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MASSIVE CHALICE: A Game Of Bones Massive Chalice is basically squad based tactical game with some resource management. It is HEAVILY influenced by Firaxis XCOM but it places a far greater emphasis on managing your troops and it is also a kickstarted Double Fine game. It’s currently on sale as early access and the steam video does an ok job of explaining the basic premise of the game. The game is currently very stable, if not well optimized, but it's not yet a finished product. http://store.steampowered.com/app/246110 For those of who don’t want to watch the video: You’re basically Serpentor and you were born from the magics of the Massive Chalice to hold an entropic force at bay that's consuming the world until the artifact that created you can gather enough power to stop it. The Cadence spawns monsters to destroy the land (the units actually do spend some of their turns just destroying terrain) each monster is themed on a different form of destruction, decay, loss or death. For example Lapses steal memories by lowering xp or even de-leveling your troops, Wrinklers steal time by aging them causing them to die earlier, sometimes having heart attacks on the battlefield. Each monster so far has had its own unique feature and having a good mix of troops to deal with these things is absolutely vital. As they kill monsters they’ll get XP and start leveling up learning new abilities. You’ve got to manage a bunch of panda like warriors who can’t breed on their own. You can’t simply hire more soldiers to replace the ones you’ve lost, because only those carrying heroic blood, champions, can effectively fight the Cadence. However you can build a keep and force them to marry, they're not compatible with every other warrior mind you. Once a keep is built you can then appoint a regent who'll then name the keep, the best and brightest of my first generation of warriors, Catkicker, named his keep The Litterbox. In the event the current regent dies the established bloodline can be continued by any heir.  …even if that heir was a baby I found on the ground after a fight then had the regent adopt less than year before they died of “natural causes.” Less than year later his wife died under similar circumstances, tragic really. Each of your soldiers has different traits, inherited and personality. Inherited are from their parents but personality is influenced by who raises and trains the child. Some traits are good like Wily, which makes you more likely to dodge ranged attacks, but reckless makes you more likely to be hit when you’re at full health. You can build keeps and appoint a regent and a partner for the regent and they may or may not produce children! However adoption is totally an option and the parent’s personality and class will influence how the babies develop. In my game that baby regent was able to adopt kids at age 2 and train them to be excellent hunters.  Now aside from breeding you can also dedicate warriors to different jobs like research, training and the aforementioned regent positions. You can also devote your time to building new structures to start new bloodlines or improve your research pool. However you can only build or research one thing at a time. It takes a number of years to do anything in this game, but you’re an immortal with a fast forward button so it’s fine. Where you place buildings can give you different bonuses like decreasing research time, which is amazing because somehow that affects how fast you can adopt kids, maybe by making you better at paperwork? You can research different stuff, some requiring monster corpses to upgrade your warriors but that’s not all you’re going to have to deal with. You’re randomly given situations to resolve, so far I’ve had a teacher wanting to show their class how the nation is ruled, someone request permission to go to a tournament, a sudden upsurge in riots and two of my warriors coming to blows and almost killing each other. You’re given a few options, one result will be good, one result will be bad and one probably neutral. Sometimes you have to wait 12 years or more to see the results of your decision. In the case of the bloodlines fighting, I had them go on a roadtrip so they could see what they were fighting for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE8BgQzyktE They came back with the patriotic personality trait.  However some choices resulted in increased times on research for a year, others resulted in deaths of some of my best warriors.Your starting warriors have three different classes.  Caberjack: They hit monsters with logs and have a stunning attack that with knockback, vital for dealing with stuff that can’t be killed in one round due to a mechanic, or stuff that explodes! Also you can hit monsters into each other and they’ll both take damage and get stunned! Pretty tough frontliners. I think the cool down on their stun is 2 turns.  Hunter: Long ranged crossbowmen who can use the stealth ability. If a hunter doesn’t move into another hiding spot while within visual range of an enemy they’ll be spotted or if an enemy wanders within one square of them. However you can just move back and forth between two spots and you’ll be fine. Pretty squishy, I researched better armor for them early on and man did that help. No cool down on the stealth ability.  Alchemist: I like these guys A LOT. They have five AOE flasks they can throw that hit harder than their normal attacks and later on they’ll learn a free throw ability where they can throw a flask without it costing an action point. Also there enemies that after they take one hit, armor up for the rest of the round and minimize damage, turns out alchemical acid bypasses that defense completely. I’ve read there are hybrid classes that combine traits of the three basic ones but I don’t know how to unlock those. As you may have noticed the last names and sigils for these warriors were kinda goofy, I enabled non-thematic sigils and that’s some of the player made houses up there(backer reward), each of the houses has their own unique battle cries too! I've only played it a couple of hours so far, but it's been a lot of fun! Edit: Hybrid classes are coming out next update, here's the skill tree for them! 
