KickStarter Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy - BG1-inspired low fantasy RPG from the ATOM TEAM - now available on Early Access

[just]

what's the unit for temperature?
it better not be that F shit

actually, invent your own measurement system based on the physics of the universe
player also has to derive it himself from random physics and math books scattered around the world

 

[Serus]

Ideally every fantasy rpg should have a load of confusing, archaic measurements. Have you thought about non-decimalised currencies as well?

Actually, I absolutely LOVED Darklands for exactly that reason. It had a historical currency system: 12 pfenniges equals 1 groschen (silver), and 20 groschen equals 1 florin (gold). OTOH Darklands was very historical despite the "magic". The game had place in a precise year and in a historical country. It made more sense there than in a fantasy setting - even a low fantasy, strongly rooted in history - one.

If i ever make my Darklands-like, sorry guys but you will have archaic, historical, non-decimalised currencies in the game.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Ideally every fantasy rpg should have a load of confusing, archaic measurements. Have you thought about non-decimalised currencies as well?

When you think about it, having standardized units of measurement on all regions on a fantasy game is unrealistic.

 

[Serus]

Just signed up to say this looks great. Keep doing what your doing and don't listen to anything anyone here says otherwise you will end up going bankrupt like the makers of Colony Ship.

In case of Age of Decadence some people on the Codex told Vince that his original "engine" looks like crap. Of curse others said it is ok. Look it up. AoD probably wouldn't have sold as good* as it did if it kept the early look. I'm not saying Vince made that change only because of the Codex but a good advice has been given by some. I'm not aware of any accepted advice that damaged any of VD's games badly. I might be uninformed.
In fact VD is one of the people who shaped the Codex "hivemind" - not the other way around. It is him, among others, who caused the "fakeC&Cfags" to become, and staying to this day, prominent of the Codex. I admire him for his dedication, I disagree with his views on what makes good CRPGs.

*Relatively, I assume so because the studio made 2 more games after that. Sort of Arcanum of theirs.


TL;DR: You are trying too hard

 

[jackofshadows]

Like the font on the top and the fact there's 2 layers of body armor. Otherwise it looks horrific. Especially the item icons. You need to re-done this from scratch.

 

[Alienman]

Ideally every fantasy rpg should have a load of confusing, archaic measurements. Have you thought about non-decimalised currencies as well?

When you think about it, having standardized units of measurement on all regions on a fantasy game is unrealistic.

"I want two and a half-goblin toes in apples, please"

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Ideally every fantasy rpg should have a load of confusing, archaic measurements. Have you thought about non-decimalised currencies as well?

When you think about it, having standardized units of measurement on all regions on a fantasy game is unrealistic.

"I want two and a half-goblin toes in apples, please"

Forest or deep half-goblin?

 

[Alienman]

Forest, of course. Deep is for bulk orders.

 

[Infinitron]

Ideally every fantasy rpg should have a load of confusing, archaic measurements. Have you thought about non-decimalised currencies as well?

Actually, I absolutely LOVED Darklands for exactly that reason. It had a historical currency system: 12 pfenniges equals 1 groschen (silver), and 20 groschen equals 1 florin (gold). OTOH Darklands was very historical despite the "magic". The game had place in a precise year and in a historical country. It made more sense there than in a fantasy setting - even a low fantasy, strongly rooted in history - one.

If i ever make my Darklands-like, sorry guys but you will have archaic, historical, non-decimalised currencies in the game.

There's a running gag in Pentiment where you can piss people off by asking "Do you mean an Innsbruck inch or a Nuremberg inch?"

 

[rojay]

But why tho?

Is there ANY reason for the usage of pound/lbs? Don't tell me it's for muh immershun.

Because it’s vastly older, inheriting from the Roman libra (slightly less than one pound) which is where ‘lb’ comes from. The idea of something so precise as the metric system of weights being used in the Middle Ages is totally ridiculous.

And what did Russia use specifically?

Dead Souls.

 

[Fink]

Is there ANY reason for the usage of pound/lbs? Don't tell me it's for muh immershun.

For the glorious seething?

They succeed. I'm seething already.

Amazing that it bothers you that much

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Like the font on the top and the fact there's 2 layers of body armor. Otherwise it looks horrific. Especially the item icons. You need to re-done this from scratch.

Take a look at Diablo 1&2 for inspiration on good looking items.

 

[std::namespace]

The bound leather UI looks fine,

if it were bound leather, it would be fine, but the whole left fucking side looks like it got dipped into mercury
shit doesnt make any sense - it has form but absurdist function
it looks like a stone slab from the 10 commandments

 

[Brancaleone]

If i ever make my Darklands-like, sorry guys but you will have archaic, historical, non-decimalised currencies in the game.

