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Urtuk: The Desolation - Review

Posted on Mar 03, 2021 22:42 by RPGWatch

[​IMG]Explorminate reviewed Urtuk: The Desolation:

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Urtuk: The Desolation Review

Urtuk: The Desolation (Urtuk) by David Kaleta (also known as Mad Sheep Studios) is a turn-based tactical strategy game where you play a character named Urtuk, who has just escaped from a lab after being subjected to horrific experiments that will eventually kill him. Now he is searching for a cure, and will steadily recruit allies from the world at large to use in tactical turn-based battles in pursuit of his survival.

Overview

Urtuk begins with character selection, letting you pick three characters from one of the available factions. In the beginning, only the human faction is unlocked, but every faction in the game is available in one form or another once the conditions required to unlock them are met. Additionally, you pick three mutations to start with. The bulk of them are available from the start but winning with a faction unlocks three more, and some can be obtained through faction unlocks are found nowhere else in the game.

Characters are defined by their class, stats, equipment, mutations, and their bonus capabilities vs. a randomized, specific unit class. Class determines a lot about a character, including what they can equip, starting and developed abilities, and what actions they can take. The mix of these is always unique, and no two character classes start from the same point, though some of them can end up at similar endpoints. For example, there are multiple classes that feature the billhook weapon and many of them have the ability to close a greater distance than is indicated by their movement rating, then locking down an opponent with the Engaging Strikes ability. Armor and weapons also determine what kind of damage the character will do, how effective they will be vs. armor, and finally how many bonus mutations their gear provides.

[...]

Conclusion

Urtuk: The Desolation is very good. While it is not perfect, and that is perhaps philosophically impossible to achieve anyway, it does a lot of things right and is a very enjoyable experience. I have enjoyed my time with the game and fully expect to get dozens, if not hundreds, of more hours of the game in years to come. It is something I can easily suggest to most any turn-based tactical RPG aficionado, and will (hopefully) make many of them very, very happy.

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Alaloth - The Way of Gods

Posted on Mar 03, 2021 22:42 by RPGWatch

[​IMG]Lore update #8 for Alaloth:

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Lore Update #8 - Ways of Power: The Way of Gods

May the All-Father bless your soul

Champions!

You'll need power and skills to survive in the world of Alaloth. To possess them however, you will first have to choose a Way of Power and a Profession. Today we'll take a deeper look into the Way of Gods, one of the three Ways of Power you'll be able to choose from.

In the world of Plamen, you are never alone. A god or two is always watching over you, guiding you, giving you strength, or cursing your enemies. Following the Way of Gods, a champion will have the power to gain boons and abilities from a plethora of deities; some good, some evil-depending on a champion's wishes. The gods channel their power through champions that they feel are worthy of possessing it, channeling spells that heal or kill as needed.

[...]

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Wasteland 3 - Patch 1.3.3: New Features

Posted on Mar 03, 2021 22:42 by RPGWatch

[​IMG]Patch 1.3.3 for Wasteland 3 brings new features, including respeccing and perma-death mode.

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Do you remember that time we offered a new difficulty mode that was easier than easy, and it caused everyone in the community to think we'd lost our minds? We remember. We remember it so hard that we've been tossing and turning in our beds thinking of a way to show you we hadn't lost our minds. Because we haven't lost our minds. We haven't, so stop saying we have, Mother! Early March we're targeting the release of Patch 1.3.3, lovingly titled "Death & Taxes." You can tell that we're not messing around here. This is exactly the sort of update that those among you who chided the idea of a story mode are going to love. And we get it, because pain is fun. In this update we're adding a few new features, including Permanent Death (aka "Permadeath"), an optional Difficult Skill Checks Mode, and Respeccing. Read on for the gory details.

"Permadeath" Mode

No matter how many bullets fly past you or how many enemies you're assaulting at one time, you're never really going to feel the threat of despair until you're able to lose a character. And by lose, we don't mean misplace, we mean lose to death. With permadeath, you're going to get exactly that because it works exactly how you think it should. When activated at a game's start, it turns your nearly immortal-ish digital characters into something more or less mortal (for a video game), and means they'll croak when their health reaches zero.

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One other important note here is that we've made the decision to keep Permadeath as a single player-only feature which cannot be enabled in multiplayer. As much fun as is to watch your friends subjected to painful and horrific video game deaths, co-op splits the team down the middle, and one player losing everyone and then watching for (potentially) his until the other can make it back to Ranger HQ just isn't a good time.

