KickStarter Vigilantes: neo-noir, turn based tactical RPG

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Is "Solar Plexus Strike" supposed to provide passive change to cause "Winded" ailment? Saw that happen couple of times when playing first 2 levels.

Yep, winded is -1 ap. Useful if your enemies are unarmed and have 6ap.

Do "Concussive Blow" and "Deep Cut" also have passive change to cause status effects associated to those or does "Solar Plexus Strike" work differently from those 2?
edit.
In my new game Sam can do "Solar Plexus Strike" from the start, but doesn't know how to do "Concussive Blow".
1st found ally (Slav soldier" can't seem to do any of those special close combat attacks.
I presume that those perks are activated when certain proficiency on close combat skill is reached.

Concussive blow is linked to blunt weapons, and give enemies a -5% cth (if memory serves) whereas deep cut is linked to bladed weapons and inflicts bleeding. All these skills have a 15% chance to trigger, not linked to skill at present. Every character can inflict them, so would suspect the RNG is being fickle for Arcadi.

Its just that my 35 starting skill on close combat Sam can do that 4AP special unarmed attack while Arcadi didn't have the same option.
Current Sam is also unable to perform 5AP concussive blow special attack when using hammer. Passive change might be there though since I saw 1st tier machete causing bleeding on later test.

 

[Timeslip]

So is the v30 the release version

Very probably.

 

[Timeslip]

Its just that my 35 starting skill on close combat Sam can do that 4AP special unarmed attack while Arcadi didn't have the same option.

I have a feeling the Dim Mak perk has been left in for Sam by accident. Was testing it recently, and it sounds like the most likely outcome. Y

Current Sam is also unable to perform 5AP concussive blow special attack when using hammer. Passive change might be there though since I saw 1st tier machete causing bleeding on later test.

Yeah, that 5AP attack requires a perk to unlock - it guarantees a more severe version of concussion is inflicted, whereas any attack with a blunt weapon has a 15% chance to inflict lesser concussion.

 

[Timeslip]

Probably preaching to the converted here, but if you're looking for some weekend entertainment, Vigilantes is currently 10% off on Steam.

 

[Timeslip]

Here's the illustration for Caia Winters, the 6th and final ally to be added to Vigilantes. If you have Vigilantes on Steam and your trading cards dropped, you may have seen her already, but if not, here you go! Her encounter and introduction are almost complete, and the expectation is to add Caia in v27.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://steamcommunity.com/app/545600/discussions/0/1696046342874900609/

V26 Balance Thread
Hi all,

I've started this thread for two reasons. First, with the full release of Vigilantes drawing closer, more emphasis is being placed on improving game balance. So if there's some aspect of the game you find unbalanced, be it difficulty at a certain point in the game, an underwhelming or overwhelming perk, or something else, please let me know.

The second reason is to discuss some concepts being considered in relation to making the two primary combat skills (firearms and close combat) more balanced and distinct, and allow you to build a team the way you want without being punished for preferring a certain style of play. The emphasis is not to cover how to make the game more realistic (a topic which has been discussed at some length), but rather to talk about how to make it more balanced.

My feeling on testing V26 is that currently, firearms has a stronger set of advantages than close combat.

Firearms
+ More varied attack options due to different weapon types (high long range damage from sniper rifle, ability to hit multiple enemies for a lot of damage with shotguns)
+ Exposed to considerably less risk
+ Often doesn't have to expend AP in movement in order to attack
+ Generally, slightly higher damage per AP

Melee
+ Can inflict minor status effects
+ Better at evading close combat attacks & landing attacks of opportunity
+ Less expensive
+ Generally more tanky & capable of carrying more equipment

Ideas being considered for V27
+ Attacks of opportunity when trying to use a firearm adjacent to a character who is unarmed, or using a melee weapon. The chance of being able to make the attack without being interrupted would be based on the initiative of the two characters, and the size of the firearms (lower penalties for handguns, SMG, higher penalty for bigger guns).

At present, it seems firearms are equal or superior at virtually all distances, with the exception of trying to use an assault rifle or sniper rifle at point blank range. The idea is to maintain a firearm's users advantage at range, and give the skilled close combat fighter the advantage when they do manage to close in. This will make each skill more distinct, and strengthen their roles. This could be perhaps be balanced with a small increase to firearms damage or reducing the penalty for using the assault/sniper rifle up close.

