Turn-Based Tactics Mars Tactics - Fight for Martian freedom or suppress terrorists who hamper future of Mankind

[Parsimonious cook]

Well, played the demo for a bit. Controls are a bit clunky and the interface of the strategic layer needs some work to get a bit more user friendly, but in general the game looks to have a pretty solid foundation. The strategic layer is surprisingly deep (there is research and production like in UFO/XCOM, you can construct buildings in the settlements you control, there is some sort of diplomacy with Earth as well... good stuff in general). On the other hand the tactical combat feels kinda clunky due to mobile tier contols that make you do a lot of unnecessary clicks (you have to press space to confirm everhing you do for example) and its mechanics are nowhere near as deep as the ones in the strategic layer - you just take cover/flank/overwatch and that is pretty much it. Suppression is a thing and its one aspect that makes the game stand out a bit in the tactical department (shooting at enemy units reduces their APs, making them more vulnerable to flanking).

The art style aint nothing to write home about, but I am sure I can get used to it. All in all, the game needs more work, obviously - the strategic layer needs to get cleaned up a bit (there are way too many spreadsheets to go through right now, hopefuly the devs manage to combine some of them to make things less click-intensive) and I suspect it will be the main draw of the game, as the tactical combat itself probably wont be enough to carry the game itself (if that was even intended, given who much more fleshed out the strategic layer is I would say that the game is suppossed to be primarily played there).

Certainly worth keeping an eye on.

 

[udm]

I'm guessing it doesn't have fog of war/line of sight mechanics then?

 

[Parsimonious cook]

It has LoS mechanic in tactical combat (ie terrain/obstacles can block the line of fire, things that block LoS can be in many cases destroyed). As for fog of war, it is there as well on tactical level. On the strategic map there is fog of war as well.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[udm]

Just tried the demo. The tactical layer feels like X-COM (as in, UFO EU) lite, like if someone were to do a mobile version of X-COM with some XCOM streamlining. You'll always know where the enemies are already, so there's no flanking/ambushing involved. You can't crouch in open ground due to sticky cover, though you can Hunker like in XCOM. OTOH, damage is modelled after ballistics, so there's that.

I don't really know what to feel about it. Combat feels more engaging than XCOM, but if I were looking for an X-COM clone, I'd rather just go back and play OpenXcom. But maybe my thoughts are premature after trying it out for only 30 minutes.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1727760/view/3285963415787128685

Dev Log #03: Personality System

Hi everyone! It's been an intense few months preparing a demo for various game festivals, but with that out of the way I'm excited to get back to our usual schedule. This month I'll talk about the unique characters that will populate your squads in every playthrough of Mars Tactics.

I mentioned in the first dev log that creating memorable stories is one of the three pillars of this game. And to me a good story begins with good characters. That's why all members of your campaign -- soldiers, researchers, engineers -- will have unique faces and personalities. And the same goes for enemies and NPCs too.

There Are Billions
Both the Labor and Capital campaigns are procedural, and my hope is you'll play them many times. It would be boring to see the same mugs over and over, so I've put a lot of work into creating visual variety and authenticity in how each character looks.

The result is a procedural portrait system which contextually combines facial features and shades them for each skin pigment. The current pre-alpha build already supports 12 billion unique faces. When adding skin-tone and hair-color variations, that jumps to 1.9 trillion. Of course, a huge number is meaningless if the faces look similar. My hope is you'll feel a tinge of personality in every portrait.

With the click of a button, a hundred souls were born for this dev log.

More Than Just a Pretty Face
Besides unique faces, every character is created with a bio. A Canadian college dropout who came to Mars looking for adventure. A Japanese construction worker hoping to make a quick buck to pay off gambling debts. A South African mercenary trying to escape her past and her demons.

These backstories are more than just window dressing. By default, every character is created with the same stats, but their nationalities and personality quirks will affect their progression and generate unique events during every campaign. Expect more details about this in an upcoming dev log about unit progression.

The allure of adventure and a fat paycheck brought people from all walks of life to Mars.

