KickStarter Vigilantes: neo-noir, turn based tactical RPG

[Timeslip]

Or blow everyones’ minds by dropping the .99 douchebaggetry and just call it $12

From what I can see, the .99 is a default setting, on dollar price anyway.

 

[Roqua]

Any thoughts on final release price? Currently $11.99

People are more prone to buy a game on sale if it is something that they aren't sure about. Regardless of steam's return policy I still may not try a game I would have if it was on sale and I wasn't sure about it.

If you are shooting for $12 why not set it at $16 with a 25% off sale, then lower the price down the road? Even $16 is reasonable with no sales.

 

[Timeslip]

Any thoughts on final release price? Currently $11.99

People are more prone to buy a game on sale if it is something that they aren't sure about. Regardless of steam's return policy I still may not try a game I would have if it was on sale and I wasn't sure about it.

If you are shooting for $12 why not set it at $16 with a 25% off sale, then lower the price down the road? Even $16 is reasonable with no sales.

Leaning towards $14.99, likely with a 10% launch discount. Higher discounts would come down the road. 25% launch discount in one way sounds good, but it may also signal a lack of confidence in, or suggest something is wrong with the game. Tricky one to call.

 

[Roqua]

Any thoughts on final release price? Currently $11.99

People are more prone to buy a game on sale if it is something that they aren't sure about. Regardless of steam's return policy I still may not try a game I would have if it was on sale and I wasn't sure about it.

If you are shooting for $12 why not set it at $16 with a 25% off sale, then lower the price down the road? Even $16 is reasonable with no sales.

Leaning towards $14.99, likely with a 10% launch discount. Higher discounts would come down the road. 25% launch discount in one way sounds good, but it may also signal a lack of confidence in, or suggest something is wrong with the game. Tricky one to call.

Hopefully some of the devs that post here with pricing experience/strategies can help. All I can say is I'd buy it at 12 or 15 sale or no sale. I often buy and try games that are $15 with only 10% off. I noticed a big trend of devs giving their game out for free in exchange for a bunch of release day positive reviews. You may want to think about doing something like that. I'm not saying to give it to me, but there are tons of people on these forums that would never pay a shekel for a game and are going to pirate it anyway - you may as well give some of them some keys for those day 1 reviews.

But - the possible dual edge to that is if I go into a questionable game and I see a lot of "product received for free" in the reviews I usually skip it. But I don't think many people care.



EDIT - just to clarify - I'm not say this is a questionable game. I doubt other people operate like I do but when I game I could be interested in shows up in steam under rpgs and has no screen shots showing any rpg stuff, and the descriptions and bullets don't clarify - that's when I look at reviews to see if anyone mentioned anything. This is usually futile since blatant non-rpgs are embraced as rpgs like Unavowed. But I still check to see if someone older than 12 made a review.

 

[Timeslip]

Hopefully some of the devs that post here with pricing experience/strategies can help. All I can say is I'd buy it at 12 or 15 sale or no sale. I often buy and try games that are $15 with only 10% off. I noticed a big trend of devs giving their game out for free in exchange for a bunch of release day positive reviews. You may want to think about doing something like that. I'm not saying to give it to me, but there are tons of people on these forums that would never pay a shekel for a game and are going to pirate it anyway - you may as well give some of them some keys for those day 1 reviews.

But - the possible dual edge to that is if I go into a questionable game and I see a lot of "product received for free" in the reviews I usually skip it. But I don't think many people care.

Keys not bought on Steam no longer count toward the review score. This is almost certainly because devs were giving away keys to inflate the review score and mess with Steam's algorithms. There are 33 actual reviews on Vigilantes at the minute (87% positive), hopefully will pick up another few before launch.

EDIT - just to clarify - I'm not say this is a questionable game. I doubt other people operate like I do but when I game I could be interested in shows up in steam under rpgs and has no screen shots showing any rpg stuff, and the descriptions and bullets don't clarify - that's when I look at reviews to see if anyone mentioned anything. This is usually futile since blatant non-rpgs are embraced as rpgs like Unavowed. But I still check to see if someone older than 12 made a review.

I get that. What you've said about RPGs is an area I need to think about soon, though. Vigilantes isn't a traditional RPG like say Fallout or AOD. It's somewhere between XCom and Fallout, (probably closest to Fallout Tactics or JA2, though I haven't played these games in some time). There's a solid character system, encounters with skill checks, a fair bit of story (30-40k), and two endings, depending on how much mayhem you cause. Perhaps, the description and promotional materials aren't doing a very good job at getting this message across - any thoughts on this, and how I could improve it? I've selected strategy as the primary genre, and described it as a tactical RPG, to suggest a greater combat emphasis.

 

[Roqua]

Keys not bought on Steam no longer count toward the review score. This is almost certainly because devs were giving away keys to inflate the review score and mess with Steam's algorithms. There are 33 actual reviews on Vigilantes at the minute (87% positive), hopefully will pick up another few before launch.

I know I've seen this recently with games. City of Shroud on release day had about 10 positive reviews all with the game received for free tag. It may not impact the score but having reviews has to help. But, of course not for EA games which have reviews before release day.

