Game News Shelter gameplay video

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Shelter

Shihonage has sent an update about Shelter, an RPG indie game type thing he and a few other people are working on. They've <a href="http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ssbty-EWrGY&fmt=18">just released a new gameplay video</a> on YouTube (yes, they're using Fallout: Tactics' graphics). If you don't know about Shelter, you can find out <a href="http://www.secondvarietygames.com/">more about the project on their website</a>:
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<blockquote>* Non-lethal combat allows you to dominate enemies without killing them, and trade your belongings for your life.
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* A large living world with inhabitants that go on about their agendas in real-time; they fight, steal, and use their skills.
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* Innovative combat system with inertia, throws, stances, and body part targeting.
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* A new breed of choice & consequence mechanics, allowing complete freedom without non-sensical reactions from the world. When a man cuts himself shaving, and his house burns down, he won't be standing asking you for a bandaid.
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* Dynamic dialogue driven by player's previous actions in the world.
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* No black & white judgements - losing a "quest" can mean gaining access to other opportunities. Your quest, in fact, may be to "lose" someone else's quests.
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* NPCs with varying "life paths" which intersect with each other and the Player's, and change accordingly.
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* Dynamic text descriptions accurately reflect state of the world's inhabitants and key objects.
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* Dynamic weather system simulated across the entire world, which has a variety of effects on its inhabitants. A sudden earthquake may save you from a losing battle !</blockquote>
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Earthquake hits you in the ass and thigh for +1 damage.
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Thanks <b>Shihonage</b>!

 

[dagorkan]

Are you guys Russian? Not that it would make a difference, it looks great.

Where did the Minigun come from? Trader Joe gave it to you as payment in exchange for John?

Also how is the world set up? I saw just a few locations in the video (the town with the trader, outpost/vault and the raiders), I vaguely remember an alternate storyline than Fallout from your first video.

Is the world "continuous" as it looks like - could you explore all the way through the wasteland between locations though there'd only be random encounters, like Arcanum?

 

[FirstOfficer]

Thanks for the post, DarkUnderlord.

Dagorkan:

We are originally from Russia, yes.

Regarding the Minigun: yes, Trader Joe gives it to you, in exchange for the outpost you provided for him. He initially promised to give you John in exchange but decided to keep the slave and part with the Minigun instead (he wishes you "good luck finding the ammo for it" as he gives it to you). Since you took the ammo for the Minigun from Tei Cutler in the outpost, you've now got the whole package.

The world is open-ended and you will be entirely free to explore; there will be fixed locations (such as the few you saw in the video) and encounters with NPCs that are roaming the wasteland as well.

As far as the storyline is concerned, stay tuned...

 

[dagorkan]

Shihonage previously mentioned that you were working on the character/mechanics system. Any news on that? I personally think Fallout had many flaws that you should avoid... the AP system in combat, minimum thresholds for skill success, linear and excessive hit point increases, silly/unbalanced perks etc. SPECIAL, as in those seven attributes ranging from 1-10, might be good for a base but not the rest for a new game.

 

[shihonage]

Is the world "continuous" as it looks like - could you explore all the way through the wasteland between locations though there'd only be random encounters, like Arcanum?

The world space is real. The random encounters are not actually random. Those moving dots in the end of video are inhabitants of the world, and you simply stumble upon some of them. When you're in a city, they may wander in from outside, and do things you'd expect them to do in this city, because now they are under control of this city's behavioral script.

When I pull up the console screen, I see constant messages about people and critters fighting somewhere in the world.

If you encounter a gas station in some place, you will always see a gas station there. People/critters you (or someone else) killed remain where they were, you can stumble upon their corpses on your way between towns.

There's no loading screens. Where you enter a town on the "big map", that's where you'll actually appear in relation to it, and vice versa.

 

[mahdi]

Nice, I had no idea the guy in my signature was so awesome. Game looks good, website looks like shit though. :wink:

 

[dagorkan]

Why do you call the description system "dynamic"? Do you mean it's like Fallout's? Half the text description entries you would not get if you didn't have the Awareness perk, and others depending on your stats... but that's more like a filter system. Do you mean something else?

 

[shihonage]

Shihonage previously mentioned that you were working on the character/mechanics system. Any news on that? I personally think Fallout had many flaws that you should avoid... the AP system in combat, minimum thresholds for skill success, linear and excessive hit point increases, silly/unbalanced perks etc. SPECIAL, as in those seven attributes ranging from 1-10, might be good for a base but not the rest for a new game.

We are working on skills/stats that can be leveled up. Some of them already work to a degree, like Science and First Aid. I had to cut that video down from 15 minutes because it also had things like using Science to hack the Outpost Door Terminal, and seeing the girl run up and attack you when the door opens.

We add stats very gradually, because we don't want to just copy a bunch of stats from some "RPG template" which will end up not playing nice with our game world.

We're not likely to repeat SPECIAL.

 

[shihonage]

Why do you call the description system "dynamic"? Do you mean it's like Fallout's? Half the text description entries you would not get if you didn't have the Awareness perk, and others depending on your stats... but that's more like a filter system. Do you mean something else?

