FTL is a very nice game, to which I return every now and then.



I think it gets the pace right in having short games, but having such an amount of content that there is always the need to replay the game to find everything, giving certain value to replay.



They have set up a nice amount of species, each with their unique bonuses, and strong ones. Yet the game has a breadth of facets that there is no single 'killer race' which trumps all others.



An amoeba hero could maybe know part or all of the layout of the dungeon beforehand. Perhaps with an enhanced skill it would know if the next map has features such a major module, merchant or enemies.



A sophon hero would yield better bonuses when operating equipment. A craver would be best at fighting, but have a penalty somewhere else.



The game still has undeveloped areas - nothing aabout science and tech to speak of so far - which makes it hard to pin down the exact bonuses each hero should have, since those areas could be beneficiary of some those.

XGrimxLimbX wrote:
Will there be different types of modes?



example:

x easy

x medium

x hard



Depending on the type of hardness, if you choose to ignore giving food to a hero to have them on your team, they could run off and do something drastic. Could follow along the lines of what was mentioned earlier about sabotaging your strategy.



Also, I've found that beginning some games have been ridiculously hard when those tough little bastard androids that ignore you and go straight for the crystal are the first thing you encounter, and massacre your power before you are able to open a second door. Will we be able to choose which characters we start out with? Starting with two weak characters is pretty brutal.



OH! And will there be more cut scenes? I like the pixelated art.

Weak heroes? All I heard was a challenge.

What's the point of the suicide/dismiss function? It is only really useful when you want to hire someone else (ie. replacing one of your people), I don't really get why this should be an option in the normal screen.

Skills are not in yet, but it seems that there are what, 3 slots?



I think each equipment should also have one additional skill slot to it. It does not mean every equipment would have a skill, but some equipment could have an active or passive skill.



An advanced medkit tool could, besides the normal effect of healing HP over time, consume food automatically to prevent the hero from dying for example.



A sword could have a 'monofilament decapitation' attack which could do a one-hit kill on a monster.

May be I haven't played enough to figure it out or just missed it... I'm unable to understand heroes' ability to "Manage a module". How does that work? What good does it do to have a Hero dedicate his time to "manage" a food source/ industry?

Uns33n wrote:
May be I haven't played enough to figure it out or just missed it... I'm unable to understand heroes' ability to "Manage a module". How does that work? What good does it do to have a Hero dedicate his time to "manage" a food source/ industry?

If a hero is next to a module when you open a new room you gain extra resources depending on the hero's wit.

mbails wrote:
If a hero is next to a module when you open a new room you gain extra resources depending on the hero's wit.

Oh yeah! Just played and finally figured it out! Wasn't very clear to me before :] Thanks!

From Steam:

"NightFury83" wrote:
I would also like to be able to feel more involved in the levelling of my hero(s).

Just simple stuff doesnt have to be extreme. I'm not expecting a huge talent tree with various options etc. But, more Diablo 1 like, such as whether I want to put points in a certain ability - more crit for someone who I would want to do dmg with, more health for a "tank" type person who could take more hits etc.

So, when my hero levels up, you could get x amount of points to spend, with perhaps a maximum amount going to one certain skill? Example:

Level One hero has 20 attack power. I level them to level two, where I get 6 points to spend amoungst the 6 abilities available with a max of 3 in a single ability. (attack range of melee/ranged doesnt count!)

I want this hero to hit hard so I invest 3 points in attack power, with the 3 spread elsewhere.

I think this is the first time this has been mentioned. I think it's a neat way to diversify the heroes while giving the player more to do than pressing the level up button being done with it.

Lulz! wrote:
From Steam:



I think this is the first time this has been mentioned. I think it's a neat way to diversify the heroes while giving the player more to do than pressing the level up button being done with it.

You may notice construction stripes across "skills" and so on in the hero tab, I think it is likely that when a hero reaches a particular level or particular conditions are met - operated lots of major modules, done a lot of repairs - they will be able to gain "skills" at some build later on.

I don't think that's what NightFury is saying though (and to be sure, I'm not insinuating that I thought the heroes were working in their fullest capacity either). As I read the GDD on Heroes, I didn't see any mention along the lines of hero customization in terms of his or her growth, so I thought it was pertinent to mention NightFury's suggestion as something that he (and I as well) thinks would be cool to see.

