KickStarter Vampire Syndicate: Gangs of MoonFall - Kickstarter now live!

[BruceVC]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Discovery_of_Witches_(TV_series)

There several examples of Vampires walking in sunlight, its not common but its not unique like in Discovery of Witches in the link

 

[Caim]

Didn't Dracula in the Bram Stoker book walk outside in the sun just fine? Or did that not count because it was in an overcast Britain?

 

[Harthwain]

Didn't Dracula in the Bram Stoker book walk outside in the sun just fine? Or did that not count because it was in an overcast Britain?

You're correct. He is "robbed of his powers", but he doesn't die from being in the daylight.

 

[Caim]

Didn't Dracula in the Bram Stoker book walk outside in the sun just fine? Or did that not count because it was in an overcast Britain?

You're correct. He is "robbed of his powers", but he doesn't die from being in the daylight.

Knew it. But what does that exactly entail? If he'd depowered and you shoot him dead, does he just rise again come nightfall? Or does killing him while depowered permanently kill him?

 

[Storyfag]

Didn't Dracula in the Bram Stoker book walk outside in the sun just fine? Or did that not count because it was in an overcast Britain?

You're correct. He is "robbed of his powers", but he doesn't die from being in the daylight.

And it is implied that a younger, lesser vampire would perish in the light.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Didn't Dracula in the Bram Stoker book walk outside in the sun just fine? Or did that not count because it was in an overcast Britain?

You're correct. He is "robbed of his powers", but he doesn't die from being in the daylight.

Knew it. But what does that exactly entail? If he'd depowered and you shoot him dead, does he just rise again come nightfall? Or does killing him while depowered permanently kill him?

Can't even get close to him at night, too powerful. He probably could be killed at any time but daylight is the most feasible opportunity for humans.

 

[Tyranicon]

After some thought I think maybe I'll add different in-game languages too.

Imperial / Mainlander Standard - basically common.

Chthonian undertongue - cult language of the Chthonian vampire lineage.

Gushanese, Dyvolian and Zimalayan - languages for the three non-MoonFaller Native ethnic groups.

Drukah - Primordial vampiric language.

And maybe one secret one.

There'll be a way to learn most languages in-game, but it'll take some time and tracking down the right trainer/tutor for the more rare languages.

 

[Nortar]

After some thought I think maybe I'll add different in-game languages too.

Imperial / Mainlander Standard - basically common.

Chthonian undertongue - cult language of the Chthonian vampire lineage.

Gushanese, Dyvolian and Zimalayan - languages for the three non-MoonFaller Native ethnic groups.

Drukah - Primordial vampiric language.

And maybe one secret one.

There'll be a way to learn most languages in-game, but it'll take some time and tracking down the right trainer/tutor for the more rare languages.

Sounds like a completely pointless feature.
It was wasted even in PoE, and for globohomo cyberpunk it's outright retarded.
That's from gameplay perspective. From lore point of view it rises some questions.

So a bunch of ancient vamps gathered round and like, guys we need a new language, because reasons!
And now the first thing vampires do after turning is going to a language school?
Or do they have to pass an exam before receiving the kindred gift?

Who wants to get bogged down in such things, when it's a game about fucking vampires fucking around?
My point is, if you can't make it good, don't do it at all, especially if it adds nothing worthy to core gameplay.
It's like crafting, shoved everywhere, but worse.

 

[Theodora]

Vampire Gang RPG with F:NV-like factions, Battle Brothers-esque overworld gameplay, an AI DM that reacts to your decisions, and gratuitous but tasteful porn.

Late to the party, but: this looks extremely based! Can't wait! <3

And very cool to read that you're able to live off this.

Vampire Gang RPG with F:NV-like factions, Battle Brothers-esque overworld gameplay, an AI DM that reacts to your decisions, and gratuitous but tasteful porn.

Lmao, based -- was wondering if it was going to be smutty, haha. Is that a default with you and games, or do you think you'd ever do something entirely SFW?

And apologies if I missed it, but did you say anything about what inspires your particular blend of urban vampire fiction and cyberpunk?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

After some thought I think maybe I'll add different in-game languages too.

Imperial / Mainlander Standard - basically common.

Chthonian undertongue - cult language of the Chthonian vampire lineage.

Gushanese, Dyvolian and Zimalayan - languages for the three non-MoonFaller Native ethnic groups.

Drukah - Primordial vampiric language.

And maybe one secret one.

There'll be a way to learn most languages in-game, but it'll take some time and tracking down the right trainer/tutor for the more rare languages.

Sounds like a completely pointless feature.
It was wasted even in PoE, and for globohomo cyberpunk it's outright retarded.
That's from gameplay perspective. From lore point of view it rises some questions.

