KickStarter Vigilantes: neo-noir, turn based tactical RPG

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Version 23 is out.
http://timeslipsoftworks.com/forum/index.php/topic,476.0.html
http://timeslipsoftworks.com/forum/index.php/topic,476.0.html

Features
+ Added an enemy trait system. Some traits will be randomly assigned to enemies, whereas some enemies will automatically be assigned specific traits. Traits provide a variety of bonuses to their owners.

Content
+ Added 6 enemy traits: fearsome, terrifying, melee resistant, firearms resistant, martial artist, marksman
+ Boss fights are now available, but dialogue is not yet added
+ Added a new map: Old Industrial 3
+ New craftable item: MK3 Trauma Kit
+ New Perk: Combat Rigging - allows 3 items to be equipped
+ Added a new background city
+ Worked on a number of dialogue encounters
+ Added new perk: Regeneration - regenerate 6% hp per turn, up to 50% of the character's current max hp
+ Added new perk: Know Thine Enemy - reveal an enemy trait once per turn, at no AP cost
+ Added 3 new character portraits


AI Enhancements
+ Enemies can now target environment objects with melee, and run away to avoid the blast
+ Made a number of optimisations to the tactical AI to improve the speed at which enemies with this AI will choose an order
+ Enemies will continue to try to avoid fire, but will now pass through it if it's the best option
+ AI is now less likely to make very long range shots with firearms

Balance
+ Firearms can now be unloaded.
+ If all gang lieutenants have been fought, intel on the boss can be gained from specialists.
+ Rackets now have a small chance to provide intel on bosses
+ There is now a greater chance to gain lieutenant/racket intel from basic troops. The chance is based on presence for live interrogations and surveillance for searches
+ Armoured enemies now have a chance to drop armour components
+ Slightly reduced the amount of cash and ammo enemies drop
+ Survivalists drop less cash now, in light of the better equipment they drop
+ Enemies who flee now gain 2 levels and become a specialist, if they aren't already one.
+ Increased the cost of player facilities
+ Heavy Hitter perk now provides +10% damage with blunt weapons
+ Reduced the number of enemies who carry explosives, and delayed the point at which they get them


Tweaks
+ Added a panel to display information on the various attack modes an item is capable of.
+ If a character has unspent stat, skill, or perk points, a notification will flash at the beginning of their turn
+ Added a button to reset keys to their defaults. This allows a quick solution for rebinding all keys, if the bindings become confused by the additional of new keys
+ Improved the floating damage font



Fixes
+ Fixed a crash caused by raising Arcadi's relationship to +/-10. (Relendis, MNM)
+ Fixed a number of inventory operations not costing AP (ushas)
+ Fixed an issue preventing the introductory cutscene from being skipped if escape was pressed before cutscene starts.
+ Fixed an issue with armour upgrades not showing if unavailable receipes were selected. (Nomad)
+ Disabled menu at a number of times when it should not be allowed to activate. (Ushas)
+ Ronin Effect no longer carries between missions. (Nomad)
+ Fixed a number of cases where AOO indicator was showing when it should not be. (Ushas)
+ Fixed an issue in which a fleeing enemy could cause the game to hang (MNM)
+ Fixed characters with the tactical AI hanging when all paths blocked by fire. (Doktor_Who)
+ Fixed an issue where using the last sodium thiopental would result in the item not being removed from inventory (AWG)
+ Fixed an AI issues whereby enemies with a high AP weapon, and suffering an AP reduction from wounding would cause game to hand (SevenAteNein)
+ Fixed an incorrectly imported texture for Arcadi. (AWG)
+ Fixed an issue which could cause an enemy with lowered AP not to select an order and complete their turn
+ Fixed a typo (AWG)
« Last Edit: January 15, 2018, 04:50:01 PM by Daithi »

Logged
Daithi

Also:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/545600/discussions/1/1621726179570203517/

Testing Credits
Hey all,

Have been meaning to put this up for a while, but if you've reported a bug, you're welcome to have your name included in the testing credits. You can post a message here with the name you would like included, or send an email to daithi@timeslipsoftworks.com with the name you would like and your Steam name. Can use your real name or an alias. No urls for your online sneakers store, joke names, or really really long names, please

 

[Timeslip]

And the video for V23!

