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Game News Vigilantes Released

Tacgnol

Shitlord
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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Grab the Codex by the pussy RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
Played for a couple of hours tonight, seems like a good game.

Good combat, good char development mechanics and the general gameplay seems decent.

Colour me impressed.
 

Ainamacar

Educated
Joined
May 6, 2018
Messages
33
I backed this and bought a gift copy for a friend today. Hope the release goes well for the team!

Here are some initial thoughts, after about 12 hours.

The writing is solid, and the noir influence unpretentious. The character introductions hammer it a little too hard, though. The minimal voicework is easily good enough. The character and other 2D art is quite nice, in my opinion. The combat maps aren't hugely detailed, but there are little flourishes here and there and the assets aren't bad. In combat itself the graphics communicate what is happening well enough, which is all we can ask from such a tiny team. Little touches like, when selecting targets, the shooter aiming at the last targetable object you moused over would be sorely missed if they weren't there. I had some minor framerate drops when scrolling, but overall this will stress no graphics card. I've had no crashes or showstopping bugs.

I like the bones of the character system. All the core stats do something mechanically distinct and useful, although "Utility" as a core stat is conceptually forced. (Better than muscle wizards, though!) The skills are a good mix of tactical and strategic, and some do a bit of both. There are enough interesting perks with acceptably stringent prereqs to make planning beneficial. What you do with your main character should affect how you develop your companions. The game says upfront to develop the melee and/or firearm skills, but the degree is still in the player's hands. If I play another campaign, I might try to see how few points I can put into direct combat skills, and rely on perks or party abilities to make up the difference.

I do have a gripe about how skills are utilized. For some, e.g. Bypass, only the highest score present on a mission matters. That could generate interesting choices when planning party skills and composition of individual missions, but I think it's mostly a let down because having two characters strong in one skill already exacts an opportunity cost. I can think of some interesting fixes beyond just introducing a composite score, but that's a different post.

The city strategy layer is conceptually straightforward, but (so far on normal) seems undemanding. I haven't felt like I really needed to focus surveillance or missions in one place or another. I'm actually hoping I'm missing some key mechanic that will cause me issues later.

The hideout strategy layer, where you upgrade the facilities it contains, is more interesting. I can see the substantial benefits I'm missing due to my previous choices. For example, I focused on building up the library (to learn skills faster) and the firing range (for significant boosts to firearm aim and damage plus free ammo). However, my crafting and melee upgrades are lagging behind, the former of which is starting to be very noticeable due to lack of body armor. There's also a trinket granting one free reload, the lack of which caused me to reload the game rather than the SMG a few missions ago.

In fact, I like the straightforward crafting and item upgrading, especially since managing components isn't fussy. It helps that I'm getting enough loot to make or buy some new stuff, while always feeling resource starved. Since the enemy factions are supposed to overwhelm the player if they dawdle, I actually harbor some hope for this video game economy. We'll see.

Thus far, the "normal" missions are a pleasing mix of pure combat, combat with associated vignette, and the occasional non-combat story with a very light skill component. I've also had one neat "random mission" found while surveilling territory. On the downside, the vignette missions clearly repeat. I did one three times in a row, probably because I kept choosing the same tile. Dude I saved was really bad about leaving town, it turns out.

The ultimate goal of the game is to take out the three faction bosses, which involves finding and interrogating their lieutenants. The couple lieutenants I've fought really brought the pain, and had good rewards. Party composition mattered. Speaking of which, allies have an attitude toward you that depends on your approach to combat, most notably on whether you kill or incapacitate enemies during the mission, or even the circumstances under which this occurs. Plan accordingly. Another consideration in party composition is the distinct distribution of melee vs. ranged weapon users among the three enemy factions. Presumably this is so fights against each faction feel different and to force the player to mix things up. To a certain extent this succeeds. However, so far I think the game plays it a little too safe and would benefit by adding a wildcard or two every encounter. Maybe I'll change my mind later.

Speaking of thoughts which aren't settled, here are some on the meat of the game: combat. It uses action points, which on the Codex is something you already know if you like or not. To give a sense of the numbers, I've seen attacks from 3-8 AP, but so far 4 or 5 is most typical. Most weapons have multiple attack modes, often with different AP costs. Currently my characters gain 5-6 AP per turn, and have a max up to 7 (banking AP from a previous turn). These numbers go up slowly if you invest in the appropriate core stats, and many perks interact with the action economy. However, beginning characters can move, attack, reload, and not much else. That often meant I didn't feel there was any meaningful decision to take. Investing in at least one small new way to spend AP for each character makes a big positive difference in game feel.

