KickStarter Spy DNA - realistic tactical combat with genetically enhanced agents

[udm]

This video definitely gives a better idea of what to expect from the game

It looks intriguing, though it still feels like RTwP (albeit a not-so-chaotic version). Will keep an eye on future developments.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

For reference, Codex do have RTwP fans.

We also have users that are looking for page 2 of subforums that don't have a page 2.

 

[laclongquan]

That is true.

Also there're a lot of people who believe that playing Bloodlines for the 1st time should be any clan other than Malkavian~

 

[shysnake]

Would love to see the other takes

Sadly I didn't save the other videos. What happened:

First failure. I had the rifleman sprint for the farther cover. The enemy cut him down before making it.

Second failure. I timed the attack wrong and let the rifleman fire before the sniper was setup. He could not engage the targets fast enough and was overwhelmed.

Which reminds me I meant to respond to:

So turn-based with asynchronous turns? Cool.

Faster actions making your next turn come up faster makes sense, I suppose, but it could lead to anything other than aiming/firing being disincentivized. Firing a gun in a turn-based game typically has an 'unrealistically' high action point cost (compared to say movement), presumably to avoid that.

That is largely what happened in the 1st case. However, they way we are going to deal with this is different than most games. The game will implement attack penalties against moving targets. The penalty will depend on how fast you are moving relative to the attackers field of view. So running directly towards a shooter will help very little, running across his field of view (high rate of angular change) will help the most. Sitting still when there is someone with an accurate weapon on the battlefield is not a good plan.

 

[Zombra]

Sadly I didn't save the other videos.

Save the failures next time! The one you showed was cool, but went off very smoothly ... seeing the challenges of the system would be really cool as well. It was almost hard to learn from this one, you made it look too easy.

 

[animlboogy]

The concept reminds me of this. Kind of decent for a D-tier Dreamcast game.

 

[Infinitron]

Um. This thing is on Kickstarter now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/433035186/spy-dna-super-spy-for-a-day

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Mid-summer just before Steam sales?
Hard to imagine worse timing.

 

[Infinitron]

shysnake Your goal is too high and you have no hype, you should probably just cancel now.

 

[Ash]

It looks pretty good. Best of luck with the kickstarter.

shysnake Your goal is too high and you have no hype, just cancel now.

Or get pulling strings/calling in favors real quick.

 

[Jrpgfan]

Shows promise. I'm gonna pledge but isn't 150k a little bit high of a goal?

Anyway... good luck.

 

[Zombra]

Yikes. Good luck.

 

[animlboogy]

$150k? 5-10k would be realistic.

Best of luck either way. The game looks decent.

 

[Athelas]

It's a 60-day campaign, but yeah, I don't see this getting funded, unfortunately.

Have you considered...Fig?

 

[shysnake]

Shows promise. I'm gonna pledge but isn't 150k a little bit high of a goal?

Anyway... good luck.

Thanks,
The $ is based off the numbers from various asset sources. We didn't make up the numbers but rather talked with various people that would be making the assets for us and got quotes. Turns out making games isn't cheap and we want to be very up front and realistic with anyone considering backing us. Setting a lower number that doesn't cover finishing the project, would, IMO, not be honest. Delivering a half finished product because we set the number to be a Kickstarter success rather than a successful game by isn't something we want to do.

As to Hype: I'm terrible at marketing and would rather under promise and over deliver. We set the campaign to 60 days so potential backers can get to know us before making a decision.

 

[Viata]

I wonder if this is the right time to launch it. Most people are going to spend their money on steam sales.

 

[Jrpgfan]

Yes, 7.62 can be very overwhelming sometimes, it's a very hardcore kind of game.

Marauder, on the other hand, shows just how much potential that system has. It removes a lot of elements and reduces you to 1 character for most of the game, but then throws you against ridiculous odds:

In a Turn-based game you would certainly die, standing still while 20 enemies took their turn, and in real-time it would be too fast & devoid of tactics. But this "per time" system makes that every single second counts. You kill a guy, see that the other will take a few seconds to reach you, so you might have enough time to load two more bullets and prepare the weapon again... oh, and you & everyone die in 1-2 shots.

