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Game News Serpent in the Staglands Kickstarter Update #19: Monsters, Hazardous Environments, Cities, Puzzles

Infinitron

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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
Tags: Serpent in the Staglands; Whalenought Studios

Whalenought Studios' Darklands-inspired RPG Serpent in the Staglands is due to be released next month. The game's latest Kickstarter update informs those who hadn't already figured that out of it and provides more photos of its mouthwatering physical journal rewards, which will soon be shipped. The bulk of the update, however, is dedicated to telling us more about the game, with lots and lots of screenshots:

The things your party will fear

In the Staglands you'll find that when facing your enemies, wits will go a lot farther in helping you kill than any bronze or magic. If fighting a certain monster or enemy isn't going your way, you can find some guidance in-game by talking to villagers and the local law, or reference the manual or handbook for clues as to their weaknesses.

One example of a monster that might be a particular challenge is the Harvester, a creature concept devised by one of our own backers (thanks David!) As the most dangerous of the Shroomer species we wanted to use some of these utility-tactics needed to kill certain monsters. Their natural armor is impervious to iron, bronze and magic alike (though would make for some fine armor if the right smith was up for the task…), and they travel toward their prey by burrow through the ground.

To dispatch them is well known to the Eastern settlers: Get them on their back and expose those squishy organs hiding under that exoskeleton!




Wolves of mist, immortal Bloodless, ethereal shields and more will take tactical insight to be able to overcome. Monsters aren't the only thing that can stop your party in their tracks though. Tratis Saltis, while still housing survivors, is currently ailed by an infested bog of poisonous leeches for the past few years that will wreck havoc on any unfortunate, and unprepared traveler. Certain equipment will be imperative to survive these types of environments.

A good stopping place for some exotic goods for prepping these areas would be Rumin. While the village has set up necessary defenses against the surrounding Spirit Realm dangers, you'll have to secure such safety on your own while traveling.

The things your party will solve

We've talked about puzzles before, and wanted to show off a glimpse of a favorite: the weight puzzles! You won't have to carry around stones and rocks, you can use anything from your inventory to activate panels, including your companions.

Clues for these and other puzzles are often in the form of panels in the environment, which you can acquire a chalk rubbing from!

Lots more puzzles that utilize other spells, skills, aptitudes and your wits to solve! You'll make good use of a notebook.
So cool. There'll be another update in a couple of weeks with a gameplay demonstration video with some basic tips.
 

Zed

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Looks more advanced and fun than any of the 2-3 puzzles in pillars of eternity.
 

A horse of course

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As with PoE I've ignored everything since the Kickstarter. Looking forward to launch :australia:
 

mondblut

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Jesus, not the pressing plate puzzles. That's one thing lost in 1995 which I am never ever going to miss.
 

mindx2

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Codex 2012 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire RPG Wokedex Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I don't know about anyone else but those screenshots are drop-dead gorgeous!! They are very atmospheric and convey an aesthetic of the world that "sets the mood" already... :bro:
 

A horse of course

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The "walkway" screenshot looks poor, though. Like it doesn't fit the artstyle at all.
 

potatojohn

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Uhm, it seems you forgot to post the full size screenshots. I only see thumbnails
 

Zeronet

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Wow, looks lovely. I feel ashamed to of missed the kickstarter : P.
 

mondblut

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Jesus, not the pressing plate puzzles. That's one thing lost in 1995 which I am never ever going to miss.

Pressing plate puzzles could be fun, if only pressing the plates was just part of the puzzle, instead of the whole point.

No. This shit does not belong to the genre any more than QTE crap does. They make zero fucking sense immersionwise and they are not attached to RPG gameplay in any shape or form. People were plugging them into RPGs 30 years ago because they secretly wanted to work at Zynga, not to make RPGs, but there was no Zynga to send a CV to. Now Zynga is there, so please leave RPGs alone :obviously:
 

agris

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Looking gorgeous Whalenought_Joe. Why the over-the-head selection bracket as opposed to selection circles underfoot? Not enough pixels for circles?
 

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
How many days after release will it become "Serpent in the Turdlands?" on the Codex?
Beta's not caused any butthurt yet, except for that one loser who keeps annoying the devs for two-handed weapons, it may even end up being good, who can say.
 

Whalenought_Joe

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Looking gorgeous Whalenought_Joe. Why the over-the-head selection bracket as opposed to selection circles underfoot? Not enough pixels for circles?

Thanks! I think those have been in since 2.0 — we did that for a few reasons, mainly to be cleaner and less obtrusive. The circles were really heavy for the small unit sizes, and with the new ground terrain we didn't like the options of letting the circles get obstructed all the time or having them clip above everything (made it look like units were floating when there is so much foliage depth they are walking through). In large number combat encounters, like the 15 dog pack fight outside Lumen Targ, the circles were visually getting more cluttered than we'd like. With the bracket we were able to have the bracket itself and the entire character below be clickable, which also seemed more intuitive for targeting and selecting. So besides familiarity, there weren't a lot of reasons to keep them as they were, but we could revise with any beta feedback.
 

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