Life on Mars
Personalities aren't static. Each character will evolve depending on your actions during the campaign. As soldiers get injured, their faces will reflect every bruise, gash, tear, and wound. Over time, some injuries will become permanent scars. What's more, pulling off special achievements will unlock special accessories such as tattoos, hats, jewelry, augmentations and others. And as each unit gains seniority, their looks will upgrade in-line with their rank and occupation.

Life is hard on Mars, and then you die. (Unless you develop augmentations, overthrow the elites and establish a new vision for humanity on the red planet.)

Tactics RPG?
Mars Tactics isn't really designed as role-playing game, but for those who want to follow every character's progress in detail they can do so through the Story screen. Here you can see each person's achievements and jot down additional notes if you want. After each playthrough, you can review stories of your entire roster (both dead and alive) to relive the memories.

This UI is still a WIP. Expect more icons and details in the final design to liven up the Story screen.

And of course I know players like to fill their squads with friends, family and their favorite politicians. Mars Tactics let's you tweak each face, name, nationality and gender to your liking. (However, merit-based accessories and facial features will be limited to characters who have unlocked them.)

Animations
Last but not least, expect each face to be animated. Below is a preview made by manipulating sprite positions and rotations, but the next step is hand-drawn frame animations to bring each character to life.

Faces react to in-game actions (missing a shot, discovering an enemy, etc) but also to your mouse movements.

None of this would have been possible without Han Pham Nguyen, the artist drawing these portraits for me. Working within my tight requirement of just 48 by 48 pixels per profile, Han has created attractive faces that span the globe and cover every race. Check out his Twitter for more of his work.

Well, that's it for this month. Thanks for reading! If you're looking for more regular updates, check out my Twitter and Discord for more WIP screenshots and videos.

Yuji Nakamura

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

From discord:

The first playtest is finally at hand! I spent the past month laser focused on making tactical combat feel good and specifically Suppression more fun and engaging. I've come up with 3 new designs, so the goal of this playtest is to try them out. (The old design is also an option, in case that’s what people end up liking.) Fixed a lot of other stuff too and if I’m being honest it’s the first time the user experience isn’t a total mess. The test will be done via Steam Playtest. I'll distribute keys to a new build for people who want to participate. If you opt in, I expect feedback. (If you just want to try the game, there will be another public demo in early 2023.) There's no fixed timeline for this playtest. I'll probably be updating and fixing bugs regularly. Really appreciate everyone’s interest. Could not make this game without you guys and this server!! (edited)

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

From discord:

Introducing the Havoc, a dropship created for civilian and military operations on Mars. Powered by 6 engines, the versatile design allows it to ferry cargo and humans between the Martian surface and orbiting waystations. The ship can also be outfitted with air-to-surface ordinances to support ground warfare.

And here's what the Havoc looks like on a map. Among its more-obvious tactical uses is taking troops from/to the battle with precise coordinates. For example, right now when escaping on foot you need to run to the edge of the map and wait there for X turns, which can be very dangerous. But with the Havoc, you can call it in and fly away immediately. Similarly, bringing in reinforcements by foot means they enter the map at the edges, which usually have little cover. You also don't have control over where exactly they spawn. But with the Havoc you can pinpoint to flat open area and your troops will be delivered there quickly. Plus the dropship can be used as cover after disembarkment. (Just be careful -- the ship can suffer damage and even be destroyed. These dropships are extremely valuable outside of combat too in the world layer so you want to avoid that.)

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

From discord: (There was also rather nice video of dropship landing, but current Discord doesn't seem to allow copying video sources)