+ A damage mitigating perk for high skill melee fighters. This would be a mid-high level melee perk, requiring substantial toughness investment and high melee skill and would offer a 10-20% reduction to all incoming damage. This would mitigate some of the risk in closing in on ranged enemies. I'm aware close combat has more perks at present, and additional firearms perks will be added over the next few updates.

I'm interested to hear your views on these suggestions, and to hear your views on areas of the game which need balancing attention. In the interest of keeping the firearms/close combat discussion focused, it may be helpful think of these suggestions primarily on the basis of balancing firearms and close combat and making the roles of each more distinct.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I played current version very nearly into 1 month of game's time (V25 too, but update came before I was ready to do effort post about my findings)
Some observations and such behind spoilers; I played on default (Vigilante) difficulty.

Spoiler

Here's my current main character :

-He is wielding baton and 2nd tier pump shotgun +initiative booster and reinforced ski mask on utility slots.
-Main strike team also includes De Soto, Case and Edgar.
-Furey and Arcadi are on intel gathering or resource raiding duty (hadn't had real reason to rotate anyone in or out of strike team after 11th game day, before that resources went into facility upgrades)
-De Soto has precision rifle and pistol (the one that can do 2x snapshot) + speed loader on utility, her role is mainly fire support and healing. Case is geared mostly for melee with baseball bat with nails and improved revolver for backup. Edgar has combat machete, several grenades (both incendiary and explosive) and pistol for those occasions when he has to fall back to receive some healing (berserker charge perk allows him to get in and out quite quickly). Both Case and Edgar have initiative boosting item on their utility slot.
-Everyone on assault team (except Edgar) has 3rd tier body armor + some medikits, smokes and single grenade.
-Furey has 2nd tier smg + machete & Arcadi carries assault rifle and knife.
-Team weapons have been upgraded when parts and sufficient facility level has become available.
-It would be nice that there would be something differentiating modified weapon from the rest; simple * next to icon would do.

-Facilities have been upgraded to tier 3, except workshop and surgery which are tier 4.
-I used mostly Edgar to help building early tiers of facilities (He knows what you're really up against, but he initially doesn't really have the right skill set to gather info about more humdrum mundane threats)
-Stuff like intel gathering and resource raiding seems to mostly work as intended (had one instance where Arcadi kept endlessly reporting raid on wrong gang, but adding and removing him to strike team fixed that)
-Perhaps there could be additional skill thresholds besides initial "you must be this big to ride" on which allies would conduct their missions quicker or get better results?
-Does loot generated from ally raids depend on gang which has been raided?

-On 26 game days I've taken out 3 lieutenants and 1 racket form each gang (tried to do 2nd racket raid, but game froze after it)
-I have 100% detection on churcher boss, know the appearance of survivalist colonel, but mafiosos kept the omerta.
-I'm saving those boss fights to final release when I'll play on higher difficulty.
-Is gear that lieutenants use random? I'm certain that they had different stuff when I've played earlier versions.
-Speaking of earlier versions I had much rougher time with V25 than V26. Might be because I tried slightly different build on V25 or suffered more injuries through my game which made me take things slower and thus gain resources slower or something on how AI uses its resources on unit upgrades, but on V26 I outleveled opposition much faster than in prior version. Even in late game I see enemies with very basic gear when earlier versions had basic mooks throwing grenades and wielding assault rifles. Even churcher basic troopers had occasional pistol to spice things up; now they come at you with bare hands or with baseball bat or baton at best.
-After early game only boss fights have given some challenge (I won 1st lieutenant fight only because Edgar's defuser -perk kicked in at the right time.)

-On tactical game side decision to give basic melee attack change to cause occasional status effect (winded, concussion & bleeding) is good one and nicely changes the pace of combat.
-I've used more grenades than in earlier versions (mainly because Edgar specializes on those.)
-Lethal force was occasionally used on early game to get the edge. I also gave Furey license to chop every survivalist that she could get her hands on.
-Barrel fires and explosions seems to do lethal damage (I'm bit uncertain about that) though you can save burning enemy's life by hacking him with machete of dovey peace.
-Temp allies seem to level scale. I've seen temp ally with 70 hp on level where enemies had on average only 40 hp.
-In game explanations about various status effect symbols would be desirable. I've deciphered some of those,but explanations about various symbols would be nice. Though might affect just me and my recent "manuals are for the weak"-itis.
-"Injured" symbol seems to be used as placeholder for encumbered status.
-Summary of loot gained from raid would be convenient; money from enemies without inventory seems to teleport my pocket, but those who carry even 1 medikit needs to be looted on battlescape; as far as I can tell.

