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Dr Tasty
Jul 21, 2005

Hueheheh-and you GOT one
:siren: $39.99 standard edition is now available on the Steam store page! Alternatively, the $65 bundle is still available for those who still want the extra units after they are released :siren:



Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjH5Ae8pn_Q&feature=youtu.be
Steam Store http://store.steampowered.com/app/253510



WARMACHINE: Tactics, developed by WhiteMoon Dreams, is a turn-based strategy game for PC and Mac where players pit their armies against each other in a deadly close-quarters and ranged encounter, featuring monstrous, steam-powered robots and spell slinging warriors known as Warcasters.

The game is based on the tabletop game, WARMACHINE, published by Privateer Press. Those familiar with WARMACHINE will be right at home in WM:T, WhiteMoon Dreams is working really hard to bring the spirit of the tabletop to the videogame version.

Demonstrated at PAX East, E3, and Privateer Press’ own Lock & Load GameFest, WARMACHINE: Tactics funded through Kickstarter less than a year ago. The campaign reached nearly 300% of the project’s goal and remains in the top 40 funded Kickstarters of all time. It is also one of the fastest games to be greenlit on Steam!



Release Date
WM:T is available as an early access title on Steam right now.

As far as official release, the studio is planning on a date of sometime in August, but this is subject to change. I will update this post whenever I get an actual date.





What is WARMACHINE: Tactics?

WARMACHINE: Tactics is a turn based strategy game much akin to XCOM: Enemy Unknown in that each side takes a turn moving all of its units and attacking all at once. Each unit has abilities and actions it can perform on its activation. Since this is based on WARMACHINE tabletop, everything is balanced in such a way that players are encouraged to pursue aggressive tactics and engage the enemy in combat as quickly as possible.

What sets this apart from other games is that it's a near total conversion of a thoroughly tested and successful tabletop miniatures game. It has awesome battle robots - called Warjacks - that are mentally controlled by magic wielding commanders - called Warcasters - who are also formidable combatants.



Players take command of a Warcaster, a few Warjacks, and a handful of infantry troops. They move these units around the battlefield and strike at their opponent. Warcasters can move freely, cast spells, attack with a ranged weapon (if they have one,) and engage their enemies in melee combat. Warjacks must be given focus in order to do anything beyond moving and performing basic attacks. Infantry are able to move independently and require nothing from the Warcaster, but are best used as a group and are very vulnerable to enemy Warjacks and Warcasters.



Additionally in order to allocate focus to a Warjack, it must be within the Warcasters Control Area. When it is outside of the control area it can only function as it does without focus. Warcasters can cast damaging spells, debilitating effects, or buffs and also have an ability called a Feat which is very powerful and can only be used once per game. However, if the Warcaster retains all of their focus points they gain extra armor, which can save their skin in a tight spot where they otherwise would be gooey paste on the ground.



Both a Single Player and Multi-Player component are in the game. The SP campaign is still in development, so it won't be complete until later on. The Multi-Player component currently on consists of head-to-head battle where the objective is to kill the opponent's Warcaster, but there will be more game modes, factions, and maps coming down the line.



For those who are not familiar with WARMACHINE, each army is made up of different units:

Warcaster



The most powerful and important unit. Every Warcaster has a variety of spells and weapons, which compliment their personal fighting style. Warcasters use what is known as Focus to power their spellsand attacks. Most importantly, they can give focus to the devastating steam powered robots called Warjacks to really bring the pain.

If this game were using chess pieces, the Warcaster would be both the King and Queen. While it is the most potent unit on the battlefield it is also the most vulnerable and losing the Warcaster means a loss.

The current roster for the game in its Early Access state is: Cygnar's Stryker, Khador's Sorscha, Menoth's Kreoss, and Cryx's Deneghra.


Warjacks



The spearhead of the WARMACHINE fighting force is the warjack. They're outfitted with an array of weaponry, these imposing constructs of steel and iron are brought to life through a fusion of steam power and magic and controlled by the warcaster. Warcasters are in constant telepathic contact with their warjacks and can channel their focus through a warjack to boost the machine’s combat abilities and enable it to execute devastating power attacks.

These giant steam powered machines are the backbone of every army, they carry heavy firepower and armor ranging from Ice Axes to Dual Cannons. Warjacks must be given focus by the Warcaster and must be in the Warcaster's control area in order to perform its abilities such as Slam, Throw, Headbutt, Tremor, and Combo Strike.

Warjacks come in different flavors of sizes and configurations like the Khador heavy jack "Juggernaut" to the flamethrower wielding Protectorate warjack "Repenter." Proper use of warjacks can turn the tide of a battle, provided they're not turned to scrap by the opposing team's 'jacks. The Warjacks in WARMACHINE: Tactics are brought to life and look super rad while smashing into each other.

Warriors


Fleshing out the squad in WARMACHINE: Tactics are the warriors. Encompassing a wide range of disciplines and roles, warriors are selected for the fighting capability and supporting tactics they add to your squad based on how you want the force to operate on the battlefield.

Warrior type units are the specialized infantry of each faction, while independently they do not amount for much, a group of Warriors can be tactically advantageous when put in the right place. Every warrior has unique abilities: Cygnar's Trenchers can throw smoke bombs for concealment and can even have a grenade launcher, Khador's Ironfang Pikemen have large shields for shield walls and their pikes can knock down a light warjack, and so on. Currently in the Early Access build there are Cygnar Trenchers, Khador Winterguard, Protectorate Temple Flameguard, and Cryx Mechanithralls.



WhiteMoon Dreams is working on additional units, but these will take time to be thoroughly tested and implemented. Look forward to your favorite characters appearing down the road.

Focus


Warcasters possess a replenishing reservoir of magical energy, called focus, which endows them with their superhuman abilities. This energy regenerates at the beginning of their turns. Players must determine how to put this to use as each Warcaster only has so much focus to spend. With focus players can buy extra attacks, boost attacks to increase chance to hit or raise damage dealt, or do what's known as overboosting to give their Warcaster extra Armor if they have unused points.

