Expeditions: Viking - historical Viking RPG from Logic Artists

[Barbarian]

That change was hardly important in my view. I think Vikings was inferior to conquistador for several reasons. Some personal(I really prefer the conquistador setting), some quite factual, specially this: The combat in conquistador had more strategy involved and the character developing system, while much smaller, was more concise and effective(vikings has ton of dump stats/perks and your characters become less specialized as they progress, contrary to conquistador).

But Vikings did make some things better, although most of them have to do with better production values. The settlement mechanics for instance, much better than that quite limited fort we got in conquistador. Also the factions and alliances were better and more complex.

 

[Cadmus]

If that number is true that is fucked up. Battle Brothers for instance is said to have sold over 125k copies, and it is a much inferior game.

Anyway, they were hiring people a few months ago for their new project, so the company is certainly still afloat and working on a game. It will be a real shame if they drop the expeditions formula though. It is a winner idea.

If you are not just referring to real world history settings as expeditions formula; they changed the formula to be more in line with the trad. RPGs, I thought it was the right decision but in hindsight it was wrong; "everything except combat happening on world map" was what made it unique & more appealing cos it made it shine by its difference in the saturated market. By making individual maps for "exploration" they took on an additional set of expectations and ultimately it wasn't up to par & probably was the worst part of the experience.

Also according to recent steam leak; viking has 81,722 steam users compared to conquistador's 130,612.

I think everyone must be sick of the fucking viking setting after skyrim and I said it at the very beginning. I myself am not interested at all in it, even having played the beta and seen that it's a lot more history than gay hero shouts but then the beta sucked for other reasons imo.
Conquistadors was unique at first glance and this is not.

 

[Ivan]

is this right, there's only an ending slide for a companion only if you romance them?

 

[Barbarian]

is this right, there's only an ending slide for a companion only if you romance them?

I played this a while ago and haven't got the best memory for this kind of thing, but I'm quite sure there was a short text for each companion depending on their morale by endgame(i.e: Morcant built a church in your village, Gunnar stayed, etc). The romanced npc was the only one who appeared on a scene(if that is what you mean).

At least that is how I remember it...

 

[Ivan]

huh, I was really let down, maybe it was bugged. Oh well, the game was till a very satisfying experience. Makes me want to re-play Conquistador since I remember dropping playthrough after the first area.

 

[Morkar Left]

Besides the mentioned bugs the game looked like an improvement over the first Expeditions. Except I totally can't into Viking settings. I don't know, it just bores me to death. Completely personal matter though...

 

[not an artichoke]

Picked this up yesterday after reading a bit on here & enjoying E:Conquistador.

Started on Insane Ironman because I'm a fucking Codexian, right?

Restarted after the barrow ghosts clobbered me repeatedly.

Retuned & redesigned main character is doing well so far, but I have no idea when this "game is so easy" thing will start... maybe after I get to Britain and stop using pitchforks and pine shields?

I'm enjoying having to carefully think through strategies and placement in every battle thus far though.

 

[daveyd]

Picked this up yesterday after reading a bit on here & enjoying E:Conquistador.

Started on Insane Ironman because I'm a fucking Codexian, right?

Restarted after the barrow ghosts clobbered me repeatedly.

Retuned & redesigned main character is doing well so far, but I have no idea when this "game is so easy" thing will start... maybe after I get to Britain and stop using pitchforks and pine shields?

I'm enjoying having to carefully think through strategies and placement in every battle thus far though.

Yeah I think it's generally after you first leave Denmark that the combat tended to become cakewalk.. For the most anyway; IIRC there's one fight where if you make a certain choice you can have two factions going against you. The final battles in particular were disappointing as you expect your arch enemy to be a decent challenge but it was very easy.

