Turn-Based Tactics Archrebel: Tactics - A reincarnation of the classic Rebelstar.

[Ularis Badler]

Played for an hour. I can't believe how polished it feels.

This means a lot. I spent 7 months polishing and adding QoL features and working heavily on the sound design.
Gratitude!

 

[Ularis Badler]

Did you manage to download it? I can find an alternative way for you to get it, if you haven't already.

 

[udm]

Did you manage to download it? I can find an alternative way for you to get it, if you haven't already.

Hey! Just gave it a try again this morning and I finally managed to get it downloaded. Cheers! Can't wait to play it!

 

[geno]

I like this, should I play Rebelstar?

 

[Ularis Badler]

I like this, should I play Rebelstar?

I'm glad you like it!

Before I can answer, it's important I know which version of Rebelstar we may be talking about, because there are 2. A GBA version, and the classic Rebelstar from 1986, from which Archrebel draws heavy inspiration. I honestly don't think people will enjoy Rebelstar nowadays, for being obscenely primitive in comparison, especially without mouse support. But unless you try it, you will never know, right?

Play it online here:
https://archive.org/details/zx_Rebel_Star_1_Player_1986_Firebird_Software

 

[geno]

Isn't the GBA title a completly different game? I didn't play it neither.

 

[negator2vc]

I played the demo a little.
Thankfully most of the visual effects can be disabled in the settings. I have disabled all of them since they are way too distracting.
As for the game itself is quite nice (and polished). I like the extra narrative elements during the mission.
NOW for the dreaded feedback :
- In the travel mode since the units can still move even when their AP are zero why use the AP during travel mode at all?
Why not show them only when the game enter combat mode.
- In the combat mode the UI could use a little clean up. All that holding buttons for selecting action menus, ending turn, etc. take more time to perform without any reason. Also the UI on the right contains completely different information in each tabs including the inventory. Maybe some of the tabs like the inventory could be a popup window instead? Why not borrow UI ideas from modern tactics games? Also some icons especially on your units I think you should show them on the unit UI instead of the unit sprite.
- Why have an "aim mode" (I don't recall if that the actual name used) in which the game use circles in place of the unit's graphics?
Why not use the actual graphics of each unit and if needed use some colored border or something similar.

The ingame voice is used only for tutorials or is used in other places in the game?
If it is used in other places can it be disabled without also disabling other sound effects?

I will play the demo some more during the weekend.

 

[Alienman]

Been playing for about an hour, and don't have much to add to what has already been said. But overall, I like it. The turns take a while since you have to activate everything by hand.
However. Why did you make the mission so hard? I have nothing against hard games, but some warm-up would have been nice, to get to test stuff out. The northern encounter wiped the floor with my team, it was brutal.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Alienman]

Oh and yeah. After playing some more negator2vc makes a good point.

- In the travel mode since the units can still move even when their AP are zero why use the AP during travel mode at all?
Why not show them only when the game enter combat mode.

I'm also curios as of why, because it slows down the game something brutal, and if you encounter something while moving, if you have spent any action points, it will make you defenseless. Maybe that's the point? I just don't see the design decision behind it. Moving up to doors to open, to realize you don't have AP gets annoying fast. Just a lot of extra clicking.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Well, there seem to be some technical issues.

I played the game yestarday and today I wanted to restart the mission (through new game). I disabled the tutorial this time and the mission seems to be somehow messed up (for example Sid Vicisious - the guy with no ammo for his pistol with red sign next to him - is there twice and the initial formation of units is different).

Edit: I fixed this by deleting the demo and unpacking the downloaded file again.

 

[Ularis Badler]

Oh and yeah. After playing some more negator2vc makes a good point.

- In the travel mode since the units can still move even when their AP are zero why use the AP during travel mode at all?
Why not show them only when the game enter combat mode.

I'm also curios as of why, because it slows down the game something brutal, and if you encounter something while moving, if you have spent any action points, it will make you defenseless. Maybe that's the point? I just don't see the design decision behind it. Moving up to doors to open, to realize you don't have AP gets annoying fast. Just a lot of extra clicking.

Yes, that's exactly the point. if you feel you are entering a dangerous unexplored area, you can either risk it with zero AP or end the turn to replenish the AP pool, which will also give the CPU player a chance to play. You get a penalty for each turn -15 score so, the more defensive you play the lower the score. Use Scout orbs to explore before moving.