Lulz! wrote:
From Steam:



I think this is the first time this has been mentioned. I think it's a neat way to diversify the heroes while giving the player more to do than pressing the level up button being done with it.

Maybe take a page from FTL and make it so some of the passive bonuses your heroes earn come from the actions they do consistently?



For example: If you have one character whose constantly working one or more module, their next level reflects that focus. Maybe they have an increase in Wits--but don't gain much more HP, or attack. Likewise, the guy whose always opening the doors might become tougher and more aggressive--but how does that change his psychoses/wits?



While we're on this talk of heroes: How many heroes are we looking at? Are they all humanoids? Will we ever run into locals/natives on this planet who we might be able to sway to our cause with food?



I'm partial to the idea of finding natives who might help out. It'd add a third level of complexity to the character roster (guards, prisoners, and the local population) which could make for some really complicated psychoses issues--buuut that's more programming ya'd have to do.



There again, going to the GDD 7 post on the background and story--a great way to characterize this planet without walls of texts would be through characterizing some of the natives.

I think that each hero should have a favorite piece of equipment for each of the 3 slots.

When using that equipment, the hero would get additional bonuses.

When using 2 pieces of favorite equipment, another extra bonus apply.

When using all 3 yet another bonus comes into effect.

fepriest wrote:
Maybe take a page from FTL and make it so some of the passive bonuses your heroes earn come from the actions they do consistently?



For example: If you have one character whose constantly working one or more module, their next level reflects that focus. Maybe they have an increase in Wits--but don't gain much more HP, or attack. Likewise, the guy whose always opening the doors might become tougher and more aggressive--but how does that change his psychoses/wits?



While we're on this talk of heroes: How many heroes are we looking at? Are they all humanoids? Will we ever run into locals/natives on this planet who we might be able to sway to our cause with food?

I think that's a good way to go about it while keeping it relatively simple. Also, there was mention (somewhere) I think of heroes being more than just humanoid type races (ie. Human and Hissho); they've got plenty of source material to go on with ES. I'm imagining something like a Craver hero (how to be friends with something that just wants to eat you/everything?) or a Sower one. Those should be interesting to see.



As for the idea of favourite equipment, there's going to be something like 70+ heroes in the game? Set bonuses might be kinda cool, but I think it's a lot of extra work that the developers wouldn't be looking at right now. Don't know how many items there's gunna be either.

Will there be different types of modes?



example:

x easy

x medium

x hard



Depending on the type of hardness, if you choose to ignore giving food to a hero to have them on your team, they could run off and do something drastic. Could follow along the lines of what was mentioned earlier about sabotaging your strategy.



Also, I've found that beginning some games have been ridiculously hard when those tough little bastard androids that ignore you and go straight for the crystal are the first thing you encounter, and massacre your power before you are able to open a second door. Will we be able to choose which characters we start out with? Starting with two weak characters is pretty brutal.



OH! And will there be more cut scenes? I like the pixelated art.

Character ideas (I'm surethe developers already have their own ideas. This is more of a wishlist)



A Craver bishop/queen--Prisoner of War

A Sower unit set to maintain the planet for the Endless

A Horatio engineer on the Success

A harmony Person of Interest

A Rogue Sheredyn intelligence officer

A political dissenter from the United Empire

A Hissho Drug Lord

Lulz! wrote:
From Steam:Originally Posted by NightFury83

"I would also like to be able to feel more involved in the levelling of my hero(s). So, when my hero levels up, you could get x amount of points to spend, with perhaps a maximum amount going to one certain skill?"



I think this is the first time this has been mentioned. I think it's a neat way to diversify the heroes while giving the player more to do than pressing the level up button being done with it.

Alternative proposal:

The orientation of leveling depend of which ressource we add to food. That's give 4 possibilities fot the levelling:

_food only

_food + industry

_food + science

_food + mist (is it correct? brume in french, la flemme de chercher le bon terme :P)

I really like the Hero system, the characters are all really well balanced and compliment each other nicely. As for food-leveling, I love it. I just wish eating food in real life would give me some serious stat boosts instead of fat boosts.

