Game News Chaos Chronicles, Turn-based Fantasy RPG Announced

[Grunker]

Codex interview is en route

I'm expecting to learn what to expect.

Godt ord igen, as we say in Denmark.

 

[Grunker]

By the way, HobGoblin42: How are you funding this?

 

[felipepepe]

The game is definitely not for everybody, because without any experience in pen&paper or tactical turn-based combats you won't survive the first battle. Chaos Chronicles will target hardcore RPG players and we want to serve this niche audience well without making any compromises. And we don't have any plans to integrate social media stuff, but for a lot of reasons we must run a Chaos Chronicles page on facebook. You know, viral cross marketing bla bla bla.

Just perfect.

 

[DraQ]

Godt ord igen, as we say in Denmark.

What a crude, barbaric language.
"dt"? Have all your vovel mines collapsed forcing such a harsh rationing scheme?

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

a pole complaining about consonants, how quaint

 

[DraQ]

 

[hoverdog]

I am still suspecting a master troll at work here, though


also, CC site won't load for me

 

[HobGoblin42]

Any plans to release an editor?
Also you mentioned the release date is somewhere in the 1st quarter 2013. When did you start working on this anyway?

We are preparing the game for being modded in future (by massively using LUA scripting), but the editor will not be part of the first release.

The idea was born back in 2008. The pre-production started January 2010 but after 6 months we ran out of cash and that's why we had to start another commercial project. Earlier this year we went on with Chaos Chronicles. So, in total we already spent about 14 months development on this project.

By the way, HobGoblin42: How are you funding this?

Beside self-funding with money from commercial projects we did, we've got funded by a german film funding called FFFBayern. To successfully complete the project we also receive payments from our publisher bitcomposer who is going to distribute the game worldwide.

 

[DraQ]

a pole complaining about consonants, how quaint

Also, for that reply I wish I were a Jew.

 

[Grunker]

bitcomposer

uh-oh

Didn't you say these were the guys that made you go real-time last time?

 

[HobGoblin42]

uh-oh

Didn't you say these were the guys that made you go real-time last time?

Not exactly, but close. I did say they hired us to create a game for their franchise with their game concept.

But with CC, we chose them to publish our game that we designed and that we already started to develop earlier. And ensuring our creative freedom (that implies targeting a niche audience) was the most important point in our agreements with them.

 

[ForeverdarkWoods]

(that's one of the reasons I don't really like grids in cRPGs - TB has many uses beyond just making game playable using pen and paper, grids less so).

Grids are a convenience for the player who plays the game rather for the computer who does all the calculations. Why? Because having a visible grid makes it extremely easy to see exactly where all the game pieces are positioned in relation to each other. Screwing around with a 2d vector space (or 3d vector space for teh maximum clusterfuck) on the battlefield turns all of that much harder, essentially providing unneeded complexity that doesn't add shit to the overall gameplay experience. Will my ranger be able to shoot if I stand here? With a grid it's gonna be obvious. With vectors? Much less so. Why would you want a turn based tactical RPG, and then make planning out your moves much harder by the adding of the pointless meta-challenge associated with measuring by sight, or deal with all the clusterfucks ensuing from trying to remedy this by the use of unneededly convoluted graphical aides? What would be the purpose of vectors in the first place? What does it add other than "immershun" or some such shit?

OT: The game seems like it's going to be great. I fully support the use of a visible hex grid. The screenshots look great. Loving the idea of a dungeon crawl set in a darker setting. Getting some Diablo 1 vibes from the screenshots, easthetically speaking. I've always loved D1s artstyle and often thought something similar would work really well for a genuine RPG. Keep up the good work. So starved for new games that I will probably buy if not broke on release.

 

[Grunker]

(that's one of the reasons I don't really like grids in cRPGs - TB has many uses beyond just making game playable using pen and paper, grids less so).

