KickStarter Stellar Tactics, a sandbox sci-fi RPG - now available on Early Access

[ERYFKRAD]

Bummer, looks like this'll take another 3 years.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

A combat round took a month in that video.

 

[Reapa]

Ugh, great. Aside from roguelikes, procedural generation just means that you're creating a boatload of nothing.

even roguelikes need biomes. you know, special places, unique content every once in a while. otherwise you start seeing patterns too soon shortening the replay value which is essential to roguelikes.

Kickstarter cancelled.

you don't change fucking core mechanics like combat type while fund raising. you just don't. rtwp is not the same as tb. it's not even close. they pissed on everyones' expectations, in most cases probably the very reason people were willing to fund their shit.

 

[StellarTactics]

Hi folks. I apologize for the delay posting. I'm still working on Stellar Tactics. We knew from historical data that if we didn't generate enough interest in the first week, the Kickstarter would fail. I fully take responsibility for that. My marketing strategy did not pan out. I made a decision to continue working on the game instead of flogging a dead horse for another three weeks. Some times it's just best to put a bad strategy down instead of let it limp along in pain. Lots of wonderful folks backed us and I'm truly grateful.

I won't give up on ST the development will continue. I posted my first Dev-Log today on the ST website, am working on the Steam store page and polishing and refining features and content for the early access version of the game. I'll keep everyone posted on progress.

 

[Mustawd]

Hope you make it. Please consider making it turn based. K' thanks.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Hope you make it. Please consider making it turn based. K' thanks.

Ground combat is, ship combat isn't.

 

[LESS T_T]

Steam page is live here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/465490/

 

[LESS T_T]

http://www.stellartactics.com/developers-log-2-character-creation/

DEVELOPERS LOG #2 – Character Creation

Some have asked about character creation. So, a few answers and a video for everyone:

[Q] Can I create my own character?
[A] Yes (see the video below). At the start of the game you will create a team of four combat specialists, genetically modified remnants of past wars hidden in a chamber on the Dauntless, one of four ships heading into the deep of space seeking a new home for the human race.

You can customize your characters appearance and that avatar will not only have a custom visual portrait, it’s appearance is actually reflected in the characters 3D model in the game. There are around 1700 visual combinations based on gender, face, hair, hair color and complexion. Beyond that you can assign unique voices to each of your team members.



[Q] Can I customize my characters.
[A] Yes, Stellar Tactics is a full-featured party based RPG with classless character progression. Every member of your team can be customized in countless ways. Skills improve through use, so, equip a weapon of a certain type and use it and you will gain skill in that weapon. Use First Aid and you will improve in that skill. At various “Tiers” of skill, you will unlock perks that allow you to further customize your character. As each character levels up, they are giving bonus stat points that can be allocated to Strength, Agility and other base statistics.

In addition to the base stat’s and skill customizations, you will be able to customize each your character’s further through your equipment. There are literally millions of possible equipment permutations. Equipment comes in five Tiers of quality, each providing stat bonuses, adjustments to accuracy, critical modifiers and more. In addition, there are “Mod’s” of many kinds that allow you to upgrade your weapons through slotting mod’s to change their fire-mode packages, expand their clip size, provide stat bonuses and more. Mod’s affect both ranged weapons and melee weapons.



[Q] Is Stellar Tactics a RPG Lite game
[A] No, Stellar Tactics is a Classic Full-Featured RPG. It’s similar in many ways to games that I enjoy like Baldurs Gate, Fallout 1 and 2 and games I have worked on like Wizardry and Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. It breaks the mold of traditional fantasy RPG’s and moves the setting to space, gives you a ship and a team of space faring mercenaries and set’s you loose in a sandbox universe where you make your own choices and live or die by your own decisions.




What I’ve been working on:

-The Prologue is now content complete!
-Polishing and tweaking game assets
-Testing and tweaking the prologue story and missions
-Refining dialog
-More asteroid mining
-Ship inventory management and hud
-Fixing minor bugs
-Adding flavor text and log entries

 

[Desktop Commander]

StellarTactics Now that GOG has jumped on the Early Access bandwagon: Are you planning to bring your game to GOG as well?

 

[LESS T_T]

http://www.stellartactics.com/developers-log-3-dungeons-oh-my/

DEVELOPERS LOG #3- Dungeons (Oh my!)

I’m using the word loosely, but I think it best defines the numerous mission locations found throughout the Stellar Tactics universe. As you travel through the universe, you will be presented with numerous opportunities to engage in ground exploration missions. You will usually be offered missions on Trade Stations in their bar’s and cantina’s where lively and quirky residents of the Stellar Tactics universe converge for rest and relaxation.



