Strike Team - XCOM style, Tactical RPG by Wave Light Games

Couple of random progress shots. These show campaign level 18 and several of the new units. There's a new combat mech as well as some of the new, much bigger aliens.

Strike Team WIP 11 by Rajpreet Dhillon, on Flickr

Strike Team WIP 12 by Rajpreet Dhillon, on Flickr

 

Here's a WIP of one of the boss fights. This is a giant alien worm.

Strike Team WIP 13 by Rajpreet Dhillon, on Flickr

 

The worm is actually swimming ... the lower section of the level is flooded but that didn't come across in the image. I need to make the water more visible.

 

Thanks guys ... glad you're liking it. Progress is going well. I have 4 more levels to build to finish off the campaign. Then I need to create a whole bunch of special abilities, adjust stats of enemies and allies, create a bunch of random battles and do a tonne of testing.

 

I believe their upcoming game is called Morphite.

Quick update ... working on the final campaign level and final boss.

Still lots more to do but getting closer.

 

Hey guys,

I am just finishing up the code changes for the new morale system. Would appreciate some feedback on it. Morale in Strike Team operates very differently than in Demon's Rise. The emphasis is on suppression and firefights and not melee combat, after all. One of the fundamental changes in the Strike Team mechanics is that counter attacks are not melee-only so when you shoot someone, they will shoot back if you are in range of their weapon and they have a counter attack left to them. Therefore, shooting at an enemy can be risky as you draw return fire. It can be a very bad idea if you are in the open and the target is behind effective cover. Instead, it will be usually smarter to use the action points to move to a better position rather than risk an unlikely shot that will draw return fire.

So with that bit of clarity, here is how morale works in this situation:

Morale is a value ranging from 0 to 100 for each unit. Most units will start the game at morale 50 but some better units might start higher and some especially weak / cowardly units would start the battle lower. Morale has a direct and constant effect on fighting ability. So a unit with high morale will be more effective in combat and one with low morale will be less effective. This works as follows:

- A unit's chance to hit with melee and missile attacks is modified by his morale. For every point of morale above 50, the unit gains +1% hit chance and for every point below 50, the unit suffers -1% hit chance. So If you have a soldier with morale 60, he would get a +10% bonus hit chance on his ranged attack. Another soldier with morale 10 would suffer a -40% hit chance penalty on his attacks. A soldier with a morale of exactly 50 would get no penalty or bonus.

- If a unit ever goes down to zero morale, he / she becomes suppressed ... which will have a penalty like they can't move, attack, counter attack or perform any abilities for 1 or 2 turns.

Now the morale value of a unit is constantly modified during the battle. Like the morale system in Demon's Rise, it is based on line of sight and the events that happen in battle. Here is what impacts it:

- When a unit is shot at, it suffers a loss of morale and all units (friend and foe) with a certain radius also suffer a loss in morale. Basically shooting at an enemy will help suppress them and all nearby units. This makes bunching up your soldiers very closely a very bad idea.

- When a unit is hit by an attack and suffers damage, he / she loses morale.

- When a unit is healed by any source (medic, etc.) he / she gains morale.

- When a unit sees an ally get killed, he / she loses morale. There is a further morale penalty if that ally was a "leader"

- When a unit sees an enemy get killed, he / she gains morale. There is also a further morale bonus if that enemy was a "leader"

- When enemy reinforcements enter the battle, units not of that faction lose morale.

- When allied reinforcements enter the battle, units allied to that faction gain morale.

So let me know what you think. 90% is coded and seems to work pretty well.

 

So each character will have a different starting morale and there will be items and XP upgrades that will increase that starting morale. So a really elite soldier might start off with morale 75 and he might have a cool item that boosts morale by a further 5. As such, he would start the battle with a morale of 80 and thus have a 30% boost to his hit chance from the start of the battle. A poorly trained soldier might only have a morale of 25 as his base morale and therefore would start the battle with a -25% hit penalty.

This means that elite troops will be very effective at the start of the battle as they storm in and kick ass to begin with. Similarly, poorly trained soldiers will be less effective to begin with. However, if things go badly for the elites, their morale will go down and they will suffer penalties to their fighting ability. Similarly, if things go well for the poorly trained soldiers, their morale will go up and they will fight better as they get more confident.

It definitely gives a bonus to well trained troops with high starting morale values but they will be comparatively expensive / rare so it should balance out.

 

Hey gents,

Here's a brief video I made during testing. It shows the Rifter in action. She has the ability to manipulate gravity and uses some really strange weapons like a singularity grenade, which creates a tiny black hole.

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Another video of the Incinerator character. A short range fighter armed with a flame thrower.

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Can anyone remind me how to make an embedded youtube video? Everything I try doesn't work.