Another vital mechanic is cover, and unless I've missed something Vigilante's implementation is very odd. If you (or an enemy) are in a tile with cover, apparently the cover applies in every direction, even those with unobstructed line of sight to you. I have to believe this is either a bug or implementation issue (LOS is famously tricky to do well), rather than a design choice. The combat remains tactical, but its just so unintuitive.

One of Vigilante's nice quality of life features is setting a minimum to-hit chance when making overwatch shots. It astounds me this isn't ubiquitous in turn-based tactical games.

Combat encounters have three basic difficulties, based on faction strength in that location. The first and second tier fights have, overall, been pretty rote. Once you have a strategy that works, you can execute it unless the enemy gets in a surprise. It's the ability to respond to the suprises and tight spots that make the game, so here are a few I've seen: Incendiary grenade to the back line. Gunfighters that need to choose which guy with a bat they'd rather be hit by. Enemies that will heal themselves just before the next troop could have finish them off. Enemy leaders seemingly vulnerable to a risky multi-character maneuver, since upon being killed they debuff all other enemies in the combat. Whether to risk killing an enemy with purposely lethal force, which does more damage, even though this tends to negatively affect the strategy layer. (Movie lethality is in effect when crossing 0 hit points: if you chose lethal damage you reliably kill, if you chose non-lethal damage you reliably incapacitate.) Turning the difficulty up may be enough to create some of these more often, but for others I think tweaks to enemy composition and behavior are needed.

A quick observation about AI. Melee units mostly run at the party until they die, and seem to use cover less than they should. When melee enemies can't quite get close enough to attack they usually leave some space, so the player must choose between whether it would rather first strike or save AP. This strategy works less well, of course, against enemies with firearms. Ranged enemies usually run to cover, but like melee units they don't seem to move between cover very smartly. Given how cover works, flanking is much less effective than normal games of this type, so if the AI knows how to flank it doesn't have much incentive to do so.

The area where the game is least polished is probably the interface, which is full of little frustrations, though nothing that would make me rage quit. For example, the main character defaults to fists at the start of combat, no matter what weapons are equipped. To take another, the game is inconsistent about whether hovering over an item pops up its stats. More seriously, one needs to assign missions from both the cityscape screen and the team screen, and I ended up flipping back and forth a lot trying to decide who would do what. This is made worse by the cityscape screen being the only screen at the "hideout" where the menubar is along the vertical left edge instead of the top like every single other hideout screen. Finally, the "completed operations" window is completely broken for me. Moreover, it seems it isn't even intended to record the the actual result of operations, i.e. what intel was discovered or loot was procured. These are briefly flashed on screen when a mission ends, and are really easy to miss.

The combat interface has its frustrations too. The map scrolls at only one speed, so to make it go faster I've been using keyboard and screen edge scrolling at the same time, which is apparently additive. The aimed shot mechanic is not discoverable on the UI, so if you missed it in the tutorial good luck ever noticing its existence. The special aiming mode used for shotguns and grenades is not turned off after using one, and the most natural way to turn it on in the first place does not turn it off again.

Vigilantes is clearly a labor of love, and not all the rough edges have been filed off, but so far it's been fun. Some things it does very well, and none of the things it does poorly are offensively poor. Its systems have good bones, so I hope when all is said and done Timeslip sell enough to develop them further.
 

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
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Developer
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Messages
909
Hey Ainamacar. Thanks for the support and the analysis!

I backed this and bought a gift copy for a friend today. Hope the release goes well for the team!
Thus far, the "normal" missions are a pleasing mix of pure combat, combat with associated vignette, and the occasional non-combat story with a very light skill component. I've also had one neat "random mission" found while surveilling territory. On the downside, the vignette missions clearly repeat. I did one three times in a row, probably because I kept choosing the same tile. Dude I saved was really bad about leaving town, it turns out.

Ha! This one's a bug. Will be patched out soon.

Another vital mechanic is cover, and unless I've missed something Vigilante's implementation is very odd. If you (or an enemy) are in a tile with cover, apparently the cover applies in every direction, even those with unobstructed line of sight to you. I have to believe this is either a bug or implementation issue (LOS is famously tricky to do well), rather than a design choice. The combat remains tactical, but its just so unintuitive.
Cover gives a bonus in all directions equivalent to crouching, and significantly more protection in the direction the cover is in. This was partly to make cover more valuable, partly to remove the need to click to take cover every round and partly to work around animation complications.

