Incline Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children - isometric tactical Korean SRPG

[Zombra]

I swear, these devs are the hardest working men in show business. "We spent a lot of time broke and COVID has caused huge problems, so the next meticulous update for our $20 game will be slightly delayed. Oh yeah, in the meantime here is the latest update."

 

[Serious_Business]

I swear, these devs are the hardest working men in show business. "We spent a lot of time broke and COVID has caused huge problems, so the next meticulous update for our $20 game will be slightly delayed. Oh yeah, in the meantime here is the latest update."

Small indie design is pretty heroic, isn't it? No poor slobs that need their steady pay to take care of the family or anything, probably ; just doing the project and what it necessitates. This is how art is made, of course - and how workers are exploited, but what are you gonna do. I'm not sure what the working conditions are back there.

 

[StaticSpine]

Bros, how many chapters are there in the game? And when will I have access to White Lion/Black Witch DLC content?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Bros, how many chapters are there in the game?

All of them

 

[GhostCow]

I have no idea. At a point where the missions are like level 40 and I still don't have the last character. This game is actually kind of too long

 

[Zombra]

Codex secret, no one has ever actually finished the game. Also, it never stops being good so shut up and go catch some crooks

 

[Tigranes]

I swear, these devs are the hardest working men in show business. "We spent a lot of time broke and COVID has caused huge problems, so the next meticulous update for our $20 game will be slightly delayed. Oh yeah, in the meantime here is the latest update."

Small indie design is pretty heroic, isn't it? No poor slobs that need their steady pay to take care of the family or anything, probably ; just doing the project and what it necessitates. This is how art is made, of course - and how workers are exploited, but what are you gonna do. I'm not sure what the working conditions are back there.

I mean, of course consumers love this arrangement, we pay a small $ for a huge amount of content & the devs always suck your dick with every word they type and code 18 hours a day to deliver more. Why wouldn't we like it, whether it's actually conducive to great games or not?

I have no idea how these guys are faring, but like all small indies, I would assume the price of their heroism is a baseline of never having any financial security.

 

[Daidre]

Bros, how many chapters are there in the game? And when will I have access to White Lion/Black Witch DLC content?

There are 6 chapters in the main story, 47 missions total to get the credits. White Lion/Black Witch DLC becomes available after finale, but its storyline is is not completed yet and only has 2 missions.

Pretty completionist run took me 120 hours - with tons of a time spend on mastery boards, pet management and some farm. Only thing that weirded me out a bit in the second half of the game is that there is no new side quests on Shooter St. after lvl 30 or so.

I usually not into nu-xcom clones (never liked TB tactics as genre) but Troubleshooter is totally the best RPG I played this year. I plan to start Wasteland 3 next, but I have some eerie feeling that combat and party building would totally suck in comparison there.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Troubleshooter is totally the best RPG I played this year

 

[StaticSpine]

I swear, these devs are the hardest working men in show business. "We spent a lot of time broke and COVID has caused huge problems, so the next meticulous update for our $20 game will be slightly delayed. Oh yeah, in the meantime here is the latest update."

Small indie design is pretty heroic, isn't it? No poor slobs that need their steady pay to take care of the family or anything, probably ; just doing the project and what it necessitates. This is how art is made, of course - and how workers are exploited, but what are you gonna do. I'm not sure what the working conditions are back there.

I mean, of course consumers love this arrangement, we pay a small $ for a huge amount of content & the devs always suck your dick with every word they type and code 18 hours a day to deliver more. Why wouldn't we like it, whether it's actually conducive to great games or not?

I have no idea how these guys are faring, but like all small indies, I would assume the price of their heroism is a baseline of never having any financial security.

Some project management or a producer wouldn't hurt. They already made a game twice or even threefold bigger than competitors and continue delivering updates and free DLCs. Also, there are some mechanics without which the game still feels totally complete because of the great core gameplay. For example, crafting (both items and drones) seems redundant and is not worth the effort. The amount of unique artwork is also enormous. It looks like there was no proper resource management and/or a person who could focus the team on what's really important.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

We should convince Warren Spector to relocate to Korea.

 

[Zumbabul]

After finishing the game once, I was left hungry for more. So, I started a second playthrough with some home rules. One of the rule is "no catharsis". During my first playthrough "catharsis" dropped only in the last mission. So I didn't have a chance to appreciated it. However, I had a feeling that "one shot one kill" + "catharsis" will break the game.

