Once again, we would like to begin our update by thanking our backers: thanks to you, we’ve already raised $81,894. We’re in the home stretch now. We only need another little push to make the campaign a success.
Yesterday we have surpassed 2,000 total backers and raised funds in excess of $75,000, we will lift the veil of secrecy over the two secret stretch goals. Thanks again!
New goals unlocked
We will also talk about additional content to be added if pledges exceed $110,000 and $120,000 respectively.
Read about Stretch Goal #1: The Fallen Fortress in Kickstarter Update #12
Stretch Goal #2: Free play mode with new content ($110,000)
To us, one of the most interesting gameplay opportunities is to allow the player to continue in the world of Encased even after the main storyline has been resolved. After all, there are always outstanding quests you might want to solve, unexplored locations and hidden secrets that you will want to revisit after saving the world (or watching it drown in the abyss of chaos).
But no matter how much we love this style of play, we have to admit that when it is implemented it often ends up rather boring: no new content, no more reactivity, the world just carries on.
Therefore we are opening up a new goal for Encased - post-game free play with new content! Here is what awaits if we meet this stretch goal:
- The world itself changes, depending on how the core game ends.
- Bonus gameplay mechanics.
- Many new quests and random events available only after the main plot is resolved.
Stretch Goal #3: Mobile Player Headquarters ($120,000)
In the early 70’s, just after the Dome was discovered, the first group of scientists (not yet united under CRONUS) began to brainstorm different methods of exploration. When they discovered that entering the Dome is a one-way ticket, many proposals were put forward for autonomous exploration. But only one of them resulted in a functioning prototype.
This is how a huge machine came to be crawling through the sands of the Dome: Project Ursula.
“Ursula” is a futuristic, desert-traveling locomotive. She is powered by not only an eighteen liter engine, but also an electric motor and even a small reactor fueling the heart of the machine, a self-teaching onboard computer also called Ursula. In addition, an entire working laboratory is contained within the vehicle, with its own dock for research drones.
Despite her purely scientific purpose, Ursula is not defenseless; she is outfitted with multiple weapon systems. The machine guns are loaded and dusty viewfinders scour the horizon, but as of yet her combat journals remain untouched. Ursula’s mainframe moved the train into an uninhabited sector soon after the incident. There she lain ever since, lights out and systems dormant, hidden in the sands. Finding and capturing her won’t be easy...
Game Design Prototype
Taking over Ursula will add a lot of additional fun features, a bit of management and solid core gameplay: the machine will act as your HQ, where you can recover from your wounds and store your loot.
The design of the road train also includes a stationary defense mode. The armored hull can be disassembled and turn your parking space into a makeshift camp.
And of course you can use Ursula to travel across the desert. But it’s worth remembering that the ground train will need spare parts to continue functioning smoothly, and also fuel, because the reactor’s supply of plutonium won’t last forever.
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Additional cars for Ursula may be found in secluded corners of the desert, waiting patiently for the player.
Adding cars will add functionality: an advanced medical compartment, a workshop with machine tools, a training complex, or a platform with large-caliber weapons will appear in your base. The last one will once and for all put an end to any issues with security.
Each new train car also increases fuel consumption and requires the hiring of additional crew members.
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Managing this huge machine requires employees of different expertise: Blue to watch over the engine and systems, White to control high-precision equipment, Black to drive and man the guns, while Orange may be found crawling around the undercarriage with a plunger syringe greasing the suspension and cursing loudly.
If you manage to recruit a Silver Wing officer to the crew, he will take on the role of Commander in your absence, and you will be able to send the train on missions, the details of which are still classified.
The crew is in constant communication: the player can order Ursula to any point where she has access.
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Since we’ve mentioned the possibility of using the machine in various quests, it is worth mentioning that Ursula-related random encounters will only occur if the player has already captured and is using the ground train.
One day, a battered drone with a tightly sealed container will fly to you from the deep desert. A weird, robed stranger will arrive to take a post in the depths of the engine room. While parsing Ursula’s files, a Blue crewmember will stumble onto a map of the Dome with a previously uncharted location. Or maybe the machine will make you and your people its captives...
There are many stories, and they all start in the desert lands at the far flung edge of the Dome, where Ursula dozes, and the on-board computer counts down the last minutes before she wakes.