We at the office have been working on the new foundation code for Super Army of Tentacles: (Not) A Cthulhu Dating Sim, and are so happy with its progress that we have decided to tear out the combat system for Paper Shakespeare RPG and replace it with the new update to the Army of Tentacles series' Argument System. Honestly? It works better with the theme of the game, and means that we can get it out sooner.
We are still hard at work on a combat system for a later RPG.
What will be included in the new system?
A much more code-friendly system means that stats will greatly affect the word battles, as well as giving us the the opportunity to make much cooler skills that affect the battles in much deeper ways.
Will you be putting Argument System 3.0 in the previous two Army of Tentacles games? Say, before the new Army of Tentacles comes out?
I would love to say yes. Let's get into why it might not happen, or might take a while to happen.
Because of the way the original Utahraptor framework (the thing that holds all our systems together in RenPy) was written, it would require a complete code overhaul, and that means an overhaul of two separate games. In that case, we're basically redoing Army of Tentacles: (Not) A Cthulhu Dating Sim and Super Army of Tentacles 3: The Search for Army of Tentacles 2 from the ground up.
Even with an existing script to work off of, we're also talking all of the DLC, the works. Everything would be redone. Every scene, every quest, every Argument, every mechanic. Then we'd need to actually take the copy-pasted Argument System 3.0 and make sure it would have the things required for that specific game.
We're also talking about doing this at no cost to the user, just a simple, free patch. Sadly, we have to weigh that in as a factor, as we do have other games on the slate. We're talking about a 2016 game and a 2017 game, after all. Would we improve the art and resolution for Army 1, to put it in line with the other two games in the trilogy? Would we do art but just leave the resolution the same?
Is it unfair to any new or existing players to leave Army 1 and Army 3 as is if the new one is going to be, for lack of any other term, badass?
The Summary
Paper Shakespeare RPG is getting a cooler combat system. Dunno yet if the previous Army of Tentacles game will get a facelift.
We're very excited to show you the next step.