This can be a great game by the time it's finished.
Armello (http://"http://www.armello.com") is a board game with cards and dice. The premise is that the King of the Forest (a lion, natch) has come down with something called The Rot, a disease of body and soul, and has 9 days to live. Four woodland creatures are vying to take over the throne. The 4 currently in-game line up with RPG archetypes - the wolf (fighter), rat (thief), rabbit (mage), and bear (cleric). All have different attributes and all play a little differently. There are 4 more animals that are supposed to be available when the game is released.
Each day is split into a day phase and a night phase, so the game is at most 18 turns, and, once you learn the ropes, takes about an hour to play solo (I haven't tried multi player yet). Each turn you spend AP's moving around a procedurally-generated game board fighting each other, solving quests, exploring dungeons, and trying to increase your stock of gold, mana, and prestige. Oh yeah, and playing cards to really screw with the other players.
There are 4 ways to win, 3 of which involve getting past the traps in the castle to the King himself (not easy). You can cure his case of Rot with Spirit Stones, infect him further by spreading the rot yourself, or just outright kill him in battle. If nobody has won by the end of the last day, the player with the most Prestige is declared winner.
One thing worth noting is that the game is gorgeous. The cards are all individually animated, and the characters and board look like something out of Ralph Bakshi or Don Bluth. It's currently in Early Access, and pretty pricey at $25. There are still technical issues, as I've only been able to play one game to completion - the rest have been plagued by CTD's. Other people have reported no problems so if you feel lucky, punk, go for it.
(https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2720930/Armello01.1364925923.jpg)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1-news.softpedia-static.com%2Fimages%2Fnews2%2FArmello-Brings-Digital-Board-Game-Action-to-Steam-Early-Access-This-Month-470080-2.jpg&hash=d435d1ab5050ebf57aa4f2061ebc179e6eb4f60d)
I nominate this thread for Best Title of the Week! The game looks intriguing, assuming that they get the game play sufficiently solid and don't focus overly much on the cutesy aspect. The cutesy aspect can actually be novel and fun, it just needs solid game play even more than other games to avoid being annoying.
Quote from: PanzersEast on March 19, 2015, 09:18:55 AM
Das does a LP...
If that's his first vid in the series, then he will probably just be reading the game settings and setup aloud for 30 minutes. :crazy2:
Quote from: Nefaro on March 19, 2015, 11:24:57 AM
Quote from: PanzersEast on March 19, 2015, 09:18:55 AM
Das does a LP...
If that's his first vid in the series, then he will probably just be reading the game settings and setup aloud for 30 minutes. :crazy2:
lol yea... he does finish his first game in subsequent videos... but yea fast forward! :D
PE
Goddammit, I wish I had thought of this idea for a game! >:(
Looks awesome...I gotta keep an eye on this. O0
Early Access where? Steam?
This is officially out today. I've been playing a bit this week and the AI seems solid. Here's a look at 1.0:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwgKKLohMv0
This one did look interesting to me. I'd love an early report, from anybody who's had a chance to play.
Despite my aversion to the 3D character art, I was intrigued with the gameplay and I'm a sucker for these tabletop style games.
The gameplay is pretty damn fun & engaging.
I have a couple graphics complaints, although I've only played it on my notebook with the GT640M card in it. When the game first started, it was both windowed & offset to the side. I had to ALT+ENTER a few times, and cycle the in-game resolution once, to get it properly centered and full screen. After that, it's been fine.
My second issue is that the highest map zoom levels have some useless ass fog & blur, which makes it almost impossible to make out details on the map underneath. Think of Total War Rome 2's level of clouds (on full zoom out) floating over the whole damn map, and that is comparable. I wouldn't complain so much about this if I could zoom out a reasonable distance in order to examine a wide area on the map at once, but at the x768 resolution I can only fit about four hexes wide and three high. And you get 3 AP every turn, which is three regular terrain hexes, so you can get an idea of how much map scrolling I have to do for planning my moves ahead. That layer of zoom out fog & blur is just useless as tits on a bull and actually frustrates me when I'm trying to formulate a movement plan.
Those bitches aside, I definitely enjoyed my first full game. The characters each have their own flavor, but are still flexible enough to achieve most or all of the numerous game winning conditions. There are numerous different mechanics that provide varied choices every turn on how you want to approach that victory. I'm not sure exactly how balanced the different characters are, but with all the options that come up during the game it shouldn't be bad if it's even an issue at all. There's a lot more going on in the gameplay than I originally expected, and that's a good thing. Well worth the $20 I spent on it.
The developers sort of answered the issue of the fog when the camera is pulled all the way out. The short answer is they don't want people playing zoomed out that far, and feel the game is best played zoomed all the way in and using hot keys to find you way around the map (space to zoom toyour character, q to the next quest location, and so forth).
This of course raises the question of why put it in in the first place. People on the Steam forum are yammering for an option to turn it off.
I hate these sorts of effects in a game unless they are expressly used to create fog of war.
Quote from: tgb on September 01, 2015, 07:15:42 PM
The developers sort of answered the issue of the fog when the camera is pulled all the way out. The short answer is they don't want people playing zoomed out that far, and feel the game is best played zoomed all the way in and using hot keys to find you way around the map (space to zoom toyour character, q to the next quest location, and so forth).
