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KickStarter Vigilantes: neo-noir, turn based tactical RPG

ushas

Savant
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Jan 5, 2015
Messages
550
NNT Vigilantes
Sounds like a battleship.

A nice trailer!
If I would have to criticize something it would be only that you don't let some screens linger for long. There is usually a lot to look at. But also perhaps the one with the game title, near the start. Sometimes there is some transition effect and other times more clear cut, so that may factor. Not worth to bother. /end of nitpicking
 

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
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Developer
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Messages
909
NNT Vigilantes
Sounds like a battleship.

A nice trailer!
If I would have to criticize something it would be only that you don't let some screens linger for long. There is usually a lot to look at. But also perhaps the one with the game title, near the start. Sometimes there is some transition effect and other times more clear cut, so that may factor. Not worth to bother. /end of nitpicking

Thanks Ushas. The NNT was about as close as it gets to a moment of inspiration in marketing around here :) The reading time thing was the biggest concern with the trailer... tried to give enough time without bogging down the pacing, and without breaking the moments where the footage works well with the music. Tough one to balance, as if you wait too long, people get bored, if too fast, people don't have a clue what's going on...
 

Alienman

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Oh that was awesome.

Reminds me of:

snake-plissken-kurt-russell.jpg
 
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udm

Arcane
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Make the Codex Great Again!
Just saw the trailer. Holy shit, this is looking really sweet. The vibes, the music, everything looks really good. And again, I can't say this enough, but my compliments to Olga. I really am digging the art style. I'll admit I was worried initially that the graphic novel style would subvert the themes of the game itself, but that doesn't seem to be the case now. Keep up the good work, my man :salute:

P.S. did you speed up the animations? Because it looks faster here, and that's a good thing.
P.P.S. I may have missed it in one of the dev diary entries, but how does cover work?
 

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
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Just saw the trailer. Holy shit, this is looking really sweet. The vibes, the music, everything looks really good. And again, I can't say this enough, but my compliments to Olga. I really am digging the art style. I'll admit I was worried initially that the graphic novel style would subvert the themes of the game itself, but that doesn't seem to be the case now. Keep up the good work, my man :salute:

P.S. did you speed up the animations? Because it looks faster here, and that's a good thing.
P.P.S. I may have missed it in one of the dev diary entries, but how does cover work?

Will pass on the message to Olga, am sure she'll appreciate it. Working on final testing for V20, which will be the first steam version. Should be complete by today (though have been saying that for 3 days now). Animations haven't been sped up - for some of the footage, have sped it up to keep the trailer length down, and to match actions to the musical beats. Have tried to restrict this to 15% for anything in game, so the actual game will be only marginally different from the trailer - though you've noticed it :) Outside that, there are no effects applied to any of the gameplay footage, though have added some effects to illustrations, to make them less static.

Combat does resolve much more quickly now, though. The gains have been made by substantially reducing the number of enemies (you'll still be outnumbered) and rebalancing them to the player team.

Cover is most similar to the modern XCom. There's half and full cover, which can be supplemented with smoke grenades and perks, and you can crouch.
 

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
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Developer
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Aug 27, 2016
Messages
909
Just saw the trailer. Holy shit, this is looking really sweet. The vibes, the music, everything looks really good. And again, I can't say this enough, but my compliments to Olga. I really am digging the art style. I'll admit I was worried initially that the graphic novel style would subvert the themes of the game itself, but that doesn't seem to be the case now. Keep up the good work, my man :salute:

P.S. did you speed up the animations? Because it looks faster here, and that's a good thing.
P.P.S. I may have missed it in one of the dev diary entries, but how does cover work?

Adding on to last post: the animations have been sped up since the demo came out (v10) so they are faster than then. Also, on topic of cover, forgot to mention that there's flanking, so cover provides most protection head on, and less as you work your way around it. If you've noticed the AI creeping around your cover between shots, this is what they are doing.
 

santino27

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Oct 1, 2008
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My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
Nice trailer and the game looks great. Only thing I'm not wild on is the font you use for the pop-overs in combat (damage #s and dodge and stuff). On the one hand, it stands out... on the other, it feels a little bit less clean and polished vs. the rest of the UI (including the dialogue barks in combat). But that might just be me!
 

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
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Messages
909
Glad you like it santino27 - you are the second person to mention the font, and I don't disagree. The reason I went with that one is the oil paint filter - if enabled, it distorts images to create its effect, making the thinner fonts difficult to read. Have changed the bark system in this version so it uses a 2D ui element which is not effected by the filter. May do something similar with the pop up text, but it would probably make the animation and movement of the text simpler and less fluid looking. Alternatively may have two different fonts, for use when oil filter is on/off.
 

udm

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Make the Codex Great Again!
Adding on to last post: the animations have been sped up since the demo came out (v10) so they are faster than then. Also, on topic of cover, forgot to mention that there's flanking, so cover provides most protection head on, and less as you work your way around it. If you've noticed the AI creeping around your cover between shots, this is what they are doing.

What's the radius of coverage? 90 degrees? Are all objects/walls considered cover, or only certain types? It's one of the things that's always bugged me in Wasteland 2, where certain objects look like they can provide adequate cover but, nonsensically, don't actually provide bonuses.

Also, would objects at range provide some minimal form of cover? Or do you need to be next to them to receive bonuses, like in nuXCOM and WL2?
 

