KickStarter Encased - isometric post-apocalyptic RPG under the dome

[Infinitron]

Hey hey, this is nice: https://www.pcgamer.com/encased-is-...ed-rpg-entirely-set-inside-a-mysterious-dome/

Encased is a promising, Fallout 2-inspired RPG entirely set inside a mysterious dome
Even in Early Access, Encased is shaping up to be the kind of freeform RPG we can get lost in.

I’m in a crowd of gamblers, all craning our necks at flickering security monitors to watch a group of rats scurry through narrow tubes. I had to slip a guard 100 Combonds just to watch the race: She looked the other way while I shimmied down an elevator shaft into a cavernous reactor room, my radiation meter ticking up every second. I’ll have to visit the lab later, but it was worth it. Cherry—a rat I’d heard her owner boast about just before I placed my bet—pips the leader at the post, and I net a tidy profit.

Later, I help an engineer catch a rat that’s nested beneath the floors of a transport bay filled with rusty cars. I consider giving it a new life as a sprinter in the irradiated depths, but it seems cruel. Instead, I stash it in my inventory, and now I’m carrying a rat in a cage around with me as I blast mutated bugs with a shotgun, crack once-genius scientists over the head with an electric baton, and try to figure out why the whole world has gone to hell.

Together Preston and I, as I’ve named him, have completed Encased’s first act. We’re happy to report that despite being nine months from release out of Early Access, Encased already feels like a deep, complex post-apocalyptic RPG full of mini storylines that will easily steal 40 hours of my life. The turn-based combat is entirely average, but I like how vividly Encased creates its world and the social structure within it, before wrapping everything in a shroud of mystery. It starts by explaining its rigid, rules-driven society and ends with me floating through an imaginary world of smoke as the shapes of characters drift around me.

The setting goes something like this. Humans have discovered a giant indestructible dome in the desert, believed to contain invaluable artifacts from an ancient civilization called the Forefathers. The world’s great and good flock to it, drawn by grand visions of what they might find inside—but once you go in, you can’t come back out.

Upon arriving at Magellan, the first stop for dome newbies, it’s immediately clear just how fractured society is. Everyone is classified into one of five jobs: Orange Wing for prisoners shipped in as unskilled labour, Blue Wing for engineers, Black Wing for soldiers, White Wing for scientists, and Silver Wing for financiers. You can feel the weight of the hierarchy, and your registration is a complex administrative process that takes you to every floor of the station.

The role you pick drastically changes your playthrough: as a scientist, I arrived with the aim of researching the Forefathers and advancing humankind. I could’ve equally been an Orange Wing-er in handcuffs, tasked only with my survival. My White Wing status means I can freely roam the laboratory level, and other scientists instantly like me more. But many dialogue options are greyed out, either because they’re only open to other factions or because my tech, criminal or leadership skills aren’t high enough.

That dialogue system provides lots of ways to solve a given problem. When a Black Wing soldier staggers back to Magellan dragging an injured comrade, I can pass a Survival check to help him hang on until doctors arrive, a First Aid check for a more invasive approach, a Dismantling check to carefully prize his armor off, or inject him with a med kit, provided I’ve got one in my inventory.

That freedom extends to whole questlines. I’m offered an apartment on a lower floor of Magellan, provided I can find a stolen watch. I can intimidate a local know-it-all to cough up the culprit, or take a gentler approach and steal some chemicals from the lab for him in exchange for the information. Alternatively, I can find the thief’s dropped ID card and confront them, or turn them into the floor’s security guard. I can even just head upstairs to security HQ and ask the station’s CCTV operator to examine old footage.

Your route is never prescribed and there’s no quest markers, so you actually have to think about what to do next. After your orientation, you’re asked to investigate a missing team at the C12-Nashville facility, and you’re told to speak to a specific person in Magellan’s labs for some extra med kits before you head out. In most games, you’d know exactly where that person was: here, you have to hunt them without the aid of a floating arrow. It immediately made me feel more a part of the world.