Warjacks can be given focus to buy extra attacks, run, or perform special abilities or Power Attacks.




Single Player



There is a Single Player campaign planned to be over 20 missions, featuring Cygnar’s Lt. Allison Jakes, a young journeyman warcaster trained as a duelist who is unexpectedly thrust into a position of great responsibility and leadership before she is ready. As players make their way through the story, they'll be able to choose how she develops her abilities. Conducting your squad during SP battles works exactly like combat in multi-player, but entirely against A.I. opponents.

Right now in the Early Access build there is only one level available, Fisherbrooke. This will serve as a sort of practice mission to familiarize new players with the game. Jakes will be playable as a Multi-player Warcaster in a future update, but currently she is limited to Single Player.

Allison Jakes wields a Mekanika blade, parrying dagger, and a hand cannon. Her abilities will focus around the Cygnar flavor of magic, mostly lightning and arcane stuff. She also has a passive ability, which lets her avoid the dreaded FREE STRIKES (my nemesis in multi-player.) This campaign also features another new Warcaster: Sturgis, a double-blade wielding badass who also teleports. There will also be a Cryx version of Sturgis called Corrupted Sturgis :getin:





Multi-Player

Multi-Player will pit players against each other in several game modes and take turns beating the crap out of each other with giant metal robots with axes, lances, shock shields, flamethrowers, dual cannons, and hammers.

In Early Access, players will be able to join each other in one on one battles where the objective is to kill the opponent's Warcaster. Each player can choose 1 of 4 available pre-made armies in the Forest Ruins map. There are only four Warcasters at the moment, but more will be made available, but currently the line-up is: Commander Stryker for Cygnar, Sorscha for Khador, Kreoss for Menoth, and Deneghra for Cryx.

In future updates players will be able to create custom squads, where they can pick any combination of units from a given faction and team them up with a Warcaster.

The full version of the game will contain:
• An epic single-player campaign featuring 21 missions and an engaging storyline that will immerse you in the world of the Iron Kingdoms.
• Three multiplayer maps.
• Four factions, each with two warcasters, four warjacks, and multiple warrior units.
• A point-based squad customization system that allows you to decide exactly what units and strategies you take into battle.
• A revolutionary unit coloring system offering nearly unlimited visual customization of your squad.
• Play-By-Mail functionality
• Team up with or fight against computer controlled AI.
• Special game modes like Take and Hold, Teams and Onslaught.
• Online Ranking and Leaderboards
• Expand your experience with regular releases of new units and campaigns, available for purchase through the Steam store.
• Multiplayer maps will be released regularly, always for free!



Early Access

The closed beta for Kickstarter backers launched on June 25, but the Early Access pre-launch build is available now. The build has one single player map and one multiplayer map. The single player component will feature a new Warcaster, Lieutenant Allison Jakes. The multi player component will give players a choice of one of four factions: Cygnar, Khador, The Protectorate of Menoth, and Cryx.

The official release will be in the realm of $45. This will include what the game has now, plus any other features that were announced to be in the base game. Additional factions and other features will be available as paid DLC down the road.

Early Access is available now for purchase on steam for $65. This may sound like a weird pricing scheme, but included in this is a 20 unit bundle DLC. After the official release this bundle will be paid DLC, so get it now.

• Eight Mercenary Warrior Units
• Magnus the Traitor Mercenary Warcaster
• Three Mercenary Warjacks
• Four unique Character Warjacks [of the Apotheosis] — one for each of the core factions.
• Four massive Warcasters [of the Apotheosis] — one for each of the core factions.

WhiteMoon Dreams is releasing patches as development progresses; the game is in an alpha state and there are many things which will be added to the game as time goes by. The Kickstarter backers have been playing the backer release version for a couple of weeks now and have been enjoying the game, their feedback is very helpful.

WARMACHINE: Tactics is promised to be a mostly faithful conversion of the tabletop game with some mechanics changed to fit the scope of video game development. Most notably there will no longer be squads; instead infantry like Trenchers or Winterguard are now essentially solos with some abilities thrown in to make them more effective as an independent unit. This change was made due to the technical limitations of drawing a number of characters on screen at once.

Each Warcaster will have their proper arsenal of weapons, spells, and stats with some minor adjustments to balance things in accordance to warriors all being solos.

All statistics in WARMACHINE Tactics are displayed in a "Star System"; a ranking from 0 to 5 stars. Zero stars indicates an abysmal rating, where a 5 stars ranking represents the best raw value in the game. These Star Ratings are directly derived from the tabletop stat ratings. Note that stats can be boosted beyond 5 stars, for those times when you really want to crush your opponent.

There are a few other changes, but I will put a developer post in here somewhere.




Links


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/409030043/warmachine-tactics

http://warmachinetactics.com/

http://www.whitemoondreams.com/

http://privateerpress.com/

WARMACHINE tabletop thread http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3465762&pagenumber=1&perpage=40#post400465959

Whitemoon Dreams FB page https://www.facebook.com/whitemoondreams?fref=nf

Streamers
http://www.twitch.tv/cedarbridge
http://www.twitch.tv/comelli88
http://www.twitch.tv/counterhelix
http://www.twitch.tv/diancecht
http://www.twitch.tv/failedparachute
http://www.twitch.tv/fiddles_4
http://www.twitch.tv/gameongirl
http://www.twitch.tv/iratechozo
http://www.twitch.tv/istarune
http://www.twitch.tv/jaakalope
http://www.twitch.tv/kahncub
http://www.twitch.tv/khisanthmagus
http://www.twitch.tv/stompystomp
http://www.twitch.tv/wildwingzero
http://www.twitch.tv/zero354

Screen Shots

Dr Tasty fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Sep 4, 2014

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Dr Tasty
Jul 21, 2005

Hueheheh-and you GOT one
Minimum System Requirements
The game is being developed in Unreal Engine 4, so there's still a lot of work to get this running optimally on low end systems. But the current stats are:

OS: Windows Vista 32/64 bit
Processor: 2 Ghz Quadcore or Better
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Intel HD4000
DirectX: Version 10
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Hard Drive: 20 GB available space
Sound Card: Soundblaster Compatible
Recommended:
OS: Windows 7/8 64bit
Processor: 2 Ghz Quadcore or Better
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVidia GTX 670/AMD Radeon or HD 7870 w/2GB VRAM
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Hard Drive: 20 MB available space

We're working on a Mac version, but it's still rough.

