July 2018 Update

Here's the place to talk about the features you would like to see in a sequel to KotC.

Re: July 2018 Update

Postby itsdat » Thu Aug 09, 2018 1:15 pm

BlueSalamander wrote:
itsdat wrote:[Summoner class] This sounds awesome for a stretch goal!
Okay, I'm planning to have it as a stretch goal. Pretty cool concept, but not very easy to implement, so it's good as a high stretch goal.

itsdat wrote:[maximum number of controlled summons] Oh well, maybe after the v1.0 release you can add stuff like these.
Yes, it's possible. However, a better idea may be to create a new feat called Mass Summoning, with Augment Summoning and Summoning Mastery as prerequisites. A character with the feat Mass Summoning can have two summoned creatures at the same time.

I like this idea! :)
BlueSalamander wrote:
itsdat wrote:Will we be able to equip the permanent summons with items [at least the humanoids]? Will they get special abilities etc. at level up?
Permanent summons will be full Party Members, so you can equip them just like you would equip any other member of the party. You are right that creatures like the Slime and Tentacled Horror should not have equipped items. Permanent summons get feats at level up just like any other party member. Their existing special abilities may also be improved. Thinking about special abilities, maybe I'll give four arms (or six) to the Stone Golem or Chain Devil.

Awesome!
I have a question again, if you don't mind. The permanent summons will be hardcoded, or we can change the summonable creatures via modding?

BlueSalamander wrote:
itsdat wrote:Yet another stretch goal could be the undead version of it, the necromancer.
Yes, that is a possibility. Either a Necromancer class based on the same idea as the Summoner, or just a new line of Undead summoning spells for Black Wizards attuned to Nocturnis. The Wizard already has a Summon Skeleton spell. The new spells could include Summon Skeletal Warrior, Summon Giant Skeleton, Summon Zombie, Summon Ghoul, Summon Ghast, Summon Wight, Summon Wraith, Summon Mummy, Summon Greater Mummy, Summon Vampire, Summon Vampire Lord, Summon Spectre, Summon Ghost Warrior, Summon Shadow, Summon Greater Shadow, Summon Banshee, Summon Lich, Summon Ghost Dragon.


Excellent. Btw I think that the necro should have permanent summons as well, afterall it is a mage who manipulates the dark energies & controls the dead. Also, imo other than the combat "only" summons, the necro should only use necro themed combat spells, debuffs & buffs for the minions.

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Image
I have yet another question. :) I can't find any information about towns/cities/fortresses etc. How will they work? Will there be wandering NPCs and guards in the towns? [I hope so :)] What type of buildings do you plan to add in the vanilla release? Also, can we make building templates in the editor?
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Re: July 2018 Update

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Re: July 2018 Update

Postby BlueSalamander » Mon Aug 13, 2018 5:52 am

Hello all, thank you for your posts Atoch and itsdat,

These days, I'm going through my long notes to make sure that I'm not forgetting anything important. Mainly, I have to work a bit more on scripts and then I will focus on the demo adventure. Concerning Kickstarter, I'm summarising my ideas at the end of this post, below.

Atoch wrote:Your description of the summoner-class reminds me more and more of the mentioned possible stretch goal "playable monster races". Just in a complicated way.
Yes, there are many similarities. But, the way I envision player races, a playable monster race would start in its chosen character class at level 1 just like the other races, and its power level should be roughly equal to that of existing races.

Therefore, I would feel limited in the special abilities, ability scores and hit points that I can grant to the playable monster race. On the other hand, if it's a monster race that comes from a Summoner or Necromancer, then I can balance things with several factors. These balancing factors include the gold cost, experience point cost, the monster's Class and the monster's number of Class levels, as in the Green Hag example given in my previous post.

To sum up, I don't see how I could have a playable monster race with six arms, but I can see it happen as a costly permanent summon with a preset class like Warrior, and available from a certain level (and not immediately from level 1).

Atoch wrote:Will there be extra illustrations of the monsters in these character sheets, or just the tokens?
Currently, the character sheet reproduces the creature's token and the Class illustration. It may be a bit of a waste to have monster artwork that you can only see in the monster's creature sheet. I guess it would be better to have more background environmental artwork, more monster tokens to play with and more story images, compared to using resources for extra creature-sheet artwork. IMO.

I can't make illustration screens for whole-body images, but that's okay, I think we'll just stick to monster tokens.