There are two mission engines in Stellar Tactics. The first generates missions dynamically based on your faction, recent events in the vicinity and a number of other factors. People everywhere need your help and you will be sent to planetary cave systems, abandoned research facilities, hidden bases, ancient ruins, derelict ships and more on a variety of missions that are generally dangerous. Some missions are fairly straight forward, others are actually dynamically generated mission chains that will have you traveling across the universe completing a number of tasks. In general, you will be entering dangerous dungeons, some large, some small. The large dungeon locations can take several hours to clear. Smaller dungeons may take from 15-40 minutes to complete. There is usually a boss at the end of these locations that will drop higher tier equipment.

The second mission engine is used for the main story narrative and is fully scripted. The dungeon locations for static missions are all hand crafted and tuned for difficulty and itemization. These locations drive the main narrative.



One dungeon type in particular is related to Ascension and the “Azimuth” system. Azimuth are skills granted by the ancient Aznari, a race of intelligent aliens that have abandoned this area of space. As you explore, you will encounter many of these ruins. Some of them have locked chambers that will grant you unique skills. Examples are AE heals, AE damage, AE buff’s and other temporary team based benefits that are useful in combat. These skills are very powerful.

Azimuth are used by collecting a charge during combat. Once fully charged, you can select a skill and unleash that skill on your friends or foes. Once you are granted Azimuth, you can use them at any time in combat, assuming you have a full Azimuth guage. Azimuth charges persist and can be saved for when they are needed.

ascension screenshot

Dungeons are filled with loot, from valuable baubles to powerful named weapons. They are a large part of Stellar Tactics and important for character progression. Of course, you could just focus on trading, mining and space combat, but then you would be missing out on all the fun of party based tactical combat.

Check out the Stellar Tactics Steam homepage for more news, discussions and info –Stellar Tactics on Steam

 

[StellarTactics]

StellarTactics Now that GOG has jumped on the Early Access bandwagon: Are you planning to bring your game to GOG as well?

I'm looking into this. I need to approach GOG anyway.

 

[sstacks]

Hi all FYI StellarTactics reached out to me with a steam code for an alpha version of the game that I will be playing through for Let's Play / impressions.

We're also working to get an interview with Don on the show in the near future.

 

[Bubbles]

Hi all FYI StellarTactics reached out to me with a steam code for an alpha version of the game that I will be playing through for Let's Play / impressions.

We're also working to get an interview with Don on the show in the near future.

Good move on Don's part. I assume he sent a code to the Codex as well, so hopefully our staff will also do a preview.

 

[StellarTactics]

Thanks for posting Shane. I did just send a key to the Codex. Hopefully they will have a chance to take a look.

 

[Aothan]

looking forward to preliminary feedback

 

[Roqua]

How long is EA supposed to be?

 

[ArchAngel]

How long is EA supposed to be?

Between game is finished and forever based on how much money they get from it.

 

[StellarTactics]

I posted a development road-map to the Steam discussion forums a while ago. The game is playable now and EA will be released "very soon". Most of the core systems are fully developed and and the Prologue is a contiguous play through of the game all the way through Achmedius, the starting system. A total of about 8 hours of game play with another 30 or so hours to come for the main story line. Beyond that, when Alpha launches, you will be able to explore the entire universe, trade, take missions and do what you like in the sandbox portion of the game. Early Access is primarily to tune game play and gather feedback on these core systems, making sure they are as stable and fun and can be. Early Access will continue until the game is 100% content complete.

I'm always happy to answer questions here or on the Steam forums.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/350532795334521117/

 

[agris]

StellarTactics The character stat screen reminds me a lot of Fallout 1/2, where those and GURPS a large inspiration for your team?

 

[jungl]

looks cool. Really like the setting I don't know why there are not more space rpgs. Only ones I seen were Russian and other Indie developer simulation space games with some lite rpg elements. Seems to be this the only rpg coming out this summer worth checking out or anyone know of any other games?

 

[StellarTactics]

Agris, yes Fallout 1/2 are major inspirations for the game as well as some older SSI GoldBox games (Buck Rodgers: Countdown to Doomsday). Other inspirations are Star Control, Sentinel Worlds (less the ending). There are others, but those name a few.

Thanks jungl - The summer if full of space game releases, but no RPG's that I'm aware of on this type.

 

[agris]

Agris, yes Fallout 1/2 are major inspirations for the game as well as some older SSI GoldBox games (Buck Rodgers: Countdown to Doomsday). Other inspirations are Star Control, Sentinel Worlds (less the ending). There are others, but those name a few.

Thanks jungl - The summer if full of space game releases, but no RPG's that I'm aware of on this type.

Word, clean up that UI and you've got yourself a game.

 

[HoboForEternity]

is the 31st august release EA or full release?

 

[Bubbles]

For questions about the game's scope and the size of the team, it may be helpful to consult this paragraph from the Kickstarter page:

Up to this point I've funded the development of Stellar Tactics myself and developed the game with the help of a few artists, my wife and daughter. By pre-selling the game and offering different reward tiers, I can work on the game full time. I'd like to hire additional development talent so I can focus on completing features, fixing bugs and adding content to the game.

 

[agris]

Sounds like it'll be a 5 - 10 hour endeavor.