Vapourware Zodiac Legion - X-COM and dungeons

[Galdred]

Good, what about the action bar now?
Are the "thin" icons a problem to you?

 

[Ninjerk]

No. This is starting to look like Tetra Master or w/e with a toned down palette.

 

[Galdred]

No. This is starting to look like Tetra Master or w/e with a toned down palette.

What do you mean by that? I have never played it.
Would you just get rid of the action bar and just display the buttons?
Or just an individual border for each button?

 

[Ninjerk]

There's a sort of late-90s hand-made feeling to it. GAMENAME is the closest game I think of to this kind of look. When I was a kid, we couldn't afford computers that were on the bleeding edge so the 1(?) or 2 friends I had who could were my chance at playing whatever games were advertised in all the magazines (e.g. Everquest, Unreal Tournament). At home I'd have to find things to entertain myself with like hunting down NES ROMs and somewhere in the recesses of the internet I found the only good free game I would play for many years (all the others were shit like South Park platformers that were not AT ALL well made). Someone on here managed to produce the name of the game when I described it (pretty poorly).

EDIT: God dammit Tetra Master is the card game from FF8. I've forgotten the name of that damn game again! It was Japanese or Korean freeware.

 

[CryptRat]

This action bar will be accompanied with corresponding keyboard shortcuts, won't it?

 

[Galdred]

This action bar will be accompanied with corresponding keyboard shortcuts, won't it?

Of course, it is not a console game !

I plan to have it work like in (neu)XCOM : 1 keyboard shortcut that would depend on the key position on the bar, and another that would be tied to one action, but the second part might be hard if we end up with too many actions.
Probably F1-F12 to select your warriors.

 

[Galdred]

New mockup for the buttons, actions and portrait selection elements of the UI.
The action bar may be larger for characters with a lot of skills (I will probably go for 6 active skills max, so 3 more buttons).
But we still have a panel to add for stats, and another for the combat log.

Is it too cluttered? Many missions will only feature 6 characters instead of 12.

 

[Ninjerk]

Nah, combat log doesn't need to be so big, I think.

 

[Merlkir]

You know, just looking at screenshots of this game is extremely pleasant. Very soothing and enjoyable. Love the graphics!

 

[Galdred]

Thank you!
I will probably remove a few buttons from the left bar, as several are redundant (minimap would be best close to the minimap, +/- are usually done with mousewhell and/or +/-, so ne need for duplicate buttons...).
Do you prefer the player character (who will have the same role as the mage of master of magic, or the commander of XCOM) to be represented by a portrait, if he has some skills (buffing one guy or the whole squad from his "control room", nuking an area, or using divination to scout)?
Which one(s) of these logo do you prefer (they will of course be reworked)?

1(top left)-4

5-8

 

[Ninjerk]

2nd pic bottom left master race.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

2 pic, bottom right

 

[Darth Roxor]

2nd pic bottom left master race.

 

[Galdred]

2nd pic bottom left master race.

Thank you for your advice. I went with that one.

What are your thoughts on the current version?
Regarding character portraits, do you prefer them to be customizable (with helmet, scars, hairstyle), or pretty?
If we don't make customizable ones, that would allow for a wider range of expressions and head "shapes", but we won't be able to show helmets or wounds on the characters.

 

[Ninjerk]

Customization sounds like a bunch of extra overhead for you guys.

 

[MRY]

FWIW, the C in Zodiac looks like an uncial T to me. (Image below.)

Spoiler

 

[Cosmo]

Regarding character portraits, do you prefer them to be customizable (with helmet, scars, hairstyle), or pretty?
If we don't make customizable ones, that would allow for a wider range of expressions and head "shapes", but we won't be able to show helmets or wounds on the characters.

Frankly the charm of your game seems to depend so much on its visuals that i'd simply ask your artist what would please him the most and roll with it.

 

[Niektory]

The logo looks good, but it doesn't really evoke a medieval fantasy tactical game. Might be bad for marketing.

 

[Ninjerk]

The letters are like a lovechild of Alpha Centauri and Starcraft. Try a medieval script?

 

[Joined on the 4th of July]

Customizable and dynamic portraits = bland and unmemorable faces that will get replaced with a row of barrel helms in end game.