Of course, most of us complained about it being too easy played it shortly after release (i.e., before the latest patches which added ironman mode and general difficulty tweaks.)... I have a new game started and have arrived at Britain so I'll see if things have changed. My general sense is that if you want it to remain challenging you should avoid crafting weapons / armor. Also I have made all of my player generated companions healers / hunters who are pretty much useless in battle so I plan to take the predefined party members into battle as much as possible.

 

[Jinn]

Of course, most of us complained about it being too easy played it shortly after release (i.e., before the latest patches which added ironman mode and general difficulty tweaks.)... I have a new game started and have arrived at Britain so I'll see if things have changed.

With all the patching and balance changes, I found the game to be consistently challenging even right up to the end. It was too easy on launch, but they quickly remedied that.

Or I could just be really bad at the game. That's an option too.

 

[not an artichoke]

I was also an idiot and skipped straight over Ribe, going straight to the burial mound. No wonder things didn't go well.

My second character is now flush with wealth and loot from the Ribe areas. I know how to play better. These barrow shits won't know what hit them.

I'm using my 3 extra characters as camp bots as well, although I gave two of them combat skills just in case some of my plot characters get nasty wounds or something. I only plan to use them in emergency situations though.

Crafting does seem powerful, but also expensive. I can craft some ridiculously nice gear already, but only one ridiculously nice thing. I think it will be a bow, to upgrade ArcherDude from 8-10 damage to 42-45.

Yes. I will do this.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

another prosperous idea for an expeditions game is to license the Pillars of Eternity IP from Obsidian and do something there. The IP itself would probably generate millions in sales, no?

 

[daveyd]

Not sure if anyone has posted this here yet, but it's possible clue in regards to the next Expeditions setting.

Spoiler

Expeditions: Rome?

 

[Sensuki]

Well done!

Looks very likely. Rome has been done quite a bit in games, but there's also A LOT of periods to pull from, definitely a good choice for an Expeditions game.

 

[daveyd]

Well done!

Looks very likely. Rome has been done quite a bit in games, but there's also A LOT of periods to pull from, definitely a good choice for an Expeditions game.

Right. Well, IMO there's really no wrong choice for a historical RPG.. Anything other than fantasy pseudo-medieval Europe is a breath of fresh air. And while there's been quite a few strategy and action games set in Ancient Rome, I'm not aware of many RPGs. After a quick search all I came up with was Gladius (an SRPG from 2003, which I haven't played). Age of Decadence was obviously inspired by Rome but with a lot of post-apoc / fantasy elements. While I'd probably prefer something in Asia or Africa for something even further removed from the usual this still sounds good to me.

Assuming the sales figures we've seen are at all accurate, I do wonder if the market for RPGs with unusual / unconventional settings is limited. On the one hand, KC: D is selling well, but it's an open world action RPG set in medieval Europe with pretty graphics; so not too different from the norm. In general, a lot of RPG fans seem to have a boner for magical Elves and I've heard some say they aren't really interested in RPGs w/o fantasy elements. To those people I'd say the Picts are basically Elves sans pointy ears and Expeditions: Viking kinda sorta has magic; Granted, you can't shoot a lighting bolt from your hand but archers get fire arrows.

Perhaps it's just a problem with marketing / failure to get much exposure on mainstream gaming sites. IDK, I read a post on Steam from about a year ago where Logic Artists said they hadn't even broken even on Viking yet at that point. Fortunately, they have found investors for their next game, but I want their studio to really well and grow.

 

[Barbarian]

Not so sure man, that is from 2016. I don't even know if the Vikings setting for the last game was established by then. Also earlier this year devs were commenting on the steam forums how the new setting was still in discussion. Only comment I read was something to the point of "our producer really wants to make expeditions: crusader", which off course, said in that tone and situation means that they likely wouldn't be doing it.

Stranded legionnaries in the Brittish isles or germannia would be damn cool though. Let's be honest though, as a poster above said anything historical stands out from the generic fantasy medieval shit we get several times a year. I can't really imagine them doing any expeditions game that I wouldn't enjoy. Crusader setting would make me overjoyed though, as unlikely as it is to happen.

