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Indie Dead Monarchy: Open-World | Turn-Based | Mercenary Management | RPG - Fully Released May 19th 2023

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
Thanks for the 13 alerts Inin all is well :P

Still alive and kicking just extremely busy with this formation/elevation update, implementing formation AI and elevation AI is taking longer than expected as I am now working on putting that all together and into combat that takes place on larger and more open environments. Still hoping to get an update out at least by month's end once I have something more tangible to show. The other reason for the silence is that I am also implementing more abilities and also ranged combat (shortbow, longbow, crossbow).

On top of all this, I'm in the middle of selling my house with the plan of using some of that money to continue funding Dead Monarchy. Once I wrap this up, I should have some new content to show :)

In the mean time, here is WIP progress of one of the "Viking" inspired armor sets.

Viking_1.jpg
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
Hey guys,

So I just wanted to give a small heads up on what I've currently implemented in the latest update.

So a brief refresher first, in combat you can choose to attack either the head or body. There is no hit chance reduction for the head, attacking the head does more damage but also consumes stamina whereas the body doesn't. If you completely destroy a unit's helmet, killing the unit with an attack aimed at the head results in a decapitation and a morale loss for all allied units. Not only do you decide whether to attack the head vs body, you have to decide is it better to first destroy the opponent's armor vs body. Unlike Battle Brothers, you have to actively reduce a unit's armor/helmet rating it is not a passive result of attacking. In this sense, it works more like Banner Saga. Side note, there are weapon types that have piercing damage that can ignore a % of armor, but I didn't want to make it available for all weapon types.

Anyway, reducing an opponent's helmet rating also reduces stamina so the trade off on deciding whether to attack head vs body comes down to the amount of stamina a unit has and perhaps the urgency of the fight. If you are wrecking an opponent's side with heads flying off everywhere, you're going to be routing the enemy sooner, but if you are up against opponents with high helmet rating you'll find that sometimes a unit will tire itself out as it attempts to first break a opponent's helmet, then attack the head. This is where it may be more "economical" to attack the body as you won't be reducing stamina and tiring yourself out.

With all that in place, I'll now begin to explain how the new elevation features come into play.

Elevation:

1. If your target is on higher elevation than you, you can no longer use attacks that are targeted to the body. This goes for abilities as well, most abilities have two variants head/body. Certain groups of abilities create synergy, IE the sword abilities that increase your counter attack chance and augment the counter attack itself. These abilities are all based on actively increasing/augmenting counter attacks through successful hits, if you decided to only get the body variant of those abilities you'll find yourself in a pickle against an enemy on higher elevation. You can no longer utilize your strategy as those body orientated attacks cannot be used.

2. If your target is on lower elevation than you, body attacks now do bonus damage. So against a target on lower elevation, attacking the body basically becomes a head attack as you get the bonus damage as well minus the decapitation effect. This is obviously a pretty big advantage as you are doing more damage without consuming stamina.

3. If your target is on lower elevation, you also gain a bonus chance to hit against it. I'm toying around with perhaps adding one more perk to being on higher elevation or perhaps just leaving it as it is and gathering feedback on it first before deciding on adding something else.

4. Attacks/abilities aimed towards the head against a target on higher elevation no longer do bonus damage and cannot decapitate. Your equipped weapon will always come with a default attack that allows you to attack the head. If you find yourself on lower elevation, your only option is to attack the head and attacking the head consumes stamina, no stamina no head attacks. There will be an ability that allows you to recover stamina, every turn you also regain a certain amount of stamina, but being on lower elevation really is quite a disadvantage.

The other thing I'll mention is that I've decided units will have up to 10 abilities they can pick, from a wider pool of abilities, sort of like the Battle Brothers perk tree but there are weapon specific abilities and general abilities. If you decide on a certain synergy/strategy, IE sword abilities that increase/augment counter attacks and you want to be using that strategy as much as possible, then you would pick both head and body versions to account for chances when you are on higher/lower elevation. The downside to this is then your unit is a bit more specialized and may not have access to other utility abilities IE an ability that allows you to disengage from melee range. Also, you'd be completely ignoring shield abilities.

