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[and]

I wanted to talk a little more about the differences between the base weapons and how this can impact upon your approach to the game.

One of the key mechanics in the shoot-outs is the number of action points you use for aiming. There is a trade-off between using your action points for moving and saving them to ensure your shot is more accurate. Each weapon changes the impact of this.


Rifle



The rifle is the weapon with the longest range, but it also the most limited in terms of shooting patterns (which I covered just a couple of posts back) and suffers the most from moving and shooting.

The base accuracy is very high to begin with, up around 95% (not taking into account any modifiers of the character using it and whether the enemy is in cover). However, this drops significantly with each step you take, as you have less time to aim. This drops down to around a base accuracy of 30% when you have just a single action point remaining.

This means the rifle is often best used either to pick off enemies that stray into you sights (or close to your sights) or used in conjunction with a number of skills that take advantage of its shooting pattern ("Pin 'Em Down" being a good example of this as it pins an enemy in place on their next turn).


Shotgun



The shotgun is the weapon with the shortest range, but can hit a target at any angle to the shooter.

The base accuracy starts at around 80%, which is quite a low starting accuracy when considering the significant impact that good cover can have on your shot. However, the base accuracy will still likely be over 70% with only a single action point left. This means that you can focus on getting an angle on your enemy so cover is not a concern. Combine this with a skill that allows you to target multiple enemies at once and you've got a pretty deadly weapon.

However, it's important to be aware of the trade-offs – the effective range is very short, and generally the shotguns hold very little ammo meaning you have to reload often. They are also more likely to wound an enemy when compared to the other weapons. Wounding is something I'll cover in a later post as it can have quite a significant impact on the game, not just in the shoot-outs but also in the main game.


Pistol



The pistol falls nicely between the rifle and shotgun, in that it has a decent range, has a shooting pattern that spreads out in 8 directions and has an average drop off as you move.

Base accuracy starts up around 90% and drops steadily down to 40% as you move. It also generally holds the most ammo so you won't be reloading as often, which can certainly give you the advantage over your enemy as they fumble with their bullets. You've also got a decent chance of getting a headshot in, particularly when you've got a clear shot.

Overall a very balanced weapon, and particularly useful with a variety of the skills you can choose as you level up (I'll cover classes, skills and levelling up in a later post).


Knives and Molotovs

I'm still working on these, but they will work something like the knife being an instant kill to an adjacent tile (which makes it very risk/reward oriented) and the molotov being an area effect attack that has a chance to wound but also a chance to destroy certain types of cover.

Upgrading Weapons



The different models of weapons that can be found in the world may increase your chances of a headshot (instant kill) rather than a wounding shot and be able to hold different amounts of ammo, but generally will not change the accuracy drop off of the weapons.

The attributes of the weapons applies not only to yourself, but also to everyone else you meet in the world. This means that it's important to think not only about the balance of weapons and skills within your own gang, but also to consider how to take advantage of the distribution of weapons that the enemies have.

If you're lucky, you might not end up here:

[and]

Levels

I'll be covering the main part of the game soon (like, probably on Sunday), but in the meantime I've got a bit more on the shoot-outs coming your way!

When you get into a shoot-out, the game switches to a zoomed in view of the battle and plays out in a similar manner to turn based tactical combat games, such as XCOM, Incubation or Final Fantasy Tactics. There are some significant differences to those games, but I've already talked about them so I'll not waste your time going over it again here!

Depending on where the shoot-out takes place, a level is built using a set of pieces that are specific to that area. This is so that shoot-outs in the different areas not only have a different look and feel, but also require different approaches if you want to survive. Tactics that might work for a shoot-out in the saloon aren't going to work quite as well when you're ambushed out in the desert.

Today I'm going to compare a couple of the level types that I've been working on.

The Chapel

Most churches you come across will be small, cramped buildings. There's lots of cover and not a lot of room for flanking.


The orange squares you see here are what will be the cover, the red squares are the walls/level border.

Depending on the skills of the characters that you have in your gang, this kind of environment favours those who are quick to take up strong defensive positions. There are certainly skills that will give you other options but, under normal circumstances, an aggressive approach is be a bit of a gamble. So I guess it depends if you're feeling lucky?

