The whole idea of the Golden Path is essentially that humanity has only a very narrow "eye of the needle" through which they may pass, from the perspective of a nigh-omniscient being who can see the past and predict the future. Almost all potential human futures lead to our own destruction, usually as a result of "thinking machines" with Leto-like prescience being able to flawlessly hunt humanity to extinction. In order to avoid this, Leto II has been breeding humans with a gene that prevents them from being "seen" by his prescience, as well as training humans to spread themselves far and wide across the galaxy to make themselves impossible to fully wipe out. His genetic breeding program which results in Siona completes his first objective. He achieves the latter mostly by being a total tyrant for thousands of years, intentionally provoking a mass exodus from his empire upon his death and the loosening of the travel restrictions he enforced for millennia. The "golden path" makes a lot of sense if you understand it; he is training humans to thread this metaphorical needle's eye, and survive the coming existential crisis his prescience alerted him to.
I understand what the Golden Path is/does. I just don't understand/disagree with the assumptions that lead to the Golden Path. I find it all very contradictive. Humanity requiring a precise path forward in order to survive in the long term... questionable. Prescience leading to stagnation for an individual makes sense, but prescience of an individual leading to stagnation for the whole species? If Leto's prescience really is so detrimental and he knows it, why doesn't he kill himself sooner? Why the thousands of years of oppression? His rationale there is to instill a strong desire in humanity to be free. But I find that too to be questionable.
If prescience is so bad, why does it require prescience to steer humanity through the narrow path that leads to survival?
I understand that Frank Herbert had a strong distaste of authority, self-abandonment and charismatic leaders. If DUNE had be be distilled down to a single message, it would have to be: "Beware of heroes!" (Uttered verbatim in the first book. ) Yet in the end, it takes the worst tyrant imaginable in order to save humanity from itself. I assume the contradiction is intentional and intended to be profound or something... but I think he's just wrong.
Essentially, the Kwisatz Haderach is supposed to have the male lineage of memories which the Bene Gesserit cannot access - as well as the female memories of the matron mothers passed on through the water of life ritual that he successfully undergoes.
Since you brought this up - I've been meaning to question the nerds here about this thing sooner or later. And now is as good a time as any.
So since only the KH, a male, can access both the male and female memories for whatever reason, whereas females can only access the female ones - How come Alia has the memory of her male ancestors? Or at least one of them, the Baron? That shouldn't be possible and it's never explained. Did Frank Herbert make a mistake there or did I miss or misunderstand something?
How exactly do you start it? I'm stuck on the title card.
I assume you're not seeing the start button? It's pretty small, in the lower left corner of the title card. We will fix this in the next version.
Keeping this one on "watch" until I have more time to thoroughly check out what's here, but until then here's my two cents (and questions)[Feel free to ignore questions you've already answered]:
- I've noticed a few complaints regarding the interaction with Duncan - Will the UI receive further updates based on user feedback?
- Side note: If you guys do plan on sourcing feedback from the community it might be worth setting up a Discord server. UI design is one of the few aspects of game development that is the hardest to nail right.
- While not all AI software is created equal, are you guys using Dall-E or equivalent?
- Side note: The only reason I ask is due to this poll, as it seems like significant improvements were made regarding fingers and body composition.
- How much of the core mechanics are developed? Additionally, when do you estimate mechanics such as pregnancy will be added?
- Will cheats and/or difficulty settings be added for those only interested in the story?
- Side note: This topic tends to spark controversy due to some feeling as though games should only be played in a specific way. Personally, I find the inclusion of cheats/assists as something that shouldn't be controversial since the only person it's affecting is whoever is using it.
Lastly, I personally would most likely support this game if you guys were to begin monetizing it purely because it seems like an interesting enough parody of the real story. Plus I absolutely love the aesthetic of Dune with the blending of Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
1 - We plan on implementing a tutorial pop up for this part and perhaps some other parts - based on the feedback we receive. We find it to be an inelegant solution but haven't come up with a better solution yet.
- We do not want to go through the hassle of having to maintain a discord server at this time.
2 - I can't speak on that. One of the other devs will have to chime in.
3 - The dialogue system is fully developed. The skill system is only partially developed and currently very underused. Spice harvesting is still entirely missing and that's what we're currently working on. An exploration mechanic is also planned.
- Pregnancy will be added once it makes sense from a story perspective. I'll leave it at that. Just... don't expect a big payoff early in the story.
4 - Personally, I find the inclusion of cheats/assists detrimental to the player experience in some kinds of games (even singleplayer). I'm not gonna go on that tangent now though, because this is NOT that kind of game.
We plan on adding the ability to skip chapters later on. This is sadly a necessary feature, because on the engine we're using, saves cannot be made to be compatible between versions. We haven't discussed cheats yet. I'd say that's not out of the question. Currently the game is so short (when you just skip through everything) that cheats and anything of that sort simply aren't necessary. You can speedrun through the game in 5 minutes if you know what you're doing. Maybe I'll write a walkthrough at some point.
Thanks for the kind words. We are hesitant about monetizing the game due to the commitment this brings. We have considered the option of monetizing it for the purpose of hiring an artist. But we haven't taken any steps in that direction so far.
One of the problems is that the game shows several characters with medium-short dark brown hair and a mustache. They also seem to be around the same age, maybe in their thirties.