The combat is simple and based on percentage chances to hit, which leads to fights where both sides waft aimlessly at each other with baseball bats. But planning for combat is fun: Every consumable, from pot noodles to steroid pills, grants you a different stat boost. My Deftness is too low for my favorite baton weapon, but coffee boosts it, so I spend every spare moment in canteens and kitchens, hunting caffeine.

I’d like to see more ways to get past enemies without resorting to weapons. You can stealth past turrets using ventilation shafts, but most of my last two hours of Encased’s first act (two more are coming by the end of Early Access) were spent shooting enemies with shotguns or mashing them with my trusty baton, gulping down coffee and munching noodles between battles. The combat isn’t satisfying enough to sustain that, and I would’ve loved to talk myself through these situations, or at least program some security turrets to do the hard work for me.

Encased could also do with a key for highlighting objects you can interact with so you don’t miss anything (that ID card was tricky to spot). The dialogue has a fair few typos alongside some awkward turns of phrases, too. But on the whole, Encased is remarkably polished at this point: the quests I played all worked, and worked intuitively. The ending, without spoiling anything, was vague enough to leave me with plenty of questions, but concrete enough that I could start forming theories about the strange goings-on around C12-Nashville. I'm looking forward to finding out if I'm right as Encased finishes development.

 

[Infinitron]

Q&A stream with Scott Hamm:

 

[Sykar]

So is this worth buying early access? It is among my favorite genre, sci fi cRPG. Well cyberpunk has a special place there but still sci fi > fantasy for me.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

So is this worth buying early access? It is among my favorite genre, sci fi cRPG. Well cyberpunk has a special place there but still sci fi > fantasy for me.

No, simply because it's bad form to buy indie games in early access. You never know if they manage to fuck it up or not. More accurately, only buy it if you want to support the devs, and don't mind the possibility of your dreams for how great the game *could be* getting crushed. That being said, I did buy it and i'm not disappointing so far. It is coming along really well.

 

[LESS T_T]

AMA: https://old.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/dt2prs/we_are_the_dark_crystal_games_team_members/

We are the Dark Crystal Games team members, ex-Larians and developers of Encased CRPG, AMA.

Hi, we've been developing the game for almost 2 years now. Recently it was released in early access and received a very warm welcome from the community!

The backbone of our team is from Larian Studios. We would like to share our story of making the game and why we refused to work on Baldur’s Gate 3.

Our Twitter page: https://twitter.com/DarkCrystal_HQ Encased on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/921800

Proof: https://twitter.com/DarkCrystal_HQ/status/1191740104970244096

Who’s answering questions?

1. Viacheslav Kozikhin, head of DCG, u/CRONUS_Employee
2. Jous Croe, u/jouscroe, scriptwriter
3. Vlad Lipkin and Artem Ozolov, u/Dark_Crystal_Games, community managers

why we refused to work on Baldur’s Gate 3.

Maybe he really wanted to work on Battlestar Galactica CRPG

 

[LESS T_T]

Well "refused" was not a great choice of words.

Well, it was not easy to make such a call, obviously. Larian is a great studio, with a lot of passionate people. Probably the best choice to pick up and continue such franchise as Baldur's Gate and work in such a universe as Forgotten Realms. But I was accumulating ideas for a sci-fi setting for years... and probably there is only one better thing than making new Baldur's Gate - it's to build something new for the ground start. Both the new studio and the new setting, which hopefully will be around here for many years and maybe one day will be as renown as BG.

There is the time you feel that this is the moment to have your best shot and you must go for it!

I get what you're saying, but the way you worded it by using "refused" kind of implies something negative going on with BG3 development, which doesn't seem to be the case here. Then again I know English may not be your first language, so just my $0.02.

No, nothing like that, it was very exciting to learn which project comes after DOS2 (previous Larian game).

 

[Dodo1610]

Some cool artworks

 

[fantadomat]

Would bang!

 

[PrettyDeadman]

An rpg to surpass metal gear fallout.