WhiteMoon Dreams posted:



FAQs
CHECK OUT OUR GAME TUTORIALS HERE

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzoRanu331I
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekejcQk1bqk



CHANGES FROM THE TABLETOP TO THE GAME

Note from the Developers:

For those WARMACHINE players familiar with the tabletop rules, you'll feel right at home with Tactics. We've made many gameplay decisions during development, and all but a few have kept us aligned with the tabletop rules. In truth, the existing rules are so well balanced and play-tested that it would be folly for us to modify them too much. Even the slightest change in the rules can cause a cascade of new changes required to fix the problems the initial change caused. Besides some technical limitations, our mindset has been, "Don't mess with it if you don't have to."

WARMACHINE Tactics is played on a grid, roughly representing one inch on the tabletop. With all units aligned to the grid, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Small sized units have a base size of one square. Medium sized units have a 2x2 base size. Large sized units have a 3x3 base size. The important thing to note is that this gives the units in Tactics larger bases
to block line of sight and charge lanes.

In Tactics, facing is done in 90 degree increments to stay aligned to the grid. A Unit's facing is just as important as the tabletop. You still have to worry about their front attack arc and openings for back strikes.

For getting ranges and movement distances, we're using true Euclidian distances. This just means that we retain the circular distance radiuses like the tabletop, quantized to the nearest grid space.

A unit's melee reach includes the spaces adjacent to their sides and front, including the forward diagonal spaces. So, technically, the units in Tactics have a slightly longer reach than the tabletop.

All statistics in WARMACHINE Tactics are displayed in a "Star System"; a ranking from 0 to 5 stars. Zero stars indicates an abysmal rating, where a 5 stars ranking represents the best raw value in the game. These Star Ratings are directly derived from the tabletop stat ratings. Note that stats can be boosted beyond 5 stars, for those times when you really want to crush your opponent.

Point values have been doubled from those you might be familiar with on the tabletop. With every warrior unit becoming a solo, the additional granularity provided more vectors for balance. Squads are 50 points, plus your warcaster’s warjack points.

In the tabletop, Warrior units are purchased in large squads of sometimes dozens of individual characters. Unfortunately, technical constraints limit the number of characters we can draw on the screen. Having fewer characters made it necessary to make the Warrior units in Tactics much tougher and act more like solos. All Warrior units have a pool of health. This makes them able to withstand a few rifle shots or sword blows. One good hit from a Warjack, though, is usually enough to put them down.

Each Warrior unit is moved individually, anywhere the battle takes them. They do not have to stay in formation.

You'll notice that the Warrior units in Tactics have one or more new abilities not found on the table-top. These abilities keep the theme and spirit of the unit while increasing their strategic options in battle. Spells Affect Them Individually:
Since Warrior units do not have to be grouped into squads, they are effectively Solos. This means that when a spell is cast on them, it affects only the individual unit. Warrior units are not influenced by a Commander, and thus will not break due to a loss of morale.

Any unit, regardless of their type, can participate in a Combined Ranged or Melee Attack, so long as they have that ability. This would allow your Winter Guard and your Iron Fang Pikemen to make a Combined Melee Attack on a target together, with the resulting bonus to hit and damage.

Special Unit Attachments, like Weapon Attachments, are now treated like new Warrior Types. They each have new abilities or weaponry, and can be purchased and added to your squad just like any other unit.

With Warriors becoming tougher, Warjacks also went through a slight change to keep them the awesome machines of destruction they should be.

Warjacks no longer have Systems, and as a result, cannot be crippled by damage. A Warjack is just as strong on their last hit point as their first.

All the tabletop Power Attacks are faithfully represented in Tactics - except for Weapon and Head Locks.

The way weapons and spells inflict damage has been modified to give slightly more predictable results.

Damage is now static value, based on the POW of the attack.

Any critical hit now yields additional damage for the attack. This makes critical hits important, even without a special weapon quality.

A unit’s ARM stat directly reduces the incoming damage amount. An ARM of 2 reduces incoming damage by 2.

Cygnar players take note! Disruption has changed slightly. Instead of disrupting ALL the focus that can be allocated to a Warjack, in Tactics, Disruption only hinders focus allocation by 1 point. However, this effect can stack. This means that one hit with Disruption causes a warjack to lose one focus allocation next round. On the second Disruption hit, that warjack now loses two focus allocation next round. Warjacks suffering from a single point of Disruption are no longer able to channel spells.

Unlike the tabletop, you must have a valid target in order to perform an attack. When firing a weapon with AOE, a target must be within weapon range. AOE shots will still deviate, but you can't intentionally be out of range and hope the deviation will hit an enemy.

3D6 is used as a base instead of 2D6 to provide a softer curve for hit checks and to provide a steeper curve for critical hit checks.



How do I play this?

WARMACHINE is a fairly nuanced game with a lot of rules and actions. WARMACHINE: Tactics is not much different, where a lot of the stuff you'd normally have to track is done for you in the game. However, there is still a lot to keep in mind when playing this as it isn't as simple as other TBS games.

Starting a Game
On the main menu we currently have options to host a public match, private match, or a LAN match. The game is not region locked, so anyone who sees your server will be able to join and vice-versa.

Once you are in the game, pick the faction you want in the Squad Selection menu. Currently there's 4 pre-selected squads, 1 for each faction. After both players pick a squad, you will be put in the deployment phase.

