Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Turn-Based Tactics The Lamplighters League - turn-based tactics in pulp 1930s setting from Harebrained Schemes

Oropay

Educated
Joined
May 26, 2021
Messages
80
Find the package
All agents must survive
Generic and boring
 

Lemming42

Arcane
Joined
Nov 4, 2012
Messages
6,394
Location
The Satellite Of Love
Honestly the best thing they could do would be to focus in on the real-time aspect. The two modes of gameplay don't really work in tandem so it'd be best to leave the XCOM stuff as a fail state and have the game mostly be about the stealth infiltration stuff.

Remove or rethink the ability limits, give each chracter a couple more abilities (distraction or whatever), tune up enemy detection AI and the game would probably be more or less fine.

Though I can't believe they're charging £41 for it. Even with inflation that's just fucking silly for something that looks and plays like a mobile game.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
98,058
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth




Recycling clips from the announcement trailer cinematic is kind of lame.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1167750/view/3720593210590156657

Welcome to the launch of the Lamplighters League!

bb5ff1c1e5972ce4975a1611a4193e580a22787c.jpg



It goes without saying, maybe, but this is a special day for us, and we are so excited to be sharing this game with you. Games like this take a long time to bring to life from the first pitches to the final product you can finally play today. At each stage there are unique challenges—especially when bringing to life a brand new game world and working out new twists for an established and complex genre like turn-based tactics. It can be grueling, especially when the build isn’t feeling fun, or a production deadline is looming. Or, worse, when those two things are happening at once.

It can also be incredibly rewarding. There was a moment during development where we were, in fact, facing down the fact that infiltration just wasn’t fun and there was a big deadline coming up fast. We needed to rethink things, and we needed to do it quickly. Under that pressure the team prototyped and implemented the real time takedowns in just a few weeks. I jumped up in the air the first time I saw the shock from a mine travel through the water on the ground to take out an unaware enemy. It was a big victory right when we needed it as a team.


f853952f42f1230d13a09fc0059691dd2beeb164.png



The thing is through all of that, the ups and the downs, we were thinking of you. Well, not you, of course, in all likelihood we’ve never met, but you, the player. Would this ability work? Is this still approachable? Are we rewarding high-skill play? Is Marteau smarmy enough? Would you think this moment was funny or that that one was touching?

This is the longest we’ve gone at HBS without getting to meet our audience, our community. Thanks to Kickstarter, we were often developing with you, working on beloved franchises like Shadowrun and BATTLETECH. We had trusted community members that could offer feedback and share their enthusiasm as we went.

That was not the case with The Lamplighters League—until now.


b91f5d16a45a23fe610f49ce5d3e7d5b20f095d8.png



Back when we first started work on The Lamplighters League, we had some big ideas. We wanted a game that was approachable but that maintained a tactical challenge. We set out to create a game that was wry and fun, but never crossed over into camp or silliness. Above it all we wanted to send you an adventure, an adventure where you command characters, not units.

Did we pull it off? That’s up to you to decide.

Welcome aboard, it’s nice to meet you, and we hope you have rip-roaring great time.

Chris Rogers

Game Director
 
Last edited:
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 22, 2020
Messages
2,300
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming!
Though I can't believe they're charging £41 for it. Even with inflation that's just fucking silly for something that looks and plays like a mobile game.
well, it worked fine with Shadowrun games. Why change what works?

Shadowrun games were going for 15-20 bucks, which was OK to no small part thanks to the whole "oh shit, this is a Shadowrun game" factor. I guess that one of the main reasons for the bloated price here is the full voice acting - the devs once more forgetting that they should make a decent game first and waste money on stuff like this only afterwards.

This is still a 20 bucks game at best, being marketed for nearly three times more... p. ridiculous tbh fam.
 

agris

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 16, 2004
Messages
6,886
this being mediocre was obvious from the day it was announced.

what has happened to hbs is sad; they've clearly declined. and it isn't like they were starting from some crazy high perch to begin with.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
98,058
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Set aside the narratives of decline. What stands out about Harebrained Schemes is how they made a strategic (and in retrospect rather puzzling) decision not to make RPGs any more. They just threw away whatever experience they'd accumulated making the Shadowrun games. It'd be interesting to learn what went on behind the scenes in reaching that decision.

Because no matter how good your game is, it's always going to be hard to stand out making yet another quirky-themed tactics game™. Why?
 