Descriptions change, yes, like Fallout. They reflect someone's health state, or anything else according to any stat or situational assessment you want to do in the description file using Shelter Scripting Language (SSL).

You can make people attack you when you Examine them, or load new maps (although I cant imagine why) ... its very flexible.

In the video the Terminal's description changes to signify that now you can open it at will. John's description also adds that he's limping, the second time you Examine him. His sister's description and Trader's description also change to reflect their changed... health state.

P.S. Thanks mahdi

 

[laclongquan]

Look interesting! Finally someone make use of FT to make new game.

 

[bhlaab]

Gameplay looks great, some of the dialog choices are a bit ridiculous though (namely the "violent" ones)

I know, I know, second language :\

 

[shihonage]

Yeah I saw your comment on the video. Wasn't as informative as this one.

The "violent" ones were purposely over the top (one not shown was "I will paint the wall with your entrails" from Bioforge), but either way, all this writing will be redone once again during our second overhaul of the quest and C&C system.

 

[Shannow]

Any ETA on this baby? I just replayed FO and was kinda itching to give FO:T a (third) twirl. Was looking into mods but only found Awaken, which sounded kinda small. This one sounds great but it also sounds so ambitious that'll probably become vaporware... Please re-assure me

 

[shihonage]

All I can say to reassure you is that

a) all of the major gameplay mechanics are in
b) only one of them will need an upgrade, and I think that upgrade will be done by early January

The rest is tweaking and adding more content and "small" sub-mechanics. I.E. we have weather traveling on the giant map, and its intensity calculated relative to player position. "Small" additions would involve adding more "types" of weather to this system, i.e. seismic disturbances. More types of weapons, enhancing melee combat, tweaks...

The video barely touched on a number of things, such as how quests can be done out of order, how the NPCs still function logically when quests are "broken", or how dialogue options are blocked or unlocked by combinations of specific "achievements". Or the non-lethal combat, which is also there, and it works for both NPC<->NPC and NPC<->PLAYER.

c) I have all the information I need to write an installer/FO:T sprite extractor.

and finally d) Consider that a year ago we only had an isometric engine with a guy walking around a bunker. No combat, no dialogue, no weather, no looting, no text screen, no menues, no NPC party AI, no blood/shadow/reflection effects, no giant map, no handling 1400 inhabitants at the same time...

This is likely the last video we release. From now on it will be just news/screenshots and likely an eventual self-enclosed demo similar to "alpha demo" of Fallout 1. It will be a while, but don't throw away your FO:T discs just yet

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

I got to say that what I saw looked very promising.

 

[Shannow]

It will be a while, but don't throw away your FO:T discs just yet

That's just it. I previously borrowed the game from a friend. Now I'd be buying from GoG
Ah well, you'll let us know when you are finished. Good luck.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

Cool, I'd really like FO:T's beautiful engine used in more games.

 

[shihonage]

It's a common misconception, but we do not use FO:T's engine. Only bitmaps and audio.

 

[dagorkan]

DU, add a link to the GameDB you lazy fool.

Will avoid people asking questions that have already been answered.

 

[Kingston]

:salute2damax:

"Stand back, Giant Rat" made me laugh. Reminded me of "Stop right there, criminal scum!"

The dialogue quality could be improved though.

 

[SimpleComplexity]

Pretty good stuff. They know how to make trailers. I still don`t really know what the final plans are, to make a RPG engine for nubs/pros or what exactly?

 

[Ion Flux]

This is looking really good. As others have said, the dialogue and taunts could use a little work, but the rest of it looks really nice. I thought this was going to die like so many other indie Fallout sequels/spinoffs, but it looks like you guys might actually finish it. Are you planning to sell it or will it be free? I ask because if it's good, I'd be willing to give you hard cash greenbacks.

 

[Callaxes]

The models for the giant rats are great. Were they in Tactics? All I remember were dog-sized rats from the original Fallouts and just about every RPG on the fucking solar system.

 

[FirstOfficer]

Callaxes, Ion Flux, SimpleComplexity, WhiskeyWolf - Thank you.

SimpleComplexity: the final plans are to make a complete game that you guys would enjoy playing. Additionally, we already have a fully workable editor and everything in the game is fully scriptable.

Callaxes: all of our models are from Tactics, although, honestly, I don't remember the giant rats in Tactics either... And yes, rats are, shall we say, prominent in RPGs. We will try to avoid them as much as possible in Shelter (in the trailer we used them as examples of critters wandering the wasteland).

Ion Flux: Too early to talk about final distribution, but we'll keep you posted.

Regarding the dialogue: thank you for the feedback, but this is a gameplay demonstration only, so the dialogue is by no means refined. When the game is released, though, expect dialogue to sound as authentic to real life as possible. Once the Shelter alpha demo is released, then you can let us know what you think of the dialogue...

 

[PrzeSzkoda]

It's a common misconception, but we do not use FO:T's engine. Only bitmaps and audio.

What's the status of 'em graphics and audio? Did you pay for it, or has it been put in open domain?

Anybody knows the status of the FO:T engine?

(Fuck, all these formal e-mail I have to write in my job almost made me type "Regard, PSz")