-I will post more stuff if something more comes to my mind.

edit. -added stuff about killing.
e2. -and other stuff.
e3. ramblings about loot added.

 

[udm]

Here's the illustration for Caia Winters, the 6th and final ally to be added to Vigilantes. If you have Vigilantes on Steam and your trading cards dropped, you may have seen her already, but if not, here you go! Her encounter and introduction are almost complete, and the expectation is to add Caia in v27.

The illustration is nice, but that's kind of an odd position to be standing at. It looks like one of those situations when the child is punished and being made to face the wall, only to turn halfway around to scowl at the teacher

 

[Bigg Boss]

This looks pretty awesome, but I need someone to look like the Punisher to properly immerse myself. Not really but when I saw Vigilante it came to mind. Following this closely.

 

[Trash Player]

I am just done with a blind Hardboiled playthrough. I like it even if the following suggest otherwise. Here is my feedback:
On the graphics, some lighting are seizure inducing, like the disco floor(understandable) or neon lights, maybe that's due to me turning off bloom.
I found bugs with inventory, specifically with drag-and-droping items, guns can become blackhole of ammo or equipments frame freezing on the base side.
Gameplaywise, it was too easy and exploitable. Static environment and granular actions make AI sitting ducks. Some maps, like Survivalist facilities and churches, are trivial for ranged teams. I know ranged being superior is acknowledged, still not sure how far you are willing to go to remedy that. The game ended on 24th but I wasted a few days for shit and giggles. My team wasn't even hurt fighting the CEO or the Colonel and the Boss only superifcially. Even then, healing is too abundant and painfree.
Some thoughts on character development:
All stats beside Fleetness are terrible save for meeting unlock. 0.2% Crit, minor damage and skill bonus, can't compare with initiatives and ap. Carry weight is something but it is a threshold like perks. Each level up gives 2 hp anyway, even 20 hp from 5 extra Toughness is just a medium calibre worth. Utility and Leadership don't do anything but unlock perks and slots, which is however fine because the unlocks are good.
On the perks front, set the skill requirement higher in general. Take Berserker charge for example, 30 make even a non-melee can take it. Ap perks are better than the rest, that counts even the 10% free action ones. Crit% from perks are more than weapons and much more than stats. On the other hand, the Leadership and Utility ones justify the weak parent stats.

 

[Timeslip]

I played current version very nearly into 1 month of game's time (V25 too, but update came before I was ready to do effort post about my findings)
Some observations and such behind spoilers; I played on default (Vigilante) difficulty.

Spoiler

Here's my current main character :

-He is wielding baton and 2nd tier pump shotgun +initiative booster and reinforced ski mask on utility slots.
-Main strike team also includes De Soto, Case and Edgar.
-Furey and Arcadi are on intel gathering or resource raiding duty (hadn't had real reason to rotate anyone in or out of strike team after 11th game day, before that resources went into facility upgrades)
-De Soto has precision rifle and pistol (the one that can do 2x snapshot) + speed loader on utility, her role is mainly fire support and healing. Case is geared mostly for melee with baseball bat with nails and improved revolver for backup. Edgar has combat machete, several grenades (both incendiary and explosive) and pistol for those occasions when he has to fall back to receive some healing (berserker charge perk allows him to get in and out quite quickly). Both Case and Edgar have initiative boosting item on their utility slot.
-Everyone on assault team (except Edgar) has 3rd tier body armor + some medikits, smokes and single grenade.
-Furey has 2nd tier smg + machete & Arcadi carries assault rifle and knife.
-Team weapons have been upgraded when parts and sufficient facility level has become available.
-It would be nice that there would be something differentiating modified weapon from the rest; simple * next to icon would do.

-Facilities have been upgraded to tier 3, except workshop and surgery which are tier 4.
-I used mostly Edgar to help building early tiers of facilities (He knows what you're really up against, but he initially doesn't really have the right skill set to gather info about more humdrum mundane threats)
-Stuff like intel gathering and resource raiding seems to mostly work as intended (had one instance where Arcadi kept endlessly reporting raid on wrong gang, but adding and removing him to strike team fixed that)
-Perhaps there could be additional skill thresholds besides initial "you must be this big to ride" on which allies would conduct their missions quicker or get better results?
-Does loot generated from ally raids depend on gang which has been raided?

