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Yes, you are correct — assuming we don’t tweak any names. Goal options are determined by Race/Class/Specialty choices, so not every character has every goal available. Otherwise, players are free to select any combination of Race/Class/Specialty, and choose from around six of the Goals.
Fealty
Freedom
Purity
Self PreservationThose are the ones missing from your list.
Thanks for the vote of confidence!
The icons are going to be color coded, with the action type Unique (most attack, the ‘biggest’), Standard (common for movement, ‘medium’), Minor (readying/changing weapons, fast abilities like turning invisible, ‘small’), and a fourth for free actions (some uncommon, really small stuff).
Hot Keys, of course, and customizable. 0-9, shift-0-9, possibly F Keys. Alphabet keys for bringing up different UI, etc. With free camera, we may limit real time movement to mouse input, rather than deal with WASD, though we will run some tests.
We are looking to allow customizing of the figure, and hope to derive the portrait from the customized 3D model. So if you alter skin tones, hair color, hair style, and face, you will see it both on the model and in the portraits. As you might guess, this customizing portion is a lower priority at this point in development. We have the base models set up to accept such changes, but no art or engineering devoted to that yet.
The idea of importing 2D portraits by players is an interesting one, and I’ll float it by the team. Since the game is single player and small group co-op, we don’t have to worry if you are putting up questionable images.
Excellent comments. Part of this arises because the characters are part of a group bound to the Empress by a powerful oath, which may or may not have been voluntary. We then discussed whether to have a branch of the story explore how far the characters might go to free themselves and break the oath.
The empire is authoritarian, but not evil, and the main opponents are big E evil. The idea some might resent the oath is interesting to explore, but perhaps not the extent of embracing the Malloi (the baddies). Much to consider.
Yep, we got plenty of suggestions and criticisms, and felt pushing the first KS through while trying to address that wouldn’t be fair to the backers. Instead, we have taken a step back, and reviewing how best to satisfy the concerns, and come back stronger.
David is determining the timing of that, figuring the initial introduction of both the computer game and the PnP game simultaneously could be confusing — and would mean providing responses in two web sites, and the KS page. I’m glad there is interest in it, and we’ll let you know when its unlocked.
Mobility is just one of the obvious ways of using actions. We’ve set support spells as Standard actions, so even though there is a one spell per turn limit, a caster can still use their Unique for an attack. Same goes with healers, who can expend a Minor for a small heal or a Standard for a larger heal or one with more targets.
Attacks of Opportunity affect both sides. Most of the fastest moves allow enemies to attack when disengaging. And characters have the same benefit, either smacking enemies rushing in, or preventing them from maneuvering. Melee units often have Retaliate, a free counter-attack, giving them an interest in remaining engaged.
There is a provision for overwatch, reserving the attack until an enemy closes/appears. Bowmen have a Field of Fire, which lets them select an area to attack enemies moving through automatically. Great if the enemy’s movement is channeled. And there are a number of methods for channeling or slowing opponents, meaning a formal front line can be effective even with mobile enemies in an otherwise open area.
We try to avoid one style being optimum, including kiting.
Our President spends time on that site, so we are aware of the discussions, and welcome them. I wouldn’t have gone, let alone stayed, in gaming if I had a thin skin.
We also have been tempted, and have been to their sites. I still remember the covers we could get for the Gold Box games, since SSI had the right to pull anything out of TSR’s art library for free. None of the box covers were commissioned for those games, but rather for other TSR products. Since the relationships would be different here, there are more issues involved. If we do go that way, we will certainly advertise the fact.
The Chaos Touched have the potential to be stronger, faster, etc. than ordinary folk (avg humans have 0 stats and tend to max out around 4-5, while Touched can range up to 18). They master weapons and spells far faster. And they have Abilities which are beyond normal folk.
Notable abilities would include turning invisible, leaping high, being able to pass through closed doors, being resistant to knockback, harming undead (final list depends on final balancing of the game). Some are subtle, some are flashy. Race/Class/Specialty determines the combination of abilities, though the characters can gain additional ones during play.
So a Touched walking down the street looks ordinary (for a healthy, dangerous person in the employ of the Emperor), though should he leap to a rooftop and send a cloud of arrows into a ravening horde, people may suspect.
As to magic, there are several avenues to casting within the world. Slow ritual magic is uncommon, but known. The Imperial Houses have methods to create what are known as Holy Orders of Knights, who may have restricted spellcasting (single element, single themes). But for fast, flexible casting of spells powered by raw chaos, only the Touched do that. Monsters and spirits may have spell-like abilities, such as the Fell Drake’s poison cloud in the video, but not a wide range of spells.
Again, I’ll be working on a few posts or vlogs to expand on this during the KS campaign. Thanks for your interest.
Ah, the challenges of pricing. We’re looking at a large game and an initial price probably in the $40-50 range (depends on the market near release), so we felt a $25 was a reasonable discount. And it would take a large proportion more of $15 pledges to equal the $25. The price seemed to match other recent large games, but it was a hard call.
Apologies, Woolfe. The only exclusive we have is a cross-promo we are doing with Shroud of the Avatar. As they’ve been great to work with, and as they’d done cross-promos with Star Citizen and Underworld, we felt we should do the exchange. Also, while the Blade is distinctive and useful, it is not a game changer.
We did consider giving out other items, but see the negative reaction to this with other projects, so removed them prior to launch. And we never wanted higher tiers to just be about getting another exclusive item.
A Roguish Knight might make an interesting point man. Able to spot a lot of traps and brush off the few he misses; being the one unlocking the door when enemies burst out. Lots of permutations. A Tough Wizard starts to move into the Fighter/Mage style, providing the flexibility of going melee or stepping back and firing spells. One of my players in the table top version runs variants like that.
Yeah, I took the easiest combos of Specialty/Class/Race for the video, figuring they’d be the easiest to convey. I’ll be doing an update on Kickstarter discussing this in greater detail, but the Specialties are designed to work with all the classes, with some being more natural fits. For instance, Nature spells don’t break stealth, so a Nature Scout (of any Race) would be sneaky and deliver poison spells without many enemies identifying the source. He’d lack the skillset of the Rogue Scout, and would have wider choice of attacks (bow and spell).
By the same token, a Nature Knight might not care about the stealthy spells, but he could add poison to his two-handed blade, or use the local plants to limit enemy mobility, giving him the option to manage the number of enemies who could close or run away.
There are still many rounds of testing and polishing before all these element are locked in stone, but the goal is to create a very flexible but quick way of generating characters.
Yes, we plan a steady stream of updates, text, vlog, and some videos elaborating on our design choices, and plans.