I suppose the third way would be to lure the enemies out at the risk of losing one of your gang. This is actually a valid tactic, and this kind of sacrifice may also solve other problems for you if you have a character that you want disposing of without turning the gang against you (at least not too much – try not to get yourself a reputation as someone who gets all their friends killed).


Woodland

In the woodland levels, you have 2 types of cover: trees and rocks. Woodland that is close to the mountainous regions on the map will have a higher proportion of rocks but, generally, the distribution of cover in the woods is pretty consistent.



As you can see, there is lots of room to move about despite there being a lot of cover. This provides good opportunities for flanking, which can be a good and bad thing. In the woodland levels, you need to take particular care when outnumbered, as you can quickly become overwhelmed.

You'll see that there are patches of open ground that you might want to avoid. This can however be used to your advantage if you are able draw your enemy out into the open before surrounding them.

These are just 2 level types among many that I'll be adding to the game over the next few months, with the plan being to use the level design to add as much variety to the challenge of combat as is possible.

And with that, I'll leave you with a picture of Jake Boone. A drunk and a gambler who got his gang killed trying to steal back their horses, which he had recently wagered in a losing hand of poker.



Was not my proudest moment.

[and]

@Kraed

As for art style, really really nice work on the characters. Would love to see a lineless version, that thick black line throws me off a bit. Try toying with that, maybe it could give interesting results. (no outline, thinner, transparency, colors closer to the character's clothe, etc).

Just read this so sorry for not responding as of yet.

It's definitely still work in progress on the art, although it's getting there. I really like the thick black lines though! Maybe it's just personal taste!

[and]

The World Map

It's probably about time I started to talk about the world map, since this is where you will spend most of your time when you're not having shootouts!


The Basic Set Up

When you begin the game, you create a character by choosing their name, appearance and attributes that will determine, among other things, the kinds of skills you will be able to select as you level up. This new character is who you will control throughout your playthrough so, while you are able to recruit other gang members along the way, if you die it is game over.


Basic Mission Structure

Every time you replay, the map is procedurally generated.


I love just setting this going and sitting back to watch (probably why I get so little work done)

Most of this will hidden to you when you begin the game, but will become revealed as you explore. There is currently one starting mission in the game for your main character, which is that your family has been kidnapped by a gang and you must earn or steal the money to buy their freedom or resolve the matter your own way (for example by hunting down the gang and brutally slaughtering every last MF-ing one of 'em). In the future I plan to add various starting missions that are also dependent on one of the attributes that you have chosen for your character, but each of them will be the same 'deal with this how you want to' kind of thing.

Other events will happen as you explore, with different areas marked with a 'danger rating' depending how far they are from the nearest safe town and how close they are to a gang's hideout. The type of events vary depending on this danger level, but also depending on the biome you are currently in (desert, woodland, mountains etc). Some events rely on a previous event taking place, but I'll cover that in more detail later when I start talking about the Legend and History systems.

The options you have for how you react to these events is determined by the attributes of your character, as well as the attributes of any other characters you have recruited to your gang. You might, for example, find a conman particularly useful in certain situations, while having a wanted man amongst you may be particularly troublesome in others.


Recruiting The Gang

As you explore, you'll come across a number of characters who you might want to ask to join up with you. Each of these will have a history before they have met you and will already have all of their attributes set (although you will be able to change their name and appearance).

These characters are another source of things to do in the game. Each of them has a chance to have their own mission depending on one of their attributes. For example, a character may have a family member in prison (and he'll mark the location of the town on your map) and wants your help to break them out before they hang. Another character may simply have heard about a great bank robbery you pulled off and simply wants to join you to get rich. Or maybe they're just telling you that, but that's a story for a different time.

Whatever their mission may be, again there will be options to approach it in different ways. Ignoring it is also a valid choice, but breaking promises isn't a good way to keep people on your side and away from your throat.

[and]

Still working on the art for the world map - what do you guys think of these mountains?

Do you have a preference with the shading?