5. Ascending and descending elevation, costs more movement range than compared to just moving on flat ground.

So yeah, combat is shaping up and I'm really excited. The other half of my time was spent on formation AI, which I'll probably talk about it in the upcoming devblog update that I'm hoping to post by month's end. Prior to this, I had only implemented the very basics of combat so personally it is very encouraging to see how my combat has evolved with the AI now taking advantage of elevation. Designing the terrain itself to cater for elevation was also a huge hurdle to overcome, will be talking more about that in the next devblog. For now, just excited that combat doesn't just take place on flat ground :D

For the demo, I'm also going to be moving the combat specific information into a dialogue so the whole experience of learning the combat should feel a bit more "immersive" and less detached as there is quite a bit of info to churn through. I really didn't want to dumb down combat but I guess there is always a threshold where it can become too complicated/complex. That said, personally I'm on the side of always wanting more challenging/tactical combat.

Also new set, there is going to be a lot of armor variety in Dead Monarchy. Same will go for weapons when I am ready to show them. These sets are still WIP and may change overtime.

Leather_Lamellar.jpg
 
Last edited:

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
So still gearing up for the next update, but I have some quick teasers today. What I'm showing is the current "open field" combat map that I'm working on. This also has elevation which I have tried to make look natural but at the same time distinguishable when the camera is zoomed up higher. This honestly took me a lot longer than I thought, but I am quite happy with it now. I'll probably be looking into an option to toggle trees off, at least the ones directly on the battlefield. Also some of the grid cell highlights are just for debugging purposes. More to come :)

Elevation Testing 1.jpg
Elevation Testing 2.jpg
Elevation Testing 3.jpg
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
I've also just finished up on a new armor set. It is inspired by the Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire/Saxon. I feel like this is a time period that isn't explored much in games, outsides of the Total War games, at least to my knowledge. Quite happy with how this set has come out, there are a few more sets that follow this theme :)

New_Armor_Set.jpg
 

SmartCheetah

Arcane
Joined
May 7, 2013
Messages
1,076
Inspired by a few cultures. All in all, it's a fantasy game set in the fantasy world. What else to explain?

I remember modding pretty fun factions in Mount&Blade eg. by using viking and celtic inspired equipment mixed with variety of Mongolian/Rus face helmets. When you are creating even a low fantasy world you can let your imagination loose.
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire/Saxon

8OmKJb.png


EXPLAIN PLEASE

Pretty much as SmartCheetah has pointed out, it is inspired. It is exactly why I claim it is inspired so people don't dispute historical accuracy with me :P

Now as to why I put those two in the same sentence, the helmet is inspired from the Anglo-Saxon coppergate helmet, the armor more so from late Roman legionnaires. As to why I've combined, because when I design armor I group them into rough time periods. So this armor is more so from the dark ages as opposed to the late medieval period. I'm planning to broadly cover these time periods without going for historical accuracy but blending bits and pieces to somewhat even the playing field from a visual standpoint. Artistically it gives me more freedom as well as a bonus perk for not having to spend hours going for historical accuracy, since it is a fantasy game but rooted into more realistic depictions of a medieval/ancient world.

Hope that answers your question :)
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
New devblog update hopefully coming sometime next week if not by the end of this month. I am also planning on releasing a new demo build on June 22th, which conveniently marks my 1 year milestone of being on the codex. Originally I had just aimed for a demo next month, but setting this date has made it my own personal goal as I thought it was quite fitting. There will be a lot of info in this upcoming devblog as I did quite a few reworks. For example, reworking the hit chance formula and how it is presented. Currently in the demo, block chance is a hidden value that isn't represented, so it gets quite frustrating when you wonder why your 75% chance to hit keeps getting blocked.

