Runemaster, Norse-themed randomized sandbox tactical RPG from Paradox - CANCELLED

[XenomorphII]

I am very upset about comments from mainstream gaming news sites

That gem of wisdom came from the Pdox forums.

 

[pakoito]

People who are 'fed up' with the Nordic setting... what settings haven't been done to death? Steampunk? Cowboy RPGs?

Shitty forum won't scale images

Spoiler

 

[LESS T_T]

More detailed preview at IncGamers: http://www.incgamers.com/2014/01/runemaster-report-paradox-con

We didn’t get to see Runemaster’s tactical combat but we were told that “It will be on a hex grid with forces opposing each other. Terrain will matter, and objects can be used to block areas. Units on the grid can be singular or many, the hero or a giant might take up a space but a squad of dwarfs might fit 6 or 8 in a single space. Troop types will be varied and the army composition is a tactical choice by the player. Based on your hero’s class the supporting army should be different.”

Linda told us that “Runemaster will feature an emergent story system, a quest system that shapes future experiences. If you choose greedy types of things in quests, you will get more greedy options in future quests.”

Exploration is a major feature. On the world map there are treasure chests, runestones, sunken ships, troll caves and so on. There are four starting worlds but humans can only start in Midgard, a Nordic setting with pine trees and snow-topped mountains. Two more worlds are unlocked later through gameplay. Each world has a unique appearance and atmosphere. After exploring Midgard we were shown a portal to another world, protected by a large two headed giant. The portal took us to Svartalfheim which is the home of the Dark Elves and Dwarves, changing the green and white with the greys and blues or being underground.

We saw an example of an item, it had a prefix and suffix and was green in color with a name like “Fine Belt of Shock.” Olof mentioned that there would be legendaries based off the Norse mythology. It felt very familiar to games such as Diablo and implied that we would see the standard rarity colour codes. You can obtain items as drops from combat, looting chests in the open world or through quests. Items sounded like they would be pretty infrequent to obtain and that they might restrict equipping by race or class, or leaving it open as the stats on the items themselves would determine usability.

We saw the character screen briefly with a standard set of RPG stats, the hero would level up and equip items and have a skill tree. Linda mentioned that squads would behave similar to XCOM squad members when they level up, which sounds like it would be a single choice at a tier. They would also have a slot for a banner which modifies their stats.

When asked about the replayability of Runemaster Linda responded “The main quest line divides into two pieces between Thor and Loki.” Olof talked about how the “Worlds will be randomised with every new game” and that “There will be seeds so that you could create a specific world.”

Addressing mods it was said that almost everything is moddable; the number of worlds, races, how the worlds are generated, textures could be changed and quests modded. Model changing is something that couldn’t be supported easily, however.

Runemaster is focusing on single player at the moment but when asked about the option for multiplayer Olof replied “The tactical turn based combat would suit that quite well with the addition of a time limit for turns,” but the map outside of combat would need to continue to run.

Paradox are big fans of RPGs Linda highlighted Baldur’s Gate and King’s Bounty, and they are excited to create one. Olof compares between modern RPGs and the older ones. “Modern RPGs many take the cinematic part and you don’t get the same complexity for the obvious reasons as the production is focused on getting the cinematic experience, we want to make a great story.”

When asked about other platforms the game could be seen on, Linda replied that they are “Aiming to have it playable on Steam Box / Big Picture” and that they’ve “Tried to play it on an Xbox controller and it worked really well.” She also thought that the graphics system would be “Too demanding for a tablet”.

Yep, more like hyper-procedurally-generated King's Bounty.

 

[Bubbles]

Depressing news about the lack of a tablet port. Guess we'll have to wait until Vicky 3 for the first Paradox iPad game.

 

[Excidium]

More detailed preview at IncGamers: http://www.incgamers.com/2014/01/runemaster-report-paradox-con

We didn’t get to see Runemaster’s tactical combat but we were told that “It will be on a hex grid with forces opposing each other. Terrain will matter, and objects can be used to block areas. Units on the grid can be singular or many, the hero or a giant might take up a space but a squad of dwarfs might fit 6 or 8 in a single space. Troop types will be varied and the army composition is a tactical choice by the player. Based on your hero’s class the supporting army should be different.”