So a bunch of ancient vamps gathered round and like, guys we need a new language, because reasons!
And now the first thing vampires do after turning is going to a language school?
Or do they have to pass an exam before receiving the kindred gift?

Who wants to get bogged down in such things, when it's a game about fucking vampires fucking around?
My point is, if you can't make it good, don't do it at all, especially if it adds nothing worthy to core gameplay.
It's like crafting, shoved everywhere, but worse.

On the other hand when you have opposing factions all crammed into the same place it makes some sense for communications to be more incomprehensible in the very likely event it gets intercepted.

 

[Tyranicon]

Lmao, based -- was wondering if it was going to be smutty, haha. Is that a default with you and games, or do you think you'd ever do something entirely SFW?

And apologies if I missed it, but did you say anything about what inspires your particular blend of urban vampire fiction and cyberpunk?

I'll probably dip my toes back in SFW sooner or later. NSFW is just fun to play around with, and has a lot of inherent advantages for small indies like me.

Inspiration is a rather broad idea. I can list the usual suspects like Neuromancer, Akira, Snowcrash, etc, but the real answer is a bit out of left field. While the series I'm working on is aesthetically cyberpunk/fantasy, the bones are very much related to the ideas of a technological singularity. So writers and futurists like Eliezer Yudkowsky, Ray Kurzweil, Vernor Vinge, Isaac Asimov, etc are probably more accurate. Plotwise and thematically, I took a lot of inspiration from Planescape: Torment.

Probably not the answer people were expecting for a porn game.

It was wasted even in PoE....

Who wants to get bogged down in such things, when it's a game about fucking vampires fucking around?

I honestly don't remember much from PoE other than being bored and oversaturated with lore that I didn't really care about.

I don't think I've seen languages handled in an interesting way by a RPG in a very long time. The idea here is to provide additional flavor to both the vampire lineages and the world at large, while at the same time offering new gameplay options. If it ends up being too much work or just system bloat, I'll scrap it.

 

[Nortar]

It was wasted even in PoE....

Who wants to get bogged down in such things, when it's a game about fucking vampires fucking around?

I honestly don't remember much from PoE other than being bored and oversaturated with lore that I didn't really care about.

I don't think I've seen languages handled in an interesting way by a RPG in a very long time. The idea here is to provide additional flavor to both the vampire lineages and the world at large, while at the same time offering new gameplay options. If it ends up being too much work or just system bloat, I'll scrap it.

Ekera! They invented several languages, and people either did not care or were annoyed.
And that in the world with more or less isolated countries, where different languages made sense.
In the futuritic cyberpunk melting pot, people speaking their own tongues seems artificial and pointless.
Anyone who needs to understand the spoken language of the "enemy" will find a way.

While the goal of adding a bit of extra flavor is great, the language is a cheap and boring way to do it.
The latest example of using different languages is Solasta.
You pick a number of tongues each character knows, and once in a blue moon they can read some text on an elven statue or orc totem.
Perhaps you can find an interesting way to implement it, but I seriously doubt that the efforts would pay off.

An interesting approach to world-building was used in Mars War Logs and Technomancers.
Different colonies used different ways of naming their citizens.
One was using merits as names, like Tenacity or Innocence.
The other assigned last names based on professions like Mancer, Watcher, Smith.
So just a mention of a character's name instantly told you where he's from.

 

[Lithium Flower]

Reminds me of a thought experiment I heard somewhere. Imagine we've got vampires out and about and shit, except instead of sucking blood they were all about draining coom. Now, they've got all the traditional advantages - always at the height of their prime, striking goth aesthetic, decades if not centuries of experience etc. So they would, presumably, roam around the world, looking for Codexers who bear that thing they oh so crave to subject to their immortal ministrations and feed their hunger with the engorged passion of these fortunate others or, like, you know, whatever? But the kicker is that once one of these coompires drain your coombox, they infect you with an insatiable thirst for coomies. And if your coometer ever cooms up short, you die and can never coom back to life.

Anyway - yes, I still would.

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

Reminds me of a thought experiment I heard somewhere. Imagine we've got vampires out and about and shit, except instead of sucking blood they were all about draining coom. Now, they've got all the traditional advantages - always at the height of their prime, striking goth aesthetic, decades if not centuries of experience etc. So they would, presumably, roam around the world, looking for Codexers who bear that thing they oh so crave to subject to their immortal ministrations and feed their hunger with the engorged passion of these fortunate others or, like, you know, whatever? But the kicker is that once one of these coompires drain your coombox, they infect you with an insatiable thirst for coomies. And if your coometer ever cooms up short, you die and can never coom back to life.

Anyway - yes, I still would.

Thank you anon! You are a good anon!