While it is quite obvious to me now, during development when your juggling a thousand things sometimes these oversights occur. In either case, this next demo build is shaping up to be something more representational of the general combat, that being larger field battles. Admittedly the first demo was more of a stress test.

Demo Features:

1. 10 armor sets, 10 weapon types. Some weapon types have been merged but the abilities still exist, just streamlining things. Each weapon type will still have their own abilities. I'm aiming for somewhere between 1-5 abilities for you to try out, per weapon type. Majority of armor sets are new and more fitting for "starting armors" as they are all padded armors. As helmet/armor quality improves, you'll slowly see the introduction of chainmail, lamellar plate etc. I doubt I'd be putting those armors in as I haven't finished the modelling side.

2. Bandits - they are a faction that form the main enemy in the demo. I use the term "bandits" loosely, they'll have a fitting name but for now I'll stick with bandits. Bandits will have their own unique look and they utilitize the same weapon types the player can use.

3. Open field combat - there will be 1 forest map that will have 3 levels of elevation. So elevation combat is now implemented. Player and AI can now also make use of formation abilities, when a formation is completed, the units within that formation gain certain buffs. This is alongside with other combat features like "field of control" or attack of opportunity and positional bonuses, IE flanking bonuses. Formation abilities make it so that sometimes the best option isn't to just all spread out and attack from every angle.

4. Reworked interface elements - There is still a laundry list of interface features I need to improve, but certain elements of the interface will be further improved upon in this upcoming demo build. I've noted down all the feedback from the initial demo and will be making improvements to the end battle report, shop interface and combat interface but they might not all make it into this upcoming build.

5. Character traits/perks - pretty excited about this. Characters have randomized starting stats and whilst they already did before, it was only "semi-random". I've now completely overhauled the algorithm and I'm getting more varied spread across the starting stats. Traits will also add bonus buffs/debuffs to the starting value. IE a character can start with 8 Attack and also have the "Veteran" trait which would add another 10 Attack, so you'd end up with 18 Attack. That same character then wouldn't have the negative version of "Veteran". At this point, traits just modify stats, but I've also created the framework for it to impact on other gameplay layers. IE having certain traits or backgrounds clash with others and result in a random event. For all you that have played Battle Brothers, I'm sure you know what I mean.

6. Stat growth - reworked the algorithm for this as well. Stat growth is now associated to a characters' background. The previous demo didn't have any stat progression, but even then I had a pretty rudimentary one in place in my own testing build. The new algorithm places "soft caps" on certain stats in relation to a characters background. IE a hunter would have high stat growth in "Focus" which is needed in ranged combat, but also have a "soft cap" on "Strength" which is basically health. I do say soft caps as it is technically possible to roll a hunter that has relatively high strength growth but it is rare, that rareness factor then does help in creating a sense of attachment to your characters especially if you know one of them just exceeded the average cap on a certain stat. Later on, you'll find more advanced versions of the starting backgrounds as well. IE a marksman is an upgraded hunter, which has a higher cap on all stats compared to the hunter, that said they will also be more expensive to recruit. You also never know, there is a small chance that you find one hunter that just has exceptional stat growth and obviously doesn't cost as much to maintain as say a marksman.

I've also consolidated the development milestones that Dead Monarchy will go through. I'd say at this point, it is still way to early for Early Access or anything of that sort but I do have 3 clear stages that I would like to take the game too.

1. Base Management - Again I spent a fair bit of last month putting together the models for each base building and deciding on the visual differences per tier. At this stage, you'll start in your base and venture out to complete missions that will give you rewards to upgrade your base with alongside the standard armor/weapons/loot. I've also created the framework for the "Research" system that will be implemented. It will be somewhat similar to XCOM, IE you have a research tree and you need to acquire X item to produce X item and all the time in between is spent on researching that item. So the gameplay loop is pretty tight at this point. Select Mission - Complete Mission (get rewards) - Return to base (upgrade base which in turn strengthens characters). All this is needed as the enemy will grow more powerful as time progresses. Basically, a medieval arms race.