-On 26 game days I've taken out 3 lieutenants and 1 racket form each gang (tried to do 2nd racket raid, but game froze after it)
-I have 100% detection on churcher boss, know the appearance of survivalist colonel, but mafiosos kept the omerta.
-I'm saving those boss fights to final release when I'll play on higher difficulty.
-Is gear that lieutenants use random? I'm certain that they had different stuff when I've played earlier versions.
-Speaking of earlier versions I had much rougher time with V25 than V26. Might be because I tried slightly different build on V25 or suffered more injuries through my game which made me take things slower and thus gain resources slower or something on how AI uses its resources on unit upgrades, but on V26 I outleveled opposition much faster than in prior version. Even in late game I see enemies with very basic gear when earlier versions had basic mooks throwing grenades and wielding assault rifles. Even churcher basic troopers had occasional pistol to spice things up; now they come at you with bare hands or with baseball bat or baton at best.
-After early game only boss fights have given some challenge (I won 1st lieutenant fight only because Edgar's defuser -perk kicked in at the right time.)

-On tactical game side decision to give basic melee attack change to cause occasional status effect (winded, concussion & bleeding) is good one and nicely changes the pace of combat.
-I've used more grenades than in earlier versions (mainly because Edgar specializes on those.)
-Lethal force was occasionally used on early game to get the edge. I also gave Furey license to chop every survivalist that she could get her hands on.
-Barrel fires and explosions seems to do lethal damage (I'm bit uncertain about that) though you can save burning enemy's life by hacking him with machete of dovey peace.
-Temp allies seem to level scale. I've seen temp ally with 70 hp on level where enemies had on average only 40 hp.
-In game explanations about various status effect symbols would be desirable. I've deciphered some of those,but explanations about various symbols would be nice. Though might affect just me and my recent "manuals are for the weak"-itis.
-"Injured" symbol seems to be used as placeholder for encumbered status.
-Summary of loot gained from raid would be convenient; money from enemies without inventory seems to teleport my pocket, but those who carry even 1 medikit needs to be looted on battlescape; as far as I can tell.

-I will post more stuff if something more comes to my mind.

edit. -added stuff about killing.
e2. -and other stuff.
e3. ramblings about loot added.

Hey, didn't get a notification for your post. Thanks for the feedback. Do you have any idea how many hours playtime it's taken you to get that far? I added regular and extended campaign lengths a few days back, but info on your progress would help to tune the campaign differences. The extended campaign uses the existing settings, whereas the plan with regular is to get the minimum playtime down to 15 hours, without chopping meaningful content.

-It would be nice that there would be something differentiating modified weapon from the rest; simple * next to icon would do.
Agree, this needs to be done. It will!

-Does loot generated from ally raids depend on gang which has been raided?
Increased chance of firearms vs survivalists, melee weapons vs churchers. Will likely tune this more in the future.

-Speaking of earlier versions I had much rougher time with V25 than V26. Might be because I tried slightly different build on V25 or suffered more injuries through my game which made me take things slower and thus gain resources slower or something on how AI uses its resources on unit upgrades, but on V26 I outleveled opposition much faster than in prior version. Even in late game I see enemies with very basic gear when earlier versions had basic mooks throwing grenades and wielding assault rifles. Even churcher basic troopers had occasional pistol to spice things up; now they come at you with bare hands or with baseball bat or baton at best.
That's something I've been working on in V27. Some time ago, we were talking about this, and part of the problem was that the gangs were set to gain levels after X number of days, which doesn't really allow for fine grained control. In V27 I've changed this to minutes, to allow for greater control. It's going to take another update or two to get this right. I'll look at your saves to see what's happening concerning gang equipment. With the addition of melee interupts in V27, the churchers will gain the most from this.

-In game explanations about various status effect symbols would be desirable. I've deciphered some of those,but explanations about various symbols would be nice. Though might affect just me and my recent "manuals are for the weak"-itis.
Hold Z when mousing over a character with a status effect.

-"Injured" symbol seems to be used as placeholder for encumbered status.
A bit behind on art. Hoping to bring another artist on board to help out.