Grids are a convenience for the player who plays the game rather for the computer who does all the calculations. Why? Because having a visible grid makes it extremely easy to see exactly where all the game pieces are positioned in relation to each other. Screwing around with a 2d vector space (or 3d vector space for teh maximum clusterfuck) on the battlefield turns all of that much harder, essentially providing unneeded complexity that doesn't add shit to the overall gameplay experience. Will my ranger be able to shoot if I stand here? With a grid it's gonna be obvious. With vectors? Much less so. Why would you want a turn based tactical RPG, and then make planning out your moves much harder by the adding of the pointless meta-challenge associated with measuring by sight, or deal with all the clusterfucks ensuing from trying to remedy this by the use of unneededly convoluted graphical aides? What would be the purpose of vectors in the first place? What does it add other than "immershun" or some such shit?.

 

[Marsal]

bitcomposer

uh-oh

Didn't you say these were the guys that made you go real-time last time?

 

[Grunker]

bitcomposer

uh-oh

Didn't you say these were the guys that made you go real-time last time?

I say we make a bet. If this game ends up being real-time, I shall wear a custom forum tag labeled 'Marsal Is My Divine Overlord' for six months. If it doesn't, you edit your signature to:

I always concede to all Grunker's points.

likewise for six months.

A neutral party - say VentilatorOfDoom - will be the arbiter of the game's final system (if there are doubts or if it gets an alternate mode or some shit like that).

Or are you too much of a pussy?

 

[HobGoblin42]

Be sure that you are talking about the Combat, because the exploration and world map travelling are actually real-time

 

[Marsal]

I say we make a bet.

I see your inferiority complex is showing again (rightfully so, if I might add). It isn't much of a bet, if one party doesn't stand to gain anything. I am your superior and I don't need a forum tag to tell me that. You're a witless sheeple, Grunker, and conceding to my points, is the only smart thing you did and would be wise to continue doing.

But, as I see you're desperate to prove yourself, I'll allow you to try to come up with a more enticing bet. However, every time you fail to offer me something I'd like to "win" in a bet, I'll add to my sig. Or you could just accept your witless state of existence and deal with it.

Be sure that you are talking about the Combat, because the exploration and world map travelling are actually real-time

Why don't you tell us what exactly happened with JA and how it went from TB to RT, after you asked the fans and got an answer you didn't honor? Did you lie from the beginning or did something change to cause the shift in direction?

What exactly is different this time in your relation to the publisher, why you lied about being self funded and why should we trust you this time?

Ignoring my posts may seem like a good idea, but it doesn't exactly make you look trustworthy or honest. I don't think you understand where you are. We are not here to provide you cheap publicity (except Grunker). If you continue to be vague and misleading, you needn't have come here at all.

 

[DraQ]

Grids are a convenience for the player who plays the game rather for the computer who does all the calculations. Why? Because having a visible grid makes it extremely easy to see exactly where all the game pieces are positioned in relation to each other. Screwing around with a 2d vector space (or 3d vector space for teh maximum clusterfuck) on the battlefield turns all of that much harder, essentially providing unneeded complexity that doesn't add shit to the overall gameplay experience. Will my ranger be able to shoot if I stand here? With a grid it's gonna be obvious. With vectors? Much less so. Why would you want a turn based tactical RPG, and then make planning out your moves much harder by the adding of the pointless meta-challenge associated with measuring by sight, or deal with all the clusterfucks ensuing from trying to remedy this by the use of unneededly convoluted graphical aides? What would be the purpose of vectors in the first place? What does it add other than "immershun" or some such shit?

Actually you can have all kinds of GUI measures rendering those extra difficulties nonexistant - For example highlighting available targets and drawing character's attack range "shadow" on the ground at the movement cursor, possibly with tooltips indicating percentage of turn that will spent getting there and, for example remaining of attacks or AP in this turn after reaching the destination.