The Permanent Death feature also cannot be disabled once you have opted in at the start of your game. So choose, and choose wisely.
  • When life runs out a Ranger will go into a Downed state, and you'll have X rounds to bring them back into the battle. If you fail to do so you'd normally be able to bring them back with a Nitro Spike or visit to a Doc, but with Permadeath turned on party members permanently DIE. This is really going to bum someone out who didn't read the fine print.
  • Once a party member shuffles off their mortal coil, their Party Portrait is removed from the HUD and other game interfaces, and they can no longer be selected or used. This is because they are dead.
  • Lest you thought that you would be able to commune with the dead via the Party Screen back at HQ, you cannot. Much as necromancers would have you believe otherwise, you cannot add the dead back into your party.
  • God forbid, if all Rangers in your party are killed permanently at any one time, you will earn a non-negotiable, do-not-pass-go, Game Over death screen. This is because the light of life has been extinguished from the party and the forces of evil have triumphed. Unless you were the forces of evil, in which case perhaps the forces of light and good prevailed when they killed you.
As an additional note, permanent death enabled games will be noted as such in the save game directory menu - that way you'll have a good idea at a glance at which of your sessions are more prone to give you indigestion and make your heart palpitate wildly from time to time.

Difficult Skill Checks

Perhaps the idea of permanently dead Rangers isn't your speed? Or maybe you're looking for the ultimate challenge with Supreme Jerk, Permadeath, AND something that'll put your point-spending prowess to the test. Introducing Difficult Skill Checks Mode.

This option is toggleable when starting a new game on the Select Difficulty Window, within the Customize Difficulty sub-menu. When turned on, this will increase all skill checks in the game by +2, up to a maximum of 10.
  • World interactions (Ex: locked doors)
  • Conversation interactions (Ex: kiss-ass checks in conversations)
  • Hacking and Taming checks on animals and robots
  • Item skill requirements on gear (ex: weapons have skill requirements)
  • Attribute requirements on gear (ex: heavy armor requires strength)
(Look. We know. We know it's not just skills. But we wanted to go the extra mile for you. Yes, you, reading this, right now. You're worth it.)

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This optional mode was designed to force your Ranger team to hyper-specialize to be successful, making your jack-of-all-trades 'master-of-all' party no longer possible. This is great for a 2nd run-through if you want to be forced into some hard character build decisions.

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Respec Feature

Also coming in 1.3.3, you're going to be able to re-specialize your characters, with a caveat or two. Firstly, this can only happen back at Ranger HQ, within the Manage Squad screen. HQ is a relatively warm and comfortable place, so naturally it makes sense that we'd offer such a posh option there. Secondly, there will be a cost for respeccing or recruiting Rangers beyond the first two at HQ. No one teaches for free (except maybe those folks on YouTube) so expect to eventually shell out some in-game coin to be able to do so.

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If you are loading a pre-1.3.3 save beyond the initial recruitment point at Ranger HQ, we're still going to offer you two more free recruit customizations. Beyond that, the cost for respeccing increases by 1.75x (rounded to the nearest $50), up to a maximum of $3000, each time you use it. Additionally, Hiring and Retraining fees increase across the entire squad, not per-character.

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Character Customization Additions

When you're digging into that new Permadeath run you're going to be able to do so in style. It's not like a cool helmet design is necessarily going to save the day, but it might just make you feel badass enough to do the thing that makes the thing happen that blows up the thing. In Patch 1.3.3 we're baking in 23 new character customization options (tattoos, scars, and helmets) that were born of another partnership with renown post-apoc costume designers. We'll share more specific details about those in an upcoming article. Stay tuned.

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Colorado's just getting warmed up.

Well heck! We're not even into the meat of the year and Colorado is already looking 100% finer than it did at the close of 2020. Did we mention 1.3.3 is getting a heck-ton* of improvements and fixes as well? Well it is! Full patch notes will be delivered when the patch goes live next month.

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Outriders - First Impressions

Posted on Mar 03, 2021 22:42 by RPGWatch

[​IMG]Uptick checked out the Shooter RPG Outriders:

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Outriders first impressions

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Non-RPG General News - Valheim: Early Access Review @ PC...

