue of royal followers walked through their new conquered territory, they came upon a small child wondering the streets.

His parents had died from cholera, and was living off of the now scorched village for a meager sustenance. The king felt great sympathy for the child, and one of his followers, the regent Thomas of Asden, in an attempt to garner favor with the king, announced he would adopt this orphan and raise him as an Asden.

This was how you came to the house of Asden.

However, like many men whose acts of kindness are motivated by pragmatism, Thomas' was utterly devoid of true affection for his new progeny. He had already sired many children at this point, and has already selected an heir. Consequentially, he felt little need to be involved in the life of what he considered a mere charity case.

Thomas deemed the boy to be lacking in potential because of his bloodline and would not be of much use to him. The boy was given a home, but not a family. He was, for better or worse, ignored for the most part.

Core concept

The game will have multiple endings, each one based on what it is you choose to do with your life.

The ending will be a composite of two aspects: your career and your personal relationships

You advance your career by accruing accomplishments in various fields. These are measured as your "clout" with a certain area of study. There are a total of 6 different areas: military, politics, academia, religion, outcasts, and artisan.

Each area is increased by either advancing your skills or your reputation in that area. And of course, things that damage your reputation or your skills can do the reverse.

military: pretty straight forward, your clout with the military branch of society.
politics: your clout with the house of Salm and it's ruling elite
academia: your clout with the various researchers and more... "supernatural" elements of society
artisan: your clout with the merchants and artisans within society
religion: your clout with the church
outcasts: your relationship with the less savory elements of society, generally criminals and slaves

for your interpersonal relationships, there are several major characters you can build relationships with
Thomas Asden: Regent of the House of Asden and your adoptive father. You begin the game with him being utterly indifferent to you.
William Asden: The current chosen heir to the house of Asden. It is of no surprise either. William Asden is wise beyond his years and shows a high aptitude for law and leadership. However, such gifts have also spoiled his humility and he has adopted his father's attitude towards the importance of social upbringing. William has nothing but contempt for you at the beginning of the game due to your background.
Titus Payens: the grand master of the local knight order. He's a proud man with an incredible presence. He's also responsible for training all the local new recruits.
Cornelius Flynn: master mage and renown academic of Salm. He is fascinated with his research and is one of the greatest authorities on magic in the kingdom.
Archimedes Dunamis: Cornelius' supervisor and the advisor for the imperial house. Unlike Cornelius, Archimedes often focuses most of his pursuits on the more useful applications of magic. He has applied large amounts of Cornelius' research on warfare as a result of this, much to the disdain of Cornelius. The two have a very bitter and yet symbiotic working relationship. Cornelius sees Archimedes as an unskillful, untalented wizard who simply exploits the genius of others (such as himself) while Archimedes finds Cornelius to be an aloof and unpleasant hermit who is utterly incapable of serving the greater good.
Balen: A local farmer who supplies agricultural products for a good 20% of the fiefdom. He's kind at heart but is very surly. He HATES the fact that he has to pay taxes so that the nobles can just sit on their behinds and do nothing.
Bishop Benedict II: Archbishop and spiritual advisor to the king of Salm
Sister Janice: runs the local church

there are more, but I won't spend time writing each and everyone of them down.

So... WHY would you want to develop your personal relationships? Simple, because you can. But also, you need to do so if you want to actually achieve a higher career advancements. It's not just hard work and talent, it's also who you know. i.e. to get the ending of becoming a paladin, you would need a decent military clout, a decent religion clout, and a good relationship with Titus. To become the new grand master of the knight order, your military clout must be high and your relationship with Titus must be really good too.

Of course, a lot of the endings will still be available if you don't have these personal relationships to help you along... it just means you need to meet much higher standards. (basically, knowing titus is like having a +50% bonus on your military clout)

I've also decided to drop the personality test thing since we can more or less make those into separate stats to measure and subsume them into the rest of the system.