The colour's really really subtle (maybe TOO subtle?) but I dunno if I just prefer the totally clean ones anyway.

[and]

Just thought I'd update with a quick pic of the map work in progress!

I realise that I probably need to make the road and railroad look quite a bit different...

Also, it's tiled, so I don't know whether to mark out the tiles?

[and]

Hi everyone - so much for the regular updates huh

Anyway, here's how the world map is looking at the minute:

The map art is still pretty placeholder at the minute while I get all of the systems in place and clear out a few disgusting bugs.

Functionally it's getting there. Everything you can see works, the fog of war, the food, the gang (you can edit their appearance and see what their status is etc).

There'll be a gameplay video of the combat on the way in the next few days (when I get over my unnecessary anxiety about it) and I'm working on tweaking the combat side of things so I can have an early combat demo out by the end of next week.

One thing I do want to ask of you though, is what kind of locations would you like to see in a Western game? Currently, apart from the parts of the natural environment, I've got towns, chapels, homesteads, camps and mines. I'll be adding ranches too (you need somewhere to buy/steal horses) but what would you like to see?

Thanks

[and]

Hey everyone, these are the buildings and locations that you can find in the world at the moment.

What else would you want to find when you're exploring?

[and]

Hoping to have the demo bug free and ready to play by the end of the weekend!

[oldblood]

Digging the art style. Very cool.

[alwex]

I really like the art style, remind me of the good old italian western

[and]

Thanks!

The art for the shootouts still needs a bit of work, particularly their bodies, but the map art needs a LOT of work! Not sure it really fits together very well.

On the off chance, I don't suppose anyone knows how to record good quality videos for youTube (for free)? I recorded with OBS and recorded sound separate, then put them together in Windows Movie Maker. This seems like the worst thing ever.

[and]

Is it ok for the enemies to cheat?

Right, so I'm putting some finishing touches to the combat demo, and there's quite a few bits missing (no skills other than overwatch for example, no enemy wounding (just instant death if you hit them) for another) but it communicates the basic idea very well.

But I've got an issue with cover.

When I have cover strength set high, you seem to be constantly firing and missing (obviously), but when it's low you're often better off just stepping out into the open to get a better shot.

So, I've been thinking about having different accuracy ratings and cover strength for the players and the AI. It'd work like this: cover strength is very high for the players, but lower for the AI (still high enough to make you consider leaving cover to get a better shot if you want to take that risk) - also make the AI weapons a lot more accurate that the players, so that the difference in risk between being in cover and being in the open is bigger. Does that make sense?

I guess I could just do 2 build and see what you guys think?

[and]

Ok - so this is the first version:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72954024/Among%20The%20Willow%20Installer.rar

It's still buggy and I really don't feel like the shooting feels like it's a big enough threat.

I'll upload the 2nd version where there's a bigger focus on staying in cover and I've rebalanced the weapons a bit. If you do get chance to play, please let me know which you prefer (I've also fixed a few bugs in the 2nd one but there's still some in there)

[and]

Oh hi, me again!

This is the link to the slightly less buggy and (I think) slightly better combat! Don't know if it's too harsh out of cover now, but I think it works for standalone combat:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72954024/Among%20The%20Willows%20New%20Cover%20Installer.rar

[oldblood]

One thing that threw me off quite a bit was after I had killed 3 guys and was starting to get a feel for the game, I hit Esc to pause and was instantly back at the menu and only had the option to start a new game. I will give it another play-through but off the top, it was discouraging to want to continue. I'd implement the pause menu sooner rather than later. Generally, I'm liking the visuals and feel though. Will try and provide more feedback on a 2nd playthrough.

[and]

Cool, yeah I'll add that in ASAP and update the builds!

Thanks for the feedback

[and]

Now with a (very basic) pause menu!

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72954024/Among%20The%20Willows%20-%20with%20pause.rar

This is with the new tweaks to cover and weapon accuracy to make it a bit tougher.

Thanks

[and]

Been working on making the art for the world map a little nicer and adding in a few more locations to explore!

[and]

A couple more here (they're a lot smaller on the map but maybe I should do zoomed in town views huh)