 

[Ularis Badler]

I played the demo a little.
Thankfully most of the visual effects can be disabled in the settings. I have disabled all of them since they are way too distracting.
As for the game itself is quite nice (and polished). I like the extra narrative elements during the mission.
NOW for the dreaded feedback :
- In the travel mode since the units can still move even when their AP are zero why use the AP during travel mode at all?
Why not show them only when the game enter combat mode.
- In the combat mode the UI could use a little clean up. All that holding buttons for selecting action menus, ending turn, etc. take more time to perform without any reason. Also the UI on the right contains completely different information in each tabs including the inventory. Maybe some of the tabs like the inventory could be a popup window instead? Why not borrow UI ideas from modern tactics games? Also some icons especially on your units I think you should show them on the unit UI instead of the unit sprite.
- Why have an "aim mode" (I don't recall if that the actual name used) in which the game use circles in place of the unit's graphics?
Why not use the actual graphics of each unit and if needed use some colored border or something similar.

The ingame voice is used only for tutorials or is used in other places in the game?
If it is used in other places can it be disabled without also disabling other sound effects?

I will play the demo some more during the weekend.

* In the travel mode since the units can still move even when their AP are zero why use the AP during travel mode at all?
Yes, this is a fair question. You spend action points moving so you don't get the upper hand when exploring, otherwise, you would always have action points to fire your weapon whenever you encountered an enemy target after entering combat mode. This forces you to pass turns more often if you want to explore with action points available. This also allows the CPU also to have a chance to play more often because this is not a real-time game; the CPU is frozen until you end the turn.

* In the combat mode the UI could use a little clean up. All that holding buttons for selecting action menus, ending turn, etc. take more time to perform without any reason.
My idea was to add protection so players wouldn't end a turn by mistake, but I left other options with long press as well to see how people felt about it. The majority of time people just press 'F'' to enter firemode and are fine with the half-second delay for specific actions. Nonetheless, I will include an option to disable the long-press as a few more people prefer it off.

* Also the UI on the right contains completely different information in each tabs including the inventory. Maybe some of the tabs like the inventory could be a popup window instead? Why not borrow UI ideas from modern tactics games?
I've always found windows opening in the middle of the screen or anything covering the map extremely intrusive. What you describe is actually the praise I've been getting for having the info people need always available, and out of the way.

Also some icons especially on your units I think you should show them on the unit UI instead of the unit sprite.
That was the original way and it didn't work at all, you would always need to click on the unit to see where it was to understand the tactical situation, forcing you to memorize where all the wounded, the tired, out-of-ammo, etc... units were. The problem scales quickly with the more units you control. It was a terrible decision, if I may add.

Why have an "aim mode" (I don't recall if that the actual name used) in which the game use circles in place of the unit's graphics?
Why not use the actual graphics of each unit and if needed use some colored border or something similar.
Having circular signatures is what makes the combat the way it is, with physics acting realistically on shots, which is the same principle used in other games Rebelstar, Laser Squad, and Sabre Team. Without this, you couldn't have a clear view of the units' size, what they are blocking or protecting, or understanding the difficulty of pulling a shot between units. The combat with circular signatures is, by far, the most praised feature in the game.

The ingame voice is used only for tutorials or is used in other places in the game?
If it is used in other places can it be disabled without also disabling other sound effects?
You can turn off the dialog audio for tutorials, there's a button left to the tutorial text to toggle the audio, unfortunately, there's a bug where it resets; for ingame dialogs like: "new waypoint located", or "New units available", these you can't disabled.

 

[Ularis Badler]

Been playing for about an hour, and don't have much to add to what has already been said. But overall, I like it. The turns take a while since you have to activate everything by hand.
However. Why did you make the mission so hard? I have nothing against hard games, but some warm-up would have been nice, to get to test stuff out. The northern encounter wiped the floor with my team, it was brutal.

I have had people finishing the mission in their first run. The demo is supposed to be challenging but doable, so if you go wiped out, you did something wrong, meaning you don't master the mechanics yet, which is the point of the demo to let you understand how the whole thing works.

 

[Ularis Badler]

Well, there seem to be some technical issues.