Skills

stats I've decided on:

personal stats (things you are, which can change over time but VERY slowly)
strength
dexterity
constitution
sensitivity
intellect
charisma
will power
fatigue

morality scales
altruistic <=> individualistic
principled <=> pragmatic

both of these start at the center 0, and based on your actions throughout the game, you slowly drift towards direction or the other. Your ending is greatly affected by this.

skill stats
Administration: this skill allows you the option before task / warfare / building scenes to improve the efficiency or to issue commands that can get more done by mobilizing more resources. It is mostly a bonus stat that gives you skills to do more with less time. It is also one of the essential stats for becoming a official in the political sphere and in endings where you are responsible for running an organization can give you some bonus points in the end.
Appraisal: mostly for buying and selling items. the higher this is, the better discount you get. Also, having this high enough will tell you what some more peculiar items will do.
performance category
- music: for task scenes to earn money with. obviously, necessary for singer endings as an artisan
- Dance: for task scenes to earn money with. obviously, necessary for singer endings as an artisan
- Oration: used in the duel of wits scene primarily, but also can be used greatly in building and warfare scenes
Leadership: stat that gives you bonuses in warfare, building. a lot of techniques that are used in these scenes are uses this as the base skill stat
Tactics: primary stat for warfare, but some of the tactics techniques can also be used in normal combat scenes
Persuasion: used primarily in duel of wits scenes, but techniques from this be used in just about any scene that involves commanding resources like building, and warfare
knowledge category
knowledge primarily serves one purpose: to unlock more "techniques" that you can use in different scenes.
- Etiquette: in order to speak to people of the imperial house, you need this skill. some of the more... obstinate members will have higher requirements than others.
- Arcane: Arcane knowledge by itself does almost nothing. However, this is your primary stat for casting spells, and determines how much MP you have. Learning spells requires that you have an applicable other place to do this with.
- Religion: key stat for dealing with clergy. Techniques can be used in duel of wits scenes (and are especially helpful with religious folk)
- Demonology: the higher this is, the more you know about fantasy / demonic creatures. You need this to uncover some of the arcane items / creatures during your adventures
- Heal: you need this for working the hospitals. you can also learn techniques that can be used during warfare and combat scenes.
- Law: unlocks techniques that can be used for duel of wit scenes where you're dealing with political issues
- Martial knowledge: unlocks martial arts techniques. I might drop this one though, depending upon how I feel.
- Streetwise: knowledge skill that gives you access to the more obscure elements of the outcast world.
subterfuge category
most of the stuff in this category is for the "crime scene"
- Falsehood: mostly for running a con in crime scenes, but can also be used in duel of wits, can be used in warfare for infiltration
- Sleight of Hand: pickpocketing, but techniques can be used for street performances
- Security: cracking locks, but can be used in warfare scene for infiltration.
- Intimidation: primarily used to threaten people. techniques can also be used in combat scenes and duel of wits scenes
Trade skills
trade skills are there for you to do one thing: work and earn money. You don't learn techniques from these. However, having these skills can prove helpful in some building scenes by giving you a bonus.
- Blacksmith
- Farmer
- Laborer
- Husbandry
- Grooming
- Education
- Hunting
- Construction
Martial Arts
combat knowledge stuff
- Weapons: determines how often your attacks will connect. It also gives very slight bonuses to damage. However, in order to really deal the big damage, you need to use techniques. At the initial stages, your weapon of choice will have a greater impact on your damage.
- Unarmed: Just like weapons, but the base damage is determined by a combination of your strength, dexterity, and unarmed skill level. Again, like weapons, to deal large damage, you need to rely upon the techniques.
- Armor: without this skill, armor will actually hamper your movement, decrease your evasion greatly, and not work nearly as well in combat.
- Evasion: Effected by dex, this skill determines how well you can avoid damage, be it through getting out of the way or using blocks. Some defensive techniques will rely on this stat.

Attributes effect skills by giving bonuses to said skill. i.e. a high strength will give you a bonus in combat, high dex will give you a bonus in dancing, etc.

the formula will basically be this: results = base skill + attribute bonus + other bonuses - mental fatigue, if results > obstacle, then success. Pretty simple stuff.

Having said that though, each the way the "skill" portion is calculated depends upon the precise skill you use in the task. Here's where I need to make some distinctions: you have skill ranks like the list above, and then you have specific techniques that you can use within the encounter. "techniques" will use the current skill set up in RMXP. That is, something like say, "fireball", for example, is considered a technique under this definition.

So how do you acquire techniques? well, all skills when you first learn it or first perform it, will have a default technique you can use. This is basically the "fight" option that you get in every skill. However, as you progress in your skill rank, you learn new techniques that can fall under your skill.

i.e. to learn the "cure" spell, you need to have a certain level of arcane knowledge AND heal knowledge. You can gain one by studying magic, and the other by working at the hospital. (Or maybe I'd would just subsumed that into the church) when both of those are high enough, the skill becomes available to you and you can use it help other people.

Some of these techniques can be used in other places.

i.e. using the example above, once you've learned the "cure" spell, you can use it either back at the hospital or you can use it in combat on yourself.