This of course raises the question of why put it in in the first place. People on the Steam forum are yammering for an option to turn it off.
For creating a very tabletop-like game, they practically force you to play it with your nose touching the game board. Goddamn ridiculous, the justification put forth. ::)
It's playable, and even pretty enjoyable. Just a terrible design decision that not only fails to add anything to the experience, but is detrimental to it.
But not TOO CLOSE to the board. Because then everything around the hex you're currently looking at goes out of focus. Instead of all the hexes blurring out if you zoom out even slightly.
The zoom issue is one thousand percent annoying, and absolutely not needed for the fog of war BECAUSE THERE'S ALREADY A FREAKING MECHANIC SPECIFICALLY DEDICATED TO CREATING FOG OF WAR!!
It's an artistic effect? Fine. Make it optional. I have hope they'll do this pronto.
Played through the tutorial, not entirely sure I understand all the relevant mechanics, but close enough. Might do a DAR on a new campaign.
Quote from: JasonPratt on September 02, 2015, 05:48:44 PM
But not TOO CLOSE to the board. Because then everything around the hex you're currently looking at goes out of focus. Instead of all the hexes blurring out if you zoom out even slightly.
The zoom issue is one thousand percent annoying, and absolutely not needed for the fog of war BECAUSE THERE'S ALREADY A FREAKING MECHANIC SPECIFICALLY DEDICATED TO CREATING FOG OF WAR!!
It's an artistic effect? Fine. Make it optional. I have hope they'll do this pronto.
Indeed!
Quote
Played through the tutorial, not entirely sure I understand all the relevant mechanics, but close enough. Might do a DAR on a new campaign.
The biggest thing the Tutorial scenarios didn't get into was the effects of gaining 'Rot' points. But you can look that up on the in-game help files for the details & hard numbers.
I haven't been able to play since release because while I had no problem with the last released beta version, 1.0 crashes on me after 2 or 3 turns. I sent them my crash logs yesterday morning, but haven't heard anything more about it. Other people reported the same problem.
That aside, I'd be happy to answer any and all questions you guys have.
Quote from: tgb on September 02, 2015, 07:20:51 PM
I haven't been able to play since release because while I had no problem with the last released beta version, 1.0 crashes on me after 2 or 3 turns. I sent them my crash logs yesterday morning, but haven't heard anything more about it. Other people reported the same problem.
That aside, I'd be happy to answer any and all questions you guys have.
I have a question. If one of their characters ultimately gets named "Furry Marine", will Jarhead buy it?
Quote from: FarAway Sooner on September 03, 2015, 08:50:36 AM
Quote from: tgb on September 02, 2015, 07:20:51 PM
I haven't been able to play since release because while I had no problem with the last released beta version, 1.0 crashes on me after 2 or 3 turns. I sent them my crash logs yesterday morning, but haven't heard anything more about it. Other people reported the same problem.
That aside, I'd be happy to answer any and all questions you guys have.
I have a question. If one of their characters ultimately gets named "Furry Marine", will Jarhead buy it?
He'll buy anything named "Furry".
If it had only been set in the Warhammer 40K, JH would be all over it. Not sure what faction bunnies belong to in WH40K but that is another topic completely.
Quote from: Bison on September 03, 2015, 10:48:49 AM
If it had only been set in the Warhammer 40K, JH would be all over it. Not sure what faction bunnies belong to in WH40K but that is another topic completely.
They'd resemble the one in my avatar, but with oversized armor pieces strapped to it.
Bunnies are probably an eliminated WH40K faction, like the stunts. ^-^
There are, however, skaven in Armello. So that's... that's like close to being 40K, by one remove, right? :smitten:
Meanwhile: a very popular thread with people who love the game asking for an option to turn off the camera weirdness, has been deleted from the Steam game discussions since last night. Or moved somewhere secret perhaps; wasn't in the "bug report" forum.
Not sure what to think about that. I still love the game, and I wouldn't disrecommend it for that reason, but... I'm starting to think there's some kind of unknown legal agreement that the camera must either be locked at a certain height or players must be actively discouraged from changing the zoom outside a very narrow height range. ???
Or some people are big babies who don't respond well to criticism.
I can't imagine what legal reason that would be. I'm getting annoyed that I still can't play it.
Quote from: JasonPratt on September 05, 2015, 01:08:16 PM
Meanwhile: a very popular thread with people who love the game asking for an option to turn off the camera weirdness, has been deleted from the Steam game discussions since last night. Or moved somewhere secret perhaps; wasn't in the "bug report" forum.
This is the large thread on it:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/290340/discussions/0/527273983050674819/
Still there. You can see some of the beta people relaying the developers' stance on it when they brought it up in the past.
To me it sounds as if they want to force us to be zoomed in close to relish in their awesome 3D characters, up close and in your face all day long, cranked to eleven.
I think the animated 2D interface artwork is the prettiest part of the game. The 3D stuff on the map? Meh. Even when forced to look at it up close.
