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[Bytekeeper]

Hi everyone!

Here's an early prototype of my game Remnants of the Vanquished, a turn based tactics game:





It was initially inspired by Into the Breach, but not much of that is left I guess.
I wanted to see what "happens" if I limit the movement of characters to a bare minimum. I also wanted every move to really count, allowing mistakes but still punish them.

The result is:

•  A stack based movement, only the top ship can shoot or perform actions.
•  When done with the turn, ships usually move to the bottom.
•  Some ships can manipulate the stack order of their fleet or the enemy fleet.
•  You can always see what an enemy ship would do, if it was at the top.

As mentioned above, it's in an early stage.
As such, feedback on the following would really help me:

• Does the stack based movement mechanic feel intuitive?
• Is the enemy intent feature ok? Is it understandable that it changes after the enemy made its turn?
• Are the player ship roles (tank, damage dealer, support ship) intuitive?
• Do the actions of the player ships feel ok? The intention is to make it possible to create combos.
• Is planning ahead reasonable? I want the player to understand that changing the order of (intent of) ships is a central aspect.
• Are the mechanics too simple? I'm aiming for the easy to learn, hard to master formula.

You can play it in your browser (I will provide Windows/Linux build soon) here:
https://bytekeeper.itch.io/rotv

I’d greatly appreciate any and all feedback on these mechanics to help shape the game's development. Your input is invaluable!

PS: The game uses the Bevy engine if you're interested in such technical details.

[Bytekeeper]

For the time being my main task is to improve the look&feel of the prototype.
 
Here's a small clip showing a bit of the gameplay with my changes:

[jbarrios]

Hey Bytekeeper,

I played your game

What I liked:
- The tactical combat has a lot of potential.  It could be very cool to customize your ships
- I like the ship designs

What could use some work:
Some of the terminology in game is confusing
  - I didn't know what "Piercing" shot was.  "Hull damage" or "Shield bypass" might be more clear
  - "Blocking" is also confusing.  Why not "Shield overdrive" or something?
  - The taunt ability "Move to 1".  What does that mean?
  - I see that you've put a guide farther down the page.  Most players (like me) aren't going to read that before playing.
   
One of my ships had an ability to recharge shields.  When I clicked it nothing happened.

I opened the ship maintenance screen.  Nothing happened when I clicked on any button.  I had 0 wrenches and 0 computer chips (I think), but I've completed 2 combat encounters.  Shouldn't that be an award?


I think there is a lot of potential here.  Hopefully my playtest was helpful.

[Bytekeeper]

Hi jbarrios,

Thank you so much for taking the time to play my game and for your detailed feedback!

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the tactical aspects and the ship designs. Your input on the game terminology and mechanics is invaluable. I’ll work on making those clearer.

I appreciate your points about the guide's placement and the need for integrated tutorials, which I'll consider how to implement effectively.

Regarding the maintenance screen issues, I will review how and when rewards are distributed to ensure the progression feels rewarding.

I also realize the ability descriptions require more clarity. For instance, "Move to 1" actually means "Move to the top". Furthermore, the shield recharge action needs a target ship, which I failed to mention. I'll make sure these descriptions are more intuitive.

Your feedback is incredibly helpful for improving the game, and I'm excited to address these issues. Please feel free to check back in for another round of testing once these updates have been implemented!

Thank you again for your support and valuable insights!

[Bytekeeper]

I uploaded the new version 0.2.3 with these major changes:

• Improved AI - will try to target weaker player ships and help weaker AI ships
• Resizing fixes: No more mandatory minimum 1920x1080 resolution
• More icons: More icons instead of text

Various UI fixes and improvements:

• Piercing shot now shows "hull damage" in the tooltip
• Blocking tooltip also explains what it does
• Move to X is now replaced by "Move to top/bottom/..."