Mr.Pibbleton fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Dec 12, 2014 |
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Nov 14, 2014 05:35
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You had me tilquote:it is also a kickstarted Double Fine game. Not even a month since Spacebase was "released" and they're doing it again? Before you get too excited, bare in mind they just got done pulling their pants up after making GBS threads all over their customers. That said this does look promising, so hopefully they'll keep at it this time and actually finish the game. Edit:vv Can we just change the thread title to that? Kraven Moorhed fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Nov 14, 2014 |
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Nov 14, 2014 05:46
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Every doublefine kickstarter is a fantasy
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Nov 14, 2014 05:47
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Endorph posted:Every doublefine kickstarter is a fantasy
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Nov 14, 2014 05:49
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I think they should have called it Big Cup
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Nov 14, 2014 05:49
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Kraven Moorhed posted:You had me til I just married a 15 year old boy to a 42 year old woman and had a baby adopt four kids, this game is great as is.
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Nov 14, 2014 06:03
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Why don't they stop kickstarting new games and loving finish Broken Age, jesus loving christ
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Nov 14, 2014 06:05
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Sounds like a worse version of XCOM or Xenonauts. Oh wait, it's also a Double Fine game. So basically you can expect awful to mediocre gameplay, tired humour, annoying voiceacting, and for the devs to stop development halfway through because no-one bought their terrible game.
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Nov 14, 2014 06:05
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I'm always up for more X-COM but the art style of this game is really ugly.
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Nov 14, 2014 06:07
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Mr.Pibbleton posted:I just married a 15 year old boy to a 42 year old woman and had a baby adopt four kids, this game is great as is. Sorry, Father, I had no idea I was talking to a man of the cloth. Crazy what adoptions standards are these days-- hey, stop trying to change the subject! 
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Nov 14, 2014 06:10
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Dramatika posted:Why don't they stop kickstarting new games and loving finish Broken Age, jesus loving christ Maybe they realized Broken Age looks awful compared to a lot recent adventure games.
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Nov 14, 2014 06:16
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Justin_Brett posted:Maybe they realized Broken Age looks awful compared to a lot recent adventure games.
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Nov 14, 2014 06:18
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Kraven Moorhed posted:Sorry, Father, I had no idea I was talking to a man of the cloth. Crazy what adoptions standards are these days-- hey, stop trying to change the subject! I like how there's gay marriage and adoption in this game, but I'm kinda mystified as to why everyone is to why they're all so white. Edit: drat that baby regent had his wife pumping out kids, she had five kids within a five year period. Now that she's dead I gotta remarry him. Mr.Pibbleton fucked around with this message at 06:30 on Nov 14, 2014 |
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Nov 14, 2014 06:24
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Mr.Pibbleton posted:I like how there's gay marriage and adoption in this game, but I'm kinda mystified as to why everyone is to why they're all so white.  
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Nov 14, 2014 06:30
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I tried to post a thread about this but it turned out the post button hadn't been coded yet and the developers stopped working on it
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Nov 14, 2014 06:39
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Endorph posted:As opposed to 'maybe if we make the lighting look really cool nobody will notice that our models look like the ground in bubsy 3d?' That was probably unfair, I keep meaning to watch a playthrough of Broken Age for myself instead of just hearing about it. Every Double Fine game I've seen people talk about recently, though, people have said they have appealing settings and ideas, but very shallow gameplay that doesn't match up to other stuff in the genre. Is it better in that regard?
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Nov 14, 2014 06:44
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Justin_Brett posted:That was probably unfair, I keep meaning to watch a playthrough of Broken Age for myself instead of just hearing about it. Every Double Fine game I've seen people talk about recently, though, people have said they have appealing settings and ideas, but very shallow gameplay that doesn't match up to other stuff in the genre. Is it better in that regard? I'd say so, I loved the hell out of XCOM and I'm really enjoying this, the combat doesn't feel shallow and I love how each monster has it's own mechanics so they're all horrible in different ways. What makes caberjacks useful in this game isn't the power of their hits, it's their ability to stun and reposition enemies that's saving the day in this.
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Nov 14, 2014 06:48
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Broken Age is a legit really good game so its all the more painful that Double Fine can't manage worth a poo poo. Also of what little I played the combat in this game is kind of a mess just because there's like no defensive options like XCOM overwatch and cover or Fire Emblem counter-attacking so the game rather punishes you for playing cautious but yet you can't really just rush in. It's not unsalvageable or anything seeing is that its still rather early, but I expected that if they were cribbing from Fire Emblem and XCOM that it would play better. Accordion Man fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Nov 14, 2014 |
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Nov 14, 2014 06:50
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I actually really enjoyed Broken Age Act I, the setting was really cool and I didn't have any problems with the art style. The puzzles were a little easy but still enjoyable to figure out. At this point I'm kinda giving up, pretty sure the second part is vaporware.
