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Empire of Ember: A fantasy Mount and Blade(?)

Galdred

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
https://www.empireofember.com







It looks like a fantasy Mount and Blade, with magic and dungeons, and more control over building placement, but a cartoony/low poly presentation.

There seems to be a few YT gameplay videos .
Early access date is March 31st 2021.
 
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LESS T_T

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I think I was going to make a thread about this some months ago and forgot. For whatever reason, this is based on the world of this RPG Ember, made by different studio.
 
Unwanted

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It looks interesting, but it's too ambitious. A literal no-name dev making a game of this scope will usually end in failure. Not to mention the combat looks wonky when compared to Mount and Blade.
 

Drowed

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For whatever reason, this is based on the world of this RPG Ember, made by different studio.

Ember was one of the most frighteningly mediocre games I have ever had the opportunity to play in my life. It's as if the writers opened the tvtropes.org website and thought, "well now, how can I insert as many tropes as possible in the most literal and shallow way?" It is frightening how abominably tasteless it can be - most of the quests are so incredibly generic that any minimal effort could've made them to be two or three times better. Not to mention that the game was clearly a port of a tablet or mobile version, with huge "buttons" in the interface that you had to click to use skills/move, no hotkeys setup, etc. I don't know if they subsequently released patches that lessened these problems, because who would go back to see?

Why anyone would try to associate themselves with that game is a mystery to me, it's not even like the setting is incredibly deep, original or anything. The game in the thread looks interesting, I'm just shocked by the choice of setting.
 

Galdred

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
It looks interesting, but it's too ambitious. A literal no-name dev making a game of this scope will usually end in failure. Not to mention the combat looks wonky when compared to Mount and Blade.
I think only no-name devs are interested in projects this ambitious(Mount and Blade 1: Team of 1 noname dev + his wife, Kenshi, Starsector, Rimworld...). It has a very low chance of being good indeed, but we can only hope :)
 
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Galdred

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
There are a few text interviews with the dev :
https://www.gamingboulevard.com/2021/03/interview-first-look-empire-of-ember/


This one is in French and English:
https://www.rpgjeuxvideo.com/interview-de-kevin-jenkins-au-sujet-dempire-of-ember/
French Version:
Bonjour, Kevin Jenkins , Pouvez-vous vous présenter ? (nom, prénom, âge, formation professionnelle…), Quel est votre rôle dans Empire of Ember ?

Je m’appelle Kevin Jenkins. Je suis un développeur de jeux de 46 ans qui travaille dans l’industrie depuis environ 20 ans en tant que programmeur. Il y a environ 4 ans, j’ai quitté mon emploi pour créer Empire of Ember, financé par mes économies personnelles. Je fais un peu de tout, mais mes plus grands défis sont la conception et la programmation.

Avez-vous déjà fait d’autres jeux auparavant ? Si oui, y a-t-il un lien avec celui-ci ?

Au cours de ma carrière, j’ai travaillé directement sur des jeux plus connus, comme Star Wars Episode 3. Mais la plus grande partie de ma carrière a été consacrée au développement du moteur de réseau RakNet, qui a été licencié par Unity dans les premiers temps pour alimenter leur réseau, et vendu plus tard à Oculus.

Comment l’idée du jeu est-elle née ?

J’ai adoré construire des châteaux en Lego dans mon enfance. Les archers Lego défendaient les murs, les soldats tenaient les portes et les catapultes assiégeaient. Mais les rochers de siège en plastique qui frappaient les murs rebondissaient juste. J’ai toujours voulu jouer à un jeu où le joueur pouvait réellement percer un trou dans les murs ennemis et guider ses soldats à travers la brèche, alors je l’ai construit moi-même.

Quelles ont été vos influences pour le développement de ce jeu ?

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic m’a inspiré l’idée d’un combat où l’on pourrait se spécialiser dans les armes de mêlée ou se concentrer sur la magie, en jouant sur le même contenu sans classes de personnages spécifiques.

Je suis aussi un grand fan de Mount and Blade. J’aime beaucoup leur système de combat et les batailles à grande échelle. Mais j’ai pensé que ce type de jeu pourrait être amélioré si l’on mettait davantage l’accent sur les châteaux créés par les joueurs et si l’on incluait une conception linéaire des niveaux.

