Wow, Jack. I'm sorry to hear that.

Have you tried other avenues? Like gog.com?



Regarding the Sniper Rifle Critical. Yes, it does have a high critical rate, but honestly I would rather burst fire to get two attacks at 60% acc. than pray for 20% crit on a 99% acc. single attack.



I propose the Critical Dmg Multiplier to be increased for Snipers.

Example:



Light Wep Dmg Critical Multiplier : 1.20 / 120%

Energy Wep Critical Multiplier : 1.50 / 150%

Heavy Weapon : 1.75 / 175%

Sniper Rifle : 2.00 / 200%

Haven't tried gog indeed, now they're open to indie games so might give it a try.



About the sniper rifle critical yes, makes sense. Also in the sequel I experimented with a speed-based movement turn. So not like now that is "your turn / PC turn / your turn", but each character (both enemy and ally) would move based on the kind of shot and skills. I have yet to try and see how much impact it will have on the combat, and actually if to implement it at all or not. Once Loren is finished, I plan to do some experiments and maybe start an early beta of PS sequel with some test battles to decide which gameplay mechanic is better

I've got a suggestion regarding how psionics work, in particular Harm. It does a certain amount of damage that bypasses all armour, but has the opportunity to miss.



I'm thinking it should be the other way around: let psionics always hit, but let damage be reduced with armour rating. Most psionics cost a lot of "mana" already to balance it out; in my experience it is very frustrating to use a high concentration Harm, only to see it miss and waste a lot of "mana" for nothing. Not to mention, it encourages "save/reload" tactics.



I also think psionics powers like Shock and Fatigue should always hit, but the duration should depend on enemies' resistance to psionics, rather than being fixed.

In the sequel the Psionic works quite differently already in the prototype I made last year - I decided indeed to remove the "miss" completely, and replace it with simply a reduced damage instead, so you wouldn't waste PP in any case. Also Shock, Fatigue, etc always hit, and there are also AOE psionics - now the level of power determine the area: Single, AOE (2 targets) or all enemies. AOE makes the use of Psionic very different, and as you can imagine managing aggro even more problematic (a mass heal for example increases the aggro to the psionic by a lot!!)

*Raises two thumbs up* Awesome news, Jack.

When I get back working on it (probably this summer) I'll be sure to bother you two (and others that wants to test of course) with a small demo of the new combat system, so will get immediate feedback about what tweaks could be needed, since it really changes the way of playing it a lot

Good to hear, Jack. I'm looking forward to the sequel.



Will events in the first game have consequences in the sequel (particularly the choices between rebels/King)? And will it be possible to import saves from the first game?

Well depends what you mean by importing saves - the full stats/items no, but I think should be able to import some variables, like which faction you sided with, and which romances you had. I am not sure if makes sense to import, or just give the player the choice on startup (what I did now). I mean, since you might want to try playing the game as if you romanced Rumi, but you don't have that savegame anymore or don't want to go back and play it again just to have the "right" savegame

The current prototype has a sort of more detailed character generation similar to Loren, which asks several questions: "with who you sided with"-"who you romanced"-"which class you picked" and so on.

Maybe both should be used? Import would be good for people who played the first game, but people new to the game can fill in some questions? This is how Mass Effect 3 handles it.

Yes, right now there's no export code but I remember towards the end of the game I wrote "You might want to save the game now, just in case an expansion or add-on is released in the future and you want to keep your current character." So will add the export code after that point and should work (but I am not 100% sure, since the libraries I used changed a lot and old savegames might not be compatible).

Well, I finished my first playthrough and am curious how the story will continue in the second game. I'll keep my saves in any case!



The final battle was fairly easy, because I got good rolls and my "Shock" to shut down the robots never failed. Otherwise, it would've been much more difficult.



(what's funny though, is that Nelson 'only' becomes 1st Lieutenant in the end... he should at least skip some more ranks and become Major for saving the world and perhaps galaxy )

Haha yes I should do more research on military ranks indeed... anyway, will probably fix this when together with Aleema we'll rewrite a bit the ending to match the sequel starting events/conditions!

About sharing the savegames I looked in the library docs and shouldn't be a problem, of course not all the items, but keeping the skills and choices made (which side you joined, etc) should be simple.



p.s. so who was your favorite romance?

Well, with Joshua I like Rumi best but her ending slide was a bit disappointing. Hopefully she will be in second game, she was a very useful party member.

Yes all characters will be in the 2nd game, except Bellamy who will be replaced with a more "hot" male

Yes all characters will be in the 2nd game, except Bellamy who will be replaced with a more "hot" male

Oh no, Jack. Who will spit out the grenades then?

I recommend we make both Nelsons exist. So if you play Josh, Lisa exists too and join the team.

If you play Lisa, Josh joins later.

This should be crazy awesome.

Lol I thought about that, but would need some serious plot twist. What Nelson had a sister/brother? where was he/she!?

Will the sequel flesh out the setting more? Right now, there's not much information about "the Empire" and its history, the different alien species, etc. It seems the universe is kind of a feudal society (like Dune) considering there's a King on Planet Stronghold?



Maybe a possibility is to have a Codex with information entries (like Mass Effect) or information terminals spread out in the game world that can be accessed by player.

I'll definitely try to flesh out the world. That's always fun. Not sure about the Codex, maybe Lucille can churn out generic stuff if you ask her. Though, I prefer that lore is interwoven into the narrative, not dumped on you.

As a player I agree with Aleema. I never found the Codex very interesting. I mean I prefer to learn how the Lakadema alien race reproduces (if they do at all!) directly speaking with them maybe in a fun or sexy scene than reading it in a sort of encyclopedia But yes in the sequel you'll surely find more info about the Empire, the alien races (in particular the Marada since you'll have the chance to play on their side).

That is good to hear.



Marada are interesting. I had the impression from the first game that Shiler was quite manipulative and had a secret plan of her own even if I sided with her.