 

[daveyd]

Not so sure man, that is from 2016. I don't even know if the Vikings setting for the last game was established by then. Also earlier this year devs were commenting on the steam forums how the new setting was still in discussion. Only comment I read was something to the point of "our producer really wants to make expeditions: crusader", which off course, said in that tone and situation means that they likely wouldn't be doing it.

Stranded legionnaries in the Brittish isles or germannia would be damn cool though. Let's be honest though, as a poster above said anything historical stands out from the generic fantasy medieval shit we get several times a year. I can't really imagine them doing any expeditions game that I wouldn't enjoy. Crusader setting would make me overjoyed though, as unlikely as it is to happen.

Very true, it was from well before Vikings release and Logic Artists may have received a shitload of requests for a certain period since then. I'm up for just about anything. Whether they go for Ancient times or something more modern (e.g., I think American Frontier / "Wild West" could be good).

In the Watch interview from late 2016 Jonas said "Expeditions: Normans would be a bit too similar to Viking. It's a good idea, but we like to shake it up more from installment to installment. Persia and Hannibal would be great ideas."

 

[unfairlight]

A Expeditions about the Teutonic crusades would be cool. The history is under researched and will probably take a lot of effort, but it would be something that no other game has ever done. A Expeditions about Chinese or Asian history would be cool too, and would sell a boatload of copies because of how many Chinese users Steam has now.

 

[daveyd]

I finished my latest play through last week, this time allying with Northumbria. The combat difficulty for "insane" has certainly improved since I last played it. There were a couple of late game fights were I was actually defeated and had to reload. Interestingly, you can keep playing after getting defeated in one critical battle on the Northumbria path, but basically your hopes of an alliance are crushed so you'd have to either opt to side with the Picts (or just conquer all of Britania). But I chose to reload as I had already done both of those paths.

Unfortunately, the final two battles (which are essentially the same regardless of which path you took) were still far too easy (It's possible upgrading your town's defenses makes 2nd to last fight easier). It feels almost like my character could've done the final battle solo. It's a shame that your arch enemy doesn't put up more of a fight. But all in all it's a great game and I'd put up very high on my list of favorite RPGs. Too bad we're not getting an expansion for it. But I'm ready for another expeditions game wherever it may take us. As far as I'm concerned Logic Artists can use the Vikings engine; all I ask for is tougher fights in the later part of the game and fewer crates / barrels.

 

[unfairlight]

As far as I'm concerned Logic Artists can use the Vikings engine

IIRC they have used Unity for everything. There's no real reason to move away from it, but no real reason to stay on it either since UE4 has become THE indie game engine for choice by now.

 

[daveyd]

As far as I'm concerned Logic Artists can use the Vikings engine

IIRC they have used Unity for everything. There's no real reason to move away from it, but no real reason to stay on it either since UE4 has become THE indie game engine for choice by now.

True, I just figured sticking with the same one would cut down on costs / development time. Then they just need to create some new art assets and new combat abilities if the time period requires it (e.g., firearms or different weapon types) as opposed to "starting from scratch" in UE. Of course, I'm not a developer so wtf do I know? Some people were complaining about long load times in Viking, but I have an SSD so it wasn't so bad for me.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Picked this up on sale, cool gaem so far though I've only just finished collecting wood fer me longship. The lethal/nonlethal damage toggle is a great thing, and one that I've been missing in rpgs since forever.









but why oh why does it have to run on fucking unity

 

[Morkar Left]

If the next game is about Rome and similar to E: Vikings I will definitely buy it!

 

[Barbarian]

No news about it right? I'm kind of worried. Word is Viking didn't sell well. Which is tragic because it certainly was the best rpg released in years.

 

[Avonaeon]

It did OK, nothing amazing.

 

[Darth Roxor]

It did OK, nothing amazing.

you can feel the despair radiating through this post