Depuis combien de temps est-il en développement ?

Depuis 4 ans, Ă  plein temps.

Combien de personnes y travaillent ? Quels sont les outils utilisés ?

J’ai travaillé à temps plein sur ce jeu moi-même et avec un artiste généraliste utilisant Unity. Mais nous avons eu des spécialistes temporaires. Yasu Matsuoka a créé pour nous de fantastiques illustrations de cutscenes que vous pouvez voir dans la bande annonce et sur notre page Steam. Charles Westphal a fait la musique de notre menu principal. Bien qu’il soit nouveau dans l’industrie, il a pu composer un morceau qui, à mon avis, est à la hauteur de Jeremy Soule, qui a travaillé sur les Elder Scrolls. Je m’attends à voir son nom au générique de certains grands jeux dans l’avenir.

EOEScreenshot_2020-05-29_12-07-27_x1.png

Quelles difficultés de développement avez-vous rencontrées ? Qu’avez-vous apprécié ? Qu’avez-vous appris pendant le développement ?

Empire of Ember a été développé à l’origine dans le cadre d’un partenariat entre moi-même et un directeur artistique. Cependant, le directeur artistique n’était pas très productif et a fini par admettre qu’il n’avait jamais les fonds nécessaires pour travailler à plein temps. J’ai continué le projet tout seul, mais sans l’aide d’un artiste, cela m’a amené à engager plusieurs personnes qui n’ont pas réussi à travailler au début du projet.

Sans directeur artistique au début du projet, j’ai fait l’erreur d’opter pour un rendu physique fidèle plutôt que pour un aspect stylisé plus simple. Un jeu qui ressemble à Skyrim a également un coût de développement artistique similaire à Skyrim, tandis qu’un jeu qui ressemble à Minecraft a un coût de développement artistique qui est similaire à cela. Pourtant, les joueurs sont heureux de jouer aux deux tant que le gameplay est amusant. Nous aurions mieux fait financièrement d’opter pour un look stylisé plus simple, et vous pouvez voir sur Steam que c’est l’approche utilisée par de nombreux développeurs indépendants.

Avec une centaine d’unités par bataille et des villes entièrement destructibles faites de morceaux individuels, Empire of Ember pourrait bien être le jeu le plus exigeant en termes de performances CPU jamais réalisé avec Unity. Je pense que nous aurions pu obtenir de plus grandes batailles avec un moteur différent, mais il a peut-être aussi pris plus de temps à développer ou avait moins de fonctionnalités.

La plus grande leçon que j’ai apprise est que plus il faut de temps pour réaliser un problème, plus il est coûteux de le réparer. En termes de conception, de technique et de décisions d’embauche, il aurait été moins cher à long terme si j’avais engagé une équipe très expérimentée au début pour mettre en place la structure initiale du jeu. C’est comme pour la peinture, si vous faites une erreur sur les retouches, ce n’est pas grave, mais si votre composition originale a des problèmes, vous devez tout recommencer.

J’aime beaucoup recevoir des commentaires positifs sur Empire of Ember. J’y ai consacré quatre ans de ma vie et j’ai risqué ma carrière et mon gagne-pain pour poursuivre ce rêve.

Quelles sont les particularités d’Empire of Ember ? Quelle est son identité ? Quelle est sa durée de vie ? Quelle est sa rejouabilité ? Enfin, dans quelle catégorie peut-on le classer ? RTS ou RPG ? Quel est le jeu qui s’en rapproche le plus ? (Spellforce ? Légendes d’ellaria ? autre…).

Nous voulons que le joueur joue plusieurs rôles : Battle-mage / Commandant d’armée / Chef d’un royaume.

En tant que Battle-Mage, le joueur peut améliorer ses statistiques, acheter de nouvelles armes et équipements, et rechercher de nouveaux sorts. Ces éléments peuvent être combinés de manière intéressante et en synergie les uns avec les autres. Différents chargements sont utiles dans différentes situations, qu’il s’agisse de l’exploration d’un donjon, d’un combat d’armée, d’un siège ou d’une longue mission en solo.

