KickStarter INSOMNIA: The Ark - dieselpunk sci-fi action-RPG set on a decaying space station

[Zombra]

I'm replaying Gothic 2 right now. There is nothing on the screen but the health bar.

But imagine if the health bar showed you a large static picture of an island that never went away. Maybe with a sword above it. It would remind you that you're on an island and people there fight with swords sometimes. You know, in case you forgot! Immersive!

 

[The Wall]

One more thing. This is not (nor it ever is) a game of who wins for me. I hope more than everything that I am the one who's in the wrong here. And I hate when I'm right when it comes to these things. Gutted minimalistic, tranparent UI is one thing but I'm afraid that RPG basis from demo on top of which they should have built and worked on has instead been demolished at worst and neglected at best. I hope that this won't turn out to be Bioshock in space, if you know what I mean.

We will see in January/February. If their delays and broken promises which have so far been so numerous that I have lost count are anything to go by this will be released before the end of 2018. Hopefully. Maybe it will be good for what it is. Maybe it will be great. It will probably be lackluster but with good graphics and art style.

Did any dev working on this game ever use to post here? They should have simply gone into EA months ago and I'm sure community feedback could have prevented them from making many stupid decisions, UI change being one of them. They have been working on this game for so long that they might have lost original vision for it or even more likely some key original devs might have left.

Also Heretic it's not only about UI on screen (isn't that called GUI). It's about overall amount of UI, positioning of UI elements and importance it's given to rpg mechanics which are shown/represented/interacted via those UI elements. If you get what I mean. I'm not for clunky, unnecessary and too large UI. Original UI for this was more than fine. It was a damn fine one.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

I'm replaying Gothic 2 right now. There is nothing on the screen but the health bar (and the mana bar if you equip a spell). It doesn't make the game worse - it shows me exactly all I need 99% of the time. When I need more, I pull up the character sheet or the inventory. Admittedly, it could be less minimalistic - hotkey items and spells are only visible in the inventory, but it's not really a problem.

I don't understand the argument that showing less on the main game screen makes the game worse.

I don't play games for their UI but for the world, writing, quests, combat etc. The UI either gets in the way or it does its job. This one seems to do its job.

Much ado about nothing.

I really liked the old UI but agree that it's not a huge deal.

That said, what exactly do we know about this other than how it looks? Has anyone tried the demo? Is the demo still relevant? I remember following the kickstarter years ago but I could never tell if this was going to be real or bullshit.

If they've gutted the RPG elements it's probably because the new publisher wanted them to.

 

[Zombra]

They should have simply gone into EA months ago and I'm sure community feedback could have prevented them from making many stupid decisions, UI change being one of them.

Don't be too sure. Maybe Heretic and I are the only two gamers in the world who don't like cluttered/bloated UI, but I tend to doubt it.

 

[The Wall]

I'm replaying Gothic 2 right now. There is nothing on the screen but the health bar (and the mana bar if you equip a spell). It doesn't make the game worse - it shows me exactly all I need 99% of the time. When I need more, I pull up the character sheet or the inventory. Admittedly, it could be less minimalistic - hotkey items and spells are only visible in the inventory, but it's not really a problem.

I don't understand the argument that showing less on the main game screen makes the game worse.

I don't play games for their UI but for the world, writing, quests, combat etc. The UI either gets in the way or it does its job. This one seems to do its job.

Much ado about nothing.

I really liked the old UI but agree that it's not a huge deal.

That said, what exactly do we know about this other than how it looks? Has anyone tried the demo? Is the demo still relevant? I remember following the kickstarter years ago but I could never tell if this was going to be real or bullshit.

If they've gutted the RPG elements it's probably because the new publisher wanted them to.

Yeah, I also think that publisher probably forced them to change many things, UI included. As I said, had they gone early access they would have had enough funds to finish the game and community feedback could have been invaluable to the game's quality.

I played the demo extensively. To be honest from what I can see it's a demo of a game which will never get made. Insomnia will be released though.

They should have simply gone into EA months ago and I'm sure community feedback could have prevented them from making many stupid decisions, UI change being one of them.

Don't be too sure. Maybe Heretic and I are the only two gamers in the world who don't like cluttered/bloated UI, but I tend to doubt it.