Some techniques are not learned just through skill ranks, but also require chance encounters.

i.e. certain sword fighting techniques like say, "lightning cut" require that you find a master who will teach you the technique. this, again, feeds back into the whole relationship thing.

Storyline

Since the game is supposed to have multiple endings and narratives, it's hard to write down in prose exactly how everything will flow. But to give it a start, here's what the chronological events if the player does not get involved at all in the game. (or basic choose to do nothing and become a nobody)

Year 1454 - Salm declares war on Klaros over border dispute
Year 1462 - End of Salm-Klaros conflict and the end of the Klaros bloodline, Player character was adopted by Thomas Asden
Year 1467 - Beginning of game, player character chooses his family and friends
Year 1469 - Player, at this point a teen, begins choose his vocation
Year 1471 - Unrest within the old Klaros territory breaks out into a full blown rebellion. The new rebellion forces are led by the former ally of the Salm, the Nomadic Tribe chief, hoping to use this chance to topple over the Salm kingdom and claim the land for himself. Salm sends in their forces to engage the enemy in battle.
Year 1472 - One year after the conflict had started, there seems to be no end to the conflict. Endless streams of Nomads seem to continue to flow into the Salm lands. Reservists were sent in, depleting some of the last of the Salm's fighting force. Later that year, Titus Payens would die on the frontlines. In desperation, the house of Salm began to employ more extreme measures, eventually achieving a Pyrrhic victory.
Year 1473 - public backlash from the poor handling of veterans to the wrecked economy causes much more civil unrest. Many of the veterans, now adrift with no purpose and no ability to make ends meet, become brigands. Riots break out in various parts of the country, ending with the proper estate of Asden within the capital being burnt down by rioters. Thomas Asden retires to the country side, shamed by all and used as a scapegoat for all that has gone wrong. William Asden now takes over the reigns of the family business, in an attempt to rise from the ashes

These are basically the events that will follow if the player choose not to get involved in any of it. However, with player influence, the events could be drastically changed.

I see the game happening in 3 phases

childhood: right after being adopted into the house of Asden, the player takes control at this point and gets to explore the city, the people as well as some of the professions for the future. At this point, the player can establish who his friends and mentor will be. The choice will have an impact on the player in the next phase
teens: at this point, the player will have already made some choices about what he wants to focus on. This will be reflected in his states and relationships. The player can, if he so choose, to change professions or explore another avenue, or continue along the profession he picked before. At this point the player will begin to learn more about their friends, and mentors, and as the story unfolds, more options will become available.
second klaros war: once war is declared, this where things REALLY start to diverge. The player, depending upon what he has done up to this point, might end up fighting in the war, or might end up being the hand that stops it, or he might not be involved at all. Many of canon events such as the death of Titus Payens might not come to pass if the player gets involved. The player will also start to see how the war is effecting those around him.
Post-second Klaros War: At this point, this is pretty much a mop up of what's happened. There are some final choices the player must make such as what happens to the house Asden and what not.

I love the princess maker series and life sims in general, I've downloaded and paid for quite a few.

I'm curious as to what kind of engine you plan on using? Are you going to have the same interface as a Princess maker game?
(If so, I might recommend a different game engine that handles Life Sims better. Not saying it's impossible to do with RPGMaker, just hard.)

A Life Sim, as these are called, can get very complex very quickly. I know, because I've been designing one on and off for the past couple of years. I could never imagine making one on RPG Maker. Personally, I'd trim down that list of stats unless you have career goals or game goals already in place where those particular skills will be used.

Here are a couple of other life sim demos to check out and help inspire:
http://www.winterwolves.com/spiritedheart.htm
http://www.hanakogames.com/ckk.shtml <--Probably more what you're describing.

Good luck!

I'll address these one by one

So they're called Life-Sims! Well that does make it much easier to refer to. But no, I wasn't planning on using the princess maker interface. Quite frankly, while I was okay with the interface, I feel the essence of life-sim games are really about formalizing the stat building process and creating an event framework around it, rather than the interface itself.