En tant que commandant de l’armée, le joueur peut entrer dans un mode de stratégie léger en temps réel. Dans ce mode, la caméra effectue un zoom arrière et le joueur peut faire glisser / sélectionner des unités et leur ordonner de se déplacer, d’attaquer ou de maintenir leur position.

En tant que chef d’un royaume, nous voulions que le joueur puisse porter un jugement sur ses paysans, comme dans Dragon Age : Inquisition. Il peut s’agir de décisions morales, d’opportunités commerciales ou d’autres décisions qui affectent votre royaume.

Empire of Ember vous permet de créer, de décorer et de télécharger entièrement votre propre base physiquement modélisée, destructible et partageable. C’est une forme de multijoueur asynchrone et je m’attends à voir des bases très intéressantes.

EOEScreenshot_2020-08-07_11-00-45_x1.png

Des combats en temps réel ? Y aura-t-il une pause active ?

Les unités de commandement ralentissent le temps. Le joueur devra participer aux combats pour réussir, car il est l’unité la plus puissante sur le champ de bataille, surtout plus tard dans la partie.

Constructeur de la ville, gestion, combat, quel est l’élément prépondérant ? Combien d’heures allons-nous passer sur chaque élément ? A quel type de joueur ce jeu s’adresse-t-il ?

Empire of Ember plaira surtout aux joueurs de stratégie d’action tactique. Je crois qu’il y a environ 20 heures de jeu, sans compter le multijoueur asynchrone. 50 % de combats en masse, 25 % de combats en solo et 25 % de construction stratégique de châteaux. D’après les réactions que j’ai reçues, le jeu semble plaire surtout aux fans de Mount and Blade.

Vous avez une démo ? Avez-vous envisagé un accès anticipé ?

Nous n’avons pas de démo.

L’accès anticipé est un moyen utile d’avoir une idée de la façon dont le jeu se vendra et de susciter un intérêt précoce. Cependant, de nombreux joueurs et sites de test ne regardent pas les jeux en accès anticipé. De plus, 98 % des joueurs jouent sans donner de commentaires concrets, donc si vous n’avez pas vraiment besoin de ce financement, je ne suis pas sûr de l’intérêt qu’il présente. L’accès anticipé semble plus logique lorsque vous disposez déjà d’un grand nombre de joueurs, par exemple une franchise.

La meilleure approche que j’ai trouvée est d’engager des joueurs pour me donner un retour direct sur les builds non publiées. Jusqu’à présent, nous avons procédé à environ 8 révisions de feedback dans ce sens.

Quelle est votre définition du RPG ? Quel est votre RPG préféré ?

Un RPG est un jeu où le joueur assume le rôle principal de prise de décision d’un personnage dans un cadre fictif.

Mon RPG préféré est actuellement Outward, parce qu’ils ont fait progresser l’histoire en combinant les mécanismes traditionnels des RPG avec des mécanismes de survie et de mort intéressants. J’ai également apprécié le gameplay qui récompensait la préparation.

Un dernier mot pour les lecteurs ? Peut-être avez-vous des choses à nous dire en particulier (sur le DLC, les projets, le long terme pour le jeu…ou autre, faites-vous du Modding ? DLC futur ? Expansion ? ).

Nous avons pensé au support du modding depuis le début, mais il est assez difficile de le supporter avec le moteur Unity. Nous ferons d’autres annonces à ce sujet à mesure que nous nous approcherons de la sortie du jeu, j’en suis sûr. Nous invitons tous vos lecteurs à rejoindre notre Discord pour nous aider à faire évoluer le jeu.

2020.12.02-22.24_01.png
English version
Hello, Kevin Jenkins,

Can you introduce yourself? (name, first name, age, professional formation…), What is your role in Empire of Ember?

My name is Kevin Jenkins. I’m a 46 year old game developer that has been working in the industry for about 20 years as a programmer. About 4 years ago I left my job to create Empire of Ember, funded from personal savings. I do a little bit of everything, but my biggest roles are design and programming.

Have you made other games before? if yes, is there a connection with this one?

In my career I have directly worked on higher profile games, such as Star Wars Episode 3. But most of my career was developing the network engine RakNet, which was licensed by Unity in the early days to power their networking, and later sold to Oculus.

How did the idea for the game come about?

