There’s a rhythm to the game.
You fight for a bit, then you build for a bit, and then you fight again.
In the industry, it’s called the gameplay loop, and the trick is to make a gameplay loop that sucks the player in. The easiest example would FPS games. You start the game, get into a lobby, pick your gear, and start a match. If the balance is good enough, if the guns feel good to shoot, and the speed of everything is great, then your players will invest time, effort, and develop skills in the game. Game devs support this by buffing things that aren’t good, while nerfing things that are a bit too good, until they find a sweet spot.
If the game is good enough, if it's fun to play and every match is different because of the styles and skills of the players, then you’re looking at massive profits. You can sell cosmetic skins to your players through battle passes, reward them free stuff through events, or get their money in all sorts of ways, even after they’ve paid full price for the game. If the game is good enough, rather than being seen as stingy with the free stuff cosmetics, people will buy stuff just to support the game.
Gacha games?
That’s a whole different beast, and I refuse to talk about it.
Anyway, for 4X games, where you take turns to explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate, the gameplay loop is built around keeping the player productive and busy. There’s always something for them to do, so time is going to melt away while they play. It’s not just about the armies fighting. It’s about looking at your city’s stats, making the district needed to supplement its weakness or improve its specialty. Then, while that’s going on, you explore the map, and find places to settle new towns in with tiles that provide bonuses, strategic resources, or things that you can trade. Of course, when you find that place, someone else is already there or another party wants it for themselves. After that, you make an army, fight them, settle, build, and then start looking for another place to take.
Meanwhile, everything is still improving while you’re fighting. The people in your cities are growing in number, the buildings you set up to build are being made, and research is being done. The new village that you make has a head start over villages you made before. Your whole empire benefits from the resources you pull in, or from just having another spot that can contribute more to the nation’s goals. Some factions will have different resources that they need to find and gain, or whole mechanical systems that make them different from their enemies, as well as wholly different technology sets that give different buffs and buildings and units.
If you couple all of that with good AI that knows to press the advantage, play their faction, and withdraw and negotiate when they’re on the backfoot? You’ve basically got a game that can be played endlessly, so now you can sell all the cosmetic packs you want, event packs, leaders with special units and tech trees for factions, get mod support, and finally get expansions.
So, where am I going with this, since I’m now living that game?
Basically, I’ve played the game long enough to get a gut feeling when things are too quiet, and to know when something’s up.
You get maybe five turns max before something weird and different pops up that you need to address with physical force.
With my plans for the Wardens in play, while the Guardians, Merchants, and Forgers were still building up, I thought that it’d be the Wardens causing an issue.
Turns out that I was wrong about that.
The Scholars, after being hunted for years, finally resurfaced.
And, they resurfaced with style.
…
I was at the Scholar’s former Citadel.
Much of the city that once surrounded it was gone. The previous inhabitants had made it more for withstanding sieges and grinding armies than for housing and industry. With the region now dedicated to mining and heavy industry, I made sure that the Scholar’s former Citadel was good enough to enjoy living in. Mining towns and heavy industry districts both lowered the overall regional happiness level, so I made sure to build hospitals, stadiums, and resorts that the workers of the region could easily access. The Citadel here was geared towards producing a lot of amenities for the people, as well as provide medical supplies and critical care when the hospitals can’t get things done. And, finally, I was encouraging people here to have lots of kids.
Black lung? Step into this vat and in a few hours your lungs are fine. We’ve also gotten rid of some aches and pains we’ve found. Free of charge.
Lost a limb? Let’s get your measurements via this scanner, and a tissue sample, and you can come back in a few days for a graft.
Feeling stressed and tired? My friend, you should be using your five-day voucher for a ski or hot springs resort, you get one every twenty-five days of working. The three-day rest period is rarely enough with your long shifts!
Home feeling a bit cold? Try this new heater from the Citadel. It’ll last forever and keep your whole house warm. How much? We have plenty, and the people outside love them, so I’ll give it to you for half off!
Your fourth child being a bit harder to carry? Ma’am, please follow me. Don’t worry about anything. We’ll take care of you at the hospital, or even the Citadel!
Basically, over here, I was doing my best to keep people happy, healthy, and without complaints as they toil in my largest factories and pull ore from the mountainous regions. Not just to keep everyone happy, but to make sure that they don’t leave, and that their children would stay and take up their parent’s occupation. Not only that, but if people didn’t exactly test well in their exams, they were also sent over here for manual labor positions. Some people would call it some sort of worker utopia, but I honestly saw it more as a trap. People here weren’t given to reason to leave, to advance upward in the social hierarchy, and so that they, and whoever else is unfit for anything besides manual labor will be sent here and stay here.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Some kids will have a chance, of course, and they’ll be tested while they’re raised and taught in school. They’ll get to go to a university, become scholars, and learn. The vast majority, though, will basically just be sticking around here and further increasing industrial output. They’ll never want for food, housing, or healthcare. They can pop out kids nonstop and not have to care. All they need to do is mine or work in the factory, then go home to rest, or check in a vacation.
The Scholars saw this and tried to infiltrate and start the process of retaking their lands by getting into public office and positions of power.
The problem with their plan?
The whole police force and upper management of the Scholar’s former region were Iterants. I didn’t want to have secret police made up of shapeshifting terminators, but after Khanrow and Riegert recommended it, since they couldn’t say for sure that the Scholars were gone, I had to make them. Hopefully, once the Scholars were dealt with, I could disband them or just add them to the budding intelligence agencies I’ve got going.
