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bisonbison posted:Has he talked at all about a combat-specific UI or other UI plans? I don't think there is going to be any massive overhauls of the UI. Not in the way that I think you're getting at. Everything is based around that same encounter interface and while there will probably be adjustments to the screen layouts like in the past, it will probably always be based around that item movement/encounter type UI. But you never know, if you explain the issues you have with the current UI something may be done. Dan has shown that he is incredibly receptive to feedback and will usually work on things as long as they don't have too large a scope.  New Build
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Aug 25, 2012 02:36
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This game is awesome, definitely worth those ten bucks. The only two things I would change as of now is making the tiles with river/swamp/lake somewhat distinct since I always die of thirst if I want to explore and making it easier to find shopping carts. Shopping carts are the best thing cause you can store a ton of extra crap and let you carry a crowbar without negating one of your hand slots. Awesome awesome game, I'll probably post some tips later on.
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Aug 25, 2012 09:24
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OK, I promised some tips so here we go: Unless you are dying of thirst or you are getting the movement penalty from it, try not to drink "water", you should drink purified water instead. It's found in water bottles and can be made by setting up a big fire + metalsauce pan (or empty can) + water (up to 3 if you use the pan). Bandage your cuts after every fight or looting. If a wound gets infected you are gonna need purified water, take it from the container and apply on the wound. One use for each level of infection. DO THIS or you will die of a severe infection, it sucks! Never use dirty bandages for wounds. If you want to thrive in this game, fight only when necessary. For this reason I recommend the hiding skill. Use it when looting unless you want to have nightmares 'bout dogmen. Try to get ahold of a crowbar since it gives you more loot and is an average to good weapon. Pick your looting places!!! Do not loot destroyed buildings and the like unless you want to fall/get cut/various poo poo. You can risk it at the start cause you will be hurting for something to strap your feet on and clothes but it is easier to go for another looter, kick his teeth in and steal their clothes and stuff (unless they are carrying a cleaver that's it). Do this only when starting since fighting in this game is dangerous as gently caress. Always make or carry a noise trap (empty tin can + string + screws) and place it wherever you sleep. Try to get shoes and feed yourself in order to get as many action points as possible. I believe 5 is the max without athletism but I am unsure. The time of the day and the location modify how far you can see. Clim on top of a hill to check places (it costs 2 whole action points). If you need to get somewhere going thru plain tiles is cheaper/faster than up hills and through forests. The best looting places if you are looking for backpacks and survival gear are those cottages sprinkled around the map. Best looting places if you are looking for food are abandoned offices and that kind of places. Ok, dunno what else to say.
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Aug 25, 2012 20:34
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You can now download the demo as a desktop application. There is a link at the bottom of the demo page.
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Aug 28, 2012 02:18
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Xik posted:I don't think there is going to be any massive overhauls of the UI. Not in the way that I think you're getting at. Everything is based around that same encounter interface and while there will probably be adjustments to the screen layouts like in the past, it will probably always be based around that item movement/encounter type UI. I was thinking something like this:  - Sort the actions into categories - arrange the categories logically given their effect on range and from most defensive to most offensive - display last action clearly - hopefully make injuries very obvious/set apart as well (not shown)
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Aug 28, 2012 16:34
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bisonbison posted:I was thinking something like this: I like this mockup, although I don't know if the distance indicator at the bottom is very necessary - the range is already pretty visible just with the number, and I think the game itself only really cares about your distance from the enemy. Whether or not you escape depends entirely on that and not on your distance from the edge of the tile or something, which isn't tracked. As for injuries, they're also kind of covered by "Conditions", although it might be helpful to have a gauge for the player showing overall pain level rather than just having "Extreme pain" show up when it hits critical. On the enemy, conditions could also display highly visible injuries (eg. "Gaping wound on arm", "Cut forehead", etc.), to give you an idea of how much you've hurt them. Maybe limit it to only the three most visible wounds or so to keep it from generating huge lists of every minor scratch that happens to not be covered by clothing. This might also be helpful even at the start of fights, since enemies often don't start at perfect health. If you see a guy bleeding from the jugular as soon as you encounter them, you can probably bet they're going to avoid engaging you and you don't have to worry too much about them.
