Love Gun

[Love Gun]

OldGreyBeard wrote:

Hmmm … “Eaters-of-the-dead” … that wouldn’t be so bad. But all I can think of is, (PLEASE!! forgive me, Deutsch speakers!) “Todenessenern”?

Never! ;P

To me (, a native German speaker,) “Totenesser”(would be “correct”, I guess) sounds too flat, it does not roll off the tongue easily – I cannot exactly put the finger on it, but there is something wrong with it.

“Leichenschmauser” would be kind of funny (Leichenschmaus = funeral feast), but it is too soft for a deadly creature and too long and not catchy enough.

“Kehrer”(= sweeper) would be fitting, since they do clean the battlefields; it is catchy. But probably no good name for a creature.

I’d deem “(sich) laben” a good, german word to describe the ex-ghouls’ main characteristic in one word, since it means “to revitalize/brace oneself by eating/drinking”. But I don’t know what would be the corresponding noun and, after some research, I think there is none.
I guess, it would be “Laber”, “Labener” or “Labner” – they all do not sound like good names for a beastly creature.

But a “Lab” could be a creature (it reminds me much of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alp_(folklore) ), though this is already the german word for “rennet”.
The least form could be called “Labling” (,where the “ling” indicates that it is a little/lesser, not (very) dangerous creature like a “Frischling” for example), the middle form “Lab”
and the highest form “Laberdan” (, though this is actually already a german expression for “pickeld cod”; I think it is a really fitting name, especially for the fatso-ex-ghouls, with a good sound to it in general and it also has a dangerous vibe to it, at least for me (as a (native) German (speaker))).

[Love Gun]

PsenBattle wrote:

In hindsight I actually think it may have been a mistake to use the names “Orcs” and “Goblins” for two of our factions as they invoke extremely strong expectations and are already precisely defined by tons of fantasy reference. So whenever we stray from the path of the “known lore” people get confused or disappointed.
Thats one of the reasons I dont want to call the ghouls “ghouls” anymore.

Then what is stopping you (guys) from also changing the names of your Orcs and Goblins, or are you alone on the team in that opinion?

Are the creatures-that-soon-won’t-be-called-ghouls-anymore the “entirely new enemy” that has been teased in today’s dev blog?
(Please say, “No.” ;P)

[Love Gun]

Nice!
To have the belly overlap the pedestal is a super idea. I hope you will keep that one. I love it!

Will the Ghouls still be able change their appearance and strength mid battle by feasting on corpses?
I’d deem growing horns instantly rather a trait of demons or supernatural beings than one of beasts; or are they not any longer supposed to be beasts?

Then again so is gaining muscle mass or weight.

[Love Gun]

Welcome back, Paul!

PsenBattle wrote:

Actually it would be cool to have a rocky coast or more variants of sea to land transitions.

That’s the spirit!

PsenBattle wrote:

Unfortunately painting the coast tiles was the most horrible task I ever did and it took me almost 3 weeks.

I am pretty sure that I know now, how you imagine hell. ^^

PsenBattle wrote:

So I guess we will have to settle with the existing beach tiles.

Come on! Now that you’ve got the hang of it?

[Love Gun]

Hey Paul,

I was wondering, if it would be possible to have swamp to sea transition tiles for situations like this:

and also cliffs as transition tiles between sea and mountain for such situations like this:

to get a more natural look and more variety for the worldmap, so that there is not always beach at the sea.
I think a welcome sight would also be pebble beach tiles.

[Love Gun]

PsenBattle wrote:

Love Gun wrote:

one of the helmets be damaged above an eye slit in such a way, that the lidless eye underneath, staring out of the hole, would be visible?

Thats a cool idea, but as all fallen heroe equipment is usable by the player I think it would look a little strange on a regular human.

Wouldn’t it be possible to just show the part of the regular human face underneath the helmet layer/the hole area like it is done with any other helmet where part of the face is still visible? But I guess, Fallen Heroes do not have a head underneath the helmet, do they?
Sure, if it is not worth the hassle, let it be. Or maybe it is stuff for a named version of the Fallen Hero Helmets.

Anyway, awesome work on the ancient dead!
Could there be named versions of the face helmets depicting animal or goblin or orc faces – or a human skull (lol) ?

[Love Gun]

Hey Paul,

what’s going on? Nothing new or in progress to show or do you have an illustrator’s block?^^
Also I’d like to know your thoughts on my idea for the Fallen Hero helmet two posts above. ;P

[Love Gun]

Hey Paul,

excellent work on the bandit banners! They will definitely go down in style. ^^
At the direwolf head banner shouldn’t one of the upper ropes be taut?