The results are good, but I know that there are bad events involving establishing clandestine organizations further in the game that cost way too much to resolve.
But back to our findings.
The Scholars were making their move after years of laying low after the loss of their Citadel.
“Your majesty.”
“Lady Geneve, a pleasure to meet you.” Ayah was hanging back behind me, busy working with messengers to reschedule and change up my itinerary for the coming week, so I was interacting directly with the Iterant in charge of our security operations instead of her. Usually, Ayah was my go-between and the representative of the Iterants. During emergencies like this, she had a lot to handle, so I went alone without complaint. “I’ve heard good things from Khanrow and Morgan. I take it they’re still deployed?”
“Yes, Lady Morgan and Lord Khanrow are both hard at work collecting data in the field. Magical information that we cannot collect ourselves.” If Iterants had any weakness, it was that they couldn’t use or cast magic. All their magic was devoted towards building more Iterants within their chassis. Theoretically, if that system was stopped and they were taught, they would be able to use magic. We needed more people, and mages were common amongst regular folk, so I abstained from pursuing that possibility. “They sent a message ahead of themselves, however.”
Geneve gave me a letter, bowing and holding out both hands as it did, and I did my best to smile and not make a big deal of how odd it felt.
Could’ve just given it to me normally.
I looked over it, and it was as I expected.
This was the Subterfuge and Shapeshifter event, which could proc for any faction far enough into the tech tree if they lose. Since the Scholars had access to lots of technology, I supposed that it was to be expected that they’d take over the role.
“It seems that the Scholars intend to infiltrate our ranks. Using magic and technology, they’ll exchange bodies of their people with other peoples. The only difference that we will see is in habits and actions.” Brain transfers were a thing back on Earth. Monkeys had their brains transferred to other monkey bodies, and everything got reconnected besides the brain stem. The monkeys died in the end, and were unable to move since we couldn’t reconnect brain stems. If I remembered correctly, the brain was also considered a foreign object by the immune system, so it had to be flooded with immune-suppressants, too. Here, I suppose that magic ‘solved’ those two problems. Hell, Citadel healing machines can fix paralysis from broken spines, so I suppose we could do the same. “I trust that you’ve been meticulous in keeping track of all the citizenry under the Citadel?”
“Yes, your majesty. We’ve begun cross-examinations on over two dozen people as of this moment. All individuals who are displaying differences in their daily habits.”
“Make sure to focus on those who have been to resorts, as well, and double the agents we have at those places. They are isolated areas, but if one is compromised, we will be sending out workers and receiving infiltrators.” The Subterfuge and Shapeshifters event is one of the polarizing events. You either loved it or hated it. I was on the former category when I played it. I liked how it took years to resolve, how you needed to read, and how you needed to interact with the espionage layer and do actions marked by the event. Those who hated it… hated it for the same reasons. They liked events that you just clicked the good option on, that they didn’t have to read, and didn’t influence to overworld much. It’s blue, that means it’s good. Hurr durr. Honestly, with all that I had on my plate now, I kinda got them now. Oh, it’s end-solution also a big movie classic reference that was easy to remember. “Then, for anyone even considered for upper management or for a scholarly position, we need to establish fundamentals.”
“Their likes, dislikes, and a few key phrases and words that they need to remember. Things that won’t transfer between bodies.” It was called the VK test online. Lots of other posters called people uncultured if they didn’t know what VK stood for. Other people just called them boomers, old fucks, or something along those lines. I never bothered to ask, or read too many posts about it. Time spent on the forums is better spent in game, or in the wiki. But the general ‘solution’ was something that I knew. “For most people, we’ll just register if they’re out of the city or have disappeared for more than an hour. Should be simple enough with the surveillance that we have. You’ll more resources, naturally.”
“Y-yes, your majesty. I won’t fail you! I’ll do my utmost to see this project through!”
“If you have any questions, schedule a meeting with me while I’m here.” I gave Geneve a nod, and we finished walking through the Citadel. We entered the cold room, and one a simple steel table, there lay an average looking Descendant on the younger side. He wasn’t tall or built, but had enough muscle on him to look like an earnest worker. He had a bear belly and looked a bit scruffy, but besides that was on the healthy side. Well, if he was alive. “So, this one was found because he suddenly showed interest in becoming a facility manager?”
“Yes, as well as showcasing literacy, after being gone for several days and being found by an investigative team. He stated that he was attacked by brigands and was released when they found nothing of note on him.” Geneve went over to the end of the table with the man’s head. “Lady Morgan took note of our report and investigated him personally. There was a brief altercation, and she called for our help. She found this.”
The top of the man’s skull came off and inside was a brain.
A brain with a small hunk of metal and glittering jewel in it.
“Some sort of device that prevents the body from rejecting the brain?”
“Y-yes, that’s exactly Lady Morgan believed it was, your majesty! She said it was only a theory, so we did not place it in our reports. If there is any error—"
“There is no error. It remains a theory, until we break it down and study it. I’m also assuming from what I know.” I prevented Geneve from apologizing any more, and moved to examine it a bit closer. It was on the smaller side, but… shouldn’t a metal detector be able to find this? Could we have a possible solution to this that everyone else just wouldn’t consider, because they didn’t know about it? “I believe that there’s an Ancient tool that can detect such things and that the Citadel might be able to make it. Come along.”
“Yes, your majesty. By your will!”
Was it just me, or was Geneve getting more and more enthusiastic as time went on?
I really should interact with regular Iterants more.