Deployment
Your squad loads into the Deployment Zone, where you can either click the Unit's portrait or the unit itself and place it anywhere in the deployment zone that is not occupied by another unit by right clicking. You'll notice the Unit's base indicator underneath the unit, telling how much space that model takes. Keep this in mind later when maneuvering your army around the battlefield. Once you have placed all of your units, click the Done button to end Deployment. After both players complete Deployment the game will start.

Turns
In battle each player will take turns moving their squad around and attacking the opponent. Currently the Host of the match will go first and the client will go second. This will most likely change later, but for now if you want to go first you must host a match. During a turn you have the option to activate each of your units and complete all actions they can perform, but before that happens you must first go through the Control Phase.

Control Phase
The control phase is where you allocate focus points to Warjacks, upkeep spells, and shake any negative effects your Warcaster and Warjacks are suffering.

Each Warjack has at default a normal movement and attacks with any of its weapons. Note that you can't melee and shoot in the same activation. However, Warjacks can be given focus points, each Warjack can have up to 3 focus at once. Having focus allows the Warjacks to perform Special Attacks, Power Attacks, purchase extra attacks, boost attacks, and run. Remember that Warjacks can only be given focus if they're in the Warcasters control area, which is the maximum amount of focus the Warcaster has multiplied by 2. For instance, Stryker's control area is 12 squares.

Certain spells the Warcaster has cast in the previous round can be given a focus to upkeep, such as Stryker's buff spells or Sorscha's Fog of War. You can upkeep as many spells as you have focus, but you are most likely not going to have that many upkeep spells active at the same time, I can't think of any Warcaster that has that many.

If the Warcaster or Warjacks have been hit with a debilitating effect like Knockdown or Stationary, the effect can be removed from the unit at the cost of 1 focus point. Shaking an effect on a Warjack lowers the amount of focus it can be given by 1 point for that turn. So if you shake knockdown on an Ironclad it can now only have 2 focus points for the turn.

After you have finished doing what you need to do in this phase, you click the End Control Phase button and move onto the Activation Phase.

Activation Phase
During this phase you can move units around and attack. To activate a unit you can click on their portrait or the unit itself. If you decide you do not want to do anything with the unit at the moment and have not performed any actions, you can cycle through units with the buttons on the bottom left corner or click on another unit. This way you can use the current unit later on.

The activation phase is over once all units have been used and the End Turn button is clicked. We'll probably change this up, but for now don't click on the End Turn button unless you're absolutely certain you have done everything you wanted to do.

Actions
Each unit can perform certain actions, they can advance, run, change facing, and perform any attacks with whatever weapons they have equipped.

Basic Actions

Advance - A movement of up to the unit's speed value, indicated by the blue boundary when Movement has been selected. Left click to lock a destination and right click to move the unit. Left clicking again can lock another destination. Right clicking a square without locking it can be done, but be careful.

Run - A movement of up to double the unit's speed value, indicated by the red boundary when Movement has been selected. Running uses all of the Unit's remaining actions, so use wisely. Warjacks must spend a focus point to run.

Change Facing - Changes the direction the unit is facing, can be performed at the beginning of the unit's activation or at the end of a movement. Move the mouse in the direction you want, when the arrow on the unit is pointing in the correct way right click to change facing. Unit can't run if change facing is performed at the end of an advance.

Attack - Allows the unit to attack valid enemy targets with its weapons. Units can either perform a ranged attack or a melee attack, but not both in the same activation. A unit can perform multiple melee attacks if it has more than one melee weapon equipped, such as the Ironclad's hammer and open hand or the Mechanithrall's steamfists. Only one Ranged attack can be performed, unless the unit has focus and the ranged weapon has a rate of fire of more than 1.

Advanced Actions

Charge - The unit uses a movement and attack action at the same time to run in a straight line toward an enemy target and perform a melee attack with its melee weapon. This attack is boosted, but the unit's activation ends at the end of the charge. A unit can't advance and charge unless it has an ability that allows them to do so, such as Sorscha's Wind Rush spell which gives her a free advance. Units that are currently suffering a penalty to movement can't charge. Warrior Units can charge for free, but Warjacks must use a focus point to perform this action.

Special Attack - Some units have special attacks linked to their weapons. Using a special attack locks that character into using the associated weapons attack types for the remainder of their activation.

Deactivate - Once the unit has performed all of their actions or the player decides not to perform any further actions, they can deactivate the unit by clicking on the X button at the bottom left of the screen. Once a unit is deactivated, it can no longer be used until the next turn.

Stand Up - If the unit is knocked down, on the following turn they can stand up. However, the unit will be limited to either an attack action or a movement action, but not both.

Targeting

Attack Arc - Each unit has an attack arc, which is all squares in a 180 degrees area in front of the character. The attack arc is also the unit's melee area, which is either 1 square or 2 depending on if the weapon it has equipped has reach.

Line of Sight - Units must have line of sight to the target in order to perform attacks. Line of sight is calculated in the Attack Arc of the unit, unless that unit has a special ability that makes the attack arc 360 degrees (which is rare.) Currently line of sight is very strict, but expect a rework of this soon.

Backstrike - If a unit is targeting an enemy and is not in their attack arc, they get a bonus to ATK called a Backstrike.

Aim Bonus - If a unit has not moved, it gets a bonus to Ranged Attacks chance to hit.

Boosting - If a unit has allocated focus points, the player can choose to boost an ability. You can boost the ability's ATK (hit chance) or the DAM (damage.) Boosting ATK raises the chance to hit by 1 star, boosting DAM raises the damage value by 1 star.

Elevation - Units on a high enough surface get an elevation bonus, which lets them get line of sight to units they normally would not and bonus to DEF (chance to dodge.)


Warcaster and Warjack Actions

Spell Casting - Warcasters and certain special Warriors can cast spells. Each spell has a different focus point cost. Unlike other actions, spells can be used at any time other than after a run. So a Warcaster could cast a spell, move, cast another spell, attack, then throw another spell - as long as they have the focus to spend.

