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KickStarter Warmachine: Tactics

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Excidium

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Did they ever do a PnP RPG type game set in the Warmachine/Iron Kingdoms universe?
I think the d20 Iron Kingdoms RPG is the original work

There was a standalone game in development sometime ago, with the rules inspired by warmachine mechanics or some shit (I know the movement was calculated in inches which I found beyond retarded), probably already released
 
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Ulminati

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It's only multiplayer at the moment (there's a single SP mission). UI is clunky as fuck and ugly as sin to a degree where it's almost painful to use. Had to drop most settings to medium and I still got half the FPS of Elite: Dangerous on max settings. The AI in the one SP mission is pretty uninspiring. The army builder for multiplayer is very, very barebones and needs better info for your units.

There's some 'k strategy underneath all the dumbfuckery, but the game needs polish and optimization before it's worth playing. It perplexes me that they kept stuff like manually setting unit facing for every single soldier but dumped the ability to damage various subsystems on the warjacks.
 
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Ulminati

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An update to the beta ticked in a couple of days ago. It seems like we got an extra multiplayer map. Also each of the 4 factions got a new warcaster, warjack and 1-2 regular units to add to their rosters. I still haven't played multiplayer because fuck playing with strangers. Grabbed a few screenies from the one single-player mission that's currently up for testing below.

New main menu. Game loads faster than previous beta, but still kind of slow. I'm digging the new main menu theme music.
28F1BB2A218B79307674304846E9718CD06101B2


Ingame graphics for the deployment phase. UI has gotten another overhaul. It's still kind of ugly, but it's moving in the right direction.
8FD5DD8528B040C4DC390DC223490DC987B082B6


Your commander generates focus points which you can assign to your robots at the start of every round. focus is used to activate special abilities, cast spells etc. One of my warjacks got knocked down by an enemy special attack and I had to allocate a focus point to make it stand up.
5B5D87CC3D6A231F8E000F93505345F9DDAB7066


Unit details are a mixed bag. I like that you get a unit card of your selected unit, but I don't like the star rating for its base stats. What's wrong with numbers?
Lots of good feedback. Blue area is how far I can do a "regular move". Red area is how far i can "run", but if I run I don't get to attack. The yellow area is my commanders command range. Units that start their turn outside of it can't get focus allocated. At any given spot, the game also tells you what you have a line of effect to attack. Good stuff.
2327C9520E0027AA78B5A7F059FB35555518E566


Combat log is moving in the right direction. Presentation could use a little work, but it gives you all the die rolls and modifiers. Thumbs up.
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Regular dudes get special actions as well. I like the combined attack option. Instead of rolling a lot of shitty attacks that probably miss, I get to roll a single super-attack. Every additional guy I add to the combined attack gives a small additional bonus to hit and damage.
0AAFBA216E8BCA8FDB5010042AD57E63D13A49D6



The squad constructor. I'm gonna go with Menoth, the religious freaks who love burning things with fire. WCDS seemed an appropriate name.

Patch added some new units (including a new warcaster for each faction). Every faction has roughly the same # of units, so this is 25% of the stuffies in the game atm. The other 3 factions are Cygnar (Blue dudes, like lightning), Soviets Khador who love the color red and make super-tanky shit and Cryx who have zombie-robots.
9376DAF65AB753CCFB1E70A767AA195B28DFF5DA


Warjacks come in various shapes and sizes. You have a pool of build points that are reserved exclusively for warjacks. Once it's empty, you can continue purchasing warjacks from your regular point pool as well. repenter and vanquisher come with hugeass flamethrowers. :incline:
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Since warjacks need focus points to function at their best, you can only bring so many along befor eyour warcasters focus generation becomes a bottleneck. so each faction has a bunch of cheaper soldiers that are less powerful but also don't use focus points to activate their sweet abilities.
E86C1DB710900A9E9DCFC7C10318E906C57CD03C



If the AI is good, the UI gets tidied up a little more and they fix the framerate issues, this is looking promising.
:thumbsup:
 
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How is the variation between groups? Good enough to have to support different types of playstyles?

I had a chance to play 2 games vs a BRO. Menoth vs Cygnar and Cryx vs Khador. The units appear to be true to their miniature counterparts and each side plays a little differently. I only played a demo game of Warmachine so I may be wrong on how 1:1 the units are. (IIRC, non-warjack/non-warcaster units only have 1 hp in the miniatures game).

