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Game News Shaker Combat Update

Zed

Codex Staff
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Tags: Shaker

Welcome back to Kickstarter Codex - your one stop source for goddamn everything Kickstarter-related. Seriously though, I know there are more than a few Kickstarter updates being posted. But with Project Eternity on its last week, I believe things will cool down soonish.

Today's first update comes from the recently named Shaker (formerly "Old-School RPG by Brenda Brathwaite & Tom Hall"). This update is all about combat:

Combat in the world of Antera is full of swords and sorcery! Outside of combat, you have free movement about the world of Antera, but once you have an encounter with the not-so-friendly residents of this medieval world, it’s old-school, turn-based combat.

Before the Encounter

Your party has six characters in total (your four characters and two local NPC recruits). Before combat, you are free to arrange your party as you wish in front and back ranks. The further back your characters are, the safer they will be. The closer they are to the action, the more brute-force damage they can do. Back-rank characters must have spells, long-range attacks or weapons, or special skills. All weapons and spells have specific ranges.

Entering Combat

Combat occurs when you near an enemy, and you enter combat mode. Before you, you see the creatures in the world, and combat proceeds in turn-based rounds. In traditional RPG fashion, you choose each character’s action. The NPCs are, at first, autonomous, but you can choose their actions once they fully trust you. Once everyone determines their course, the game determines who goes first based on everyone’s quickness (plus or minus any modifiers). Combat then plays out in front of you with each party member or enemy taking turns in order of their Initiative. Combat ends when you defeat the enemy or they run away, knowing what’s good for them.

Combat Rounds

During combat, your characters have several options to choose from depending on their available weapon, profession and location in the party. You may choose from: Attack using your current weapon, select a Spell/Special using your profession’s unique powers, or use an Item. You can also get the hell out of dodge or skip your turn.

Combat continues round after round until there’s a victor. Hopefully, you’re the one looking down on the bodies of your foes! :)

Click here to read the update on Kickstarter. It has a mock-up concept-thingy picture of the combat screen.
 

kazgar

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your one stop source for goddamn everything Kickstarter-related.

Someone should make a picture of a troll kicking something (maybe a person on their marks ready to start a race, with a bucket on their head)
 

Zed

Codex Staff
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Initiative-based turns
Front (melee)-back (ranged) rows
Attack/Skill(Magic)/Items/Defensive/Skip actions

Sounds pretty basic but at the same time I've never really needed a more intricate system than that to enjoy a game.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2010
Messages
3,524
What they don't understand is that if they keep giving out information at this poor rate, they'll never catch up to how much information people expect to know about the game. They'll always be a step behind "we still don't know enough about this" and they'll never get the donations. If they are going to commit to the kickstarter (which they seem to want to do, foolishly) they need to gather themselves and make one huge release of information to make up for all failed demonstrations so far that have made them look like they don't know what they're doing. Spend some real pocket money on music, art and writing that people can attach themselves to. Get up a new, more serious kickstarter pitch video which sticks only to the vision of what they want to make, and start releasing constant updates like the other campaigns.
 

Charles-cgr

OlderBytes
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Mar 13, 2010
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984
Project: Eternity
Combat in the world of Antera is full of swords and sorcery!

+ My combat music in their video.
+ Their link to a GoG wishlist... Strange coincidence...

Someone tell them to stop getting their ispiration from me or they're doomed. :smug:
 

alx3apps

Educated
Joined
Mar 24, 2012
Messages
39
With so little info speculations arise.
Shaker sounds like Quake for me. Maybe it's John's Romero project in fact, but he doesn't want to use his name.
I'm day-1 backer, but I don't think my card really will be charged after 24 days.
Is seems only announce of David W. Bradley participation can save this KS.

edit: also I cannot understand why the slogan is "old-school rpg" instead of "wizardry spiritual successor from the lead designer of wizardry 8"
 

Wizfall

Cipher
Joined
Oct 3, 2012
Messages
816
They should have provided us all those info on day one, especially the combat system and saying it was going to be a kind of Wizardry spiritual successor.
I think this way they would have had way more pledges and responsive backers.
But with their horibble pitch video and slow updates they have "burned" a lot of people. And thiose people will surely not come back and change their mind.
I know i would have pledged way more than 15 if they have started their campaign with all those info and a good pitch video.
And i and the communauty around this project would have been very enthousiastic instead of being doubtful like now .
Too bad that the damage is done.
 

Bladderfish

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Joined
Apr 10, 2006
Messages
125
This is shite, and it's really pissing me off. All they are doing is copy-pasting techniques from other games and expecting to get money. This is a pitch people are supposed to support?

I really hope this Kickstarter fails, because no one should be allowed to pitch a game without any design work whatsoever (and two screenshots and a bit of story don't amount to design work). PE was fairly thin on the ground in this regard, too, but with them a certain amount of leeway was allowed because MCA, Josh Sawyer and Tim Cain are veritable gods of RPGs and still actively working in that area. I get the impression that Loot Drop decided to do this while off their heads on drugs or booze and are now rushing to put things right ...

... Actually that doesn't make sense at all, because it doesn't account for the 15 minutes worth of crap material they've vomited forth so far. Maybe they are still off their heads. Probably already congratulating each other, by way of reacharounds and slurpy blowjobs, at all the lovely money they are going to receive for doing no work.
 

nihil

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Jun 11, 2006
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Sweden
Project: Eternity
They should've just said they wanted to make a Wizardry 8-clone with a JRPG main character. That seriously would've been a stronger pitch than the current one.

And it doesn't sound too bad, but I have no idea how competent RPG makers these people are.
 

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
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Why do you call the main character JRPG-ish when they say you can customize him to your heart's content, i.e., there isn't anything set about him except his background?
 

l3loodAngel

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Why do you call the main character JRPG-ish when they say you can customize him to your heart's content, i.e., there isn't anything set about him except his background?

There is no such thing as customizing to your heart's content unless all the budget would go for customization features and not for quests, branching storyline and etc...
 

Ringhausen

Augur
Joined
Oct 12, 2010
Messages
252
They should've just said they wanted to make a Wizardry 8-clone with a JRPG main character. That seriously would've been a stronger pitch than the current one.
Yeah, I guess they weren't confident enough to do so, seeing as Fargo, Obsidian and the Shadowrun guys name-dropped like crazy and were successful.
 

Dorateen

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Aug 30, 2012
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The Crystal Mist Mountains
This ship has already sailed. The train has left the station. Or whatever other cliche might be appropriate.

Unless they dump the JRPG-ish main character.

Crooked Bee, you just can't have a named protagonist in a supposedly classic party-based cRPG. A backstory/adventure hook would have been passable, in the vein of Bhaalspawn/Shardbearer/Spiriteater, simply making your frst created PC the Shaker operative. But if the developers absolutely had to introduce this James Connelly person, they should have made this transsexual ('cause apparently he can be a woman, too!) an NPC who takes the player's party into the adventure and then dies in an early cutscene, leaving the party to survive on their own.

Harumph!
 

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