Last edited:

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
36,044
This game needs to cook another year in the oven.

Battletech was released in 2018 and the last DLC was released for it four years ago. I'm sure Paradox isn't happy that this took so long.

Shadowrun games were going for 15-20 bucks, which was OK to no small part thanks to the whole "oh shit, this is a Shadowrun game" factor. I guess that one of the main reasons for the bloated price here is the full voice acting - the devs once more forgetting that they should make a decent game first and waste money on stuff like this only afterwards.

This is still a 20 bucks game at best, being marketed for nearly three times more... p. ridiculous tbh fam.
I'd blame Paradox. Battletech was $40, this is $10 more. The Swedes want to climb out of the hole they made for themselves.

Edit: the fact that they have an extra companion day-one dlc for $8 is particularly shameful and Extremely Paradox. :lol: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2244710/The_Lamplighters_League__Nocturne/
 
Last edited:

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
36,044
Set aside the narratives of decline. The most notable thing about Harebrained Schemes is that they made a strategic (and in retrospect rather puzzling) decision not to make RPGs any more. Just threw away whatever experience they'd accumulated making the Shadowrun games. It'd be interesting to learn what went on behind the scenes in reaching that decision.

Because no matter how good your game is, it's always going to be hard to stand out making yet another "quirky-themed tactics game™". Why?
On their website they decided to lump in the Shadowruns as "PC games which combined tactical gameplay with nuanced and engaging stories." Battletech became their best-selling game, so apparently they (or Paradox) decided that was their brand from now on.
 

Lord_Potato

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 24, 2017
Messages
10,175
Location
Free City of Warsaw
Set aside the narratives of decline. The most notable thing about Harebrained Schemes is that they made a strategic (and in retrospect rather puzzling) decision not to make RPGs any more.
I see various game journos calling Lamplighters League a tactical or even strategic rpg.

https://www.gamepressure.com/games/the-lamplighters-league/zd6599
https://www.rpgfan.com/game/the-lamplighters-league/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/the-lamplighters-league-hands-on-gdc/?amp
 

toro

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Apr 14, 2009
Messages
14,165
Day 1 DLC with cut content and increased price in a lot of regions :)

Less than 20k sales on release day. Only 6 reviews on Steam. This game is dead.
 
Last edited:

VonMiskov

Educated
Joined
Feb 20, 2021
Messages
165
The controls are something else here. Clearly made with gamepad in mind. Half the time I'm struggling with how many unnecessary buttons and controls there are. Camera focused on one character, slow camera movement. The performance is abysmal too. i9-11900K and 3070Ti and the PC is cooking while delivering subpar fps for how this looks.

A massive decline.
 

Taka-Haradin puolipeikko

Filthy Kalinite
Patron
Joined
Apr 24, 2015
Messages
19,563
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Bubbles In Memoria
The controls are something else here. Clearly made with gamepad in mind. Half the time I'm struggling with how many unnecessary buttons and controls there are. Camera focused on one character, slow camera movement. The performance is abysmal too. i9-11900K and 3070Ti and the PC is cooking while delivering subpar fps for how this looks.

A massive decline.
Performance seems consistent with how Battletech was/is.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
36,044
8 user reviews :lol:
Peak of 773, shaping up to be a flop.

The perk of HBS relying on crowdfunding before is that they could find out right away if they were working on something people actually wanted to buy. Paradox with the anti-Midas touch.
 

TwoEdge

Scholar
Joined
Jan 27, 2017
Messages
258
I wonder how much of HBS' decline is due to Weisman leaving the company. Their projects without him seem too scattershot, good games need strong vision.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
36,044
I wonder how much of HBS' decline is due to Weisman leaving the company. Their projects without him seem too scattershot, good games need strong vision.
Weisman left in late 2022, so it's not like he wasn't part of this from its conception. Perhaps he was unhappy with Paradox's directives. :M
 

Immortal

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Sep 13, 2014
Messages
5,069
Location
Safe Space - Don't Bulli
I'm more concerned that anyone:

A) Thought this was a good idea during the whiteboarding session of "what's next?" at HBS
B) Thought this looked like a good game seeing the trailer

Redfall, Saints Row now this. Are the same 10 college dropout 'idea guys' working at all these companies? Nobody wants to play this quirky hipster slop.

(As of this posting 22 reviews on steam. lmfaoooo)
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom