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KickStarter Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy - BG1-inspired low fantasy RPG From the ATOM TEAM

Atomboy

Atom Team
Developer
Joined
Oct 1, 2016
Messages
724
Barbarians y/n?
So, is it going to be similar to a Conan-esque setting?
There's a faction some other factions call "barbarians" who also kinda act like barbarians, but if you're asking if we went full Howard, no, though that was on the table at first, we decided to make the world more diverse instead of full on Hyborian and we wanted more technology than the Hyborian age could offer. Like astronomy, navigation, knowing the world is round, etc. Maybe some other time. I doubt anyone would have liked my "barbaric" writing stylings anyway, if I get to write barbarians I tend to add 'y's to lots of words and use too many adjectives, like "girlish", "bodacious", "an girthy svverd-arm", "kyll those pyggemen, conan! least they kyll thee!"
 

0sacred

poop retainer
Patron
Joined
Feb 12, 2021
Messages
1,412
Location
MFGA (Make Fantasy Great Again)
Codex Year of the Donut
let's say an encounter with a tribe of little forest men that drink a special juice that makes them really strong
sounds very much like a potion to me, or are they just drinking plain coffee
, or they spit armor melting acid at you
literally acid that dissolves a whole suit of armor? Hmm...
, or they ride huge frogs into battle.
I don't think non-magical frogs work that way, dude.

See, 'magic' allows you to explain all that wacky shit. Idk if non-magical is supposed to mean "you won't cast Fireball" to most people, but if taken literally, it means something else.

 

vitellus

the irascible
Patron
Joined
Jan 10, 2023
Messages
395
Location
fuck you
Codex+ Now Streaming!
we decided to make the world more diverse instead of full on Hyborian and we wanted more technology than the Hyborian age could offer. Like astronomy, navigation, knowing the world is round, etc
late bronze/early iron age type of weaponry and tactics, or late medieval? or a mix? some dudes wandering around in loincloths while their southern neighbors practice feudal chivalry?
See, 'magic' allows you to explain all that wacky shit. Idk if non-magical is supposed to mean "you won't cast Fireball" to most people, but if taken literally, it means something else.
i'm definitely in the camp of having dire wolves and aurochs and other megafauna not counting towards magical. i mean, a 65kg wolf is intimidating no matter how armored one is, and i can suspend disbelief to fight giant frogs but not riding them. no magic makes me think battle brothers or any of those 'quasi-medieval mercenary group simulators' where after the novelty wears off it becomes a rote grind.
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,581
In case you haven't I really recommend checking both especially Dungeon Rats and to some extent Blackguards if you're looking to see how good blow trading (rather than big area of effect spell) RPGs are balanced.

I might be interested in the game, although per usual lack of party creation means I might not rush into it.
 

gurugeorge

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 3, 2019
Messages
7,550
Location
London, UK
Strap Yourselves In
Looks great, skeuomorphic UIs are best and so are stylized maps rather than a direct render of the area. Maybe have the paper texture shine through the map a bit.

Is the flag button for placing your own map markers? Would be nice to be able to click the feather directly for that if you can't already (keep the button for discoverability though).

Ha, "skeumorphic," that's the word I was looking for that was on the tip of my mind when I was thinking about UIs the other week. I always get that confused with "diegetic."
 

Atomboy

Atom Team
Developer
Joined
Oct 1, 2016
Messages
724
let's say an encounter with a tribe of little forest men that drink a special juice that makes them really strong
sounds very much like a potion to me, or are they just drinking plain coffee
, or they spit armor melting acid at you
literally acid that dissolves a whole suit of armor? Hmm...
, or they ride huge frogs into battle.
I don't think non-magical frogs work that way, dude.

See, 'magic' allows you to explain all that wacky shit. Idk if non-magical is supposed to mean "you won't cast Fireball" to most people, but if taken literally, it means something else.

