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Random
Too hard to see?Wed Jul 16 01:40:45 PDT 2008
"Has anyone else noticed the invisible unit outside of the castle wars next to a bush? " ~ Patchy
Well, I don't think we hid the fact that there were going to be stealth units in the expansion, on both sides. A while back we posted a screenshot of the new skill tree system - and it included this:
Yeah - with the more realistic look of the art things on the map stick out a little less. That is what the selection circles are for. Sarfin is still working on all of the graphic effects that will be on the battle screen. An extra glow effect behind all of the characters might still be possible.
Animating the selection circles or selection effect (or red enemy circles) in some way could also help units stand out.
There is also a "Next Unit" button for easy cycling through your players.
Also, while zooming out gives you a bigger view of what's going on, for smaller tactical engagements you can just leave the camera zoomed in and focus on the squares where the action is.
~ Random
Random
Mercenaries of Dosbar: The High Seas - Barant Siege PreviewTue Jul 15 13:06:12 PDT 2008
The image tells a thousand words...
~ Random
Random
Developer Journal: Mercs Expansion Game Design TheoryFri Jul 11 01:02:19 PDT 2008
Hey again Random Thoughts users,
As the Mercenaries Expansion is taking ALL of our development resources, I know that things have been a little more quiet over the last two months. I can give you glimpses of the game to come, but that is all for now.
Mostly that has been in the way of new artwork. But I'm guessing that some of you in our community want to know where we are going with this expansion, what we are thinking, and why.
We all like Mercs, and it was one of our first projects and our first collaboration. Still, liking the game and saying it can't be made better are two different things. We all are pretty individualistic, and egos and ideas clash when you do a collective work. It can be a painful process - but I think it always produces a better game in the end.
There has been talk of a Mercs 2 for many, many years... but the ambitious nature of the project was really outside of our resources. It still is. Sarfin and I got to talking that we could update our oldest game if we decided that rather than starting from scratch for the game - just doing an expansion.
So what have we decided to improve?
Artwork
And this one was a slippery slope. The original Mercs art was very stylized, and pulled from several different sources. I liked the retro feel it gave the game. But our artists and art ability have really improved over the last 10 years.
The problem was, once we redid one bit of art, it looked too good compared to anything else. After the first new pieces of art were finished, it was pretty obvious that every single piece of art for the whole game would have to be redone. That is no small task.
But that was only the beginning. In addition to redoing every single piece of artwork, new art had to be done to support all of the NEW things we are putting in the game. Lucky told me recently that his Mercs Expansion folder on his computer is the same size as all of the art he has done for all of our other games (including upcoming titles) combined. Wow.
But, you can see the new art direction in the demo in the Lab. I think you will be pleased with the update.
Difficulty
Oh, I loves me a good hardcore grind as much as the next person, but much of our feedback over the last years on mercs is that it was just too hard to get into. Even for people that played a lot, generally speaking the game was easier at the end and hardest at the beginning. In one way this is OK... it means that players notice as they become more powerful. But on the other hand, it turns away a lot of players.
We are doing several things to "change the curve" - and make the early game easier and the late game continue to offer more challenges as party strength grows.
The first change we already implemented in the original - more starting gold. This should help a party to overcome early mistakes.
The second change will probably not effect most veterans: Tier 0 monsters. Truly pathetic foes, worth little fame and less gold. Still, they will give new players an opportunity to get to grips with the controls and interface, and few people should ever start the game and get their party wiped in the first mission. The new Tier 0 enemies will appear in special early game missions, along with two tutorial "story" game missions. Once the tutorial missions are finished the Tier 0 missions and monsters go away.
If you already know how to play, all you need to do is accept the always available new tutorial missions... and retreat will be an option for victory from the get-go. So two quick missions with instant retreating and a small gold boost and you are back into the early game you used to play. But for new players they can take some time to beat up on patsies if they want to.
The third change is in stat ups. Currently going from STR 5 to 6 is just as easy or hard as going from STR 95 to 96. This is changing, to make the game easier in the beginning, and also make it more viable to keep your starting mercs throughout the game if you choose. The lower a stat is the easier it will be to level if you do the necessary action (kill an enemy or dodge). This means that leveling a Recruit's Dex or a Scout's Str should be a little easier now.
The fourth change is the combat formula. The way the current combat formula works you need to randomly roll 7 times the dex roll of your opponent to score a critical hit. This is very easy to do when all of the numbers are reasonably low at the start of the game. This means that both mercs and monsters crit often at tier 1. By Tier 4, however, crits are much more unlikely, except against a few monsters with really low dex, or BY a few monsters with super high dex (Tailents).
I'm changing the combat formula so that dexterity is still compared, but that critical hits are just as likely at the high levels as at the low levels. Be warned high level players....
Items
We had plenty of ideas for more items over time, but the way the original data was structured it was impossible for us to add any items.
The entire system has changed so that we can add as many items as we like. We are also adding several new slots to equip gear. This should lead to a lot more customization options for players.
But there is a lot more going on behind the scenes with items. First off, in the original we only had 2 restrictions... bows and magic staffs. That list has expanded to 9 restrictions in the expansion as more new types of gear and classes are being added.
With all of those new restrictions we were worried about too much restricted gear showing up for sale. So we have changed the item generator to filter out gear with restrictions you don't meet. This means that in theory (assuming you have the Strength) almost every piece of gear you find for sale can be used. This also means that if you have no archers in your party, no bows will show up for sale - so after hiring a new archer you will have to run a mission before you can start buying new items.