Purchasing Multiple Attacks - A Warcaster and Warjack can purchase additional attacks by using a focus point, if they have it. This occurs only on weapons that have been used. So if the character has multiple weapons they can swing with each weapon first, then buy additional attacks. For instance, Allison Jakes attacks with her Mechanika blade and her parrying dagger for no focus, the player then uses a focus to perform another attack with the Mechanika Blade. This technique is essential in destroying tough enemies, like Khador's Juggernaut.

Power Attacks - Warjacks can perform 1 power attack per activation at the cost of 1 focus point. Each power attack does something different. Push will push the unit back a certain distance and advance the Warjack forward. Headbutt knocks the target down. Slam causes the warjack to charge the enemy, move the target a distance, and knock it down. A Warjack receives a penalty when attempting to push or slam a larger size unit (Lancer slams the Destroyer, for instance.) Currently not all power attacks are complete and Throw is not implented yet.

Feat - Each Warcaster has a special ability called a Feat, which can only be used once per match. Each feat does something different and is typically limited to the Warcaster's control area. Some Feats ignore LOS while others do not.

Special Concepts and Pro-Tips

Chance to Hit and Damage - Each unit has a RAT and MAT value, which determines how likely they are to hit an enemy unit. Each unit also has a DEF value which is calculated against RAT and MAT to determine the ultimate chance for an attack to hit. Each unit's weapons have a DAM value, which determines how much damage the weapon does. Each unit also has an ARM value which determines how damage is mitigated from an attack.

Critical Hits - An additional roll is made to determine if an attack does extra damage. This system is currently being reworked, as critical damage is very high right now.

Rate of Fire - Each ranged weapon has a ROF value. This means it can only be shot a certain amount of times per the unit's activation. Most guns have ROF of 1, but some have more such as the Charger's Dual Cannon. Using a ranged weapon with a ROF value greater than 1 more than once costs a focus point.

Powerful Attack - Some weapons use 1 focus to boost both to-hit and damage at the same time. The Charger's dual cannon has this modifier.

Reach - Some melee weapons have the Reach quality, adding an additional square distance to their melee range. Sorscha has this on her weapon as well as the Lancer, temple flameguard, and Ironfang Pikemen.

Free Strikes - If a unit is performing a movement action and the movement path goes through and out of an enemy model's melee range, that enemy gets to perform a free strike on the unit. This attack gets bonuses to both ATK and DAM, so be careful when moving your units. Keep this in mind especially for units that have Reach.

Incremental Movement - You don't have to complete a movement action all in one go. You can perform a movement in increments of however many squares you want. To do this, simply select a destination within your advance range and move there. Once you're there the boundary will update to display how much advance the unit has left on it's move action. This is useful for getting around free strikes. WARNING: Currently there is a bug where this won't work if you perform a run first before you advance, the workaround is performing a complete advance first and then performing a run action.

Knockdown and Stationary - If a unit is knocked down or stationary any melee attacks made against it have a 100% hit rate. Use this to your advantage, there are abilities and spells which give these effects.

Critical Effects - Certain weapons will put an effect on a target if the hit is a critical hit. For example, if the Juggernaut critical attacks an enemy with its Ice Axe, that unit will become frozen (stationary.) Only certain weapons have this, so check the unit's info card to see what qualities its weapons have.

Arc Node - Some Warjacks, such as the Cygnar Lancer and Cryx Deathripper, come equipped with a device, which allows Spellcasters to channel spells through that unit and to any target in that unit's LOS. The Warjack must not be frozen, knocked down, or engaged in melee.

:siren: Latest Patch Notes :siren:

WhiteMoon Dreams posted:

9-02-14
Announcements
Welcome to WARMACHINE: Tactics Early Access!

We are opening our forums (see link above) to all players! The passcode to enter the forum is "WarIsComing!" (without quotes)

A new multiplayer map, Snowy Valley, has been added!

Siege's Breach now applies additional damage after the target's armor is reduced!

Gunmages and Skarlock Thralls now have 8 Hit Points.

Continued performance enhancements.

Below are the current hotkeys! They may be subject to change and more will be added.

Z: deselect unit or end activation. TAB: cycle squad members. SPACEBAR: cycle targets. DEL: end turn. G: toggle grid. ALT-F9: toggle UI.


Known Issues

The grid and grid-targeting highlights (when using Flame Wall or Mage Sight) will appear beneath parts of the terrain in Snowy Valley.

Strakhov's Overrun ability is currently unavailable.

Strakhov's Iron Fist does not grant Pathfinder.

Asphyxious's Teleport will not accept destinations he could not normally move to.

Units participating in a Combined Ranged Attack may sometimes be able to block LOS to other participating units.

Units performing Combined Melee Attack will do a Ranged Attack aiming animation.

Units performing Combined Ranged Attack do not Aim at their target.

Units can execute a combined attack by themselves, though do not receive any bonuses to their attack as a result.

Revenger Repulsor shield does not push targets it hits or units that attack the Revenger in its front arc.

Casting Windrush while affected by Shadowbind will cause Sorscha's activation to end prematurely.

Heavy Warjacks cannot trample through small-base units that are adjacent to one another.

Heavy Warjacks cannot trample if their trample movement would incur a free strike.

Set Defense does not increase defense against slam attacks.

Units sometimes will show incorrect facing after moving diagonally or hit with a Free Strike.

Warjacks will sometimes not play all their attack animations when performing multiple attacks.

Putting focus into Stationary Units will remove the Frozen visual effect, even if the Stationary Effect is not yet shaken.

Units will appear to sink into either platform in the Forest Ruins map when standing on certain squares.

Units can move through the stone blocks near each deployment zone in forest ruins.

Trencher Smoke Grenades and the Flameguard Cleanser's Incinerate produce concealment, but do not function as Cloud Effects.

Slamming a model into another model does not cause collateral damage or knockdown to the second model.



Crashes

Computers running 32-bit Windows may see a crash when quitting to the main menu.

Rare crash occurring on certain hardware configurations.

If you experience any crashes, please email us with the circumstance of the crash, your dxdiag file, and warmachinegame.log file.


Coming Soon!