Atoch wrote:how you make 'high grounds' visible in the top-down view
Usually, you can see differences in altitude through shading in the background image. Sometimes, the change in elevation is obvious, as in the case of a pit trap or a tower. In addition, when you mouse over a square, the tooltip displays the square's elevation in feet.

itsdat wrote:The permanent summons will be hardcoded, or we can change the summonable creatures via modding?
I think that they will be hard-coded. But I can add permanent summons to the summoner's spell list in the future.

itsdat wrote:Excellent. Btw I think that the necro should have permanent summons as well, after all it is a mage who manipulates the dark energies & controls the dead. Also, imo other than the combat "only" summons, the necro should only use necro themed combat spells, debuffs & buffs for the minions.
Quite right. There will be a focus on cold, force and negative-energy damage, and some spells dedicated to boosting undead allies.

itsdat wrote:I can't find any information about towns/cities/fortresses etc. How will they work? Will there be wandering NPCs and guards in the towns?
I expect that cities and fortresses will work like they did in Knights of the Chalice 1. Yes, there will be wandering NPCs and guard patrols.

itsdat wrote:What type of buildings do you plan to add in the vanilla release?
In the demo, there will be a castle and a town, so you'll be able to see how it all works out.

itsdat wrote:can we make building templates in the editor?
The editor has a template for a small ruined house. You can't create building templates in the editor as it's beyond the scope of the editor. Anyway, a building can be as simple as four thin black inter-square rectangles (for the North, South, East and West walls) and a thin brown rectangle for the door. You draw these in a paint programme, add black drop shadows, then paste the result onto a background image containing a grass or flagstones texture, and you've got your building.

Now about Kickstarter: after a good rethink, here is what I might have as KS goal and stretch goals (subject to review, of course):

Initial goal: £ 1 ($ 1.27).

If this goal is reached, I'll make the first KotC 2 module as part of the very first KotC 2 campaign. I don't need to seek funding from any other source, and no publishers or banks are involved.

Expected delivery times: immediate for the Windows demo and editor (and any other goodies that I can provide immediately), 7 months for delivery of the 1st module in Windows version.

Stretch goals:

£ 10,000 ($ 13,000): I'll make the second KotC 2 module as part of the very first KotC 2 campaign. Delivery time 14 months

£ 15,000 ($ 19,000): I'll make the third KotC 2 module as part of the very first KotC 2 campaign. Delivery time 21 months

£ 20,000 ($ 26,000): Mac and Linux versions will be made, similar to the Mac and Linux versions of Battle of the Sands. However, Windows versions will have priority.

£ 25,000 ($ 32,000): Hand-Drawn Regional Maps with Hand-Drawn Area Icons will be added.

£ 30,000 ($ 38,000): At least 20 Epic Feats will be implemented.

£ 35,000 ($ 45,000): Hand-Drawn Story Images will be added to the first three modules.

£ 40,000 ($ 51,000): The Iconised Combat Actions Menu will be implemented.

£ 50,000 ($ 64,000): The Quick-Casting Spell Shortcut System will be implemented.

£ 60,000 ($ 77,000): The Summoner Class will be added to the game.

£ 70,000 ($ 89,000): The Necromancer Class will be added to the game.

£ 80,000 ($ 102,000): I'll make a 4th module, probably as part of a 2nd campaign. Delivery time 28 months

£ 90,000 ($ 115,000): I'll make a 5th module, probably as part of the 2nd campaign. Delivery time 35 months

£ 100,000 ($ 128,000): I'll make a 6th module, probably as part of the 2nd campaign. Delivery time 42 months

£ 110,000 ($ 140,000): I'll make a 7th module, probably as part of a 3rd campaign. Delivery time 49 months

£ 120,000 ($ 153,000): I'll make an 8th module, probably as part of the 3rd campaign. Delivery time 56 months

£ 130,000 ($ 166,000): I'll make a 9th module, probably as part of the 3rd campaign. Delivery time 63 months.

Any feedback on this plan will be greatly appreciated. Feel free to post any criticism or ideas. Thank you for reading and have a great week! :)
'Say there is a chunk of meat. Pirates will have a banquet and eat it! But heroes will share it with other people. I want all the meat!!' - Luffy in One Piece
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Re: July 2018 Update

Postby itsdat » Tue Aug 14, 2018 2:37 pm

Hm...imo this would be better, but keep in mind that this is my subjective opinion. :) [Mac/Linux version priority?]
So..

£ 10,000 ($ 13,000): I'll make the second KotC 2 module as part of the very first KotC 2 campaign. Delivery time 14 months

£ 15,000 ($ 19,000): I'll make the third KotC 2 module as part of the very first KotC 2 campaign. Delivery time 21 months

£ 20,000 ($ 26,000): The Iconised Combat Actions Menu will be implemented.