1. Dropship can be called into any open flat area of a map. It can deliver reinforcements or pick-them up for evac then fly away. You get heads up X turns before it arrives about where it will land. (Anyone standing underneath when it lands is killed instantly.) And once the dropship touches down, it becomes cover. Some parts like the cockpit are full-cover, while landing gears are half-cover. And as mentioned before, these are destroyable. They are very precious so you'll want to avoid that if possible. After it has landed, you can choose to keep it on the battlefield or tell it to fly away. For the Labor campaign, early on you will mostly see it as it delivers reinforcements for the enemy. But you can capture them even in the very early game and once you get some under control, they can be used for delivering your own reinforcements/staging evacs. After more researching, you can also outfit it with weapons and use it to call-in airstrikes. Lastly, it can be used for non-combat stuff like trading. It is capable of ferrying cargo. And yes, you can give it paint jobs.
   1. Right now you are told 5 turns in advance that air reinforcements are coming, and only 1 turn in advance where exactly they will land. So it's tricky to get into position and have enough AP to setup overwatch. Of course, will keep tweaking these numbers based on your feedback. Also, as the dropship lands it kicks up dust around it. This has the same effect as a smoke grenade, reducing accuracy of shots traveling through the dust. This gives the landing team a bit of protection. That said, if you can get into a good position with enough AP, yes you can take out a lot of them as they come in.
      
      
      

 

[spectre]

Glad to have discovered this. I would be hesitant to call it the EXCUM that should have been (i.e. closer to actual XCOM in many ways, the inventory, the ballistics and, most importantly,
the dev seems to realize the importance of emergent gameplay), but that's the vibe I'm getting from it.
I should probably be repulsed by the visuals more, but to my surprise I'm willing to put it aside cause there is quite a bit of promise.
So yeah, call me fabulously optimistic on this one.

 

[Visperas]

Glad to have discovered this. I would be hesitant to call it the EXCUM that should have been (i.e. closer to actual XCOM in many ways, the inventory, the ballistics and, most importantly,
the dev seems to realize the importance of emergent gameplay), but that's the vibe I'm getting from it.
I should probably be repulsed by the visuals more, but to my surprise I'm willing to put it aside cause there is quite a bit of promise.
So yeah, call me fabulously optimistic on this one.

Same. I fear how similar, red, all the maps will be but I want it to be good.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Coming to GOG.
https://af.gog.com/game/mars_tactics?as=1649904300

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

From discord:

Yes there is artillery which provides fire support from off the map. It's similar to airstrikes, which are also delivered from off the map. If you have artillery or fighter jets near a battlefield, you can activate them and get fire support during battle. Artillery is available earlier in the campaign and a bit simpler to use -- you call in the coordinates and one turn later that area gets bombed. Artillery is not very accurate (although accuracy can be upgraded) so I imagine most of the tactical utility will come from the wide-area suppression it provides. That said, unlike grenades, enemy troops do not know where artillery shells will land so it's possible to get lucky kills. Also there are a few types of artillery shells not just explosive. I will share more later. On the other hand, airstrikes are more precise but also trickier to execute. The missiles are laser guided, so once a unit calls in the airstrike that unit (the JTAC) has to main laser targeting for X turns. The longer targeting is maintained, the more accurate the strike. Also, airstrikes deliver their payload in a straight line (and you control the angle) so you can get creative. I find it useful for altering wide swaths of the battlefield to my advantage (destroy cover, buildings, terrain, etc). But maintaining targeting with JTAC requires good covering support from team mates so executing a good airstrike is not so easy. Well, that's how it work now. I'm sure we will tweak and change stuff during playtesting.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

From discord:

I know people asked about it before, so here's a look under-the-hood how accuracy works. 100 rays are fired from the shooter to the target at random. The distribution is affected by things like shooter aim, target's defend skill, range of the shot, weapon characteristics, other modifiers and bonuses (shooter being suppressed or other traits). Then each ray might be blocked by terrain or other obstacles. In the end, 1 ray is chosen at random and the bullet travels along that trajectory. In this example, accuracy is 78%. That's because 78 rays (red) hit the target and 22 rays (white) did not. The distribution of rays is determined by the factors I mentioned above.

Here's another example where the target is behind cover. Range, weapon, unit skills are same as prior example, but most of the rays are blocked by cover. So accuracy is only 15% (only 15 of rays reached the target, while 85 did not reach)

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

From discord:

Trailer should be out shortly, but still debugging demo

Tried to stuff too much new stuff in there w/o properly testing

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[mindx2]

This actually looks pretty cool. Don't mind the visuals at all. Much more toned down "pixal art" style than many games these days (meaning it doesn't look like bad Minecraft art!!). Will keep an eye on it.