Warjack Power Attacks: Throw and Two-Handed Throw




Fixed Bugs

Siege's Breach feat no longer expires on all enemies when one enemy is hit.

Strakhov's Iron Fist now only allows allied units to charge enemies within Strakhov's Control Range.

Strakhov's Iron Fist now allows for warjacks without any focus to charge for free.

Headbutt no longer costs 2 focus to boost.

Strakhov is now immune to Fire attacks.

Having Eye of Menoth active no longer prevents Severius from casting Defender's Ward on himself.

Siege's Ground Pounder no longer targets enemies, now properly targets a space on the map.

Units within Siege's Foxhole spell will no longer block Line of Sight.

The player can now end the Trencher's Activation while targeting a Smoke Grenade.

Unit Cards now show the remaining ammo for the Winterguard Rocketeer and Trencher Grenadier.

The Vanquisher can now use Trample.

Cover objects should no longer block line of sight.

Dr Tasty fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Sep 4, 2014

Dr Tasty
Jul 21, 2005

Hueheheh-and you GOT one
If you didn't pledge high enough for beta access you'll get your steam code when we release in August. Otherwise you can upgrade your kickstarter pledge through backerkit. More details here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/409030043/warmachine-tactics/posts/888837

Dr Tasty
Jul 21, 2005

Hueheheh-and you GOT one
We have gotten some complaints about the price, but the early access bundle price tag is that way to match what the backers pledged for that much of the game. Making it any lower would dishonor the Kickstarter backers, which we'd like to avoid. I did post that bit when made this thread - the price will drop once the official release comes along.

I'd like to be a lot more transparent about what the plan is, but we're not entirely independent; we have to work with Privateer Press as they own the IP and the decision making process isn't entirely in our hands. I can't say anymore than that, but when there is more information available I'll give a heads up.

As a refresher here's what comes with the base game: 21 single player missions, 4 factions with 2 warcasters and several jacks each, multiple warrior units, 3 multiplayer maps and more for free as they come along, and multiple game modes. If you don't want to play the game in its current state then that's fine, just wait until August when the price is lower. When that happens you'll be able to make custom squads and paint them to your liking.

The early access bundle also comes with 20 extra units.

I'll post some better screenshots tomorrow when I get back to the office.

Dr Tasty fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Jul 10, 2014

Dr Tasty
Jul 21, 2005

Hueheheh-and you GOT one

CommissarMega posted:

Will there be a Khador campaign in SP?

Currently there are plans for at least a Cryx campaign, according to the Kickstarter. I don't really have any additional information about that sort of thing.

As for the interface: we're making changes to it as I type this post. We already have new unit icons in the game as well as the new focus menu. A lot of work went into systems under the hood so it would be easier and safer to implement new features, minimizing the risk of major game-breaking issues. Unfortunately that means the bells and whistles had to wait. There are still some bugs with display icons, but those are being ironed out.

For those of you who are playing: units you've used on your turn will have their portraits on the side-bar grayed out. Also all unused units will have a blue ring underneath them (this represents their base,) this ring disappears once the unit has been deactivated.


VVVVVV If you left click a square when you're determining a move, it'll lock your destination to that square. Right clicking will move you to the square. Left click on another square to move the destination marker.VVVVVVVVVVVVV

Dr Tasty fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Jul 10, 2014

Dr Tasty
Jul 21, 2005

Hueheheh-and you GOT one

DeathSandwich posted:

As someone whos knowledge of Warmachine Tabletop extends to "It exists and is almost-kind-of-sort-of-like steampunk warhammer", can someone who's played tabletop kind of break down what you get with this $65 pack? I assume the units you are getting in this kit amount to whatever baseline racial starter kit you can buy for tabletop, are these guys going to hold up compared to DLC units potentially coming up in the future or will I be hitting situations where I'm going to get wiped out because I wasn't a grognard that bought the turbokossak DLC guy?

As far as more general questions about the game: I assume as is the only vs mode is 1v1, no team matches? Is there any AI skirmishes outside of the tutorial mission currently in to test army compositions? What sort of scale in battle are we looking at, in Warhammer 40k tabletop comparison terms? From what I've seen on the amounts of units on the board, I'm assuming battle size is kind of like a 500-700 point warhammer 40k match?

DeathSandwich posted:

So is this game meant to be 1v1 only or will it ever open up to where you get 2v2s and 3v3s and such for teaming up with other goons?

Don't worry about your units being underpowered compared to the future DLC units. We're basing every unit off of their tabletop counterpart and our squad building system will be based off the points each unit costs, so if you just purchase the base game you should be able to hold up against a player with all of the DLC. Once we get all of the units in and squad customization ready you can build armies that suit your playstyle. Although some units are just plain better than others; Mechanithralls are probably the best low point cost warrior in the game.

Currently we only have 1v1, but we're working on the other modes. In the future look out for team matches. As far as scale goes it's going to be small squads for now; we may open up options for larger armies and maps later.

Excelsiortothemax posted:

One thing I hope the UI update has are rule explanations for the various abilities and their effects. For instance, I only could figure out what Dennegrha's feat did because I looked it up via the tabletop rule book.

Also it seems that currently the TFG cannot shield wall and attack. They can charge and SW but every time I click Shield wall Spear it ends my activation. Fire doesn't seem to apply on hit either.

If you mouse over an option in the unit's ability menu a tool tip will appear, which gives a brief explanation of the ability. The Withering may or may not have this, I'm actually double checking right now. We have been discussing possible solutions to clear up confusing things like what an ability does and to give players stuff to do during the opponent's turn, I'll have more info at a later date.

Shield Wall Spear was a bug which arose from Shield Wall's potential to be used as a follow-on to a charge in Protector's Rush. It does nothing, so don't use it. Shield wall is supposed to be a special action, which uses up that unit's combat action and in a future update Shield Wall Spear will be gone. Temple Flameguard are supposed to have Menoth's Howl on their spears, but in the current steam build they don't. In our development builds they correctly apply fire on critical hits and in a future patch you'll see that as well.

