Vapourware Zodiac Legion - X-COM and dungeons

[ERYFKRAD]

It has been one month already!
So, I have been mostly busy catching up with taxes, and everything else I had to delay for these events, but I should be back to coding almost full time next week.
The dev play/interview from Tacticon is now live on youtube here:


I also need to choose between two variants of the key arts on Steam. I asked for a new one as the old one was not very readable, especially when scaled down:

Which one do you think would work best here?

Definitely the second one. The first looks like a ripoff of Pathfinder and Pillars of eternity combined.

 

[Grunker]

6 pages of people talking 'bout animations. So wots the gameplay liek

 

[ERYFKRAD]

6 pages of people talking 'bout animations. So wots the gameplay liek

Old xcom

 

[Grunker]

6 pages of people talking 'bout animations. So wots the gameplay liek

Old xcom

Just fast forwarded a bit in the video thingy and they literally have a gameplay overview thingy

ffs grunker

 

[Harthwain]

It has been one month already!
So, I have been mostly busy catching up with taxes, and everything else I had to delay for these events, but I should be back to coding almost full time next week.
The dev play/interview from Tacticon is now live on youtube here:


I also need to choose between two variants of the key arts on Steam. I asked for a new one as the old one was not very readable, especially when scaled down:

Which one do you think would work best here?

The second one.

The first is hard to read (both in terms of text, because of the ornate "O", and because of the color scheme) and carries little meaningful context outside of "It has combat and undead".

The second is very clear to read, it has a castle in the background and suggests expeditions of some sort. It is much more eye-catching and thought-provoking by comparison.

 

[Galdred]

Thank you for your opinions on the pictures! I wanted the original artist to alter the first one a bit, but he has been "busy for the next two months" for 18 months, and it was really hard to read on some parts of Steam, but they are so different it might prove difficult to use one in some situations, and the other elsewhere.
Given the lack of consensus, I will try to AB test them on Steam and see whether they resutl in a different clicktrhough rate.

6 pages of people talking 'bout animations. So wots the gameplay liek

Old xcom

That was the plan in the beginning, but the prevalence of melee brought the game further from it. In a way, it is closer from board game dungeon crawler, like Descent/Heroquest/Warhammer quest than from most established PC RPG (tactical or others) conventions, mostly because there is no distinction between combat and exploration:
Everything is turn-based (which led to some time pressure to avoid spending 3 turns in breach preparation for each room). I think it also makes traps more interesting, as you cannot always spend the time required to reveal/disarm them (sometimes, it's better to just send a newbie to check whether some tiles are trapped).

Quite a few elements of combat were also lifted from Blood Bowl: Support in melee attack and defense works in a similar way, with zone of control canceling it, and moving near an opponent works more like a failed dodge (without the turnover) than an attack of opportunity, as you end up in place, with 0 movement left, and a pinned debuf.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

no offense intended, but what makes this more of an RPG than X-COM?

 

[Galdred]

no offense intended, but what makes this more of an RPG than X-COM?

That is a good question. It depends on what counts as an RPG. The general campaign progression will be roughly similar to X-COM (retrieve and research things, choose your missions on the map, then go through some campaign "stages", ...).
It has a few more non combat skills than X-COM, but I would certainly not consider it a "full-fledged RPG", but more like a tactical RPG, like Battle Brothers, King Arthur or Chaos Gate in this regard.

You also can fight with your commander, because these are the middle age, and the commander is expected to lead his brethren. But you will choose a new commander on death.

 

[Harthwain]

You also can fight with your commander, because these are the middle age, and the commander is expected to lead his brethren. But you will choose a new commander on death.

Can you pick who's your commander or do you start with a predestined one?

 

[Galdred]

You also can fight with your commander, because these are the middle age, and the commander is expected to lead his brethren. But you will choose a new commander on death.

Can you pick who's your commander or do you start with a predestined one?

I'm still undecided about this. I wanted to have some kind of election, but I don't see how having AI decide who should be the most popular could work in practice, so it will probably be something like:
Player picks a successor whenever he feels like it, but if it has not been done before the death of a commander, then some kind of election (or omen reading maybe) would take place.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

because these are the middle age

election

?

I'll admit I don't know much about the game's lore, but shouldn't it be picked by someone above them rather than below?

 

[Galdred]

because these are the middle age

election

?

I'll admit I don't know much about the game's lore, but shouldn't it be picked by someone above them rather than below?

That is a good point, but the Zodiac order is partly inspired by the crusader knightly orders (Teutonic, Hospitalers, and Templars).
In these, the grandmaster was usually chosen by the highest ranked knights upon his death, and not appointed by the pope.

