Is there a campaign of sorts? This part of the press release has me wondering: So do the medals and titles and things carry over? How do the promotions work?
There will be a campaign of sorts: The player will make some sort of an avatar for their bureaucrat which will have a campaign world and history tied to them. (Still working out the design details around the notion of having this avatar walk around the game-world; seems like it'd become likely the player would immediately get eaten by a sea serpent or something, if Dredmor is any indication for how our games tend to run.)
There was this feature in Tropico 3, it was kinda pointless (didn't play the 4rth), if you were shot i don't think you could die, but you dictator couldn't do anything for some time. I can see the potential of !!FUN!! induced by having a "physical" you into the gameworld, but there's no point if it is source of quick gameover (or to the contrary if it's some sort of half-deity).
Unless your Junior Bureaucrat is some sort of demigod, if you get attacked by Giant Snakes you could call him in from your Governor Mansion, with the risk of being eaten and ending the game. Roguelike citybuilder ftw.
You'd essentially have to be a hero character (via natural aptitude or disposable bodyguards <--essentially a resource cost for getting [almost] killed). Hero character would be similar to GirlGenius comics; you'd just be one badss bureaucratic. Bodyguard version would involve having someone jump ontop of you or push you out of the way or distract angry mob of diggles and getting eaten, exploded, etc. every time. The problem would then be making sure de facto hero status doesn't unbalance the game. Natural aptitude woud try and do this by making the risk seem higher than the reward. A lot of people would ignore this though (you can artificially restricting risk activity as well, but kinda meh). It might throw off the bureaucrat feel unless you choose a war hero background or something (if they exist). Bodyguard version has a nice resource cost associated with it, but the desire to diver bodyguards to something else would be tremendous. Dealt with the same as above. (Though you could also make bodyguards not good at much *except* sacrificing themselves...) That's one set of ways of dealing with this anyway.
I'd think having your personal avatar die would work best if there was some sort of succession mechanism in place (oops you've died, but don't worry we'll send another leader), but that does make it a bit more complex to have continuity across games if your leaders are dying all the time.
Personally I think the "Don't worry, we'll send another" approach would work well for the round-robin style of play, but for singleplayer the avatar needs to escape every near-death scenario in some ludicrous fashion. Sea serpent spits him back up, etc.
Awesome, I was hoping you'd say this. As for the avatar walking around, I'd suggest letting them do anything but they should be able to be guarded and, perhaps, have some "script protection" or whatever its called. Basically, they should have a high probability of making those "barely escaped death" moments when they get into trouble. I guess they could also get killed and be replaced or out of comission for a while. This is quite a difficult question. Meta game is very cool but limits what you can do with your leader. Very difficult. EDIT: More ideas. Could have a X-COM style "memorial wall" for expedition leaders. Meta game could follow the "company" (for main bonuses) and then have a pool of leaders who you can select for assignments and level up on their own. If they die, their dead and you pick a replacement. Honestly, I'd feel most comfortable with this, just make sure you let us customize these guys. [Continued from above] Example: I could have have James009 Senior start my expeditions, a competent leader, after three expeditions he dies in a airship accident and is replaced by his son James009 Junior (who had only done one expeditions before). I'd still have my main company bonuses that i'd earned but James009 Senior, with all his amazing skills and abilities, is lost (maybe necromancy could bring him back though!). This would be a fun balance between having persistent avatars and not ruining the danger of the gameplay.
I'm kinda partial to the immortal badass bureaucrat option, a la Tropico, myself. I love the sound of the metagame though.
To me, it sorta plays into the weirdness of the setting if the bureaucrats running the settlements aren't seen to leave their office in the zeppelin docking tower, but their wishes are made known through the mysterious appearance of job orders throughout the settlement that nobody sees being delivered. It does mean that said bureaucrats (i.e. the players) might be perceived to be somewhat behind the occult curtain as well, though.