Dr Tasty
Jul 21, 2005

Hueheheh-and you GOT one

DiHK posted:

I caved and got all :homebrew: last night. I am guessing that :20bux: for the 8 mercs and the Apotheosis stuff will end up being a good deal compared to individual purchases.

Awesome! Don't worry, it is a better deal. Enjoy your Apotheosis and mercs once we get them in!

DiHK posted:

I only played about half of the single player mission. The spell-less journeyman warcaster was dull but I assume that's for player progression during the campaign. I'll hit up the MP tonight. I do agree that a demo package might be a good thing, but I don't think it should be the opening campaign mission. Maybe an arena package with the 4 starter lists, no MP.

Aside from the UI stuff, moving the "go here" cursor felt clunky. Moving warjacks was not very intuitive what with the way the grid is highlighted and other units being in the 'jacks path. Is is possible to have a wide angled camera lens in the engine?

Allison Jakes will be getting her spells at some point in the near future, but she'll have limited options in the beginning.

Megasabin posted:

Tabletop games have always interested me, but I've never got into them in real life for a variety of reasons. I would love to get in on this, but the real threat of a lack of a playerbase is keeping me back.

How customizable are armies in this game? Is it like Warhammer where you can equip individual units with different weapons/modifications for more points in order to make your army more unique? What keeps people playing the same factions from having very similar armies?

After looking at the metrics for the game over the past couple of weeks, the amount of active players currently in the game is quite high. There really isn't a threat of a lack of a playerbase. In the following months it's only going to grow, especially after the release price drop. We've got a lot of WARMACHINE fans waiting or already playing. Not to mention there are a number of kickstarter backers who will get their copies upon release, which will cause a flood of new players.

When the army builder is in, you'll be able to make armies based on what units you possess. Some units will have options for extra equipment, like the Winterguard Rocket or the Trencher Grenadier, but it doesn't get much more extensive than that. Like Panzeh mentioned, the balance and customization comes in the form of how each unit works with other units and Warcasters. The tabletop is very balanced; you'll see a large variety of army compositions. Your go-to Cygnar army may be great against Khador, but a Cryx or Menoth player will most likely have a squad that can effectively counter you.

Not to mention that each Warcaster synergizes in multiple ways with different units, depending on what the caster has how you play them, and each faction will start with 2 per. I'm not an expert on the tabletop, but just by playing our game and discussing these things with the tabletop aficionados here I can see no two matches being the same once we get all of the units and the army picker in.

Pladdicus posted:

Why not just give the kickstarter backers more for what they purchased and then make the game reasonably priced? I don't have any idea what Warmarchine is, but I do enjoy miniature gaming.

Just here to give my two cents, I'd only play this game with a very cheap or free, with an obviously limited game. Maybe a basic group of usable units or no/limited multiplayer.

Basically this game needs a demo, especially since multiplayer is a big aspect. It's hard to grow a community for a game that's niche, which this seems to be with the price point, it's a hard pill to swallow when I don't really know what this is or how it plays.

Especially as early access.

The Kickstarter backers can't get anymore than what they're going to get, which is everything in the kickstarter including the stretch goals. That's their reward for backing our game, also including any physical rewards that was in their pledge tier. Like I said before, our studio does not own the WARMACHINE ip and ultimately Privateer Press has the most influence. I'd like to see what you think once early access is over and the game is in more of a complete state.

Demos for games aren't a simple undertaking; they require additional time and resources to create. There's additional engineering and testing that goes into them. Like DeathSandwich said, we're a small team and we're using all resources to get the main game finished. A demo would be nice, but it's not in the cards.

However, that means that we can focus more on the regular updates we are releasing - like the one that's supposed to go out tomorrow. I will be posting patch notes when we get the go ahead.

Dr Tasty
Jul 21, 2005

Hueheheh-and you GOT one
All I know about the Army Picker is that you'll be able to build Armies based on a fix point amount, but that's it. I do not have any details or the authority to talk about how it's going to work, what sorts of limits are going to be placed on it, or where you'll be able to use it. Yes, there will be an army painter, but I'm not sure when that will be ready.

Dr Tasty
Jul 21, 2005

Hueheheh-and you GOT one

Excelsiortothemax posted:

Will unit sound effects be in? For me I am really taken out of the game when I don't hear anything when I click, move or punch stuff. Same with spells.

Also do you know/can you say if Cyriss will eventually be DLC?

We are actually in the process of recording and creating SFX and voice acting! I don't know how long until that stuff is ready, but I'll keep y'all posted about it.

DeathSandwich posted:

You know, I wonder what sort of technical limitations there would be to procedurally generated maps in this type of game. My thought being that you could set it up similarly to how you would do it in tabletop and have pre-fabricated cover/buildings/trees that the game logically assembles on a generic map and mirrors it so both sides have similar approaches. Procedurally generated maps like that could make it a bit easier to work in bigger armies or team games without hand crafting maps to support it.

It would be nice to have something like that, but procedurally generated content is far out of scope for a game like this and a studio with limited manpower. It would require a lot of work to be done modding Unreal Engine 4 and we just don't have the time.

Sarx posted:

I am having difficulty finding a match and usually when I do find one the other person must be dropping because they don't do anything on their turn.

Anyone else having the same difficulty?

We've gotten a lot of reports about people dropping out of matches, but there are also some bugs we need to iron out. Lately there's been talk of people disconnecting when they see the other player chose Cryx.



:siren: In other news: we just dropped a patch a few minutes ago. If you have the game you can see some changes we made, including a fix to some Warcaster spells, and a new map. Forest Ruins has brighter lighting now! :siren:

WhiteMoon Dreams posted:

Release Notes 7/15/2014
Here's the changes we have in store for you in this update that just went live!


New Features:

Warwitch Deneghra's Ghost Walk Spell is now fully functional!

Warwitch Deneghra's Influence Spell is also now fully functional!

Temple Flameguard now have Critical Effect: Continuous Fire on their spears.