 

[Abu Antar]

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-school-isometic-turn-based-rpg/posts/2688253

Kickstarter Update #39. Encased in December: new prologue, storyline, companions and custom portraits

You might remember the encoded teaser pic we’ve posted recently. The suggestion mentioned in the comments was right: those numbers are the disguised date of the first major content update. Today we are going to talk about it and about many other innovations awaiting for you in mid-December.

The New Intro
The first release version of the prologue had several drawbacks: a lot of text in the beginning, insufficient action, and too much Magellan (which was originally designed as a late game content).

The new intro looks completely different: a dynamic scene in transportation capsule descending under the Dome, a short run through the Concord station, and after that – the all-familiar gas station and the grim Nashville. By the way, Concord is an important piece of the storyline puzzle, a cargo terminal, located directly under the Spire station. From there, relics are being sent to the outer world, and it’s there where the cargo and new employees arrive. After completing a short training course, the recruits are assigned to numerous CRONUS facilities scattered throughout the Dome. But your protagonist has his own way, just like last time...

We’ve carefully finalized and decorated the locations of the prologue and fine-tuned the main quest logic, making it more comprehensible. In general, we are aimed at putting you in the game faster – so that those who are playing Encased once again can quickly get into new zones. But do not worry: the previous locations will also be available, and those who wanted to return to the Magellan (thoroughly revised and updated) will be satisfied.

The Main Quest
The new storyline is perhaps what players expected most from the update. We are firmly committed to maintaining the scale of events, so in the December update the game’s storyline will have lesser “vertical” changes but more “horizontal” ones, due to the many small branches (explicit ones or not) that bring players to the storylines of individual factions.

Players will have access to the prologue and the first act, the events of which unfold in the suburbs of the city built by CRONUS after the Maelstrom burst out of the Nashville caves. During two years the protagonist stayed in stasis, the world under the Dome has changed radically. The CRONUS Corporation collapsed and turned into some sort of a totalitarian state called the New Committee. Its priority goal, rather then the Dome exploration, became the construction of the Emulator – a special device designed to control the Maelstrom… It is to no surprise that several fractions formed after the collapse of CRONUS are waging a political struggle for control of the Emulator, because the one who controls the project controls the future of the Dome. And each of the factions has its own vision of the future. We will talk about those factions, their leaders and ambitions in detail in one of the following updates.

The protagonist, who’s reached the Junktown, gets into the thick of things, dealing with which alone will not be so easy. You do see where all this is headed, don’t you?

Spoiler

The Companions
Characters traveling with the protagonist make an interesting RPG even more interesting. In the December story update, two partners are waiting for you, each with their own quest, skill branch and plans for the future.

The first of them, a stern Orange nicknamed Crump, can be found in a bar in the suburbs. Just before the appearance of the player, he finds himself in an unpleasant situation, and will gladly join the protagonist, who is able to help him.

On the laboratory floor of the Magellan, you can find a scientist who will ask you to save his daughter, who is in trouble. We will not spoil exactly who the missing girl is. Let's just say that she is the second companion available in this update.

Encased partners can engage in dialogue, condemn player decisions, and give advice. You can quarrel to the nines with them (and then they will leave), or you can build friendly or even closer relations.

Companions can engage in battle. We heeded the wishes of the players, so we made it so that partners can be controlled directly.

The Modified Mechanics
When we were creating the gameplay, mechanics, and the Encased role-playing system, we could not even imagine that we were opening the Pandora’s box. Now that the game is in early access, many of the mechanics are still broken, and we are actively repairing them, adding new ones and modifying the old ones. There are many changes and we will talk about them point by point.