The area where the game is least polished is probably the interface, which is full of little frustrations, though nothing that would make me rage quit. For example, the main character defaults to fists at the start of combat, no matter what weapons are equipped. To take another, the game is inconsistent about whether hovering over an item pops up its stats. More seriously, one needs to assign missions from both the cityscape screen and the team screen, and I ended up flipping back and forth a lot trying to decide who would do what. This is made worse by the cityscape screen being the only screen at the "hideout" where the menubar is along the vertical left edge instead of the top like every single other hideout screen. Finally, the "completed operations" window is completely broken for me. Moreover, it seems it isn't even intended to record the the actual result of operations, i.e. what intel was discovered or loot was procured. These are briefly flashed on screen when a mission ends, and are really easy to miss.

I'll look at the default weapon option. Quite a few people asking for it. I'll also colour code allies based on whether they are on active team or not, the flipping back and forward bugs me too.

Can I ask what you mean about this one? To take another, the game is inconsistent about whether hovering over an item pops up its stats?
 

Drowed

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2011
Messages
1,679
Location
Core City
I approached them and they declined. You can get a DRM free version from the website, though.

this-is-madness.gif
:betrayed:


It's a pity. You would think that Vigilantes is a game that would fit well with GOG's audience. I think it's valid that they have no interest in publishing anything and everything over there so it doesn't become a trash can as Steam currently feels like, but apparently they're barring even good quality games.
 

MurkyShadow

Glittering gem of hatred
Patron
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ye olde europe
Codex 2012 Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong BattleTech Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. I helped put crap in Monomyth
This is madness!
so, is the madness over, or are we looking at October madness?

Yeah, it's a grim time to launch as a tiny indie. Was really afraid 4 years of work was just going to get buried. Working out okay though :)

dqaL0uV.png

Really glad to hear that! I can only try to imagine the anxiety. Hope you'll keep doing okay.
I'll be sure to spread the word to some folks I know it'll be up their alley. I can also finally
put that unused dead reddit account of mine to some good use.
An upvote shall be delivered.:salute:

edit:
Ah, screw it with only putting in a puny upvote! Putting my money where the incline is.:obviously:
Screenshot - 2018_10_05 09_00_57.png
 
Last edited:

Ainamacar

Educated
Joined
May 6, 2018
Messages
33
Hey Ainamacar. Thanks for the support and the analysis!

Glad to be of service, there is a lot in Vigilantes to like. I also think you're showing a very good attitude toward constructive feedback.

Cover gives a bonus in all directions equivalent to crouching, and significantly more protection in the direction the cover is in. This was partly to make cover more valuable, partly to remove the need to click to take cover every round and partly to work around animation complications.

OK, that is a very helpful clarification. I wish the game's feedback could make this a bit more explicit, although I obviously appreciate that the animation budget is limited.

Here's a thought. Currently when an enemy misses a floating "Miss" shows over their head. Something like that could be used to deliver information to the player. For example, the top left of a hit or miss float could show the percent to hit in a small font, and directly below that an icon showing what degree of defense (full cover, partial cover, crouching) modified the attack. So suppose a character is in partial cover. The float for an enemy attacking through that cover might briefly show the partial cover icon. While the float for a different enemy with an unobstructed line of sight might just show the crouching icon instead, since the character isn't getting that extra benefit. Boom, now the player knows how cover works.

Gameplay feedback like this is really helpful in figuring out what the game is doing. As dev you know what's under the hood, but a new player doesn't. And even seasoned players get satisfaction when the game acknowledges that a choice (like being in cover) is having the desired mechanical effect.

I'll look at the default weapon option. Quite a few people asking for it. I'll also colour code allies based on whether they are on active team or not, the flipping back and forward bugs me too.

Great! Given the goal of minimizing the code changes needed, I think my preference is to make whatever is in the first slot equipped by default, with a tiny checkbox below the items for those who want to default to fists.

Can I ask what you mean about this one? To take another, the game is inconsistent about whether hovering over an item pops up its stats?

Sure. For example, on the inventory menu if I hover over an item it displays a nice summary. On the crafting menu hovering over the item in the right panel doesn't show anything, not even its name. OK, so I click on it and this gives information about the item in the left panel, including what materials are needed and a summary of its function. But it still doesn't show all the item's stats. OK, so I try hovering over the icon in the left panel, and still nothing happens. In other words, I can't know what Personal Armour MK I actually does until I make a set. Similarly, if I'm missing a crafting component the left panel shows the icon, but if I hover over the icon it doesn't actually tell me its name. Again, these pop-ups exist on the inventory screen.