2. World Map - When the world map gets implemented the game will suddenly open up a lot. You'll have the option to explore other cities and deviate away from the standard loop. That said, you'll need to plan your expeditions out from your base, make sure to bring enough food etc or you'll starve. This is where I'd start to implement the overworld random events and probably base events too. You'll also encounter other factions as you embark on your journey across the world to a certain destination, which for now I'll just keep under wraps. While this is all happening, you'll still have to defend your base and make sure your base doesn't crumble from within.

3. Nomad Start - Surprisingly this will be the hardest thing to implement, as taking the base away takes away a huge part of the core gameplay loop. With the base taken away, I'll need to create new features to substitute the base temporarily. In essence, you'll need to work your way up to acquiring your own base and depend on the good graces of all the other factions you meet to sustain your merry band of misfits.

So yeah, a lot of background work has been done these past few months which should hopefully explain the silence. I'll probably start looking into Early Access when #1 is polished, at that point there should honestly be enough content for even myself as a player to justify the price point. It won't be above $20 USD, but haven't decided on the exact price.

Stay tuned for more :)

Edit: Just wanted to add, I appreciate all the support on the forums. Even that one brofist keeps me going! Trying to sell a house is a nightmare.
 

SmartCheetah

Arcane
Joined
May 7, 2013
Messages
1,076
I'd love to help you somehow, maybe by creating some clothes models and textures or something, but I would need some more free time to get hang of the software you're using.
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
I'd love to help you somehow, maybe by creating some clothes models and textures or something, but I would need some more free time to get hang of the software you're using.

Appreciate the thought! One of the things I was thinking further down the road was to source community models, kind of like what Wasteland 2 did. IE if you ever browse the Unity asset store, you'll eventually find some of the Wasteland 2 models on the store that are available for purchase and you have a non-exclusive "right" to use them in any compiled commercial game. I'm noticing a few other developers playing around with this idea by using the asset store as a third party, since it is always a gray area when using assets created by the community and dealing with any potential legal issues that could arise.

If you ever do get some free time and you wanted to fool around, I mean you could even honestly make something on the side for yourself, have a look at this:

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/uma-2-unity-multipurpose-avatar-35611 = Framework I'm using for characters.
http://umawiki.secretanorak.com/Main_Page = Wiki.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjIhCVu3eN5qLAX7H9Uo6jg = Youtube guides.

It's called UMA, or Unity Multipurpose Avatar. I am basically using that as the framework for all my humanoid models. All my models are made for the UMA system as it is a very flexible system for character customization, it is also open source. There is a wiki and a few youtube guides around if you ever really wanted to dive deep, even just for yourself. For my game, the models are rigged and designed for UMA but you can create the models in more or less any 3D software, the modeler that I am working with uses Mudbox.

If you do create a few models that are compatible for UMA, and I feel that they could also fit within my own game, feel free to hit me up. You'd have to submit it to the Asset store but honestly if their at the same quality and you put a price on it, I'd probably pick it up. Just food for thought, if you ever wanted to dive into that stuff :)
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
1. Base Management - Again I spent a fair bit of last month putting together the models for each base building and deciding on the visual differences per tier. At this stage, you'll start in your base and venture out to complete missions that will give you rewards to upgrade your base with alongside the standard armor/weapons/loot. I've also created the framework for the "Research" system that will be implemented. It will be somewhat similar to XCOM, IE you have a research tree and you need to acquire X item to produce X item and all the time in between is spent on researching that item. So the gameplay loop is pretty tight at this point. Select Mission - Complete Mission (get rewards) - Return to base (upgrade base which in turn strengthens characters). All this is needed as the enemy will grow more powerful as time progresses. Basically, a medieval arms race.

