Runemaster - Developer diary 14 - Armies and Banners

[wolfing]

Pleasantly surprised with this dev diary. I was expecting the typical Heroes of Might & Magic/King's Bounty tactical combat, but the squad system adds a whole new layer of strategy/tactics to the mix. A few questions:
- Do squad bonuses apply regardless of the unit's position or do squad members need to be 'close'?
- Are there positional elements in combat (like flanking) and similarly, is there 'facing' (as in, unit is facing right so an enemy unit attacking from the left has a bonus)?
- What does 'All Healed' action do?

 

[Talar]

I like the squad system, should give some more depth to both army organization and playing the tactical battles. Do you expect the squad organization to be changed depending on what type of enemies you encounter? Or will you only change it when you get new units/equipment?

 

[roplox]

Fantastic it is, also the interface is glorious

 

[Birken]

Alternating squads is an interesting idea, and I like it more than alternating single moves. My only concern with it is if you wind up sitting too long between squads watching enemy moves.

Units can move and act simultaenously (from a graphics standpoint, behind the scenes they'll still take turns), so the ai will start several moves and attacks at the same time to reduce waiting. We'll also include options for faster animation speeds.

With controller support are you only going for Xbox 360 controllers and if not what gamepads will be supported?

We're going for the xbox360 layout, if you have a similar gamepad it'll be possible but you might need to set it up in your os.

looks like a screenshot from a game from 1998

Great! We aim for an 80's feel so ten more years and we're there

Thank you.
Im am indeed Lead artist on this project. But Jonas Jakobsson deserves all the credit on this interface.

+ Daniel Moregård should have an honorable mention for the initial design.

Pleasantly surprised with this dev diary. I was expecting the typical Heroes of Might & Magic/King's Bounty tactical combat, but the squad system adds a whole new layer of strategy/tactics to the mix. A few questions:
- Do squad bonuses apply regardless of the unit's position or do squad members need to be 'close'?
- Are there positional elements in combat (like flanking) and similarly, is there 'facing' (as in, unit is facing right so an enemy unit attacking from the left has a bonus)?
- What does 'All Healed' action do?

- It applies regardless of position but it's something we'll probably look into more during beta.
- High ground gives bonuses. Different unit types can have different positional bonuses. Early versions had facing and different armor values for each directions, but it became too much micro management and you'd sometimes end up feeling punished when things affected your position/orientation. Instead we want flanking to be affected by the direction of previous attacks (ie you need two units attacking a unit from different directions to get it).
- All healed switches to 'Heal' if any of your units have been wounded. Healing mechanics are subject to change though and the 'All Healed' probably won't make it into the final game.

I like the squad system, should give some more depth to both army organization and playing the tactical battles. Do you expect the squad organization to be changed depending on what type of enemies you encounter? Or will you only change it when you get new units/equipment?

You'll probably change it when you know you're going up against a certain type of unit or if you've been beaten by an enemy and want to try a different strategy, but I expect that the average player will find something she/he feels comfortable with and not change it until the army changes in some way.

 

[Mauer]

looks like a screenshot from a game from 1998

lol, it does have an old-school look, the icons remind me of Warcraft 3.

I don't like the font used though, I hope they change it.

 

[Raph]

The main character is not considered a standard unit and can attach itself to any squad prior to the battle, extending the maximum size of that squad to four. Not only will this make that squad 33% larger than the others, but each class also have one or more abilities that will boost all members of the own squad. Not having the main character in a squad allows that squad to equip a banner which can be better at enhancing stats used by certain units or make up for weaknesses of certain units.

Will all enemies have size 3 squads or will there be NPC heroes boosting squad size in some more important battles?

EDIT: Oh, and the system sounds great! I love hexes

 

[wolfing]

Will you eventually have more units 'at hand' than what you can place in the battlefield, so you choose which ones to use depending on the situation, or will you need to leave anything above 15 behind in a town/castle?

 

[CorruptedSanity]

Not sure if I've played a system quite like that before (if I understand the squad mechanics correctly) - Sounds pretty cool!

 

[Mrop]

Will all enemies have size 3 squads or will there be NPC heroes boosting squad size in some more important battles?

EDIT: Oh, and the system sounds great! I love hexes

The 5 squads of size 3 is only a limitation for the player. Enemies can have any configuration.

 

[Birken]

Will you eventually have more units 'at hand' than what you can place in the battlefield, so you choose which ones to use depending on the situation, or will you need to leave anything above 15 behind in a town/castle?

We're still discussing this. It needs a lot of balancing and we're still a little bit early to see if a reserve is something we want in the game or not.

 

[Trunting]

So er, there will be a battlefield with the entire army on it. Or will it be squad vs squad on different battlefields?

 

[wolfing]

So er, there will be a battlefield with the entire army on it. Or will it be squad vs squad on different battlefields?

Most probably a map where the squads are placed, according to the screenshot. Not sure if you'll be able to change the initial placement of the units, or if that ability maybe depends on a skill like in Heroes of Might and Magic (or is it King's Bounty?) where the higher your 'Tactics' skill level, the more 'hexes' you have available to place your troops.

 

[Darsara]

The screen shot lso confirms some of the (planned) unit types available to/as humans: some sort of warrior, man and woman possibly at least two variants, (not sure about the guy next to the berserker); apparently an archer; spellcaster; and horseman.

interesting.

 

[Thure]

The screen shot lso confirms some of the (planned) unit types available to/as humans: some sort of warrior, man and woman possibly at least two variants, (not sure about the guy next to the berserker); apparently an archer; spellcaster; and horseman.

interesting.

The selected unit is a Gydja. So... A priestress. Maybe a healer?

 

[KPJ]

Looks interesting! This squad stuff will make it significantly different from HOMM3 or Warlock, I think.

I'd also like to add that I'm glad to see a dev diary that tells us something about the game, some of the other ones have left me with very little actual gameplay detail (i.e. "This is what Skald does", but not really understanding how the game is played or anything)

 

[Mauer]

The selected unit is a Gydja. So... A priestress. Maybe a healer?

Heh, I thought Gydja was the name of the character.