Epic Manager Is On Steam

It deserves it’s own thread, so here it is.

So when a sports management sim meets a roguelike he likes very very much they get married and that’s where baby games like Epic Manager come from.

Briefly, you recruit adventurers out of 24(?) different classes, assemble them into parties, and send them out to scour a procedurally-generated hex -based map in search of fame and fortune. Mostly fame, since that’s the overall goal - to compete in a series of leagues against other agencies until yours is the bestest in the Westest.

The management part really shines, and is quite deep, with each recruitable adventurer a mix of stats, special abilities, and traits, both positive and negative. Adventurers level up, or course, and so does your Agency, allowing it to field more parties, hire trainers, engage in a little sabotage of other agencies, and purchase improvements along a sort of tech tree.

The weakest aspect of the game is the combat, which is a shame, because there’s a lot of it. Every quest I’ve taken on so far has ended with it, but I don’t know if the final release will have alternative ways to complete them. There are also random encounters which often lead to combat (but not always). The combat isn’t terrible, per se, but until you have stronger adventurers with better skills and equipment it’s kind of lackluster.

The developer is calling it an Alpha, but it really plays more like a late Beta. It appears to be feature-complete, and I haven’t run into any obvious bugs. All it needs at this point is a bit more polishing, and re-balancing, particularly of the early game, which can be brutally difficult.

Thanks, I just saw this mentioned in another thread and it looks interesting.

I realize I might be in the minority, but I’d really like an adventurer management game that doesn’t make me do the combat. more hands off or even Majesty like. If I’m the one doing the fighting it feels less like I’m the one doing the hiring.

Bleh. Early access. I guess I can look forward to a few months of seeing this thread bumped and thinking, “Oooh, is it actually out yet?”

-Tom

I feel the same way.

Actually, you know who I want to make a game like that? Soldak. I always like what Soldak does, but the moment-to-moment ARPG gameplay is the weakest point, IMO. I’d love if they made a game where it was more hands-off and was entirely about the simulation and clan management.

Explain this further.
I’m a huge fan of indirect control games like Dungeon Keeper and Populous. Is this what you mean? Or even more abstract?

I posted a thread recently asking for a very similar thing, and Epic Manager was mentioned there. (Still looking!)

Also, with everything I’ve heard about Soldak’s games (still haven’t gotten around to playing any myself for some reason), I agree: a Soldak hero-management game would be awesome.

One thing I rather like about this one (just looking at it) is the overland map you are exploring, which adds such a cool dimension from what you would get in a straight-up manager/sim (no offense intended to Derek or anyone that makes games of that style). I actually like TB combat, but have to admit this game almost looks like it could have been better without it, especially once you start managing multiple parties. I don’t see why you couldn’t be sending out groups to explore in various directions, only uncovering the map if they successfully return, even without the hands-on combat.

@Steven_Peeler ARE YOU LISTENING! ;)

PS Keep up the good work on Zombasite…

So this game has nothing to do with EHR, right? Because if they found a way to turn that into a game, I could use the training on EPIC…

What is EHR?

Checked this out based on the premise. It’s a lot more Darkest Dungeon than Majesty.

You have direct control during combat, which is an unholy hybrid of DD and, idk, Divinity: Original Sin. While that sounds neat in theory, I don’t care for how characters can store a gajillion action points and then just go to town when their turn comes up. Leads to some really cheap-feeling deaths, like when the RNG decides to target one of your dudes over and over and he gets effectively one-shotted because the enemy saved up some AP and rolled a lucky crit + bleeding wound.

Very possible balancing (and AI) could solve some or all of what I don’t like about it. I do like the tension of saving AP for a big combolicious doom turn (stack a bunch of limited-turn buffs and go berserk with a bunch of saved AP, for example) vs killing dudes now so you don’t take as much damage.

But yeah, it’s not really hands-off at all, at least in the couple hours I spent with it. Not to say that it might not be cool, but I’ll wait until something closer to full release to put any more time into it.

I didn’t care much for the combat. I really feel like this game would be better without manual combat at all. Would be nice if they add a simulate or AI-resolve option.

I was reading through the threads on Steam Forums and they are planning on adding simulated battles (apparently it is currently going through testing).

Nice, thanks for the info!

This feature went live yesterday. Anyone tried it?

I can not figure out how to equip items. The Auto Combat does not work in the beginning tutorial. I got it to work once and it seems you roll a die but not certain how it determines what happens (it looks like there are red, yellow, and green outcomes). I am thinking it changes the ratio of the color outcomes somehow (kind of like a bazaar wheel at a fair).

At the moment I am just trying to figure out the UI and will worry about the auto combat later on.

Are you talking about equipping items for auto-combat or manual combat?

Both, unfortunately! I find the UI a bit whimsical but it is probably just me.

This has just come out of early access. Can anybody provide their impressions?