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Aug 28, 2012 16:44
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bisonbison posted:I was thinking something like this: Very cool, the visual distance indicator is a bit redundant IMHO and just sort of adds more noise to the interface, but grouping actions and showing last action seems like they would be good ideas. On another note, a gameplay trailer has been released for NEO, which I think does a good job trying to get across the main "point" of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2K3mihtzrA Also, you can now download a desktop version of the beta from the bottom of the beta page.
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Aug 29, 2012 02:01
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 NEO is now on Steam Greenlight, please go vote and help Dan get it on Steam.
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Aug 31, 2012 01:12
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Rated. Hope it makes it, it's only at 1% right now.
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Sep 1, 2012 01:48
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Seashell Salesman posted:Rated. Hope it makes it, it's only at 1% right now. To be honest, while I think it would be awesome for NEO to be sold on Steam when it's done, it seems a bit premature now. I know that's kind of what Greenlight is all about but it just seems like it will be harder to get support the less complete a game actually is (though NEO at least has screenshots and an actual playable demo, so that's better than a lot of other Greenlight stuff so far!)
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Sep 1, 2012 02:02
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The Cheshire Cat posted:To be honest, while I think it would be awesome for NEO to be sold on Steam when it's done, it seems a bit premature now. I know that's kind of what Greenlight is all about but it just seems like it will be harder to get support the less complete a game actually is (though NEO at least has screenshots and an actual playable demo, so that's better than a lot of other Greenlight stuff so far!) It's already being sold, if Steam wants to start lining up in-development titles or selling stuff in alpha/beta then Neo is a perfect candidate.
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Sep 1, 2012 02:07
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The Cheshire Cat posted:To be honest, while I think it would be awesome for NEO to be sold on Steam when it's done, it seems a bit premature now. I know that's kind of what Greenlight is all about but it just seems like it will be harder to get support the less complete a game actually is (though NEO at least has screenshots and an actual playable demo, so that's better than a lot of other Greenlight stuff so far!) Greenlight is for games in development too so hopefully he can get a contract lined up and release whenever it's "done." I agree that it's a bit light on content to justify releasing as a full game on Steam though.
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Sep 1, 2012 03:11
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If there's a river or lake in a forest tile, this game really needs to let me see that from a distance. It's a valuable resource, and it's way too easy for me to lose track of it without some kind of marker. Besides, it's kind of odd that my eagle eyed mountain man can spot some tiny wooded shack from miles away, but is completely oblivious to a body of water glistening in the sun. Also, I've been reading the thread, and this jumped out at me: BlueBottleGames posted:Regarding goals inside vs. outside the city, do you mean further plot encounters? If so, I do plan to add some of each, though I'm not sure of the ratio yet. Playing inside the city would have a distinctively different feel from survival in the wilderness, so my first instinct is to keep inner-city adventuring limited to a few encounters, and perhaps expand on urban adventuring in a future game. This game has three outdoor survival skills (trapping, tracking, botany), and three tech oriented skills (hacking, mechanic, electrician). People are expecting to get equal mileage out of each of them, and I can't imagine how you'd convincingly do that without giving them about as much to do in the city as there is outdoors. I mean, $10 is a pretty high price point for a game like this: if I'm some random Steam user, then I know that for that same amount of money I can buy the complete bundles of either Dungeons of Dredmor, Binding of Isaac, or Terraria. What's going to make me choose NEO Scavenger instead? My addiction to roguelikes? I guess, but if I'm that guy, then I don't exactly represent a huge customer base. Will I get hooked in with a promise that a quarter of the game's skills will be useful later, if I pay more money down the line? Well no, that's not very tantalizing; I'm going to buy one of the other three and wait for the price of this game to get slashed. Soup du Journey fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Sep 1, 2012 |
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Sep 1, 2012 17:51
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Man, I gotta say this is right up my alley. I discovered this through the greenlight thingy and had some good fun with the demo so far. After several deaths against dogmen and barefoot looters, I managed to get a char up and running. Even got a scoped rifle with a sling, a few bullets, backpack, tools, medkit, food, water and a sleeping bag. I was very happy until I opened my medical screen. Internal bleeding? Blood loss? Infected wounds? Sepsis?!  I did what I could but..."Death by infection" I'll probably throw my money at this, after trying the demo a bit more. Any tips for a decent beginner build? My most successful run was Insomnia/fast metabolism - strong/hacking/lockpick/hide/melee/ranged. Kind of based that on my Fallout experience. 
