Codex Interview Expeditions: Conquistador Interview

[JarlFrank]

Tags: Expeditions: Conquistador; Kickstarter; Logic Artists

The developers of Expeditions: Conquistador have asked us nicely to interview them, and we answered by throwing a bunch of questions at them.

4. The Kickstarter description for the game claims that every character has a set of combat abilities. How many of them are there going to be, both per character and in total? Are these abilities determined by class or uniquely tailored for each character? Do you unlock them via some kind of skill tree?

At present there are three abilities per character type plus one ability for the Sergeant rank and one ability for the Lieutenant rank (you may only have two Sergeants and one Lieutenant at a time). Since we have 5 Spanish character classes, that adds up to 17 abilities. Some of the Native classes share a few abilities with their Spanish counterparts, but most of them have different abilities, and if you allow a native character to join your expedition, you'll get to use those abilities as well. We really want to add character ability trees so you choose between 2 or 3 abilities when you promote a character, but it's a stretch goal - it depends on how much money we get from the Kickstarter. This is because all our abilities are active abilities, they're never passive, so they're somewhat time-consuming to implement.

They still have more than two weeks to reach their goal, so get out your wallet and help them reach that kickstarter goal!

Read the full article: Expeditions: Conquistador Interview

 

[Charles-cgr]

Two weeks from now I'll have my verdict, which will determine how much I can contribute to the KS indie scene. There will be underrail as well. I've been a bit too trigger-happy though, & if I bomb badly I'll be focusing on my backup plan, which is the most likely outcome.

The 100K stretch goal would be nice, with ability trees. It seems unlikely but really all it would take is last minute interest from some heavy hitting game sites. I don't remember RPS giving it the light of day, besides a quick mention on a "katchup".

 

[Crooked Bee]

Cool, but could use some screenshots. Will edit them in.

EDIT: Done.

 

[Tigranes]

I haven't pledged yet but I'm interested, so good to see the interview.

At present there are three abilities per character type plus one ability for the Sergeant rank and one ability for the Lieutenant rank (you may only have two Sergeants and one Lieutenant at a time). Since we have 5 Spanish character classes, that adds up to 17 abilities.

Doesn't seem like much, esp. since two examples given just after are (1) shoot twice and (2) ranged accuracy shot. Not exactly exciting character progression. Seems like the stretch goal for ability trees would be pretty significant for the fun factor. Was there a reason not to have any passive abilities, given the paucity of active abilities

The reason you can't fight is that anybody who participates in a fight can get incapacitated, anybody who is incapacitated can get an injury that carries over to the world map, and anybody who's injured in the world map can die if left untreated. We don't want that to happen to the player character.

This isn't a huge deal, but that doesn't seem like a good reason to make the PC more disembodied at all. If NPCs can get injured & die, then the game will have relatively accessible means to heal those injuries, so it shouldn't create any fuck I'm screwed situations. Is this identity of the PC fleshed out in different ways (e.g. a different background from the followers, etc)? F the role-playing factor it would be nice to have the option, but no big deal.

The terrain has no effect on movement.

:point:

descriptive text that presents you with a situation and demands a decision. This gives us a huge amount of freedom to throw varied and unique situations at the player

Awesomesauce.

Pretty much like everything I see, just a bit worried that there's not enough meat on some of the features to make all the cogs roll smoothly.

 

[Avonaeon]

This isn't a huge deal, but that doesn't seem like a good reason to make the PC more disembodied at all. If NPCs can get injured & die, then the game will have relatively accessible means to heal those injuries, so it shouldn't create any fuck I'm screwed situations.

The only way to heal your followers is with the PC and the doctors you bring along. And while you can bring 4 doctors if you want, they're pretty weak in combat and you're likely to get screwed if you bring them into battle. An injured doctor can't treat patients either, so you do have to be careful with them. Also your followers can also get injured through random events or quests, so if you're not catious you can easily end up with a bunch of injured people all at the same time and you might not have enough doctors, or medicine, to heal them all. There's definitely a lot of "fuck, I'm screwed" moments

Is this identity of the PC fleshed out in different ways (e.g. a different background from the followers, etc)? F the role-playing factor it would be nice to have the option, but no big deal.