In combat, hovering over the currently equipped weapon doesn't display its stats either. One can go to the inventory screen, but that puts important information at a remove. To avoid covering up the panel this popup should probably be above it, in the same region where alternate weapon modes are displayed when you click on the red weapon mode bar.

There may be other examples, but those are the two that pop into mind.

I also see that the pop-ups on the combat menu don't display the keybinding when hovering over a button. For example, instead of "Reload for 2 AP" it might be better to show "(R) Reload for 2 AP" or similar. It makes learning the shortcuts a lot more natural.
 

Risewild

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 23, 2018
Messages
494
Location
Australia
I just started a new game and played for a bit.

I don't know if this is a bug or if it just happens to me. But... Using the mouse wheel to scroll up/down items in inventories (shop, home, etc.), only seems to work if I precisely position the mouse cursor in between the items "window frames":
11XDpCV.jpg

I can scroll up and down properly if I place the cursor in any of that brightly green highlighted area, but anywhere else the scroll wheel will not work.

I noticed this problem last year when I bought the game, but I assumed (since it was so obvious) that someone would have already reported it. But now at game release it still seems to happen, so I decided to post here just in case.
 

Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,952
Also purchased. Gotta support this man and his passion so he can keep giving us quality games!

Look forward to finding some time to play this in the near future, Timeslip. Congrats again on the release!
 

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
Patron
Developer
Joined
Aug 27, 2016
Messages
909
this-is-madness.gif
:betrayed:


It's a pity. You would think that Vigilantes is a game that would fit well with GOG's audience. I think it's valid that they have no interest in publishing anything and everything over there so it doesn't become a trash can as Steam currently feels like, but apparently they're barring even good quality games.

Yeah, I thought it would be in the right area for them, but was also aware they are pretty picky. I get they have a different approach to curation, and that's okay, but glad steam will at least give you a chance. I'd say they looked at the number of reviews on the Steam page and decided it wasn't a big enough number.
 

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
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Developer
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Messages
909

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
Patron
Developer
Joined
Aug 27, 2016
Messages
909
Really glad to hear that! I can only try to imagine the anxiety. Hope you'll keep doing okay.
I'll be sure to spread the word to some folks I know it'll be up their alley. I can also finally
put that unused dead reddit account of mine to some good use.
An upvote shall be delivered.:salute:

Ah, screw it with only putting in a puny upvote! Putting my money where the incline is.:obviously:

Thank you for the support! Yeah, it would be nice to get another few days on the trending page - it will allow me to spend a bit more time working on Vigilantes and give more leeway in terms of what I can work on next. In the grim last few days coming up to the release, I put the chance of being able to make another game at about 50%.
 

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
Patron
Developer
Joined
Aug 27, 2016
Messages
909
Glad to be of service, there is a lot in Vigilantes to like. I also think you're showing a very good attitude toward constructive feedback.

OK, that is a very helpful clarification. I wish the game's feedback could make this a bit more explicit, although I obviously appreciate that the animation budget is limited.

Here's a thought. Currently when an enemy misses a floating "Miss" shows over their head. Something like that could be used to deliver information to the player. For example, the top left of a hit or miss float could show the percent to hit in a small font, and directly below that an icon showing what degree of defense (full cover, partial cover, crouching) modified the attack. So suppose a character is in partial cover. The float for an enemy attacking through that cover might briefly show the partial cover icon. While the float for a different enemy with an unobstructed line of sight might just show the crouching icon instead, since the character isn't getting that extra benefit. Boom, now the player knows how cover works.

Gameplay feedback like this is really helpful in figuring out what the game is doing. As dev you know what's under the hood, but a new player doesn't. And even seasoned players get satisfaction when the game acknowledges that a choice (like being in cover) is having the desired mechanical effect.

Great! Given the goal of minimizing the code changes needed, I think my preference is to make whatever is in the first slot equipped by default, with a tiny checkbox below the items for those who want to default to fists.

Sure. For example, on the inventory menu if I hover over an item it displays a nice summary. On the crafting menu hovering over the item in the right panel doesn't show anything, not even its name. OK, so I click on it and this gives information about the item in the left panel, including what materials are needed and a summary of its function. But it still doesn't show all the item's stats. OK, so I try hovering over the icon in the left panel, and still nothing happens. In other words, I can't know what Personal Armour MK I actually does until I make a set. Similarly, if I'm missing a crafting component the left panel shows the icon, but if I hover over the icon it doesn't actually tell me its name. Again, these pop-ups exist on the inventory screen.

