Phantom Brigade - Frozen Synapse with mechs

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

It's too bad they joined the enemy side by taking the chink bribe.

They're quite open about that early access will be Epic exclusive.

 

[Cael]

It's too bad they joined the enemy side by taking the chink bribe.

They're quite open about that early access will be Epic exclusive.

Ah, well. Completely banned, then. Fuck China. With a glass shard studded dildo.

 

[lightbane]

It's too bad they joined the enemy side by taking the chink bribe.

They're quite open about that early access will be Epic exclusive.

I know, that's what I mean. Betraying Steam buyers for Epic "customers". Thankfully, there will be an additional "beta version" from fitgirl, so it is fine.
Also, games from Epic coming to Steam are usually as bad as they were initially.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Also, games from Epic coming to Steam are usually as bad as they were initially.

I've heard that Phoenix Point has seen some improvements during its early access period.

 

[baud]

well Steam will get the 1.0 release and I think the devs will get more money to polish their game during early access than if they had gone early access on Steam

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/phantom-brigade/home

Spoiler

WHAT IS PHANTOM BRIGADE?
Phantom Brigade is a hybrid real-time and turn-based tactical RPG, focusing on in-depth customization and player-driven stories. As the last surviving squad of mech pilots, you must use your advantage of prediction technology to capture enemy equipment and facilities to level the playing field. Outnumbered and out-gunned, we need you to lead the Brigade through a desperate campaign to retake their war-torn homeland.

WHAT IS EARLY ACCESS?
Early Access is a period in which players can purchase Phantom Brigade early if they would like to support development, help shape its future, or simply experience the game before 1.0. During this time we’ll continue to add features, balance the game based on player feedback and further polish the game.

WHY EARLY ACCESS?
Early Access allows us to get your feedback as early as possible so we can make Phantom Brigade the best game it can be. We’re bursting with ideas and want you to help us shape the future of the game.

HOW LONG WILL THE GAME BE IN EARLY ACCESS?
We are currently planning on having Early Access for at least a year. However, this could change if we feel like the game is not ready for a full 1.0 launch.

HOW IS THE FULL VERSION PLANNED TO DIFFER FROM THE EARLY ACCESS VERSION?
The full version will have additional features, more content, better game balance, cinematic tools, and improved mod support.

HOW CAN WE HELP THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROVIDE FEEDBACK?
We’d love to hear your feedback and there are a few places you can reach us to do that. You can find us on Discord, head over to our Forums or find us on Twitter. Alternatively you can also contact support@braceyourselfgames.com.

HOW OFTEN WILL YOU BE UPDATING PHANTOM?
Phantom Brigade will see one major update to the game per month, similar to our other project Industries of Titan. Phantom Brigade major releases should land on the 3rd Tuesday of every month. The Experimental branch of Phantom Brigade will likely see an update a week at least as we roll out our new features for testing.

WILL PHANTOM BE ON LINUX/MAC?
We do not currently have plans to support Linux or Mac. We may consider porting to Mac and Linux at a later date.

WILL THERE BE MULTIPLAYER?
Multiplayer for Phantom Brigade is not planned at this time. We want to focus on the best single player experience possible for Early Access.

IS THERE A SOUNDTRACK FOR PHANTOM?
The Phantom Brigade OST is not currently available, but should be sometime before 1.0.

WHAT LANGUAGES AND REGIONS ARE SUPPORTED?
Early Access supports English language only, with multilingual support coming at a later date.

WILL THERE BE CONTROLLER SUPPORT?
Yes! We are currently working on implementing this.

WILL THERE BE MOD SUPPORT?
We have a strong relationship with the modding community from the previous version of the game - we would love to support modding through early access and into our full release.

WILL THERE BE SUPPORT FOR CUSTOM KEY BINDINGS?
We plan on adding this functionality during Early Access.

WILL PHANTOM SUPPORT CLOUD SAVES?
Yes, Phantom Brigade currently supports cloud saves through the Epic Game Store.

WILL PHANTOM BRIGADE BE DRM-FREE?
Yes, Phantom Brigade will be DRM-free.

WHO ARE BRACE YOURSELF GAMES?
We’re the indie Katamari! Brace Yourself Games hails from Vancouver, Canada and is the independent game studio behind Crypt of the NecroDancer and Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer featuring The Legend of Zelda. Our games Industries of Titan and Phantom Brigade are currently in Early Access.

