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[TheBlackBaron]

 http://www.kickstart...massive-chalice

If turn-based tactics  and feudal fantasy had a lovechild, and that offspring founded amighty century-spanning dynasty, it would be MASSIVE CHALICE. With your help, MASSIVE CHALICE will become a reality—forged by Double Fine with our 3D in-house Buddha Engine and unleashed on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

We're inspired by classic tactical strategy games like X-COM, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Fire Emblem, as well as Game of Thrones’ array of noble families. With these influences in mind we’re creating an epic, replayable turn-based tactics game where you train generations of heroes to repel a demonic invasion.

...

MASSIVE CHALICE is a single player turn-based tactics game within a multi-generational strategy campaign built for replayability.

As an immortal King or Queen, you must unite your kingdom under a powerful dynasty, eliminate the demonic threat, and reforge the MASSIVE CHALICE!

The game is structured into two main layers: strategy and tactics. In the strategy layer, you oversee your kingdom, arrange royal marriages, conduct research, and make the far-reaching decisions that will determine the fate of your legacy.

In the tactics layer, you fight brutal turn-based battles to defend your kingdom using small squads of customizable heroes.

Permadeath is inevitable: your heroes will grow, age, and eventually die. You'll have to choose between keeping your favorite heroes on the battlefield or retiring them from combat to foster a new generation of warriors.

Drawing from roguelikes we love, content is modular and randomized. Each playthrough begins with a random assortment of male and female heroes from various bloodlines, guaranteeing that each game is unique. Your knowledge and skill will increase over multiple playthroughs, but the details of every game will change based on your decisions and the whims of fate.

...

Core Game Features

Your story emerges as you defend against attacks, complete quests, and respond to randomized events in your attempt to preserve the kingdom.

Line of sight and fog of war mechanics come into play as your squad explores beautiful dynamic 3D battlefields where danger may lurk behind any corner.

Distinct, customizable heroes learn new melee, ranged, and arcane abilities as they age and gain combat experience.

Arrange marriage alliances to ensure your heroic bloodlines can handle any future combat situation.

Battle alongside your ancestors by equipping your heroes with uniquely powerful Bloodline Relics.

Invest your resources in forging new weapons and armor—and gamble on polluting a bloodline by researching dangerous demonic artifacts.

Needless to say, this sounds bloody awesome.

[TheRealJayDee]

I don't like this.










I LOVE it...!

No, seriously, this looks cool. And they're already more than halfway to their goal. Not sure this will break any records, but it looks like it's gonna be able to reach some fancy yet to be announced strech goals during it's run. Can't wait to see more of it.

Ah, damn, folks need to stop putting projects like this up on Kickstarter, I seriously don't the money atm...

[daveliam]

Necro'ing this thread.

 

Anyone playing this?  I was a Kickstarter backer and got it for the PC last year.  But I don't have a gaming computer and was playing it on my laptop, which was less than desirable for a game like this.  It just didn't flow, so I put it away and kind of forgot about it.  Then, just two days ago, I see that it's not only on XBONE, but it's the free game for XBox Gold members this month.  So I downloaded it and am totally obsessed with it.

 

To summarize the game for people who aren't familiar, it plays a bit like a multigenerational fantasy-based XCOM game.  There is an ancient evil set to awaken in a kingdom in 300 years.  Your job is prepare the kingdom for that battle by buidling up the noble houses and fighting back the incursions throughout the 300 year time period.  The game has two major elements:  'kingdom management' and 'tactical combat' (my names for them).

 

In the kindgom management portion, you decide what's happening in the 10 regions of the kingdom.  This includes:  building keeps (strongholds for noble families), arranging marriages and propagating bloodlines for those families, building sageguilds and training crucibles, researching new armor/weapons/items, and dealing with some minor side-story based decisions (like what to do with soldiers who injure someone speaking out against you).  You start with 5 noble bloodlines that you are tasked with maintaining.  To do so, you need to build them a keep, appoint a regent from the bloodline, select a partner for the regent (if the partner or regent are sterile or if you choose to create a s/s couple, you can 'research' an orphan child to be adopted into the bloodline).  Their siblings/offspring act as your soldiers (although you can recruit new soldiers by 'researching' for them) and you build traits through selective breeding.  Higher level regents/partners with better skills create better offspring, but placing them as regent means that you can't use them in combat anymore.  Plus, if you aren't careful, noble houses can die out.  It's really interesting and enjoyable gaming.