Posted on Mar 03, 2021 22:42 by RPGWatch

[​IMG]PC Gamer reviewed the survival game Valheim:

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Valheim review: a challenging and rewarding Early Access survival adventure

Explore, craft, build, fight, and survive in a massive and engaging open world.

It's my first trip across the ocean on my tiny wooden raft and I'm holding my torch nervously as I peer through the pitch-black night. I feel intensely vulnerable. I've never left my starter island before and I have no idea what's waiting out there in Valheim's massive procedurally generated world. After a long, tense night of sailing I finally set foot on a new continent, and immediately discover what looks like a village. That's a surprise-I didn't know there were villages in Valheim. The village is full of draugrs. I didn't know there were draugrs, either.

The mob of undead warriors bash me with axes and bombard me with arrows. I flee and sail home miserably with little to show for my hours of exploration save for badly degraded weapons and armor and a few draugr entrails from the two I managed to slay. I decide I'm never going back there. Ever. But the discovery of draugr intestines has given me a new recipe for sausages, so I stuff the rotting entrails with boar meat and flavor them with thistle in my cauldron. Then I eat them, my eyes widening as my health bar grows to twice the size it's ever been.

I am going back to the draugr village immediately. I need more sausages. I am now in the sausage business.

[...]

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Solasta - Dungeon Maker

Posted on Mar 02, 2021 22:03 by RPGWatch

[​IMG]Solasta: Crown of the Magister will include a dungeon editor:

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Dungeon Maker Showcase - Create your own Dungeons!

Hey there folks,

You wanted it, we wanted it - modding tools to create your very own adventures in Solasta. We didn't make any promises back during our Kickstarter as we weren't sure we'd be able to make it before launch... But today we're happy to announce the Dungeon Maker - a map editor that will be accessible in-game to each and everyone of you! And we're not just making promises with a few screenshots here - here's a full video to show you what the Dungeon Maker is, and how it works!

Will the Dungeon Maker be fully complete when Solasta 1.0 launches?
No, the Dungeon Maker will be in a beta state for quite some time - even after the 1.0 launch of Solasta. In order to have a playable version of the Dungeon Maker and avoid putting the main game at risk, we've decided to start small and add features as we go (rather than being too ambitious from the start).

What are the current features of the Dungeon Maker?
  • Freely create dungeon layouts using a selection of preset rooms
  • Link multiple maps together to create larger dungeons
  • One environment available for now, the Necropolis, with its set of environmental props to decorate your dungeon
  • Almost all monsters and items from Solasta: Crown of the Magister main campaign to create your encounters and loot
  • A selection of traps (just a few for now) to punish greedy adventurers
  • Easy to share online, it's a simple .json file in a folder. We plan to add Steam Workshop later on so it becomes even easier to share.
What are the future features planned for the Dungeon Maker?
Provided we see people using the Dungeon Maker, we plan to add a Quest system, Merchants and other environments. After that... time will tell!

Can I import my own monsters / items in the Dungeon Maker?
No, at least not using the official Dungeon Maker tool on its own. That being said, it might become possible through the use of other community-created mods, as some have already started to create new classes and archetypes - so new items / monsters may not be an impossibility in the long run!

Where can I share my creation / download other people's Dungeon Maker maps?
While Solasta will eventually be on Steam Workshop later, in the meantime you could always take a look at Nexusmod - where you can already find mods from community members adding new feats, archetypes and other creative ideas! Note that we (Tactical Adventures) do not guarantee anything when it comes to user created mods - some may not work at all.

When will the Dungeon Maker be available?
Soon! That's all we can tell you for now :D

[...]

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Black Legend - Releasing March 25th

Posted on Mar 02, 2021 09:52 by RPGWatch

[​IMG]Black Legend has a new official trailer which announces a release date of March 25th.

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Available March 25, 2021 on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One & Series X

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Elden Ring - Leaked Gameplay Trailer

Posted on Mar 02, 2021 03:52 by RPGWatch

[​IMG]DSOGaming reports on a leaked gameplay trailer for Elden Ring.

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It appears that a gameplay trailer for Elden Ring has been leaked online. Elden Ring is a new action-adventure RPG from the creators of the Dark Souls games, and below you can find an off-cam video showing 7 seconds from its leaked gameplay trailer.

[...]

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Turn Based Lovers - On The Radar - March 2021

Posted on Mar 01, 2021 21:52 by RPGWatch

[​IMG]The Turn Based Lovers lists the upcoming tactical / turn-based games:

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On The Radar - March 2021

All the releases of the month.