WHO IS WORKING ON PHANTOM BRIGADE?
You can find a list of the team credits here on the web, or in the game’s main menu on the “help pages” sub-menu.

https://braceyourselfgames.com/2020...-now-in-early-access-on-the-epic-games-store/

PHANTOM BRIGADE AVAILABLE NOW IN EARLY ACCESS ON THE EPIC GAMES STORE!

The time has come Brigadiers! Phantom Brigade is available now in Early Access on the Epic Games Store. For Steam users, the game is scheduled to come out next year on Steam so make sure to wishlist to receive a reminder upon release.

Phantom Brigade is a hybrid real-time and turn-based tactical RPG, focusing on in-depth customization and player-driven stories. As the last surviving squad of mech pilots, you must use your wits to capture enemy equipment and facilities to level the playing field. Outnumbered and out-gunned, we need you to lead the Brigade through a desperate campaign to retake their war-torn homeland.

Our team has a lot in store over the course of Early Access that we can’t wait to share. If you have feedback or just want to join the community, you can join our Discord!

Check out our development roadmap here:

 

[Chippy]

Voice over for the intro sounds like Imoen.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Haba]

So, are you able to show us which part of the game is RPG now Infinitron?

By those standards, War Thunder and World of Tanks are more RPGs than this game - they have stats for the tanks AND the crew.

 

[lightbane]

For the same token, Raiders!, which is similar to Battle Bros but weaker, should also be considered a RPG too, no?

*Checks specs* Shame about no mention of W7, but hopefully the Fitgirl version will be compatible. Only 10 GB of space, which while that may be so only for the demo, it is indeed waay better than triple-A turds that takes 100+ GB minimum for demos, not counting patches and mandatory DLCs. Tech-wise, it is okay so war.

 

[Cael]

It is not a RPG. It is a now a mainlander-published pay-to-win MMO pile of dogshit.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Alienman]

Those hit markers are an eye sore.

 

[lightbane]

Why was the turn-based aspect removed? Any ideas?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Why was the turn-based aspect removed? Any ideas?

They wanted to go for more cinematic approach.

 

[udm]

This looks too good. I don't like it!

Dammit Haba you jinxed it!

 

[lightbane]

I managed to get a "demo" of this game. I'm not impressed. It's probably because this is an alpha/early access, but it is very janky to control. The tutorial is also ridiculously rigid, which is a problem if you don't click exactly where the game wants you to and you dont' know where. The real time with pause system is a gimmick. I would have preferred turn-based with AP.
Robot customization is cool, but everything still feels incomplete. At least it works for Windows 7.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

-Tutorial does indeed suck. Fortunately you can lose and it doesn't matter.
-The timeline controls actually work pretty intuitively for shooting and blocking, the tutorial does not explain this at all.
-Waiting and running controls are not intuitive. Running will always start immediately in the turn, if you want to run later you have to add a separate wait action before it. These should be combined by allowing you to adjust the movement action along the timeline the way you can attack actions.
-If you are standing still and trading fire you are playing wrong. Block/move behind cover between enemy shots and pop out. Yes this is a turn-based popamole tactics game wtf.
-Is there a global heat display for each mech? Only seems to show in context of firing, which makes it hard to manage a cool down period
-Enemies can be disabled without fully destroying them, this still completes 'destroy all enemies' mission objective, game doesn't make this clear. Not sure if disabled mechs give better salvage but they should
-Friendly fire, bitches.
-No pilot stats, mech 'levels' based on equipment. Not much of an RPG.
-So far only weapons are pistols/rifle/shotgun. Any missiles, sniper, indirect fire, melee? Right now Mechs barely seem to have any 'role' beyond whether they have a shield.

 

[Ezeekiel]

Watched CohhCarnage play it a bit, not too keen on the future prediction thing tbh.
I get it's a bit like battlefleet gothic or some such, but meh. I'd rather it be initiative based or straight igo/ugo or team based turns.

Story so far is boring, not much characterization, no rpg elements either.

Combat seems awfully repetitive at the end of the day.

I'll skip this one unless codex consensus says it gets a *lot* more interesting later on or if it gets really good mods or something.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I quit when I saw how barebones it really was and how many features are TBA.