2. World Map - When the world map gets implemented the game will suddenly open up a lot. You'll have the option to explore other cities and deviate away from the standard loop. That said, you'll need to plan your expeditions out from your base, make sure to bring enough food etc or you'll starve. This is where I'd start to implement the overworld random events and probably base events too. You'll also encounter other factions as you embark on your journey across the world to a certain destination, which for now I'll just keep under wraps. While this is all happening, you'll still have to defend your base and make sure your base doesn't crumble from within.

3. Nomad Start - Surprisingly this will be the hardest thing to implement, as taking the base away takes away a huge part of the core gameplay loop. With the base taken away, I'll need to create new features to substitute the base temporarily. In essence, you'll need to work your way up to acquiring your own base and depend on the good graces of all the other factions you meet to sustain your merry band of misfits.

This is pretty interesting. I like the idea of the wandering merc start, serving other lords and camping in their back yards, while you get enough resources to establish yourself. You could have some of your base management stuff available at the lowest tier or highest cost as a merc, so you're incented to make it on your own quickly.

Glad you're interested! That's basically what I'm thinking too, probably some sort of makeshift camp. The main reason why I'm leaving it to the end is because the camp wouldn't be static so that creates new challenges. If I don't do a makeshift camp, the other option could be setting up a small base within a city. Still too early to tell but I do agree the player should have some incentive to start their own base. One of the main reasons will probably be the research system, making that unavailable until you have your own base so prior to that you'd have to deal with cutthroat merchants. Aside from that, obviously each building in the base has its own set of benefits too. I'm getting closer to finalizing the look of most of the base buildings, so will show a few screenshots sooner or later.
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
New devblog should be hitting indieDB by tomorrow, just about to post it. Covers elevation in combat, formation AI, armor rework, ranged combat, bigger and open battlefields and upcoming demo features. Demo is still on track for a 22nd release :)

Will post it here when it becomes available. Just thought I'd touch base, let you all know I'm still alive and all.
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
So a small but exciting update, today. I've started implementation of the AP system and taken a second look at the grid tiles, hoping to make them more appealing to the eye.

AP System:

Prior to this, DM was using a "simple" 2 turn system, move and attack or attack once. Part of the problem was displaying this properly in the UI as well as somewhat clashing against the elevation features I added. Previously units had a movement range and then movement range would be deducted against the elevation differences. Over time, I felt something was missing. I felt that the two turn system was too limiting and that elevation wasn't playing a big enough role. So now, I have moved everything to an action point system. Abilities still cost Stamina to use but also now cost AP. Moving up and down elevation costs more AP than moving across even leveled terrain. This is going to make it into the demo, but I know that the abilities will need to be balanced over time regarding AP costs. Pretty excited on this, I'll be able to create abilities to accommodate to the AP system as well, IE reducing AP of a specific ability etc.

Interface Updates:

Took a second pass on the grid tiles, never liked the first ones to begin with but had to work with what I had at the time. The grid tiles borrow elements from the combat interface, so hopefully it'll feel more consistent. Also added UI to show the current equipped weapon, AP and character level.

I've attached a screenshot, FYI this is in editor with the lighting turned off.

Demo still on track for the 22nd release date. Hope some of you guys will try it out, all feedback is appreciated :)

Updated Tiles.jpg
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
Well looks like I timed it pretty well. I've officially been on the codex for a year now and I've even been rewarded with a new trophy. To celebrate, I've uploaded build 0.2.0, which is basically the next demo build. I'll now be splitting off and separating into two builds. The demo build and the development build, demo build will still be updated with more updates.

Demo Link: https://www.indiedb.com/games/dead-monarchy/downloads/dead-monarchy-demo-pre-alpha-020

Note: If you want to dive straight into combat, click on the gate that you are standing behind (it will glow). Be sure to also disable the combat tutorial in the "game options" when you load into the game as well.

