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found that cuz of Brian Fargo twittering bout ths one.
i decided to give it some thought and a try later nevertheless.
art and setting looked nice, it wasnt quite clear to me how combat works (some gunfights seemed auto-speeded, blazingly fast) and what sort of character development there wil be/RPG elements.
Yes! We've introduced base combat rules. Lots and lots of things are still pretty broken (covers, for instance) but the base idea is there. I'd really appreciate some feedback on that.
We'll be soon doing an update on how exactly it works and what's the big idea.
Probably not. Melee is very costful in terms of animations, and honestly I'd rather invest more in overall visual quality and resolve the CQB combat with shotguns and such.
Depends on the map. Some maps are riddled with these (btw, it's been now fixed and they're now massively useful, OP even).
Some maps, we simply didn't put them in yet.
Yes, in some form.
I say that because I want to stay away of the XCOM devensive overwatch. It's way too efficient and as such - kills the pace. So I'll tread lightly. Overall, I want to make Hard West faster and more aggressive.
Any suggestions are welcome!
Probably not. Melee is very costful in terms of animations, and honestly I'd rather invest more in overall visual quality and resolve the CQB combat with shotguns and such.
Alas, that's a purchase killer for me. I like having the option of melee combat even if I don't always use it. Being able to bash someone over the head with the butt of a shotgun just makes sense to me (not to mention knife fights and the like.) If that isn't part of the core combat system then it removes a large element of possibilities from combat and that just drops the interest level down to below my purchase threshold.
Lots of luck with the game! I really hope it does well.
I second the recommendation for a basic melee attack - even just have every dude have a basic knife and a shared knife-stabbing animation, it's only one animation but it really broadens the tactical possibilities and it's damn satisfying. Fair enough if it wouldn't be cost-effective to implement though, I won't pretend to understand these things.
I second the recommendation for a basic melee attack - even just have every dude have a basic knife and a shared knife-stabbing animation, it's only one animation but it really broadens the tactical possibilities and it's damn satisfying. Fair enough if it wouldn't be cost-effective to implement though, I won't pretend to understand these things.
I see what you mean and understand completely. However our policy and style is a bit more "less is more" - one animation won't cut it; the game will be bogged down with a half-baked feature. Consider this: we have a gazillion of guns, different shooting anims, different shot anims; cover system that works with the shooting, and many other systems to support that. Combat revolves around the shooting, obviously. If in the middle of a firefight you'd approach a target and issue a melee attack, and it would look like Fallout 1 (which I adore, but it looked ok 20 years ago), there is no way on earth we can make it cheap and not stand out as bland, bleak, cheap and ugly. On one hand there's depth and options (which I know you guys are in love with, I share and understand your concerns) and on the other hand - there's production value: something we have extensive experience with from AAAs, and it's our company main strength (it saved the day for the less-than-perfect Ancient Space). So it's a sound business decision to go for less, but better.
Actually, we had to drop a whole lot more than that. All the wild west games miss out on a lot of essential wild west stuff. Well, except for RDR obviously, but they did oversimplify lots of themes. It is no different with HW. That's one of the reasons why it's weird west instead - hopefully players accept that we sort of redefine the genre, and fill the missing pieces with unique stuff of our own instead. So, for example, there's no horseback combat, but you get to visit Death at his home.
One of the strategic decisions was not to choose a period. It's irrelevant to the story, and our wild west is a cliched, dark and fantastic wild west. There are soldiers and Civil War themes at times, but no certain dates, events. Think of it as a mythic take on the subject. Some of it is true, most is not; but it works on the feels and has lots of cool stuff in it.
Looks enjoyable - I don't regret backing. I like what I'm seeing for many reasons. Two criticisms follow.
Annoying: having to re-subdue a guy every turn. Once you stick your gun in his face it should stay there until your guy actively does something else.
"Fuck you" level trolling by the devs: "Kill all hostiles to escape". On a timer. And then the one remaining enemy running away as far and as fast as he can, making it impossible to kill him. Yo homie, if the hostiles are running away from me, I already escaped. Kacper Szymczak please look into re-framing this bullshit.
"Fuck you" level trolling by the devs: "Kill all hostiles to escape". On a timer. And then the one remaining enemy running away as far and as fast as he can, making it impossible to kill him. Yo homie, if the hostiles are running away from me, I already escaped. Kacper Szymczak please look into re-framing this bullshit.
The timer counts down to backup, so it makes sense they play defensively when it's low. If it looks like fleeing, well - that is bad, I'll look into it.
Glad to support you guys. Looking forward to the game
The timer counts down to backup, so it makes sense they play defensively when it's low. If it looks like fleeing, well - that is bad, I'll look into it.
I think what is needed is a change in language. When you say
"Demons are coming to help the guards! Escape before they arrive!"
then the player is naturally going to think of ... getting away. Continuing to attack doesn't make sense when escape is the objective.
At that point the victory condition shouldn't be killing everything, but moving all the player units x distance away from any hostile units. Once you get far enough away, you escaped. That is what I expected to see when I saw that objective appear.
On the other hand, you could say
"Demons are coming to help the guards! Kill everyone before the demons get here!"
then that is a very straightforward "hunt them down" objective, no confusion. Problem solved.
Surprisingly very well polished, with only a budget of about 70K, that's impressive. All the core mechanics look solid as well. The western theme really makes it stand out, and as far as I can tell, the devs really wanted to keep that feel with the gameplay. What with the stickups and intimidation.
I'm regretting not looking further into this when I first saw it. :D
I hope that this game can end up being a short, fun and interesting game, that if luckily sells well enough can be expanded and improved.
But, things like the subdue, or the the ricochet....I don't know, feels like is going to be gimmicks and not really cool game changing features,
I did not disliked the firaxis X-COM, so the fact that this game is extremely similar does not bother me. But better not be a re-skin.
I am really on the fence with this game, we'll see once is released.
I get that the purpose of the demo is to show cool game features like ricochet, subdue, temporary cover etc. But suboptimal play (units standing out in the open) still really annoys me, even when flanking, especially when there is a covered position available that can still flank. In-universe explanations like "demons are cocky and don't use cover" are nice but it feels like a bandaid on an AI issue. Apart from having higher HP, they really ought to use cover so the player has to use better tactics.
As long as the human AI is good, it's cool with me that the demons won't take full advantage of it. I don't expect every enemy in the game to use the most challenging possible AI settings (and all therefore behave exactly the same).