I forgot I own your game. I don't play games in EA. How finished is the version on steam now? If its pretty much done I'll definitely play and review it. I've been dying for a new game.

You're game is way, way more of an rpg than 90% of the nonsense that shows up in Steam with the tag or in the rpg genre list.

 

[Timeslip]

I'm shocked you could forget that As it stands, it's close to complete. When the next version is released in a couple of days, all that's really left is adding the endings and more playtesting. There's a lot of content in the latest update, so would probably be best to hold off for that. Cheers!

 

[Drowed]

I already bought the game, so I promise to leave a positive review - assuming my impression will be positive, of course. But from the little that I played of the demo at the time, I can already say that it is.

Timeslip, the saves will be compatible with the full version, right? So I guess I could play it for a bit more and leave a review on Steam.

 

[Roqua]

I haven't tried it yet but I'm not worried about not liking it. AoD kind of ruined early release for me. I played too much before it came out, which made the final release not nearly as good as it would have been if that was my first time playing.

I'll play on the next update and ensure I'll leave a review before release.

 

[Timeslip]

I already bought the game, so I promise to leave a positive review - assuming my impression will be positive, of course. But from the little that I played of the demo at the time, I can already say that it is.

Timeslip, the saves will be compatible with the full version, right? So I guess I could play it for a bit more and leave a review on Steam.

Cheers, no pressure though! If you haven't played it since the demo, there's been an enormous amount of change. I'd suggest holding off until the next update hits, as it's unlikely anything of note (with the exception of the ending) will be added after that. The saves haven't changed in around 5-6 months. The chance of them changing between now and release is < 1%.

 

[Timeslip]

I haven't tried it yet but I'm not worried about not liking it. AoD kind of ruined early release for me. I played too much before it came out, which made the final release not nearly as good as it would have been if that was my first time playing.

I'll play on the next update and ensure I'll leave a review before release.

One of the testers (who did a lot of work on Vigilantes) said something similar. I get it, must have spent 500+ hours playtesting Vigilantes at this point Cheers, and no pressure!

 

[Drowed]

So, I installed it and I played a little - I'm still waiting for the next update to really move forward in the game, but I just wanted to test to remember a bit. Still feels good, but I have to ask: those giant-fluorescent-green-squares really will remain in the final version to show AP? If you really aren't going to show the AP in numbers, Timeslip, may I ask you to at least allow us to scale the size of it in the UI?

I think something in a size similar to what we see in Divinity OS would be ideal - it's much smaller, but also more elegant and nice. Other than that, I still like it a lot.

Spoiler

 

[Lhynn]

Yep, that UI definitely needs some work.

 

[Timeslip]

Hey Drowed. I've added in a display for the number of AP earlier in V29. While I'm not going to have time to add UI scaling, I take your point and will adjust the size down.

 

[Timeslip]

Nearly finished testing now. 2 more bosses to beat, a few minor things to fix, and will have to replay a few hours at the beginning of the game to ensure the balance adjustments made over the course of the playthrough haven't messed up the early game.

 

[Timeslip]

Currently building V29. Very likely will be out this evening, or tomorrow at the latest. My PC isn't particularly old (4th gen i5, 8GB Ram, 970), but it takes about 50 minutes per build, and 6 need to be made (Win, Mac, Linux - Steam and Standalone per OS). Next time am getting a PC, will look at an SSD, more RAM and higher end processor to cut build times down.

 

[Timeslip]

Being uploaded now, will be available within the hour.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Spoiler

 

[santino27]

Timeslip This looks great, but just fyi, there are some typos/grammatical errors in both the written note and the infodump on the mafia which Taka-Haradin puolipeikko posted

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I wonder how crafting is calculated for item building purposes?
Does it take average of participating team members and then round it down to closest value that's dividable by 5?

 

[Timeslip]

Timeslip This looks great, but just fyi, there are some typos/grammatical errors in both the written note and the infodump on the mafia which Taka-Haradin puolipeikko posted

Thanks for letting me know. Have a bad habit of editing after the text has been pasted from the word processor. Will run through it again. If you want to let me know what's wrong, please do

 

[Timeslip]

I wonder how crafting is calculated for item building purposes?
Does it take average of participating team members and then round it down to closest value that's dividable by 5?

It take the highest available (not resting, not building a facility, not on an ally operation) crafting skill to determine if the item can be crafted. When doing the crafting it takes the sum of all available character's crafting skill to determine the craft time.

 

[Timeslip]

I wonder how crafting is calculated for item building purposes?
Does it take average of participating team members and then round it down to closest value that's dividable by 5?

It take the highest available (not resting, not building a facility, not on an ally operation) crafting skill to determine if the item can be crafted. When doing the crafting it takes the sum of all available character's crafting skill to determine the craft time.

Edgar is the best choice for crafter. In terms of automatically allocated skill points, he has the highest investing in crafting.

