The Forums Bar Down Under

This is the third of a three part guide blog series on the overall User Interface of Brunelleschi: Age of Architects. We'll cover the options within the lower page framing bar which navigates the forums. This time the directions will be in standard rainbow order (ROYGBIV) and the theme is Nature.

Watch for updates, the Forums are currently being integrated with the New Forums.

The Forums Bar: bottom framing bar

I. Forums Menus - The first option on the bar pops open a window with your forums menus. They're arranged in categories you have access to and open up to reveal all the juicy forums inside.


II. Up/Down Arrow - This flips the forums up and down on your screen. It also reverses the arrow each time it is clicked. In the image it is offering to suck the forums back into the bar.

 III. Scrolling News - This cycles between recent forum events and will shortcut you to the specific conversations on whichever you catch and click.

IV. New Forums - Though not an original creation of the game, these are more standard forums the Dev team is currently working into the game. You should already have a forum account from character creation and post as your character, not your account. Also, through the Forums home page you can get to live chat.

V. Active Scenarios - These are what's going on in your Settlement right now. Whether it's supplying for a Refugee Crisis, celebrating Beltane, or fighting a war there's always a need for contributions. There's always a cost, and there's often a grand reward for completing these scenarios. Check out what's active and what you can contribute to through the Active Scenarios button.


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Check out the first two blogs in this UI series, Nav Bar and Your Character and find us at Aesopgames.com. Play with us at Brunegame.com

The UI and Your Character

In the last post we covered part one, the Nav Bar, of this three part UI series. This time we'll cover your Character. Much of this information is displayed constantly in the top of your game page. The rest can be found in your Character's page, found through the View menu.

We'll be following the colors in reverse rainbow order. The Nav Bar which we started with is your indigo/violet.


A. Character Display: top of the game page

I. Portrait - Your character portrait. Determined by class and progressing by level and rank. Clicking it will toggle it's size.

II. Character Basic - Title then Character Name. Clicking the Title/Name will take you to your profile page, also reachable through View->[CharacterName] Beneath is "Resident of [wherever you live]". Under that is the Acres from Total bar.

III. Stat Bars - Top green is your Action Points, used for almost everything. Middle blue is your Magic Points, used mostly for spells and scenarios. The Lower red is your health, used actions, duels, and scenarios.

IV. Progress & Storage Bars - First is experience progress to your next level. Second is importance progress to your next rank. Finally is your storage bar. Clicking the storage bar pops up a unique Capacity Details info window.


B. Character Settings: what you can change

I. Bio - This page can be viewed by you through the View menu and your character name. Everyone else will get to it through a number of in game meetings and spying. Consider writing something cool because your bio can be rated by other players. (This can gain you IMP!)

II. Philosophy - This currently has no mechanical application to the game but is a cool time period role playing status that shows up on your character's profile.

III. Theme - The colors and textures
used for the game. The current options are Classic, Dark, Bright, Nature, Modern and Steampunk.

IV. User Settings - This is where you can dedicate your joining to someone who invited you into the game. You could also choose to dedicate your account's entire gameplay to someone who's made the game better for you.
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Attributes: Your Attributes are determined by your class and level (not rank). Every single class option has a different mix of Attributes. What are you especially good at? Especially bad? Each attribute affects how your character interacts with the game. From carry capacity to healing bonus to more frequent crits. They also contribute to the governing of certain districts.
To see your attributes, go to your profile and click the Attributes button just to the right of your portrait. Clicking each of the icons will give you info on each individual Attribute.

The final part of this trilogy will be the lower framing bar which navigates the Forums and Scenarios.

Across The Top: Understanding the Navigation Bar

This is a break down of the first of the 3 major User Interface features of Brunelleschi: Age of Architects - the Navigation Bar (nav bar for short). The other two pieces are the Character Display and the Forums Bar

The Navigation Bar: across the top.

I. Page Title - This changes based on where you have navigated to. In your Settlement page, it shows the name of your settlement. In your Market, it says shopping and so on. Clicking it toggles the Forum overlay just as the arrow on the bottom bar does.

II. View - This offers you a number of things you might want to monitor but mostly cannot change.

• View Settlement displays whatever settlement you live in or Wilderness if you don't live anywhere in particular. Clicking it takes you to the same page as selecting your location in your character display.
• View Character displays your character name and takes you to your character's profile page. You can change your bio through Preferences (under Wrench). You can change your Relationships (like who you're pledged to) under Manage.
• View Government takes you to a page that displays who you are ruled by and by what rules you are ruled.  This includes taxes, garrison, and a list of residents.
• View Tracked Stores opens a window including all items in your storage you have selected to track. This is very handy for checking what key materials you are producing/collecting.
• View Active Effects opens a window that displays all the attribute effects to your person from whatever source.

III. Manage - This offers quick navigation to the pages you will want to manage.

• Manage Relationships navigates to a page that contains all alliance and personal pledge information. At the declares who you have pledged your fealty to: your Liege Lord. To make a pledge or change your current pledge, click the gears button. The International Relations box lists your home's diplomatic status with other Settlements. Personal Relationships displays all declarations of love, friendship, or enmity while Pledges displays who has pledged their fealty to you.
• Manage Storage takes you to your storage page. This can be sorted by type or distributed easily from this page and through the markets. You can set inventory caps, initiate trade or sale offers, and donate to liege, rulers and pledges.
• Manage Gear takes you to a page where you can select what your character is wearing and carrying with them. These options open based on class and level and you fill the slots with gathered and won Equipment.