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

http://store.steampowered.com/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/2363697377453800611

Vigilantes Version 24 Released!
9 FEBRUARY - TIMESLIP
Hi all,

We're very pleased to announce that Vigilantes V24 is now available. The emphasis of this relatively short update is the addition of the most frequently requested feature: improved weapon crafting, which will allow you to upgrade the stats of weaponry.

It's worth pointing out that this is a provisional iteration which will receive more attention in the future, and that for now, weapon upgrade kits are used for upgrades, whereas a more common component, weapon parts, will be introduced in future.

There have also been a few balance improvements, and a number of bug fixes, most notably 3 cases in which the AI could hang have been resolved. If you'd like to find out more, you will find a development video and update notes below.

Features
+ Added an improved crafting system, which allows for a number of weapon stats to be upgraded

Balance
+ Player characters now sustain an injury when they are incapacitated
+ Sniper rifle minimum range generally increased, and more severe penalties for shooting below minimum range
+ Increased the minimum chance to hit for an AI order, which will further reduce the AI taking shots at long distance

Completion Requirements
+ Added code to prevent non repeatable dialogue encounters player multiple times
+ Added code to allow gang leaders to be given specific equipment

Tweaks
+ Improved the way grenade tooltips are displayed

Fixes
+ Fixed AI hanging in some situations when a high ap enemy attempts to make 3 or more melee attacks. (ushas)
+ Fixed AI hanging occasionally when throwing a grenade. (Huggles, ushas, & awg)
+ Fixed AI hanging in some situations when attacking an environment object. (awg & ushas)
+ Fixed enemies not able to flee in apartments map. (ushas)
+ Fixed being ambushed by gang leaders in error(Huggles, Finite Thrills)
+ Fixed gang bosses not being removed when they are defeated. (awg)
+ Fixed AI not escaping from environment objects exploding triggered by melee attacks. (ushas)
+ Fixed perk button being available in combat. (Nomad)
+ Fixed grenade cth ui element persisting after character turn has ended. (ushas)
+ Fixed unload icon not appearing when reload all button pressed. (ushas)
+ Fixed a number of typos and informational issues with perks. (awg)
+ Fixed controlled breathing carrying between missions. (awg)
+ Fixed an occasional crash when loading gang leader battles (Rathbone404 & Ushas)
+ Fixed gang leaders gaining levels faster than they should (Ushas & Rathbone404)
+ Fixed combat rigging perk not activating immediately. (awg)
+ Fixed ranged attacks against environment objects not consuming ammo. (awg)
+ Added information on how to cancel activation of the know thine enemy perk, as this wasn't clear (Finite Thrills)
+ Fixed grenades gained through "defuser" perk not showing the correct number of items. (Finite Thrills)
+ Fixed hotloaded ammo being converted to regular ammo when unloaded using the unload button (awg)
+ Fixed an error in Arcadi's skill allocation

 

[Timeslip]

Hi again,

We're trying to get a snapshot of people who are playing, or are interested in playing Vigilantes, and were wondering if you could spare a moment for a super brief survey, which has 3 multiple choice questions. The survey will take about 30 seconds to complete, and will not capture any personal data, such as email, name, etc.

Here's the survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfy7b14cwNvPL92jekyd1oyZvP4zohoL7ootx3KCDw1D9tYKw/viewform

Cheers!

 

[udm]

Got back into the game on the 2nd hardest difficulty. Loving it more now. The destructible objects add an extra layer of strategy to the game, as do time and weather conditions.

Question: does crafting work? I got Ray to 30 Crafting but couldn't upgrade weapons.

 

[Timeslip]

Got back into the game on the 2nd hardest difficulty. Loving it more now. The destructible objects add an extra layer of strategy to the game, as do time and weather conditions.

Question: does crafting work? I got Ray to 30 Crafting but couldn't upgrade weapons.

