Thanks again for having us on
sstacks , always wonderful to chat with you! An ad on your show reminded me the new Ravenloft module is coming out soon, we need to check that out. We just got the Mouse Guard box set in the mail, trying to make time for that as well, charming as ever.
By the way, their game mechanic sounds like 7,62 High Calibre/Hard Life? Still confused on how this differs from RTwP tactical games like Commandos and some of the UFO:Aftermath/UFO:Aftershock games.
About Copper Dreams
Sensuki mentioned Grandia (whose combat system is awesome), assuming that SiTS'expansion use the same system, don't worry, it's very different from the RTwP games I've played on PC and much closer to a turn-based game.
The difference with many turn-based games is that every action takes some time to resolve instead of resolving immediately.
This has some cool consequences, for example you often have the opportunity to interrupt (and cancel) a very powerful and long charging spell before the enemy has finished to cast it.
I think it's really different from the RTwP games I've played (I haven't played 7,62 High Calibre) : in Grandia when a character has finished its action, I have to choose its next action, that's cool and that's generally (always?) called Turn-based ;
that has absolutely nothing to do with Baldur's Gate or Aarklash Legacy which are RTS games that I can pause, which is different and worse in my opinion (but can still have its own merit).
Grandia is a good reference point,the system is completely turn based. The main difference from Grandia, at least the one I played, is there is no theatre-battlefield, combat takes place in the same mode as exploration to utilize the environment. Justin and Sue cameo pending.
Our next blog post is detailing where combat is at now in more detail, but it generally works as:
Wait time to take a turn is 6 seconds on the combat bar.
Combat starts with a player/enemy attack or interaction, relevant characters roll for initiative to land somewhere from the 0-5 second mark on the Wait timeline.
When a player character lands on the turn bar combat pauses, they can choose an action, and then that executes over time depending on how long it takes. If there is a challenge roll against a target or interaction that happens at the end, which we currently have 3 different feedback levels for you can toggle between whenever:
-None: plays it out without the display, going right to game feed
-Cinematic: brief pause to show the player rolls and CR
-Input: pause to show the player rolls and CR that you can click through to continue
The CR are convenient to see right in the game for reference, but are also displayed in the game feed. If there's a large battle for instance you can choose None and combat just stops on your character turns. After the action is complete, the character starts back at the 0 second mark in the wait timeline and begins descending again.
Actions will be another big part of that blog post, they range from environmental interactions to utilizing an item in various ways. Weapons have different kinds of attacks from unique ones you can train for from trainers at rests, to the universal throw, if you run out of ammunition as a last ditch effort. For example Suppressing fire, which is an option on most firearms, rolls to delay a cone worth of targets on the timeline with a negative hit chance mod to actually hit, which can bide time for your other teammates to get to their turns.