As long as you choose a font that even an old curmudgeon could read easily.

 

[Anthedon]

What's up with the sudden autism outbreak about how inventory icons look like?

 

[jackofshadows]

What's up with the sudden autism outbreak about how inventory icons look like?

a) it's important b) there isn't anything else to talk about anyway

duh

 

[std::namespace]

shits too dark, dark items should be on bright background

also that shit is 100% unfinished alpha cause the stone slab rgb color channels are 0,0,0... thats gonna change

though i would actually use an actual real stone texture and no this random shit

 

[Serus]

If i ever make my Darklands-like, sorry guys but you will have archaic, historical, non-decimalised currencies in the game.

As long as you choose a font that even an old curmudgeon could read easily.

I have a very poor sight so you can be certain of that. If fact i'm very butthurt when games uses some tiny or poorly readable font. Even if one wants a stylized font it still have to be readable.

 

[Quillon]

to me nothing seems too dark and I only have a hard time reading the name of the character: "bed of nurata", dafuq kinda name is that I probably read wrong? to nitpick further; inventory needs an auto sort by ... button/functionality.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

what's the unit for temperature?
it better not be that F shit

It better be K

 

[Spike]

UI and images look fine you clowns.

 

[rojay]

What's up with the sudden autism outbreak about how inventory icons look like?

"sudden"?

Also, don't mistake "autism" for "asshole."

 

[Atomboy]

God damn it! I couldn't open the codex for a week, I guess I got b& or something? But if so that was the weirdest ban ever, it just blocked access to the site with a 404 error instead of like sending me a text saying "you got banned" so maybe I wasn't banned and just had cookie issues? No idea! Anyway, I'm gonna go through the thread and answer any questions it might feature or something!!!

I feel like there is something off about the looks of the game.
It reminds me of:

Spoiler

And this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CompanyOfHeroes/comments/vxx28h/art_problem_of_coh_3/

And also this:

I'm no expert and I'm not even sure what feels off on the screenshots of Swordhaven, but I have the gut feeling that it was something to do with the balance of 4 axis: colors/contrast/saturation/brightness. Its something worth of discussion within the atom team and here on the codex.

I have no idea what this means, or what's the issue with the UI\Icons that's being discussed on the last page at the moment, but I sure send our artist everything in the form of screenshots, maybe he gets it? I don't understand anything about colors and designs.

I hate doing "epic" shit in RPGs. Way tired of saving the world again and again. Just give me simple stuff. Getting into some dungeon to get some gold, someone heard this old house is haunted, maybe we should go see if it's really haunted, etc. No save the world bullshit, just a bunch of niggas doing some fun adventure, wasting all that gold in some tavern drinking til kingdom come.

seriously, nothing makes me stop playing a RPG faster than when 'EPIC" shit starts happening...I hate high level adventures, and I hate 'Epic'..unfortunately all designers think people just want more and more epic shit and magic items everywhere, its so boring.

Well you won't kill any gods in Swordhaven. The most that will be in your hands is gonna be the economy of a large region of the world, and lives of your friends and shit like that. Nothing will menace the whole world in the game. But it might menace the local power structure and have global consequences in a few hundred years unless you play well.

Or better copy the current success formula by having a romanceable female companion named something like Twilighteyes, a metrosexual wizard and some tasteful bestiality.

Still not sure about adding romance. I played Rogue Trader last week and it didn't let me romance the sister of battle, and that'd be like the single time I'd be interested in an in-game romance ark, and we don't have sisters of battle to begin with, so what's even the point?
Right now all companions are just somewhat friendly towards you.

Just signed up to say this looks great. Keep doing what your doing and don't listen to anything anyone here says otherwise you will end up going bankrupt like the makers of Colony Ship.

Thanks! But I didn't know that happened, and we usually benefit from feedback a lot. I'm actually doing a bunch of things from user feedback even now and the testers seem to like it.

no pants? atomboy took my feedback way too seriously...

necessary everyday items like pants

That's luxury, what do you need pants for while sitting in front of a computer, making a game... bleh

Pants now appear when you put on different jackets!

Uncanny!

monochrome material ui is dumb or unfinished

wtf is "lbs"

sort character stats by type, offense/defense/other and separate visually, eg carry weihgt shouldnt be there at all, armor piercing should be together with offensives stats

that carved in paperdoll makes me think of some shit game i cant recall and vomit in my mouth, is that from might and magic? some elder scrolls abortion?

i FUCKING HATE glowy gradients on anything and i dont know of any good artist who doesnt hate em
fug this

Rest assured I linked this thread and the following posts on UI and icons to the artist for inspiration and feedback, but I don't have anything to say to it personally because I don't get it. I mean it's a window where you can see what stuff you have and put it on, who cares what it looks like.

