Vapourware Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen - Chaos Chronicles reborn and dead again

[Strange Fellow]

Not only that, I have it on good authority that Infinitron is secretly a Bonapartist and a traitor to the crown of France!

 

[moleman]

I have info from a reliable source that Putin promised Infinitron a dacha on the Crimea if he meddles in the US elections in favour of Trump.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

According to JarlFrank Infinitron was the driving force behind all the evil that befell him. He told me as much last time I met him near a local supermarket where he was begging for money (he has been kicked out of his appartment).
I had to buy him a Döner kebab and a cheap bottle of vodka just to get him off me. I now buy my groceries someplace else.

 

[AwesomeButton]

According to JarlFrank Infinitron was the driving force behind all the evil that befell him. He told me as much last time I met him near a local supermarket where he was begging for money (he has been kicked out of his appartment).
I had to buy him a Döner kebab and a cheap bottle of vodka just to get him off me. I now buy my groceries someplace else.

I feel for you. I have such acquaintances IRL.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I hear Infinitron was hired by Lithuanian Hitmen as an accountant/banker.

 

[Ysaye]

I understand that there will be prestige classes in the game that the developer is planning to move away from the standard SRD prestige classes and to incorporate elements of Wizardry 7 classes (https://www.realms-beyond.com/forum/index.php?topic=38.0).

What prestige class options do we think we will get in the game and what are people hoping for?

 

[daveyd]

I understand that there will be prestige classes in the game that the developer is planning to move away from the standard SRD prestige classes and to incorporate elements of Wizardry 7 classes (https://www.realms-beyond.com/forum/index.php?topic=38.0).

What prestige class options do we think we will get in the game and what are people hoping for?

Last I heard this was still something the developers were still debating. They may very well end up using some of the familiar SRD based prestige classes we have seen in the NWN games. However, if they stick with the no (additional) multi-classing plan, they will have to change some of the prerequisites a bit. Since it's not a Faerun / D&D game, there obviously won't be any Red Wizards or Doomguides, but there may be some sort of other prestige classes for a specific race, ethnicity, and / or alignment that fits in with RB lore.

I'd be interested in something like a Psion class / prestige class considering we haven't seen that in any of the official D&D games since Dark Sun. That said, I'm not sure that would actually feel significantly different from a wizard unless they came up with a lot of unique abilities.

My main hope is that each base class has at least a couple of options to fit the characters you want to roleplay. So for example: a Fighter could become either a knight or a brigand, a paladin could become either a divine champion or a blackguard, a wizard could be a battlemage / eldritch knight or an arcane archer, a rogue could become a shadowdancer or an assassin, etc.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[fantadomat]

I do really miss the funny button .

 

[FeelTheRads]

Meeting the expectations of RPGWatch, huh?

Can I get a refund, please?

 

[fantadomat]

Meeting the expectations of RPGWatch, huh?

Can I get a refund, please?

Nah,your money have been spend on coke,vodka and whores!

 

[Andnjord]

Meeting the expectations of RPGWatch, huh?

Can I get a refund, please?

Nah,your money have been spend on coke,vodka and whores!

They're Germans, aren't they? So it must be beer, sausages and nazi paraphernalia that they've spent it on.

 

[Infinitron]

It's back! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ceresgames/realms-beyond-ashes-of-the-fallen/posts/2421749

Development Update #1: AI for Turn-based Combat Systems
Posted by Ceres Games (Creator)


When we started out working on the combat system we had a lot to do to lay the basic foundations. We had to get our character animation system running and implement stuff like combat logic, hexboard generation from level topology, or hexboard queries for paths and floodings at runtime.

That left little time to care about something as high level as AI (Artificial Intelligence). As a consequence our first prototype for AI ‘grew’ with time. At first, all it could do were melee attacks. Then we added ranged attacks. Then we implemented an enemy spell AI for intelligent placing of area spells (trying to maximize hits on enemies and minimize hits on allies). Finally we included rather specific routines (like fleeing) for characters that suffered from spells like fear. We realized that AI has to be able to deal with script spells that are loaded at runtime (a feature that could be interesting for future modifications). To allow for that we coded routines that simulate spell executions and judge their effects in a more general way.

Thus our prototype grew and grew until we were sure that we covered every capability that could possibly be required. Then we started to build it from scratch to make it more flexible and debugable. And now we feel like we can finally talk about AI.


Combat AI Debug Visualization in Realms Beyond

The paradigm we had in mind for development has always been: What do we expect from a turn based AI?

