Bay 12 Games Forum

I didn't say the reason for cancellation [of the meeting with Josh] because it was personal and I would not cross that line and share another person's reason.

We DID however meet today for a couple of hours. I would say that generally the meeting was nice but I don't feel that we are at all or any means close to a release.

I did see a working map, working POIs, agents and combat, character creation, menus, UI - stuff like that.

I did NOT see working AI, turns passing, etc - many of these elements are threadbare or torn apart as Josh is trying to make them work.

We did agree to work more closely and have a weekly meeting to discuss what's going on and next steps.

We are also trying to have a more modular focus where we work on getting this all together piece by piece so we can get a little closer to getting something anything in people's hands.

I stressed everyone's frustration with the way communication and stuff is handled, he acknowledges it, is very focussed on working on this and getting it released, but unfortunately, he has no idea on how long it will take.

So I don't know - we're going to keep meeting weekly - he's going to keep working, hopefully we'll have something super pre alpha to show soon. I stressed that we need to show SOMETHING as proof that it's not "vapor"

Quote from: ZeroGravitas on July 01, 2016, 09:26:27 am

Quote from: forsaken1111 on July 01, 2016, 09:21:04 am

Maybe I'm missing something but don't the gameplay videos and screenshots show that they 'made an attempt'?

There are no "gameplay" videos. He never presses end turn. The entire thing is probably a mockup in Unity. It looks like there is a game, sure. But there really isn't. It's smoke and mirrors.

Same thing with the screenshots. There are even typos in them that suggest that there is no game engine - like ruler names being randomly misspelled in particular fields. The only real explanation for a mistake like that is that there is no game engine pulling a string from a data file. There is a guy manually entering text into a field to make it look like a video game, but he screwed up.

He did end the turn a few times. I believe it was six turns in total with some events happening. So there was at least some engine running. But I agree that the typos struck me as strange back then, too.

Quote from: ZeroGravitas on July 01, 2016, 09:26:27 am

There are no "gameplay" videos. He never presses end turn.

I see him go through several turns with things happening in this video. He's explaining mechanics, you can see events popping up. If it's a mockup it's an impressive one. I've prototyped things less impressive in Unity which would still qualify as games.

https://youtu.be/Qb2uub1wn0s

If you play the Standard Scenario you generally have a basic level of understanding how the game is going to play out, which was our goal - to make it a challenging experience that relies on your learning the patterns of the world.  Manipulating the nations that hate eachother, targeting wise kings, timing a crippling famine at the right moment - but even inside that structure there's so many explosive elements.  The moment you take a "radical" choice like killing the King and his immediate family, you get the unexpected - like one time I had cursed the King's Family, the Barons declared him unfit, split into two nations, and began to fight a civil war.  Meanwhile the Tribes had united behind a Hero, who they proclaimed their chosen king, but he was Cylarian, the barons have a diplomatic summit after a bloody battle, declare the Cylarian hero their king (I didn't see this result but I'm assuming its because he is friends with all the barons and the heroes that were acting as diplomats), making him the king of both powers, he then went on to marry the daughter of the elves (at this point he's simply a diplomatic monster)... overthrows the Elvish Council and declares himself King.... now his ego and diplomatic skill are both max, he manages to Annex Elerion into Cylaria (still only three crowns) - I'm just watching this happen, because I'm spellbound, I don't want to interfere because I need to know what can possibly happen.   The united three kingdoms attack Arden, recapturing the farmlands, he makes peace and turns Arden into an ally.

Long story short, he discovers I'm rising and crushes me.  Despite the fact that he was simply taking over the world he was friendly with every hero, so no one was stopping him.  I ended up adjusting how heroes see other friends if they're growing too powerful, but the completely random events that lead up to this were otherwise "expected" to function that way.   In addition, later builds implemented the Balance of Power desire which makes nations take a more critical eye at people who are growing stronger.

Now that's an outlier but still somewhat understandable based on the scenario setup, if you add in the Game Modes you get some real crazy stuff.  I have a lot of favorite Modes, but on the North Burns playing with "Liberty" is a really fun way to switch it - it makes revolutions and slave revolts much more common and you get to see the world rip itself apart and remake itself.

If you really think it was a scam then you should bring some kind of legal action against them.

I get that people are upset, but investing in a startup is not a license to slander or abuse the producers of the product. If you think your money has been misused, file suit. Leaving mean comments on the forum or kickstarter page does nothing but make you look like an idiot.

Good on them for giving it a solid try.

Well that was fun. I have pretty shit cards but finally earned the 700 gold to unlock the first wing of the explorer adventure. Neat encounters, very cool bosses. Now working on the class challenges.

In another week I should have the 700 to unlock the second wing. Will have to work out if I should fold the new cards into my decks.

The no word on release is decidedly a good thing.