KickStarter Prometheus Wept - turn-based RPG from Vigilantes developer - Demo Available

[Timeslip]

I remember fog and the huge animated fountain being the other culprits.
Detailed environments aren't the problem, useless animated objects, on the other hand ...

Somehow, it reminds me of Lords of Xulima, you had to wait for each battle to load (even if it wasn't that long) because the enemies were all Parkinson's.
Did it make Xulima a better game ?
Just the opposite because not only it didn't bring anything useful or remotely positive gameplay or visually wise but the resources for having them "dancing" around could have been used to make non copy pasted cities and quests instead.

You can't compete with AAA shit visually wise.
In my opinion, it's a good idea not to try too hard on that front and use your resources where they can make a difference for a richer gameplay.

Fog can cause problems with the fill rate of a GPU, though I think an option to disable it was added. As to the fountain, it used particle effects which animated a sprite sheet - similar to the effects from explosives or fires. Typically they aren't that expensive, but it's possible I missed something. As to useless, I guess it's possible to pick out any single element of an environment and label it so. The environment will be the biggest visual optimisation problem will have to deal with this time. When you have a lot of objects with multiple lights and shadows, it really starts to add up. Having building interiors in the same map as the exterior makes it trickier, but would like to avoid loading when entering a building for the most part.

Not familiar with the game, so can't comment on the specifics - either in terms of how much of the loading time relates to loading animations vs setting up the data, or in terms of how much resources they invested in animation. For Vigilantes, there's a lot of data to be set up, typically between 900 - 2500 tiles per map which have to be created, linked, and configured depending on what 3D models are on them, enemy stats to be generated, weapons picked etc.

I think we're singing from the same hymn sheet on this. A skilled artist (which I'm not) could give it a try, but turn based games from small studios which try to do this will probably end up having simple and generic gameplay. That's fair enough, but not what I'm interested in working on. About 90% of the work so far has been prototyping features, gameplay and story design and figuring out workflow. With the understanding that better graphics are worthwhile until they undermine gameplay and story, I think there are some easy wins in the areas of improving UI, environments and camera.

 

[Timeslip]

A first look at a new combat mechanic: the push attack. Here you can see an enemy being pushed into fire. Push attacks will also be useful for dislodging enemies from cover, clustering enemies for explosive attacks, and moving enemies so the environment can be used against them. It currently does half damage and the chance of success is based on the attacker's versus the target's prowess.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

prowess

Prowess in what though? Engineering?

 

[Timeslip]

High engineering works, but characters with a degree in physics and an internship in barbarianism can perform the attack too.

 

[Infinitron]

I see you've kept the Kung Fu Fighting combat engine from Vigilantes.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

internship in barbarianism

Nah, you either barbarian or you civilized.

 

[Timeslip]

I see you've kept the Kung Fu Fighting combat engine from Vigilantes.

Yep, more time efficient to add to it than to replace the animations. If I end up adding many new animations, may reserve the fancier moves for more skilled fighters.

 

[Timeslip]

Nah, you either barbarian or you civilized.

Vaguely civilized barbarian perk cancelled.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Nah, you either barbarian or you civilized.

Vaguely civilized barbarian perk cancelled.

I'll let that one slide, 'cause you're alright.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Nah, you either barbarian or you civilized.

Vaguely civilized barbarian perk cancelled.

I'll let that one slide, 'cause you're alright.

There goes Conan build.

 

[Timeslip]

A little work on terrain painting, vegetation and lighting.

 

[Timeslip]

Hey all - hope you're having a good weekend. Here's a couple of updated images from the first mission location:

 

[Timeslip]

Hi all. Hope you're keeping safe and healthy!

At this stage, most of the writing and scripting is complete for the first play area, though the focus hasn't entirely been on these activities. Handling all the events which can happen in-game requires a lot of work on the dialogue system, and in the interest of gameplay variety I've been talking about, a special set of rules has been coded for the finale of this area. The demo will likely comprise this area and one more, but there's still a lot of work to do in terms of balancing, polish and building the infrastructure on which the game will run.