 

In the tactical combat portion, you battle the forces of the ancient evil every few years.  Your soldiers are the members of the noble families who aren't regents/partners/sages/trainers.  There are three main 'types':  caberjacks (tanks/melee), hunters (ranged), alchemists (support).  You unlock new classes by breeding noble families together.  The gameplay is standard tactical RPG fare.  This component is a little weaker, in my opinion, since your soldiers die off from old age over time, forcing you to get new soldiers, but the enemy forces continue to get more difficult.  I'm starting to get the hang of it now (higher level regents create higher level starting offspring), but there's a steep learning curve.  It's also has a questionable hit% system that seems HUGELY skewed to the enemy.  But it's good stuff still.

 

Anyway, this has become a huge book of post right now, but that shows how excited for the game, I am right now.  If anyone else is playing it, what are your thoughts?

[Beerfish]

I saw this game as a freebie on the xbone and had a look at it, looked kinda complex to me.

 

I should download it though and give it a whirl as your endorsement is pretty strong.

[Queen Skadi]

Sounds interesting though I do have one question, can you selectively breed certain features in relation to character appearance? For instance certain hair and eye colours?

[daveliam]

I saw this game as a freebie on the xbone and had a look at it, looked kinda complex to me.

I should download it though and give it a whirl as your endorsement is pretty strong.

There's a steep learning curve and the tutorial isn't great but if you are familiar with this type of game (like XCOM: EU) it shouldn't be too hard to pick it up. I treated my first attempt as a practice round. Got about 100 years in and then started over once I felt I understood it better. Now I'm about 120 years into my second attempt and it's going a lot better.

[Vroom Vroom]

I played it and enjoyed it. I had lots of fun and no problems with the difficulty (I suck at RTS). It's definitely worth the download if you have an Xbox One and Games for Gold. I found the bloodline thing to be really neat and the events were really funny (one of my warriors got Ostrich Vision from an event, lol). I never really bothered with the melee classes, I just used the archer classes and the Brew/Alchemist classes. Flasks became a must for me during the end game.  

[daveliam]

Sounds interesting though I do have one question, can you selectively breed certain features in relation to character appearance? For instance certain hair and eye colours?

Skin color is determined for all kids (even adopted ones) by the skin color of the regent (male or female, whoever is the current ruler). Hair color is a little more open. There are about 8-10 hair colors. Most children fall within the general range of the parents but occasionally you'll get a kid with completely different hair color. The graphics are not good (more like XBOX than XBONE) so there are no details on eye color.

You can't customize the characters at all but they will change their hairstyles (and eventually go gray and/or bald) a few times. Infant, child, young adult, prime adult, and old age.

You CAN select for traits though. For example, two parents who have the nimble trait (increased dexterity) are more more likely to have nimble offspring. That works for positive and negative traits, too. Against biology, it works that way for adopted children too. The game doesn't give you a lot of options to directly customize, but from a Mendellian standpoint, it's super addictive to 'breed' better warriors.

[Queen Skadi]

Skin color is determined for all kids (even adopted ones) by the skin color of the regent (male or female, whoever is the current ruler). Hair color is a little more open. There are about 8-10 hair colors. Most children fall within the general range of the parents but occasionally you'll get a kid with completely different hair color. The graphics are not good (more like XBOX than XBONE) so there are no details on eye color.

 

What if both parents have the same hair colour? Will the child have the same colour or is there a chance that both the parents could have a recessive gene that leads to an inferior offspring? Is there some sort of pit where I can discard such children?

[PhroXenGold]

Sounds like breeding good offspring in CK2.  

 

But, yeah, I've got this on my Steam Wishlist. If it comes on sale I'll probably pick it up.

[daveliam]

What if both parents have the same hair colour? Will the child have the same colour or is there a chance that both the parents could have a recessive gene that leads to an inferior offspring? Is there some sort of pit where I can discard such children?

There's always a chance that you'll get odd traits. Plus, each individual gets personality traits that are random (some good, some bad).

No way to discard 'bad offspring'. I just usually leave them in the Vanguard (the name for your soldier units) roster without using them until they die of old age. You can always keep them as 'the spare' in case 'the heir' gets killed off or dies without kids. Or, you can send them to be sages or trainers.

[Jeremiah12LGeek]

I played a bit of this a couple of days ago (free on XBone.)