— Psychic abilities will be available;

— It will be possible to purchase a special psionic glove from in-game traders, without which psi abilities do not work in battle;

— The branches of medicine, heavy and high-tech weapons will be expanded and corrected;

— Many small changes will be made to the abilities of other branches;

— Destructible objects will appear: now the player will be able to blow up doors and some small obstacles;

— Traps, mines, as well as exploding objects with different types of damage dealt will be added;

— Weapons with area damage (grenade launchers, flamethrowers, etc.) will be reworked;

— The ammunition system will be modernized: the number of calibers will decrease, however, special ammunition with effects like poisoning and freezing will be added;

— A number of changes will be made to the game economy, prices and characteristics of most items;

— Some elements of the interface will be fixed and improved;

— Also new perks will be added.

Instead of an Afterword
We end this text with words of gratitude that have already become traditional. Thanks to everyone who believes in us. Thank you for the bug reports, support, criticism and dozens of hours spent in game.

In the coming days, we will begin to publish some story materials for the year 2018. Most of these ideas have been discarded, or got into the game in a very modified form, so if you want to learn how Encased was being developed, you will have such an opportunity.

And yes, today part of the team is leaving for DevGamm, which is being held in Minsk, to participate in the exhibition and compete for the Grand Prize, as well as prizes in the Best Desktop Game and Excellence in Narrative nominations.

Wish us good luck!

 

[ScrotumBroth]

I want this game to be great, would splash $40 on release.

 

[Dodo1610]

Encased is already winning awards

 

[Pablosdog]

Looks like that one character from wicked city lol

 

[Anthedon]

Even more Incline from Eastern Europe?

 

[Ranarama]

RPGs in Early Access? Why?

 

[Dodo1610]

RPGs in Early Access? Why?

Feedback and getting additional funding obviously, the game is said to offer lots of replay value with different ways to solve quests/the 5 wings.

 

[StaticSpine]

I talked to Slava on DevGamm. The most optimistic estimate for now is that the game will be in EA for 8 more months.

 

[Dodo1610]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/921800/announcements/detail/1694972357171707387

Greeting employees!

Today we have finally deciphered classified radio transmissions from the Dome and learned details of the next major Encased update. The most important information is that the patch will be available on December 14th! You won’t have to wait until Christmas or New Year's Eve to start a new adventure. Experience a completely reworked prologue and see the real wasteland in the first story act.

First content expansion will have a lot of new content, such as:

• New prologue;
  
• Main quest expansion;
  
• Companions;
  
• Psy abilities;
  
• Medicine, heavy weapon and hi-tech weapon skill trees were expanded and fixed;
  
• Destructible objects;
  
• Traps, mines and explosives with different types of damage were added;
  
• Weapons with AOE damage were reworked;
  
• Ammo system was redesigned;
  
• Game economy was changed;
  
• Some UI elements were updated;
  
• New perks.

 

[Butter]

Completely reworked prologue? Is this from the people making Copper Dreams?

 

[toro]

Completely reworked prologue? Is this from the people making Copper Dreams?

Encased is a case of creative storm, Copper Dreams is a case of shit storm !?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Completely reworked prologue? Is this from the people making Copper Dreams?

Only reworked prologue?
Where's new graphical style and different way of handling turns?

 

[Infinitron]

Content update was released: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-school-isometic-turn-based-rpg/posts/2710513

Kickstarter Update #40: First big content patch: new prologue, first act for New Commitee, new quests and much more

Since the release of Encased, we've been constantly releasing patches that fix bugs and improve the balance of weapons and abilities. In parallel with the work on urgent fixes, the studio was working hard every day on the first content patch, an extension that moved the game's story forward. So far, only a part of the story line is ready, and during 2020 you will see even more content patches, that will be followed by the full-fledged release.

Also, today, in celebration of the update release, we are distributing tickets under the Dome with 20% discount! If you've been waiting for a new content to start your adventure, now is the time.

Steam

GOG

For fans of the Encased universe we start adding DLCs with additional materials. DLC data will be included in the "First Settlers - Supporter Pack" bundle, which will allow players to support the development of the game. As we promised, Kickstarter backers and players who pre-ordered the game will receive the set for free.

Bundle contains additional portraits for the players, the music album “First Settlers LP” dedicated to the first colonizer of the Dome, as well as a set of in-game items that will help you survive in the wilderness.