During my second playthrough, catharsis dropped at the begging of the fourth chapter. I didn't resist the temptation to see catharsis in action and equipped it on almost any character. Needless to say, my party of heroes turned into party of monsters. "One shot one kill" + "catharsis" combo indeed breaks the game. It is disgustingly powerful. One mission with this combo was enough to feel dirty and guilty for "cheating". I will revert to my rules and replay this mission in a more honorable way.

I think devs should increase the tp price of the catharsis or eliminate it from the game. It is just too powerful for 2 points.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

We should convince Warren Spector to relocate to Korea.

We should probably interview these dudes if it will help?

 

[Daidre]

During my second playthrough, catharsis dropped at the begging of the fourth chapter. I didn't resist the temptation to see catharsis in action and equipped it on almost any character. Needless to say, my party of heroes turned into party of monsters. "One shot one kill" + "catharsis" combo indeed breaks the game. It is disgustingly powerful. One mission with this combo was enough to feel dirty and guilty for "cheating". I will revert to my rules and replay this mission in a more honorable way.

I think devs should increase the tp price of the catharsis or eliminate it from the game. It is just too powerful for 2 points.

Only character in my party who could reliably drop enemies on Hard/Cruel (often with challenging mode on) with this combo was Sion, he was cleaning whole screen in his LoS even before Catharsis. But he is kinda slow and whole combo chain breaks when you hit target with Impulse Field, Luck or just high evasion. "One shot one kill" dropped off rapidly for me in the second half of the game when White Tiger appeared and only enemies I could one shot were mostly hostile gunners/snipers - and those get crazy long attack range on higher levels.

So yes, its broken, but only when you fight lower level enemies who get penalties to Armor/Block/Dodge/Hit Chance due to level difference.

PS And I am thinking of starting another run too, I still never tried melee version of Sion and magical version of Irene.

 

[Zumbabul]

I usually not into nu-xcom clones (never liked TB tactics as genre) but Troubleshooter is totally the best RPG I played this year.

When I started the game, I expected that this game will be similar to the nu-xcom. However, when I play it, I don't feel that I'm playing X-com. I have a feeling that I'm playing Shining Force 2. On surface Troubleshooter looks like X-com, but inside it is definitely an RPG.

 

[Zumbabul]

Only character in my party who could reliably drop enemies on Hard/Cruel (often with challenging mode on) with this combo was Sion, he was cleaning whole screen in his LoS even before Catharsis. But he is kinda slow and whole combo chain breaks when you hit target with Impulse Field, Luck or just high evasion. "One shot one kill" dropped off rapidly for me in the second half when White Tiger appeared and only enemies I could one shot were mostly hostile gunners/snipers - and those get crazy long attack range on higher levels.

So yes, its broken, but only when you fight lower level targets who get penalty to Armor/Block/Dodge/Hit Chance due to level difference.

I'm playing on Cruel/challenging. So, outleveling is not an issue. I agree that in late-game missions there will be a lot of enemies with impulsive fields and "one shot one kill" will not be as powerful as in mid-game. However, when Anne (!!!) kill everything within her reach in one turn, this is kind of too much. In my current playthrough, catharsis is banned.

 

[Endemic]

I have no idea how these guys are faring, but like all small indies, I would assume the price of their heroism is a baseline of never having any financial security.

Office expenses and living costs in Seoul are likely nowhere near as high as they are in say, the US/European developer hotspots. Dandylion have been working on Troubleshooter since at least 2016 (Steam Greenlight was March 2016), using an open-source engine. I also doubt that all ~6 devs we see were working on it full-time for that whole duration; aspects like art are almost certainly contracted out as well. Then there's the question of what else they do, I'd be very surprised if anyone at Dandylion was relying on Troubleshooter as their sole source of income.

That said, everything highlighted here is a perfectly valid concern, and why smart people generally don't choose to work PC\video game development jobs.

 

[Daidre]

Only character in my party who could reliably drop enemies on Hard/Cruel (often with challenging mode on) with this combo was Sion, he was cleaning whole screen in his LoS even before Catharsis. But he is kinda slow and whole combo chain breaks when you hit target with Impulse Field, Luck or just high evasion. "One shot one kill" dropped off rapidly for me in the second half when White Tiger appeared and only enemies I could one shot were mostly hostile gunners/snipers - and those get crazy long attack range on higher levels.