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Sep 3, 2012 16:19
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Tin Tim posted:Man, I gotta say this is right up my alley. I discovered this through the greenlight thingy and had some good fun with the demo so far. Pau posted:OK, I promised some tips so here we go: I recommend not getting tech skills since they don't do much as of now.
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Sep 3, 2012 16:22
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Tin Tim posted:Man, I gotta say this is right up my alley. I discovered this through the greenlight thingy and had some good fun with the demo so far. Fast metabolism is kind of a killer but if you're good at scavenging food and water you can probably live through it. As a fair warning, in the current state of the game, the skills hacking, electrician, and mechanic don't do anything outside of the initial encounter, so they aren't too useful at the moment (though obviously this is liable to change in the future since development on the game is so active). Otherwise most of the skills you can take are pretty good if you know how to use them. They generally break down into categories (which I've just made up, but they make sense): Food/Survival: -Botany -Trapping -Slow Metabolism (Doesn't get you more food like the other two, but makes you need less, so...) -Medic -Hiding Exploration: -Tracking -Athletic -Eagle Eye -Strong -Lockpick Combat: -Melee -Tough -Ranged It's up to you if you want to mix and match categories or take more than one from each, but there are a few combos that just don't make sense to take together, like ranged/melee or botany/trapping. Nothing is preventing you from taking those together but since they do very similar things you probably only need one. A good starter build is Medic/Slow Metabolism/Athletic/Tough and then Insomnia/your choice (botany is a good one). It will let you be pretty good all around and help you live long enough to figure the game out a bit more. Feel free to mess with other skills though - I rarely play two games in a row using the same setup since I like to just see what I can do with anything. Actually it would be a nice feature to have a "Pick random skills" button when you start the game, to give you that real Roguelike feeling of having to just roll with what the RNG gods give you.
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Sep 3, 2012 16:35
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The Cheshire Cat posted:Fast metabolism is kind of a killer but if you're good at scavenging food and water you can probably live through it. Yeah, discovered that just now. It's especially bad with insomnia as you quickly get troubles with three bars if you don't really know what you're doing. Kind of a bummer that the tech skills are not useful right now. Botany proved to be quite handy, though I was baffled that you have to identify each thingy of a stack. Quite the turn waster. I would like to be able to batch identify stacks, if only for ease of gameplay. The UI could need some more work, in terms of flow. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but it's a hassle to dump stuff on the ground only to have it appear in the medical tab for use. Maybe the medkit could show up there? In general the UI seems very click-intensive, but I assume that will get streamlined during development. Also the ground inventory could use a "auto sort". I found a forest hex with 5 different locations to scavenge. Suffice to say that the window became cluttered really fast and I had to sort it manually. I died before I could see if the window would stretch, once it's filled. If not, than this should be done as I had to shuffle items from my player to the ground often and it would be a nuisance if the ground would not have enough space to put down your weapon or whatever. But, I died over ten times and am still playing. So this has potential to become awesome! E: Did I just die to three different causes? drat Dogmans  
Tin Tim fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Sep 3, 2012 |
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Sep 3, 2012 18:06
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The Cheshire Cat posted:A good starter build is Medic/Slow Metabolism/Athletic/Tough and then Insomnia/your choice (botany is a good one). It will let you be pretty good all around and help you live long enough to figure the game out a bit more. I've been getting a lot of mileage out of: quote:+Medic: keeps me alive, and when used in the starting room, gives me healing supplies and a container. If space is a serious concern, I can mix the contents of the various pill bottles and usually eliminate one or two, thereby getting another 2-4 inventory squares. Athletic is a pass for me, as it no longer gives you an extra move. Instead, you get 3 run points rather than the default 1, which to me is useless, as with hiding I never find myself needing to run all that far. Next time I play, I'm actually thinking of dumping Eagle Eye/Insomnia, as the benefit of EE (while certainly nice) is not a game-changer, and having to click sleep a billion times per night is really starting to annoy me. Soup du Journey fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Sep 3, 2012 |
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Sep 3, 2012 18:26
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Still having lots of fun with this! But a little documentation on the items couldn't hurt. Like, does Bark Tea have something which makes it better than pure water?