I loved building Lego castles growing up. Lego archers would defend the walls, soldiers would hold the gates, and catapults would lay siege. But plastic siege boulders hitting the walls would just bounce off. I’ve always wanted to play a game where the player could actually smash a hole through enemy walls, and lead his soldiers through the breach, so I built it myself.

What are your influences for the development of this game?

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic inspired me to the idea of a battlemage where you could specialize in melee weapons or focus on magic, playing through the same content without specific character classes.

I’m also a big Mount and Blade fan. I really like their combat system and large-scale battles. But I thought that type of game could be improved if there was more emphasis on player created castles and included linear level design.

How long has it been in development?

4 years full time development.

How many people work on it ? What tools is used ?

Full time I have worked on this game myself and one art generalist using Unity. But we have had temporary specialists. Yasu Matsuoka created fantastic cutscene illustrations for us that you can see in the trailer and on our Steam Store page. Charles Westphal did our main menu music. While he is new to the industry he was able to compose a track that in my opinion is up there with Jeremy Soule, who worked on the Elder scrolls. I expect to see his name in the credits of some great games in the future.

EOEScreenshot_2020-05-29_12-07-27_x1.png

What development difficulties have you experienced? What did you enjoy? What did you learn during development?

Empire of Ember was originally developed as a partnership between myself and an art director. However, the art director was not very productive and eventually admitted he never had the funds to work full-time. I continued the project by myself, but without an artist to help, it led me to hire several people who didn’t work out in the early stages of the project.

Without an art director early in the project, I made the mistake of going full-fidelity physically based rendering rather than a simpler stylized look. A game that looks like Skyrim also has an art development cost similar to Skyrim to make, while a game that looks like Minecraft has an art development cost that costs similar to that. Yet players are happy to play both so long as the gameplay is fun. We would have been better off financially going for a simpler stylized look, and you can see on Steam this is the approach used by many indie developers.

With a hundred units per battle and fully destructible cities made of individual fragments, Empire of Ember might be the most CPU performance demanding game ever made with Unity. I feel we could have gotten larger battles with a different engine, but it may have also taken longer to develop or had fewer features.

The biggest lesson I learned is the longer it takes you to realize a problem, the more expensive it is to fix. In terms of design, technical, and hiring decisions it would have been cheaper in the long run if I had hired a really experienced team at the start to put together the initial structure of the game. It’s like painting, if you make a mistake on the touch-ups it’s not a big deal, but if your original composition has issues you have to start over.

I most enjoy seeing positive feedback about Empire of Ember. I have put 4 years of my life into the game as well as risking my career and livelihood to pursue this dream.

What are the particularities of Empire of Ember? What is its identity? What is its lifespan? What is its replayability? In the end, in which category can it be classified? RTS or RPG ? which game is closest to it ? (Spellforce ? Legends of ellaria ? other…).

We want the player to play multiple roles: battle-mage / army commander / leader of a kingdom.

As a battle-mage, the player is able to personally level up his stats, buy new weapons and equipment, and research new spells. These can be combined in interesting ways that synergize with each other. Different loadouts are useful in different situations, be it a dungeon exploration, army combat, siege, or long solo mission.

As an army commander, the player can enter a light real time strategy mode. In this mode, the camera zooms out and the player can drag / select units and order them to move, attack, or hold position.

As the leader of a kingdom, we wanted the player to be able to pass judgement on his peasants, like in Dragon Age: Inquisition. These can be moral decisions, trade opportunities, or other decisions that affect your kingdom.

Empire of Ember lets you fully create, decorate, and upload your own physically modelled, destructible, shareable base. This is a form of asynchronous multiplayer and I expect to see very interesting bases.

Fights in real time? Will there be an active pause?

Commanding units slows time down. The player will need to participate in battles to be successful, as the player is the most powerful unit on the battlefield, especially later in the game.

City builder , Management, fight, what element is prepondering ? How much hours will we spend on each element ? What type of player is this game for?

Empire of Ember will most appeal to players of tactical action strategy. I believe there is about 20 hours of gameplay, not counting asynchronous multiplayer. 50% mass army combat, 25% solo combat, and 25% strategic castle building. From the feedback I’ve received the game seems to appeal most to fans of Mount and Blade.

EOEScreenshot_2020-08-07_11-00-45_x1.png

Do you have a demo ? Did you consider Early Access ?