Linda told us that “Runemaster will feature an emergent story system, a quest system that shapes future experiences. If you choose greedy types of things in quests, you will get more greedy options in future quests.”

Exploration is a major feature. On the world map there are treasure chests, runestones, sunken ships, troll caves and so on. There are four starting worlds but humans can only start in Midgard, a Nordic setting with pine trees and snow-topped mountains. Two more worlds are unlocked later through gameplay. Each world has a unique appearance and atmosphere. After exploring Midgard we were shown a portal to another world, protected by a large two headed giant. The portal took us to Svartalfheim which is the home of the Dark Elves and Dwarves, changing the green and white with the greys and blues or being underground.

We saw an example of an item, it had a prefix and suffix and was green in color with a name like “Fine Belt of Shock.” Olof mentioned that there would be legendaries based off the Norse mythology. It felt very familiar to games such as Diablo and implied that we would see the standard rarity colour codes. You can obtain items as drops from combat, looting chests in the open world or through quests. Items sounded like they would be pretty infrequent to obtain and that they might restrict equipping by race or class, or leaving it open as the stats on the items themselves would determine usability.

We saw the character screen briefly with a standard set of RPG stats, the hero would level up and equip items and have a skill tree. Linda mentioned that squads would behave similar to XCOM squad members when they level up, which sounds like it would be a single choice at a tier. They would also have a slot for a banner which modifies their stats.

When asked about the replayability of Runemaster Linda responded “The main quest line divides into two pieces between Thor and Loki.” Olof talked about how the “Worlds will be randomised with every new game” and that “There will be seeds so that you could create a specific world.”

Addressing mods it was said that almost everything is moddable; the number of worlds, races, how the worlds are generated, textures could be changed and quests modded. Model changing is something that couldn’t be supported easily, however.

Runemaster is focusing on single player at the moment but when asked about the option for multiplayer Olof replied “The tactical turn based combat would suit that quite well with the addition of a time limit for turns,” but the map outside of combat would need to continue to run.

Paradox are big fans of RPGs Linda highlighted Baldur’s Gate and King’s Bounty, and they are excited to create one. Olof compares between modern RPGs and the older ones. “Modern RPGs many take the cinematic part and you don’t get the same complexity for the obvious reasons as the production is focused on getting the cinematic experience, we want to make a great story.”

When asked about other platforms the game could be seen on, Linda replied that they are “Aiming to have it playable on Steam Box / Big Picture” and that they’ve “Tried to play it on an Xbox controller and it worked really well.” She also thought that the graphics system would be “Too demanding for a tablet”.

Yep, more like hyper-procedurally-generated King's Bounty.

I knew it. Feel free to move thread and forget about it

 

[hakuroshi]

Reminds me of scenario for Civ2 Test of Time somewhat.

 

[ColCol]

Not surprised. The only thing that would get me excited for this game now is if it really does turn out to be "crusader kings as an RPG''. But, that honestly sounded like a false claim from the beginning.

 

[BrickManslab]

Ehh, I think I like the idea, but to me the fun of a procedurally generated game is when it's used to create a "living" world where stuff goes on whether I'm around or not, and it seems like in this case it's more a Diablo thing and stuff is just gonna be knit together and sprinkled around.

Who knows maybe it'll turn out to be a norse-themed Inindo though

 

[ZoddGuts]

AngryJoe just did an interview with the director of this game. You also see gameplay in the background at 5:52 min mark.

 

[Xeon]

- Runemaster - Development Diary 1 - Our Vision
- Reddit post of a previous version of the diary

The way you act will determine not only what type of person you are, but what personal traits you develop and, consequently, what quests are open to you in the future.

Does traits mean similar to Pride, Wrath, Lust, etc.. of CKII?

