GearHead RPG
It’s like Rogue, but fifteen meters tall

Overall, I’m quite pleased with this release. The game is still far from finished, obviously, but for a first completable version I think it’s good. I’m pretty sure there are fewer bugs in GH2v0.530 than the initial release of Arcanum… but then again, I probably shouldn’t be using that as my yardstick.

I’d like to thank everyone who has commented on the game, sent words of encouragement, or spread the word about it. I’d also like to thank those people who submitted bug reports and deadends. All of these things are very much appreciated.

I’ve started a new playthrough with an architect named Lem. I’ve just completed episode 3, haven’t yet lost my starting mecha, and have accumulated 7 other mecha besides. It seems to me that GH2 is relatively easy and forgiving as roguelikes go, though that opinion might change just as soon as Lem gets killed in a freak accident. Here are some thoughts on the current state of the RPG campaign:

• Spot Weakness/Sniper is an extremely powerful combination that many of my characters end up taking.
• Robotics needs to be fixed, desperately.
• I don’t like the current state of Leadership/lancemates. There are several sub-problems here: First, there’s not much point in protecting and training a lancemate from the beginning of the game, since you’ll want to replace them with higher level lancemates later on. Second, because of the Partner NPC and the general importance of lancemates, the Leadership skill is almost a necessity. Third, with a couple of high-ranking lancemates late in the game you can become unstopable.
• There are many factions without recruiters/trainers, and only one guaranteed combat trainer for factionless characters. Without a skill trainer the late game is extremely difficult.
• The delivery service messes up the names of the cities where your stuff is located.
• Several of the core story components (duel NPC to gain reinforcements, rowdy raider, confused raider) repeat far too often. I’ve started increasing the number of dialog lines for these components, and plan to add a new component to reuse the mook from rowdy raider/confused raider.
• The player doesn’t get to make many choices in the core story. On the one hand, that’s in keeping with the genre- the archetypical real robot pilot is forced into the role against his will and has to deal with circumstances beyond his control. On the other hand, choice and consequences are Good Things. I’m going to try to add more chances for the player to make meaningful choices.
• Ammo explosions from sub-weapons cause overkill damage even if the parent weapon is externally mounted. This sometimes results in a case where an attack is blocked with a gun-shield, and the defender is destroyed by an ammo explosion without any explanation presented to the player. This needs to be fixed.
• There aren’t many ways to improve Heroic reputation yet, nor many ways to lose it.
• There aren’t enough opportunities for thieves or scientists. There is currently no way to advance in rank as a member of the pirate factions.
• Nonlethal combat is a good idea, but it needs some improvements. The big one is a command to make your lancemates play along.
• Different types of cities need different plots. In particular, there should be differences between “safe”, “dangerous”, “lawful” and “lawless” places. In a dangerous city you should get attacked in the street, while in a safe city there won’t even be many combat missions available. In a lawless city your criminal character can walk around unmolested and police missions might be scarce, while in a lawful city you might get attacked by the police for being just a little bit criminal.
• Awareness is a good skill to have. Stealth is too, but using it to avoid an encounter doesn’t work properly yet.
• Oddly, as things currently stand, Shopping may be the most overpowered skill currently in the game.

If you want an ultra-powerful character in v0.530, it seems to me that what you want is someone who specializes in Mecha Gunnery/Artillery with Spot Weakness and Sniper, has high Leadership, Shopping, and Mecha Repair (to increase salvage). Start out in Emerald Spinner and begin investing money right away. If you don’t find any recruitable NPCs early on, consider taking Camraderie to increase your options. Do the three main arenas to increase your number of friends and to gain Mullins as a skill trainer. By the end of the game you should have lots of money, tons of mecha (literally), and a veritable army of well-trained lancemates. Your gunnery/artillery specialty will allow you to stay in the back and act as commander while your minions do most of the fighting.

So where do I go from here? Well, this week I think I’m going to play around with the SDUI (Super-Deformed User Interface), a completely pointless side project that may well go nowhere. Think of it as my vacation from serious coding. I’ll also be addressing the bugs and deadends that have been submitted.

The next serious thing that I want to do is to work on the completeness of the L5 region. All joinable factions need recruiters, trainers, and shops. All skills need in-game applications. Robotics should work properly. The Dusty Ring needs to be added, especially since they’re going there in the next chapter of Mischa’s Story.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 28th, 2008 at 8:07 pm and is filed under news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.