Hey udm. Would be curious to find out if you think the game gets too easy as you progress?

At the minute, all crafting checks Sam's crafting skill. Allies were initially planned as contacts who you could hire for combat, with Sam doing all of the other work himself. The ideas around this have changed, but the way crafting works hasn't yet. It will happen though.

 

[udm]

Hey udm. Would be curious to find out if you think the game gets too easy as you progress?

I'll play it some more and get back to you on this.

 

[lightbane]

So, now that I have a pc powerful enough to fully play this, I'll keep an eye on this game's development. How long would it take for you to make the endgame? Just to know.

 

[Timeslip]

So, now that I have a pc powerful enough to fully play this, I'll keep an eye on this game's development. How long would it take for you to make the endgame? Just to know.

Cheers lightbane! Version 25, which will be the next release, will be the last update where adding features will be a major part of the update. We've been able to take Vigilantes much further than expected thanks to the funding from Kickstarter and Steam EA, and are happy with the scope of the game at this point, so from V26 on the focus will be on balancing, content, bugs, tweaking existing features and polish. The expectation is that it'll hit final release in Q3 2018.

 

[Timeslip]

Vigilantes is currently 10% off on Steams Lunar New Year event, in case anyone is looking to yet add another game to their Steam library http://store.steampowered.com/app/545600/Vigilantes/

 

[Timeslip]

Hey again. A very quick update on V25. This update is going to take a little longer than the typical 4 weeks, mostly because I had to spend over a week on company admin work. Not fun, but necessary. Feature wise, it's unlikely anything large scale will happen after this update. There are many reasons for this, but in short, if features keep getting added, the game will never be finished. At this point, the feature set rivals games from studios with budgets that makes what we have look like pocket money, and a week adding content (equipment, perks, crafting options) or working on balance or improving existing features will have a greater effect on the scale and quality of the final game.

So V25 is a final quixotic sally push on features. Of numerous options, I picked two that were frequently requested and seemed to offer the most to the game in relation to time cost. The first, Utility equipment slots, is in place. This brings a new class of equipment which focuses on providing passive bonuses to your characters, with the number of slots being determined by a character's utility stat. Utility slots brings a lot to the table:

• Enhances your options for customising your team
• Greatly improves item variety. This will substantially flesh out crafting by offering at least twice as many crafting options, allow for more diverse loot, and open up the potential for gang leaders dropping unique items
• It will also make the Utility stat more useful, and utility characters more viable, as they will be able to equip up to three pieces of equipment

Five pieces of utility equipment have been added, with more to come.

• EMT Kit: Increases effectiveness of healing by 15%
• Armoured Ski Mask: Halves chance of being critically hit
• Light Armour Plate: Reduces incoming damage by 7%
• Athletic grips: Increases initiative by 1
• Speed loader: First firearm reload costs no AP

 

[Timeslip]

Another quick update, just added: building a facility now takes time. To speed things up, you can assign up to two allies (in the boxes on the top right). Think Taka-Haradin puolipeikko suggested this one

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

http://timeslipsoftworks.com/forum/...HPSESSID=6de1e632ffdb7b9fd478be48ee8ff934#new

+ Allies can get district, racket or lieutenant intel,

 

[Timeslip]

Yep, and they can also raid enemy supplies. They will also be able to locate allies, but will just keep the present system until all allies have been added to the game.

Have just finished adding more fine grained control over who's resting. Also, the crafting and trade skill of the most skilled present and available ally is now used, instead of Sam's, and all allies not engaged in another activity contribute to crafting. Have tested most of the new additions at this point. After that, it's down to some general testing. If all goes well, should be out by the weekend, if not, early next week.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

V25 is out.
http://timeslipsoftworks.com/forum/index.php/topic,517.0.html

[Features]
+ Added Utility Slots: additional equipment slots for characters. The number of slots is determined by the Utility stat. This allows for characters to be further customised to suit your playstyle
+ Allies can be used to do the following: Speed up facility construction and raid enemy supplies
+ Allies can get district, racket or lieutenant intel,

