KickStarter Vigilantes: neo-noir, turn based tactical RPG

[anvi]

Sounds good. One way is get it near release, then pay to promote it on reddit. Make and thread and pay some bot site to upvote the thread 8000 times to the front page. Bingo, your game is seen by 50 million people. You also need to have some sort of angle like, "My buddy's second game made by himself is even better than the first one!" That's what I'd do anyway. Those people deserve to be used. But your plan sounds good too.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/545600/announcements/detail/1599251924957678408

Vigilantes V1.05 Released!
7 May @ 12:00am - Timeslip

Hi everybody,

Vigilantes version 1.05 is now available for your gaming pleasure! The update adds a variety of new content: perks, utility items, weapons, diary entries, newspaper articles and encounter epilogues, along with a couple of enhancements. I hope you enjoy the latest update, and should you encounter any issues, please let me know!

Content
+ New Utility Item: Alcohol - Injuries don't reduce stats, but -3 initiative
+ New Utility Item: Sharpening Stone - +15% bleeding and +4% critical chance on bladed weapons
+ New Utility Item: Weight - +15% concussion chance and +6% damage on blunt weapons
+ New Utility Item: Spinning Bow Tie - Reduces the chance of enemy interrupts and AOO by 10%
+ New Weapons: Tactical Katana +, Preston Mule +
+ New Perk: Perky - gain 2 perk points
+ New Perk: Skull Cracker - Increases damage from close combat targeted head attacks by 25%
+ New Perk: Linebacker - Increases interrupt/AOO chance by 15%
+ New Perk: Fan Out - The entire team can move 2 additional tiles in the reposition phase
+ New Perk: Ops Specialist - Reduces the time required for ally operations by 40%
+ New Crafting Recipes: Sharpening Stone, Weight, Tactical Katana +, Preston Mule +
+ Added an epilogue for the Elias Rooke & Nadia Belmont encounters
+ Added 5 new diary entries
+ Added 4 newspaper articles

Improvements
+ Stat points for undiscovered allies are no longer automatically allocated
+ Added extra information on commonly used TLAs (three letter acronyms) and overwatch
+ Modified the overwatch threshold buttons to make the active button more obvious
+ Changed the diary font for improved legibility
Bugs & Text Errors
+ Fixed bug whereby if gang boss is eliminated, the highest ranking lieutenant will not display on the gang intel screen. (inanimate carbon rod & liessahl)

 

[Butter]

Never quite finished this game before, so I restarted it yesterday. I'm having an absolute blast with it. The writing, music, and artwork are clicking with me a lot better, and it's quite solid mechanically.

 

[Timeslip]

Hey Butter - good to hear you're having fun with Vigilantes!

Have been working on a new game between updates for Vigilantes - it's still early days, but confident it will be a better game in pretty much every way.

 

[anvi]

Is it similar sort of gameplay to Vigilantes?

 

[Timeslip]

Is it similar sort of gameplay to Vigilantes?

Yep, using the code from Vigilantes as a starting point. Here's some info on it:

• Setting is post apocalyptic, with a dash of cyberpunk. It's not the usual "Oh no, we nuked ourselves " route to the apocalypse.

• There will be much more variety in the game. Each act will have a very different setting and feel, and there will likely be unique game mechanics for each act. Also, the quests you undertake in each act won't just be a series of steps to the finale - the majority of actions you take will affect how the finale plays out, and its difficulty.

• There will be far more player choice. You'll be able to avoid or reduce the difficulty of combat in many situations, but combat will still be important.

• Would expect that all of the game mechanics will have more depth than Vigilantes. That said, some features will likely be dropped. Interrogations and non lethal combat are uncertain. Base building may be available in certain parts of the game. Everything else, particularly combat, dialogue choices and crafting will be refined.

• Party size will likely be 3. There might be an ally or two less than in Vigilantes, but each will be more developed. It's likely each will have a set of unique abilities, rather than just one in Vigilantes.

 

[Nutria]

Interrogations and non lethal combat are uncertain.

