The factions do act on their own! Each one is its own AI system, growing havens, conducting research, developing an economy, responding to threats, and even fighting wars against other factions. They’re basically playing their own base-building game alongside you, and you can watch them as you explore the map and decide which ones to buddy up with and which ones to antagonize. It’s a pretty remarkable system for the player to navigate, especially fleshed out as it is with all the DLC.
I don’t think havens can change hands, though. The whole point of the game is to save humanity, and the clock is literally humanity’s remaining population, measured as a red bar in the upper right hand corner. When a haven is defeated for whatever reason, your punishment is losing that much population, and that much length off the red bar, and now that much less time on the clock. The haven is still useful as a fueling point for flight, but it won’t host human population any longer.
Anyway, I don’t think Phoenix Point is quite what you’re looking for in the context of this discussion, but it’s a very different game from the one we were playing at launch! I am surprised at how much it feels like a Pirates game in which my ships and crews navigate an open world ruled by potentially hostile or friendly factions, and I have lots of room for creative expression in terms of how and where I progress. That part feels very much like Pirates, but the moment to moment tactical combat, which is where you spend most of your time, is still very much an XCOM style game.
Have you looked into Kenshi? I haven’t played M&B before, but people compare Kenshi to it often. From what I remember when I played, the various factions will do their own thing. It’s a ton of fun if you can get past the janky looking graphics.
Pirates! is the best game ever made. Play it again is my suggestion ;0
Nothing ever came close. But Mount & Blade was a very worthy attempt. I really enjoy the silly combat
V Rising launches tomorrow in early access, top-down vampire survival crafting ARPG. Developed by Stunlock Studios (Battlerite, Dead Island Epidemic), who are now owned by Tencent.
SkillUp loves it, quotes: “there’s never been a more polished early access survival game on day one” and “awesome combat”, but iffy performance.
You’re being dishonest: as if there were vampire-themed digital board games!
I remember a werewolf one on iOS. We had had a game going with the Jumping the Shark crew, and I remember most of us died of old age because there were so many inputs required all the time a single turn would take a week.
That at least had full controller support at EA launch! V Rising doesn’t seem to have any unfortunately, nor is any currently planned. Which itself is odd for a modern ARPG.
One of my more anticipated games; I made a thread for Sandwalkers.
Sandwalkers is an upcoming caravan management game by the makers of Legend of Keepers.
You do roguelike runs with caravans of procedurally generated adventurers on procedural maps.
Both graphics and combat basics look similar to Legend of Keepers. Caravan member have distinctive jobs that supposedly “greatly influence the gameplay” options you have. Your travels and decisions do influence future runs and there is a bigger overarching goal of repairing the broken climate.
The pixel art in this is very nice and the backgrounds are gorgeous.
Legend of Keepers was so close to being good for me. I like pixel/drawn art so the excessive style was no drawback for me.
The base design of Keepers was a real downer though, with combat being defined by very intentional attrition and one shot abilities on your team rendering a lot of the monster building moot. I’m hoping the more… protective approach towards caravan members solves that very feelbad issue.
World Seed reminds me of hex-based games I played as a kid, like Barbarian Prince or SSI stuff.
This plays much like a board game, from what I can tell. Some caveats: it’s an mmo for some reason, complete with server issues (?!). It’s also using a shareware model with a $9 unlock.
Tried to try it, but can’t get to the main menu. There’s a big pop-up that warns you it’s a demo, and you have to in-app-purchase the full game for $9 if you want to get past the beginning.
Then it makes you log in, but there appears to be something going on with the servers, because it seems like you can’t. So I can’t play it. Ah, well. Good thing there was a demo!
Team Ladybug, the devs behind the Touhou Luna Nights and Deedlit in Wonderland metroidvanias, has just stealth dropped a new release - a sidescrolling shooter with the exceptional pixel art that has become their trademark. It happened to drop while I’m in the middle of a shmup kick thanks to the addicting second loop of Zeroranger, so I went ahead and picked it up. Seems to have a progression and customization system for your ship’s loadout, as well as a mechanic for absorbing bullets. I’m hoping there’s a Radiant Silvergun/Zeroranger style melee option available at some point.
