Hi everyone. The playtest re-started last month so I just wanted to share some progress. These are just small observations and not official patch notes or promised features or anything. I know some of you guys like to follow along but don't have time to monitor Discord, so I'll summarize the playtest highlights here for you.
Big takeaways so far
Switching the strategy layer from turn-based to real-time-with-pause (RTWP) went well. It was a huge change, but feedback has been great. I wish I switched earlier. Now I understand why Xcom and Jagged Alliance went with RTWP for their strategy layers.
Testers were mostly OK with the more streamlined resources and reduced micromanagement. But some aspects will tilt back toward more granularity in the upcoming builds based on feedback.
Labor management and outpost management are feeling good. Giving speeches, paying bonuses, ordering decrees and enacting ideology policies is working as intended. It's delivering the right experience and is very open-ended but without all the prior micromanagement. But needs more content and polish.
However, logistics was a big pain point for almost everyone. So I modified it (see details below).
World map still lacking strategic structure so I'm continuing to experiment with it (see below).
Tactical layer was already feeling great, so no big changes there. One focus point in the last patch was overwatch. I'm not a big fan of the overwatch meta in tactics games. So in this game it's weak on purpose. But previously it was too weak. So I buffed it. Roughly speaking it's about half as powerful as it is in modern Xcom. And I noticed people were actually using it now to interrupt enemy actions. I think it's in a good place now.
One surprise for me was Infiltration. It's a small side mechanic, but it got a lot of positive feedback. First, it's actually useful (for example players liked starting a battle with a spy behind enemy lines providing visibility). And second, it's very thematic for an insurgency. So I will expand it more. And yes, in the Capital campaign you will uses Infiltration to place spies inside the rebellion.
On the world map, infiltration agents perform useful tasks at enemy locations. And if a battle breaks out there, they spawn as undercover civilians. If they don't break their disguise, they can migrate to a new location after the battle. Overall, I will expand Infiltration more.
Logistics
The prior logistics design (as explained in this video) ended up being too harsh. Players felt very restricted and struggled to move around the world map. That's kind of the point of logistics I guess, but the testers are right. It just didn't feel good. So I made the big switch to now actually managing a fleet of squad vehicles. So logistics is again less abstracted. We'll see how this goes.
Sorry for the grainy gif. Steam limits me to 5MB uploads. Anyway, here a squad is walking, then gets in a vehicle and drives off. The point is logistics are physical, not abstracted. However, this needs more thorough testing.
World map
In all previous designs, the world map was square. However, most players felt lost about where to go and overwhelmed by enemies attacking from too many directions. So now I'm experimenting with different map shapes while maintaining a procedural sandbox.
One example of a rectangular world map. It's procedurally generated and still very sandboxy with random hidden points of interest, but the shape could give the campaign more structure. However, I'm still feeling this out and it will evolve with more testing.
Next focus
Continue to test and refine above things. In particular, RTWP has been a HUGE change and was received positively, so it's forcing me to re-think yet again what is the right amount of abstraction/granularity for the strategy layer.
FPV drones
Full gunsmith implementation. The new 3D models look sooooo good I can't wait to share them. Russ (ahintoflime) did an amazing job.
More vehicles on the world map (dropship, train)
Robots
Beginning to test early Capital campaign + Earth interactions
FPV drone chasing its target.
BTW, here's a nice compact playtest story from Tsar Lord. Should give you a more direct feel for the game from a player's perspective. Slightly edited for brevity.
on the latest run i simply put everyone i could recruit into one squad, handed them mining charges and just enough guns to apply suppression, and rolled through outpost after outpost picking up more people along the way. by the time i attacked the comms center to call earth, i had an 18 rebel deathstack in the squad. still lost like 5 or 6 against the tan corporate soldiers, they are not a joke. the tide in that fight didn't actually turn in my favor til i captured a machine gun from the first one that i downed. in prior runs i'd been focused on resource conservation and trying to build a lasting resistance so i could get into the details of the gunsmith system and the espionage and research, but this time i actually played the game like a revolutionary and just threw as many bodies as i could muster at the problem until we defeated the superior force. looking at it through that lens i think the difficulty does make narrative sense and it forced me to adapt playstyles.
Finally, I have to tell you about goose's incredible playtest story. It's very complicated so I will paraphrase: goose lost all soldiers and territory, effectively losing the game. But still had a spy at an enemy location. That spy managed to trigger a new labor uprising and took over the location. It became goose's new home base where new soldiers were recruited, who eventually won back control and contacted Earth. TBH, I didn't even know the game continues if you have a spy. But I will definitely make it a proper feature. The resistance is never truly over.
Alright that's it. If people find this interesting, let me know and I will post this again.
And one more thing: please tune in to PC Gamer's PC Gaming Show Tokyo Direct at Sept 28 at 9am PDT / 12 noon EDT / 4pm UTC / 5pm BST / 1am JST!
-Yuji (MH)