 

[Timeslip]

I am just done with a blind Hardboiled playthrough. I like it even if the following suggest otherwise. Here is my feedback:
On the graphics, some lighting are seizure inducing, like the disco floor(understandable) or neon lights, maybe that's due to me turning off bloom.
I found bugs with inventory, specifically with drag-and-droping items, guns can become blackhole of ammo or equipments frame freezing on the base side.
Gameplaywise, it was too easy and exploitable. Static environment and granular actions make AI sitting ducks. Some maps, like Survivalist facilities and churches, are trivial for ranged teams. I know ranged being superior is acknowledged, still not sure how far you are willing to go to remedy that. The game ended on 24th but I wasted a few days for shit and giggles. My team wasn't even hurt fighting the CEO or the Colonel and the Boss only superifcially. Even then, healing is too abundant and painfree.
Some thoughts on character development:
All stats beside Fleetness are terrible save for meeting unlock. 0.2% Crit, minor damage and skill bonus, can't compare with initiatives and ap. Carry weight is something but it is a threshold like perks. Each level up gives 2 hp anyway, even 20 hp from 5 extra Toughness is just a medium calibre worth. Utility and Leadership don't do anything but unlock perks and slots, which is however fine because the unlocks are good.
On the perks front, set the skill requirement higher in general. Take Berserker charge for example, 30 make even a non-melee can take it. Ap perks are better than the rest, that counts even the 10% free action ones. Crit% from perks are more than weapons and much more than stats. On the other hand, the Leadership and Utility ones justify the weak parent stats.

First time hardboiled is no mean feat. What I've found is that it starts hard and gets easier. This is linked to the rate at which enemies level up, which in V26 is in days (not allowing for great control over it). This has been changed to minutes in V27, allowing for better tuning. Enemies will level up more quickly from now on, so you won't be able to outpace them as easily.

-Gameplaywise, it was too easy and exploitable. Static environment and granular actions make AI sitting ducks. Some maps, like Survivalist facilities and churches, are trivial for ranged teams. I know ranged being superior is acknowledged, still not sure how far you are willing to go to remedy that.
There will be melee interrupts in V27, meaning you risk getting slugged if you try to fire a gun or throw a grenade with an adjacent melee character. There will also be some powerful damage mitigation perks for melee characters. There will always be situations in which one is better than the other, but the intention is to bring them closer in line with one another.

-I found bugs with inventory, specifically with drag-and-droping items, guns can become blackhole of ammo or equipments frame freezing on the base side.
Do you have steps for recreating these bugs? Would really like to get them fixed.

- The game ended on 24th but I wasted a few days for shit and giggles. My team wasn't even hurt fighting the CEO or the Colonel and the Boss only superifcially. Even then, healing is too abundant and painfree.
You took out all the bosses? Any idea how many hours of play that took?

- On the perks front, set the skill requirement higher in general. Take Berserker charge for example, 30 make even a non-melee can take it.
They will be. For now, they are low to allow players to try them and because it's better to wait until all (or most) of the perks are in, so can balance them against one another.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Do you have any idea how many hours playtime it's taken you to get that far?

Sorry, no idea. Spent too much time in various bug hunts and trying things out just for the hell of it.

 

[Trash Player]

First time hardboiled is no mean feat. What I've found is that it starts hard and gets easier. This is linked to the rate at which enemies level up, which in V26 is in days (not allowing for great control over it). This has been changed to minutes in V27, allowing for better tuning. Enemies will level up more quickly from now on, so you won't be able to outpace them as easily.

-Gameplaywise, it was too easy and exploitable. Static environment and granular actions make AI sitting ducks. Some maps, like Survivalist facilities and churches, are trivial for ranged teams. I know ranged being superior is acknowledged, still not sure how far you are willing to go to remedy that.
There will be melee interrupts in V27, meaning you risk getting slugged if you try to fire a gun or throw a grenade with an adjacent melee character. There will also be some powerful damage mitigation perks for melee characters. There will always be situations in which one is better than the other, but the intention is to bring them closer in line with one another.

-I found bugs with inventory, specifically with drag-and-droping items, guns can become blackhole of ammo or equipments frame freezing on the base side.
Do you have steps for recreating these bugs? Would really like to get them fixed.

- The game ended on 24th but I wasted a few days for shit and giggles. My team wasn't even hurt fighting the CEO or the Colonel and the Boss only superifcially. Even then, healing is too abundant and painfree.
You took out all the bosses? Any idea how many hours of play that took?

- On the perks front, set the skill requirement higher in general. Take Berserker charge for example, 30 make even a non-melee can take it.
They will be. For now, they are low to allow players to try them and because it's better to wait until all (or most) of the perks are in, so can balance them against one another.

