Hex: a unique combat-focused turn-based tactical RPG - now available on Early Access

[Sunny Days]

Screenshots

Key features:

- All enemy attacks for their next turn are shown in advance, giving player ability to react. Each turn therefore presents a unique tactical puzzle the player must solve.

- All random variables are calculated at the start of the turn, so you will always know the exact result of your every action. This approach combines the best of both random and deterministic systems.

- Complex RPG system where each action resolved using multiple checks that depend on dozens of variables. The system supports a variety of playstyles and allows for multitude of classes and weapons that each has it's uses.

- Large selection of realistic weapons and armor. Design inspired by real historic examples and each piece of equipment has its own tactical niche, consistent with how it's actually were used.

- Saving system which combines Ironman mode with the ability to retry encounters and pick the best outcome (retry attempts are limited). This way you have to carefuly plan your every action, but a single mistake won't ruin an entire playthrough.

- Permadeath. Squadmates that die in battle are gone forever. If your main char dies and you have no retries it's game over.


Together this creates an intense, high-stakes tactical gameplay, where each turn requires careful planning and consequences of your mistakes will affect your whole playthrough.

Release:

Early Access release planned in 2 months. Full release planned in 3-4 years.

 

[Sunny Days]

The main purpose was to create a system that combined deep tactical combat with hard difficulty and high lethality, had long-reaching consequences (permadeath) and at the same time didn't seem unfair.
Previeving enemy attacks (like in Into The Breach) ensures that your characters don't die due to a single unlucky crit. Enemies still can often kill you in one-two hits, but you usually have enough options to stop that.
Your characters' attacks are randomized at the start of each turn, which can create a wide range of tactical situations. If you have good options you focus on dealing maximum amount of damage, if bad - focus on healing/defending/repositioning. If enemies rolled too high you will need to think hard on how to minimize the damage. At the same time you won't lose because you missed four times in a row on attacks that seemed like a sure hit.
This allows to rise the difficulty quite high - enemies outnumber you at least 3 to 1, and can quickly kill your whole squad if you make mistakes. At the same time if you play smart you can win without dead or even wounded. In other words player characters only die when player makes mistakes.

 

[Sunny Days]

Here's unedited gameplay video:

 

[Sunny Days]

About combat:

Checks:
Each attack uses multiple checks to calculate the result: Defence checks include block, dodge, counterattack, parry (for melee attacks), miss (for ranged) and spell resistance (for magic). Defence checks have several levels. Different attacks are effective against different defences and so are good against different enemy types. If defence check is successful, either part of the damage is dealt to Defence bar, instead of HP, or the damage is reduced, or attack fails completely, depending on the level of success.
Other checks include crit, precision (determines if attack hits where armor is weaker) and status effect checks. Status effects interrupt enemy attacks, apply debuffs or completely disable the enemy for the rest of the fight, depending on the level of effect.

Damage types and armor:
Slashing attacks have high damage and low armor penetration, their damage mostly affected by weapon quality, character melee attack skill and blade length. Attack strength is not important. Bludgeoning attacks scale mostly with character strength and attack power, and very little with weapon quality. Powerful bludgeoning attacks deal high damage to both armored and unarmored enemies. Piercing attacks have low damage and high AP, scale with strength, weapon quality and character precision skill. Chopping attacks have average damage and HP and scale with strength and quality. AP has several levels, determining if the armor was pierced completely, partially or not at all. Different types of armor has their own strengths and weaknesses. Slashing attacks are almost useless against any metal armor. Padded armor protects relatively well against blunt strikes, but weak against slashes. Chainmail is weak against piercing and bludgeoning weapons.

Health, wounds and healing:
In Hex characters have Health and Hit Point bars. Damage to health represents life-threatening wounds. If health drops to zero, at the end of the fight character dies. HP represents characters’ ability to continue fighting. If HP drops to zero, he falls unconscious. If health is lower than HP, at the start of each turn HP will drop. Stab wounds and arrows deal little HP damage, meaning that enemy with lethal wounds will still be active and pose threat for several turns. Light bludgeoning weapon cause little Health damage, meaning you can win the fight without killing anyone. Armor mostly reduces lethal damage, meaning that characters in heavy armor will have higher chances to survive if they fall in battle.
Low-level spell and potions and most non-magic healing only restores HPs. Mid-level healing slowly regenerates health. Certain wounds don’t regenerate, including broken bones, wounds caused by arrows, poisoned or cursed weapon, also silver and holy weapon (for undead). High level magic that instantly heals any wounds is extremely rare.

 

[Sunny Days]

Portraits:

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[Sunny Days]

Reuploaded portraits:

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Magic system:

In Hex magic has three main components: Power, Difficulty and Peril.
A mage needs a source of power to channel magical energy from, and the amount of energy he can use depends on his Magic Affinity. Intellect is required to perform difficult spells, and Volition – to control the spell, so it doesn’t backfire.

Magic power can be obtained from three main sources:
The World – the easiest available source. In certain places, magic energy is so strong that you don’t need anything else. In most places, however it’s rather weak. Effectiveness of using this source greatly varies from one encounter to another.
The Stars – using this source increases the difficulty of the spell. Power available from this source varies from day to day (i.e. turn on global map).
The Chaos – the most dangerous source of power. Increases Peril of the spell. Power available changes randomly at the start of each turn.
Other ways to obtain magical energy include rituals, blood magic, divine help, etc.