Well I'm not saying we're gonna be having something this far out, just explaining my view of what's non-magic is for me. Like, if a game tells me "hey man, the weird frog mounts were just tamed by the little folks, cuz on this planet frogs are smarter than dogs and are tameable and then they evolved acid glands in their face because it's a spooky different world where things evolve acid sacks in their face" I go "wow, this sure is a low-magic game! Because the word "magic" was replaced with "they evolved stuff"!" I get that others see "low magic" as something else. Ours will be a blend of these different perspectives, hopefully!
we decided to make the world more diverse instead of full on Hyborian and we wanted more technology than the Hyborian age could offer. Like astronomy, navigation, knowing the world is round, etc
late bronze/early iron age type of weaponry and tactics, or late medieval? or a mix? some dudes wandering around in loincloths while their southern neighbors practice feudal chivalry?
See, 'magic' allows you to explain all that wacky shit. Idk if non-magical is supposed to mean "you won't cast Fireball" to most people, but if taken literally, it means something else.
i'm definitely in the camp of having dire wolves and aurochs and other megafauna not counting towards magical. i mean, a 65kg wolf is intimidating no matter how armored one is, and i can suspend disbelief to fight giant frogs but not riding them. no magic makes me think battle brothers or any of those 'quasi-medieval mercenary group simulators' where after the novelty wears off it becomes a rote grind.
Right now it feels like this mix you mentioned. Technological and social progress isn't even betwixt all factions. There's a remote faction that was long isolated from others and is seemingly stuck in the late iron age, while another went past it and resembles later historical periods in some aspects e.g. has crossbows and huge globetrotting fleets and absolutism. But we just have a few locations ready and populated, so who knows. I think we'll have aurochs too, just didn't get the model yet.
A bit off topic though, speaking of
'quasi-medieval mercenary group simulators'
are there any good ones out there? To my surprise I have around 500 hrs in unmodded Battle Brothers and though it feels like I'll enjoy playing a few hundreds more when I'm free, the aformentioned novelty might wear off soon. I know of Wartales, but they just don't scratch that itch for me :(
ETA? 2025?
Probably I guess, we're never good at planning. Would be cool to have something playable to share in 2024, but I dunno. Experience shows that you can only properly predict a release date, once you realize you're a month or two away from it.
if Atom made the best Fallout alternative, maybe they will make the Arcanum like RPG.
I heard there's a pretty cool looking arcanum in development at the moment already! We're not good at steampunk. But I guess you might call this project some kind of punk. Rope-and-pulley punk? Everything is some kind of punk!
if Atom made the best Fallout alternative, maybe they will make the Arcanum like RPG.

I'm sure it'll get itself a nice little niche! Atom Team's very own Lionheart, can you imagine?
Two games where you can be a literal wizard.
I meant in the way how they had those successful post-apoc RPGs but then they released a medival-esque thingy using their system!

In case you haven't I really recommend checking both especially Dungeon Rats and to some extent Blackguards if you're looking to see how good blow trading (rather than big area of effect spell) RPGs are balanced.

I might be interested in the game, although per usual lack of party creation means I might not rush into it.
Wow, I completely missed those titles, thanks! Party creation was something I had a long think about earlier this year. No chance it'll be in our game, since it was long decided you'll make a PC and meet the others in the world, but damn, I realized that I miss the times where the other way was the industry norm players actually expected. So we're totally opened for a game with full party creation sometime in the future. I said this as far back as 2020, if we're ever financially secure enough to waste time on weird experiments, I'll blackmail them into letting me make a blobber. It will be called Blasteriade I: The Chronicles of the Infant Regalia. Set in the far low high tech future of the year 3000, by which humanity has spread among the stars and sophisticated melee weapons and professional wrestling moves combined with Dune-style personal shielding changed combat forever, this thrill filled turn-based tile-based rollercoaster ride will take your party of up to 6 characters through mysterious planets, horrific space hulks and ancient temples of non-human make on a quest from the god emperor Corpulan XII the Corpulent Kyng himself... His dying wish: to unearth the fabled Infant Regalia and bring the galactic empire from the brink of collapse! But nothing is as it seems... And perhaps the mighty artifact might be of better use in the hands of other factions, or even the heroic party itself?... ...?
 