So yes, its broken, but only when you fight lower level targets who get penalty to Armor/Block/Dodge/Hit Chance due to level difference.

I'm playing on Cruel/challenging. So, outleveling is not an issue. I agree that in late-game missions there will be a lot of enemies with impulsive fields and "one shot one kill" will not be as powerful as in mid-game. However, when Anne (!!!) kill everything within her reach in one turn, this is kind of too much. In my current playthrough, catharsis is banned.

Imho, difficulty curve is kinda funny - my party felt mightiest mid game too, until high end enemies appeared in the story with all their masteries and sets not available for PCs yet. And then I went into phase where I needed to work hard to keep up with White Tiger's sturdy melees and nasty snipers.

Spoiler

I expected similar curve when robots and drakes appeared, but turned out those were never same level of problem against my heavily magic/range oriented party.

Another imho, farming too much and playing against level-scaled hostiles is a bit alike to shooting yourself in the leg, since you barely get anything from extra levels without new masteries to support character growth, but enemies extend their repertoire drastically and get pure numbers on top of it. So replaying anything but Epic Hunt missions is pointless.

 

[Zumbabul]

Imho, difficulty curve is kinda funny - my party felt mightiest mid game too, until high end enemies appeared in the story with all their masteries and sets not available for PCs yet. And then I went into phase where I needed to work hard to keep up with White Tiger's sturdy melees and nasty snipers.

I have a different impression about difficulty curve. In my opinion, the peak in difficulty is chapter 3 mission, where you first meat white tigers and need to rescue police squads. After you get Ray, the challenge diminishes. After you get Giselle, challenge goes away. The game still have respectable difficulty: it will punish you for mistake, but if you play careful you will not have problems.

I think this is happening because of the two reasons. First, your party becomes to big. Secondly, at this point a lot of your characters are equipped with second heart (which steals away the challenge). That is why police back ups and second heart are also banned in my second playthrough.

Another imho, farming too much and playing against level-scaled hostiles is a bit alike to shooting yourself in the leg, since you barely get anything from extra levels without new masteries to support character growth, but enemies extend their repertoire drastically and get pure numbers on top of it. So replaying anything but Epic Hunt missions is pointless.

If you want challenge, you need to shoot yourself in the leg. A lot. And playing Cruel/Challenging is not enough, you need more limitations.

In my opinion, this game desperately need some Nightmare difficulty mod. The mastery system is incredibly rich. However, you only need to scratch it to beat the game.

 

[Daidre]

Imho, difficulty curve is kinda funny - my party felt mightiest mid game too, until high end enemies appeared in the story with all their masteries and sets not available for PCs yet. And then I went into phase where I needed to work hard to keep up with White Tiger's sturdy melees and nasty snipers.

I have a different impression about difficulty curve. In my opinion, the peak in difficulty is chapter 3 mission, where you first meat white tigers and need to rescue police squads. After you get Ray, the challenge diminishes. After you get Giselle, challenge goes away. The game still have respectable difficulty: it will punish you for mistake, but if you play careful you will not have problems.

Well I have meant exactly the same thing, guess we just separated mid- and end-game differently. I felt nice and mighty against simpler gangsters, spoonists and animals, but then suddenly Wight Tigers have a snipers and I did not and turns out that builds that were perfectly fine before (glass cannons mostly) just fall flat on their faces. Their maps also much harder with tons of elevated terrains where even their simpler gunners get a tons a benefits.

Spoiler

I thought for a long time that there will something big after white tigers too, like a new gung that is even stronger, but game just ended Beside short appearance of the Sculls and side missions with animal hunts, turns out you spent half of the main story fighting only them with some new units here and there.

 

[Zumbabul]

but then suddenly Wight Tigers have a snipers and I did not

When this happened in my first playthrough, I felt that it was so unfair!!! In X-com you have snipers and enemies don't. This is fair. Here it is opposite. This is not fair!!!! And all of them are in elevated well defended positions! The game is cheating!!!!

 

[StaticSpine]

Bros, I'm out of story (red) missions after

Spoiler

Heixing fights Carter and gets to the hospital

What do I do next?

 

[Zumbabul]

Sometimes in order to trigger story mission you need to go to the title screen.

 

[Zumbabul]

Sometimes in order to trigger story mission you need to go to the title screen.

 

[Zumbabul]

Sorry, for the double post.