KickStarter Mechajammer (formerly Copper Dreams) - cyberpunk RPG from Whalenought Studios

[SausageInYourFace]

I may be mistaken though.

No shit.

 

[Lacrymas]

Yeah, the US is always the weird one, no surprise there.

No shit.

http://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/welfare/practice/farm/index_en.htm
https://awic.nal.usda.gov/governmen...gulations-and-guidelines-subject/farm-animals
https://www.ciwf.org.uk/media/3818623/eu-law-on-the-welfare-of-farm-animals.pdf
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/animal-welfare

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Animal cruelty and misdemeanor in corporate farming does not exist, cause there are laws against it. The average life of animals is green grass and sunshine. Thank god this is taken care of by the state, so there is no reason for me to waste a thought about the state of modern agricultue and take responsibility for where my food comes from, under what circumstances it is produced and what this entails.

And you think vegetarians, vegans and animal rights activists are badly informed, eh?

 

[Lacrymas]

It does exist, it just isn't as widespread as some people would be quick to tell you. I am against animal cruelty and I would never endorse or justify it, but I also know enough not to see it everywhere. This means the deer skin in Whalenought's book probably didn't come from a suffering animal.

 

[Bubbles]

This means the deer skin in Whalenought's book probably didn't come from a suffering animal.

Not unless it was forced to play through Serpent in the Staglands.

 

[mindx2]

Sorry for stirring the Codex's animal loving hornet's nest Whalenought_Joe. Hopefully with your next update we'll get back to what's important.

 

[dukeofwhales]

Veganism is not just about animal cruelty, but also about the carbon footprint.

I always found this argument quite strange. Wouldn't increasing consumption of vegetables, like in veganism, actually increase your carbon footprint? I mean if you consider the amount of deforestation needed to increase agriculture that much on a massive scale, it might even be worse for the environment.

Unless they're just considering their small individual impact and don't actually think more of the world should become vegan...*shrug*

Basically you can grow a shitload of vegetables in the space required to keep one cow - cows only produce one baby per year so you need heaps of grass or grain to keep the cow alive for an entire year just to produce one baby cow which can be chopped up for burgers. Cows also fart heaps due to the nature of their digestive system, which is bad news for ch4/co/co2 emissions.

The sums have been done on this and it's definitely better environmentally being vego, though if you want to minimise your footprint without giving up meat, more chicken and fish and less lamb and beef is the way to go.

 

[Metal Hurlant]

Wouldn't Vegans fart more than other people and are contributing to the farting footprint as well?
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=vegetables+that+make+you+fart

 

[Ninjerk]

This means the deer skin in Whalenought's book probably didn't come from a suffering animal.

Not unless it was forced to play through Serpent in the Staglands.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=10267

 

[Sensuki]

So far the KS is doing better than Serpent did atm, with a lot less coverage to boot.

 

[Fry]

a lot less coverage

This seems odd considering Whalenought have a completed game under their belts. Maybe less media interest cuz it ain't sword & sorcery.

 

[Sensuki]

Nor pixel art or RTwP.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

What is the actual moral high ground for veg- types? That the plants don't have nerve endings?

Everyone has to be able to find a place where they can live with what their doing with a clear conscience, from the animals were put here as food for us superior humans types to the tree huggers, bird kissers, and vole fondlers. It's because people don't see any further than their own horizons that so many creatures are being extinguished, animals are becoming extinct, and global warning threatens what remains. To quote the great Bill Hicks, humans are 'viruses with shoes', and having some standards is better than having none, even if they are fairly arbitrary.

God, I sound so pretentious. My future self is going to appear at any moment and punch me in the face.

Up to $21,500 - looks like we've settled into the long mid-campaign slog.

 

[Ninjerk]

What is the actual moral high ground for veg- types? That the plants don't have nerve endings?

Everyone has to be able to find a place where they can live with what their doing with a clear conscience, from the animals were put here as food for us superior humans types to the tree huggers, bird kissers, and vole fondlers. It's because people don't see any further than their own horizons that so many creatures are being extinguished, animals are becoming extinct, and global warning threatens what remains. To quote the great Bill Hicks, humans are 'viruses with shoes', and having some standards is better than having none, even if they are fairly arbitrary.

God, I sound so pretentious. My future self is going to appear at any moment and punch me in the face.

Up to $21,500 - looks like we've settled into the long mid-campaign slog.

The great Bill Hicks

 

[Bumvelcrow]

The great Bill Hicks

You forgot to mock the rest of my post.

 

[Ninjerk]

Looks to me like you did all the work yourself

 

[Infinitron]

Whalenought_Joe How goes the Greenlighting? Where is Copper Dreams currently ranked?

 

[Sensuki]

$22K and 500 backers.

Edging along.

 

[Ninjerk]

 

[Excidium II]

This means the deer skin in Whalenought's book probably didn't come from a suffering animal.

Not unless it was forced to play through Serpent in the Staglands.

 

[Infinitron]

UPDATE: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649838104/copper-dreams/posts/1578885

We wanted to give a brief demonstration of combat mechanics, as this is a unique system to the CRPG world. We've had some questions on the basics, and while we'll continue to go over specific elements throughout the campaign this should act as a good starter to give you an idea of where we're headed with it. The premise is utilizing turn-based combat with simulated, timed actions. These actions can happen simultaneously, and create a more dynamic battlefield.

Below is a walkthrough of an encounter with a patrol guard:

[All animations and art are very much still a work in progress]

The Combat Bar
The core of the combat system is the combat bar, as pictured below. The combat bar shows you the players in combat and their place on the timeline.

Upon joining combat, everyone rolls initiative to see where they are placed on the timeline, and then progress downward. The timeline is moving until one of your characters hits the Turn Bar. The actions of enemies are instantaneously chosen and the timeline continues without a break.