Now for a codex exclusive. I am now working on integrating the base management mechanics into the development build. The base management plays out a bit more on the static side, as I'm not not aiming to create a city builder. IE you don't choose where to physically place the buildings, the spots are predetermined but you can choose which buildings to upgrade and how many times, as they all have upgrade tiers. Each time you upgrade, the buildings do visually change as well. The base management side also ties into the research system that I've also been implementing. So base "activities" rest somewhere between XCOM and Dead State. Here's a quick preview of the base, you can see the modular nature of the buildings. (Screenshots in-editor, without proper lighting)

The buildings will start out looking depleted and ransacked, you basically "inherit" a half completed fort Aside from working on base management, during the next few months I hope to actually start sharing details on the story and the world itself. As always, I'm open to all feedback and be as blunt as you like!

Base Preview 2.jpg

Base Preview 3.jpg
Base Preview 1.jpg
 

vazha

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2013
Messages
2,063
This looks better and better with each update. Best of luck Bantichai ! Btw, does the game have a coherent narrative or is it a write your own story kind of thing similar to M&B and B&B?
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
This looks better and better with each update. Best of luck Bantichai ! Btw, does the game have a coherent narrative or is it a write your own story kind of thing similar to M&B and B&B?

Thanks a lot vazha for the vote of confidence! I'm leaning more towards emergent storytelling, so something like BB with a series of crisis events that are not as randomized and require the player to invest more in order to advance the story forward. I think for one person, this is the most realistic path to follow. So there will be structured points in the story, but everything between now and then is left to the player :)

Again, really glad to hear from you that DM is improving with each update, makes all the hours worth it!
 

Flint

Novice
Joined
Sep 17, 2016
Messages
24
Hi, I've played your game for a few fights. It looks very nice even at this stage I must say, models and animations are good and how characters change with different weapons and armor. Looking at the mechanics and the interface, it could be a great tablet title actually, so you may consider it during development (I assume unity allows to build games for anroids and ipads).

I didn't like how camera follows the character (jerky movement), how tiny everything is at the default zoom and how it is impossible to move the camera with the mouse at the edge of the screen (why?).

Weapon descriptions from the smith were not very helpful (and have an overabundance of the word 'brutal'), I think you shouldn't be afraid to put some mechanical numbers there. It is literally easier to get a grasp for different weapons by looking at their stats in the inventory. Maybe I missed it, but it also wasn't clear how the defense stat works. Does it make a flat reduction in hitting chance? Or is blocking and missing rolled separately? I didn't get the conditioning too. It is 5 for all soldiers and for some reason depletes completely after every battle. Is it possible to buff the maximum amount? Is it possible to control or reduce the amount I lose in battle?

This is a very general criticism, so I'm sorry if it is not helpful, but anyway: the combat system, while interesting at first sight, is not very tactical in practice. You cannot re-equip in combat and moving around is severely punished by attacks of opportunity, so battles play as an initial clash and subsequent trading of blows while standing in place. Also because you cannot re-equip it is a complete crapshoot as for what weapons to bring (or even how many people, why is there sometimes 6 opponents and sometimes 3?).

Elevation differences are poorly visible on the map (at least on low settings), I think they should be more prominent given the importance. The status messages above the models (Tired, Routed etc) look the same for the enemy and me, so it is often confusing who got tired after a hit. Also models on the map (mainly trees but it happens with units too) can strangely block the cursor so you cannot select a tile despite the fact that the cursor is on the unobstructed part (I've made a gif to demonstrate what I mean: https://gfycat.com/ChiefHeartfeltAlbino, see how I cannot select even mostly clear tile beside the tree).

There are no objectives in combat except extermination which makes some battles completely ridiculous. One time I was chasing three crossbowmen who were running all around the map like headless chicken, in another battle the enemy group of six retreated on the first turn and sat on the hill doing absolutely nothing skipping turns. I had to bait them with my well armored guy to initiate the skirmish.