£ 25,000 ($ 32,000): Hand-Drawn Regional Maps with Hand-Drawn Area Icons will be added.

£ 30,000 ($ 38,000): At least 20 Epic Feats will be implemented.

£ 35,000 ($ 45,000): The Iconised Combat Actions Menu will be implemented.

£ 40,000 ($ 51,000): The Summoner Class will be added to the game.

£ 45,000 (?): The Necromancer Class will be added to the game.

£ 50,000 ($ 64,000): The Quick-Casting Spell Shortcut System will be implemented.

£ 55,000 (?}: Mac and Linux versions will be made, similar to the Mac and Linux versions of Battle of the Sands. However, Windows versions will have priority.

+ Modules
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Re: July 2018 Update

Postby Atoch » Wed Aug 15, 2018 6:53 pm

A few questions about your modules:
- are they continuous or only loosely connected?
- are they supposed to be played with the same party?
- are there different level caps?
- what is their party-size-cap?

also:
How are self-made modules supposed to be shared?

Will there be different layers of pledges?

Your modules also need more characterisation (like title, theme, background story, etc.) in my opinion.
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Re: July 2018 Update

Postby BlueSalamander » Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:10 am

Hello everyone,

These days I'm working on the demo adventure, something I really enjoy. I'll post screenshots together with the upcoming update. I'll also talk about some ideas for the Necromancer class, that time.

itsdat wrote:imo this would be better, but keep in mind that this is my subjective opinion
Thank you. Yup, it's not very different. A change in the order of some things. Mainly, you've moved the Summoner and Necromancer classes to lower goal amounts, which is fine and may be better in terms of the actual possibility of reaching those goals. :)

Atoch wrote:are [the modules] continuous or only loosely connected? are they supposed to be played with the same party?
Thanks for your post. Modules that are part of the same campaign are continuous, while modules that are not part of any campaign are independent. When you launch the second module of a campaign, typically you'll load the last saved game that you made when you were playing the first module, allowing you to continue the story with the same characters and the same equipment. When you launch the third module, you load the last saved game of the second module.

are there different level caps?
Probably. I would expect a party to end the first module of a campaign around level 8, the second module around level 16 and the third module around level 25 or so.

what is their party-size-cap?
The maximum number of active party members will remain unchanged, probably eight.

How are self-made modules supposed to be shared?
We'll sort something out. Best would be to make them all available through http://www.heroicfantasygames.com and/or Steam, if I find enough storage space on the website. Otherwise, I can always set up a web page providing download links. In terms of the intellectual property (IP), when you use the editor to create a KotC 2 module, you agree to transfer the full IP associated with the new module to me.

If you make a good module, we may be able to have a sales-sharing agreement. The basic idea is to split net sales 50/50 with the module creator for a period of five years. However, normally I will not do the module's artwork. The module creator can open existing background maps in Photoshop or Krita and tweak them to create new places. I'm doing exactly that kind of work right now, creating some extra maps based on artwork done by Roman for me in the past. Changing colours, adding walls, removing walls, fixing some texture transitions, etc.

Your modules also need more characterisation (like title, theme, background story, etc.) in my opinion.
Yes, I will provide details for the first three modules, at the least. For modules coming after those, it's more difficult to say what will be their main theme. In any case, I have enough good ideas to fill up a LOT of modules, ahaha.

Will there be different layers of pledges?
Sure.

* I'm editing my ideas out for now, as I need to rethink them all. Spiderweb Software did something much simpler (and easier for the developer) with their Kickstarter and it was a nice success, so I need to rethink this.
'Say there is a chunk of meat. Pirates will have a banquet and eat it! But heroes will share it with other people. I want all the meat!!' - Luffy in One Piece
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Re: July 2018 Update

Postby itsdat » Sun Aug 19, 2018 3:23 pm

This sounds good imo. :) Oh btw...are we going to have an august update?
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Re: July 2018 Update

Postby BlueSalamander » Sun Aug 19, 2018 5:58 pm

Thank you for your feedback itsdat. :)

Yes, I'll try to post the update before the end of August. Cheers!
'Say there is a chunk of meat. Pirates will have a banquet and eat it! But heroes will share it with other people. I want all the meat!!' - Luffy in One Piece
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Re: July 2018 Update

Postby itsdat » Sun Aug 19, 2018 6:57 pm

Awesome! 8-)
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