Heartland Frontier Bishop Update - v0.2.0

Heartland Frontier is a challenging tile-based 4x strategy game where you fight feudal lords and tribal chieftains in the hope of unifying your homeland and resisting foreign powers.

This update sees a new class added to the game and I will be discussing some of the progress that has been made over the past couple of weeks.  I encourage you to look at one of the earliest devlogs to see for yourself how the game has evolved over such a  short period of time.

What went right:

• The Soldier Class
• Faction Creation
• Mercenary Camp
• Character Customisation
• Trade Goods
• Battles and Sieges
• Colonies

What went wrong:

There is a lot I didn't get around to like the Tavern and Black Market, these are features I see as required. The Tavern will allow you to recruit neutral characters as well as take on bounties. The Black Market will allow you to trade with the great powers and export food in exchange for gold or soldiers. Both of these buildings are similar to the mercenary camp in that they wander the frontier and have no fixed location. 

A lot of my time over the past 10 weeks has been spent reworking mechanics, how combat works and the soldier class are good examples. This unfortunately is the nature of a 1-week release cycle and a quick turnaround. As the mechanics are locked in however, I will likely pull back to a 2-week or 1-month release.

At the start of the year I discussed how my near-future focus was on factions, events and combat. I wanted to have these core systems developed by now but only combat has been explored. The game isn't fun yet but I do think once foreign relations and events are added there will be a lot more personality to the game.

What politics goes on abroad will affect your domestic politics, for example the Eastern Realm has a plague, this could spread into the heartland and decimate cities. Or if the Southern Realm is prosperous and politically unified, they are much more likely to send legions than refugees onto the frontier.

Dynamic events will occur based on your class, religion and other variables. They allow you to approach situations in different ways based on the choices you have made. These events will add depth through randomness and allow me to build upon existing systems within the game.

The Bishop:

The second class to be added to the game is mix between combat and utility and it offers a different toolset to approach the game with. The Bishop offers some combat abilities but also has utilitarian abilities that allow them to grow their economy quicker than a Soldier could.

Mobilise Populace: Mobilise the believers. Increases construction time while active. The Bishop has a chance to generate cohorts of zealots when it is active.

Yearly Tithe: Collect taxes from a city owned by you. The event will consider your position as well as the political climate in the city to determine the outcome. The effects can range from instigating a riot to collecting an exceptional tax. 

Eternal Sacrifice: Only the faithful can make the final sacrifice, destroy a cohort of zealots to regenerate army morale.  Your soldiers will perform a religious sacrament to increase their morale and combat abilities.

Incite Heretics: Provoke a religious minority to violence. The ability can be used in hostile cities to instigate a riot or outright revolt. If you have a strong garrison it can be used in your city to seize the property of the sect.

Zealot: A new infantry unit that the Bishop can spawn with Mobilise Populace. They can be destroyed using Eternal Sacrifice to regenerate morale. Zealots are a cannon fodder unit and are not as strong as regular infantry but their numbers can make a difference.

Adding a new class is about adding player choice however I also want to ensure each class in the game feels distinct. No doubt I will be smoothing out the Bishop's toolset over 0.2 and everything is liable to change. However I think this new class offers strategic depth and flavour the Soldier does not have, perhaps they too will need class events.