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
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Messages
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Adding on to last post: the animations have been sped up since the demo came out (v10) so they are faster than then. Also, on topic of cover, forgot to mention that there's flanking, so cover provides most protection head on, and less as you work your way around it. If you've noticed the AI creeping around your cover between shots, this is what they are doing.

What's the radius of coverage? 90 degrees? Are all objects/walls considered cover, or only certain types? It's one of the things that's always bugged me in Wasteland 2, where certain objects look like they can provide adequate cover but, nonsensically, don't actually provide bonuses.

Also, would objects at range provide some minimal form of cover? Or do you need to be next to them to receive bonuses, like in nuXCOM and WL2?

Currently, cover gives a small defensive bonus in all directions, similar to crouching, plus additional directional cover. At 90 degrees, only the small defensive bonus would apply. All objects provide cover - any decorative items, like a piece of rubble, small light fixtures, bits of rubbish etc are so insubstantial they shouldn't be confused as cover. You need to be orthagonally adjacent to get the benefits of cover, like WL2.
 

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
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Messages
909
Just wrapped up a pretty brutal 63 hour week (and there's still tomorrow). If you read a news story about someone running around northwest Ireland with a tinfoil hat, asking strangers where the nearest faraday cage is, that'll probably be me. On the up side, Windows, Mac and Linux builds are all working on Steam and Vigilantes has been sent on to Valve for review. On schedule for 5th...
 

ushas

Savant
Joined
Jan 5, 2015
Messages
550
Congrats! :salute:

Playing v20 now (btw. it's available for backers already).
This EA build is really milestone-esque. It's becoming too stable for my taste though.:(

With those new emergent combat barks - guys also comment on each other's catch phrases in the middle of fighting.
barks_vigilantes_v20.png
 
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Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


This video covers the improvements made to Vigilantes version 20, which will be the first Steam release. Improvements include new bark system, voiced intro, two new levels, 8 new weapons, and a number of bug fixes.
 

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
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Developer
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Messages
909
Summary of improvements:
  • Added voiced, illustrated introduction
  • Greatly improved combat dialogue variety
  • Re-introduced a number of musical tracks
  • Improved appearance of cityscape Improved appearance of gang intel screen
  • Improved diversity of enemy equipment
  • Shop now regenerates inventory every 24 hours
  • Added 2 new maps (Mafia jazz club & villa)
  • Added 6 new ranged weapons: Nobuki Ashigaru, Nobuki Ronin, Nobuki Samurai, Sawed off Orthrus, General Arms Peacemaker, Eurocorp Nemesis.
  • Added 2 new ranged weapons: Baton & machete
  • Completed basic Steam integration
  • Greatly improved overall game stability and particularly the stability of the overwatch system
  • Fixed a number of bugs
  • Improved and expanded tutorial content
 

udm

Arcane
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Aug 14, 2008
Messages
2,752
Make the Codex Great Again!
Alright, so I played about 2+ hours of it. That should be enough to form some solid first impressions.

The good:
+ Nice music. I really like the combat and base music. Solid vibes and really gives the impression that this isn't about law and order so much as it is about delivering street justice. There's only one track that I don't really like (the one with the woman singing in the background)
+ Good, clean UI. Can still be improved on with some keyboard shortcuts (e.g. switching members) and quality-of-life additions (e.g. selling from personal inventories rather than base inventory), but overall good layout.
+ The 'cityscape' (Geoscape equivalent) function is very promising. I really like the idea of gangs functioning as they would while you're trying to crush their operations. If you can deliver more simulationist mechanics here, including inter-faction conflict, it'd be a real winner.
+ I hope you go crazy with the base elements. I think because it's still in EA, it's going to be limited with what you can do as far as research and crafting are concerned, but it'd really be nice to have a non-linear track there like what X-COM did with laser vs plasma vs equipment.

The neutral:
= Combat is, hm... I'm lukewarm. It has things to like about, and vice versa, so let's start with what I didn't really like. I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of nuXCOM mechanics, and it was in spite of (and not because of) them that I enjoyed games like Shadowrun Returns. The cover in particular has that annoying vulnerable angle in which an enemy can always hit you no matter where you take cover. I'm not really sure how to explain it, but I can take screenshots if you'd like. Again, some people would overlook this, but I can't help but sperg over this kind of thing. May just be me :(

Maps are small, and are more akin to smaller skirmishes (e.g. 4v6) . I've no problem with this. I suppose since you're going with probabilistic to-hit mechanics, you'll want to implement more sub-systems that will mix things up a bit. As it stands, I'm in a lot of situations where I can win simply by taking cover, firing potshots, and taking the occasional flanking route. Lack of friendly fire is kind of a downer too. I can imagine how it will start to feel like a grind later on.

Now what I do like about combat is that it has some nice features that I've not seen before in other tactics games, like the ability to switch between lethal and non-lethal KOs. Would be cool to see these have more gameplay effect beyond a different ending.

Glad you guys went with multiple APs rather than sticking with 2-AP (which, to its credit, can be done correctly, but not the way nuXCOM did).

= Sound effects are okay. The pistol sounds like a BB gun, but the sounds of enemies getting shot are satisfying.

The bad:
- There's consistent lag when clicking on stuff, like it takes a noticeable while before the game responds to your mouse clicks.

Might come up with more thoughts when I play it some more. Overall, I think the foundation is there, so I'm really looking forward to future updates.
 

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