Seriously, defending your home alone from 20 raiders with this system is one of the most intense gaming experiences I had.

Have you ever played the hard life mod for the 7.62 HC?

I bought the game recently on steam and have been playing it with the blue sun mod. I'm enjoying it a lot but I feel the quest encounters are badly designed. For example, the miguel quest where you have to escort him to the prison. You get ambushed, kill the guy asking for you to hand miguel, then if you go straight to the prison, you can't turn him in, you have to kill all the ambushers in order to finish the quest. It's the same for many quests in the game. I was wondering if the hard life mod improves the quest structures or atleast adds some new well designed quests.

 

[felipepepe]

Eh, I was hyped for Hard Life mod's English translation, but when it was finally released I was disappointed...

It's more of a ultra-hardcore "I've played 7.62 for 1.000 hours and want more" mod than the small improvement Blue Sun mod is. And the prologue absolutely sucks, you're thrown into large conflicts with incredibly weak weapons, and will spend the first hours with crappy weapons doing zero damage, sneaking around and counting every single bullet.

Later on it opens up and has a bunch of new quests and areas that make it fun, but getting there is an endurance test...

 

[Jrpgfan]

I'll pass then, I guess.

Maybe I'll try it after I finish this playthrough with bsm. I'm really enjoying the game, I think the combat mechanics are fantastic and good enough to keep me engaged. My only gripe really is with the quest design, but I can live with that.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

The quest design is an excuse to have fights, that's all. I liked Hard life actually, whatever its faults, its writing is more tolerable than BSMs. Not better exactly, just more tolerable.

 

[Jrpgfan]

I wouldn't say the quest design per se but the encounters. In that prison quest I mentioned, after you kill the guy asking you to hand miguel over, you can run straight to the prison. They could have atleast put some opposition on the way instead of making you go all the way to the prison just to realize you can't turn miguel in and have to head into the woods to kill the ambushers who are there waiting patiently instead of trying to, uh, ambush you.

And iirc, the previous quest on miguel's questline was similar(the one you have to take him to paco in the police station). I thought they would ambush me on my way to the police station, then I get safely to the police station and I think "well, I guess they're gonna attack the police station", so I position my mercs to defend the front door, and I wait forever and nothing happens, so I have to go after the ambushers who were supposed to be ambushing me.

As I said, the combat is really fun and has a lot of depth to it, but they could have really put some more thought into encounter design.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/433035186/spy-dna-super-spy-for-a-day/posts/1612108

 

[vonAchdorf]

I doesn't look bad, but I think 150k are very ambitious.

Are there statistics about the different campaign durations (like games funded in 60 days which wouldn't have been in a 30 day campaign)?

 

[ushas]

Sounds interesting, thanks for info. Will keep an eye on.

Btw. looks like Spy DNA and Copper dreams combat systems might end up in similar subcategory. As Sly snakes named it Concurrent Turn-Based, I dunno about nuances, but perhaps it wasn't too far off to talk about this type as Simultaneous TB.

Although, isn't Spy DNA more akin to those other squad-based tactical RTwP games with auto/smart pause? There are many ways of RTwP.

For example, 7,62 High Calibre was already mentioned - and you know, I'm probably not knowledgeable enough, but this one sounds to me similar to Apeiron's Smart Pause Mode (SPM) too. I think they actually present it as some sort of mix between RT and TB: As felipepepe said, actions take time to complete. There is an autopause and at will pause for issuing orders or a whole sequence of orders. However, by the game's own rules some actions are interruptible in mid action by unit/player (as classically in RTwP, eg. walking) and some once started are not interruptible (eg. shooting, reloading)...

From Spy DNA description I got the feeling that we would be able pause [any time?] and cancel and change ongoing actions (or was it in between actions or just some type of actions?). So perhaps it would be more useful to talk about comparison to SPM combat, or any others alike, than to traditional TB games...

 

[Zombra]

Interview chock full of gameplay info.

http://www.oneangrygamer.net/2016/07/spy-dna-interview-super-spies-in-an-rpg-sandbox/6429/

It's been said before, but it's really too bad there is no PR for this.