Project Haven - dystopian tactical RPG where you lead mercenary company striving for survival

[agris]

Thanks bros / Alienman

What about sound localization, do we have something like in Silent Storm? That's the approximate marking and tracking of NPCs by the noise they make, represented by the ear icon and red silhouette in the image below.

 

[Alienman]

From the demo version I tried, yes. It has been a while, though, but I don't think they would change a thing like that.

Edit:

Actually, when looking over an old video I made, I'm not sure if it indicates sound sources. But if you spot someone, you get these red silhouettes at least.

 

[agris]

Damn, this looks great.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

The demo was pretty clunky when I played it though, I sure hope they manage to polish the game a whole lot before the final release. The devs have all the right ideas, but I have some doubts about their ability to get them done on technical level. In any case since the End State seems to be dead for good, this game appears to be the best squad level TBS in the making right now.

 

[Alienman]

The demo was pretty clunky when I played it though, I sure hope they manage to polish the game a whole lot before the final release. The devs have all the right ideas, but I have some doubts about their ability to get them done on technical level. In any case since the End State seems to be dead for good, this game appears to be the best squad level TBS in the making right now.

According to the dev blogs they have improved a lot of stuff. And don't forget Urban Strife. Look fantastic as well.

 

[agris]

Yeah, this and Urban Strife both get D1P'd by me

 

[udm]

Yeah unless things change majorly between the demo and full release, stealth and sound aren't going to be a huge thing. I'm not a fan of stealth in its current implementation, where it feels more like a Commandos-lite puzzle game, but everything else is rock solid.

Oh well, maybe for their next game. Imagine what these guys could do if they had the budget of those losers at Haemimont Games.

 

[Beowulf]

New demo is out.
It's a part of some steam event for tacticool games.
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/TactiCon

 

[udm]

September Development Report

Hello Steel Dragons!
You heard right!
Project Haven's Demo is now available to download and play
until the 3rd of October as part of the TactiCon event!

It's been a long time coming, but it's now possible to test out all the new features we're been working on these past months.

We'd be super grateful if you could play it and gives us feedback on what you like, what you don't like and how we could make it better!

So what's new since our last update?
We're glad you asked!

We've continued with backend updates we've mentioned in the previous update, this time focused on AI and the perception system (hearing and visibility). We've also done some art and animation updates, and finally a new Skill system. Let's break it down!

AI
Our main goal with a new AI system was to make it more dynamic and better behaved in a range of situations, after careful planning we decided to change from using Behavior Trees to Utility AI.

We feel Utility AI suited our intended goals much better, also allowing us to more easily add additional AI actions. After some testing and tweaking the AI is already in a much better place than it was before, and there's still more we want to do it with!

CALLING REINFORCEMENTS:
One of the new actions we added to the AI was calling for reinforcements, which better explains a mechanic that was part of the game for a long time, but was pretty much invisible to the player.
You can now see when an AI intends to call for reinforcements, and they will actually sprint over to some location to do so.
Although not currently in the Demo, we intend to also add some AI banter to add further notice to their actions.

Skills
We've went through a few iterations of the skill system but we feel like we finally reached the correct one for Project Haven. It's a modified version of our previous one, but that should add more freedom in leveling up your mercenaries.

Each of the 6 attributes, Constitution, Strength, Agility, Marksmanship, Technical and Wisdom has its own Skill tree. Spending a point in one of those skill trees increases the relevant attribute value, which in turn unlocks an additional perk (e.g. Increased Maximum Carried Weight in Strength). You can spend a maximum of 10 points per tree.

Skills are gated by attribute level and some have other skills as a prerequisite, but otherwise you can spend your points in any fashion you'd like. We've tried to add a mix of passive and active skills per tree although some trees lend themselves more towards one of the two. We're aiming to have over 20 skills per tree so what you see in the Demo are not the final available skills/perks.

Art
We've redone the downed animation which finally replaces the funny butt dragging animation we had for the longest time :D

We've also continued our improvement of environmental art with some new props and graphic design (in things like arcades, computer screens, posters, fictional Ad's) to flesh out the world. And finally we've continued with set dressing and design of the very final missions of the game, but we can't spoil those.

All in all we feel the game is in a great place, we're very near to completing the full 45+ campaign missions, and we can't wait for you to see them!

All this of course is pending any feedback you all give us. As we've mentioned before we want Project Haven to be a game you really like, and as such any suggestions you may have are truly appreciated.

Which brings us to the final point of this update.

Release date?
Being transparent with you guys is very important to us, so we'll just tell you that finishing the game for a 2022 release is not very feasible at this point. Although we hope to be content complete before the end of the year, we want to properly test and tune the game to make sure your experience is as good as it can be from day one. It's a large game made by a truly tiny team.

We ended up doing more work on replacing large systems of the game than we had planned, but they ended up being necessary to improve the game to the standard we want to achieve. We hope you understand and bear with us just a little longer and we hope to bring you something special in return.

We also hope with your feedback we can bring to light all remaining gameplay issues we need to tackle. But just a Demo is not enough, so we're going to have a
Closed Beta Test
coming soon, please stay tuned for more details on that!

And that's it for this update! As always, thank you! And see you next time!
Code Three Fifty One

 

[TheSoul]

The perk tree is bugged. Clicking on perks already taken will still cost you points.