I get why you see those mechanics didn't mean much in your game but... I feel like in games in a very broad sense that we should get beyond where in every fight, we're fighting to kill all the enemy and the enemy are just zombies programmed to fight until they die. It's not how conflicts work in real life so it's not as interesting and it leads to situations where you gotta spend 90 seconds mopping up the last remnants of the enemy. There were some times in Vigilantes where I wanted the enemy's morale to break as a whole and have them bug out, or at least like in Battle Brothers individuals see a guy get blown away in front of them and decide to flee.

Beyond that, I'd just suggest that you trust your instincts. I don't even play games that much anymore but Vigilantes was really good by any standard. I got 36 hours in it and I'll probably play two more campaigns before the great vigilante in the sky punishes me for my deeds.

 

[Timeslip]

I get why you see those mechanics didn't mean much in your game but... I feel like in games in a very broad sense that we should get beyond where in every fight, we're fighting to kill all the enemy and the enemy are just zombies programmed to fight until they die. It's not how conflicts work in real life so it's not as interesting and it leads to situations where you gotta spend 90 seconds mopping up the last remnants of the enemy. There were some times in Vigilantes where I wanted the enemy's morale to break as a whole and have them bug out, or at least like in Battle Brothers individuals see a guy get blown away in front of them and decide to flee.

Beyond that, I'd just suggest that you trust your instincts. I don't even play games that much anymore but Vigilantes was really good by any standard. I got 36 hours in it and I'll probably play two more campaigns before the great vigilante in the sky punishes me for my deeds.

Relatively little is tied down as of yet in the area of non-lethal, interrogations and fleeing/morale. If non lethal is added, would like to move away from the toggle present in Vigilantes. Concerns include having a separate item tree and to make non lethal meaningful to gameplay and logical in the context of the game world. Have some ideas, but haven't thought about it in depth yet. The militias aren't going to go to the trouble to try/imprison enemies, so you'd effectively being setting dangerous individuals free by letting them live. Morale will be considered, main concern is that it typically empowers the side who are already winning. That said, one of the first allies you encounter specialises in disrupting organic enemies and this may include morale. While it's been 10 months since releasing Vigilantes, I've only spent around half working on the new game, so it's very much in its infancy.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Instead of the usual "toggle to non-lethal mode" it would be great to just be able to flag the important enemies and anyone attacking them tries to incapacitate them instead, they don't even have to deal non lethal damage but they try to hold their hand when he's close to death of he's incapacitated when reaching 10/20% of his full HP.
Eventually, that flag grants him damage reduction (a bigger one depending on when you flag him, bigger when full HP lower otherwise)

Or something even simpler but most games don't bother with that and it's alright too.

 

[Dickie]

While it's been 10 months since releasing Vigilantes, I've only spent around half working on the new game, so it's very much in its infancy.

Work faster! I enjoyed Vigilantes quite a bit and can't wait to see what you do on another game. Surely a day-one purchase for me.

 

[Timeslip]

Hi all,

The sixth (and likely final) post release update for Vigilantes is now available. The focus of this update is content, with 5 new perks, 2 weapons, 3 utility items, 3 crafting recipes, and 7 newspaper articles. A bug causing issues with the difficulty of gang raids and a number of text errors have also been fixed.

Vigilantes is 40% off on Steam, and if you happen to be on reddit, give this reddit post an upvote to keep it in the air.

New Content
- Perk: Float Like A Bee - Increases armour class by 6, if no firearm or melee weapon is equipped
- Perk: Underworld Nemesis - Demoralises up to 3 enemies at the start of combat, reducing their AP and initiative
- Perk: Mobility Drills - Increases move AP by 1 for entire team
- Perk: Don't Interrupt Me - Reduces chance of triggering an interrupt or attack of opportunity by 8%
- Perk: Influential - Doubles the character's area of influence, allowing them to inflict fear and terror on more distant enemies
- Utility Item: Specialised Tools +
- Utility Item: Field Manual
- Utility Item: Advanced EMT Kit
- Weapon: General Arms Peacemaker +
- Weapon: Bar Mace +
- Added 7 new newspaper articles

Bugs & Text
- Raid difficulty now scales with time, rather than being linked to the difficulty of the tile the raid occurs on (Dorok)
- Defeating Elias Rooke now provides a single piece of high level intel
- Fixed a number of text errors (liessahl & awg)

 

[Falksi]

Just downloaded this & played the first few missions.