When one of your characters land on the Turn Bar, the timeline stops and they can choose an action. Once selected, that action plays out and the combat bar timeline continues.

During the execution wait time, the length of which is dependent on your action, your character is prepping their action: aiming, re-balancing for a swing, or preparing to use an item. At the Execute Bar they fire off the action, and return to the top of the timeline and resume traveling down again. If more than one action is required (like multi-shot or suppressing fire), the character is held at the action bar until complete.

Option to pause at the Execute Bar to see your hit chance and damage rolls
Any character on the timeline can be interrupted or stalled by suppressing fire, being hit, or even by getting bio-hacked. With simultaneous actions, there can be weapon draws to see who can get their shot off first, determined by speed and a weapon's action time.

When NPCs die, their bodies can raise suspicion. It's recommended you pick up the body and throw it somewhere out of sight. A body can also be used as a good decoy, or a perfectly acceptable d8 blunt damage roll by heaving it into enemies.

Gravity
Throwing an item instantiates its own icon in the combat bar, and the time it travels is pre-determined by the trajectory of the throw distance. Thrown items use physics, and with a good bounced throw you can get items around corners or onto rooftops.

Aiming a throw is a roll. You select a trajectory point, and how close you get to that point is determined by rolling for accuracy. You'll rarely get right on target, but instead a random point if you miss. Higher the roll, the more close to the target. This means trying to lob a grenade through a small window or crevice is more risky than over a fence, and a bad roll might result in your grenade bouncing and landing at your feet instead.

You can optionally stop the timeline again as you are performing an action to see the rolls at play. This allows you to get the exact look at what's being determined behind the scenes, and what would normally be too much information to place in the timeline.

We'll be having an in-depth interview about the merits of this combat system in the near future that we'll be posting as an update, so if you'd like to hear more about that stay tuned!

Simulationist Dice Rolling
Copper Dreams and The Burning Candle is a more simulationist ruleset — it's about exploration and exploring these mechanics in systems in ways that are supposed to fundamentally make sense. Unloading a full mag into someone at point blank or dropping a missile on them should be an instant kill save a bad hit roll. The dice are meant to emulate the randomness of human action, and your character's skill is simply trying to overcome that.

Weapons themselves have a wide variety of factors that determine their uses, some of these exaggerated to make a more compelling array of choices. A shotgun for instance has very poor accuracy for more than 4 tiles away, as it only gives you a d8 to roll to hit, but works marvelously as a use for suppressing fire. Suppressing fire targets a cone, and anyone in that cone rolls Mental Stability or gets delayed on the combat bar. A weapon has a suppressing fire number that not only determines the roll, but also the length they are delayed. A powerful shotgun blast can keep even hardened militants at bay, giving time to flank or other party members time to prepare.

There are lots of item stats that determine functionality — multi-shot actions are affected by a weapon's recoil, which degrades the to-hit roll after the first shot. The list goes on.

Suppressing fire cone
Challenge Roll
The ways you are rolling to hit are determined by a largely static Challenge Roll (CR) number to get over that is comprised of environmental and opponent's skill factors.

Each of these have a small, usually single digit value that added together make up a Challenge Roll to beat. Distance is the predominant one for firearms of course, while melee is going to be more concerned with block or dodge.

Rolls toward a Challenge Roll

There are two ways characters can dynamically roll against an attack to be added to the CR, and that's for melee combatants using block and dodge (extensive XP training and stat numbers would be needed for dodging projectiles). Unless trained otherwise, a character can only block one incoming attack at a time, so these would be negated by any further attacks if they are happening simultaneously.

Dodge is stat and skill related, and very useful against slower melee attacks.

Blocking is determined by a defending character's weapon block number (a pool of d4) and a blocking skill which can be trained. A character who doesn't have a melee weapon equipped cannot block, so if you're in range of someone with a firearm equipped that's easy prey.

The culmination of all this should be that success is determined by a player using logical tactics that are appropriate for a situation, not gauging enemy stats or levels. With this system, a lowly ruffian with a grenade is as threatening as a Copper Face with a grenade.

How we make enemies more lethal, and how we scale your lethality, is in broadening your skills and item uses with training, as well as giving enemies more sneaky and predatory AI, making them work together, and giving them abilities that take more than lead to put down. But that's for another update!

 

[Whalenought_Joe]

Whalenought_Joe How goes the Greenlighting? Where is Copper Dreams currently ranked?

It says we're currently #99 in the top 100, though that fluctuates. We never made it higher than like 80% "to the top 100" or something for Serpent, so I imagine whenever they do the next batch or something we'll be in there. I have no idea how Steam works, things a mystery.

GOG on the other hand is interested, we'll be giving them a demo later this year to determine that.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

How important will stealth be in the game? In other words: Is possible to totally avoid combat in Copper Dreams?

I like how you set up an ambush in the video but feel like it should be more deadly? I know the video was mainly to explain the combat system but from a stealthy perspective it seemed a bit odd to set up an stealthy ambush and then having it turn into a longer shootout. I assume it will be possible to instagib enemies by backstabbing or other means?

And just out of curiosity, have you guys checked out Invisible Inc. at one point?

 

[Infinitron]

Whalenought_Joe I noticed the characters got knocked down a lot and had to get back up. Does that have any effect on the time it takes until their next turn?

 

[Sensuki]

Not sure if Joe is still awake (he might be) but as far as I know the falling over animation is placeholder and will be replaced by a variety(?) of different types of hit animations that will delay the character in the combat bar.

I also think that a lot of the combat modifiers and stats aren't implemented properly yet which is why a simple encounter like that takes a while. I agree that a 1v1 encounter with a standard like that should be a lot shorter.