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Sep 3, 2012 19:55
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Boosts your immune system a bit and can be applied directly to wounds as a disinfectant.
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Sep 3, 2012 19:58
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Hey Guys, Thanks for the support so far! Looks like Greenlight may require a pretty monumental number of votes to get to 100%, so it could be a while. And as you point out, NEO Scavenger could still use quite a bit of work before it's really ready for prime time. @Doctor Schnabel - I think you're right about the water tiles. I'm thinking maybe there need to be two cases: obvious sources of water that show in the tile, and others that are hidden. I've made a note! As for tech skills, I do intend to make them equally useful in the future. Worst case, I'd remove them if I couldn't make them useful. But my preference, budget permitting, is to make them worth taking for opportunities both in the DMC and in other locations. I still want the DMC to be a memorable place, and an event players enjoy. I'm a huge fan of mega cities in sci-fi settings, so having one of my own to tell stories in is important. @The Cheshire Cat - Random skill loadout is on my list for future reference. Like many things on my list, it just got buried in other to-do things. I still think it's worth doing, though! @Tin Tim - Yeah, a manual will definitely be needed eventually. I've been hesitant to put a lot of time into one yet, since I tend to fix and add features frequently, and it would go out of date quickly. You're right about the UI too. Most seem to agree that it has more rough edges than most features, the medical item access being a big example. It's starting to look like solving it might involve a little bit of resolution increase, crafting overhaul, and using those changes to rearrange UI elements. Might take a while to plan and develop, but maybe it can be improved. The clicking may be harder to solve, as getting item from location A to B requires either a semi-psychic algorithm or lots of clicking. Hotkeys (e.g. 1,2,3,4,q,e,c,v...) help a little right now, but maybe modifiers are needed after all. Or right-clicking. And probably some way of moving entire containers' contents. But back to your point, yes, probably more iteration and polish. Anyway, just wanted to pop by and express my gratitude for your continued support, feedback, and good will! Thanks!
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Sep 4, 2012 02:29
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BlueBottleGames posted:Thanks for the support so far! Looks like Greenlight may require a pretty monumental number of votes to get to 100%, so it could be a while. From what I've gathered in the Greenlight thread, you won't actually need 100% - it's kind of an arbitrary placeholder statistic and Valve keeps adjusting the number of votes needed to get there anyway. If your game seems like something people are interested in (and having a playable demo w/ copies already sold already puts you waaay ahead of the pack) your chances of getting approved are probably pretty good.