About choices and consequences

"We are our choices"
- Jean-Paul Sartre

One of the most recurring topic for an aged videogamer/RPG addicted like me is: "Be sure that the story of our game will be heavily influenced by your CHOICES!". I mean, anyone who has ever played, just for once, a pen & paper RPG is well aware that the beauty and the charm of this particular kind of hobby lies in the unpredictability of the player's choices and in the consequent impact of them on the story.

To better explain what I want to say, I'm going to tell you about what happened to me the very first time I've played to a P&P RPG. We were a group of five or six friends, everyone in their late teens, and we were playing to D&D (don't ask me which version, I'm not an expert...). There was a great atmosphere: laughter, tension and chips were everywhere, and we were really enjoying our adventure, thanks also to a skilled dungeon master.

At a certain point, our characters were in front of a cave with a very narrow entrance. Everybody knew that the inside the cave was full of strong monsters (if I'm not wrong, they were some kind of lizard fighters...) and the idea of going into the cave one at a time was almost a suicide. We were in a deadlock...

But, suddenly, I had an idea.

I asked every player what kind of items they were carrying, and, among a pile of junk, I found exactly what I was looking for, the DEFINITIVE WEAPON: a...uh... strange herb. Nobody really knew what it was for, but I decided to do something a bit crazy with it. First of all, I started a fire very close to the entrance of the cave and then I decided to burn the herb on it. Not satisfied with all this, I used my cloak with the purpose to direct the smoke into the cave.

[...]


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Knights of the Chalice II - Version 1.11

Posted on Mar 01, 2021 21:52 by RPGWatch

[​IMG]Patch 1.11 for Knights of the Chalice II:

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Update #44: KotC 2 Version 1.11 Adds High-Res Sprites For All Monsters!

Hello everyone! Version 1.11 of KotC 2 Augury of Chaos is now available for download here for both Windows and macOS. The main change is the addition of new animated sprites for monsters. Hurray! ^_^

With the addition of monster sprites from Pioneer Valley Games, the KotC 2 file size has now increased from about 1 GB to about 2 GB. I have now assigned a sprite to all the characters and monsters.

I did my best to find a matching sprite for all the creatures even though we're missing sprites for some of them. We're missing the Giant Snake, Snakeman, Giant Frog, Evil Eye, Psionic Beetle, Rust Monster, Giant Crab, Formian, Giant Scorpion, Gorgon, Hydra, Roc, Mimic, Mummy, Gelatinous Cube, Vrock, Marilith, Mantis and Centaur. I'll hire someone to create additional sprites after the game is on Steam. Right now, I think it's better for me to focus on the other remaining things needed by the game.

Winged characters can now have black, red, blue, green or white wings.

Skeletons deserve a special mention as they exist as both stand-alone monster sprites and modular character sprites. Modular sprites are for characters, they are designed to allow the display of weapons and armour on top of the character's body.

You'll find the 'Skeleton' option in the list of body types, which can be found either in the editor when you look at the Creature Properties screen and click on the 'Sprite' button, or in the character sheet of party members when you click on the token image in the top-left corner of the sheet (out of combat).

In addition to sprites, I've added hundreds of new dialogue icons that can be accessed within the Script Editor. Those icons are displayed in the top-left corner of the screen when talking to NPCs.

Now that the game has sprites for both characters and monsters, it can be played from start to finish with the 'Display Creatures Using Animated Sprites' option turned on.

Of course, I did some combat tests yesterday and I noticed a bunch of graphical glitches when playing with the sprites, such as the Confusion effect being displayed on the legs of a character rather than the head, or the 'item destruction' text being displayed right on top of the name of the item being destroyed. I will fix these issues soon, together with a bug I've just noticed when the AI uses the Slide action.

I also noticed an issue with player-character pathfinding in version 1.10. I've fixed it in version 1.11.

Some of the game options were somewhat hidden in version 1.10. I've added drop-down icons in the game-options screen in order to make it clearer that for some options, such as accelerated combat, you need to click on the option to display a selection box with the various choices.

[...]

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Prometheus Wept - Update 3

Posted on Mar 01, 2021 03:33 by RPGWatch

[​IMG]Update 3 for Prometheus Wept shows off the Hec8 Labs and a UI Update.