 

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

Here's hoping this turns out well.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[udm]

It's cool that they added deformable terrain, but I just feel without LOS mechanics and more complex map layouts, it boils down to RNG and hoping that the AI screws up in some way.

 

[Zanzoken]

I know this will be heresy for many of you because TB > all, but I would be more excited if the game had RTwP combat. There are a million TB shooters out there, but only a few with RTwP, and none recent.

And the thing is, even though RTwP sucks for fantasy cRPGs and the like, it can work really well for a game like this where the gameplay is focused around guns and explosives. The UFO Aftermath games were RTwP and a lot of fun, they just lacked proper cover mechanics.

Idk just a thought. I am interested in the game as is and will give it a try. I just don't understand why devs keep making the same X-Com or FiraXCOM clones over and over again.

 

[Crispy]

Game gives off strong X-COM meets Lego vibes. Looks very interesting, will keep my eye on this one.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

From discord:

Hey guys, here's a rough guide for what playtesters can expect in next few months. It's a sort of loose dev roadmap, which @Raiine recommended I write up. (Thanks for the idea!) This is ordered by how soon it will probably be ready to test, not by priority. For example, strategy layer is #1 priority but still a few months until ready to test. Lastly, this is just the bigger stuff -- smaller stuff and bug fixes not listed.

New cover display system (replacing 2D icons with a 3D wiremesh)

LMGs (the two-man design)

Smoke grenades

Accuracy related stuff (verifying calculations, better accuracy breakdown display, richer LoS indicator, weapon range indicator, etc -- basically goal is to give you tools to make decisions and have understand why things happened the way they did)

Dynamic fog of war

Granular AP system (2AP -> 4AP) and balancing stuff around that

Procedural map generation

Melee attacks

Reaction fire

Stances/blind fire? (I haven't given up yet!)

Strategy layer

Progression system and traits

New animations

Audio

edit.
That looks like damn mess, no matter what I do.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

From discord:

A couple of new mechanics: 1) Reload Assist: unarmed units can reload allies on adjacent cells. Reloading units must be unarmed since the start of the current turn. Hopefully it encourages more support-type units. And of course particularly useful with LMGs, which cost 2 AP to reload and whose magazines are heavy as HELL. (So you have two-man teams: one unit carries the heavy ass LMG and fires it, the other carries the heavy ass ammo and reloads the LMG.)2) Spray Fire: Available to weapons which fire more than 3 bullets per burst. Select the first target then the second, and unit will spray between the two at reduced accuracy. It's pretty useful in some situations (suppressing a wide area) but not always. So depending on your feedback, I might make this into a trait-driven ability instead of something universal for all units.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

From discord:

OK here is the final'ish design for "minutiae" control over cover and step out.

When selecting where to move, you'll now see a silhouette indicating the default lean direction + stance (stand/crouch) at the destination. And if the default is OK for you, it works exactly as now. You don't have to do anything extra. Just move there. But if you want to customize, you can hold CTRL to override the default and decide which way to lean and your stance. And after you move, if you have AP, you can still change your direction and stance for free.

As you can see, the design is not FULL control which I mentioned just yesterday. After a lot of testing I decided to streamline it after all. FULL control was too fiddly. And it encouraged pixel hunting which to me is not an interesting decision/skill in a turn-based game where you have endless time to take an action.

BTW regarding crouching, I'm also adding a balance tweak. If you end the turn crouched, your mobility is reduced by ~~2 ~~ 1 tiles the following time you move. I hope it's an interesting decision for you between extra protection vs mobility. Without this, I think players will always just end the turn crouched for the free defense.

Lastly, for step-out, I decided to maintain the FULL control approach. I know this is pixel hunty. So I'm not too thrilled with it. But it doesn't seem like overkill. And I think it can allow some interesting risk/reward decisions about how much to step out. However, if it ends up too pixel hunty and fiddly and you're spending like 30 seconds finding just the minimum amount to step out to get an angle, I might streamline it too.

Anyway let's see how it all feels!

EDIT: crouch mobility penalty is 1 tile, not 2 tiles.

There's also demonstration video, but I'm too lazy to figure out how to embed those from current discord.