Baarfind wrote:
Alternative proposal:

The orientation of leveling depend of which ressource we add to food. That's give 4 possibilities fot the levelling:

_food only

_food + industry

_food + science

_food + mist (is it correct? brume in french, la flemme de chercher le bon terme :P)

This was a concept I had rolling around in my brain as I was playing. Or rather each category can consume different resources and a characters level is derived from how many times they have had stat upgrades purchased. There would be + markers next to every stat and when hovered over and bubble would appear indicating how much of what resources would be consumed in order to upgrade the stat. Examples:



HP: Food

Attack: Industry

Defense: Industry + Food

Wit: Science

Speed: Science + Food



Range and Haste (cooldown) should be weapon derivative, in my opinion.



The cost of a stat in these scenarios is dependent on your level. Every stat purchase, regardless of what one it is, will increases your total level by 1. Example:



HP grants 50 hp every time it's purchased. Upgrading HP always uses food

Attack grants 1 point every time it's purchased. Upgrading Attack always uses industry



Level 1 costs 5 resources regardless of what stat is upgraded. For HP 5 food is consumed. For attack 5 industry is consumed Hero is then progressed to level 2

Level 2 costs 10 resources regardless of what stat is upgraded. For HP 10 food is consumed. For attack 10 industry is consumed. Hero is then progressed to level 3

Level 3 costs 20 resources regardless of what stat is upgraded. For HP 20 food is consumed. For attack 20 industry is consumed. Hero is then progressed to level 4

ETC.



*These numbers are just place holders and I'm not suggesting these be the actual numbers used, they are just examples



Doing a leveling style like this makes it so players are more likely to build characters in a specific direction because it's more difficult to switch down a different path once prices become too bloated to easily build up weaker stats, making it just not worth it. It compliments the already built in concept of heroes with unique specialties and personalities without having to build an individual leveling path for each hero. A hero who starts with high attack and defense stats will find players often upgrading those stats primarily because it's better to have a specialist who excels at one thing in games like this rather than an all arounder who is mediocre at everything. The player has freedom of choice to build his heroes as s/he pleases but is still pushed in a certain direction in order to compliment the heroes predefined play styles.



It also adds a fun end game element. In the event that a player has a hero that has stuck around (not died) for a seemingly endless amount of time (assuming an infinite mode is added) that player could potentially create a "god" hero with outrageous stats given proper resource management. An excellent reward for playing well and keeping a hero alive long enough. And just imagine the brutal pain you would feel if that legendary hero you raised did eventually meet their demise due to some unfortunate circumstance?

Jangles wrote:


Awesome stuff

This is so cool and I think it fits well with the current mechanics. It's relatively simple (which is what the devs want to keep) while adding a decent amount of depth to the hero's development and gameplay at large. It might allow certain heroes to take on different roles than what they are currently pinned into or you may instead specialize them for a certain role; adding speed to Gork might allow him to be a little more versatile while suffering a penalty to his attack or you might level his attack and HP much more instead turning him into a one-man wall. Certain ratios could be given to the heroes to diversify them (ie. costs less to upgrade Gork's HP/Attk but more to increase Speed, Sara might be the opposite). I could see balancing being an issue here, but I do think this makes the heroes more interesting as a whole.

Lulz! wrote:
This is so cool and I think it fits well with the current mechanics. It's relatively simple (which is what the devs want to keep) while adding a decent amount of depth to the hero's development and gameplay at large. It might allow certain heroes to take on different roles than what they are currently pinned into or you may instead specialize them for a certain role; adding speed to Gork might allow him to be a little more versatile while suffering a penalty to his attack or you might level his attack and HP much more instead turning him into a one-man wall. Certain ratios could be given to the heroes to diversify them (ie. costs less to upgrade Gork's HP/Attk but more to increase Speed, Sara might be the opposite). I could see balancing being an issue here, but I do think this makes the heroes more interesting as a whole.

Thanks for the support. Balancing is always an issue that I'd rather leave to the pros to sort out, but I will say under my proposed idea at least any over powered heroes will be likely a result of an enormous amount of resources spent. Imagine at some point having to pay 500 Industry for a single additional attack point (or any other stat), at least at this point the cost is as ridiculous as your hero has become. There may not be a set level cap but at this point you may say, "screw it it isn't worth it anymore," and start focusing more on other heroes with less cost.