In Six Ages, your relationships with other clans are vital. The game tracks a number of factors for each clan, including how much they like and respect you, any slights they hold against you, and whether they have a formal alliance or feud.
These factors are all dynamic. They’re adjusted not only when you interact with a specific clan, but also when you do something that is likely to be newsworthy and spread to other clan. For example, in one event a combat hero can gain the respect of a clan and its neighbors. This OSL code handles that:
otherClan.fearsUs += 40
otherClan.likesUs -= 40
# all clans adjacent to otherClan .fearsUs +=20
a = AdjacentClans(AllClans, otherClan)
foreach c in a {
c.fearsUs += 20
}Other events have even wider impact (this one on all Rider clans):
# LikesUs+=3 * q (all Hyaloring otherClans)
h = HyaloringClans
foreach c in h {
c.likesUs += 3 * q
}But these are just numeric values. As Sin Vega discovered in her attempt to play as a petty jerk, your deeds can earn you a more specific reputation:
“We are known for our rudeness”, says the lawspeaker later that year. It’s nice to feel appreciated.
“We are known as backstabbing weasels”, says the lawspeaker at Sacred Time. I might have gone too far this year.
These reputations reflect a suggestion (case 8801) from our QA lead Liana Kerr, who wanted a way to give players a stronger connection to their clan.
Behind the scenes, there are a number of trends or events that you can become known for. A single act of mockery towards guests won’t give you a valley-wide reputation for rudeness. But they accumulate, and if you keep at it, sooner or later this will be the most significant thing you’ve done. By the same token, attacking your allies is a shocking breach of tradition and protocol (not to mention good sense), and that gets everyone’s notice. Over time though, any of these can be less notable in people’s memory if you no longer do them.
So each “known for” item has a numeric value, which indicates its significance. Visiting the Glacier is a big deal, but not as unusual as managing to defeat the Alkothi. But if you raid several times each year, the raid score will accumulate until it outweighs defeating the Hell Men. Or perhaps by then that feat was too far back to matter any longer, since the score for each item is reduced every year.
BecomeKnownFor("glacier")
Most of these actions are also tracked numerically through the standard relationship system (if you can defeat the Alkothi, you will gain much respect throughout the Valley), but others are a great way to reflect other player accomplishments like temple building or nurturing heroes. And the next chapter, “Lights Going Out,” will have items specific to its story. It’s a flexible system (we added several more late during development), and is a colorful and concise way to comment on the player’s story.