Edit:
Didn't find any answer from the Devs but I really hope its similar to CK2's traits if they plan on adding the traits and personality system.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.gamereactor.eu/articles/109024/Runemaster:+"A+proper+take+on+Norse+mythology"/

Runemaster: "A proper take on Norse mythology"

Paradox Development Studio is pretty much synonomous with the grand-strategy genre. Sure others dabble in it, but with Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron, Crusader Kings and Victoria - this is a rather significant niche these days that Paradox commands. But there has always been that itch to stretch outside of the comfort zone and do something different. They've tried in the past, but perhaps the less said of Valhalla Chronicles (2003) the better.

"When I grew up back in the old days, hundreds of years ago, I wanted to make three different computer games," says studio manager Johan Andersson. "I wanted to make a football manager game. I wanted to make an awesome strategy game played on maps, which I may have succeeded with a few times I guess. And I also wanted to make a cool RPG. And I wanted an RPG that you could replay, and replay and replay."

The team is staying away from calling the sides of the conflict good and evil - opting for the more ambigious conservative and radical.

"There are three races that are conservative and three races that are radicial," says Andersson. "And notice that we're not saying good or evil. But there are the three races that are humans, dwarves and light elves. They want to keep the current order and they want to stop Ragnarok from happening. Then you have three other races - trolls, giants and dark elves. And they want to see change. They want to remove the current Gods and usher in Ragnarok and make a fresh plate for everyone with them in more power."

It's your choice to side with either Thor and try to imprison Loki once more, or side with Loki and take on Thor. You will play as one of three classes - Skald ("a bit like a healer archetype, but with buffing as well"), Berserker ("name implies a warrior heritage") and Runemaster ("mage").


Replayability being a key focus ties in with the emergent storytelling and the quests that string you along the story will be custom to your adventure.

"Every playthough is different, because while you have the main story arch quest that arrive, all quests in between that lead back and forth are slightly procedurally generated or drawing from a huge database of what fits according to how you are playing. So we really want it to feel like different stories each time you play."

Norse mythology is something that a lot of games have approached, and in some cases severly mangled, but predictably Paradox are taking a serious approach to the subject matter.

"We really want to make a game that has a proper take on mythology," explains Johan Andersson. "Of course, it's not really history... well, actually that depends on your point of view. For some people this actually is the true history of the world. But we view it as our cultural heritage and there hasn't really been any Norse mythology games made that haven't been slightly... offensive in some ways."

Combat is something Paradox Development Studio are keeping secret for now. It will be turn-based with hexagons to traverse, but the exact nature remains a mystery. There is a lot of interest in role playing games in the team and development started as early as spring 2011 on the game.


It's a different Paradox Development Studio not only by name these days, the success of Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV, has not only meant massive growth of the team, but also confidence. You might be surprised to learn this new game is making use of the same engine asCrusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV - the internally developed Clausewitz Engine ("one of the best engines in the world, we have really, really good programmers here"). It looks pretty in a topdown, old school sort of way.

The office space of Paradox Development Studio is extremely crowded nowadays, as they sit in one of the handful of tall buildings that tower over downtown Stockholm (formerly the building housed the Swedish tax authority), in addition to maps the walls are now also adorned with printouts of fantasy creatures that will appear in Runemaster. It's set for release next winter.

 

[Onyxme]

"We really want to make a game that has a proper take on mythology," explains Johan Andersson. "Of course, it's not really history... well, actually that depends on your point of view. For some people this actually is the true history of the world. But we view it as our cultural heritage and there hasn't really been any Norse mythology games made that haven't been slightly... offensive in some ways."

I couldn't agree anymore, this might be the first game that actually respects Norse mythology.

 

[Spectacle]

Why create an RPG?

We at PDS don´t just love strategy games passionate. We also deeply love playing RPG’s. (We had great fun with our World of Warcraft guild for several years, and whenever there is a new Bioware or Bethesda RPG out, there is quite a lot of lunch conversation about them.) Our team is so excited about putting their vast experience of making games into making their dream come true!

