KickStarter Vigilantes: neo-noir, turn based tactical RPG

[Timeslip]

Glad you feel there's enough maps. It's an area I've wondered about at times. Had originally considered procedural generation, but this becomes quite complicated beyond 2D, or simple rooms linked by corridors in 3D. Then, there's the lack of human touch, and the little details. Guess you could go half way and generate a level until it's something you like, then work on it from there.

It's pretty unlikely, unfortunately. I like the mechanic too, but we've already stretched our funding way beyond what we thought was possible Maybe in our next game, we might look at combat on different elevations, or perhaps even on different planes...

 

[ushas]

Some thoughts of one player on current maps (though I'm useless for aesthetics evaluation, sorry:/):
-- Apart the size variety, the biggest gameplay difference is that on a group of maps you play around bigger buildings (full cover), or some areas contain smaller buildings or rooms you can go around, and then there are maps practically without full-cover structures, making everybody a kind of exposed.
-- Some maps have similar cover layouts. Not bad in moderation, as can refine tactics on them, but it's refreshing that they looks differently at least.
-- Aesthetically there are night / dusk / day stages of lightning depending on the time. Plus, weather is coming.
-- As for scenarios I think the big advantage are three gangs. And they change in time & space too. So the same map, first played early against the Mafia in less dangerous neighborhood, may feel a lot different later against Survivalists near their HQ (AFAIK differs in numbers, AI, gear, a presence of specialist, drugs?, etc.).

That said the maps are practically static cover layouts with exit points. I'd like to try persuade Timeslip on benefits of day/night gameplay differentiation (as think some changes may be feasible). I guess this is a sort of warning. And fingers crossed if grenade variants are possible as they can provide means of controlling battlefield. Right now, we can use fire - choke points and such, for obvious example.

Hmm, planes...

 

[Timeslip]

Hey ushas - having trouble with quoting. Happy to consider ideas for day/night - very interested in relatively simple tweaks which enhance depth. Related: was considering making certain weapons, like handguns/shotguns/SMGs more effective when assaulting buildings, or perhaps sniper & assault rifle less so, so if you have any ideas, fire away.

If you were obliquely hinting at destructible terrain "grenade variants are possible as they can provide means of controlling battlefield" that one is more or less off the table, unfortunately (unless cloning tech becomes mainstream in next few weeks or I win the lotto). I can see the merits, but it would involve quite a lot of coding and reworking all the maps - too late in development.

 

[ushas]

Huh, no, I understand the terrain including cover objects is static. What I meant is when you throw a fire grenade - enemies inside try to get out of the hazard, potentially exposing themselves, others try to go around. The same against us. Then there are smoke grenades, albeit not working like smoke grenades. Depends on the AI and nothing new, but still a nice dynamic effect. So naturally having ideas, eg. home-made stuff like petards and stink grenades (giving distracting status effect, aka losing half AP next turn), or Flash grenade (full blinded 1st turn, half-blinded 2nd turn). Then gas grenades creating harming hazards too. Various AOEs 1x1, 3x3, 5x5... Etc.

Happy to consider ideas for day/night - very interested in relatively simple tweaks which enhance depth

Well, in general I wish for all fancy graphical things such as lighting effects to be linked to gameplay. For some reason it's seldom a priority. But you have shown a possibility via Nocturnal perk. So been thinking... What if everybody (us and enemies) has an invisible perk to vary parameters by time of day?

Just a simple example:
Day : -0 effective range, CTH bonus, cover / crouching / armour rating less effective
Dusk : -2 effective range, CTH so-so, cover / crouching / armour rating so-so
Night : -4 effective range, CTH penalty, cover / crouching / armour rating more effective

Daytime means good light conditions favorable to ranged approach, the night ending more close and personal. The point is, influences gangs too.

In case you want more work, would be neat if it's possible to access the information whether a unit is clearly illuminated by street lamps and incendiaries (including when being on fire) - so it nullifies some night effects (defense benefits when in dark and/or CTH penalty against such target). We can also throw flares etc.

Is cloning sapiens allowed in Ireland? -- That could be a stretch goal!

 

[Timeslip]

A few new grenade types are pretty likely - very probably a stun or flashbang at least. The idea of modifying ranged and cover values at night is a good call, thanks. Adds quite a lot in relation to how long it would take to get it working.

Had considered the ranged cth/with local lighting idea before. Like the idea, but can't think of a good way to automatically determine the light level on a given tile. Lighting isn't tied into the tile system and because of different light types, different light ranges, angles, light source heights, occasional moving lights it more or less becomes a manual job, which would take a fair bit of coding to support, and then 1-2 hours per map, bugs, displaying the info to player.

Ha, dunno if you'd need to legislate that high up the evolutionary ladder

 

[ushas]

Maybe the effective range adjusted by fraction - full on daylight, 3/4 on dusk, and 1/2 of effective range at night? That way it's 8/6/4 tiles for the pistol and 15/11/8 tiles for Normandy precision rifle (gaming numbers, of course).