 

[re.var]

The perk tree is bugged. Clicking on perks already taken will still cost you points.

Fixed!
New patch also includes a new mission if you'd like to give that a shot!

 

[udm]

Holy shit, Insane difficulty is really insane now

 

[udm]

Bug report: not sure if it's intentional, but when Fang interrupted one of the goons, the goon was able to run past me while I was getting an aim on him. In other words, he was actually moving during my turn (Interrupt).

 

[udm]

Sorry for chain posting, but re.var is it possible to set the Interrupt cone and not have an enemy trigger it, like in JA2 where Interrupt chance is determined based on a variety of factors like level?

EDIT: You can apparently go into Free Mode and Turn-Based Mode now! Is this part of the new patch?

You guys keep bringing so much incline, it's not even funny

EDIT2: Don't know how you guys did it, but you made melee and stealth more fun now. And now you can carry bodies too? Wicked.

 

[re.var]

Bug report: not sure if it's intentional, but when Fang interrupted one of the goons, the goon was able to run past me while I was getting an aim on him. In other words, he was actually moving during my turn (Interrupt).

What a bunch of cheating AI! Will fix!

Sorry for chain posting, but re.var is it possible to set the Interrupt cone and not have an enemy trigger it, like in JA2 where Interrupt chance is determined based on a variety of factors like level?

Currently interrupt is always triggered, and you can only interrupt an enemy once (per character/per turn), so if you skip the interrupt that's it for that pair of interrupter/enemy for that turn. Would you prefer it to be a chance?

 

[udm]

Currently interrupt is always triggered, and you can only interrupt an enemy once (per character/per turn), so if you skip the interrupt that's it for that pair of interrupter/enemy for that turn. Would you prefer it to be a chance?

I'm indifferent. It seems fine in its current implementation, but I wouldn't be averse if you guys decided to make Interrupt more layered.

Btw I edited my post above. I am really stoked for the final release now.

 

[re.var]

EDIT: You can apparently go into Free Mode and Turn-Based Mode now! Is this part of the new patch?

There was a bug in the initial release that got you stuck in Turn-Based mode, but it's new with this Demo. Just fixed it this patch so it actually works as intended.

EDIT2: Don't know how you guys did it, but you made melee and stealth more fun now. And now you can carry bodies too? Wicked.

I took it personally when you said you weren't a fan of our stealth mechanics and made it my sole mission in life to make it fun and engaging.

I'm indifferent. It seems fine in its current implementation, but I wouldn't be averse if you guys decided to make Interrupt more layered.

Got it!

Thanks!

 

[udm]

Previously was it possible to initiate Turn-Based Mode when you're in Free Mode? I forgot

 

[re.var]

Previously was it possible to initiate Turn-Based Mode when you're in Free Mode? I forgot

It was not, it switched automatically to turn-based when you saw an enemy. And back to free mode when you went back to undetected state. No control whatsoever.

 

[udm]

Previously was it possible to initiate Turn-Based Mode when you're in Free Mode? I forgot

It was not, it switched automatically to turn-based when you saw an enemy. And back to free mode when you went back to undetected state. No control whatsoever.

Glad you guys managed to implement it! Feels so good being able to switch back and forth.

 

[udm]

re.var Some suggestions for UI:
- Add a way to select multiple specific team members (e.g., hotkey CTRL 1 + 3 to select Scarlet and Indigo, or something like that)
- Add a hotkey/button to cancel character's movement
- Clicking on a portrait once shouldn't immediately centre the camera on the character. Click one to select, then click twice to centre. Otherwise it can get annoying having to keep moving the camera back to where it was previously.

 

[re.var]

re.var Some suggestions for UI:
- Add a way to select multiple specific team members (e.g., hotkey CTRL 1 + 3 to select Scarlet and Indigo, or something like that)

Already there, SHIFT 1+3

- Add a hotkey/button to cancel character's movement

Will add!

- Clicking on a portrait once shouldn't immediately centre the camera on the character. Click one to select, then click twice to centre. Otherwise it can get annoying having to keep moving the camera back to where it was previously.

There's a setting in the options for it, clicking twice to center isn't working though.

Thanks!

 

[udm]

I now have 8.5 hours clocked playing the game. And it hasn't even been released

 

[Üstad]

Seems like pure incline, can't wait for release.

 

[udm]

Replayed the 2nd mission last night. The addition of noise indicators really changes the way the game is played and makes stealth kills a lot more viable. It also appears like you added more pathways, but I could be wrong. I find that makes gameplay so much more tense. I constantly have to check my flanks rear, and playing with Interrupt more often than not as I advance cautiously.

Had a seriously cool moment clearing the marketplace. Altan was suppressing two goons behind one of the stalls; Fang snuck from the rear and blasted one of the guys.

Scarlet fired a shot through the canvas that the last goon was behind (completely unexpected, I just thought "let's see if we can hit him through the canvas sheet" and it did). Didn't kill him though.

Last to go was Indigo, who couldn't get a proper shot where she was, so I got her prone near some stairs where she had LOS on the goon's head. Too near a civilian but but let's try it anyway. Bang, shot fired, goon got a direct headshot and KO'd instantly. Mission complete, let's go home fellas.

Haven't had a cool moment like that in a tactics game since Silent Storm.