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[Razzek]

Hello,

For the past few months I've been slaving away at my first real game. And "The Collective" is the result of my labor.

Right now I've been mainly focusing on creating a working engine and game, not so much the art. But here is a screenshot anyway.





The game at heart is a Tactical-RPG like fire emblem etc. However, the similarities stop at the controls. Combat will play out like Dwarf Fortress. There will be unit moral, where units will sometimes run from combat or maybe just freeze and drop their weapons in terror. There will be complex injuries, like for instance, a spear might penetrate an opponents body armor and destroy their liver; which in turn will cause them to become extremely nauseated.

I also have a wide range of equipment planned, such as different types of armor, weapons etc. And the best part is that the way I've coded it makes it so all equipment (body-armor, helmet, shoulder pads, leggings, boots, etc)  and injuries will show up on the units sprite.


The main campaign will focus on a very wealthy city that is devastated by a disaster explained in the game. War-bands from all across the known world have been drawn to the chaos infested city for fame and riches.

The single player campaign will have you choose your faction, and embark on a quest into the city. To imagine how it would work, just think about how "Faster Than Light" does their campaign. The further you get into the city, the greater the danger. You'll run into hostile explorers, and monsters from the inner city. There will be perma death, if your unit dies in combat, he will be dead for good. So you'll have to pick your battles carefully if you are low on supplies. Injuries also carry over from battle to battle, so I doubt you'll reach the end without losing a eye or an arm.

Multiplayer will work similar, there will be matchmaking based on your war-bands rating. The only difference is that death penalties won't be as harsh. But there will be plenty of scenarios to choose from.

Well that's all for now, let me know what you think! I'll post updates as they happen.

[Razzek]

Been working on context menus this morning.

I plan on making context menus the main way of interacting with the world. And for ease, the hotkey of the menu option is labeled on the left.

This one for instance is picking what weapon you want to use when you attack, for both your right and left hand.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

what in particular is 'roguelike' about what you describe? you didn't mention how it'd be roguelike. i like the idea of a strategy-rpg roguelike, but so far what you describe doesn't make mention of what parts of the game will be roguelike

[Razzek]

what in particular is 'roguelike' about what you describe? you didn't mention how it'd be roguelike. i like the idea of a strategy-rpg roguelike, but so far what you describe doesn't make mention of what parts of the game will be roguelike

Its not a rougelike per se, but rougelike inspired. The single player campaign will (hopefully) consist of randomly generated maps and dungeons. Items for the most part will be randomly generated and may need to be identified. The combat is inspired from the rougelike mode in Dwarf Fortress. In the campaign you will lose often, and each time you lose your score will be put on a local and online scoreboard. and  And obviously all your units will be subject to permadeath.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

permadeath for team members isn't quite the same as the roguelike concept of permadeath, where if the *player* dies they cannot continue the game and have to start from the beginning. that's different from the fire emblem type system of an ally dying and they can't be revived unless you load an old save. in roguelikes you can't load old saves (unless you cheat of course). so i wouldn't say it's a roguelike thing to add permanent death to party members because like half of all tactical rpgs already have that, final fantasy tactics, tactics ogre, all of those have it

so basically it's a strategy rpg with randomly generated levels? that sounds okay, but i was hoping for more aspects of roguelikes to be integrated into it than that, since there are already some strategy rpgs with randomized levels (such as the disgaea series, phantom brave, and many others by that developer)

for example, one idea is perhaps you could also do random equipment, where the equipment you can find has randomized stats and attributes (similar to diablo)

[Muzuh]

The art looks cool. Very simplistic, but, somehow different in a way. I also like that very in depth survival factor. I'm surely following the progress on this! 

[Razzek]

Been working on the combat system along with combat logs, and game effects.

[Razzek]

I finished a rough system of the AI, so as of now I can play a game against the computer.

Been working on the interface outside of the game. So far so good.
So I figured I'd start on the main campaign. Here's a pretty dull faction select screen, I really need to get someone to make a background at some point.

[AD1337]

I think this looks great, but I hope "The Collective" is a working title. It says nothing about the game, even if you have a good use for that name.

[aberrantmind]

supercool

[Uykered]

Looks decent, but the mix of graphic resolutions is disturbing.

[Razzek]

Looks decent, but the mix of graphic resolutions is disturbing.

Can you elaborate so I can fix it?

Thanks!

[Uykered]

Like how the map is nice and crisp, but the icons on the left and the titles are all using different scales to the map (mix of big and small pixels basically) which feels inconsistent and stuff.

[eclectocrat]

Nice work, I like how the menu tells you a lot about the action. I think I will steal your idea! Feel free to use my crappy ones.

[Razzek]

Like how the map is nice and crisp, but the icons on the left and the titles are all using different scales to the map (mix of big and small pixels basically) which feels inconsistent and stuff.

Ah I see. Well I'm going to go back to redo graphics so I'll make sure I fix that.

Anyways, coded well over a thousand lines today.

Here's a pic of the AI fighting each other along with a new grass tile sprite I did just for fun. All art in the game is just temporary until I fix it up.



Today I finished:

-Some AI bugs.

-I coded a campaign map where you can walk around and events will happen (too rough to show atm). There will be also computer controlled war-bands walking around and doing their own thing as well. If you are neutral or friendly you will be able to interact with them.

-I made a rough scripting system that allows for cool events and triggers.

- When you start a game your party leader is randomly generated for you. When your party leader dies the game is over.

-I'm still too lazy to make a chest armor sprite.

-Made it so you can save and load custom battle maps, but hopefully one day I can make it randomly generated. If worst comes to worst I'll just have the campaign map full random, and I'll have the battle maps consist of random pre-made pieces of map. If that makes any sense.

[antoniodamala]

Looks cool. I'm in need of a good tactical RPG, so i'm gonna be around here. 

[Razzek]

Pretty big update I suppose.

Here's some screenshots of the Campaign World map.





VERY VERY ROUGH mockup of the equipment management screen for the World Map.




I don't know how, but I actually made a pretty good event system. There will be all sorts of cool different encounters depending on your actions/ who is in your party etc.

I also made units work differently. There will be two types, retainers and Heroes. Your party will consist of heroes, and each hero will have their retinue. Retainers will be cheaper to replace and won't be as damaging. If the hero dies, then the retainers leave.

[Conker534]

Combat system looks fun

[Craig Stern]

This looks rather promising. What platforms are you targeting with this?

[Razzek]

This looks rather promising. What platforms are you targeting with this?

Thanks for the reply! I'm currently focusing on a PC release. Although if there is a demand I could port it to IOS at a later date.