Copper Dreams Update #16

Whalenought Studios are back with a new Copper Dreams Kickstarter update. In it we learn that Joe, one of the developers, had to spend some time at the hospital, and if that’s not a valid reason to delay rolling out the alpha version, I don’t know what is. Apart from that, we get a lengthy explanation of the new tick system that makes the turn-based combat of Copper Dreams feel more responsive. A lot of other gameplay features also get a mention, which results in a massive update jam-packed with screenshots and animations.

An excerpt:

Overview of Ticks and Tiles

As we mentioned in the last update, the gameplay wasn’t feeling as impactful towards the goal of being able to react to enemy turns on the fly. There also wasn’t a way to clearly visualize these elements. It was competent on paper and execution — turns for players/NPCs just take a variable amount of time on the combat bar to execute, however, wait times, lack of clarity of predicting enemy turns and not wanting to get stuck in a long turn during combat was hampering player actions, encouraging you to play too carefully. There was the promise of reactivity in turns, but gameplay and use of time just wasn’t allowing it. Ticks, tiles and shorter phases allow the player to have the intel to make more calculated and reactive decisions.

The ruleset we had described in our original Kickstarter pitch has been a difficult one to find just the right gameplay for. The original idea had the essential premise of the turn-based model with just staggering turn order. Players and NPCs took turns when they were able to, and these took various amounts of time to perform and recover from, and could be temporarily interrupted. These actions were all displayed on a single timeline.

What we’ve implemented instead is a solution that replaces the general idea of ‘time’ with chunks of time for actions we call ticks. We also brought back tiles to quantify distance, in the pursuit of clarity.

Ticks are represented by a quarter second of gameplay, but are abstract in that longer animations can play-out during these, or multiple hits shown off individually. So behind the scene, these play out like regular turns where gameplay they appear as more linear time.

Importantly, on a bar with other combatants these are super easy to compare. If an enemy is targeting you with a pistol and takes 3 ticks to aim, and 4 to recover from, you have the insight to know to start running and to attack after their bullet is airborne, as it obviously won’t follow you. So with ticks, you can quantify how long your action will take compared to your enemy’s actions, allowing you to plan your moves and have the payoff of dodging and taking cover.

In Turn Mode, which can be toggled whenever you want and is automatically turned on in combat, after any action you take recovers, the world pauses for you to take another turn. We’ve somewhat reformatted the UI to make this snappier, and there’s no longer a confirm button for using an action. Once selected, your actions cannot be interrupted or changed, so gameplay is quite a bit quicker.

The new layout also makes it simple to assess when and where bullets and thrown objects are headed. When it’s your turn you can see what direction they’ll be flying at and start to get the feel for how fast they travel.

With these changes the gameplay really has hit its stride, and we’re very happy with it. We hope you enjoy the flow of combat and all intense roll-under action during the alpha.

[…]

A few of the other gameplay features that we’ve recently implemented and will be cleaning up for the alpha for these maps:

• Kill-cam during ticks. For confirming decapitations
• Swimming. When you want to infiltrate while getting really wet. Create wet tiles to slip on!
• Cruising the grid. Your civilian grade vehicle options are a combination of an 80’s sci-fi vehicle and the Peel P50, really adorable for the cyborg agents stealing them to get around on. You can drive onto the electro-magnetic powered freeway grid to navigate to new city maps quickly.
• Shadow. We have shadows working really well, where you turn largely ‘invisible’ if you are sneaking in a dark part of the environment. These can be removed with lighting, or by taking out lighting. Being ‘hidden’ is boolean, and trumps a line-of sight from the enemy.
• Interior Line of Sight. If your character is obstructed by a building, then that building gets sliced away down to the level height of your character (so you don’t have to spin the camera like a maniac to navigate the maps). We now have a blacked area inside that building so you can’t see inside. If you get near doors and windows however, your characters can peek inside via a line of sight cone.
• Computer Hacking. Roll-under to see how well you perform or how well you block yourself from further use of the computer!
• Chemistry. Find icky and fun glowing substances and put them in jars. You can fill these mixtures in 1/4 increments, with increased potency the more you the fill, or seal it off and then utilize it as a thrown chemical agent. It’s like canning fruit, but instead using radiation and chemical waste.