I played the game yestarday and today I wanted to restart the mission (through new game). I disabled the tutorial this time and the mission seems to be somehow messed up (for example Sid Vicisious - the guy with no ammo for his pistol with red sign next to him - is there twice and the initial formation of units is different).

View attachment 51092

Edit: I fixed this by deleting the demo and unpacking the downloaded file again.

Hmm... this could potentially be a bug, I would need to chat directly with you to see what you did in hopes of pinpointing the issue. Let me know if you want to look more into this by joining the Discord server through the game's Discord icon in the main-menu, in the bottom-right of the screen.

 

[Ularis Badler]

Everyone, thanks for the feedback!

 

[Ularis Badler]

Oh and yeah. After playing some more negator2vc makes a good point.

- In the travel mode since the units can still move even when their AP are zero why use the AP during travel mode at all?
Why not show them only when the game enter combat mode.

I'm also curios as of why, because it slows down the game something brutal, and if you encounter something while moving, if you have spent any action points, it will make you defenseless. Maybe that's the point? I just don't see the design decision behind it. Moving up to doors to open, to realize you don't have AP gets annoying fast. Just a lot of extra clicking.

I should also add, that activating the energy shield plays a critical role on exploration. For example, as a rule of thumb, never open a door without the energy shield active.
Always have you bigger and strong units ready to provide cover by blocking the view of enemy units to protect your more vulnerable units; the Miner droid with the shield active is freaking tank!

 

[Alienman]

Okay, I will give it another go

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Btw is it possible to take ammo out of weapons? If this is not a thing in the game I suggest adding it, as it is I sometimes find myself having to carry around two assault rifles and such because I dont see a way to take the ammo out of the second one I find.

 

[Ularis Badler]

Btw is it possible to take ammo out of weapons? If this is not a thing in the game I suggest adding it, as it is I sometimes find myself having to carry around two assault rifles and such because I dont see a way to take the ammo out of the second one I find.

I don't feel strongly about it to have a definitive opinion. I mean, if people want to eject the weapons' current charge, I will gladly work on that feature. I was curious to see if anyone would mention it.

 

[Alienman]

Btw is it possible to take ammo out of weapons? If this is not a thing in the game I suggest adding it, as it is I sometimes find myself having to carry around two assault rifles and such because I dont see a way to take the ammo out of the second one I find.

I don't feel strongly about it to have a definitive opinion. I mean, if people want to eject the weapons' current charge, I will gladly work on that feature. I was curious to see if anyone would mention it.

Would be a nice addition. Btw, I seem to have run into a tutorial bug. I can't continue with the mission.

There is no text to click. I can't move or do anything with my men

 

[Ularis Badler]

Btw is it possible to take ammo out of weapons? If this is not a thing in the game I suggest adding it, as it is I sometimes find myself having to carry around two assault rifles and such because I dont see a way to take the ammo out of the second one I find.

I don't feel strongly about it to have a definitive opinion. I mean, if people want to eject the weapons' current charge, I will gladly work on that feature. I was curious to see if anyone would mention it.

Would be a nice addition. Btw, I seem to have run into a tutorial bug. I can't continue with the mission.

View attachment 51095

There is no text to click. I can't move or do anything with my men

Can you post an image with the whole screen? Can you join the discord server?

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Yeah there seems to be a problem with continuing missions after you exit. I played for quite a while now, exited and tried to continue with the mission to see if it will work. After returning to the mission I cant do anything, there is a text saying "action not possible at this time" - I cant move units or do anything else. If I end turn the enemy acts normally but then in the new turn I once more cant take any actions.

I will get on your Discord to post this as well later.

 

[Alienman]

Btw is it possible to take ammo out of weapons? If this is not a thing in the game I suggest adding it, as it is I sometimes find myself having to carry around two assault rifles and such because I dont see a way to take the ammo out of the second one I find.

I don't feel strongly about it to have a definitive opinion. I mean, if people want to eject the weapons' current charge, I will gladly work on that feature. I was curious to see if anyone would mention it.

Would be a nice addition. Btw, I seem to have run into a tutorial bug. I can't continue with the mission.

View attachment 51095

There is no text to click. I can't move or do anything with my men

Can you post an image with the whole screen? Can you join the discord server?

Here you go:

Spoiler

Had to press enter to get the text to show.

Seems to be linked the tutorial, as it refuses to stay off.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

BTW when I click on the Discord button in the game menu it tells me the invite is no longer valid...