Oh dear...

 

[Dokkalfar]

This game better call my people by their rightful name, no "Dark elves" you racists.

 

[m_s0]

this might be the first game that actually respects Norse mythology.

Why create an RPG?

We at PDS don´t just love strategy games passionate. We also deeply love playing RPG’s. (We had great fun with our World of Warcraft guild for several years, and whenever there is a new Bioware or Bethesda RPG out, there is quite a lot of lunch conversation about them.) Our team is so excited about putting their vast experience of making games into making their dream come true!

Oh dear...

Looking forward to the game being both respectful towards Norse mythology and heavily inspired by all of those Bioware classics we love so much.

 

[LESS T_T]

Dev diary on story and quests:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?758161-Runemaster-Development-Diary-3-Main-Story

[...]

The Start

Each race has its own place in the six worlds of Runemaster. If you are a Human or a Troll, you will start in Midgard. Lightelfs have their home in Alfheim, while Dwarfs and Giants dwell in Jotunheim and Darkelfs reside in Svartalfheim. No matter which race you begin as, you’ll work your way through the game to learn about yourself, the worlds and the threat that lurks at the horizon. Your choice is quite simple, and depending on which race you choose to start as, you will try to free Loki, unleash Ragnarök, see the old world drown and a new world dawn or fight Loki, prevent Ragnarök from happen and be the Hero who saves the world. You will perhaps change your mind, and as a Troll try to gain favor with Thor and prevent Ragnarök. That’s up to you. What will you do?

Side Quests vs Main Quests

There are no sidequests in Runemaster, every quest counts toward the goal at the end and even if you might not know it or realise it, the game mechanics will make sure that no quest is made in vain. Each quest is stored in a database and your choices and actions will trigger different ones. Some are more exclusive ones, perhaps designed based on your class or race, others will change marginally and offer up new options or path through depending on your traits or quests you have completed before. One example is the dragon Fafnir, who once was a Dwarf whose greed turned him into a black dragon. Multiple quests will bring you to him, but you will only see one per playthrough.

The main quest has a quite simple goal: Either defeat Loki, prevent Ragnarök or free Loki and unleash Ragnarök. Each quest you do in Runemaster will bring you one step closer to the end. How you travel through it is up to you. Though the main questline will have anchor points, certain quests that are important for the storyline, they will differ depending on your choices. Are you a Dwarf, friendly with the Giants but hated by your own kind? Then the game will take notice, and make sure your quests will reflect that.

We are working hard at weaving each quest into each other dynamically, and it will be a great challenge for us but a challenge we welcome and look forward to. Our team is growing and many talented people will work hard at making Runemaster compelling, immersive and fun.

The End

There’s always a goal with a story, an end that will bind together all the threads the writer threw out during the storytelling. Sometimes that end has a morality lesson, sometimes it is a great joke, and sometimes it is just an end to put an end to the story. Runemaster’s goal is quite simple, to entertain, to educate, and to be a great game. Our goal is to make a game with great replayability, where the story matters, where each quest matters, and depending on your choices and your path, it will split up into different outcomes. You already know what will happen at the end of Runemaster, but you do not know how to get there, not until you have played through the game.

 

[anus_pounder]

Hmm...don't feel like fapping yet, but could be good.

 

[LESS T_T]

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...ity-Traits&s=dee96860e3376090aafa37c1b507c08d

Runemaster - Development Diary 4 - Personality Traits

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the 4th developer diary for Runemaster. Today we will delve deep in the trait system, since you can’t have a role-playing game without traits and attributes. RPGs can take a number of different approaches to defining what kind of person the main character is. In some games, there is little choice in how your character acts, in others you can be either good or bad, and in some you have to decide on personality yourself and then make sure you act it out because the game light let you switch at any given moment. In Runemaster, however, we want the personality of your character to be formed by the decisions you make throughout the game.