Having said that, I am starting to have pause when I started to think about how the core game play would flow. It suddenly hit me that one of the big features in life-sims is that you generally can schedule items, mostly so that you can advance a little quicker through the boring parts. The nature of having "tasks" at the micro-level I was thinking about, however, basically forces you to focus on working on one task at a time, which can get really tedious especially if we want to stretch out the game to over the course of years. I don't really want the players to end up in a situation where they want to click as fast as they can on a single icon just so they can get through the task. If that were the case, I would rather they just hit the button once and let the game do the rest. When I initially started thinking about this, I had two philosophies I wanted to enforce:

Design Philosophy

1. Malcolm Gladwell's rule: it takes 10000 hours of devotion to become an expert at something. While I'm not going to put a clock down in the game and measure the player progress in that fashion, I do want the game to emphasize the need for specialization in order to excel in your craft. This is something princess maker itself actually has already done to a certain extent. if you want to hit 999 in a stat (the highest you can get), it takes on average over 90 months of grinding away if you do so only through normal work, which takes up the entirety of the game. This is something I want to replicate a little.
1a. the subversion of rule 1: while becoming a master of an ability takes a lot of practice, critical success at something takes far less. That is, your career success is less dependent upon how well you are at a particular task, but rather by how you play the game in general. basically, it's the whole idea that it's about who you know, where you are, and how you apply your abilities. This is why I wanted most of the job profession endings to be based on your clout/reputation.
2. maximize player decision value points. This, I believe, is the reason why a lot of life sim games uses schedulers to run the day to day tasks. Tasks in and of themselves are not that interesting. You can make it interesting, but at the end of the day when you're doing it 10000 times (see rule above), it's going to get tedious. So, in the interest of not boring the player to tears, I want to try to automate as much of the tedious parts as possible.
3. multiple approaches to the same problem: this is why I have so many skills. I'll admit, it's probably not appropriate at all for this kind of game and it is possible for it to get really cumbersome, but I want to make sure players have plenty of options to tackle the same problem.

With these rules in mind, this is how I imagined game play to flow:
Time metric is not strictly enforced and measured. Rather, what is being measured is the number of tasks you have completed. (this will mostly be an internal value) When you choose to perform tasks, it will call up a scene the same way RPGmaker calls up a battle. Every number of "rounds" the player spends "fighting" during the tasks will count as a single task completion. (Or if need be, a single day) The player can only dedicate so many rounds to a single task before he must stop. Both of these counts can be controlled in game via a scripted variable. I figure that 10 days could be a good stopping point.

All the plot exposition can happen in between the tasks. Certain tasks will not advance the time counter, i.e. conversations with people, fighting monsters (but it does drastically deplete your health and your energy, which are needed to continue working), shopping. You can, of course, arbitrarily advance time to rest.

more on the stats: (seeing as one of the very legit concerns modesty raised is about how the stats are used)

Primarily, your job ending will be dependent on your reputation, with your stats modifying the endings slightly. At the end of the game, you will basically be notified that certain NPCs would like to speak to you about your future prospects, and all the endings you're qualified for will be available for you to pick at the right NPC. i.e. say you qualify for "martial instructor", but also qualify for "master woodcutter". Then at the end of the game, Titus Payens and The Master Woodcutter will ask to see you, and you can take control of your character one last time, where you can choose to speak to Titus or the Woodcutter. Depending upon who you speak to, you can basically pick your ending.

Attributes effect skills by giving bonuses to said skill. i.e. a high strength will give you a bonus in combat, high dex will give you a bonus in dancing, etc.

the formula will basically be the way D&D works: results = skill + attribute bonus - mental fatigue, if results > obstacle, then success. Pretty simple stuff.

Having said that though, each the way the "skill" portion is calculated depends upon the precise skill you use in the task. Here's where I need to make some distinctions: you have skill ranks like the list above, and then you have specific techniques that you can use within the encounter. "techniques" will use the current skill set up in RMXP. That is, something like say, "fireball", for example, is considered a technique under this definition.

So how do you acquire techniques? well, all skills when you first learn it or first perform it, will have a default technique you can use. This is basically the "fight" option that you get in every skill. However, as you progress in your skill rank, you learn new techniques that can fall under your skill.

i.e. to learn the "cure" spell, you need to have a certain level of arcane knowledge AND heal knowledge. You can gain one by studying magic, and the other by working at the hospital. (Or maybe I'd would just subsumed that into the church) when both of those are high enough, the skill becomes available to you and you can use it help other people.

Some of these techniques can be used in other places.

i.e. using the example above, once you've learned the "cure" spell, you can use it either back at the hospital or you can use it in combat on yourself.

Some techniques are not learned just through skill ranks, but also require chance encounters.

i.e. certain sword fighting techniques like say, "lightning cut" require that you find a master who will teach you the technique. this, again, feeds back into the whole relationship thing.

Hm... Sounds like brain overload for the person creating the game LOL!! Still the concept seems rather interesting. I've never heard of the princess maker so to me it's new! I'll be anxious to see where this ends up!