Being forced to remain zoomed-in all the time also makes it frustratingly difficult to play cards on map hexes from your hand, during other players' turns. By being forced to such a close-in view, you are also being forced to leave the camera set to follow the active player, making the prospect of dragging & dropping your cards onto the map, while the camera is constantly moving along with the active player, a difficult one.
I enjoy Armello. I seriously do. It does lend a tabletop game feel, and the mechanics are fairly enjoyable. It's this accursed limited zoom & blur/fog effect that makes it a pain to play properly at times. Then there's the developers' stubborn stance on keeping it that way. ::)
Here's a dev quote posted on the subject, from beta:
QuoteHey guys!
Can confirm that although there are visual tweaks and improvements that will be happening all the way up to launch, we won't be changing the level of visibility when you zoom out.
This was very specifically designed and implemented to not only engender a more convincing sense of place and further our goal to bring Armello to life, but also to prevent people from meta-gaming by playing in a zoomed out view.
The ability to zoom is only there for a quick geographical sit-rep, to get your bearings a little better or to better see your card range. That's it. The game is not intended to be played from an elevated view and this is to reinforce that.
There are still a few small tweaks to be made, but we're really happy with where zoom is at currently.
<3 Trent
"Meta-gaming"? Seriously? It's a foogeen digital board game!
*sigh*
When I logged onto Steam this morning, I saw two more post alerts, and with some annoyance figured (correctly) they were from that thread, and hopped over to check them quickly so I'd know if something more important showed up.
Whereupon I saw the thread was italicized out with the notification "thread has been deleted". Clicking the thread took me nowhere. Went to the forums, no thread.
So, it had been deleted, by accident or whatever, even if it's now restored. I know I didn't dream that!
Oh well. Grogheads now has 100% more Armello DAR than it did thirty minutes ago! :D
http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=14743.msg383567#msg383567
Quote from: tgb on September 05, 2015, 03:04:11 PM
I can't imagine what legal reason that would be. I'm getting annoyed that I still can't play it.
They credit some of the artwork, including breaking down between static and animations, there on the screen when it comes up. Never saw that done before except as part of scanning MtG cards.
Which is great (if a little immersion breaking), don't get me wrong. But does indicate they're more sensitive than usual about who gets credit for the art.
I'm honestly just making a wild-ass guess because their position makes no sense. If seeing the artwork was that important, they wouldn't focus-blur after zooming slightly in. There's a narrow window of moderate zoom, any farther out
or in they penalize you visually.
Quote from: NefaroBeing forced to remain zoomed-in all the time also makes it frustratingly difficult to play cards on map hexes from your hand, during other players' turns. By being forced to such a close-in view, you are also being forced to leave the camera set to follow the active player, making the prospect of dragging & dropping your cards onto the map, while the camera is constantly moving along with the active player, a difficult one.
This + 1000.
I finished the DAR last night (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=14743.0), completing my first game. Won't spoil how it ended but in a couple of ways it was down to the wire.
Noticed this is cheap on http://www.nuuvem.com/ right now. I'm in the UK, and it worked out about half price compared to Steam. The key worked fine for me, I didn't need to use a VPN, and the store's an authorized Steam reseller, not one of those dodgy sites. Give it a go.
Great! Already got it (obviously per the DAR), but I'd say it's definitely worth half price, probably worth full price (but a lot of other things in new release right now so why not spread the resources around more effectively.)
Btw, Amanda, if you got a Steam friend request from Sabreman, that's me. Your privacy's still important, of course; just taking the opportunity to clarify in case the problem was "who's that". O:-) (I friended everyone in the Groghead group recently, not just you.)
Sounds like they finally listened to all the Zoom fog complaints in the recent update (http://steamcommunity.com/games/290340/announcements/detail/799743130476712904).
Their After/Before shot of the zoomed out view:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FUgfgkxB.png&hash=d05196ace3ef69d771e055cf4ef7c98178ab79fd)
Steady pressure, boys. Steady pressure. ;)
From this I can only infer that Aslan invaded their dreams in the middle of the night and growled DAMMIT IF YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE A GAME WHERE I GO INSANE AND DIE AT LEAST LET PEOPLE SEE IT DO NOT TEST ME ON THIS I AM NOT A TAME LION!!
:))
OK, I have to say that this is a really good game. It's just complex enough without going overboard but is still very engaging and requires some careful plotting. I also have to say that I haven't played such a highly polished game for ages. The cards in particular are beautifully drawn and animated, and when you hover your cursor over one the name and signature of the artist appears. Armello is just full of lovely little touches like these that make it an absolute joy to play, to the point where I really don't care whether I'm winning or losing, it's just fun.
Lovely game, I'm so glad I got it at last.
My biggest disappointment has been my inability to play the release version for more than 5 minutes without it crashing on me.
Quote from: tgb on December 05, 2015, 12:35:48 PM
My biggest disappointment has been my inability to play the release version for more than 5 minutes without it crashing on me.
Wow, didn't the devs get back to you on that? I had an issue with Linux and they replied within hours and helped me fix it.
They keep putting out patches and I remain optimistic, but so far nothing has solved the problem.
Really great game. Annoying that it won't run for rgb, since he is the one who got me interested in it.