We don’t have a demo.

Early access is a useful way to get an idea of how well the game will sell and generate some early interest. However, many players and review sites will not look at games in early access. In addition, 98% of players play without giving actionable feedback, so if you don’t actually need the funding I’m not sure how much of a benefit it is. Early access seems to make more sense when you already have a large player base, such as a franchise.

The best approach I’ve found is to hire gamers to give you direct feedback on preview builds that won’t be published. We’ve gone through about 8 feedback revisions doing this so far.

What is your definition of RPG ? What is your favourite RPG ?

An RPG is a game where the player assumes the lead decision making role of a character in a fictional setting.

My favorite RPG is currently Outward, because they advanced the storytelling by combining traditional RPG mechanics with interesting survival and death mechanics. I also appreciated the gameplay that rewarded preparedness.

Any last words for the readers? Maybe you have some things to tell us in particular (about DLC, projects, long term for the game…or other, Do you make Modding ? DLC futur ? Expansion ? ).

We’ve been thinking about modding support since the beginning but it is quite challenging to support it in the Unity engine. We’ll make more announcements about this as we get closer to release I’m sure though. We welcome any of your readers to join our Discord to help us shape the game.
 

PoleaxeGames

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Hey guys, Poleaxe Games here.

Thanks for your interest in Empire of Ember. I started the game 4 years ago, self-funded, having licensed the assets to Ember. I am using most of the music, certain enemy models, and certain story themes from Ember. However, the story and gameplay are new, where the story was written by Patrick Kevin day, a former lead writer for Telltale games.

While the game is in fact ambitious, I have been programming it 16 hours a day more or less for the past 4 years. So it has some technical accomplishments I haven't seen in publisher funded games, such as fully destructible cities that you build yourself.

One of my biggest concerns, which was voiced in this thread as well, is that modern 3D graphics are very expensive these days, and it's nearly impossible for a mostly one-man studio to compete against dozens of people producing multi-million dollars titles. My plan has been to make up the deficit through interesting gameplay mechanics, which also include randomly generated dungeons and spells such as telekinesis, which lets you throw enemies around the battlefield and into each other. Regardless, the YouTubers that have covered the game so far have generally not had issue with the graphics or if they had, they didn't voice it publicly. I hope you will find the graphics good enough to still enjoy the gameplay.

I'm entering early access March 31st https://store.steampowered.com/app/980640/Empire_of_Ember/ and invite anyone with questions or commands to join my Discord channel ( https://discord.gg/Gau8YxYE ) . I'm always online and happy to answer.
 

Testownia

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Coming to Early Access... see you in two years, everyone. Maybe then the game will be semi-complete. I hate that the current model of development is so prevalent. Remember the bad, old days, when games were released as feature-complete products?
 

Galdred

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Hey guys, Poleaxe Games here.

Thanks for your interest in Empire of Ember. I started the game 4 years ago, self-funded, having licensed the assets to Ember. I am using most of the music, certain enemy models, and certain story themes from Ember. However, the story and gameplay are new, where the story was written by Patrick Kevin day, a former lead writer for Telltale games.

While the game is in fact ambitious, I have been programming it 16 hours a day more or less for the past 4 years. So it has some technical accomplishments I haven't seen in publisher funded games, such as fully destructible cities that you build yourself.

One of my biggest concerns, which was voiced in this thread as well, is that modern 3D graphics are very expensive these days, and it's nearly impossible for a mostly one-man studio to compete against dozens of people producing multi-million dollars titles. My plan has been to make up the deficit through interesting gameplay mechanics, which also include randomly generated dungeons and spells such as telekinesis, which lets you throw enemies around the battlefield and into each other. Regardless, the YouTubers that have covered the game so far have generally not had issue with the graphics or if they had, they didn't voice it publicly. I hope you will find the graphics good enough to still enjoy the gameplay.

I'm entering early access March 31st https://store.steampowered.com/app/980640/Empire_of_Ember/ and invite anyone with questions or commands to join my Discord channel ( https://discord.gg/Gau8YxYE ) . I'm always online and happy to answer.
Will the game be a sandbox, or a more structured campaign?
 

PoleaxeGames

Poleaxe Games
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Hey guys, Poleaxe Games here.