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Sep 4, 2012 02:40
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Hey BBG, glad to see you're still keeping an eye on this place. I get what you're saying about the DMC, and my thinking's evolved a bit since my earlier post. I realize you're running a one man operation, and modeling a proper city ecology is a really tall order when your resources are limited. Have you considered implementing tech-oriented sites in the wilderness? You could add a lot of utility to mechanic/electrician/hacking by dotting the landscape with, say, other cryo facilities, tech parks, factories, bunkers, or even things like banks and ATMs. Maybe some wrecked military hardware (you'd figure tanks have first aid kits or some small arms ammo locked away somewhere inside). Also, you talked somewhere about adding more encounters, which I take to be little mini-adventures of the sort we're faced with at the start of the game. Have you thought about adding branching paths to those? It'd be a great way to squeeze a lot of gameplay out of a modest time investment. To elaborate, I'm imagining something like this: I stumble upon a bunker, and I can get in immediately with some combo of mech/elec/hacking/lockpicking/strong and various appropriate tools (crowbar + strong, iSlab + hacking, etc). If I have none of those, I can settle for the subpar option of waiting for the occupant to return (or leave), but there's only a 25% chance/turn that he'll do so, and even if I lucked out, I'd have a fight on my hands. Once inside, I can explore, with a chance (again, modified by my skills and traits) to encounter stuff: some loot or, say, a basement with a couple of people who were gonna get eaten (The Road!). What if there's a chained up Dogman, or an actual guard dog, or some other beastie? Or hey, how about I stumble upon the occupant's kith or kin (do I scare them off? do I kill them? do I run? how do they react to me?). Maybe there's something supernatural going on. Those options take us only two branches deep on an event tree (gain entry--->first encounter), and we've already got a ton of potential outcomes from only one site type. Add a third or fourth level (how do I react to the dogman, the cannibal food, a booby-trapped safe, etc), and you multiply that even further, giving the player a lot of content for, I dunno, a couple nights worth of work? edit: I suppose art assets might be a bit of a stumbling block, but I imagine you'd be able to reuse a whole lot of those if the accompanying flavor text was solid. Soup du Journey fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Sep 4, 2012 |
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Sep 4, 2012 04:47
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Mechanic seems like something that could be very useful if cars are ever added (the only vehicle at the moment is shopping carts, right?) although non-mechanics should still be able to use them, maybe they wouldn't be able to repair them if they break down and would have to abandon them.
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Sep 4, 2012 05:08
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The Cheshire Cat posted:Mechanic seems like something that could be very useful if cars are ever added (the only vehicle at the moment is shopping carts, right?) although non-mechanics should still be able to use them, maybe they wouldn't be able to repair them if they break down and would have to abandon them. Now that I think about it, maybe there should be some synergy between the electrician skill and nanorobot medical kits. High technology is pretty finicky, after all. Would it skew the balance to make them useless (except as sale goods) without being able to fix them with some screws, an iSlab or two, and the elec skill? Soup du Journey fucked around with this message at 06:38 on Sep 4, 2012 |
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Sep 4, 2012 05:23
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Actually if you've got a sling and/or scope, its easy to keep a rifle maintained, removing/adding those two bits resets the durability to 100%. Not intended, obviously, but might as well take advantage of it. Not like you ever have more than a handful of bullets for the thing anyways. Its mostly a scary looking club for me. 
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Sep 4, 2012 09:15
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Seeing how you present yourself in this thread, BlueBottleGames, greatly increased my faith in this project. I'll trow some money your way, once I can afford it. I was hesitant at first because, as others have pointed out, the beta is a bit light on content for  .I personally would also like to see more firearms/gear but fully understand your priorities. Honestly, I fell like I've already gotten my future money's worth out of the demo. Especially after I discovered that you can make a player base in the Cryo lab, I really want to save my game now. A short question, will enemies loot items on the "ground" of the lab? I stuffed my treasure into the camp site just to be sure. Before I realized that a good stash is useless without a savegame. Nice to hear that you/players have similar thoughts on the UI. A "trashcan" function would also help with reducing the clutter from boots, clothes and what have you. As scavening respawns, I tend to revisit especially good hex combinations. Or you could be really mean and remove the respawning. In any case, I'll pimp this in the next update of my LP. It's about another post apoc game and we had a short discussion about how the majority of those games shower the player with loot and how the dangers of the wasteland aren't really dangerous after some hours of gameplay. This game really is something different and should meet the taste of the folks involved in that discussion.