Well, technically, we expect a lot! A demon wizard that fails to choose his fireball spell over a magic missile, or who fails to place the fireball in a way that maximizes damage on the player party is a no-go. An assassin who simply attacks her closest target instead of trying to stab your wizard in the back is not only little immersive – it also obliterates strategic bottlenecks like doors. And a human NPC ally that is not able to plan his path avoiding enemy attacks of opportunity is an annoyance. So when we talk about expectations from a ‘technical’ point of view, one can say that we expect ‘a lot’. A proper (3.5e based) combat AI has to be able to perform a lot of intelligent choices for enemies that we expect to behave intelligent.

Assuming that we built an AI that is able to live up to those expectations, it is time to consider a different connotation: What do we expect from AI not in terms of quality but in terms of personality?

If every enemy behaved optimally the challenge would be maximized – and immersion would be all but gone. We want goblins to horde around their closest enemy. We want orcs to ignore attacks of opportunity. And an ogre might even be too stupid to leave an area that is affected by a damage-over-time spell. Even beyond ‘intelligence’ enemies should show personality in every decision that gameplay offers: While most races ignore unconscious or otherwise helpless enemies on the battle field and proceed to face those player characters that can still fight, certain foul creatures like goblins or gnolls should be known for finishing off their helpless foes. It’s those little twists that make combats immersive.

We hope that – apart from the challenge of making our AI capable of ‘good’ decisions – we also do a good job to diversify enemy behaviours enough to allow you to detect patterns and become especially hateful of one enemy or the other.

A combat scene from 'Knights of the Chalice'

Once again, allow us to mention Knights of the Chalice here (btw, the developer Pierre Begue will launch a Kickstarter campaign for the sequel very soon) . It is owing to that game that we had a very precise idea about what we had to do when we first started prototyping our CPU-controlled opponents. The AI of KotC (and, of course, its excellent encounter design) made almost all combats interesting. It may be prone to crowd in bottlenecks (a fact can be exploited a lot once you get the stone wall spell) but hey – weaknesses are something you also expect from an AI to have fun, another fact that we are well aware of.

Hopefully, we can soon present you some more combat vids that display various AI behaviours. Until then, feel invited to write us (here in the comments or in our forum) what you think about our ideas and what you consider important for a turn-based AI. And if you have a memorable story to tell about a combat against an especially cunning AI: please share it with us.

 

[Dorateen]

The shout out to the KotC2 development is a classy move. Would be nice to see some synergy between those two projects.

 

[Mazisky]

Happy they've gone classic fantasy setting instead of trying hard to be fresh by doing something weird and unappealing as usual.

 

[Thonius]

So they just got bought out?

 

[vonAchdorf]

So they just got bought out?

They got 100k in tax payer money.

 

[Infinitron]

Out: Epic Games
In: Free State of Bavaria

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ceresgames/realms-beyond-ashes-of-the-fallen/posts/2460876

Bavarian Support and a new Senior Team Member
Posted by Ceres Games (Creator)


We are happy to announce that Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen has received additional funding from the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern!



The additional funds of 100.000 EUR are flowing directly into development, translating into more high quality content for you to experience.

Senior Level DesignerJanos Toth joins our team to fill our world with dangerous dungeons and tranquil villages for the player to explore. He has formerly worked on games like Battle Isle, History Line, Sacred Underworld, Sacred 2, The Settlers 5 and Spellforce 3, bringing plenty of experience with the RPG and RTS genres with him. You can check out his portfolio here.

Soon, we will also post another development update about the game. We have been hard at work optimizing our tools, especially the dialogue tool, in order to allow for heavy branching in quests and conversations, and to give player decisions as heavy an impact as possible. In our next update we will show off the capabilities of our dialogue tool in detail, along with some example dialogues.


Stay tuned!

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Based rich Bavarians know incline when they see it.

 

[The Wall]

Does state of Bavaria counts as backer and does Bavarian tax yeyo counts toward prior to this unreached Monk class stretch goal?



Cause it should...

 

[Dorateen]

Does this mean there will be a subtle shift toward a more Ravenloft influence on the game?

 

[V_K]

Having a level designer from Sacred 2 doesn't inspire much confidence though, that game's levels weren't particularly great.

 

[Siveon]

Having a level designer from Sacred 2 doesn't inspire much confidence though, that game's levels weren't particularly great.

I've heard good things about Spellforce 3 though

 

[OldNorseSaga]

Does state of Bavaria counts as backer and does Bavarian tax yeyo counts toward prior to this unreached Monk class stretch goal?



Cause it should...

They have confirmed on their own forums it does not.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Since September 2009, applications for funding for the development of concepts, prototypes and the production of high-quality, non-violent computer games may be submitted to FFF Bayern