You can read about what Syphilisation is here and the manifesto for the game here.

Work Done

This week was all about integrating the work of the previous month cleanly and testing out what I have. I removed the scouts entirely and replaced them with the units that represent kind things to say. I also took out the old scouting mechanic and replaced it with the lightest of diplomatic actions so far. Syphilisation has a lot of different diplomatic actions, each of which constrains the kinds of units that you can use against the other player and the results of capturing cities. Scouting only allows the kind units and just gives you a scouting reward for capturing the city. Ownership of the city does not change hands at all.

I fleshed out the creepers of the previous update a bit more. The games that I’ve had since then have not really had the feature do much. Its impact will likely only really show up later in the game and only in occasional games. I should put in a reward for discovering them though.

I really fleshed out the second production queue now. It’s working decently, but I do need to clean up the interface around it and production as a whole. I expect that if I clean that up a bit and make clear what does what, the feature will start feeling much better. There’s a lot more emphasis now on figuring out your stance on colonialism for each playthrough already, which was the main goal of the feature. It still will probably need work, but it’s very promising so far.

With this week, the work on the eXploration phase is largely done. I will naturally come back to it regularly over the rest of the production schedule as the rest of the game is fleshed out, but this month is going to be aimed at the next phase, the eXpansion phase. The shift between the two phases is quite sharp and will feel quite different to the player. The next week is going to be the simple step of setting up stationary cities from the nomadic ones of the eXploration phase, but I’m not sure what I will do after that.

Interesting Fact

When Gandhi was in Yerwada jail during the early 1930s, he used to spend as much as two hours every day brushing his teeth despite only having two teeth left by then. This stint in jail was in protest to the Second Round Table Conference, a series of meetings that were set up to chart out the future of India and how representation was to work in the country. Gandhi was firmly opposed to the idea of separate electorates on the basis of caste and religion and started a fast-unto-death from jail in protest to the electoral procedure proposed. This ended with Ambedkar and then the British agreeing to the Poona Pact, which had reserved seats, but maintained a general electorate.