Thanks for your interest in Empire of Ember. I started the game 4 years ago, self-funded, having licensed the assets to Ember. I am using most of the music, certain enemy models, and certain story themes from Ember. However, the story and gameplay are new, where the story was written by Patrick Kevin day, a former lead writer for Telltale games.

While the game is in fact ambitious, I have been programming it 16 hours a day more or less for the past 4 years. So it has some technical accomplishments I haven't seen in publisher funded games, such as fully destructible cities that you build yourself.

One of my biggest concerns, which was voiced in this thread as well, is that modern 3D graphics are very expensive these days, and it's nearly impossible for a mostly one-man studio to compete against dozens of people producing multi-million dollars titles. My plan has been to make up the deficit through interesting gameplay mechanics, which also include randomly generated dungeons and spells such as telekinesis, which lets you throw enemies around the battlefield and into each other. Regardless, the YouTubers that have covered the game so far have generally not had issue with the graphics or if they had, they didn't voice it publicly. I hope you will find the graphics good enough to still enjoy the gameplay.

I'm entering early access March 31st https://store.steampowered.com/app/980640/Empire_of_Ember/ and invite anyone with questions or commands to join my Discord channel ( https://discord.gg/Gau8YxYE ) . I'm always online and happy to answer.
Will the game be a sandbox, or a more structured campaign?

In-between (like XCOM). There are about 20 major campaign missions, that you need to increase in power in order to beat, and advance the story. In-between those missions you increase in power by fighting armies, exploring dungeons for loot, building your city, researching spells, and helping villages.
 

Galdred

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OS: Windows 10
Will it really not work under Windows 7, or is it only because there is no official support for it?
From Discord:

Tchey — Today at 1:34 PM
I can play it on my Linux PC, via Proton, and i think it’s emulating Win7, but i’m not sure.

Poleaxe Games — Today at 1:35 PM
@Galdred Hi, saw your forum post. I just don't have Windows 7 myself, but most likely it works
 

Galdred

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I have tested the alpha build under Windows 7, and it works fine, and plays well so far (1hour in).
How does the combat feel? It looked quite janky in the trailer.

It is a bit janky indeed (but much less than Legens of Ellaria, or Birthright!), but timing spells right is pretty rewarding, as is hiding behind your meatshield is too (I played a mage with everything in Will and the bare minimum everywhere else).
The characters does move slowly,(it can be remedied by raising Agility), so I could not kite opponents (which I guess is on purpose), but I didn't have issue with spells not firing up. Opposing archers will usually focus your mage, so combat can be quite quick.
The new radial UI for command would need some refining. I have died a lot, but it was my fault every time (missing a spell that cost 95% of my mana, ordering my troops to assault uphill, leading the charge with my caster...)

Except for these issues, tt ran well on my Windows 7 rig.
you only have a single town, so the buildings<=> character feedback is good.
Buildings can be either decorative (houses are counted as, which is a bit weird. I suppose they will grant manpower later on), economic, improve your character stats (farms let you field more troops in your party), or improve your units through research.

There are solo and army missions. Solo missions are mostly dungeons I think. Each day, your character can have "pressing matters" to deal with (ie, random or storyline events), and can choose to make one rest action (boosting income, improving experience or damage for the next battle, or looking for clues to unlock new events/sidequests).

I really like the way the parts interact together so far, but I am only 2 hours in.

My Windows 7 issue was patched in less than one hour by the dev, so I am pretty confident about the early access support.
 

PoleaxeGames

Poleaxe Games
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What does janky mean exactly? I'd like to be able to improve that prior to launch if possible.
 

Sandsch

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How does the melee combat feel? I took a look at the other trailer on the steam page and it looks like the enemies don't seem to physically react when you hit them (unless they are killed).
 

Galdred

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
How does the melee combat feel? I took a look at the other trailer on the steam page and it looks like the enemies don't seem to physically react when you hit them (unless they are killed).
I didn't try it yet. I chose the wand.
However, it seems that a lot of attacks from my troops or the enemy resulted in characters being knocked back or down, and the magic wand attack seems to cause some small "recoil" on the target.
I will have to try with a melee weapon later (but if my character also dies in 2 hits, that may not be advisable!).
 

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