mtarini: Thanks for all the kind words I'm glad you enjoy the game so far.
Just curios: is there any reason at all for the player not to keep the pikes constantly lowered, when in front?
(it wouldn't be difficult for you to make up a compensation for that, e.g. in terms of diminished formation speed --maybe, just sideways-- or something, so, judging by how much you seem to know your stuff, I guess you probably considered that and decided against it already)
Right now, as it stands, the only reasons to raise your pikes are so that you can shoot or for better dodging purposes. What I mean by the latter is that when you have your pikes down, your pikemen will automatically target enemies that are near the formation and get in front of them with their pikes. This could cause one of your pikemen to inadvertently move up or down, past the standard width of your formation and thus possibly get him it by say, a projectile that you were narrowly avoiding. So short of shooting, that's the only real reason to raise your pikes is when you're trying to avoid close call shots like that.
Honestly I'm fine with this. making the formation slower or something SOUNDS like a good idea, but honestly, pikes are your primary attack. Megaman doesn't have to slow down when he shoots his megabuster and neither does Pike'n Shot's tercio slow down when they lower their pikes. I want to encourage you to use your pikes as often as you can. It's not apparent in the current build, but eventually, the harder levels in the game will require you to be very careful when you use a volley and when you don't and so I want to make the pike option easy. It's already ham-stringed by the fact that it isn't as far ranged as shooting and can't break shields, etc. But we'll see, I may eventually decide it needs some sort of balance nerf.
That makes them feel kind of like bonus points to me. Maybe you could play on that? Give the ranged guys a treasure chest or a captive soldier that they carry away with them when they run?
Yeah, this was the original idea. I have treasure hauler type saurian sprited up, but I just haven't implemented him yet. I'm still trying to figure out how many powerups/coins/etc I really need to have in the game and how to treat them. I want to have formation commanders show up as rescuable so that you can change what kind of doppel soldier you get. But if I do that, it brings up some questions. If they just change your special attack to a different but not stronger one then they should be easy to rescue if they just work like a current power up toggle. If I make the rescues difficult then they would need to either have more powerful doppel soldiers than the default ones OR they'd need to unlock that formation leader as a selectable one or something.
I'm not 100% sure what to do. I mean, the easy answer is just to have gold haulers that you can kill for a lot of coins, but then I have to make doppel soldiers fun enough to use that you want to get them and it feels like a good reward to have them. Maybe they should be more consumable than they are now? Like, they have a huge effect, but they are just one use? That might be fun. Like, have each "use" represented by a single soldier, but when you use one, it actually summons a ton of them who do a BIG effect.
I've been messing around with the two I have now, the zweihander guys and the arbalists. I've made it so that the former attacks 3 guys before returning to your formation. He seems a lot better now even just with that. The arbalist seems pretty decent. He comes out, places his pavise, and then fires 5 shots before returning, but if you move significantly past him with you formation, he'll abandon shooting and return to you immediately.
But the answer might be to have a REALLY big effect. Like have a single zweihander use cause a stream of them come out and wipe out everyone in a big circle around you, that sort of thing. This might solve a lingering concern I have. Right now using doppel soldiers might require a little too much forethought. You have to think about what kind you have and then think about what instances using them would be useful in. I think it might over complicate the game. I think I'd much rather have it so that pike and shot are the only tools you have to worry about solving puzzles/problems with as you play. Doppel Soldiers should just be a flashy get out of jail card. Not totally screen clearing or anything, but close to it.
Some other ideas are musicians like drummers and flute players who make your formation faster or maybe even grant other buffs as well.
It feels like you have a lot of health and guys dying is more a problem because you have to wait for them to catch up (and losing the doppel coffer) than because you're worried about your formation retreating. Maybe they should cost more?
Yeah, I think I made the maxes too high. I'm going to try halving both of them and see how that goes.
And I feel like the ranged guys are the only ones which are really threatening. If it's just shields, even if they get right on top of you, you just push them back with your pikes until you can shoot them. I wonder if you might want to make them slightly more dangerous? Maybe they can break your pikes eventually, and the soldier then has to retreat to get another one? Or if a pike can only block one shield, so they can pile up and overwhelm you? Or...?
Originally I had it so that one pike blocked one shield. I can't remember why I changed that, whether it was a feel reason or a bug reason. As it is though, I'm fine with their being shield guys that just stack up and can't get through. That's nuisance enough because basically, you can't shoot past them until you deal with them. I'm going to have harder guys later who have the added threat that they will actually chop through your pikes if you leave them down once you initially block them, so you'll need to raise your pikes to dodge their attack after you first block them.
eblomquist: Thanks!
Also, I think I would like the victims (both sides) to be get maybe grayed and/or darkened but not to disappear after becoming corpses. Same for landed spears / etc. I love when a battlefield ends up looking like one! Hopefully, graying/darkening them would be enough to avoid that they are distracting for gameplay?
This is an interesting idea, but I worried about it causing too much visual noise on screen in certain instances. I'll try it out though.
Hi, James Edward Smith, I just want to say I registered an account here purely so I could offer my resounding encouragement on behalf of a fair few people who really enjoyed what you're putting together here. As a bunch fascinated by the warfare of the Early Modern period we instantly fell head of over heels in love with the first little demo you put out.
Obviously music is probably quite low on your list of priorities at the moment, but when it comes time to add a soundtrack, will you consider putting in a version of
Jorge von Frundsberg, Fuhrt Uns An in?
A fair few people? Are you a pike block?
I've actually put out feelers for composers for the game after admitting to myself that I should probably take a short cut on this and not just spend time trying to learn how to compose music myself until I made something worthwhile (maybe next game). I've had a few bites and I'll probably put something into the next build by a TIGSource member who's been making some great stuff for the game.
Anyway, sorry I haven't had any updates for a bit. I had to take a last minute business trip down to San Francisco recently for my day-job and my girlfriend recently found out she has a gallstone that needs to be removed surgically. So I've been a little preoccupied. I'm trying to get going on this again though. I have some vacation time coming up next week though and extending until after the holidays, so my plan is to hunker down and get some work done.
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