Sneak Peek At Bionic Dues

[Penumbra]

But if you like, I'll leave you with some cryptic tidbits because I'm just mean like that:

Bring it on!

5. The second big thing is that the concept of AP (in a tactics game sense) is gone, and instead this controls more like a traditional roguelike.  That just felt more natural.

This is super exciting! Will every action take the same amount of time like in Shattered Haven, or will there be a more discrete time cost for different actions?

[nas1m]

This - looks - plain - awesome !
Count me intrigued .

[x4000]

Cheers guys.

5. The second big thing is that the concept of AP (in a tactics game sense) is gone, and instead this controls more like a traditional roguelike.  That just felt more natural.

This is super exciting! Will every action take the same amount of time like in Shattered Haven, or will there be a more discrete time cost for different actions?

I'm not sure what you're referring to with Shattered Haven, as that's a realtime game, not turn-based.  Not that Bionic is really turn-based either, but nothing happens when you do nothing.  You walk one square or take some other action and then enemies walk one square OR shoot.  Weapons have ammo per mission and abilities tend to have limited uses per mission (but not all of them).  Enemies also have ammo, and shut down when they run out.  The BlunderBot has one good rocket shot at you, for instance, and then is useless.  But man that rocket.

Think of Cardinal Quest or Dungeons of Dredmore; it works like those.  In multiplayer it still works like that, except there is a range in which enemies react to you (technically this is also true in solo).  If you are at one end of the map and I am at the other, our actions don't cause anything to happen outside our local zones.  If we're in the same part of the map, then it does.  There is no advantage either way, because the ratio of your actions to enemy actions is the same in all cases.

[nas1m]

Dredmor? This gets better by the minute . I was always more intrigued by the roguelike aspect of what you shared so far. So did i get you right in that the player always controls a single exo, but can morph/swap it into/with another one that then takes its place?

[x4000]

Dredmor? This gets better by the minute . I was always more intrigued by the roguelike aspect of what you shared so far.

The games are extraordinarily different and have very different foci, just to warn you.  Dredmor has a lot more things to customize, way more abilities and items and so forth.  Bionic has no real items, has fewer abilities, has a vastly larger number of customizable slots, and has probably a reasonably comparable amount of types of loot.  It also has the larger meta layer where you are winning or losing as you play, and achieving victories that actually change things as you go through missions.

So a very large part of why you probably love Dredmor is absolutely not here, although they control pretty similarly at a basic level.  And in other respects this has a bit more in common with something like, I guess, AI War or XCom.

So did i get you right in that the player always controls a single exo, but can morph/swap it into/with another one that then takes its place?

Yeah, pokemon, exactly.  Except "always" is a bit misleading.  It's actually "a certain number of times per mission," depending on the strength of your warp core.  Which is one of the many many things you can customize via the procedural loot.

[keith.lamothe]

And in other respects this has a bit more in common with something like, I guess, AI War or XCom.

The resemblance to XCom phased out with various changes.  Even the strategic layer doesn't really remind me of that particularly.

But it is a very interesting twist on the roguelike/roguelite, and the AIW influence is certainly identifiable in places (in a good way).

[x4000]

And in other respects this has a bit more in common with something like, I guess, AI War or XCom.

The resemblance to XCom phased out with various changes.  Even the strategic layer doesn't really remind me of that particularly.

But it is a very interesting twist on the roguelike/roguelite, and the AIW influence is certainly identifiable in places (in a good way).

Fair enough -- not having played XCom, it's hard for me to gauge.

[Penumbra]

Cheers guys.

5. The second big thing is that the concept of AP (in a tactics game sense) is gone, and instead this controls more like a traditional roguelike.  That just felt more natural.

This is super exciting! Will every action take the same amount of time like in Shattered Haven, or will there be a more discrete time cost for different actions?

I'm not sure what you're referring to with Shattered Haven, as that's a realtime game, not turn-based. 

Yeah, I don't know what I was referring to either! I messed up, trying to write too many ideas at once... I meant straight turn based, like in Dredmor. Or "time based" like Adom.  You've answered it. Thanks!

This is looking more and more exciting!

[nas1m]

Dredmor? This gets better by the minute . I was always more intrigued by the roguelike aspect of what you shared so far.

The games are extraordinarily different and have very different foci, just to warn you.  Dredmor has a lot more things to customize, way more abilities and items and so forth.  Bionic has no real items, has fewer abilities, has a vastly larger number of customizable slots, and has probably a reasonably comparable amount of types of loot.  It also has the larger meta layer where you are winning or losing as you play, and achieving victories that actually change things as you go through missions.

So a very large part of why you probably love Dredmor is absolutely not here, although they control pretty similarly at a basic level.  And in other respects this has a bit more in common with something like, I guess, AI War or XCom.

No worries, I thought as much . So definitely still count me excited.
But you should know that if you don't stop throwing around such high-caliber excitement raising analogies you will blow my excitement core - *homer* mmmh XCOM ...

EDIT: And yes, I got Keith that there is no such resemblance any more - again, no worries!

[keith.lamothe]

No worries, I thought as much . So definitely still count me excited.
But you should know that if you don't stop throwing around such high-caliber excitement raising analogies you will blow my excitement core - *homer* mmmh XCOM ...

That's why I mentioned it wasn't really like XCOM anymore, I know there's a lot of people out there (myself included) who have extremely high expectations associated with that name

[x4000]

Yeah, I will cease any references to it.  There really isn't a good comparison for the meta layer stuff here -- that I am aware of -- so I went with that as the closest possible thing.  I guess AI War is kind of close, vaguely, in terms of the grand strategy elements.  But this isn't grand strategy, it just has a bit of that vibe.  I guess it's a good sign that I can't think of what else this is like.

[keith.lamothe]

There really isn't a good comparison for the meta layer stuff here -- that I am aware of --

Yea, I can't think of anything either.  There's a bit of AIW, and a bit of Colonizations, but neither really applies outside of an isolated point or two.

[x4000]

It's interesting, because it's not a strategy game.  But most games that give you interesting decisions that affect your long-term situation like this are strategy games.  This is almost more "choose your own adventure" in some respects though.

[keith.lamothe]

Dunno.  I'd call the meta-layer a strategy game in most important respects.  Generally speaking choose-your-own-adventure games tend to be more "you lost because the last decision you made wasn't the right one" and occasionally because of a decision made a while ago, and quasi-often because you made a series of decisions all draining the same resource (health, etc), but here it's more the sum of them all.  I guess we'll see.  Very difficult to put labels on this one except to identify our inspirations.  I think it's a good sign

[x4000]

Indeed.