Soundtrack

Portrait Pack

Run and Gun Kit

Want to know how today's update changed Encased? The list of changes is below!

Spoiler

• The prologue has been redesigned;
• Added part one of the first act for the new Committee;
• The entry points to the storylines of the following factions have been added: Fops, Carmine Heights, Church of Maelstrom, Phalanx;

• Added a skill tree for psionic abilities;
• Added equipment that allows to use psionic abilities;

• Added a mechanism for hiring companions;
• Added companion: Crump;
• Added companion: Yoko;
• Added a unique companion model: Yoko;
• Added a unique companion model: Crump;
• Added Crump's companion quest;
• Added Yoko's companion quest;

• Added tutorial;

• New story location: Landing capsule;
• New story location: Landing area of the Concord station;
• New story location: The internal premises of the Concord station;
• New story location: Suburb;
• New story location: Project "Emulator";
• New story location: Robbed caravan;
• New story location: Parking station "Magellan";
• New story location: Wasteland;
• New nonstory location: Pit;
• New nonstory location: "Sonora" storage bunker;
• New nonstory location: "Roadside Picnic" Transit Point (1 act);
• Redesigned location "Petrol station";
• Redesigned location "Magellan: Hall";
• Redesigned location "Magellan: Warehouse";
• Redesigned location "Magellan: Garrison";
• Redesigned location "Magellan: Laboratories and infirmary";
• Redesigned location "Magellan: Living quarters";
• Redesigned location "Magellan: Administration";
• Redesigned location "Magellan: Reactor Room";

• Added an ability to rent buildings;
• Added an ability to place bets in the underground arena;
• Added an ability to participate in battles for the title of arena champion;

• Added mines of various power;
• Added exploding barrels that deal multiple types of damage;
• Added flamethrower;
• Added traveling merchants;

• Graphics enhancements: Redesigned fog system;
• Graphics enhancements: Fixed terrain shading;
• Graphics enhancements: Added multilayered terrain;

• Added several new relics;

• Added several new portraits for the player;

• Improved AI: Added scheduling system, now opponents are thinking tactics for several moves forward;
• Improved AI: Added different enemy behaviors;
• Improved AI: Now an enemy uses better positions to attack the player;

• Numerous changes and minor improvements in the dialog interface;
• The "equalize" button appeared in the barter interface;
• Added companion management interface;
• Fixed errors with displaying tooltips in the interface;
• Added character avatars;

• Added an ability to destroy doors with an explosion/shot;
• Added the degree of rarity to objects;
• Added "fog of war";

• Added extended DLC support;

• Added perks;
• Fixed character's abilities;
• Fixed description of some attributes;
• Changed the cost and attributes of the weapons;
• Fixed roof behavior on locations: now roofs always disappear when the character is underneath them;

• Improved performance;
• Added new location sounds;
• Added sounds for interactive and non-interactive location elements;
• Parts of vignettes are now with sound;
• Added sound for servo armor;

• Fixed memory leak problems at some locations;
• Fixed the problem with ragdoll;
• Fixed problems with passability on the level grid;
• Fixed problems with corpses falling through locations;
• Fixed bunker tileset, bunker locations rebuilt for a new tileset;

• Added tileset for settlements;
• Added tileset for concrete buildings;
• Added environment models: medical office, garage;

Community requests:

• Added an ability to load user portraits;
• Added a photo mode to create screenshots.

 

[Sykar]

Makes me itchy to buy it.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

So is this worth buying early access? It is among my favorite genre, sci fi cRPG. Well cyberpunk has a special place there but still sci fi > fantasy for me.

No, simply because it's bad form to buy indie games in early access. You never know if they manage to fuck it up or not. More accurately, only buy it if you want to support the devs, and don't mind the possibility of your dreams for how great the game *could be* getting crushed. That being said, I did buy it and i'm not disappointing so far. It is coming along really well.

I was/am a backer. Didnt regret it.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Makes me itchy to buy it.

Buy it on GOG.