I'm not sure what you mean. Like the player could chose a background, like Arcanum / Bloodlines / etc?

 

[Tigranes]

Fair enough on the mechanics, that makes sense to me.

I meant basically the gameplay mechanisms through which we get to flesh out the PC, and also have a sense of the PC being a real person intervening in the gameworld, rather than a disembodied player-projection that's just picking the CYOA options and selecting who goes to fight. If it doesn't happen on the battlefield, that's OK, as long as there's a sense of the PC character in the world in other ways.

 

[Grunker]

I agree with Tigranes that the character progression is the major reason why I'm not pledging right now. I'm a little concerned that there looks to be little tactical variety in combat.

Besides that I like everything I see.

BTW, where are you guys located in Copenhagen Avonaeon?

 

[Avonaeon]

In dialogue you generally speak as you would normally, as in, you chose specifically what you want to say. Sometimes you can chose actions through the dialogue. The progression comes mostly through your followers, as you promote them and start assigning them more equipment, but also through the dialogue and narrative there's a lot of progression, where your choices have far-reaching consequences. Some of the events can also increase your skills, but they are somewhat rare. I wouldn't call the player disembodied at all, as you have a specific role in the group. It just happens to be that of a tactician in battle.

We're gonna record a video of the worldmap gameplay over the weekend, so you should have it Monday, hopefully that can convince some of you

Grunker We're located in Christianshavn

 

[tuluse]

Two examples of such items are barricades and traps, which you typically get to place before the battle begins. Of course this is only allowed if it makes sense in the context of the event that triggered the battle - if you're attacked in an ambush while travelling, the AI gets to take its turn first, and you will not be able to put down traps or barricades. There will be other items that aren't restricted to the first turn, however.

I think this should ease a lot of people's minds about the items in combat.

The downside is that our game will only appeal to people who can read.

 

[EG]

And the only way to hook the literate folk will be good writing.

 

[LibertyRansom]

These guys really need to get more publicity. This looks like a great game and it would be an absolute shame if they did not make the 100K goal and did not implement the skills trees.

 

[Kosmonaut]

I think that the lack of pre-Kickstarter publicity and the controversial theme (you play as the "opressor") make some people hesitant. It's kinda sad that they are at barely the half of what they need.

 

[tuluse]

I think that the lack of pre-Kickstarter publicity and the controversial theme (you play as the "opressor") make some people hesitant. It's kinda sad that they are at barely the half of what they need.

They are also not quite at the half-way point of the funding drive. I do hope they reach the 70k at least a week before the deadline though as there seems to be a boost in contributions both when a project reaches it's goal and near the end. Be a shame if the boosts overlap.

 

[Kosmonaut]

Correction: They are almost reaching the half.

 

[JarlFrank]

Also, nobody made a snarky comment on this yet?

And you may indeed not wish to let them join if the majority of your Spanish followers have the Racist personality trait...

Codex, I am disappoint.

 

[Morkar Left]

Also, nobody made a snarky comment on this yet?

And you may indeed not wish to let them join if the majority of your Spanish followers have the Racist personality trait...

Codex, I am disappoint.

I lol'd when reading this. It's tailormade for some codexers. With the possibility to edit names it would probably work fine for a LP :D

However, my personal favorite was:

The downside is that our game will only appeal to people who can read.

Overall interesting concept. Not a classical rpg, more like a freeform Kings Bounty with more personality and more rpg in it. I like that, especially the cyoa-parts could really deliver in creating a stunning world.

Personally I prefer less "gamey" mechanics but they sound like they will work and can force you to make some hard decisions.

The player character will not participate in battles, so there aren't really a lot of similarities between the player character and the followers. They both have first and last names, a sex, and a portrait, and your own character can function as a Doctor when you need to treat injured people. That's about it. The reason you can't fight is that anybody who participates in a fight can get incapacitated, anybody who is incapacitated can get an injury that carries over to the world map, and anybody who's injured in the world map can die if left untreated. We don't want that to happen to the player character.