An option for indoors: Minimum effective range of rifles increased by X tiles (CTH goes down below this min). If X equals 2, for example, then by current numbers minER changes from 1 to 3 tiles for assault and from 4 to 6 for precision rifles, respectively. Perhaps indoors is also closer to dusk conditions?

Yeah, thought lights won't be so easy... but kudos for considering it.

As I'm throwing ideas around like a monkey bananas already, an alternative:
The thing is, yes we see illuminated targets better, but normal lights also mean we're loosing the night adaptation (dilated pupils gathering more light etc.). The result is worse vision overall in dark conditions. Night hunters / soldiers / astronomers use red illumination not to lose the adaptation... So you can give us items like flashlights (cone) and flares (3x3 or 5x5 aoe) that emit markedly red light -> canceling the night CTH penalty and defense benefits for targets inside the AOE. Rifles can be upgraded with night vision scopes too. Likewise, aren't you able to say whether a unit is on fire? I'm stretching veery lot here, and RL is far from binary, but the undertone is that we will learn fast that red & fire has a gameplay effect but not the yellow/white/blue (aka street lights).

Hm, technically, if one is cloning himself it's done with consent and without endangering anyone else. What if the clone then says he disagrees though?


Edit: Upon reflection, I think it would make more sense if the decrease of CTH with distance is modified, instead of max effective ranges of weapons. So at night the chance of hitting enemies goes down faster than during day even inside the effective range. And if there is any night-effect canceling at play, I think, it should influence only the flat CTH penalty and target cover bonuses but not the distance modifier. But this is just one of the options. Any implementation you can come with would certainly add depth. Great if noticeable.

There is a drawback though. In FT (IIRC time of day influences ranged combat and sneaking) there were tendencies to wait for a favorable time for a mission. In Vigilantes, we can do some time management too, except, there seem to be two things at play: enemies don't wait they grow stronger, and gangs may be potentially differently dangerous day/night.

 

[ushas]

Don't know whether it's gonna stay this way, but I'm getting used to toggling this grid on.

Spoiler

 

[Timeslip]

An option for indoors: Minimum effective range of rifles increased by X tiles (CTH goes down below this min). If X equals 2, for example, then by current numbers minER changes from 1 to 3 tiles for assault and from 4 to 6 for precision rifles, respectively. Perhaps indoors is also closer to dusk conditions?

Yes, something like this could work.

flares (3x3 or 5x5 aoe) that emit markedly red light -> canceling the night CTH penalty and defense benefits for targets inside the AOE. Rifles can be upgraded with night vision scopes too. Likewise, aren't you able to say whether a unit is on fire? I'm stretching veery lot here, and RL is far from binary, but the undertone is that we will learn fast that red & fire has a gameplay effect but not the yellow/white/blue (aka street lights).

Flares are possible. Night scope possible as an upgrade for certain weapons, but the current system would require a lot of work to offer it as a general option. Will almost certainly modify ranged combat for time of day and keep these in mind, depending on how things go, and competing ideas.

Edit: Upon reflection, I think it would make more sense if the decrease of CTH with distance is modified, instead of max effective ranges of weapons. So at night the chance of hitting enemies goes down faster than during day even inside the effective range.

Can you give me a bit more on this?

 

[ushas]

Can you give me a bit more on this?

Was correcting my own thinking. As far as I understand the chance to hit a target decreases with distance, at certain speed withing the effective range, faster beyond (and possibly reverse below). If the night changes only the maximum of effective ranges, it will still behave the same below this threshold regardless of time of day. Whereas if you modify the speed [how fast chance-to-hit goes down with distance] itself, instead, it will influence the ranged combat across all distances. The latter makes simply more sense to me. Or have you meant like more in detail?

 

[Timeslip]

Yeah, that's right enough. I see what you mean, cheers for the extra info.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Timeslip]

Cheers Infinitron !

Here's the release notes for this version:

Tweaks
+ Character system modified to 3 level cycle: 1) stat point, 2) skill points, 3) perk point
+ You can now allocate 2 of an ally's skill points when they level up; the remainder will be automatically allocated according to their inclinations and experience
+ Reduced number of enemies to improve pacing
+ You can now decide which racket/lieutenant to get intel on, when interrogating enemies who can provide this information
+ Dead/unconscious enemies can now be searched for intel
+ Carried out initial rebalancing work for player vs criminal teams
+ Increased the potency of existing perks
+ First 3 missions are now preset, and will introduce you to doc, cuda & a random ally
+ Reinstated weather system (rain & storm)
+ Performed a number of optimisations on all maps
+ Tweaked armour to offer greater protection when in good repair, but less as it becomes damaged. This makes attacking armour a possible strategy.
+ Blunt weapons now do greater armour damage
+ Targeted attacks now cost 1 extra AP, but their effects are more profound
+ Targeting body now does additional armour damage
+ Critical hits on targeted attacks result in more severe penalties
+ Improved keyboard support.
+ Destroying an enemy racket now provides intel
+ Gang leaders can now be found and attacked
+ Rackets can now be found and attacked
+ Enemies with sufficiently high equipment level now get armour
+ Added provisional UI for displaying rackets.
+ Facility buttons no longer enable and disable
+ Facilities now provide greater bonuses to damage and healing.