This is about the Teutonic order

Upon the death of a grand master, the vice master called a capitulum composed of the leading officers of the order. The general chapter would select a twelve-person electoral college composed of seven knights, four sergeants, and one priest. Once a majority-candidate for grand master was chosen, the minority electors would concede to support unanimity. These elections usually provided a succeeding grand master within three months

The Hospitalers would probably be closer from the Zodiac order as power was split between "langues" (culture of origin), with rules governing the distrinution of power between them, so that would be a good fit for our 13 signs.

 

[Grunker]

because these are the middle age

election

?

I'll admit I don't know much about the game's lore, but shouldn't it be picked by someone above them rather than below?

There were tons of elections in the middle ages - the electorate was just often very limited

Abbots/priors were often directly democratically elected by common monks, for example (varies wildly by region and individual monastary, but it wasn't uncommon).

 

[Ninjerk]

because these are the middle age

election

?

I'll admit I don't know much about the game's lore, but shouldn't it be picked by someone above them rather than below?

There were tons of elections in the middle ages - the electorate was just often very limited

Abbots/priors were often directly democratically elected by common monks, for example (varies wildly by region and individual monastary, but it wasn't uncommon).

The Irish elected the kings of their tuath (people/tribe, something like that), if I'm not mistaken in my (very limited) understanding of the workings of tanistry.

 

[Dadd]

I prefer the second pic but the horns feel superfluous. Maybe they're thematic?

 

[Kalarion]

I like the second pic as well, but I don't think it properly conveys the idea behind the Zodiac Knights. All of them look same-ish. Maybe have each of the background Knights be uniformed as a different Sign? So like a Saggitarius and a Gemini or something.

 

[Harthwain]

I prefer the second pic but the horns feel superfluous. Maybe they're thematic?

Obviously, since the name of the game is Zodiac Legion. The one on the right could be Aries (Ram), the one on the left is probably Taurus (Bull).

 

[Haba]

The second picture is better. The game has a little bit of an issue with the name, as it isn't very memorable. Well, hard to convey anything meaningful in such a tiny image.

Since achieving anything else is not feasible, you should have a half-naked chick there. Either templars legionaries fighting a SUCCubus or rescuing some wench in torn up clothes. Thank me when you make your first 100k in sales. With money.

 

[Haba]

Here, I even generated you some inspirational material for reference:
https://imgur.com/a/5R4DdIV

Redefine the "Zodiac Legion" a bit and I think you are golden:

This is pretty golden as well.

I tried to make it generate a giant big tiddy titan with thicc ass, but most results were unfortunately censored by fascist algorithm. But you get the idea!

 

[Galdred]

Here, I even generated you some inspirational material for reference:
https://imgur.com/a/5R4DdIV

Redefine the "Zodiac Legion" a bit and I think you are golden:


This is pretty golden as well.

I tried to make it generate a giant big tiddy titan with thicc ass, but most results were unfortunately censored by fascist algorithm. But you get the idea!

These AIs really have a problem with limbs. It managed not to draw hands with 3 fingers, so it had to make too many arms :D
It is true that the name is not super memorable. The horns are For Capricornus and Taurus indeed, but it's true that we need someone else as Knight #3, and probably a more "taurus-y" helm.

 

[Galdred]

Here, I even generated you some inspirational material for reference:
https://imgur.com/a/5R4DdIV

Redefine the "Zodiac Legion" a bit and I think you are golden:


This is pretty golden as well.

I tried to make it generate a giant big tiddy titan with thicc ass, but most results were unfortunately censored by fascist algorithm. But you get the idea!

These AIs really have a problem with limbs. It managed not to draw hands with 3 fingers, so it had to make too many arms :D
It is true that the name is not super memorable. The horns are For Capricornus and Taurus indeed, but it's true that we need someone else as Knight #3, and probably a more "taurus-y" helm.

Shortly after you posted these pictures, a controversy about the place of female warriors in the game has started on Steam:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/812910/discussions/0/3487502140245716357/

Also, the game now works fine on Steam Deck (I will update the demo soon):

 

[Dadd]

Don't listen to those retards, whatever they said, just make the women good looking if you're going to include them. They don't even need to be mostly naked. In fact I like women in armor, like this:

Spoiler

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Today's world breeds some retards. When some troll starts blabbing about vulvas and vaginas I have to think the person is a fucking nut.

Dynamo Rex (mrrexplorer) Nov 5 @ 8:49pm

You can play like women?
Or gonna be some ♥♥♥♥, Battle Brothers?
If you dont think put womens in the game or have some type of excuse about that, forget i play your demo

I have enough with one mysogenist game, other more and my head explode.

Read this fool's other posts. I bet he doesn't even own 1 game. Not a gamer but a retardo-troll. The world would be lucky is Retardo-Rex's head did explode. Ok, wasted enough time on that.

 

[Darth Roxor]

You can play like women?

sure just construct 12 kitchens in your citadel

 

[Haba]

You can play with women.