Fairly meh so far in terms of gameplay, but very early days. Absolutely THRIVE on the atmosphere though. Superb artwork & music.

 

[anvi]

It wasn't for me tbh, made me just want to replay JA2. But it is well made.

 

[Timeslip]

Just downloaded this & played the first few missions.

Fairly meh so far in terms of gameplay, but very early days. Absolutely THRIVE on the atmosphere though. Superb artwork & music.

Music is one of the things I'll invest more in this time around. Haven't licensed anything yet, but have been picking out tracks for the last two years. It's going to be a hell of a soundtrack, if you like dark synthwave.

 

[Falksi]

It wasn't for me tbh, made me just want to replay JA2. But it is well made.

Atmospherically I'm loving it, but I am struggling to get into it as a game. I feel a bit too detatched from it, and as if the whole things a bit mathmetized.

How long did you play it for before giving up? I'm only around 3 hours in, but - even though the combat itself seems OK in isolation - I'm starting to tire of it.

 

[anvi]

How long did you play it for before giving up?

I think I did about 3 hours, it seems well made and I even liked the story and setting which is some achievement seeing as I am story-phobic. But the battles were just a bit too simple for me and repetitive, maps a bit small, and seeing the multiple regions which you can scout and then attack, made my cravings for JA2 too strong. I ended up installing that instead, but I got sidetracked by another game in the meantime.

 

[Nutria]

By that same logic, I would never play any new RPG made after 1992 because they can't match Darklands. Which actually is mostly true about me, but I try not to be 100% that way. We're not in the glory days when there were companies of 50 people making niche products like this, but that's no reason to ignore a good game made by a small team that knows their limitations and does the best they can within them.

Also, I waste way less of my time fiddling with reloading people's guns between missions than in JA2.

 

[Timeslip]

A quick update: first pass is complete on the updated crafting system for the new game, along with some additional work on inventory and items. While I can't make any guarantees at this point, am currently looking into adding destructible cover. This won't include the buildings themselves and probably not terrain either. Will have to see how it goes.

 

[Kaivokz]

Are fully combat focused builds the only viable option for Hero difficulty?

I'm trying out a hybrid build of leadership/melee, but it seems my hit chance is never over 70% to do 3-4 damage with my fists, and if I try to use a weapon the hit rate goes down even further. The point of leadership seems to be to assist allies and eventually debuff enemies (though I haven't even unlocked any perks yet), but even with the bonus hit chance Case can barely hit anything and neither can Arcadi, who unfortunately also seems to be a leadership focused character. Which results in me being unable to handle even danger level 1, low wealth battles.

I've only invested a couple hours (met Chase and Arcadi, also found the girl who looks like Murphy from the Dresden Files—I can't even beat her recruitment mission haha), but I don't imagine gathering intel and building up the base is going to do much if the enemies just keep getting stronger as time goes on. I imagine going full combat build would probably make it much easier.

Maybe I'll restart on hardboiled.

 

[Timeslip]

Hey Kaivokz. Hero is brutally difficult, likely to be an exercise in failure and misery on a first playthrough. If you're a veteran turn based gamer, hard boiled will give you a decent challenge on playthrough 1 and a bit more wiggle room in how you develop your team.

It's probably best to spec Sam as a combat character and have Arcadi as the combat leader, as his unique perk is literally a life saver and having a second character with leadership is redundant. It gets a bit easier when you can field a full time. I usually bring 1 melee char when fighting survivalists (at least early on when they have less guns) and 2 mele chars for cultists. Best to gather intel as you need it - just figure out the gang and danger level. I can't remember quite how much time it is for surveillance vs a combat mission, but you will gain levels much faster from fighting. For facilities, I usually get the surgery first, for faster healing (less downtime) and the workshop second, so you can make armour. It's much faster to repair armour than to restore HP.