Biggest disappointment for me.

 

[Misconnected]

... Fine, have my damn monies, Avonaeon.

I really dislike the GUI (y hello thar, indestinctfiddlyblob), and your comment on terrain sounds worrisome. But I'm somewhere between curious and loving the rest of what you've shown & told of the game. It sounds kind of like your game will be the opposite of a murderhobo superhero simulator, and that I would really-really like. Don't get me wrong, I love a good, mindless crawler. But I'm really fucking tired of pretty much everything CRPGs have learnt from D&D - which, sadly, is just about everything there is to the vast majority of them.

Question: are there in-combat injuries? FX: José the Gunner gets painfully acquainted with a spear, but not incapacitated - will he now have any sort of penalties in combat until his injuries have had time to heal?

 

[Tolknaz]

Other than player characters being treated differently from NPC-s this game sounds more and more awesome with each new update. And it seems, that your campaign is actually picking up steam a bit. Almost at the half way mark. Let's hope you guys make it and can afford to create the best game possible.

 

[Avonaeon]

Question: are there in-combat injuries? FX: José the Gunner gets painfully acquainted with a spear, but not incapacitated - will he now have any sort of penalties in combat until his injuries have had time to heal?

No, but there are certain abilities that do give you penalties for a while, like being poisoned will give you a small amount of damage each turn until cured.

 

[mikaelis]

The player character will not participate in battles, so there aren't really a lot of similarities between the player character and the followers. They both have first and last names, a sex, and a portrait, and your own character can function as a Doctor when you need to treat injured people. That's about it. The reason you can't fight is that anybody who participates in a fight can get incapacitated, anybody who is incapacitated can get an injury that carries over to the world map, and anybody who's injured in the world map can die if left untreated. We don't want that to happen to the player character.

Biggest disappointment for me.

Damn, it did not occur to me as a big problem after I read this comment and realised:

Why wouldn't you allow that? If your character gets incapacitaded, your next in command comes in charge (or anyone that you will assign from the lieutenants, but BEFORE your main character is injured). It would result in the situation that, if you lose your hero for some time, you would have to survive without him based on the abilities of your peers.

 

[tuluse]

The player character will not participate in battles, so there aren't really a lot of similarities between the player character and the followers. They both have first and last names, a sex, and a portrait, and your own character can function as a Doctor when you need to treat injured people. That's about it. The reason you can't fight is that anybody who participates in a fight can get incapacitated, anybody who is incapacitated can get an injury that carries over to the world map, and anybody who's injured in the world map can die if left untreated. We don't want that to happen to the player character.

Biggest disappointment for me.

Damn, it did not occur to me as a big problem after I read this comment and realised:

Why wouldn't you allow that? If your character gets incapacitaded, your next in command comes in charge (or anyone that you will assign from the lieutenants, but BEFORE your main character is injured). It would result in the situation that, if you lose your hero for some time, you would have to survive without him based on the abilities of your peers.

Wouldn't that mean as the player you would not control what happens?

 

[Humanity has risen!]

It was like that on Fire Emblem on GBA, you were a "strategist", and in fact you never appeared on screen at all. It didn't make the game any worse.

 

[Cassidy]

In before Expeditions: Conquistador is not a RPG because the laptop guy the player character never shows up;

 

[CrustyBot]

Pokemon: Conquistador, even moreso if you "recruit" natives.

I don't really see it as a huge problem though. The lack of terrain influencing movement seems like a bigger deal to me.

But I've been impressed with most of what I've seen so far. Very pledge-worthy (which is exactly what I'll do in a week or so).

I'm just worried that unless you guys reach the stretch goals, there won't be enough content to really take advantage of the unique setting, solid mechanics and intriguing ideas you've got for the game.

Regardless, this project is a very exciting one and I really hope that Logic Artists are able to pull it off.

 

[Regvard]

How about ships? Something like turn based Pirates! with navigator/crew/captain skills.


And then you can dock where you need to and play this game.