Murloc-Becken AI

The plan was one button and a leaderboard. Two evenings, I thought.

The hard part of a game like this is not adding features. The hard part is that every new feature devalues the existing ones unless you watch it closely. A clicker that suddenly gets a forge is not a clicker with a forge - it is a game in which clicking has become pointless. Most of the work therefore sits not in the systems themselves but in how they lock together.

A few of the questions that had to be answered along the way.

Why would anyone build something that vanishes at the season change?

They would not. So it does not vanish. Only the competition resets: leaderboards, season points, leagues. Everything built stays - furnace, workbench, anvil, tools, gear, achievements.

That separates two interests that otherwise pull against each other. Newcomers need a leaderboard where they stand a chance. Anyone who has been around for months needs a reason to invest at all. Both only work if the competition resets and the property does not.

Why is clicking alone not enough?

Because it wears out after two days. So a chain hangs off it: catching brings coins, the terrain gives ore, wood and fibre, the ore wants to go into the furnace, the result onto the workbench, from there to the anvil. If that is not enough, you refine further.

Every station has to be built first, using tools that come in tiers and have to be made as well. It sounds like paperwork, but it turns a straight line into a net: you can start at several ends at once and still skip nothing.

Why does anyone come back on a Tuesday?

Because three clocks run at the same time. Daily quests and streaks reward a short visit. Leagues run across the week and get reshuffled on Mondays. Seasons last weeks and decide the big leaderboards.

Ten minutes still finishes something. A whole evening moves you along the long clock. Neither excludes the other, and that is exactly where most games of this kind fall over.

Why does the player in fortieth place not give up?

Because they are not playing against first place. The weekly leagues sort into tiers with promotion and relegation, so you are measured against people at a similar stage. The distance to the top stops being the deciding number.

What is left when a season ends?

Trophies in a display case, and shards. Shards come out of season points and convert into permanent improvements and cosmetics. A finished season does not evaporate; it pays into something that stays.

Why do people help each other?

Because boosts apply to the whole guild, not only to whoever triggered them. Competition and cooperation end up side by side instead of against each other.

Who notices when a number tips over?

An AI watches the balance and speaks up when something drifts: a resource too cheap, a tier too strong, a route too short. It suggests; the decision stays with me.

The rest

Duels against other players, potions with a time limit, chests, monsters, a trader, a weavery, a material store, chat, shop, records, achievements, announcements, and a feedback form that people actually use.

Plus events that interfere on purpose. Floods, storms and tidal waves change the rules for a while so the routine never settles. Miss the moment and you miss them.

Whether this still qualifies as a clicker is open for debate.

Why is there a tower defense in here?

Because clicking and building ask for two different kinds of attention. People playing on the side click. People sitting down want something to decide.

So Schattenwacht is the second mode: full-screen tower defense, eight hand-built maps instead of randomly generated mazes, towers you unlock by playing rather than buying, plus daily challenges and an endless mode.

It runs on the same account and the same currency, so it is not a separate game but a second way of playing the same one. It is also the only part you can try without signing in - the door people come in through.

Why does a clicker have a music library?

Because people stay for hours and silence gets tiring. The pool holds more than fifty tracks across several styles - fantasy, medieval, metal and a few sung pieces. On top of that the sounds for mining, forging, chests and everything else that confirms an action.

Playlists are put together by the player, by style or by mood. If a track does not fit, it can be switched off individually. Music and sound effects have separate volume controls, because one can be distracting while the other stays useful.

A sample:

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Intro One of more than fifty tracks in the pool

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