Your choices have a direct impact on your quests
Runemaster is an RPG with an element of emergent storytelling, so our goal is to have the choices you make directly impact the quests you can embark on. The game’s procedural quest system will take note of your deeds and challenge you accordingly. The way you act determines not only what type of person you are, but also what personality traits you develop and what quests you get in future. (Would you hire a bloodthirsty murderer to save a wagonload of orphans?) One of the cornerstones of every Paradox Development Studio game is replayability, and the personality traits combined with the quest system will play a huge part in making every playthrough different.

You gain traits by your choices
Are you always giving others the version of the truth that is most beneficial to you or are you telling them what really happened? Are you helping people for nothing beyond their gratitude, or does your assistance always come with a price tag? Do you walk bravely headstrong into any challenge, or do you make sure that the odds are heavily in your favor before attempting something dangerous?

In Runemaster, we track your choices and map them onto a scale of different attributes, where each attribute has a personality trait at its extremes. This is an idea we’ve borrowed from Crusader Kings II, where characters can gain a multitude of different traits, each of which can dramatically change the entire game experience.

In Runemaster we’ve cut the number of traits to eight and those eight traits are based on four different attributes. Each time you decide to lie, act bravely or spend all your savings on a big feast for the whole village, we add or subtract a value from the corresponding attribute. When an attribute’s score gets really high or really low, your character gets assigned a trait.

Getting an attribute back to a normal range will remove the trait and your character might very well start off as an honest do-gooder and end up as a lying sell-sword after becoming disillusioned with the world. Changing from one trait to its opposite will take time though and could be compared to changing sliders in Europa Universalis III; it is a gradual process that might not pay off for you for quite a while.

The attributes and traits:
Trustworthiness - Deceitful and Honest
Resourcefulness - Thrifty and Wasteful
Persuasiveness - Manipulative and Charming
Heroicness - Craven and Brave

Why limited to eight traits?
Traits will greatly influence the quests you get, the solutions available to you, and the type of options you get in dialogs with other characters in the world. We felt that too many traits would lessen the importance of each trait and that it would be better to have fewer distinct traits so we can work into making each of them affect the way you get to play the game. A thrifty and deceitful character will do anything the reach a goal and sometimes the goal justifies the means, so we have built the quest system to make these traits stand out more starkly than they otherwise would in a more crowded system.

Traits are viewed differently by different races
Since they are distinct cultures with distinct values, the different races in Runemaster view traits differently. As a human most people will respect you for being brave and honest, but Dark Elf society is different as being deceitful isn’t necessarily something bad. Putting your friends and family in jeopardy by telling the truth when you shouldn’t have is instead something that quickly could make you an outcast in many societies, where in others honesty is always the best policy.

The trait system also makes it possible for you to shape the story you’re about to play. Perhaps your first game is as a craven Dwarf who spends all her coin on getting a host of Darkelves and Trolls to follow her, and then lies her way back into a Dwarf keep only to sack and plunder it. Maybe you’re playing as a thrifty and charming Troll Berserker who aims to make the current world a better place instead of gambling on the next?

Every quests you undertake, challenge you face and choice you make will affect how your hero is perceived, what traits you will gain and what further adventures you will encounter. We at Paradox Development Studio have always believed in games that allow you to set your own goals and decide which tools you will use to reach them. All of you out there who have played our strategy games, especially Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV, know that we want you create your own story, and recognize that there are always choices and everything you do has consequences. With our tactical RPG Runemaster, we want every single playthrough to be a new saga where you as a player have the freedom to choose your path.

So, now you have some insight in the trait system! We´ll be back to tell you more about Runemaster next week

And there is a brief overview on combat attributes.

I'm curious to see how this turns out...

 

[Xeon]

I hope if I am promised a reward for doing something and then after doing it I ask for my reward I don't get a slider change to Thrifty or greedy or whatever. Other than that it sounds pretty good. Kinda wish if there were more traits but yea it will be great to see how this all works first.

 

[suejak]

Paradox hasn't developed a truly shit game yet, so I think it'll be pretty good if you like depth and complexity.