Well I thought this game's target audience was old school RPG players. It probably changed in the middle of development and you became part of target audience instead.

 

[Serus]

The Wall - that was savage. I don't know if you are a newfag or an alt of someone but if the former - you have adjusted very well to the Codex. Your last remark about Zombra being the new target player made me laugh like and idiot.

Spoiler

We have some really stupid posters on the Codex but Zobra is not one of them. He is a very prestigious Codexer of good taste (unless it's bad taste as in this case)

As to the subject, I agree. Style and originality (as long as it remains practical to use) > generic copy-pasted stuff. Not absolutely crucial but good thematic UI shows that the game has it's own identity and that developers are not afraid to do something differently than most (considering the fact that most don't do it this way any more). Maybe it's a matter of age - i grew up with games that had UIs often taking half of the screen - but usually being thematic and done with care. Otoh Zombra probably isn't young as well considering his time on the Codex so it might not be the reason at all.

 

[Zombra]

Maybe it's a matter of age - i grew up with games that had UIs often taking half of the screen - but usually being thematic and done with care. Otoh Zombra probably isn't young as well considering his time on the Codex so it might not be the reason at all.

It's not (just) a question of age or old school cred or what we grew up with; it's also a question of individual taste and reasoned scrutiny of what we enjoy. I bought a boxed copy of Fallout in a store 20 years ago just like The Wall did. One of us decided that Fallout was the perfect game, and from that day forward any deviation from it would be a crime. The other grew up to be Zombra.

I get the appeal of artistic UIs, I really do. That gargoyle is cool and fantasy-y, and puts me in a fantasy mood. You know what else puts me in a fantasy mood? Every single thing in the fantasy game I'm playing. After a couple of hours playing, I don't even see the gargoyle any more; all it's doing now is taking up space. Does use of real estate matter? Yes, it does, despite old-school screen-wasters' nostalgia boners, and any designer today who ignores that is stupid and doing their players a disservice. One zebra's opinion.

We can be angry or snooty about the evils of good in-game graphics, but the fact is that they have a greater ability to impart style and atmosphere than they used to. I looked at the old Insomnia videos and laughed at the Pip Boy UI. It's great that you want to remind me of rusty machinery, but you know what else reminds me of rusty machinery? The fact that the entire fucking game world is built out of rusty machinery. I can't look at a single screenshot and not see rusty machinery. Why does the game have to set aside valuable space to show me a static drawing of rusty machinery that won't change for the next 40 hours? Cool art of rusty machinery is already everywhere. It's strikingly ironic to see someone wailing about good graphics in the game and bemoaning the loss of graphics in the UI at the same time. Make a choice.

I'm probably older than most of us in the thread. I've seen 'em all, played 'em all. Doesn't mean they did no wrong back in the day. And you know what? I love Fallout ... but Fallout's UI was crap even in 1997. Yep, I said it. I disliked it even then. Grab your torches.

 

[Serus]

Starting with the last part - Fallout interface. It wasn't very good utility-wise. No. But it was serviceable, "crap" is going way to far. But it's probably a semantic difference mostly. People didn't love Fallout because they thought: "What a great, intuitive and easy to use interface, the best i have ever seen !". You can stop waiting for the mob with torches - it won't come.

About graphics in game. You made a logical error here IMO. You assumed that a non-minimalist UI will make you miss unique parts of the game - their place taken by GUI. No, that's not the case. One is not following logically from the other. You won't be seeing less unique things because of UI. At worst you will see less repetitive grass textures or such. All the models of "rusty machinery" will still be in game for You to see and enjoy whether the UI is minimalist or not. Unless the GUI is really badly designed (a different issue and irrelevant here) it won't make you miss anything unique in game if you don't want to. There is no logical reason to make that assumption. If it were correct then it would be impossible to see all the graphical content in a game with a non-minimalist GUI. Which is absurd, it simply isn't and never was the case.
In short, and putting it almost into a formula:
No matter what GUI is in use, the amount of rusty machinery to see in any given game remains constant.
In conclusion your whole point is based on an incorrect assumption and because of it is invalid. On the other hand if you want to argue that non-minimalist GUI are inherently more cumbersome, be my guest but that's a different argument.