 

It seemed sort of interesting. I might give it another whirl, at some point. The problem for me was that the combat seemed very simple and repetitive. I could see how it was going to branch out and expand as it progressed, but the early combat became tedious, so I wandered off from it.

 

The concept of developing heroic bloodlines as the backbone of hero progression is very cool.

[Queen Skadi]

What about bastards? Is it possible to pop out bastards and use them as canon fodder?

[daveliam]

What about bastards? Is it possible to pop out bastards and use them as canon fodder?

Nope. Children can only be born from marriage, although you can 'research' orphans if you want fodder. Sometimes you get an orphaned baby as the result of a battle too. They then get adopted into one of the noble houses.

[daveliam]

I played a bit of this a couple of days ago (free on XBone.)

It seemed sort of interesting. I might give it another whirl, at some point. The problem for me was that the combat seemed very simple and repetitive. I could see how it was going to branch out and expand as it progressed, but the early combat became tedious, so I wandered off from it.

The concept of developing heroic bloodlines as the backbone of hero progression is very cool.

I don't love the combat, personally, but it's okay. It's like a less well done XCOM in that way.

Even the advanced classes are just combinations of the starter classes (stealth melee, for example). Plus, I think the only archers are the starter class. If they exist otherwise, I can't find them.

[Queen Skadi]

Ok what the **** is this ****? Not one of my heroes is blonde, how the **** am I to create the Aryan master race without any blondes? Adding insult to injury the game also decides to give me a large population of ginger people, the Cadence can have the kingdom, no point defending a kingdom without a soul.

[Fast Jimmy]

Nope. Children can only be born from marriage, although you can 'research' orphans if you want fodder. Sometimes you get an orphaned baby as the result of a battle too. They then get adopted into one of the noble houses.

[TheChris92]

My relationship with Tim Schäfer/Double Fine is a bit strained as of late -- After liking his games like Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, the old LucasArts classics and bringing Grim Fandango back but disliking his resent practices and disappointment that is Broken Age.. I just don't know where we stand anymore. One thing's for sure is that he's sleeping on the couch tonight.

[L. Han]

^Didn't they botch up Spacebase DF-9 as well?

[Vroom Vroom]

^Didn't they botch up Spacebase DF-9 as well?

Wikipedia says "yes":  http://en.wikipedia....F-9#Controversy

 

"In September 2014, Double Fine announced that they were going to bring Spacebase DF-9 out of early access status, and add features to make the game a full commercial release, due to a lack of sales for the game during the early access period. After the commercial release, Double Fine will release part of the source code and no new features will be added, but Double Fine will still be offering support of the game and making bug fix releases.[9][10] The news was met with controversy, with some fans expressing anger over the fact that the game wouldn't continue development,[11] and some developers questioning whether a failure by a well known developer to successfully use the early access model would tarnish that model for other developers."

[daveliam]

 

Huh?  Why?

[Fast Jimmy]

Huh? Why?

The discussion of orphans as a resource is, you must admit, a little WTF.

[daveliam]

The discussion of orphans as a resource is, you must admit, a little WTF.

 

Ah, yeah, I get it now.  Yeah......  But the person who was asking is also looking to make an Aryan race of characters, so it seems par for the course.

 

I kind of like that they add in orphans as an option.  Sometimes you have a character who is amazing that you want to be regent but they are infertile.  Or the best match for them is same sex.  This allows you to still pass on traits and avoid killing off a bloodline.  It just sucks that you have to treat finding them as a 'research' option, since you can only have one project happening at a time. 

[Queen Skadi]

The discussion of orphans as a resource is, you must admit, a little WTF.

 

Well the game is a Eugenics simulator.

[Fast Jimmy]

Well the game is a Eugenics simulator.

Eugenics gets a bad wrap, in my eyes. It's increasingly more apparent that genetics govern a very large portion of our traits, even more than the level it was believed to back when eugenics was popular. And since genetic modification has many dangers and unknowns, breeding remains the best and safest way to attempt to propogate desireable traits.

Yes, when you use racism instead of science to determine said traits, that's a serious problem. And when you look to exterminate the "undesireables" instead of simply breeding the most desireable, that's... well, that's murder or genocide, depending on the targets and the scale.

But just straight breeding for the best traits to improve offspring... I don't see why that is inherently an evil or disgusting thing, assuming breeding is the only activity going on and that all participants are willing and informed.