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Game News Copper Dreams Kickstarter Update #26: Combat and Cars, Beta Coming November 15th

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
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Messages
97,236
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: Copper Dreams; Whalenought Studios

To few people's surprise, the Copper Dreams beta ended up not coming out in late September, or in October. Joe and Hannah haven't fallen off the face of the earth, though. As today's Kickstarter update announces, they've got an exact release date for the beta now - November 15th. Along the way, they've also decided to scrap the party combat system that was described in the previous update, so it's back to single character with non-controllable companions now. The update has the details on all of that and more:

Due to some pesky life stuff, we haven’t been able to finalize what we needed to for the beta — primarily driving enemies and some visual anomalies that need updating like mesh-swapping armor pieces working and some effects that will make gameplay more clear. Our newest alpha build featuring the start of those will be up in the next few days, followed by a video showcasing the beta, and releasing it on the 15th of November. A thousand apologies for the delay — we're very excited to finally get it in your hands, and will be on track for a 2020 release.

Beta testers, you’ll be getting an email when that’s available regarding what help we’re looking for with the start of the game. It'll explain what we can focus on tweaking with your suggestions while adding more of those maps in as we continue to finish stitching them together.

Dialogue


The new dialogue layout is pretty slick, using the power of multiple cameras! The characters are all animating 3d models from the game-world who gesture with their chat bubbles. Keywords are thought bubbles, and you get a little report card for people you meet with any known info you've obtained that's important. Aptitudes also use this and show their roll info in their own panels nearby. This was a social roll to get this drunk to follow you around.

Ruleset


The last update we talked about the RISK meter and segmenting turns to different party members. Shortly after we tested and discussed this companion-combat with some of our Alpha backers, we decided to roll back to single-player turn-based combat. Companions will remain auxiliary and the player can direct general commands to (move/attack/talk) as originally planned. Defend is now a normal action you can roll for while playing. Companions are both other agents, hires, and anyone on the street if you can charm/bio-hack them.

Map Stitching


A big part of 2019 activities involved revising some code to get more enemies on screen, better performance with the line of sight transparency and black, as well as stitching together the map. Map loading is so 1999 [insert plethora of games that already got around it], and 20 years later I think we can dismiss it as lazy. And disruptive! I think back to a game like Dungeon Siege, and it was really neat that the whole game was just one enormous map you wade through — it really pits you in the world, rather than seeing it as a small art piece or tactical map.

For a more modern city, having interiors, rooftops, and underground all webbed together gives a much more organic feel, and a lot more tactical variance. This is also effective for the combat and NPC sensory mechanics — with a wide open and expansive the map, not having the safety of a loaded room also makes you vulnerable. Climb a roof and jump into a 3rd story window to escape some gang members, and they could follow, or be welcomed by a bunch of winos with broken bottles inside to surround you.

The Mega-Map is also a very organic way of going from block-to-block in the wilds of Calitana, and it's fun to just rage-drive your way out of a block if you need to get outside quickly. Prior to this map to map points always bottle-necked into large gates to transition scenes, but now there can be multiple streets that exit.

Between more populated towns (city blocks) there lies the urban wilderness, or more appropriately, urban wasteland. With grids down, civilians abandon these areas, and the streets are held by the gang and the gun, and a good taxi or a Treader with a turret attached are your best bets to get through.
Check out the second half of the update for details about Treaders and the game's other drivable vehicles, including lots of animated GIFs. If your vehicle is equipped with a turret or you have an extra pair of cyber-arms, you can automatically fire at enemies while driving around. Joe and Hannah are still figuring out how to best implement that.
 

aratuk

Cipher
Joined
Dec 13, 2013
Messages
466
I usually prefer companions to be autonomous as long as they're smart enough not to shoot me or each other.

Haven't had much opportunity to play the alpha, but looking forward to this.
 

Lady_Error

█▓▒░ ░▒▓█
Patron
Joined
Oct 14, 2012
Messages
1,879,250
That art style though...

This looks good:

c0776a673fc57565eeb5584bbe36cb74_original.gif


But the rest seems kind of cheap and inconsistent:

512ddf46c375982914e6c9428cfa53b6_original.png


df2784353928f4e947ac26b63b12d94f_original.gif


dc9a0c4b91969749925f13a7dee9ae30_original.gif
 

luj1

You're all shills
Vatnik
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
12,877
Location
Eastern block
Looks really shit tbh. By going back and forth w/ art direction they lost a ton of momentum and artistic integrity. Should have stuck with the original vision of the game (PS1 style graphics).
 

Diggfinger

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2014
Messages
1,200
Location
Belgium
Alrighty, bring on the beta then...

Having only 1 player-controlled character is definitely the way to go.

Art looks sharp (in most cases, wrtf's up with that fire???). I especially like the vehicles and the humor in the descriptions.

Dialogue looks abit...well, meh....still nostalgic for the early Alpha-look and feel

16728.jpg

oh well :dealwithit:
they might pull it off!
 

Deleted Member 22431

Guest
Looks really shit tbh. By going back and forth w/ art direction they lost a ton of momentum and artistic integrity. Should have stuck with the original vision of the game (PS1 style graphics).
So you only have artistic integrity if you ignore feedback, you demented and pretentious retard. Not only they improved tremendously the art, but they also innovated with dialogue comic book thing. Looks great. Now fledge this baby up with tons of quests and make the game world alive.
 

Deleted Member 22431

Guest
Dialogue looks abit...well, meh....still nostalgic for the early Alpha-look and feel
They are so good that they made three versions and each one of them has a distinct feeling. Only a very talented artist can make you feel nostalgic about a sketch that was dropped.
 

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