Graphics, graphics, graphics again. Good UI with some creative thought put into it is not just about graphics. It might be a sign that the devs of a game try to do something others won't do these days. Which is usually a good sign. I don't need more games that copy everything from other existing games (including generic, minimalist UI) because there is little worth copying. Doing something differently suggests that the devs have the courage to try doing things differently which in my book increases the chances for a good game. This obviously is a minor point and less important for games one already knows - but it is relevant in the case of the game in this thread (and all similar cases).

Edited first paragraph.

 

[Zombra]

In conclusion your whole point is based on an incorrect assumption and because of it is invalid. You assumed that a non-minimalist UI will make you miss unique parts of the game.

Not at all. Obviously it's all still there, no matter how tiny my window is. The question is how much I have to swing the camera around to see everything, whether it's worth it to make my window smaller in the first place, and how much it's costing me in terms of panoramic enjoyment. Looking at each tree is nice, but why not let me see the forest too?

No matter what GUI is in use, the amount of rusty machinery to see in any given game remains constant.

By that logic, I could tape a picture of a dinosaur to cover half my screen and it wouldn't matter because I could still get to the whole game world eventually, plus see a cool dinosaur all the time! Yet I bet very few of us actually do this.

Graphics, graphics, graphics again. Good UI today is not just about graphics.

Completely agree. UI is about communicating and transacting gameplay information; to do so stylishly is not undesirable, but to do so efficiently is of paramount importance.

Doing something differently suggests that the devs have the courage to try doing things differently which in my book increases the chances for a good game.

I agree here as well. In this case, I see that the Insomnia devs had the courage to deviate from their initial assumption that their UI would have to look like Fallout's. They clearly thought about it between the early videos and now, and decided it would be better to minimize screen clutter and showcase the game world instead. If they were just being lazy or didn't care, they would have stuck with their first draft.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I'll reserve judgement till I actually play the damned thing I guess.

Though, hella delayed development and what seems to be a gutted UI doesn't entirely bode well.

 

[polo]

I still think this will be a fun game. Prob. not a top 10 best anime games of history but, a fun game nonetheless.

 

[Atomboy]

InSomnia, my friend! My, how you have grown! Not sure what to think about the UI change, and was the RPG element really sanded down? Sad if true. Still I think it looks gorgeous. Not a fan of graphics in gaming in general, but these look pretty. Best of luck in this new turn of events, guys! Much love from the team.

 

[Hines]

 

[StaticSpine]

Looks nice, though the initial concept obviously turned to action RPG from RT tactical RPG.

 

[polo]

RT Tactical -> ARPG -> FPS

wtf was that? lulz.
Still visually stunning tho.

 

[ghostdog]

InSomnia is an old-school, Fallout-inspired real-time tactical RPG


streamlining...

streamlining...

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BIOSHOCK

 

[The Wall]

Latest kickstarter update

Hello everyone! First of all Studio Mono wishes you happy holidays and quality time with your families and loved ones. We worked really hard to deliver you the promised closed beta in time and everything indicated that we will succeed.

Great, I can't wait for...

However something we didn't understand was the exact time we would need for translating all the text content of the game to English. Which basically mean we have a beta for you to test but can't give an access to it just because most of you won't understand majority of the things that are going on (dialogues, plot and story etc), so the whole idea behind beta test looses its meaning. Sure we have quite a few Russian-speaking backers but we feel it wouldn't be fair to give an access to the closed beta to a certain group only.

We shouldn't have promised something that we won't be able to deliver (for any reason) and we are sorry for that.

I'm sure you're sorry for it, I mean it's not like it ever happened before or anything...

Another thing for us to learn and we will do our best not to repeat this mistake in the future.

InSomnia is an old-school, Fallout-inspired real-time tactical RPG


streamlining...

streamlining...

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BIOSHOCK

RT Tactical -> ARPG -> FPS

wtf was that? lulz.
Still visually stunning tho.

Looks nice, though the initial concept obviously turned to action RPG from RT tactical RPG.

Yeah, the game, the idea and the RPG that once this was or was supposed to become is long dead. We'll see what exactly replaced it one day (if ever). I hoped I was wrong and I still do but sadly with each new update and inevitable delay my fears appear to have been justified.

P.S.

Fuck those behind all poor decisions and bad management.