Philip: well, if you want to see princess maker or princess maker 2, they are essentially translated abandonwares so you can always go and see if you can find those online. Seriously, try it out, it's a lot of fun.

and yeah, it's pretty prodigious, but then again, most of this is not entirely new and there are precedents for all of them in different games. I'm just trying to bring in the bits I like. Anyway, new "scenes" that will need to be developed:

- warfare scene
- crime scene
- re-done battle scene
- task scenes: scenes where you work on something fairly procedural such as studying/farming, etc
- building scene: where you perform construction work
- duel of wits: "social combat", if you will, where two parties are trying to persuade each other or crowd of their stance and try to rally them to their side

Administration: this skill allows you the option before task / warfare / building scenes to improve the efficiency or to issue commands that can get more done by mobilizing more resources. It is mostly a bonus stat that gives you skills to do more with less time. It is also one of the essential stats for becoming a official in the political sphere and in endings where you are responsible for running an organization can give you some bonus points in the end.
Appraisal: mostly for buying and selling items. the higher this is, the better discount you get. Also, having this high enough will tell you what some more peculiar items will do.
performance category
- music: for task scenes to earn money with. obviously, necessary for singer endings as an artisan
- Dance: for task scenes to earn money with. obviously, necessary for singer endings as an artisan
- Oration: used in the duel of wits scene primarily, but also can be used greatly in building and warfare scenes
Leadership: stat that gives you bonuses in warfare, building. a lot of techniques that are used in these scenes are uses this as the base skill stat
Tactics: primary stat for warfare, but some of the tactics techniques can also be used in normal combat scenes
Persuasion: used primarily in duel of wits scenes, but techniques from this be used in just about any scene that involves commanding resources like building, and warfare
knowledge category
knowledge primarily serves one purpose: to unlock more "techniques" that you can use in different scenes.
- Etiquette: in order to speak to people of the imperial house, you need this skill. some of the more... obstinate members will have higher requirements than others.
- Arcane: Arcane knowledge by itself does almost nothing. However, this is your primary stat for casting spells, and determines how much MP you have. Learning spells requires that you have an applicable other place to do this with.
- Religion: key stat for dealing with clergy. Techniques can be used in duel of wits scenes (and are especially helpful with religious folk)
- Demonology: the higher this is, the more you know about fantasy / demonic creatures. You need this to uncover some of the arcane items / creatures during your adventures
- Heal: you need this for working the hospitals. you can also learn techniques that can be used during warfare and combat scenes.
- Law: unlocks techniques that can be used for duel of wit scenes where you're dealing with political issues
- Martial knowledge: unlocks martial arts techniques. I might drop this one though, depending upon how I feel.
- Streetwise: knowledge skill that gives you access to the more obscure elements of the outcast world.
subterfuge category
most of the stuff in this category is for the "crime scene"
- Falsehood: mostly for running a con in crime scenes, but can also be used in duel of wits
- Sleight of Hand: pickpocketing, but techniques can be used for street performances
- Security: cracking locks, but can be used in warfare scene for infiltration.
- Intimidation: primarily used to threaten people. techniques can also be used in combat scenes and duel of wits scenes
Trade skills
trade skills are there for you to do one thing: work and earn money. You don't learn techniques from these. However, having these skills can prove helpful in some building scenes by giving you a bonus.
- Blacksmith
- Farmer
- Laborer
- Husbandry
- Grooming
- Education
- Hunting
- Construction
Martial Arts
combat knowledge stuff
- Weapons: determines how often your attacks will connect. It also gives very slight bonuses to damage. However, in order to really deal the big damage, you need to use techniques. At the initial stages, your weapon of choice will have a greater impact on your damage.
- Unarmed: Just like weapons, but the base damage is determined by a combination of your strength, dexterity, and unarmed skill level. Again, like weapons, to deal large damage, you need to rely upon the techniques.
- Armor: without this skill, armor will actually hamper your movement, decrease your evasion greatly, and not work nearly as well in combat.
- Evasion: Effected by dex, this skill determines how well you can avoid damage, be it through getting out of the way or using blocks. Some defensive techniques will rely on this stat.

Man, there's a lot of stuff going on in these posts, I'm not clear on the most important elements like:

-What is the main gameplay element?
-What does the player do during game play?

There are plenty of ideas for details of the game but I'm not seeing what the core structure is.
Is it a schedule management game like princess maker?
Is it a mini-game stat builder?
Is it more of an RPG with skill building?