Good to hear. Steam showed 21 hours playtime, so I bet <20 hours is possible. I wil try to replicate the bugs.

 

[Nutria]

I started this up and played for 3 hours straight today. I like the combat system and characters. I expect the game will really come alive for me when there's more going on on the city map to give importance to each tactical battle. Everything seems to be going in the right direction, so I don't have any suggestions to make.

 

[Timeslip]

Sorry, no idea. Spent too much time in various bug hunts and trying things out just for the hell of it.

No worries, it's hard to track it over the course of a game.

 

[Timeslip]

Good to hear. Steam showed 21 hours playtime, so I bet <20 hours is possible. I wil try to replicate the bugs.

That's re-assuring. Would be happy enough if the extended campaign can be completed in 20ish hours.

 

[Timeslip]

I started this up and played for 3 hours straight today. I like the combat system and characters. I expect the game will really come alive for me when there's more going on on the city map to give importance to each tactical battle. Everything seems to be going in the right direction, so I don't have any suggestions to make.

Glad you've had a good experience with it Nutria - there will be more encounters with dialogue in future versions along with quite a few tweaks and weapons/perks/utility items.

 

[Blaine]

*pokes head into thread*

Hey neat, well I'm subscribed now, stay safe everyone.

 

[Timeslip]

All stats beside Fleetness are terrible save for meeting unlock. 0.2% Crit, minor damage and skill bonus, can't compare with initiatives and ap. Carry weight is something but it is a threshold like perks. Each level up gives 2 hp anyway, even 20 hp from 5 extra Toughness is just a medium calibre worth. Utility and Leadership don't do anything but unlock perks and slots, which is however fine because the unlocks are good.

You were spot on about this. It's one of those areas that hasn't been worked on in some time, and has become invisible to me. Had a look at it today, and buffed them quite a lot.

+ Toughness now grants 6hp, rather than 4 hp per stat point, but each character level now grants 1hp, rather than 2hp.
+ Prowess now grant substantially larger damage bonuses (2x) to close combat.
+ Prowess and Instinct grant substantially larger bonuses (4x) to critical chance.
+ Leadership grants a larger command bonus.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/545600/announcements/detail/1645384041105796879

Version 27 Incoming
6 June - Timeslip
Hi everyone,

Version 27 is expected to release today. It's another large update, which focuses on balance and content. The most important things you should be aware of are:

1) The save data remains the same, so you can continue playing on your existing game

2) All additions in this update (including perks, new weapons, the new map and the majority of balance based changes) are available on existing saves, however, there are two exceptions.

The first is that Caia Winters, the final ally, will not be available on existing saves. The second is that changes made to enemy difficulty and level up speed will not take full effect until the game is restarted. The longer you have played with an existing save, the less representative the game difficulty will be, with a general trend toward the game becoming easier the longer you have played for.

Thanks for reading & hope you enjoy V27!

Daithi

http://timeslipsoftworks.com/forum/index.php/topic,539.0.html

[Features]
+ Added melee interrupt attacks. These occur when unarmed or equipped with a melee weapon and an enemy in an adjacent tile attempts to throw a grenade or fire a weapon.
+ Vigilantes now has 2 campaign lengths: regular and extended. Extended is the same as the existing campaign, whereas regular focuses on reducing the minimum amount of time required to complete the game.

[Content]
+ Added new ally: Caia Winters & her dialogue encounter
+ 3 new Ranged Weapons: General Arms Breacher (Shotgun), Nobuki Ronin+ (Precision Rifle), Eurocorp Tactical (SMG)
+ 3 new melee weapons: Fire Axe, Katana, Sledgehammer
+ New Utility item: Knuckle Dusters
+ New Crafting recipe: Nobuki Ronin +
+ New Perk: Fast Off The Blocks (+3 Initiative)
+ New Perk: Grazed Limbs (15% chance to inflict shaky hands or hamstrung status effect when attacking an enemy with a shotgun)
+ New Perk: Behemoth (20% reduction to incoming damage)
+ New Perk: Atheist - 15% additional damage VS Church of the Final Exodus (specific to Caia)
+ New Perk: Soldier +15% Assault Rifle Damage
+ New Map: Farm
+ Added post combat dialogue for Ray Case's encounter
+ Added post combat dialogue for Emilia De Soto's encounter
+ Added post combat dialogue for Elena Furey's encounter
+ Added new dialogue encounter: Insurance Claim