The new fallen heroes are also very cool.
Would it be possible to make one of the helmets be damaged above an eye slit in such a way, that the lidless eye underneath, staring out of the hole, would be visible?
Quite like this:

[Love Gun]

Love Gun wrote:

Then comes the 5th, though the game has to, at least, hint at dragons in one other situation for this banner to make sense. And last and least is the 4th Orc banner.

I just realized, that I have miscounted. It is supposed to be:
Then comes the 6th, though the game has to, at least, hint at dragons in one other situation for this banner to make sense. And last and least is the 5th Orc banner.

PsenBattle wrote:

Exactly. I wont spoiler yet, but this is not a rework of the ghouls.

Damn, I was so certain ^^ , though their noses are all of different shape. Then I would say, No.2 and 3 are not the strenghtened versions of No.1, but independant tiers of one new enemy type. I am looking forward to their relevation.

PsenBattle wrote:

I personally like the banners quite a bit. The basic premise was to make them look different than the orc banners (white paint on dark background). The references of Goblin banners you can find online are very scarce (except warhammer fantasy, where they opt for a colorful, comical look).
The poles they are using emphasize their skills in metal working and should resemble imperial roman banner poles while not looking too similar.
I expect a lot of people don’t think they look very “goblin-like” because I invented my own style here and did not use an existing stereotype.

I see. Though I did not mean, that I want them to look like stereotypical Goblin banners (what ever that would be), but have the flags show something, that emphasizes their traits (, as described in their introduction). Something that the banner with the Goblin city/state and the waxing moon already has, I realized. It shows, that the Goblin state is most important and the waxing moon symbolizes, that they are an ambitious state/race.
At least I do not see anything similar in the other 5 banners.

The reworked 1st Orc banner looks very nice!
(Does the upper rope consist of two seperate ropes, where the parts in the background are exactly behind the ones in the foreground? If not and it is supposed to be one thread, then only one should be before the bone on the right side, while the other one should be behind the bone and thus not seeable.)

By the way, Paul; what do you think of the following?^^

I noticed, there are some small errors pictured on the main menu wallpaper, if you consider how it is in the game.

If I understand it correctly, the guy on the left, bears a Boar Spear, while the sitting one has a Longaxe and the one right next to him a Billhook.
The Boar Spear ingame has a range of 1 tile, while the Longaxe and the Billhook are 2-tile range weapons, that makes the Boar Spear shorter than the 2-tile range weapons.
But on the picture, the Boar Spear is about 50% longer than the other two, though they actually should be longer than the Boar Spear.

[Love Gun]

PsenBattle wrote:

Am I seeing the new look of the Ghouls; plus their look after feasting on one and a second corpse?
They look more like mumified human corpses than some feral creatures. The ornamental painting and the gold jewelry adds to the tamer look, implying that they have been part of some ritual burial. The collar also gives the impression, that they have been enchained and are not their own master. I’d prefer them to stay feral creatures.

Regarding the banners:

What is it about the grid or gate on the 4th Orc banner? The 3rd one depicts the lore/spirit of the Orcs the best (I’d say, it shows the tribe’s warlord and the three skulls on top are former contenders.) The 2nd best is the 2nd one. It follows the manner of the 3rd. The 1st and the 4th are on place 3. Then comes the 5th, though the game has to, at least, hint at dragons in one other situation for this banner to make sense. And last and least is the 4th Orc banner.

The idea of decayed banners for the Wiedergangers is cool. I could even imagine an event or contract twist (for a new contract: search (for a sign of) the lost patrol) that triggers, where a patrol looks like a regular noble house patrol from afar and when you get closer, the banner changes to a decayed one and instead of just finding the patrol one has to fight the now undead patrol.

Am I the only one, that thinks, that one cannot recognize the Goblins in the Goblin banners at all? The closest is the spider banner, pointing on the fact, that Goblins utilize their poison; but that’s as far as it goes.

PS: May I suggest this pole layout (see the attached picture) for the first Orc banner? Since it lacks something to make it stand out in comparison to the other four.