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Hi everyone,

I hope you've been keeping well since the last update. The first demo area is very close to complete, with the exception of optimisation, balancing and testing. The more recent focus has been on:

1: Preparing the Hec8 Research Bunker Demo Area
This is the second play area to feature in the upcoming demo. Here, you will have to overcome the bunker's mysterious guardian to gain access to the bunker's secrets. An as of yet unannounced feature of the game, which will distinguish it from other games in the genre, will be showcased here. I'll go into more detail on this in the near future, but for the time being, here are a few screen-grabs from the bunker.

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2: Improving the UI screens
I've also been working on the appearance of the UI screens. Prometheus Wept will have more depth than Vigilantes. This creates a need to display more information, which in turn makes creating a clean and clear UI more challenging. Here's the current character screen for the game.

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What's next?
After these two jobs, I'm going to add the first permanent ally to the game. In Vigilantes, each ally had a single, unique perk. In Prometheus Wept, each ally will have between 4-8 unique perks and many of these will unlock powerful activated abilities. This will result in a fair amount of extra work, but the pay off will be unique allies who play very differently from one another. I'll update you on the first ally, Ferdia Galloway, a con man and sociopathic mentalist, as soon as he has been added.

If you have any feedback, questions, or comments, do let me know :)

All the best,
Daithi

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Within the Cosmos - February Development Update

Posted on Feb 28, 2021 21:23 by RPGWatch

[​IMG]February development update for the Scifi-RPG Within the Cosmos:

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February 2021: Development Update

Scanning, Hacking, Crime, new GIFs & screenshots!

Hi again everyone! Since the community update I posted in January, I've been really eager to post a more informative community update for all of you, getting more into specifics about the game, rather than just talking about the current state that it's in.

Today, I will be showcasing two important aspects of the game, which are, Scanning Mode & Crime. Each one presented unique challenges for me, but I finally feel like they're both in a place that I am happy with.

Let's start with...

Scanning
Here's how it works:
Upon entering scanning mode, your weapons will be holstered, and you'll be able to see everything near you that can be hacked, as well as any related upgrades that you've made to your scanner. Hacking can only be done while in scanning mode, and will use up some of your suits energy. How much energy the hacking will use is displayed when you look at the item you want to hack.

Hacking
Hacking was one aspect I was debating on how to handle while I was developing the game. I wondered if it would be best to have a mix of quickhacks & a hacking mini-game for certain things. I created a few different mini-games for the hacking aspect but none of them ever felt "right" to me. At the end, I decided that hacking should be determined strictly by your characters skill level (skill check), as opposed to it being determined by skill level and then also requiring you to complete a mini-game. So in turn, the only hacking in the game are quickhacks. Here are some of the quickhacks offered in the game:

Some places in the game are restricted, and as expected, these areas have some security measures in place to prevent and catch trespassers. Disabling security cameras in these locations will allow you to pass by the area that the camera is surveilling without being detected.

[...]

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Outriders - Demo available

Posted on Feb 28, 2021 15:13 by RPGWatch

[​IMG]The Shooter RPG Outriders will be available on April 1. Check out the demo.

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Outriders

OUTRIDERS is a 1-3 player co-op RPG shooter set in an original, dark and desperate sci-fi universe.

As mankind bleeds out in the trenches of Enoch, you'll create your own Outrider and embark on a journey across the hostile planet.

With rich storytelling spanning a diverse world, you'll leave behind the slums and shanty towns of the First City and traverse forests, mountains and desert in the pursuit of a mysterious signal.

Combining intense gunplay with violent powers and an arsenal of increasingly twisted weaponry and gear-sets, OUTRIDERS offers countless hours of gameplay from one of the finest shooter developers in the industry - People Can Fly.

INTENSITY OF A SHOOTER, DEPTH OF AN RPG
OUTRIDERS' brutal and bloody combat combines frenetic gunplay, violent powers and deep RPG systems to create a true genre hybrid.

A DARK AND DESPERATE JOURNEY
Discover the hostile planet of Enoch as you embark on a journey to the source of a mysterious signal.

DYNAMIC 1-3 PLAYER CO-OP
Play single-player or join up to two friends in drop-in drop-out co-op as you tackle the horrors of a hyper-evolved planet.

FOUR UNIQUE CLASSES
Create and customise your own Outrider and choose from four unique classes each with its own skill tree to define your own playstyle.

SCAVENGE & ADAPT
Customise and upgrade your Outrider with countless items of mod-able guns and gear, as you leave humanity behind.

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