Variation in recruits is too much, they can be amazing or absolutely useless (1 hp, 1 stamina etc) and it is not even reflected in their cost. Also item loss on character death is too brutal, I bought a good armor and helmet for a promising novice to protect him and he got one shotted by savage counter attack. I'm okay with that, except that I won the battle and still couldn't recover anything. Such strictness provokes ugly meta-gaming, like not using your recruits so they just stand around and collect xp or shoot bow and then graduate to melee after their stats increase.

I hope I wasn't too harsh and you will find my feedback useful. Your game is very promising, good luck with the development!
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
Hi, I've played your game for a few fights. It looks very nice even at this stage I must say, models and animations are good and how characters change with different weapons and armor. Looking at the mechanics and the interface, it could be a great tablet title actually, so you may consider it during development (I assume unity allows to build games for anroids and ipads).

I didn't like how camera follows the character (jerky movement), how tiny everything is at the default zoom and how it is impossible to move the camera with the mouse at the edge of the screen (why?).

Weapon descriptions from the smith were not very helpful (and have an overabundance of the word 'brutal'), I think you shouldn't be afraid to put some mechanical numbers there. It is literally easier to get a grasp for different weapons by looking at their stats in the inventory. Maybe I missed it, but it also wasn't clear how the defense stat works. Does it make a flat reduction in hitting chance? Or is blocking and missing rolled separately? I didn't get the conditioning too. It is 5 for all soldiers and for some reason depletes completely after every battle. Is it possible to buff the maximum amount? Is it possible to control or reduce the amount I lose in battle?

This is a very general criticism, so I'm sorry if it is not helpful, but anyway: the combat system, while interesting at first sight, is not very tactical in practice. You cannot re-equip in combat and moving around is severely punished by attacks of opportunity, so battles play as an initial clash and subsequent trading of blows while standing in place. Also because you cannot re-equip it is a complete crapshoot as for what weapons to bring (or even how many people, why is there sometimes 6 opponents and sometimes 3?).

Elevation differences are poorly visible on the map (at least on low settings), I think they should be more prominent given the importance. The status messages above the models (Tired, Routed etc) look the same for the enemy and me, so it is often confusing who got tired after a hit. Also models on the map (mainly trees but it happens with units too) can strangely block the cursor so you cannot select a tile despite the fact that the cursor is on the unobstructed part (I've made a gif to demonstrate what I mean: https://gfycat.com/ChiefHeartfeltAlbino, see how I cannot select even mostly clear tile beside the tree).

There are no objectives in combat except extermination which makes some battles completely ridiculous. One time I was chasing three crossbowmen who were running all around the map like headless chicken, in another battle the enemy group of six retreated on the first turn and sat on the hill doing absolutely nothing skipping turns. I had to bait them with my well armored guy to initiate the skirmish.

Variation in recruits is too much, they can be amazing or absolutely useless (1 hp, 1 stamina etc) and it is not even reflected in their cost. Also item loss on character death is too brutal, I bought a good armor and helmet for a promising novice to protect him and he got one shotted by savage counter attack. I'm okay with that, except that I won the battle and still couldn't recover anything. Such strictness provokes ugly meta-gaming, like not using your recruits so they just stand around and collect xp or shoot bow and then graduate to melee after their stats increase.

I hope I wasn't too harsh and you will find my feedback useful. Your game is very promising, good luck with the development!

Hey Flint firstly no I didn't find the feedback harsh at all, it was very useful as you actually addressed numerous areas I was hoping to get feedback on. Honestly though, so long as it is constructive, it can be as harsh as it needs to be as at the end of the day it was aimed towards improving my game. Anyway, I'll start addressing the thing you brought up now and thanks again!

- Glad you are liking how it looks, right now purely focused on PC but I may branch out to platforms at a later date, Unity will at least make the conversation slightly easier but yeah still something I wouldn't do right now.