 

[Infinitron]

Paradox’s Runemaster Gets Video, Won’t Have Sidequests
By Nathan Grayson on May 1st, 2014 at 11:00 am.

Going on descriptions alone (because frankly, that’s about all we have to go on), Runemaster is one of the more intriguing games on the horizon. Paradox is billing it as a “dream” project, fusing vast Norse fantasy lands with grand strategy development savvy. Despite being a single-player RPG to the core, Runemaster’s reins are in the hands of Paradox Development Studio, aka they wot do Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings, among many others. Paradox revealed its existence – and little else – during Paradox Con earlier this year. And now? Oh, you had best prepare yourself, as you’re about to see… a very small smidgen sliver more.



The above retrospective video isn’t strictly about Runemaster, so if you’d rather skip past the bits where a studio dedicated to history waxes historian-with-a-minor-in-poetry about its own past, jump to around 4:40. There, you’ll find a few morsels of new Runemaster footage with a) actual characters and b) glowy building things (!!!).

Interestingly, Paradox claims the semi-procedurally generated saga will have no sidequests. That’s not to say that it’ll be hyper-linear, however. Far from it. Apparently everything – no matter how seemingly unrelated or tangential – will tie together and impact the main story. However, Paradox somewhat paradoxically also wants grand-strategy-level emergent storytelling to carry you through the whole thing. How’s that for ambition?

But then, this is the studio that’s made some of the most intricately complex (yet, once you weave your fingers between their gears, playable) games out there. These people know how to package up massive scale and deliver it in a working – if not exactly svelte – form factor. I’m pretty interested to find out exactly what that means for Runemaster. I don’t know enough about it to feel optimistic yet, but I’m certainly hopeful.

 

[LESS T_T]

Runemaster - Developer diary 14 - Armies and Banners

Hi everyone!

We know many of you have been waiting for more information about the combat system in Runemaster and this week we'll share some of that information with you.

To start off, let's talk about how armies are structured.

As you already know, combat in Runemaster is turn based tactical combat. You move your character freely in the world until a combat is initiated, for example from a guard blocking your path. You're then taken to a hex based battlefield where your individual units each occupy a single hex. Hexes can have different height and terrain and your units benefit from having high ground when fighting the enemy. Your hero takes active part in the combat fighting side by side with your other units (and in some cases alone).

Old news.

Now onto something new!

SQUADS
The units in an army are divided into squads and squads are used, among other things, to decide what units can be activated at any given time. If two armies fighting each other have the same number of squads, the armies will take turns activating one squad at a time (in an order decided when the battle starts). Should one army have more squads than the other, those extra squads will activate at the end of an activation cycle. When a squad is activated, its units can be act in any order. It's also possible to start moving one unit, then switching to a squad mate, move that unit and then continue with the first unit. This allows for more flexibility and cooperation between units from the same squad and also opens up for more complex maneuvers. Units from the same squad will also set up next to each other at the start of a combat.

BANNERS
Banner items are a certain category of items that can be equipped by a squad. Banner items give similar benefits that items used by the player character gives, but to all units of that squad. To maximize the effects of a banner you might need to restructure your army.

Some units have abilities that benefit all members of a squad which further impacts what units to place in the same squad. Non-player armies are free to organize their squads in whatever fashion they (usually a scripter or an AI) choose but the player has some restrictions:

• A maximum of five squads.
• No more than three ordinary units in a squad
• Either the main character or a banner item

This means that the largest army a player can field will be 16 units strong.

The main character is not considered a standard unit and can attach itself to any squad prior to the battle, extending the maximum size of that squad to four. Not only will this make that squad 33% larger than the others, but each class also have one or more abilities that will boost all members of the own squad. Not having the main character in a squad allows that squad to equip a banner which can be better at enhancing stats used by certain units or make up for weaknesses of certain units.

The screenshot for today shows your army management screen where banners are equipped and units placed in squads. The formations shown are the formations that units will be placed in when entering the battlefield. Remember that this is still pre alpha and all numbers graphics are subject to change.

