Melee: Battlegrounds Kickstarter (by cRPG devs) - UPDATED THREAD!

[Grunar]

1 screenshot and 4 renders.

 

[Siegbert_von_Meklenburg]

Those are all shot in the game engine afaik.

 

[The Meddling Monk]

Some more:

Spoiler

Spoiler

Teutonic Knight Surcoat
Catapult

 

[Lerber]

Those are all shot in the game engine afaik.

I don't know specifically in their case, but yes, generally "renders" means it was rendered in the game engine being used.

 

[Meevar the Mighty]

No, in this context "renders" usually means visuals that have been rendered using dedicated 3D rendering software or using rendering plugins for the software in which the art has been produced.

In-engine renders don't necessarily show how assets will look in the final game, but nor does "gameplay footage", when much is still wip.

 

[JabdiMelborn]

...New Gameplay Concept:...
http://forum.melee.org/general/melee-battlegrounds-65980/

ciauz^^,
Jab

 

[Wolfang]

nizeee

 

[The Meddling Monk]

That sounds awesome! I think it would be cool if you played as a mercenary or assassin working for anyone who paid the highest price.

 

[Úlfheðinn]

Please, no assassins.

 

[Siegbert_von_Meklenburg]

Now we're talking!
I knew the round-based modes were just a prelude to the real game

 

[The Meddling Monk]

Please, no assassins.

Why not? Wouldn't it be awesome to go around to all of the different kingdoms/factions working for anyone who would be willing to pay you? I think that would be really cool.

 

[Desideratus]

Then everyone and their mother would want to be an assassin. Wars would be fought with assassination contracts. And before anyone says "That would be cool and kind of realistic" it's not fun for anyone but the assassin.

 

[kraggrim]

Being an assassin is probably made more difficult by the fact the guy won't actually be dead. It's not like the dude won't message his pals and say "Johan_Stormcloak just killed me, here's a screenshot, add him to our faction's KOS list".

Unless you're talking about a ninja-assassin-completely-unseen type deal.

 

[Splintert]

Game already sounds like a blown up version of PW. If it's any representation of what this will be like, it'll be dead without an EVE-like design to protect players who can't protect themselves, without making them invincible.

 

[RalliX]

permadeath: yes, however, very regulated. as a normal player, you should nearly never have to fear someone just killing you for the sake of it. We can't tell exactly what gameplay elements that will incorporate, but in general it means: if someone kills you, it is because he wants you specifically dead, and is willing to take that risk. not because he wants your stuff, it's not medieval dayz. Trying to kill someone puts a lot of risk on the killer, and will have to be carefully planned.

permadeath alts: also, to soften the permadeath blow, you will have multiple characters, not just one. you will control one character at a time, the others are NPCs who do the grind stuff for you (run your economy)

Resources: your family will take care of that, when you are online and offline. No grind.

- to attack someone you need a levelled character (no throwaway)
- if you kill someone, it can be traced back to you
- put some negative perk on you, possibly one that you cant get rid of (eg being capable of being murdered in your sleep by the family of whoever you killed)

those are just a few ideas, not necessarily what will be in game. but that goes for anything in this thread, really, we are developing iteratively.

 

[Splintert]

If there's anything that can be learned, it's that post-action consequences don't do a very good job of preventing the action. Especially in a video game. There's inevitably going to be a number of ways to get around actually getting punished.

 

[The Meddling Monk]

Unless you're talking about a ninja-assassin-completely-unseen type deal.

That's what I meant. I guess it would only work if there wasn't a killfeed. Or maybe there could be an assassin's guild and it could be harder to trace someone who was part of it.

 

[kraggrim]

You could probably run an assassins guild which levels up disposable alts and then uses them in assassinations. And charges rather a large amount for it due to the time/energy involved. Would also make assassinations easier if you never expected the char to survive the attempt. Style it as an assassin cult that brainwashes it's members or something.

Not as glamorous as having a high level master ninja assassin, bur probably more feasible considering what Rallix posted.

 

[The Meddling Monk]

You could probably run an assassins guild which levels up disposable alts and then uses them in assassinations. And charges rather a large amount for it due to the time/energy involved. Would also make assassinations easier if you never expected the char to survive the attempt. Style it as an assassin cult that brainwashes it's members or something.

Not as glamorous as having a high level master ninja assassin, bur probably more feasible considering what Rallix posted.

That's a great idea! But did they confirm if there could be any sub-factions besides the two main kingdoms? It would be cool if you could select a specific trait or perk if you were making your own faction e.g., non-traceable attacks for an assassin's guild, improved buying/selling rates for a merchant's guild.

 

[chadz]

If there's anything that can be learned, it's that post-action consequences don't do a very good job of preventing the action. Especially in a video game. There's inevitably going to be a number of ways to get around actually getting punished.

First of all, what we're trying to do here is highly experimental, it might fall flat on it's face, but we're willing to risk that, instead of just rehashing concepts.

But for the sake of argument:
- Assume you need a character that spent 100 hours ingame to be able to kill someone
- When you kill someone, you set him back by maximum 10 hours, no matter how much progress he had
- after killing someone, the one who got murdered can wipe out the killer's entire progress (at least 100 hours) with the click of one button
- do you think we would see many murders? (not a rhetorical question)

That's an extreme example. The other extreme would be immunity for the killer. The trick is to hit the sweetspot inbetween. And if we don't hit it, we remove permadeath. As I said, we're experimenting.

What games have you seen where the you learned that 'post-action consequences don't do a very good job of preventing the action'? Because there are hardly any games with such a strict reglementation as we are planning.



In general, we have a specific gameplay in mind, not tools. The tools are there to create the gameplay, not the other way around. We don't throw in a bunch of tools and see what gameplay occurs. We design each tool to move the game towards the gameplay we want to have. And then we iterate, over and over again. As good gamedesign should be, imo.