Codex Interview RPG Codex Interview: Legends of Eisenwald, Turn Based Strategy/RPG

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For all of you still not sure about pledging: bear in mind that exactly the same combat system was implemented in Sengoku Rance.

> needs a video showcasing combat
I'm not convinced yet, I would prefer for it to have time units. You simply don't just teleport yourself into Mordor. Consider adding a gameplay mode that does make use of time units, and if they run out when moving, then you can't attack. You can even make it a goal, "if we reach 55k$ we'll implement time units..."

> needs a video explaining the game world and lore
At this point it just looks like rts game number 349. There are no elves or dwarfs. But are there undead? werewolves? light magic (alchemy, herbalism)? What about factions? diplomacy? spies? dungeon exploration?

On the good side, the Homelands soundtrack is fucking awesome! The Winter is coming track, while sounding (to my ignorant ears) historically accurate to the time setting, it lacks that flavor that makes you want to listen to it again.

For now I've set it on the "remind me".


BTW, you can add an answer to the FAQ for "Your game looks like it's already completed. Why do you need our money?"
check the answer in http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/343838885/nekro?ref=history

It's funny we are writing the answer to this question in this very moment.

As for RTS game 349, check out Discord Times, that should give you an idea. There are undead, werewolves, and light magic. No dungeon exploration, no spies, some story based diplomacy...

It's good to have you answer those questions here, but consider that what I said above was also a recommendation as a way to gather more supporters to your cause. Posting a new video in the future will be the best approach to do that.
And keep in mind that not everyone will bother to check Discord Times.

kaizoku, we took your questions as help, thank you. We realize we need to provide more information about our game, and yes, not many would bother with Discord Times. Combat video is done, we will post an update today.

That is unfortunately very true. Which sparkles the idea: why not giving its Special Edition (with map editor and some digital goodies like art etc.) as a tier reward but EARLIER. Say June/July 2012 if you can pull it off. It would attract some people beyond the Kickstarter end (whether they like it or not would be less relevant, since you'd place the date of release AFTER Kickstarter end, and not everyone would try to download demo/torrent etc.). Regardless of anything, it would give you some additional gimmick to pull out of your pocket.
Judging from what was said, you plan to release an update early this week. That should be urgent, I believe, as pledges starts to shrink again.
Reaching for HoMM, Disciples, Age of Wonders, King's Bounty, Stronghold but possibly also communities like Mount & Blades and Total War (yes even those ones and they are huge) is as vital.

Keep up your great work!

EDIT::

Seen your post just now Aterdux Looking forward to the next update!

Not having too detailed movement rules is good because it lets you, and also forces you to flesh out the system in other ways. And positional maneuvering is something much harder for an AI to do also, compared to just picking between different abilities and targets, those are easier to formulate for them.

I'd much rather see a combat system with clear focus, than something involving slapping in a ton of features people tend to like, but the whole turns out to be just generic and uninspired.

Also if the focus of the game is more on the strategic map than on the individual battles, it's important that the combat system wouldn't be so easily exploitable as in, for example, JA2. Then the game can be challenging even without throwing you constantly into situations where you're outnumbered 1 to 10.

Zed was faster than me and now our combat video is on front page here Check it out... We reallly hope it clarifies a thing or two

All casting units will have several spells that they can use. The way you place your units on battle field also plays an important role. Who you attack is important too plus there will be some passive abilities of units... To summarize, we think it gives enough variety while maybe not as much as in new King's Bounty but more than in Disciples 2.

Wow (as Shadowrun guy would say)

Not sure what happened, but you guys got 7k+ today! Hope it will continue that way. I would love to see 100k mark passed. In which case, PLEASE consider really interesting SP story to overarch the whole game. I'd be dissapointed to see worldmap and enemy units there, so you can whack them just because they are there. Make some interesting SP campaign please!

To 100k mark and beyond World map with units would be extremely boring and no, we won't allow for it to happen. I want to play this game myself too We will post some updates soon about our campaign and scenarios, it's hard to imagine good RPG without a good story.

Alright, I broke down and pledged $25 for this. Still not sure about how much cRPGing there will be in this thing but Aterdux just keeps posting Bro statements that make me want to support them! Would like to hear more about the cRPG aspects and the world setting. It was also nice to see the alpha combat video. These guys have shown more actual game play than any other Kickstarter game project I've seen besides the FTL one... which is another really thing for them to show. I know they're a small outfit but I would definitely up my pledge significantly if a boxed version was made available!! I was sorely disappointed when The Banner Saga didn't offer one and kept my pledge to a minimum because of that. I freely admit I'm a sucker (greedy) and want the old fashioned physical goodies. Heck, I pledged $500 to Wasteland 2 not only to support a return to old-school cRPG gaming but I WANTED the swag!!