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Sep 4, 2012 14:01
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No build, but a news update about what is coming in the next build: You can now delete items. See the added delete action to the normal item manipulation bar. There is also a bunch of bug fixes incoming:
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Sep 5, 2012 03:11
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Question: I know this is turn-based but are the controls more streamlined than Fallout 2? Just want to know so I know what I'm buying.
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Sep 5, 2012 03:21
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InfiniteJesters posted:Question: I know this is turn-based but are the controls more streamlined than Fallout 2? You should try the demo before you put down cash for it and see for yourself.
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Sep 5, 2012 03:26
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Xik posted:You should try the demo before you put down cash for it and see for yourself. I'm trying it right now and I heartily approve. I like the "threaten" option. So far it's saved me the effort of having to otherwise actually fight seemingly a dozen bandits. Or the same 3-4 bandits repeatedly working up a surge of gumption. EDIT: Oh hey, finally a storage shed I can hide in---OHSHIT DOGMAAAAAAN!  EDITDEUX: Died valiantly pitting my crowbar against a dogman's claws. Yeah, definitely getting this as soon as I'm sure I have the money. Excellent! InfiniteJesters fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Sep 5, 2012 |
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Sep 5, 2012 03:36
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Xik posted:
 InfiniteJesters posted:I'm trying it right now and I heartily approve. Yeah, threaten is very useful to scare of a weaker bandit. They can still cause you a nasty injury, even when unarmed. A Dogman can also be scared away, if you have injured him a bit. "Take cover" has saved me a lot of battles so far. Take it as your first action and there is a high chance that a weaker guy will bail right away.
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Sep 5, 2012 12:18
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What's that cellphone-looking thingy in the upper left of the backpack? Was that in the game before, or is that some new doodad?
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Sep 5, 2012 17:56
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Doctor Schnabel posted:What's that cellphone-looking thingy in the upper left of the backpack? Was that in the game before, or is that some new doodad? That's the ID bracelet you need to obtain for the main quest.
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Sep 5, 2012 18:03
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Obtaining the ID bracelet basically signals the end of the main quest as it is currently implemented. It's obviously going to be expanded before release. Also, NEO has just been approved for Desura! I'm not sure if it's $2.55 more expensive to buy the game from Desura or their website automatically converted it into my local currency (NZD).
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Sep 6, 2012 04:17
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$9.99 Also, for any of us not native to the region, it turns out that the dogman is An Actual Thing in Michigan. Soup du Journey fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Sep 6, 2012 |
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Sep 6, 2012 04:59
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Doctor Schnabel posted:Also, for any of us not native to the region, it turns out that the dogman is An Actual Thing in Michigan. That's some neat trivia right there. Also as you seem to have another update in the works, BlueBottleGames, how about adding the sling with floss/strings to the crowbar? Would be cool if you could sling it, instead of dropping when you need your hands for whatever. I would have posted that on your forum, but the site seems to be down at the moment.
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Sep 6, 2012 12:14
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Good news for goons that like the same video games as Xik. New Beta and Demo Builds Item deletion has been added like I mentioned a few posts up. It also includes a bunch of bug fixes:
Regarding NEO now being on Desura; Existing beta members can apply for a Desura key by clicking on a button that looks like this:  You can find it on the beta page at the bottom next to the download links.
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Sep 7, 2012 05:10
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That is 9.99$USD Ugh I am completely blind and READ the post saying the price and still posted it. IGNORE ME Great game though, worth every penny.
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Sep 7, 2012 05:20
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Went ahead and bought it. It's everything I love about Fallout 2 with the fat trimmed off.  (Well, it lacks power armor, but I can live with that. *sniff sniff* ) EDIT: Decided to camp out in a city for a night. Had a cat-and-mouse battle with what turned out to be a wolfman, got roughed up, decided to run like Hell in the dead of night, getting myself more scraped in the process. Ran, ran, ran some more, eventually suffered severe blood loss and infection, camped out in a wooded area and died horribly like an animal in my sleep. This game is frustrating. I can't stop playing it. InfiniteJesters fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Sep 7, 2012 |
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Sep 7, 2012 05:54
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