This is all a bit vague, so if you're okay with spoilers, here's some more concrete info on what's happening in the initial play area:

Spoiler

The first play area is called The Drag. It's a small village which focuses on fishing/transit and is under the protection of the primary location in act 1, Sunny Pines. Soon after entering Sunny Pines, you will be recruited by the mayor to deal with an emerging situation: an outbreak of mass hysteria in The Drag, characterised by violence and madness. You travel there at night, with the fishing boat captain who raised the alarm, with the goal of scouting the area in advance of the arrival of Sunny Pine's militia, and doing what you can to protect the citizens and fishing fleet.

 

[Lhynn]

I dont think ive said this before, but i dig it "Prometheus Wept".

 

[Timeslip]

Hey all. Hope you're keeping well!

The last few weeks I've mainly been building infrastructure to handle changes to the game world, stuff like moving NPCs between locations, configuring and saving them. Trickier than expected, mainly due to the large number of different cases which need to be handled. Today, I starting improving one of the maps for the demo. Nice to get away from coding after a couple of weeks of it. Here's a screenshot.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Looking good, any ETA for the demo?

 

[Timeslip]

Hey Parsimonious cook - it's really tricky to predict what could go wrong in the meantime, but hopefully Q2-3 2021. I'm hoping to include two parts of the game in the demo: 1) the intro and first combat area, which should be around an hour of gameplay and 2) an instance of a neat, as yet unannounced feature from further on in the game (the above screenshot relates to this).

If the demo is released in two parts, hopefully Q2, and if both parts are released together, hopefully Q3. A lot of the basic infrastructure is built at this point, things like converting the code from Vigilantes from instance based combat to handle a persistent RPG world, integrating a better dialogue management system, figuring out workflow for creating optimised character models, destructible cover, and several months working on that feature I talked about. There's a lot of small things to do though and it needs a ton of polish.

 

[luj1]

cool name

the creator of vigilantes gets my support

 

[Timeslip]

A screenshot of the resources which can be harvested in Prometheus Wept. The metals are used in armour, weapon and weapon component crafting, while the plants can be used to create combat stimulants.

 

[Lhynn]

Waitafucking second. Im ok with crafting, up to a point, dont want it taking over the game. But harvesting too? Im not sure man, im just not.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Wouldn't scavenging metals from existing constructs (car wrecks, buildings, etc.) make more sense in post-apoc setting than mining it from magical crystal rocks?

 

[anvi]

Just have nanobots do all the busywork.

 

[Timeslip]

Waitafucking second. Im ok with crafting, up to a point, dont want it taking over the game. But harvesting too? Im not sure man, im just not.

Hey Lhynn. Care to share what you don't like about crafting in games? The crafting system will have more depth, but it isn't going to be a huge time-sink or require a lot of learning. As for harvesting, I REALLY dislike games with loads of items to pick up in each area. Everyone likes getting loot, but spending hours over the course of the game picking up trivial amounts of items doesn't represent a quality experience in my eyes. I'll be restricting the number of items and loot containers in each area, and put a decent amount of stuff in each.

What I can say about the crafting/harvesting is that it's integrated into the design and provides greater build viability. For example, in the drag, there's a burning house you can enter (coming out unscathed with a blueprint for a combat stimulant if you pass a skill check). There's also a tough, optional fight in the area. If you've invested heavily in combat, you can win the fight. If not, and you don't have any of the requisite social skills to gain an advantage, having this blueprint and finding some of the resource will allow you to create a combat stim, which might just be the edge you need to win the fight on harder difficulties.

 

[Timeslip]

Wouldn't scavenging metals from existing constructs (car wrecks, buildings, etc.) make more sense in post-apoc setting than mining it from magical crystal rocks?

It's a good point. I was working on the underground bunker map from the screenshot and naturally gravitated towards deposits in rocks. I'll probably include some of both types.

 

[Timeslip]

Just have nanobots do all the busywork.

There won't be a ton of things to pick up. The emphasis is on creating a relatively short, as high quality as possible experience, rather than a sprawling time-sink. Games are on average too long for my tastes and TV series are so diluted that I rarely bother anymore.