[Balance]
+ Enemies start with lower stats, gain stats more slowly on leveling up, but level up more quickly. This will maintain a more consistent difficulty curve, and keep enemy max stats in line with player max stats
+ [Experimental] Firearm and explosive damage has increased, but damage scaling based on skill has been removed. Critical chance for melee, firearms and explosive now increases with skill.
+ Shop level now increases as you buy and sell items.
+ Further increased quantity of armour components the shop generates
+ Increased number of armour components the shop generates
+ Athletic grips increase initiative by 2, rather than 1
+ Mind cracker perk and sodium thiopental now give a flat % bonus to interrogation.
+ Toughness now grants 6hp, rather than 4 hp per stat point, but each character level now grants 1hp, rather than 2hp.
+ Prowess now grant substantially larger (2x) damage bonuses to close combat.
+ Prowess and Instinct grant substantially (4x) larger bonuses to critical chance.
+ Leadership grants a larger command bonus.
+ Command bonus is now applied to entire teams, regardless of proximity to leader.
+ Once gang leader / racket detection has reached 100%, they can be attacked immediately. Surveillance is no longer required.
+ Eurocorp Artemis now costs the same AP to use as other precision rifles
+ Armour can now take more damage
+ Increased AOO chance. Having a higher close combat skill than your opponent will increase chance of triggering AOO.

[Quality of Life]
+ Information on gang, danger level, tile wealth, crime rate, gang leaders and rackets can now be displayed on the city map

[Fixes]
+ Fixed error in displaying completed ally operations, when the operation completes on a mission (Murkki017, awg, sed.cupla)
+ Fixed issue where characters KOed in a melee attack will sometimes remain standing. (ushas)
+ Fixed equipped items not being minimised when clicking on delay turn (ushas)
+ Fixed encumbered text disappearing in inventory when heavily encumbered (ushas)
+ Fixed queued close combat attack not always triggering after movement when character has move AP (ushas)
+ Fixed pathing for move + queued close combat not always picking the shortest move path
+ Prevented characters reloading in inventory by dragging ammo, when they don't have enough AP for a reload. (ushas)
+ Reachable tiles no longer show that an attack is possible in error, when a character has move AP. (ushas)
+ Fixed an issue where rapidly right clicking a tile adjacent to an exploding object after mousing over same object could lead to character melee attacking the object in error (ushas)
+ Fixed shotguns with no ammo not notifying the player when they attempt to attack (Nathan)
+ Fixed enemies not always spawning with full health, when they are receiving a stat buff from a racket (Murkki017)
+ Fixed getting intel from a racket causing game to become stuck in some cases, if all boss intel is already known. (Murkkio017)
+ Fixed a number of errors with perk descriptions. (awg)

 

[Timeslip]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Timeslip]

Have started testing V28. Took care of quite a bit of work that absolutely has to be done before the game can be released in this update. The last maps are in, the city tiles now link to the correct map types, and added a system to make dialogue encounters occur more reliably. Quite a few quality of life improvements in there too. It's a good update for perks and dialogue, with 7 new perks (mostly high end ones for specific weapons) and for story, with several 1000 extra words being added. The boss encounters are all written, but not yet added, as are some of the lieutenant encounters. Will hopefully get to write another one tonight. Also working with a second artist, and he's currently drawing the city tiles, which should be ready when I'm finished testing.

Update notes are here. There will be some additional balancing work and likely fixes over the next few days.

 

[Timeslip]

I am just done with a blind Hardboiled playthrough. I like it even if the following suggest otherwise. Here is my feedback:
Gameplaywise, it was too easy and exploitable. Static environment and granular actions make AI sitting ducks. Some maps, like Survivalist facilities and churches, are trivial for ranged teams. I know ranged being superior is acknowledged, still not sure how far you are willing to go to remedy that. The game ended on 24th but I wasted a few days for shit and giggles. My team wasn't even hurt fighting the CEO or the Colonel and the Boss only superifcially. Even then, healing is too abundant and painfree.

Trying to keep the first 2 difficulty levels playable for a new player, but I tried to take on a danger level 3 survivalist tile in V27 on hardboiled at level 1, and managed to beat it. This confirmed your points above. Have increased enemy stats, enemy level up speed, increased bonuses from danger level and ensured that a specialist will be present when you attack an L3 tile. Attempting the same thing in V28, and have just been beaten three times in a row. If you do get a chance to have a look at V28 when it comes out, would be interested to hear what you think.