The three main spell schools:
Channeling – the simplest spells, based on directly channeling magical energy into elemental attacks. Focuses on direct damage and AOE. High Power requirements.
Manipulation – channeling’s direct counterpart. Manipulation spells require little power, but have high difficulty. Include mostly spells that apply status effects and buffs and are focused on a single target or small area.
Alteration – the highest form of magic and the most dangerous one. Alteration spells have the widest variety of unusual effects, including those that are physically impossible. Suitable for any role but has higher requirements.

Based on how the spell affects the target:
Physical. Most channeling spells’ effects are physical. Physical effects have less effect on characters with high fortitude.
Mental. Manipulation spell are either physical or mental. Mental effects can be resisted with high willpower.
Supernatural. Alteration spells can be physical, mental or supernatural. Only characters with magical training can defend against these, using spell resistance.

In combat your spellcaster character can pick which spells he wants to use on the next turn, plus some spells are randomly picked from your spell list. Scholar-type mages get more spell slots to pick. Wild-mage type spellcasters get more random spells. The game then checks whether the mage failed the Power, Difficulty and Peril requirements of each spell to determine if it can be cast.

Planned features:
Counter-spells – when fighting against other spellcasters, mages can counter enemy spells with their own.
Spell backlash mechanic – overusing dangerous spells should have negative consequences. Either enemies get buffs, or an offensive spell is cast on the mage and he needs to dispel it, or a supernatural being appears on the battlefield and attacks your party.
Global spells – non-combat challenge that involve casting a complex, multi-component spell. For example to remove a curse, perform healing, open a magically locked door, etc.

The result is the system that allows a wide variety of playstyles and is easy enough to balance. Low-level spells stay relevant in late game and high-level ones are rare and each time they are used feel impactful. Magic users play very differently from other classes and magic feels like a wild and unpredictable force.

 

[Sunny Days]

Early Access release.

 

[Tyranicon]

This honestly sounds like a really interesting combat system. Surprised that nobody gave you feedback here yet.

Do you have a another trailer that shows more than just combat?

 

[Sunny Days]

This honestly sounds like a really interesting combat system. Surprised that nobody gave you feedback here yet.

Do you have a another trailer that shows more than just combat?

Ok, I'll make one shortly. Though the current version is mostly about combat.

 

[Sunny Days]

Do you have a another trailer that shows more than just combat?

Here's a video that shows character creation and preparation for combat.

 

[Sunny Days]

About character system:

Character’s stats and abilities are determined by four factors: talent, training, knowledge and experience. When ability’s requirements are met, that ability is unlocked automatically.

Talent values are selected at char creation and do not change through the game. In current version only physical stats matter since non-combat mechanics and magic aren’t in yet.

Training and knowledge in current version determined only by your character’s class and also don’t change. In full version over time characters will receive additional training points that you’ll be able to spend to either progress in their current skillset or fork into another specialization. For example you can make a char with high magic potential but no training and over the time make him into a fighter/mage hybrid.

Knowledge in full version will be a key mechanic for magic users and characters that specialize in advanced fighting styles. It can be obtained as a reward for quests, bought, or learned from a teacher.

Overall the system feels mostly like classic D&D (stat increase and new abilities unlocked on level up, you can progress in existing specialization or multiclass) but less arbitrary in terms of class bonuses and easier to balance.

Level-up:

At the end of the fight each character performs a level-up check that depends on encounter difficulty and character’s effectiveness in that fight. If you don’t pass the check you get some amount of XP instead, that makes the check lower next time. Same rules are used for increasing character’s prestige, reputation, wealth, rank in a faction, etc. This somewhat imitates PNP systems where GM manually awards level-ups for difficult fights or exceptional performance.

 

[Abu Antar]

Are you that crazy guy that pops up every few years with a new game? Forgot their name.

 

[Sunny Days]

Are you that crazy guy that pops up every few years with a new game? Forgot their name.

No, not realy.

 

[Sunny Days]

Turn-based, isometric, party-based RPG. No save-scumming, no grind, no HP bloat, no autolevelling. Innovative mechanics, permadeath, realistic armor system, lethal and non-lethal attacks, lots of realistic and meaningfully different weapons. Easy to learn and hard to master.

A reminder that this game exists and only costs 13$.

 

[vitellus]

you've only posted one update and that was on 3 february.

you abandoning it? i forgot your game existed and it's in my library.

 

[Sunny Days]

you've only posted one update and that was on 3 february.

you abandoning it? i forgot your game existed and it's in my library.

No, not abandoned. First major update is out.
Added magic, some new mechanics, new classes.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2115080/view/3728462460139482196?l=english

 

[AdolfSatan]

Game looks pretty cool, but buying EA, and specially from an unknown dev, is a hard sell, mate. Will gladly give it a try when it's finished.

Are you that crazy guy that pops up every few years with a new game? Forgot their name.

@fishdog or something like that?

 

[Aemar]

10 euros for a combat demo sounds like a proper plan.

 

[luj1]

Generic game #451

 

[Sunny Days]

10 euros for a combat demo sounds like a proper plan.

Absolutely.