Real-time Infiltration, Turn-based Tactical Combat

[Prussian Havoc]

As I watched the Lamplighter League gameplay video (

) a few more times, I quickly came to appreciate just how much lethal potential has been baked into the real-time infiltration game mechanics.

Yes, you can pursue intelligence on enemy composition and disposition, but you can also shape the tactical battlefield for the upcoming fight by damaging or eliminating key enemy combatants. Though it might be this choice to employ lethal kinetics that triggers the advancement from the Infiltration phase to the Tactical Combat phase. But even this is not certain since one of the Devs mentions that she prefers to eliminate multiple enemy combatants prior to commencement of turn-based combat…

Anyone catch any other real-time or turn-based game mechanic nuance in the gameplay video?

 

[stjobe]

There's been games before that have had a real-time phase before turn-based combat; the one that comes immediately to mind is Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. In that game, the real-time phase continued until you were spotted, so it was (mainly) used to set up ambushes before triggering combat.
If LL has the same kind of mechanic, perhaps it also will rely on stealth?

I'm a huge fan of that kind of mechanic, as it makes the game feel a lot speedier than if everything was turn-based.

 

[Pyoro]

tbh I don't know a turn-based game (like this) that doesn't do a switch between real time and turn-based, at the very last for movement purposes. The question is just how and when the switch happens. For example, somebody said that the mechanic reminded them of JA2. I can see why, but anotably difference between JA2 (original) and this is that in JA2 as soon as you spotted an enemy it'd force you into turn-based mode. So if you see an enemy and want to sneak up to them you had to do it in turn-based mode. This seems to not be the case here; instead you can play that part like Commandos (or comparable games).

Of course, if you're playing JA2 these days, you probably play 1.13, and there you do get the option to continue in real time with enemies spotted (just not anymore when enemies spot you - which seems to be the case here too). So it is accurate in that regard

A question to me would be - but I'd consider this practically an inexcusable oversight so I'm kinda taking it is a given - if you can forcibly trigger turn-based mode by yourself if you want to, possibly because you anticipate it happening soon anyway or because you want don't want to move your group into exact cover positions in real-time (always a bit fiddly) or something of that kind.

 

[GloatingSwine]

There's been games before that have had a real-time phase before turn-based combat; the one that comes immediately to mind is Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. In that game, the real-time phase continued until you were spotted, so it was (mainly) used to set up ambushes before triggering combat.
If LL has the same kind of mechanic, perhaps it also will rely on stealth?

I'm a huge fan of that kind of mechanic, as it makes the game feel a lot speedier than if everything was turn-based.

Yeah, Mutant Year Zero worked pretty well when it came to watching patrol routes to look for weaknesses where you could split off a few enemies and lock them down so you could deal with them silently without alerting the rest.