Copper Dreams Update #18 – Hexes and Gameplay

The latest Kickstarter update for Whalenought Studios’ cyberpunk RPG Copper Dreams explains the reasons for the backer alpha delay and unveils some major changes to how the game will look and play. The game’s grid will now be represented by hexagons and not squares, the line of sight system has been reworked, and you can now move and stack boxes to solve puzzles and get into various tight spots. You can see all this in action, along with plenty of developer commentary, right here:

And here’s a quick recap:

• Hannah and Joe sold a house and moved to get cash money for development and get back to Seattle, so there was a small delay.
• Alpha is a solid vertical slice of systems in game, featuring a mid-level operative infiltrating a warehouse of insurgents as various enemy types. Also includes a custom enemy agent. Various challenge and game modes included to unlock with your feedback. Incentives!
• Changed from square tiles to hexagons.
• Our volumetric line-of sight system, which has unseen tiles that are painted black in-world, now includes sensory visuals like the sound you emit and enemy vision cones.
• Line of sight system also now has custom lighting integrated into it — easier visual for what lights are influencing tiles and gives us complete control with what to do with it to influence tiles. Spotlights, flares, tiles on fire, or even the muzzle flash from firing a gun now have clear indication of what tiles they are lighting up.
• Character direction ruleset info implemented for hexes, player can rotate without tick cost for turn. For example shields (or carrying dead bodies in front of you) block attacks from one direction.
• Game feed replaced with more cryptic DM-descriptive health readouts for combatants. Detailed roll information replaced with on-hover details while targeting tiles/characters. Game feed was too heavy before with too much happening, as rolls for aiming were not immediately followed up with a resolution, so things would be out of order. It’s also visually and descriptively obvious how a combatant is doing. Also their faces make increasingly ouchy expressions depending on how poorly they are doing.
• Movable and stackable boxes for cover, climbing and puzzles. It’s the best thing since sliced bread.