Also, going back through the item lists there seemed to be large gaps in the items we had offered. I've mostly finished redoing new sets of weapons and armor for Tiers 1 and 2. But there is more to come.
Where are the Tier 4 crossbows? I don't know either, but all sorts of gear had no top level choices. I haven't added it yet, but I plan to really flesh out the items from top to bottom so that you have more and more choices with how to equip your characters.
Another new feature being added are going to be Tier Elite items. These are going to be items with weight requirements for a lower Tier with stats for a higher Tier... but generally at about 10-20 times the cost. If you really have money, there will be something more to spend it on. So if you NEED to have your brand new Archer equip a bow with 25 attack right away, you CAN do it, but it will cost you.
Classses
Here our thoughts were simple. Keep all of the original, but expand. As they get closer to being finalized, I will continue to highlight each new class as I already did for the Dryad.
We are adding several mercs to each Tier, and adding Tier 4 mercs. Some of the mercs are going to require quests or items to unlock, some will require premium membership, and some will be available as soon as you reach a new tier. Currently we have 2 new Tier 1s, 3 new Tier 2s, 4 new Tier 3s, and 2 Tier 4s. That is 11 new classes added onto the already existing 12.
Premium Membership
We know this will be a little more of contentious issue, because not everyone wants to be a premium member. Still, we need to have paying customers to keep the site running, and we want to offer something of real value for those that decide to subscribe.
In this case, we've decided to be sure that our paying members get what they pay for. New classes and a huge list of items top the list, but there are also a (small) number of unique story mission type quests that only premium members will be able to access. Premium members will also get more save slots, if they decide to play with multiple parties.
However, for the community at large, nothing the premium members will have access to will be necessary to beat the game. Indeed, the original 80 story missions should be quite a bit easier to beat with all the new classes, items and options that we are making available. The vast bulk of the new content is available to everyone.
In a lot of ways its going to be like the demo of Cave Quest. Premium members get access to Valkyries, which are one of my favorite classes, but they are still balanced with the other classes and it doesn't stop someone playing through the game with a Wizard.
I could talk more, but its getting late and I have more work to do! Enjoy and discuss.
~ Random
Random
Mercenaries of Dosbar: The High Seas - New Mercenary Revealed!Mon Jul 07 13:48:25 PDT 2008
I thought maybe you would all enjoy a sneak peak at one of the new mercenaries available in the new game:
The Dryad
Dryads are mystical magic using creatures found in the lush forests of Thalasirmon. They rarely venture from their homeland, so their numbers are few. Their singing, magic wielding and shape changing abilities are all well recorded in the tales of the elves - and its the elves who have been seen adventuring with these fey folk. It is said that in their younger years they look human, but as they age their tree form becomes dominant. Many believe that much of the magic in the forests of Thalasirmon is due to large areas of woods being inhabited by many thousand year old dryads who are simply at rest in their arboreal form.
As adventures have been increasing in the east, civilization is encroaching on the untamed jungles of Crobas. Among the many deadly encounters there are rumors of wild Dryads. These crazed creatures attack anything that encroaches on the jungle. It is thought that perhaps a few dryads are entering mercenary bands as a means of travel to Crobas, to find and heal their long lost sisters. If true, the dryads could become a powerful ally against the magic of the awakened Tailent temples in Crobas.
Within the new game Dryads are a Tier 2 merc, but they will not be easy to hire. They have balanced stats, but also come with a variety of additional powers. They can use a new restricted class of gear that often contains minor magic spells. They are able to shape shift into a tree form. In tree form they cannot move or cast, but they have greatly increased defense ability. And they may come with an inherent spell.
Within a party dryads will be able to fill a variety of roles. They don't have high Blood, so they will be an early target for parties of all Tier 2 and higher mercs. However, their tree form will let them resist large amounts of physical attacks. Also in tree form they can perform close range physical attacks. If not in tree form they can easily provide the minor backup healing, or even main healing for a low level party. Finally, with a variety of ranged spells they can do ranged damage or buff other party members.
Dryads have no advanced form, so a tome of enlightenment will simply up their existing stats. Getting items that increase their blood will be important to use their magic abilities to their full extent. Still, even in their basic form, their ability to weather many, many attacks will let parties with these mystical tree-people worry less about who is going to be able to take the hits.
The mercs expansion is coming along, and much of the new things are finally getting added (at first we needed to implement everything that existed in the first game). A simple alpha without real missions may be available in the coming weeks.
Enjoy,
~ Random
Random
Mercenaries of Dosbar: The High Seas - Memory issuesSat Jul 05 00:36:57 PDT 2008
Well, some things are changing in the expansion as we start to run into memory issues.
There will probably be a brief loading screen between the different party management screens and before every battle I'm sorry to say. Also, some people may not be able to have all of the sound and image options operating at the same time.
We still want the core game to be good, inviting and accessible to almost everyone on the internet. This means that the default game will have to start off with a selection of more minimum requirement options enabled, so that lower end computers can get into the game.
If you are able to increase your memory for Java, you can still experience all of the fancy graphics and sound effects by going to the options and turning everything on.
The good news in all of this is that none of it effects the core gameplay... everyone will still be able to play the game. And even the minimum options are still a significant improvement over the original.
Just a little update on what we are working on. The demo in the lab may be updated in the next few weeks, as soon as we are ready to let people start getting dirty with some basic testing.
~ RandomThis web site and all products herein are copyright (c) 1999-2008, Random Thoughts Entertainment, All Rights Reserved.