Attachments:

1. 

   pole-layout.jpg
   

2. 

   pole-layout-1.jpg
   

[Love Gun]

Hey Paul,

I was digging through some older posts and had a look at these pictures again:
camp-objects
camp-objects2

That raised some questions:
How will the combat objects influence the units’ movement possibilies; will they all just block the tile they occupy or will objects where it makes sense (e.g. bedroll, crosses, grave with tombstone) still allow units to step on it?
Will some of the objects work like height level modifiers (e.g. +1: table, the big heightened grave stone; -1 the dug grave)?
Will the stone walls be crossable, like one can jump over them, if the opposing tile is not occupied already by a unit or another object, but cannot stay on their tile? (Could be an interesting mechanic)

I noticed, there are two “water tiles”. What’s the deal with these; are they just puddles and thus cosmetic or do they have an impact? (Do they possibly have something in common with my idea for water tiles: http://steamcommunity.com/app/365360/discussions/2/364042262872090117/#c492378738692697893 (for ease of use, I’d recommend to press ctrl+f and type in “water tiles”))

Are the new banners supposed to substitute or complement the current mercenary banners (the ones when creating one’s company?)?
Haven’t you worked on a banner creation system some time ago? What happened to it; or was it meant to be used by the noble houses only?

[Love Gun]

PsenBattle wrote:

We will rework named items in general a little and also their distribution. We want to put more focus on exploration, so most of these items will be lootable in treasure locations hidden somewhere on the worldmap.

I hope that exploration-part will be implemented in a way, that it fits the theme of the game.
Like doing it by (also) adding contracts, that are about protecting:

– an adventurous noble, that seeks fame and fortune, by finding some steeped in legend artifact

– a group of treasurehunters/grave robbers only interested in gold, aiming to sell all valuables they find

– cultists/monks searching for a relic to strengthen their cult(you get everything but the relic they are seeking) (plot twist: turns out it is or wants to become a necromancer. So after success you made a necromancer more powerful or created one. Is a deal a deal or will you kill this madman?)

– a noble house seeking for a mighty weapon, to obtain superiority over the other houses

Pay could be a share of the loot, but maybe there is nothing to loot at all or it is simply upfront gold. Then there could be options to screw the contract and renegotiate or even steal or kill and take whatever aroused your desire.

In my opinion, renegotiating combined with blackmailing(for oneself and the contractees) should be a thing in general, at the cost of renown/relation of course.

[Love Gun]

Godlike!

It definitely is better now. ^^
Nice to see you showing your art on your own so much. :)

I wonder if the unique armors and their respective helmets will be sets and thus grant a set bonus (like in e.g. Diablo), when one merc wears both the armor and the helmet?(at least they look like they do belong together) For example some additional resolve, for wearing the matching helmet to the armor.

Where will one get those items? Honestly, I cannot imagine them being dropped by mere raiders, even if they are leaders. They look too good, seem to be in a too good condition to have been looted by raiders after a battle.
Especially the Heraldic Mail; would only fit a knight.

The shield with the wing nailed on, is close to being over the top. ;P
Was stuff like this for real; or is it artistic liberty again? ^^ I don’t think that shield would look like that for more than one battle. ^^

What about carvings on a wooden shield or a shield with a spike(assuming you don’t want to add shield spikes as accessoires), that makes your Shield Knock Back/Bash deal 50% more damage.
(What leads to another question: where do you want to go with the unique weapons(or would this be legendary ones)? Will they just deal a little more damage, cost less fatigue, etc. or will they have some special additions like dealing 1,5x damage, when used from height advantage or after moving on the same turn, thus allowing playstyles/builds that are only viable with that unique weapon/item (like in Diablo 3) ?)
Or some unique Orc Feral Shields with nailed on hands, ears or scalps; or Human/Orc/Goblin skin stretched over the shield’s surface? I reckon several faces sewn togehter would look quite intimidating(like in the fashion of the Orc Warrior armors, that consist of several Human armors).

Also will there be unique Lutes? ^^

[Love Gun]

Thanks for the clarification.

See you next time!

[Love Gun]

Cool.

PsenBattle wrote:

The upper 2 rows contain 12 mercs max. There are more than 12 slots so you have more freedom in setting up your formation. The two rows represent how your men will be deployed in battle (facing upwards).

Will one be able to save and load different formations, making one’s own preset formations?

PsenBattle wrote:

The tents are for your reserve. You can switch your men around freely and fight with less than 12 if you want to.

So there will be 17 reserve slots?
Thus will it be theoretically possible to have 18 mercs in your party but send for example only that one Swordmaster into the fight against a pack of direwolves to level him faster?

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