0sacred

poop retainer
Patron
Joined
Feb 12, 2021
Messages
1,412
Location
MFGA (Make Fantasy Great Again)
Codex Year of the Donut
let's say an encounter with a tribe of little forest men that drink a special juice that makes them really strong
sounds very much like a potion to me, or are they just drinking plain coffee
, or they spit armor melting acid at you
literally acid that dissolves a whole suit of armor? Hmm...
, or they ride huge frogs into battle.
I don't think non-magical frogs work that way, dude.

See, 'magic' allows you to explain all that wacky shit. Idk if non-magical is supposed to mean "you won't cast Fireball" to most people, but if taken literally, it means something else.

Well I'm not saying we're gonna be having something this far out, just explaining my view of what's non-magic is for me. Like, if a game tells me "hey man, the weird frog mounts were just tamed by the little folks, cuz on this planet frogs are smarter than dogs and are tameable and then they evolved acid glands in their face because it's a spooky different world where things evolve acid sacks in their face" I go "wow, this sure is a low-magic game! Because the word "magic" was replaced with "they evolved stuff"!" I get that others see "low magic" as something else. Ours will be a blend of these different perspectives, hopefully!

well, I take this to mean that you will still try to make the world and gameplay interesting, and how low or high magic it will be remains to be seen. I'm actually pleased with that, because I like the fantastical. So I wish you good luck with your project, and I'm very interested. I just bought ATOM RPG to familiarize myself with your work.
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5,689
Location
Perched on a tree
are there any good ones out there? To my surprise I have around 500 hrs in unmodded Battle Brothers and though it feels like I'll enjoy playing a few hundreds more when I'm free, the aformentioned novelty might wear off soon. I know of Wartales, but they just don't scratch that itch for me :(

None (Turn-Based) that i've heard about but there might be a few in development.

Also, if you missed Dungeon Rats, it might be interesting to play it when you have some time before you go too far into you game's combat mechanism.
There's also Warbanners, great TB wargame/*tacticool close enough from the original Fantasy General.

Something which would be a nice addition to you game is a few recruitable NPC with special features/skills/class.

For example, ATOM would have climbed one more step on the classics ladder if the ant-man had been playable and with some special perks/weapons.
 

MerchantKing

Learned
Joined
Jun 5, 2023
Messages
1,225

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
Patron
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,435
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
So when does this come out?
Cool it with the antisemitic remarks.
That's my line!
Cool it with the line hoarding
No. The lines will all belong to me!
Cool it with the antisemitic remarks.
Stop trying to rob G-d's chosen people of the lines.
Stop trying rob God's chosen people of the lines.
 

MerchantKing

Learned
Joined
Jun 5, 2023
Messages
1,225
So when does this come out?
Cool it with the antisemitic remarks.
That's my line!
Cool it with the line hoarding
No. The lines will all belong to me!
Cool it with the antisemitic remarks.
Stop trying to rob G-d's chosen people of the lines.
Stop trying rob God's chosen people of the lines.
I am G-d's chosen people. The lines belong to me!
 

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko

Filthy Kalinite
Patron
Joined
Apr 24, 2015
Messages
19,372
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Bubbles In Memoria
So when does this come out?
Cool it with the antisemitic remarks.
That's my line!
Cool it with the line hoarding
No. The lines will all belong to me!
Cool it with the antisemitic remarks.
Stop trying to rob G-d's chosen people of the lines.
Stop trying rob God's chosen people of the lines.
I am G-d's chosen people. The lines belong to me!
Cool it with the antisemitic remarks.
 

Beans00

Erudite
Joined
Aug 27, 2008
Messages
1,069
Loved atom and trudograd so i'll probably get this regardless.

low magic > high fantasy for me.


Atom blew AOD out of the water so it will be good to play a low magic rpg that isn't a CYOA.
 

cyborgboy95

News Cyborg
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Messages
2,782
The other games had this melancholic feeling about exploring a death land. This one feels like the start of an epic tale and I love it.

 
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