Well Entropeeps (sorry),

It's been over two months since we launched Entropy into Early Access and we've been steadily adding lots of stuff to the game. Last month saw the release of the Great and Terrible update - full of potent narcotics and foulmouthed mercenaries - and just this week we put out a patch to improve the Stealing system. 

But this is all a mere appetiser for what's to come, as we're steadily toiling away on the next major content update - this time set entirely on a new land. What awaits you there, I hear you ask? Oh, no, I couldn't possibly say - that would spoil the surprise! (Although I have dropped some hints in the past). 

Instead, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of the inspirations and design goals for Entropy; taking just one small slice of the game and breaking down what we were aiming to achieve, in what may become a semi-regular series of articles. 

First up, I wanted to talk about the Targeting & Permanent Injuries systems.

In Entropy, instead of attacking normally you can always choose to Target a specific part of the enemy; their Head, their Right Arm and so on. This sacrifices accuracy for the chance of disabling that body part and bestowing a significant debuff. For humans this could mean them dropping their weapon; for monsters it could, for instance, mean disabling their ability to cast magic. 

Probably the most obvious inspiration here is the Aimed Shot system in Fallout, which allowed trading accuracy for the chance of critical hits. And yes - you heard me right - Aimed Shot, not V.A.T.S.! The latter only came along in Fallout 3, and wouldn't let you shoot someone in the eyes from across the map with a gauss gun - which is like, why even bother?

Another big inspiration was the holdup system in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, in which you could point your gun at the back of an enemy's head and Snake would automatically yell 'Freeze'. Then, as they were quivering in front of you, you could shoot them in the arm so they couldn't use their weapon, or their leg to make them limp - or their radio, so they couldn't call for help.

Now, obviously, this is all quite sadistic behaviour, but I don't think that's actually the reason why the holdup system is an endearing mechanic. In truth it just makes these NPCs far more interactive; they have a number of 'verbs' they can use against you (shoot, flee, call for help) and instead of simply killing them (something the MGS games discourage), you can gain the upper hand by altering how they interact with you. It's precisely this dynamic interactivity we wanted to capture with the Target system .

Finally, the last inspiration here is Mordheim. In the past few years I've become quite fond of the old 1999 tabletop game, playing a few campaigns with friends - and I've always enjoyed the way your mercenaries can suffer permanent injuries if they get KO'd in battle. You'd think this would be annoying (and sometimes it is), but it also enhances the roleplaying aspect. There's something extra satisfying about Janus, your scrappy youngblood with a missing eye and broken leg, taking down a mutant with a rusty dagger against all the odds. 

(See that guy at the front of my warband, leading the rest of them into an alleyway? Yeah, he got absolutely hacked to death next turn. RIP hodensack.)

Of course, none of these games work quite like Entropy - with its JRPG-style party layouts - so we adapted these inspirations to fit within our own mechanics. With enemies, Targeting allows you to disable or weaken some part of their strategy against you - and with members of your own party, losing limbs is a character-building near-death experience. 

We're not quite done with these features, either. In the last content update we added prosthetic weapons that can only be equipped by injured mercenaries - and we have other ideas planned in this vein, which mean that injured party members may be able to take advantage of certain... opportunities that other mercenaries cannot. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little detour into our Entropic Inspirations. Stay tuned for more Entropy news; coming in December we will have a roadmap to outline what's on the horizon for Entropy. Until then, ciao!