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Reminds me of a thought experiment I heard somewhere. Imagine we've got vampires out and about and shit, except instead of sucking blood they were all about draining coom. Now, they've got all the traditional advantages - always at the height of their prime, striking goth aesthetic, decades if not centuries of experience etc. So they would, presumably, roam around the world, looking for Codexers who bear that thing they oh so crave to subject to their immortal ministrations and feed their hunger with the engorged passion of these fortunate others or, like, you know, whatever? But the kicker is that once one of these coompires drain your coombox, they infect you with an insatiable thirst for coomies. And if your coometer ever cooms up short, you die and can never coom back to life.

Anyway - yes, I still would.

Thank you anon! You are a good anon!

What the hell did someone put a filter on you?

 

[Anonymous Wife Scholar]

What the hell did someone put a filter on you?

Thank you ERYFKRAD anon! You are a good anon! I did make Codex KNEEL anon with me cute posting anon! I did! Codex is MINDBREAK anon from me cute posting anon! It is!

 

[Sykar]

Playing around with a few masked male player portrait/icons:

Spoiler

Random non-masked portrait:

Spoiler

Also, there will be initial faction bonuses tied to your character's ethnicity. There really isn't such a thing as multiculturalism in gangs. Being a white dude in the triad-inspired faction, or a black dude in the russian mafia-inspired faction is gonna be one hell of an uphill battle.

Now that I think about it, I might actually get canceled.

Description while selecting ethnicity and face portrait:

Spoiler

Like mortal crime syndicates in MoonFall, the vampire lineages can trace their origins in the city back to the mass migration following the Cataclysm of 721, which resulted in the destruction of Greater Gushan and most of old Dyavol. The recent Zimalyan Civil War has also led to a wave of refugees, bringing with them the Sunseeker Court. As a consequence, most lineages are split among ethnic and cultural lines.


The vampire lineages are surprisingly progressive, to a point. Ability, loyalty and cunning matter most, but be aware, many lineages still favor what they consider as “their own people.”

Make sure to include a few of the mandatory masked men.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Shlomo, please...

Spoiler

Ultimate mask

 

[Theodora]

Probably not the answer people were expecting for a porn game.

Tbh, I was expecting something at least a little unconventional it's usually how interesting art comes about, ideas being translated to new contexts or media.

What the hell did someone put a filter on you?

There is a filter on everyone who would support the cause of the Best Anon!

 

[Zombra]

Tyranicon Congratulations on the new project! Will follow thread with interest.

 

[Zombra]

Check out the "visually similar images" on a Google search of the banner art. You can call me trashy but I think it's a good sign of things to come.

 

[Tsubutai]

Here’s the TL;DR pitch: Vampire Gang RPG with F:NV-like factions, Battle Brothers-esque overworld gameplay, an AI DM that reacts to your decisions, and gratuitous but tasteful porn.

Everything about this sounds very much up my street except for the last bit - how, uh, "gratuitous" and "tasteful" is the porn? Is it just occasional boobs as in, say, the witcher 3 or something more explicit and difficult to explain without embarassment if the wife were to walk in while I was playing?

 

[Zombra]

Seems like this could benefit from an menu option for "Rated X", "Rated R", or "PG-13"

 

[Tyranicon]

Here’s the TL;DR pitch: Vampire Gang RPG with F:NV-like factions, Battle Brothers-esque overworld gameplay, an AI DM that reacts to your decisions, and gratuitous but tasteful porn.

Everything about this sounds very much up my street except for the last bit - how, uh, "gratuitous" and "tasteful" is the porn? Is it just occasional boobs as in, say, the witcher 3 or something more explicit and difficult to explain without embarassment if the wife were to walk in while I was playing?

Yeah, like Zombra said above, I'm considering a menu option to toggle the sex stuff. By default? This is a porn game with lots of explicit porn.

 

[Harthwain]

If webcomics' comments are any indication, there are a lot of women who go thirsty for muscly/ripped men, contrary to the official story that "it's not important". I am willing to bet that the wives would pull up a chair to watch their husbands playing (or at the very least keep standing behind them for a very long period of time). Or pretend they do not care, but play the game in secret instead. The 50 Shades of Grey got popular for both sexes. Enough to make it into a cinema movie and the couples went to watch it, which is very public thing to do.

 

[DeepOcean]

Looks like a cool project, desire luck to you, game looking good and that concept art looked professional. Man, to get a big boy like this out you will need stamina because keeping motivation for 3 - 5 years straight is hard as fuck specially if you see programming more like a necessary evil than something you enjoy doing like myself, I now this as I messed with Unity enough to see the mountain of work would be necessary to implement this RPG I was making, basically an animu free SMT style game but with grid combat.