 

[lightbane]

So far it seems most "Epic EXCLOOSIVE! (TM)" games are not very good, so not much is lost. PB here seems to follow the trend, unless massive changes are made later on.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

We have been absolutely floored by the reaction to Phantom Brigade's early access launch. It only goes up from here!

We are aiming for significant content updates on the third Tuesday of every month (Tactical Tuesdays), with the first update this upcoming Tuesday, December 15.

Thank you to all the content creators who streamed and made videos for Phantom Brigade this first month!

 

[Cael]

When you have hit the absolute bottom, yeah. The only possible way is up.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://braceyourselfgames.com/updates/phantom-brigade/patch-0-2-0-b1012/

Patch 0.2.0-b1012

Released: 15th December 2020

Spoiler

t’s been a month since Phantom Brigade launched in Early Access, and we have been absolutely floored by the response! We want to make sure every step we take going forward will only make Phantom Brigade bigger and better. We can’t wait to experience this game with you. Here is the first of many Early Access updates. We are currently aiming to have a monthly update Cadence, with big updates going out on the third Tuesday of every month.

Changes in 0.2.0-b1012


What’s new, Scooby Doo?

• Two new shields: Ajax and Svalinn
• Four new combat maps have been added to military sites and industrial facilities
• It is now possible to delete saves from the in-game save menu

Prepare for combat in the new mission briefing area of the mobile base! Easily view and manage the team being deployed (using the new button to the bottom left of the briefing screen).

• Learn the lay of the land by inspecting the holographic map table in the crawler
• A new dynamic difficulty indicator has been added to mission briefing. As you change the size and build of your team the estimated difficulty of the upcoming encounter also changes
• New UI makes it easy to navigate between unit editing and pilot assignments

Put yourself in the game! It’s now possible to add in your own custom pilot portraits.

• Go to C:\Program Files\Epic Games\PhantomBrigade and search for “streamingAssets” in the game folder
• Drop your image in UI\PilotPortraits. Images must be in PNG format, 256×256, and under 200 KB

The Hills are Alive (with Music and Audio Updates)

• New music has been added to combat when you take the advantage in a battle!
• Music in liberated provinces has been extended
• New combat SFX including new bullet impacts, concussion, and slow-motion effects

UI/UX Changes

• Hover over site intel on the overworld to get more details on which faction is defending it
• New UI on sites with enough intel on the overworld indicates combat difficulty
• New “new” flag (the white triangle in the bottom corner of the part) on new parts listed in the base and in site inventory after combat
• Control time during turn execution in battle! Want to set up a great shot just the way you want it? Click the controls in the bottom left corner of the screen or press 1-2-3-4 on your keyboard (just like with action palette during planning) to switch between pause and different time scales

A Balancing Act

• The level of the units built in the workshop now matches the highest level province you have liberated
• Fatigue has now changed to a -100, 0, 100 scale
• Balance adjustments to combat difficulty and concussion

And lots of bug fixes!

Fixed issues

• Fixed patrols and convoys not spawning in provinces after Ostbager-Weil
• Fixed an issue where occasionally, actions in the timeline could not be cancelled
• Fixes to the part filter, it now resets on exit and when no parts or subsystems are available
• Fixed time on the overworld before entering combat persisting after exiting. The game is now paused after exiting combat
• Fixed an issue where facilities were displaying too much intel by default
• Fixed mech customization UI not showing leveled stats on subsystems
• Inventory filters no longer persist across playthroughs
• Made units easier to select on combat maps
• Fixed the Village Siege event getting triggered twice if the game is saved and reloaded during the “Where there’s smoke” event
• Fixed an issue making the concussion-weight balance inaccurate
• Various animation improvements to shielding and bracing
• Fixed Market events not spawning correctly
• Fixed overworld province labels showing incorrect level
• Fixed starting fallback unit starting at level 1
• Fixed an issue where MMG was using AR projectiles instead of MB projectiles
• Fixed an issue where loading a save in a claimed province will not play hope music until unpausing
• It is no longer possible to enter combat with unequipped arms; mission briefing will now warn the player of specific missing parts blocking deployment
• Newly recruited pilots now show the correct portraits
• Fixed various typos, missing text, and phrasing issues
• Various audio fixes
• Various UI fixes in the base and on the overworld
• Various fixes to props and visuals on combat maps

 

[Infinitron]