You know, I just scanned my old posts, and I just realized that I haven't made that clear either. My bad. I'll clean up the previous posts to improve readability later

I would say it's more of an RPG with skill building, since that's the closest I can describe. Here's how I envision game flow

while between the tasks (and this is where a lot of the story exposition happens), you control your character as you would in any typical RMXP RPG.

Talking to certain characters or approaching certain objects will prompt one of the scenes I've listed above. combat, crime, tasks and building will play out like normal combat. (Though tasks, building, and crime might be very linear and not require too much thought) Warfare and duel of wits will play out minigames that have it's own structure, phases, and I'll have to elaborate on that later. Suffice to say though, they are more akin to an elaborate multi-round game of rock-paper-scissors.

Warfare

When the dogs of war have been called, and the battle is eminent, the warfare mini-game is called upon to resolve the conflict.

The warfare mini-game is split into several phases

1. pre-war preparation
2. hit point generation, positioning selection
3. maneuver picking
4. resolve maneuver
5. repeat 3-4 until one side hits 0
6. post battle phase

phase 1, pre-war preparations
Prior to calling the warfare scene, the player will have a limited number of options that they can perform before the battle to help tip the scales their way. This is dependent upon what skills the player have and what resources they have at their disposal.

administration skills improvements
- improve communication
- improve supply line

tactics skill improvements
- Position
- Weaponry

leadership improvements
- psychological advantage

Security / Disguise
- Infiltration
- Scouting

Falsehood
- Plant misinformation that if successful misleads opposing army into performing certain actions over others

After this point, the warfare scene is called.

Phase 2, data tabulation
At this phase, the game will get all the data tabulated. The system must calculate the following things:
- army hit points
- army hit point sources
- army combat level
- combat level modifiers for special circumstances

It is also at this point that player must make a contact check. Basically, this check decides who gets to pick their position on the map first. This is done by taking the army's scouting score and comparing it with the enemies scouting score.

An army's hit points represents not just the health of the fighting unit, but also their morale, cohesion, and other unquantifiable factors that holds an army together. Their hit point source also notes where they are getting these points. The reason why is because there can be special actions that if successful can take out that source, and thereby depriving the army of those hit points directly.

all the improvements listed above, in addition to improving other aspects of warfare, can also improve an army's hit points.

The army's combat level represents that culmination of skill of the commander plus the various other circumstantial factors that add into the total combative ability of the unit.

things that can improve the combat level
- psychological advantage
- better training
- better weapons
- better communication

once all of this data has been compiled and loaded into the scenery, the battle officially begins.

phase 3, picking maneuvers
at this point, both sides will pick army maneuvers which function like an elaborate rock paper scissors game. Maneuvers, by the way, are very much techniques that player learn through military training. There are a total of 9 different maneuvers

- observe: uses your scouts to see what the enemy is doing. You need to do this prior to performing cavalry charge or archery fire.
- advance: move your army towards a certain location. Advancing to a new position can take time and during this time your army has no defensive position bonus
- archery fire: rain death upon the enemy.
- cavalry charge: as the name suggests, charge straight into the enemy
- ready against the charge: using your pikes and such, you hold position against your enemy and keep them at bay.
- melee: when two armies meet in the same space, they go to melee. This is the default result after cavalry charge or if two armies happen to occupy the same space. both sides will take damage.
- rally and regroup: try to hold your men together. this is how you heal army hit points
- flank: you try to split your army into two groups and perform a pincer attack
- withdraw: pull away from your current position. If successful, you can perform an archery action in the next maneuver without the observe

phase 4, resolving maneuvers

once maneuvers have been picked, they are resolved. Depending upon what maneuvers are picked, they are resolved in different ways. Once the maneuver is resolved, hit points are deducted from both sides, positions are refreshed, and combat bonuses are re-calculated.

phase 5, rinse and repeat 3 and 4 until someone hits 0
pretty self-explanatory

phase 6 post battle
after the battle, the results are tallied. First, the victory/loss flag will be tagged and reflected in the story. But also, the system will see how much of a victory you achieved. There are three levels to this. The first level is where one side totally dominates, and if this was a single battle out of an on going war, the winning side will receive a huge bonus in the following fights. The second level is where one side has taken some damage, but has still attained their goal. They will still receive the benefits of their objective in the next fight. The third level is Pyrrhic victory, where the net gain is minimal, since both sides have taken a very bloody beating, with one side just edging out over the other.

more posts later to talk about the relationship between maneuvers.