Either way I'm happy to support these guys (and one gal) and it looks like they will make their goal and this will be one of the earlier Kickstarter games we will be seeing.

mindx2, thank you for support and kind words We are just happy to share things about our game and at the same time we realize that we have to provide a lot more information. Making a combat video (and fixing a couple of bugs in the process) was a good step towards that. Now we are working on the next update already and we will tell more things about our game. Role playing aspect is very important for us - we can't imagine a game with a weak story, it's just not fun. And we are thinking about adding a few rewards, keep looking It's really great to have this wonderful communication with everyone at Kickstarter and this very friendly to us site! Thank you everyone!

Grunker, thank you for clarifying it. I think I had to be more precise because yes, just a story won't do it, especially if a scenario is kind of "corridor" like when you are forced to take one direction without another choice. Those few who tried Discord Times probably saw how we did it there, for all others we will talk more about it a bit later.

That must be something new to the Codex. Devs that lasted a week period on these board without saying anything to enrage even the most puritan Codexers . Hope you guys stick to these boards after Kickstarter campaign is over. Would be a decent for this forum, I think.

As for the cRPG part of your game - I would be perfectly satisfied if you can deliver good storyline to the campaign alone, based on what you've shown us. But some C&C and the variation of stats/interesting equipment upgrades (though PLEASE not up to the level of H&S games where you change your equipment every 30 seconds) will be happily welcomed.

Hmm, no one warned me of dangers being a dev on a forum , that's totally new experience. Maybe some other devs feel they are gurus and that's a tough position to be in. We like experiments and we are willing to learn, we adjusted already some of the things in our game based on feedback of others. And the discussion in this forum and on Kickstarter added a lot to our awareness about many things in our game, mostly about what things need more clarification.

Changing equipment every 30 seconds won't happen but depending on who you encounter it could be necessary to re-position your troops, change equipment. Things that work against rogues won't do as well against mounted knights. It'll be fun

This thread is a brofist orgy.

I very much agree with that.

The bad first. I watched the video and I am still not thrilled about the combat. If it had deeper turn based combat mechanics I would instantly pledge, but this combat looks not very interesting to me.

But apart from that there is a lot to like.

It is said that a kickstarter's success depends not only on the game, but mostly on its people.

In that respect, Aterdux (who is probably Alexander) is a PR genius. I really appreciate that he actually wrote:

RPGCodex really appreciates people who have not forgotten where they come from, and who make games not for profit but because they love games!
People who are open to suggestions, recognize better arguments while also defend their own without making the impression that they know it all.

I also like the direction in most areas (except combat). Finally a game where knights look like knights and not like cartoon figures.

Even if I do not pledge (there is still plenty of time - I am still watching), the other people who like this combat, absolutely have to! And with such a tiny budget (which is actually almost reached), the point of this thread probably need not be to make everyone pledge, but also to make friends and discuss gameplay elements, even if most of the mechanics of Eisenwald are already fixed.

There could also be a future after Eisenwald. If Aterdux can turn out a game of such quality for so little money, their next project (with deep mechanics a la X-COm / JA2 please) could become something even bigger and collect (much) more money.

I absolutely approve of this project, and think most of Codex will.

Let me clarify what I wanted to say here: objectively the combat in this game appears to be fine, but subjectively I still don't like it.

Unfortunately I am only interested in tactically very challenging games. But in Eisenwalds case I would still try it because there are many other aspects about this game which are very appealing to me, and perhaps it will grow on me too.

I didn't really like Disciples 2 combat all that much at first as it felt restricting, but compared to that this gives many more options(it may not seem like it without the ambling to and fro like in HOMM) from the get go. It seems to be rock/paper/scissors style, with buffs and curses along with modifiers based on character stats and proficiencies. I don't know what's not to like, unless you don't like Disciples/HOMM/KB style combat in the first place.

I read that the devs are going to make adjustable difficulty levels in this. I only hope that the default balance is tailored for a more hardcore experience like in Discord Times.

Thank you everyone for nice and thoughtful comments about the game and about me being good at PR. I wish the latter statement was true as I underestimated how important PR actually is and now I am working to catch up with it. We got good coverage in Germany and if we got the same in English speaking realm it would be totally awesome.

I find the discussion here very stimulating. Our whole team is of opinion that people who are playing cRPG are very smart people, including us of course Even not so favorable opinions here are really well argued and I have to say I didn't see such an amount of knowledge and awareness on topics of cRPG anywhere else. Maybe, that has natural reasons since this kind of games is only good for people who like to think. People who are playing FPS or casual games is entirely different crowd. That was not-so-hidden praise for you guys and this forum, by the way

About difficulty: we are considering to make difficulty levels difficult Meaning - a player won't have just one button difficulty level, each parameter like battle complexity, experience gain, income etc. could be adjusted separately. In that case if everything set to maximum would be even more hardcore than in Discord Times. But that is still under discussion.

As brofisting again became a topic, I would like to say that I will keep brofisting you guys for several reasons: 1) if you say something good about our game; 2) if you say something bad about our game but with good reasoning and explanation; 3) if you say something smart about anything at all