[Content]
+ Added 5 utility items: Light Armour Plate, EMT Kit, Armoured Ski Mask, Athletic grips, Speed Loader
+ Added 5 new crafting recipes
+ Added 4 new crafting components: Weapon Parts, Hardware, Chemicals, Cloth

[Balance]
+ Facilities now take time to build
+ The highest party trade skill is now used for making trades
+ The highest active party craft skill is now used for crafting
+ Crafting and repair time is higher, but available allies reduce craft time
+ Enhanced health restoration and injury removal to allow for more fine grained control
+ Improved algorithim for getting loot, resulting in generally better loot

[Fixes]
+ Fixed a number of minor issues on chinatown graveyard map, which were preventing cover icons from being shown.
+ Fixed a couple of minor issues with loot acquisition.
+ Fixed a bug that could cause inventory items to disappear under a certain set of conditions
+ Fixed a bug which could cause inventory item duplication with item slots under a certain set of conditions (Ushas)
+ Fixed tooltip not appearing for Ronin rifles (Nomad, Brasidas, Nonamenan, irishmankentuckian)
+ Fixed a typo in one of Ray Case's barks. (Nomad)
+ Fixed an issue where transferring item stacks in combat could cause inventory to become non-responsive. (Necroscourge & Ushas)
+ Fixed a number of inventory issues which occur when tabbing away from Vigilantes. (Ushas)
+ Fixed intel searches on bodies preventing level completion when all intel is found. (Nonamenan, irishmankentuckian)
+ Fixed top bar icons showing lower resolution. (Nomad)
+ Fixed no ap cost for transferring all items between inventories. (Ushas)
« Last Edit: March 30, 2018, 01:27:43 PM by Daithi »

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Some pointless nitpicking behind spoilers:

Spoiler

-Dock doesn't actually heal Sam despite dialogue indicating otherwise
- It would be nice if injury duration would be shown in DD/HH/mm format instead of just minutes

 

[Timeslip]

Hey Taka-Haradin puolipeikko Can you give me a bit more on the Sam doesn't heal? How were you passing time? Craft/Facility/Rest/Surveillance? Was looking at the injury display the other day and agree, displaying in minutes isn't a great way to do it.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Hey Taka-Haradin puolipeikko Can you give me a bit more on the Sam doesn't heal?

Healing works generally fine.
I was referring to the 1st mission where Sam meets the giggle doc.
Doc says something along the lines of "let me patch you up for free", but Sam still had injury that he suffered during that mission.

 

[Timeslip]

Ah ok - that dialogue was written before injuries were added - I'll have any injuries removed in the next update too.

 

[Timeslip]

And the dev video. Release notes are in post #867

 

[Timeslip]

Sam on holiday in the countryside.

Screen grab of the first city outskirts map, which is being made for an encounter where you rescue a police officer being interrogated by survivalists. Most of the remaining maps will likely be of this type, as it adds variety to the existing, exclusively urban map set.

 

[Timeslip]

Here's a short video of a new encounter, which will take place on the new map. The set up is that a group of survivalists have lured a police cruiser to the outskirts of the city, rammed the cruiser off the road and are preparing to interrogate the officer... until you step in. Since posting the video outlining the reasons for moving away from adding new features, most of the requests have been to flesh out the story and this is something I'd like to do. This is the second new encounter added for V26, and if all goes well, hope to add 1-2 more. I'm giving allies more dialogue in the new encounters, and will also revise existing ones to do the same, as it has been fairly pointed out that you don't interact with your allies much after the initial meeting, and this feels like a missed opportunity.

Spoiler

If Emilia De Soto is present, being a police lieutenant, she will try to attack the survivalists, losing you the ability to re-position, unless you can convince her to stay put while you figure things out.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I'm giving allies more dialogue in the new encounters, and will also revise existing ones to do the same, as it has been fairly pointed out that you don't interact with your allies much after the initial meeting, and this feels like a missed opportunity.

Any plans for giving allies personalized dialogue when they report back from operations?