 

[Infinitron]

Vigilantes V29 is now available, and adds over 20 new pieces of equipment, 10 new encounters, 2 new perks, new crafting and a range of balance improvements.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

http://timeslipsoftworks.com/forum/index.php/topic,557.msg2785.html#new

Content]
+ Added dialogue encounter for Churcher, Survivalist & Mafia Bosses
+ Added 6 lieutenant encounters, 2 for each gang
+ Added 8 diary entries
+ Added 5 newspaper articles
+ Added raid events for Mafia and Churchers. The goal is to prevent enemies escaping. Raid events happen every few days.
+ Added a new combat encounter: Statue Breakers
+ Added post combat dialogue for Blackmail encounter
+ Added post mission dialogue for all missions with a temporary ally, when the ally has been killed.
+ Updated suburbs city tile and added chinatown tile
+ Added new perk: Fast Delivery (-1 AP throw cost)
+ Added unique items available only from boss fights and through crafring (Red Hawk SE, Lucky Lighter, Raskol 94 SE, General Arms Patriot SE, A Strange Figurine, Normandy SE, General Arms Ranger, Eurocorp Ares, Heavy Knuckle Dusters, Hand Crafted Pistol, Artyom Street Sweeper, Artyom 87)
+ New utility item: Surveillance Kit (+5 surveillance)
+ New utility item: Night Vision Goggles (Removes ranged night CTH penalty of -8% CTH)
+ New utility item: De Inventione (+7 presence)
+ New utility item: Laser Sight (+5% ranged CTH)
+ New utility item: Backpack (+8 lbs carry weight)
+ New utility item: Medium Armour Plate (12% damage reduction)
+ Added crafting recipes for surveillance kit, laser sight, night vision, and backpack
+ Basic ammo can now be crafted using gunpowder
+ Gunpowder can be retrieved from small caliber rounds
+ Basic explosives can now be crafted
+ Added Trauma Kit MK IV, IED and Incendiary Grenade MKIII, Personal Armour MK IV, Sledgehammer+, Tactical Baton
+ Added achievements

[Balance]
+ Sam starts with Deep Sleeper Perk
+ All gang leaders have unique stats.
+ Balanced a number of perks, typically making them more powerful.
+ Balanced perk requirements. Previously, requirements were deliberately low to allow players to try them, and to facilitate testing.
+ Balanced crafting skill and facility requirements. As with perks, their requirements were deliberately low.
+ Made a number of adjustments to gang equipment. Armour and and specialist equipment is one level lower.
+ Gang leader retinues have a lower chance to become specialists. This is because they are present from the beginning of the game, and can't be targeted until mid-late game.
+ Once a boss is defeated, the gang will no longer purchase upgrades or build rackets, their income will be reduced, and their equipment level reduced.
+ Improved quality of loot, especially for rackets
+ Enemy armour quality is now restricted by the quality of the troop
+ Allies can now be sent to find potential locations for other allies
+ Shotguns do more damage, but damage drops off to 50% at maximum range
+ Modified critical hit chance of all weapons
+ Balanced all ranged and melee weapons
+ Utility slots now require 3 utility each, rather than 4
+ Rackets now require 1, rather than 2 pieces of intel to reveal.

[Game Information]
+ Added a help section
+ Added information on perk type, ap cost and cooldowns when required.
+ Added information on chance of melee special effects.
+ Added Team screen tutorial
+ Revised tutorials
+ Added information on how ally relationship changes on the team screen
+ More information is now available on gang level, equipment, and rackets.
+ When gangs level up, purchase an upgrade or build a racket, a notification will appear.
+ Added a text component to show the number of AP an action costs.

[Quality of Life]
+ Added an option to disable confirmation beeps
+ Perks can now be filtered by type
+ Added an option to view more minimal graphics to show which tiles can be reached
+ Added the ability to unload all weapons in the home inventory
+ Updated tooltips.
+ If gangs have no remaining racket or lieutenant intel, the relevant gang buttons on the ally ops screen will be grayed out
+ Added option for auto end turn. Turns end in all situations, except when character is standing on a flee tile.
+ Increases the number of portraits shown in combat from 7 -> 9
+ Added buttons for each ally to character and inventory screens, to allow for rapid switching between characters.
+ Removed the unnecessary surveillance debriefing and replaced it with a pop up notification.

[Improvements]
+ Some lieutenants can now be challenged to a duel.
+ Improved layout and legibility of information on gang leaders screen
+ Multiple instances of most utility items can no longer be equipped
+ Improved post mission looting screen.
+ Improved a number of firearms SFX

[Fixes]
+ Fixed a number of occasions in which correct ap was not showing. (Nomad, ushas)
+ Fixed incorrect component being required, when switching to weapon upgrades after upgrading armour. (exMachninaOz & Tyroneemail)
+ Fixed a number of text errors (Helena)
+ Fixed a number of text errors (John)
+ Fixed inconsistent mouse wheel zooming in combat.
+ Fixed a couple of cases where incorrect gender was being displayed in encounters.
+ Fixed a number of UI elements which were out of place on 21:9 aspect ratio resolutions
+ Fixed crafting recipe scrollbar getting stuck
+ Utility items can not be equipped during combat. This prevents items with "consumable" bonuses from being used, then replaced.
+ Prevented switching away from inventory in combat when dragging an item (ushas)
+ Fixed no ap cost for moving stackable items in combat.