In combat, hovering over the currently equipped weapon doesn't display its stats either. One can go to the inventory screen, but that puts important information at a remove. To avoid covering up the panel this popup should probably be above it, in the same region where alternate weapon modes are displayed when you click on the red weapon mode bar.

There may be other examples, but those are the two that pop into mind.

I also see that the pop-ups on the combat menu don't display the keybinding when hovering over a button. For example, instead of "Reload for 2 AP" it might be better to show "(R) Reload for 2 AP" or similar. It makes learning the shortcuts a lot more natural.

Yeah, I think explanation of systems is one of the weaker aspects. I added a help section in the last update, and will extend this in the future. I'll see what I can do on your suggestions - I have to be honest in that I can't devote a huge amount of more full time work to Vigilantes, but I was planning on devoting a set amount of time per week to working on it. Intention has always been to update the game after release, and put out a number of smaller, primarily content focused updates to freshen up the game for players who are looking to play a second time. Content typically brings the most benefit in relation to time spent, but I'll work on improving some of the more clunky aspects of the interface too.
 

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
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Developer
Joined
Aug 27, 2016
Messages
909
I just started a new game and played for a bit.

I don't know if this is a bug or if it just happens to me. But... Using the mouse wheel to scroll up/down items in inventories (shop, home, etc.), only seems to work if I precisely position the mouse cursor in between the items "window frames":
11XDpCV.jpg

I can scroll up and down properly if I place the cursor in any of that brightly green highlighted area, but anywhere else the scroll wheel will not work.

I noticed this problem last year when I bought the game, but I assumed (since it was so obvious) that someone would have already reported it. But now at game release it still seems to happen, so I decided to post here just in case.

Hi Risewild. I'm afraid this is a general problem. I've spent quite a while looking for solutions for this, but can't find any way to pass the input data when the mouse is on top of an item. I get that it's not ideal.
 

Risewild

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 23, 2018
Messages
494
Location
Australia
I just started a new game and played for a bit.

I don't know if this is a bug or if it just happens to me. But... Using the mouse wheel to scroll up/down items in inventories (shop, home, etc.), only seems to work if I precisely position the mouse cursor in between the items "window frames":
11XDpCV.jpg

I can scroll up and down properly if I place the cursor in any of that brightly green highlighted area, but anywhere else the scroll wheel will not work.

I noticed this problem last year when I bought the game, but I assumed (since it was so obvious) that someone would have already reported it. But now at game release it still seems to happen, so I decided to post here just in case.

Hi Risewild. I'm afraid this is a general problem. I've spent quite a while looking for solutions for this, but can't find any way to pass the input data when the mouse is on top of an item. I get that it's not ideal.
No problem. I usually don't have large inventories, so this usually only happens on the shop.

I tried to play a couple hours and already played 3x more than I was supposed to... I am really enjoying the full version, nice and addictive game.
:kingcomrade:
 

MurkyShadow

Glittering gem of hatred
Patron
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Messages
353
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ye olde europe
Codex 2012 Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong BattleTech Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. I helped put crap in Monomyth
Does the Codex not have an assassin emissary over there in glorious potatoland?

There might be the need for some Persuasion.

Thank you for the support! Yeah, it would be nice to get another few days on the trending page - it will allow me to spend a bit more time working on Vigilantes and give more leeway in terms of what I can work on next. In the grim last few days coming up to the release, I put the chance of being able to make another game at about 50%.

It sounds like you have some much needed breathing room now. Be sure to take some time to re-charge in-between,
you've earned it and owe it to yourself. I'm looking forward to seeing the estimated chance for another game rising to
a solid number above 50%. :)
 

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
Patron
Developer
Joined
Aug 27, 2016
Messages
909
Does the Codex not have an assassin emissary over there in glorious potatoland?

There might be the need for some Persuasion.



It sounds like you have some much needed breathing room now. Be sure to take some time to re-charge in-between,
you've earned it and owe it to yourself. I'm looking forward to seeing the estimated chance for another game rising to
a solid number above 50%. :)

Yeah, it is settling down now. Will hopefully get some down time over the weekend. Hard to shift gears from the constant flurry of activity around release, but will do my best! I'd say chance of another turn based game is looking a lot better already :)
 

Eyestabber

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 15, 2015
Messages
4,733
Location
HUEland
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
What is happening to gog, for not accepting goodgames?
It's almost like a system based around a small group of people deciding what's worthy and what isn't will inevitably lead to decisions being made by the very personal and arbitrary criteria set by the aforementioned small group of people. Crazy, I know.
 

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