 

[polo]

Yeah i have mixed feelings. I mean everything about this screams vapourware but then you see some really polished gameplay videos, and also the amount of time its been in development without extra funding, idk what to think.

 

[StaticSpine]

Yeah i have mixed feelings. I mean everything about this screams vapourware but then you see some really polished gameplay videos, and also the amount of time its been in development without extra funding, idk what to think.

Iirc they found some investors.

 

[Jrpgfan]

Didn't they make a second KS campaign because they had run out of funds?

By the way, does anyone know if it still has a character system going on atleast(with stats, skills etc...)?

 

[polo]

Yeah, but its been a long time already, idk. I just hope if it gets released i will get my copy at this point.

 

[toro]

Yeah, but its been a long time already, idk. I just hope if it gets released i will get my copy at this point.

Chill. It will get released. The only question is: How good will it be?

 

[toro]

New update:

InSomnia - role-playing system overview
Hello everyone! While we still fight our way with translating closed beta content to English, we would like to give you a more detailed look at current state of InSomnia role-playing system.

Creating your character

Character creation process (WIP)
While most of the RPGs give you an opportunity to distribute the skill points and set your other stats before the actual game even started, we believe that playing a game such as InSomnia using that approach is not the best solution. How would you possibly know who you want to be in the world you are experiencing for the first time?

What we do is giving you a starting point - an opportunity to pick a background (biography) for your character which will influence your starting gear and give you initial boost for one of the skills (you'll have at least 5 various bios to pick from). After that point whenever you get a level there's a skill point that you can distribute to develop one of many skills and attributes available.

Each one of them has 4 levels (except the ones that are listed in italics under the images below) and getting higher levels require more skill points to be invested simultaneously, so no easy mode or "Jack of all trades" type of character creation will be possible. Getting levels is tough work here.

Attributes
The basis of any character are Attributes. When it comes to InSomnia we are talking about:

+ Barter, Leadership, Scouting, Resistance
Does SASS sound like a good and fancy short name for this system? We hope so, however you are free to come up with one on your own.

Skill types
When it comes to skills they are being divided into two main groups. First one is General Skills and it includes:

+ Scavenging, Concentration
Combat Skills on the other hand consist of two different branches on it's own. Let's start with the first one which would be Close Combat. If you like to deal with your foes in person than this is what you can pick from:

+ Thrusting, Dashing, Balance, Acrobatics
...and finally Ranged Combat. If you prefer to talk to people while keeping them on the other side of your gun then this is what you are going to get:

+ Plasma / Energy Weapons
Other than that there's also a system of so called Achievements or Scars that you will get for different reasons and that are able to make an impact on how people react to you. Also as you might have noticed there's no separate skill that would directly affect your ability to persuade people while talking to them. This is because all other skills you develop (or not) serve as triggers to certain dialogue lines or scenarios. So pick wisely...

Your choice matters
So let's say you've invested some of your skill points into Explosives. How exactly this can help you on your way through Object 6? Other than disarming landmines there are certain situations that can have a really dramatic outcome. One of the missions you will get while playing InSomnia is help with handling the revolt that was started by the group of most miserable and poor segments of Ark's population -- the Getters.

As a part of your task you are being sent into tunnels to search for any saboteurs who could possibly use the revolt to distract the attention of the Ordinate, the army-like fraction of Object 6. On your way through the tunnels you are being attacked by saboteurs indeed and next thing you know - they planned to blow up the local military checkpoint by setting up the massive amounts of explosives beneath.

Young folks are easily dragged in all kinds of activities
If you happen to be handy enough you will be able to disarm those explosives... well, just in case. In the end you will face a young guy holding a detonator in his shaking hand. Disarming the bombs previously will prevent him from blowing up the checkpoint in case you won't be able to talk him out of this. Otherwise you will end up with your fellow soldiers get killed and basically fail your commander.

So disarming the bombs or persuading the young saboteur to get his fingers away from the detonator button seems like a perfect outcome for everyone (well the guy is going to jail obviously), but is it really it? And what happens to the revolting crowd? Live shows that sometimes there's no such thing as happy ending...

PS. until next time! We will keep you posted regarding the closed beta and all other InSomnia related activity in the following weeks.

 

[SwiftCrack]

:russiastronk:

 

[Zombra]

Is that guy a hockey player or a dwarven infantryman?