Just surprised there are no slots for rings. The most common fantasy trope - magical rings.

You can put amulets that don't do anything on your neck, but that's about it. We don't have magic in a way where it can enchant rings.

So Russia uses lbs now? That is sad. All my physics and math books from Mir Publishers use metric system.

We chose lbs because we liked the letters better than the letters in "kg", it looks and is pronounced "stones" which sounds more old-timey and archaic for us, while kg is something we see in real life every day. It's not even in actual lbs, it's gamey fantasy lbs because you must have weight in a game, but also weight shouldn't be too annoying to manage, like giving weight to money or consumables or ammo for example. It's there as a limiter so you wouldn't carry around 500 plate armors looking for the best buyer but instead be forced to use your imagination in finding safe hiding places for heavy loot or selling it off to the locals!

to me nothing seems too dark and I only have a hard time reading the name of the character: "bed of nurata", dafuq kinda name is that I probably read wrong? to nitpick further; inventory needs an auto sort by ... button/functionality.

Soon as I saw the generator make this name for the player for that screenshot session, I had an intrusive thought that someone somewhere will also find it weird-sounding... I was right! :D
Leave your game with the ability to generate names for those who are too lazy to name their character, and you'll get this one day. Now I wanna make it a default name.

I never want to do anything "epic" in a video game again.

oh you are in for a surprise: the rat is named

they should have been badgers at least...

Well in my defense I made that name up on the spot because I wanted a name that would go well with the rat's mechanic of biting through armor!!!!!!! So dagger, because they used daggers to go through chinks in armor! What is this fandom even? I googled Daggerfang after I read this post, but I couldn't find where that's from apart from deviantart furry pictures. Is that a furry thing? Daggerfang?

What is the Conan way? You mean books, as in sword & sorcery genre? Battle Brothers are like that but Darklands did it differently. You do have "mages" there, their magic is just integrated with lore very well and is relatively weak - but the player has access to it.

In Conan (yes, the books) magic is either "magic" (special dust, for example) or is wielded by someone other than the main character (mostly enemies, sometimes allies) and genuine magicians are not common encounters.

Very close to how things are in Swordhaven. Maybe takes a step further and asks whether the "actual magic" one is lucky to see once per lifetime is magic at all, or some legerdemain and usage of quite mundane yet poorly understood objects in a novel way!!!

puttin 'iron conspiracy' right there in the title is what Tyranicon is allowed to do in his porn parodies, a company aspiring to release original ass games being this on the nose is just debilitatingly churlish

Hey, the Iron Conspiracy is there because there's an iron conspiracy in the game. The name should reflect what you're getting yourself into! And you're getting yourself into a city called Swordhaven and get entangled in an iron conspiracy. That's what I call proper naming conventions! I wouldn't use that to predict the game's content, cuz there's inspiration and then there's the actual result. What we have in mind won't even mindlessly parrot BG1, or any single game we know for that matter!

It looks far too generic, and that screenshot... Please, no, no, no, not another "kill x rats" quest, please. If you want to create another generic fantasy RPG, it has to be exceptionally well done, or it won't sell at all. Everything I see so far is ultra-generic and bland, and it's better to tell you this before you get too far into it. Of course, RPGCodex is a very easy-going and friendly environment for developers and might give a false sense of security. I doubt such a game would encounter any commercial success. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's grimdark and adult, maybe there are lots of morally ambiguous choices like in Fallout, but I don't get that feeling right now.

Well on one hand we know how stale killing rodents is, and it's like a meme in fantasy roleplaying games and such, but how can you NOT get a mission to kill some rats though? Rats are a staple, they are fiends, they take your grain and shit. There must always be a rat-centric quest. I made them do fun things though, to make it less annoying for rat quest haters. They can summon more rats if you let them live long enough in battle, and they also bite through armor making them a danger at any level of equipment. And they have slightly fatter variants and also cool brood mother variants. I'm sure they will find success and so will we!

 

[std::namespace]

So dagger, because they used daggers to go through chinks in armor! What is this fandom even? I googled Daggerfang after I read this post, but I couldn't find where that's from apart from deviantart furry pictures. Is that a furry thing? Daggerfang?

the lady doth protest too much, methinks

 

[Atomboy]

Still not sure about adding romance. I played Rogue Trader last week and it didn't let me romance the sister of battle, and that'd be like the single time I'd be interested in an in-game romance ark, and we don't have sisters of battle to begin with, so what's even the point?
Right now all companions are just somewhat friendly towards you.

ATOM already figured out romance, just do that

That kind of romance is already in there.