Content
+ Added Church of the Final Exodus HQ map
+ Added new perk: wrecking ball - applies additional armour damage to attacks made with blunt weapons
+ Added encounter with Cuda & voiced cutscene

Bug Fixes
+ Fixed issue with auto looting no longer happening. (Thanks Nomad)
+ Fixed double "-" for reputation in debriefing. (Thanks Ushas)
+ Fixed enemies not being able to heal in danger level 1 tile causing crash. (Thanks Nomad)
+ Fixed issue with strategic ai throwing an error when getting racket upgrade orders. (Thanks Ushas)
+ Fixed game hanging when enemy killed by burst fire on overwatch, and then hit by another shot. (Thanks Ushas & Nomad)
+ Fixed issue whereby, in a limited number of circumstance, the shortest path was not being found (Thanks Ushas)
+ Fixed possibility of ending turn at final moments of character movement. (Thanks Ushas)
+ Fixed delay turn not skipping incapacitated characters (Thanks Ushas)
+ Fixed overwatch not being removed when character's turn comes up again. Caused reduced AP and OW to trigger in error on following turn. (Thanks Nomad & Ushas)
+ Fixed issue with gate cover on slum graveyard (Thanks Nomad)
+ Fixed issue with incendiary grenades causing a crash on ChopShop map, due to use of an older prefab. (Thanks Ushas)
+ Fixed game not saving before meeting an ally. (Thanks Nomad & Ushas)
+ AP in inventory screen now updates after manual reload, as does ammo count for weapon when returning from inventory
+ Fixed killing/KO an enemy on burst fire causing KO/Death to be registered multiple times. (Thanks Ushas)
+ Fixed attacking an enemy with overwatch, after an AOO causing a crash. (Thanks Ushas)
+ Players who make an AOO now switch back to their original equipment post attack. This avoids and error with overwatch activating post AOO. (Thanks Ushas)

 

[Timeslip]

Among other things, have added more equipment configurations to the enemy. Here's a mafia enforcer (who leveled up from a basic troop), wielding a double barrel shotgun (which required the mafia strategic AI to place rackets and/or purchase better equipment for the gang). Anyone good with removing buckshot? We're drawing ever closer to Steam EA and if you'd like to stay up to date, here's the Steam page.

 

[Timeslip]

Portrait of Doc, your friendly neighbourhood giggle doc, and Cuda, your less than friendly neighbourhood arms dealer.

 

[Timeslip]

Here's the illustration for when you complete an assault on a enemy racket. When you take a racket down, you get 1 piece of intel on a gang leader or other racket. Really, really like this one. Would struggle to decide between this and the interrogation illustration as a favourite of the illustrations Olga has created for the game.

In terms of development, this is going to be a smaller update. It's mostly fixing and tweaking, but will also include 2 new maps (Mafia Villa and Nightclub) and currently working on the opening cut scene. If the stability of version 20 is good, this is mostly likely the version we'll go to Steam early access with.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Nice touch to include that red balaclava in every picture about protagonist.

 

[Timeslip]

Finally, can give brofists... my life is now complete...

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I think I've found the one picture that doesn't include balaclava.
Unless Sam has it on his lap. Bad idea with all those sparks flying around.
Even if it doesn't burn then the smell will be awful.

 

[Alienman]

Sam lives on the edge man.

 

[HoboForEternity]

I think I've found the one picture that doesn't include balaclava.
Unless Sam has it on his lap. Bad idea with all those sparks flying around.
Even if it doesn't burn then the smell will be awful.

well, he beat up armed mafias for a hobby, do you think little sparks scare him?

 

[Timeslip]

We did a lot of research on workshop safety for the illustration Taka-Haradin puolipeikko posted, primarily based on health and safety documentation from a number of leading manufacturers. There were quite a few references to balaclavas in the work environment: "dangerous as hell", "a grievous breach of health and safety legislation" came up frequently. One wielder, Sven Harlsson from Gothenburg, Sweden noted that "[I'd] never work in a dive with work practices like that. You think I've got a death wish?". So, we decided to do the responsible thing, and remove Sam's balaclava from the illustration. The reduced shock value is going to hurt sales, but at least we'll be able to sleep at night.

 

[Timeslip]

Here's the illustration for Arcadi Konstantin, a fugitive Russian soldier whose flight from the motherland led him to Reiker. Arcadi hasn't quite completed the journey yet, and likely won't be added to the Vigilantes for the initial EA release. Which, by the way is coming soon. Basic steamworks integration has been added at this point, and while I don't have exact date yet, it's very probable that it will happen in 3-4 weeks. Also have updated the steam page with information on EA, in case that's of interest to you.

 

[Infinitron]

Vigilantes, the turn based, neo noir game for PC is coming to Steam Early Access on 5 October 2017. We've been working on this for 3 years - enjoy!

Nice Joker-style Chicago accent on the narrator.

 

[Timeslip]

It only took 3 days to make! Should I leave it as is? Fairly happy with it, and a little pressed for time at the moment, but open to feedback.

 

[Alienman]

Cool music.