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Millennia: Ancient Worlds
DLC Summary
Millennia: Ancient Worlds is a smaller downloadable content pack focused on expanding gameplay options for players at the start of a playthrough.
Engine:
Platform:
Unity 2019.4.4.0f1
PC
Development Time:
6 months
Team Size:
18 team members
Design Goals
Refresh Early Game Content
I was tasked with adding new content for the early sections of the game. When players purchased this DLC the goal was they immediately felt a difference in play.
Expand on Minor Nations
The team agreed that the gameplay around minor nations was too one-note. We planned to improve this with a new national spirit and I took on its creation.
Refresh Early Game Content
New Megafauna Units
Barbarians are a very core concept for Civ-like games. I wanted to add a new unit type inspired by the early stone age and that's where the idea of megafauna came from.
I designed three new units. The Mastodon, the Smilodon, and the Megafauna Den which those two spawned out of.
I set up the units and their interactions in psuedo-code on Confluence during pitch and then for real in game with placeholder assets.
When barbarian camps are destroyed an event plays in Millenia where the player makes a binary choice. I also designed new events for when megafauna dens were destroyed following the same process as above.
New Landmarks
Another mechanic that players encounter early in their playthroughs is the discovery of natural landmarks such as the Grand Canyon. I set up a confluence page to concept out lots of new landmarks for each terrain tile (Forest, Mountain, Desert, etc.), implemented those landmarks in xml, and then put them in game with placeholder models before an art pass could be made.
New Map Type
I was also tasked with introducing a new map type for players using our inhouse xml map maker tool. I was inspired by our two continents map to add a ring variant.
I also created detailed documentation describing the process for our modding community to reference when making their own maps.
Expand on Minor Nations
New National Spirit
I designed the Messengers national spirit. The focus of this national spirit was to interact with Minor Nations in a new way.
Previous diplomatic spirits built a relationship between the player's country and the minor nations. Messengers, inspired by the ancient Incan messenger routes, funneled population from minor nations back to capital cities. Encouraging a 'Tall' playstyle.
Once the player converts the minor nation to an outpost using a messenger they can specialize their outpost into the Tambo. A real world outpost from Incan history. The Tambo spawns more Messenger units.
This creates a positive feedback loop of conquering minor nations and gaining a lot of population.
Postmortem
What Went Well
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The early game content felt fresh and players immediately played with what they purchased.
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The Messengers national spirit felt competitive and differentiated to the other diplomatic spirits.
What Went Wrong
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We were unable to implement systemic changes to Minor Nations due to budget constraints.
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New landmarks were unique, but required too many conditions to spawn frequently enough.
What I Learned
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Make all new content easy to access for players who purchased the DLC.
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To achieve larger goals in budget constraints I have to pivot to what works today rather than requesting additional features.
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