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Nov 14, 2014 06:51
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Dramatika posted:Why don't they stop kickstarting new games and loving finish Broken Age, jesus loving christ If I recall correctly this game was kickstarted before Broken Age part 1 was even out. Like they kickstarted a game, and then kickstarted another game while the first one was still cooking. Also Jesus gently caress why is this game so ugly? Did they call up Peter Molyneux and ask to borrow assets from Godus?
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Nov 14, 2014 06:59
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Please stop giving Tim Schafer money. Broken Age explains why no publisher wants to touch Double Fine.
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Nov 14, 2014 07:01
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Tell me when it's out of EA and maybe I'll give it a look. Spacebase effectively burned all the good-will I had for DoubleFine. 
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Nov 14, 2014 07:23
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I backed this game before the Spacebase fiasco and am very worried about the end result, but it does look like it's being managed much better than any of DF's other stuff. Not going to play it until 1.0, though.
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Nov 14, 2014 08:05
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They need to stop loving around and find someone who can make Tim Schafer make Psychonauts 2 in a timely manner with a decent budget. Hell: Frozen Over.
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Nov 14, 2014 08:07
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Lmao if you think Tim Schafer would even attempt Psychonauts 2 without a $500,000,000 USD budget, and then spend most of it on voice talent.
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Nov 14, 2014 08:44
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Liquid Penguins posted:Lmao if you think Tim Schafer would even attempt Psychonauts 2 without a $500,000,000 USD budget, and then spend most of it on voice talent. It's true.
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Nov 14, 2014 08:58
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Liquid Penguins posted:Lmao if you think Tim Schafer would even attempt Psychonauts 2 without a $500,000,000 USD budget, and then spend most of it on voice talent. Lmao if you think that the creative success of Psychonauts is attributable soley to Tim Schafer and not to Erik "Portal/Portal 2/TF2 Comics" Wolpaw and Scott C.
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Nov 14, 2014 09:04
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now i know we've already done three other kickstarters for psychonauts 2 but we really want to bring you the best episode 1 that we can
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Nov 14, 2014 09:06
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"It'll be finished when
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Nov 14, 2014 09:09
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Also if people want more Psychonauts because they want a cool, stylish 3d platformer with fun mechanics and cool music and a good sense of humor, they should check out Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers
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Nov 14, 2014 09:12
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I'm starting to feel like "give the devs enough money that their game is already a blockbuster success before they've made the game" is a bad strategy.Endorph posted:Every doublefine kickstarter is a fantasy 
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Nov 14, 2014 09:29
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It's called Double Fine because you have to pay for it twice 
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Nov 14, 2014 09:33
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Endorph posted:Every doublefine kickstarter is a fantasy
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Nov 14, 2014 09:50
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Whelp, my baby regent is 71 years old, oversees a massive brood and is on his fourth wife(she's 22). He's pretty much lord Frey now.
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Nov 14, 2014 15:46
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So it's a more fantasy Crusader Kings 2 with squad gameplay at periods when they have to fight? Does sound interesting in itself.
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Nov 14, 2014 15:53
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Mr.Pibbleton posted:Whelp, my baby regent is 71 years old, oversees a massive brood and is on his fourth wife(she's 22). He's pretty much lord Frey now. thats one powerful baby
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Nov 14, 2014 15:57
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Davincie posted:thats one powerful baby I found him on the ground too!
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Nov 14, 2014 16:18
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Anatharon posted:I'm starting to feel like "give the devs enough money that their game is already a blockbuster success before they've made the game" is a bad strategy. *glances at Mighty No. 9* ...uh oh
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Nov 14, 2014 16:23
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Liquid Penguins posted:Please stop giving Tim Schafer money. Broken Age explains why no publisher wants to touch Double Fine. Guys I make good games ok just look at Psychonaughts! * Makes Brutal Legend but gets bored of making a Hack and Slash adventure half way through and makes an RTS instead *
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Nov 14, 2014 16:31
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Bogart posted:Tell me when it's out of EA and maybe I'll give it a look. Spacebase effectively burned all the good-will I had for DoubleFine. Basically what I was going to say. I am glad I didn't back Broken Chalice, because with what happened with Spacebace (which I also didn't back, or buy, thankfully), I think I'll be okay just waiting to see how it turns out and pick it up if it actually becomes a good finished game.
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Nov 14, 2014 16:32
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