The game could do with some tooltips explaining the various advantages, spells, abilities and the like. But I have faith that'll come. We also had some worrysome pauses in multiplayer where it looked like one of us had lagged out. But that may just be my BROs connection being shite.
 

Major_Blackhart

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I wish I had gotten into the tabletop. Never even looked at the rules, etc.
How are the rules translated into the game? Is it clunky?
 
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Ulminati

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The game seems to follow the tabletop rules in most regards. I only ever played a demo game at a game store, so I may be wrong on this. (I'm 99% certain they changed the health system, and I think they added some terrain advantages like high ground). At the end of the day, the game *feels* like I'm playing a miniatures game, which is very good. Only atrocious AI and net code (or no further polish on the UI) could ruin this for me at this point.
 
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The beta is multiplayer only at the moment. There is a single single-player mission (the one the above screenshots is from), but it is heavily scripted. With various units spawning or becoming active as you hit certain checkpoints, it does not give an accurate picture of the AI capabilities.

I believe they are planning to add more single player missions and possibly a skirmish AI in September. I'll keep you updated.
 

StaticSpine

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Bros, how's the game?

I do not know anything about the setting, just like the visual style and the fact it is turn-based. Will it have some story mode?
 
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The single-player campaign is out today. I don't know if that means they did the cutscenes as well or just the missions. The previous build had the first 3 missions and placeholder cutscenes. (Voice was in, but the characters weren't animated). I'll check it out tonight and report back.

Getting a little worried they will release the game without further UI polish. It's still pretty clunky and my main gripe with the game.
 

Disgruntled

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I bought the game recently and ive generally been satisfied given its incomplete status.
The unit and faction variety is pretty decent now. Core mechanics are solid and playable.
Models look great, this is the sort of standard Id expect for turn based games and its nice to see a developer who actually bothered in this department.

Getting a little worried they will release the game without further UI polish. It's still pretty clunky and my main gripe with the game.

Agree on the UI, its not quite there and overall playing feels a bit rough around the edges. Moving, attacking, effects and optimization are a bit off and it takes some of the satisfaction away. But I dont think it will be too difficult to fix since the foundation are well in place.
I will say, despite being minor, the above is hurting them for players quite a bit imo. The initial learning curve is steep for people like me who arent familiar with the source tabletop. You get flooded with options, attributes and special abilities that get confusing to manage on the battlefield.
I had to read up a lot on focus allocation, movement restrictions, order sequences, unit differences, individual stats etc. I could see people with no patience give up and not bother learning when the average match lasts around 40 minutes.

What else is there, I think there are a few minor nitpicks I have with the size of the battlefields and number of troops you get. Its difficult to employ any large scale tactics and you dont have enough soldiers to divide your forces. You pretty much make a formation and once the armies meet its a battle royale until a winner emerges.
You wont get many situations where you can afford to have a few troops dedicate some turns for a proper flanking maneuver or the like.
(I read that slightly bigger maps are a possibility as well as a small boost to points, so this could change soon)
Also critical hits are too common. You can see things insta-killed or end up surviving multiple normal attacks. The happy medium isnt quite on point atm.

Overall Id recommend the game. Fun to play once you start getting into the groove and understanding the large toolbox you're given.
 
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No animation in the opening cutscene of the campaign yet. Oh well. I guess getting the actual missions in peoples hands is more important for testing. Guess I'll hold off until final release before playing them.
 
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No major overhaul to the UI? Disappointed.

Well, I stand by my previous statements. This is a decent game that's being dragged down by an atrocious UI. It needed several iterations for usability and user feedback. As it is, you'll be spending more time fighting the controls than your enemies.
 

ERYFKRAD

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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Not a rushed release, I hope.

This looks interesting, I might throw some shekels at it, but is it finished finished or double-fine finished?
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
No major overhaul to the UI? Disappointed.

Well, I stand by my previous statements. This is a decent game that's being dragged down by an atrocious UI. It needed several iterations for usability and user feedback. As it is, you'll be spending more time fighting the controls than your enemies.

Well, feel free to write a full review about it. :P
 

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