IV. Actions - Opens the Actions window. These are sorted by action category along with suggestions for the best XP to AP and the best IMP to AP.

V. Markets - Opens the Markets page. Navigating the market is mostly sorting what you would like to pay for what you want to purchase.

VI. Info - Knowledge is Power, especially during the Renaissance. Here's where you can seek that power.

• Info Catalog is a comprehensive selection of all the information windows in the game. This goes The general categories are as follows: Heroes, Lords, Districts, Ministries, Buildings, Resources, Goods, Equipment, Units, Bonds, Relationships and Actions
• Info Wiki opens a new browser tab to the Brunelleschi: Age of Architects Wiki at wiki.brunegame.com.
• Info Help takes her to a page listing all the updated Blogs, HowTos, FAQs and really useful posts.

VII. Timer - Takes you to the timers page. All things that happen in Brunelleschi happen on a timer. The displays are sorted into Ending Soon, Commercial Report, Military Report, Industrial Report, and Forecasts.

VIII. Wrench - Your Options and Utility menu in one. 

• Preferences changes your character's bio and character traits along with your theme and game settings.
• Send Invitations takes you to the Benefactors page. Gain Invitation codes and learn about Benefactor rewards.
• Switch Character allows you to switch between your Lord and Hero characters. Offers to create whichever is missing if you've only made one on your account.
• View Leader Boards takes you to the leader boards
• Report a Bug is where you report any technical issues.
• Logout self-explanatory
• Terms of Service appears when between characters and is the ToS as expected
• Account Options allows you to delete a character.

From Wild Lord to Queen of the Fields - Account Creation, Lord Creation, Settlement Creation

Brunelleschi: Age of Architects is an artistically woven tapestry of adventure, politics, economics and civics. Though the first day does not even begin to scratch the surface of what a player can eventually achieve, I wanted to share my immersive character creation experience.

You can follow with me at

Brunegame.com

STEP 1 - The Account

Like with everything that remembers you on the internet, you've got to make an account first. Just enter your email, username, and password then confirm through your email.

Tip a: no player will see your user name, only your character names.

Tip b: confirm email before trying to log in

STEP 2 - New Characters

The plural is entirely intentional. Every Brunelleschi account gets both a Hero and a Lord character. This Playthrough is going to focus on creating a Lord Sovereign of her own city.

After hitting "Create New" under Lord Character I'm immediately tempted by the concept of a female member of the church so choose the lady Reverend. After clicking her picture, I enter my Character name. We'll go with Maria Maria (she reminds me of a west side story). Agree to Terms of Service and Submit.

I am now Lord Maria Maria of the wilderness! What should I do? How about follow the helpful Tutorial window which immediately offers to show me my actions.

*Interface Note*

There's tons to do right at the start. If you're like me, you'll spend a few moments clicking around getting to know the interface. The little wrench in the top right corner of the permanent bar is your best friend. It's where you can change your preferences, switch characters and accounts, and handle any bug reporting.

*Along the top are drop-down navigation menus that take you everywhere from your character page to the world markets.

*Your forum options are along the bottom bar and cause the forums to pop up above your current page. (We'll cover forums in a later article)

STEP 3 - Getting Moving

Now that you've got a character the game offers you a couple of apparent choices as to what to do first. The Tutorial will lead you through your first action (in the Labor category - just follow the green words)

Tip: If you're not sure what you should do with your action points, there are two options that offer Best XP to AP and Best Importance to AP in your actions window.

I've made my first move, but I still live in the wilderness. What could I do about this? Well I could join an existing settlement as a resident or I could make my own as my Lord. Heck, I want to be queen, so I'll have Maria Maria found her own settlement.

There are two large blue apparent options. One is Move and one is your Best XP to AP suggestion. Hit Move and then select your preferred option. If there are no Ministries or Residencies you want, hit the next big blue button to create your own new settlement. Obviously Maria Maria's settlement will be called Spanish Harlem.

Now I've got a much more detailed layout and a Fields District. Now I can start planning for the future.

STEP 4 - Lord of the Fields

I've already noticed that I'm now Sovereign Maria Maria, but I'm not lord of much just yet.

My main settlement page now shows the structure of what will one day be a great metropolis, but for now it's management options and some fields. Flipping through the big tabs to the right I find I have no scenarios, district or duel activity. There are a few market offers, but nothing I'm interested yet and my population is very low with no extra housing for more Peers, Yeomen, or Peasants. What can I do?

The answer is build housing buildings! And where else? To the fields.

Here's the part where I use a little of what I've learned from Beta Testing.

Click on your fields icon. In the window to the right you will see a green button offering to take you to the district. Alternately, check out your map. You'll see a lot of room to grow and it will take you straight to your district.

Once in your Fields, you'll see your Grainery. Don't demolish it, you need that. To store your grain in. Instead, find Building Plans in the bar above your Grainery. Try Exclusive Building. Click the i in a circle for info when it loads in the right hand box. As you can see, it generates space for Peers, which we need, so we're going to build it. Fortunately, new Sovereigns start with just enough Produce for two of these before needing to get more for upkeep.

After this is complete, consider building some farms to support your soon to be massively growing settlement.

NEXT TIME - I'll go over settling in as a new Sovereign. I need to get more people and fast! That'll mean managing resources, building homes, and making sure the immigrants don't riot. Homes, Happiness, and Early Production next!

R Nicol
Aesop Games
Play Brunelleschi: Age of Architects now and create your own settlement.