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[Belimoth]

Thanks for the confidence!

It was originally a circle but I couldn't get it to look anything but blobby.
I hadn't thought of using a square, I'll try it out. Actually that gives me some ideas.

[Belimoth]

Okay, so now it's a hollow square if the path ends because you ran out of movement points, and a hollow arrow if the path has to end for any other reason, such as stepping on a trigger.

Also did some other minor gui tweaks. Added nubs to triggers so you know which unit they belong to, etc.
I'd make gifs if there weren't already so many on this page.

[Belimoth]

What is this game even about? I don't have solid win conditions and I don't know what the endgame is supposed to look like.
The easy way out would be to put the general on the field, but I don't just want to make fancy chess.

It started out with me riffing on tactics conventions and I've gotten some cool stuff out of that, but I am losing hope that it can be anything more than that without a serious redesign.

Beginning to think I can't get the breadth of gameplay that I want with designed maps, but procedural generation is a bit more than I can invest time in right now.
Gonna take a stab at paramaterized maps and see if that isn't a good enough compromise.

0.6 is still on schedule. Finishing a game is still more important to me than being good at it.

Positive development: I've gotten the game to run on the Playstation Vita simulator.

[Belimoth]

What is at the core of tactics games? I am going to figure this out.

Managing a group of units toward a goal? Synergy and force multiplication? Rock-paper-scissors? Capturing map positions?

Ok, let's start with win conditions and work backwards.

• Defeating opposing team in combat. Either completely, or partially and resulting in a retreat situation.
• Capturing a crucial position or defeating a crucial unit. This can be asymmetric.
• Checkmate. Maneuvers that make the above a matter of course.
• Economic victory. War of attrition that makes any other win condition a matter of course after a tipping point.
• Territory control. Same as above but concerning position and mobility rather than a numeric resource.

What a tangled mess of conceptualization.

Other easy ways out; multiple win conditions; map-specific win conditions; optional objectives with meta-game rewards.

This is probably going to end with me cutting things until the game is unrecognizable, so sorry to anyone who's gotten attached to the potentials.

0.6 on Thursday, but the trajectory is going to change after that.

[Belimoth]

The easy way out would be to put the general on the field.

Experimenting with a variation where each player has one Flagbearer and instead of maps having preexisting neutral flags there are Flagpoles where Flags can be planted.
Once Flags have been planted they can be captured in the usual way or burned down.

So far it's made the openings and middlegames more interesting but hasn't solved my endgame problem.

Another issue is that while having finite armies that the players build before hand adds a nice metagame component, it also nullifies the work I've done on making the opening accessible and un-intimidating, since a new player has to make uninformed decisions before they even get to the gameplay.
I'm gonna revisit some ideas that I had previously about unit deployment and see if they can't address this.

[08--n7.r6-79.84]

 

[AzureKing]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^



That is beautiful.

[Belimoth]

 

[Belimoth]

Less early, but still early alpha build 0.6 here. (still waiting for authorization)

Updates to the unit roster:

• Insurgent: Sneaky unit who is good at capturing flags. 75% complete.
• Minotaur: Incomplete but he has the point economy I want. His heavy attack takes a turn to build up.
• Brazier Bearer: Most powerful fire-oriented unit. Good for area denial and is <Fireproof>.
• Bull Cavalry: Has the skills Gore and <Bully> that let him push units around. 75% Complete.

The rules for flames are in.

There's a page for assembling an army.

Various tweaks.

[ericmbernier]

More! Following.

[Belimoth]

Playing with a variant where Flagbearers act as mobile spawn points.
Doesn't fit with the game but it's a concept that could be fun to revisit for a dungeon crawler.

Started on a paramaterized level editor. It's promising so far.

0.6 download is live btw.

[Belimoth]

[Belimoth]

Making some changes.


The economy system is boring so I'm changing it to something more recognizable.

Old economy:

• Units cost upkeep in the form of slots.
• Units can't be summoned if they would fill more slots than are available.
• Players have 4 slots per flag plus a starting amount that is variable.

New economy: Same thing only with money.

• Flags add 4 to a player's income and that money can accumulate.
• Units pay upkeep based on their type, same as before.
• Deficit spending is ok. Players can't summon units if they are in debt.
• Handicaps take the form of more starting money.

Finite armies are too limiting. Gonna go the Advance Wars route instead and allow players to summon every kind of unit as long as they can afford it. I'll have to think of something else to prevent stalemates if they show up.



Cutting down the number of units and skills, consolidating as many similar ones as I can.


<Reach> is redundant with the new rules for combat between elevations. This means the Spearman needs another new skill. One idea I had was to give him a passive that negates his upkeep cost if he doesn't move.

[Belimoth]

New UI layout mockup.



Seriously considering capping □ at 3 so that everything will line up better.
Time to work on something else

[Belimoth]

I lied, 2nd draft.

[eigenbom]

pretty pictures 

[Belimoth]

ＮＯ  ＫＩＮＧＳ
This is the name now.

[08--n7.r6-79.84]

I lied, 2nd draft.

  i like it! especially this yellow on grey and purple, great combination.

[Belimoth]

New GUI is mostly done.

New economy is mostly done, still trying to figure out some details.

Map loading and saving is done, putting the final touches on the first draft of an editor.

I've been experimenting with an asymmetric attacker/defender variant where defenders start with more control points but have less income for each.
It's interesting but that's about all it is.

[antoniodamala]