In Wizardry 8, for example (yeah, I know, FPP, blahblah) I didn't have any trouble assessing what targets will I be able to hit with my cone or AoE spell, because the game kindly highlighted the targets for me while I was aiming my spells. Had it not done this, it would be a potential argument for going fake 3D tile-based but it would be wrong argument nevertheless.

OTOH finer representation of the worldspace adds to the gameplay - it allows for better use and monitoring stuff like line of sight or weapon ranges, it allows for subtle and non-grotesque implementation of stuff like throwing potions, bombs AoE arrows or grenades, without resorting to silly shit like character throwing 'nades in completely wrong direction, because granularity of tiles doesn't allow for meaningful differences of accuracy when trying to keep stuff reasonably real (I'm looking at you, Fallout) and it allows much more organic environments that are still traversable.

 

[Grunker]

I am too much of a pussy

I thought so

 

[HobGoblin42]

Why don't you tell us what exactly happened with JA and how it went from TB to RT, after you asked the fans and got an answer you didn't honor? Did you lie from the beginning or did something change to cause the shift in direction?

Ask somebody at bitcomposer, that's not our cup of tea. I already told you that we didn't decide anything of significance regarding JA:BIA. And we never had any kind of customer relationship - maybe you didn't notice it yet but we are a different company than bitcomposer.

What exactly is different this time in your relation to the publisher, why you lied about being self funded and why should we trust you this time?

Please read my previous posts, I already described the differences between both productions. And please go into details if you are talking about lies - you should carefully tell us what you exactly mean. And again, I already wrote Grunker about our funding.

Ignoring my posts may seem like a good idea, but it doesn't exactly make you look trustworthy or honest. I don't think you understand where you are. We are not here to provide you cheap publicity (except Grunker). If you continue to be vague and misleading, you needn't have come here at all.

I am not sure how YOU define "to ignore" but until now I answered to all your posts - but it could be a serious mistake to feed notorious trolls as you obviously are.

I understand your anger regarding JA:BIA but when you have to decide between bankruptcy or developing a tactical game with an existing franchise as work-for-hire job I would choose the second option. And so I did.

 

[Grunker]

Be sure that you are talking about the Combat, because the exploration and world map travelling are actually real-time

That much is a given.

EDIT: HobGoblin42: You should know that the mere fact you haven't gone into rage-mode because people like Marsal ask harsh (but IMO fair) questions gives you a good deal of bonus points in my book. The Codex can be some angry motherfuckers but there's usually a logic behind that, and I respect the fact that you stand up to the criticism and actually answer the questions.

Keep it up, deliver a good RPG experience, and this place will love you for it.

Fail us, and Marsal and his dogs of war shall mount your head to your wall

I sincerely hope you will deliver what the 'dex is hoping for, and the best of luck to you with your game. I look forward to seeing your reply to our interview questions.

 

[Grunker]

Oh, by the way:

world map travelling is real-time

Does this mean you have Storm of Zehir-style overland map world maps? Or what does it mean that World Map travelling is real time?

 

[HobGoblin42]

Does this mean you have Storm of Zehir-style overland map world maps? Or what does it mean that World Map travelling is real time?

Yes, it's similar to the NWN2 worldmap but our scale is different (perspective and scale are more like in Mount&Blade, a game that I personally enjoyed).

I did a screenshot for you, but please keep in mind that the worldmap in CC is still work in progress and there are still visual placeholders.

 

[hoverdog]

looks great

 

[Sitra Achara]

Very interesting.

Glad to hear it's going to be mod friendly. Does this include the ability to modify core rules, spell behavior etc?

What size is the team? How much do you need to sell in order to continue making games like this? Is this planned as a long-term affair (or at least, are you hoping for it to be so)?

Also, is the ToEE engine recreation guy somehow associated with you, perchance?

Lastly, as others have said, you say the right things, but a gameplay video would go a long way towards gaining trust. I'll gladly promote you if a favourable one is made available.