About the obvious console buttons:

We are aiming to have Runemaster playable on Steam Box/Big Picture and are testing gamepads. I am more of a PC-player than a console one, though I have a PS3, but I like the feel Runemaster has when I play it with a gamepad.

 

[Abu Antar]

To be fair, a lot of turn-based games could work with a gamepad even if I play them with kb&m.

 

[sser]

"Basic Combat" dev diary.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...-Development-Diary-16-Basic-Combat&p=17490927

Hi everyone!

So will you choose to seek out change for those that crave it or will you aim to keep status quo - for good or bad? For this developer diary for for our upcoming RPG Runemaster, you don't have to choose. Because no matter what side you choose, you will have to fight. In order to win battles, you will have to recruit and customize your units and direct them in combat to make your army an invincible force.

As you probably know by now, in battles your hero will be moved from the world map and into a battlefield when you encounter enemies. The battles of Runemaster will be turn-based, tactical battles based on a hex grid system made up of different terrains and contains height differences such as hills where your troops gain bonuses for high ground. Your hero will join the army and take active part in combat as a unit on the battlefield and the battles you fight will be tied to quests and their outcome will matter to your story. In this developer diary, I'll explain some of the basics of the combat system. Remember that we're still in an Alpha stage of the game and much of what you learn here can still change until release.

Move and action
Units move first and can then perform an action. Performing an action will end the activation for the unit. Attacks and abilities are considered actions. As a result you cannot engage in combat and then move away from the enemy.

Line of Sight
Attacks and many abilities requires line of sight to the target. Friendly units do not block line of sight, but hostile units do. This means that your spear throwers can stay back and fire at the enemy while being protected by your melee units, but they cannot fire at the enemy's spear throwers hiding behind their melee units. Most battlefields also have hexes that are blocked from movement and line of sight, such as large rocks, tents or larger structures like towers. Some abilities such as the Runemaster's Blocking Rune, can add temporary blockers to the battlefield to create choke points or to shield armies from line of sight from certain positions.

Zone of Control
Units consider all adjacent hexes as their zone of control. If a unit enters the zone of control of a hostile unit, their move will automatically end regardless of how many movement points they still have left. It's still possible to move through another unit’s zone of control, but only one hex each turn. This makes it easier to protect second line units from melee attacks by spreading out a couple of front line units. Some abilities such as the human cavalry unit's charge can ignore the zone of control and penetrate deeper behind the enemy's lines.

Armor and Health
The basic stat for a unit's survival is health. When health goes to zero or below the unit is removed from the battlefield. Many units also have armor. All attacks deal both health damage and piercing damage. Health damage damages health and piercing damage damages armor. A unit that has armor will not take any health damage until all armor has been removed. The attack that removes the last armor will deal 50% health damage as well. Some units are specialized in dealing either health or piercing damage making it important to combine different unit types to maximize performance of your army.

Terror and Discipline
Apart from dealing damage, most attacks also deal terror. Terror accumulates in a unit and each time new terror is added, the total terror + a die roll is tested against the unit's discipline to see if the unit panics. Panicking units will use one turn to move away from the closest enemy and the next turn to rally at the new position. Units recover some of their accumulated terror each turn. Armored units do not take any terror until they actually take health damage from attacks, but some abilities deal terror only damage and ignore the armor of the defending unit.

High Ground
Using height differences is one important tactical feature in Runemaster. Attacking a unit at a higher height gives the defending unit a defensive bonus, reducing all damage by 25% (this number has not been balanced yet) making it stupid to try to trade punches with a unit that has high ground. Attacking a unit at a lower height will give the attacking unit a terror bonus making it more probably that the defending units panic and flee.

That's it for this weeks developer diary, hope you liked it. I'll be back in a later Dev diary to explain the more advanced combat features and the details that make units from different races act differently!

 

[Hobo Elf]

Wow it's another Civ5 lookalike.