The debuff from the Trencher Rifle Grenade is now described when the target is hit, and its effect added to the affected unit's card.

Units with no combat actions left are now automatically deselected after 2 seconds instead of immediately.

Players can now click directly on a warjack during the Control Phase to allocate focus. Right clicking on the warjack will remove focus.

Units on the Minimap now change color when activated, and when they are no longer able to activate that turn.

Our second map, Trenches, has been added! Prepare for close-quarters, trench warfare!


Fixed Bugs

Cygnar Trencher Rifle Grenade debuff now only applies to the primary target.

Sorscha is now immune to Critical Freeze, Icy Gaze, and cannot be targeted by Freezing Grip.

Mechanithrall Pounce will no longer knock down large and medium base units.

Extra 'Shield Wall Flame Spear' button removed from Temple Flameguard.

Dispel on Kreoss's Spellbreaker weapon now spelled correctly.

Temporary Fix for the Focus Allocation screen extending off the screen. A scrollbar will now appear if there are too many upkeep spells and effects to shake.

Brought down texture memory consumption across the board to fix long texture popping issues.


Known Issues

If one player leaves the match while the other player is in the Faction Selection screen, they are not notified the player left and may become stuck.

Players may become stuck trying to join matches immediately after the host closes that match.

Heavy Warjacks cannot trample through small-base units that are adjacent to one another.

Heavy Warjacks cannot trample if their trample movement would incur a free strike.

If a unit receives a free strike while attempting a run action, the run will be interrupted, and the unit will lose their run action.

AOE attacks do not apply damage or Continuous Effects if the original target is killed.

Set Defense does not increase defense against slam attacks.

Spray Attacks do not ignore Stealth.

The player cannot end the Trencher's activation while targeting with the Smoke Grenade.

Units sometimes will show incorrect facing after moving diagonally or being hit with a Free Strike.

Warjacks will sometimes not play all their attack animations when performing multiple attacks.

Putting focus into Stationary Units will remove the Frozen visual effect, even if the Stationary Effect is not yet shaken.

Special Icons indicating free strikes or control area will not appear when selecting a destination for the Run action.

Units will appear to sink into either platform in the Forest Ruins map when standing on certain squares.

Units can move through the stone blocks near each deployment zone.

Cloud Effects, such as Smoke Grenades, do not block Line of Sight.

Slamming a model into another model does not cause collateral damage or knockdown to the second model.



Not Yet Implemented

Deneghra's Cull Soul Feature

Combined Attacks

Warjack Power Attacks: Throw and Two-Handed Throw

Custom Squad Construction


In the patch notes for this update, we have included the passcode for this forum, so everyone playing WARMACHINE: Tactics can join the discussions here. Looking forward to hearing your feedback on this latest update!

Not mentioned in here is a bug with Kreoss where his attack spells are using his mace's dispel, so enjoy some long range damaging dispels while it's there.

Dr Tasty fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Jul 16, 2014

Dr Tasty
Jul 21, 2005

Hueheheh-and you GOT one

BadLlama posted:

Can you scrim the AI in this or is your only option right now dueling other people?

There's a single player mission where you battle against AI opponents, but it isn't anything like a scrimmage mode. Multiplayer is limited to fighting other players right now. Also a lot of work is being done on the AI, so it doesn't give too much of a challenge just yet.

Lord Windy posted:

How did you guys get rid of all the negative reviews from the front page of steam? I mean all the negative ones are still there if you click 'view all', but now you can only see the recent good ones.

Is this something Steam does periodically (assuming that it isn't a bug or something) or can developers prune the negative ones?

Don't know what's up with that; I was surprised when I saw it after reading this post. We have a policy here of not censoring negative feedback, so it must be something that happened with Steam.

Dr Tasty
Jul 21, 2005

Hueheheh-and you GOT one
New patch today! Updated in second post of the thread. Most notably we have a bunch of new units since EA launch and some other things:

:siren:Squad Construction is in, finally! Build your own custom army loadouts and name them whatever you want. :siren:

Here are the units that exist in the game, more are coming.
New Units

Infantry
Trencher
Trencher Grenadier
Winterguard
WInterguard Rocketeer
Mechanithrall
Temple Flameguard
Stormblade
Gunmage
Man-o-War
Ironfang Pikemen
Cleanser
Cinerator
Brute Thrall
Skarlock

Warjacks
Charger
Lancer
Ironclad
Juggernaut
Destroyer
Crusader
Repenter
Revenger
Slayer
Deathripper
Defiler
Defender
Marauder
Vanquisher
Nightwretch

If you have the game you'll notice that most units now have special actions, some of which are new to WARMACHINE.

Dr Tasty fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Aug 6, 2014

Dr Tasty
Jul 21, 2005

Hueheheh-and you GOT one
There is about to be a focus shift to the single player campaign, but I don't have a definite answer as to how far away it will be.

We're in the middle of the UI overhaul; don't know when it'll be ready for the live build, though I assure you we're working on it.


Real hurthling! posted:

Any news on when ks backers who didn't have early access will get their game codes?

Codes are being released in batches of 400 per hour or something, alphabetically. We started this process the other day; backers should receive their codes in the next 6 days.

Aquila posted:

Woah, my company total swapped offices with White Moon Dreams like two years ago. I had no idea they'd managed to turn things around, that's sweet.

I saw some pictures of our previous office and if it's the place we swapped with you I'm completely jealous. That place is awesome.

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Dr Tasty
Jul 21, 2005

Hueheheh-and you GOT one
:siren: There is now a $40 version available in the steam store page. The pricier bundle is still available :siren:

We have gone through a couple of patch updates and are now on a 2 week schedule. We have added 4 Warcasters to the roster since then:
- Markus "Siege" Brisbane
- Iron Lich Asphyxious
- Kommander Strakhov
- Grand Scrutator Severius

Including the new map "Snowy Valley."

Single player is ramping up and it's coming together pretty nicely. We also have the new interface in and it works really nicely. Should be a large improvement from what was there before.

Dr Tasty fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Sep 4, 2014

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