 

[Kaivokz]

Hey Kaivokz. Hero is brutally difficult, likely to be an exercise in failure and misery on your first playthrough. If you're a veteran turn based gamer, hard boiled will give you a decent challenge on playthrough 1 and a bit more wiggle room in how you develop your team.

It's probably best to spec Sam as a combat character and have Arcadi as the combat leader, as his unique perk is literally a life saver and having a second character with leadership is redundant. It gets a bit easier when you can field a full time. I usually bring 1 melee char when fighting survivalists (at least early on when they have less guns) and 2 mele chars for cultists. Best to gather intel as you need it - just figure out the gang and danger level. I can't remember quite how much time it is for surveillance vs a combat mission, but you will gain levels much faster from fighting. For facilities, I usually get the surgery first, for faster healing (less downtime) and the workshop second, so you can make armour. It's much faster to repair armour than to restore HP.

Thanks for the response, Timeslip! I restarted on Hero with a pure melee character, recruited three companions so far and had a successful fight against the mafia. I’m a bit hardheaded in my insistence on going for max difficulty, but I like the challenge.

I made Gym and then Library with the intention of maximizing combat efficiency, I’ll see if that was a mistake. Workshop next for body armor and weapon upgrades!

By the way, the atmosphere of the game is great—love the music, the art and the writing (even if it’s a bit pulpy sometimes, it’s good pulpy). The companions are all interesting, too.

My main feedback for future games would be to 1) establish the primary motivation at the start of the story (why did this event/these events cause him to become a vigilante? the impetus seems a bit weak) and 2) connect the events with a tighter narrative (how did Sam get from the doctor to the shop guy to Arcadi? how did he become famous as a vigilante so quickly? where did he get the warehouse?).

 

[Timeslip]

I do that too sometimes. Playing a fairly frustrating game of Total Warhammer 2 at the minute on VH/VH. The amount of time have replayed the same few turns...

Appreciate the feedback. Story is one of the areas that will get more attention next time around. The cyclical nature of the gameplay in Vigilantes (fight -> do stuff at home), combined with the openness of the map made it difficult to develop a continuous narrative (no telling when the player will do x or y) and that pushed me more towards a self contained, episodic style of story. The next game will have a continuous, branching story, so it will be possible to do more with it. Not a lot has happened in that area yet, but have been meaning to ask for feedback on the writing in Vigilantes to guide the next outing. Since you've got the ball rolling, may as well do it now. Interested in any observations about the writing and story: what worked, what didn't, writing style, etc. Any takers?

 

[Nutria]

I thought the story was well-integrated with the gameplay. It felt very natural, not like "omg this delusional asshole thinks he's Shakespeare and he's gonna make me watch a 5-minute cutscene" like you get with so many games. It may have been better to not dump so much into the introduction to each character in the beginning and have multiple missions where you get to know them.

I generally liked the style of writing. I think the game takes itself just seriously enough but not too far.

 

[Timeslip]

Making surprisingly good progress on destructible cover. It's not in the bag, but it's looking good.

Had to spend two days cleaning up the code to integrate the gas cans and oil barrels from Vigilantes into a new object class which handles dialogue triggers, doors, destructible cover etc. At this point, missed ranged attacks can hit and destroy intervening cover. Shotguns hit all destructible cover in the cone. Bullets and fire can damage light cover, whereas only explosives will affect medium cover. Heavy cover is invulnerable. Next step will be to look at allowing the player to directly target cover with melee weapons and non-shotguns. It's a nice to have which could be add variety to a number of encounters.

Also need to tackle the visible destruction of the cover, but there are quite a few options for that.

 

[Timeslip]

I thought the story was well-integrated with the gameplay. It felt very natural, not like "omg this delusional asshole thinks he's Shakespeare and he's gonna make me watch a 5-minute cutscene" like you get with so many games. It may have been better to not dump so much into the introduction to each character in the beginning and have multiple missions where you get to know them.

I generally liked the style of writing. I think the game takes itself just seriously enough but not too far.

Appreciate the feedback Nutria . I'm only delusional enough to make someone sit through a 2 minute cutscene, but hoping to work my way up to 5 minutes