 

[zeitgeist]

Customizable and dynamic portraits = bland and unmemorable faces that will get replaced with a row of barrel helms in end game.

Only if there are no basic toggles (such as show helm).

Also, Galdred, I just stumbled upon this post of yours in another thread:

One of the challenges with the formula is that the tactical battles play very differently with swords : you cannot have the same tension you had when one of your soldiers advanced past a corner, hoping he would not eat reaction fire from an alien. Overwatching with magic would not work

I'm not sure if you have already, but if you haven't, you should check out how Mordheim does it:


Although I'm not a huge fan of their combat system, it doesn't break immersion or anything when you get whacked on the head while blindly turning a corner if there's someone standing there in melee range, or when someone standing on top of a building fires an arrow at you when you pass by a spot he's focusing at etc. Will there even be multiple vertical levels on the battlefield? That was a pretty important element in XCOM.

 

[Galdred]

Thank you for your advice. Good points about the font not being too readable, and not medieval at all.

Regarding the portraits, I suppose going for non customizable ones is the better choice, then.

Customizable and dynamic portraits = bland and unmemorable faces that will get replaced with a row of barrel helms in end game.

Only if there are no basic toggles (such as show helm).

Also, Galdred, I just stumbled upon this post of yours in another thread:

One of the challenges with the formula is that the tactical battles play very differently with swords : you cannot have the same tension you had when one of your soldiers advanced past a corner, hoping he would not eat reaction fire from an alien. Overwatching with magic would not work

I'm not sure if you have already, but if you haven't, you should check out how Mordheim does it:


Although I'm not a huge fan of their combat system, it doesn't break immersion or anything when you get whacked on the head while blindly turning a corner if there's someone standing there in melee range, or when someone standing on top of a building fires an arrow at you when you pass by a spot he's focusing at etc. Will there even be multiple vertical levels on the battlefield? That was a pretty important element in XCOM.

I have played Mordheim, and I actually like their system. Some things will be roughly similar (movement and offense points), but I'd rather not force the players to use a character planner to choose their character perks and skills, so ZL system will have to be a bit simpler in some areas.
The melee interrupts will need some testing : If the interrupting character doesn't move, it will make for a paltry melee range, but if he does, he could end up surrounded by opponents, or triggering some trap, and I'd rather not have players take decisions out of their turn.

Regarding character elevation, dungeon maps will use a single elevation level.
Outdoor maps will have at least 2 (on a hill, or not), probably 3. It quickly becomes a mess UI wise when there are too many height levels.

 

[Mazisky]

LOL noticed now this game...look really promising!!! i've been asking for a fantasy xcom\ja style game for years.

I love the art style, so 90's isometric! if i can make a little suggestion i think that environmental variety is important in those kind of games...it may require some work for creating tilesets, etc. but having different scenarios is a cheap way to increase the longevity even if only aesthetic.

Something with different palette colors, the typical triad is forest, desert and snow

 

[Galdred]

LOL noticed now this game...look really promising!!! i've been asking for a fantasy xcom\ja style game for years.

I love the art style, so 90's isometric! if i can make a little suggestion i think that environmental variety is important in those kind of games...it may require some work for creating tilesets, etc. but having different scenarios is a cheap way to increase the longevity even if only aesthetic.

Something with different palette colors, the typical triad is forest, desert and snow

Thank you!
Regarding environmental variety, I would like some more too, but it is quite costly, especially with hexagons. We will probably add urban environment, and castle next, then snow, but that will depend on the Kickstarter (it should happen in September).

 

[Mazisky]

LOL noticed now this game...look really promising!!! i've been asking for a fantasy xcom\ja style game for years.

I love the art style, so 90's isometric! if i can make a little suggestion i think that environmental variety is important in those kind of games...it may require some work for creating tilesets, etc. but having different scenarios is a cheap way to increase the longevity even if only aesthetic.

Something with different palette colors, the typical triad is forest, desert and snow

Thank you!
Regarding environmental variety, I would like some more too, but it is quite costly, especially with hexagons. We will probably add urban environment, and castle next, then snow, but that will depend on the Kickstarter (it should happen in September).

You can make stretch goals for those!

Also, another way for environmental variety is to introduce some fixed night maps, with just a dark palette and maybe some fixed-static lights.