- The previous demo build didn't have the battle camera, only this build so I was eager to see how it felt. Did the camera give you "motion sickness" by any chance, or did it just feel way too slow? It may just need to be sped up during transitions. However, it can be completely disabled with "F". I can add in a screen edge panning with the mouse, no worries there, as to the reason just hadn't thought of it at the time. I'm sure you know that there is a mouse wheel zoom, but since the zoom resets during each enemy phase I'll take it that you mean the default zoom that it resets too is too high and zooming in each time becomes annoying?

- Yeah armor/weapon descriptions tooltips are currently all placeholder and the extra information from the blacksmith could also be reworked. Currently reworking weapons from a functional standpoint too so I might have left it too vague. I'll be redoing the weapon type descriptions for sure.

- Defense is a flat reduction and only shields grant a persistent value, but other weapon types will eventually have temporary defense abilities, IE boost for 1 turn. Blocking and missed hits are the same, perhaps I just need to elaborate more on the tooltips. Hit chance is basically Attack minus Defense, but I added a static number of 50, into the formula to compensate for lower Attack values at the start. So if you happen to get a guy with 5 Attack at the start, he still has 55% hit chance against an un-shielded enemy.

- Yeah, I didn't really elaborate much on Condition or really get the UI to support showing fatigue soldiers in the equipment panel. Condition is basically a "battle fatigue" mechanic and pushes the player to rotate characters. It starts at 5 and increases by +5 every 10th level starting from 10, or at least should. Also yeah, it depletes every battle to encourage rotation, again I can tweak it here, so thanks for shedding light on this. Condition doesn't reduce during combat, just at the end at least for now. Could be interesting to have an ability that uses up Condition but is incredibly powerful/useful in combat as a trade off.

- Glad you actually gave me feedback on how the combat felt. I take it you like the general mechanics but not being able to swap weapons reduces the choices you can make it combat, especially since each weapon type has a unique function? I have been considering swapping out weapons, so thanks for this. As for AOO attacks, if I increase the distance before clashing that should give the player more room to move, as currently you get locked in right at the starting turn. I do also have like a "quick step" ability in the works that allows you to move freely. As for enemy amounts, there is no real reason other than I just wanted some variety for testing purposes. In the real build, or perhaps next demo, I'll probably scale enemy count to the amount of days that have passed at least to some degree.

- Yeah elevation was something I really struggled with representing and I feel it's something a lot of 3D tactical games with an emphasis on melee combat don't even bother with. A game like Battle Brothers potentially has any easier time dealing with it since animations are abstracted so you can make the height differences higher. When working in a 3D space, I had to consider animations and I didn't want to use inverse kinematics (too performance heavy) to line up the animations if I made the height differences too high. With low settings texture resolution is reduce by 50% so I think any definition is probably lost by then. I still wasn't happy with elevation so I will be improving on this, I might use actual 3D models instead of the Unity terrain system. Will be working on the status messages. Trees and models have a "collider" so they block mouse cursor movements when zoomed in too far. I know a workaround to the models, as for the trees I might just implement a hide tree option.

- Completely agree on the objectives, the goal of the demo was really to just get some quick feedback on combat as I found that to be the trend with the last demo too. It seems you encountered into some AI quirks, I'll be doing another pass, well several passes at AI, I was considering making the ranged units a bit more aggressive at closer range, but swapping weapons would have been viable too, so another +1 to that.

- Great points here, I didn't really think about the cost vs stat ratio so thanks for bringing this up. Will take another look at this, perhaps reduce the variation. Recovering items so long as you win the battle, as again a great point. Sometimes you just jump too far down the development hole to consider things like this.

All in all, this was great feedback. I honestly have to rely on feedback as it's just me. I hope to steadily improve with each demo build, so thanks again!

EDIT: Forgot to ask an important question. How was performance on low, could medium not cope on your rig? I should have put the FPS counter back in.
 
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