Double Fine - Kickstarter - MASSIVE CHALICE

[Ben X]

Ha, good job I'm in Hufflepuff, then!

 

Yeah, I was hoping there wouldn't be any need for quendams and esses.

 

Hmmm, what's Latin for "baboo"?

[Gormongous]

Battlecry: Cry havoc, and let loose the lords of war in a measured, thoughtful turn based manner!  - Lame, I know, but I seriously can't think of a good battlecry for this game that's not sickeningly cheesy.

 

Oddly enough, almost every medieval battle cry is "[Location of fief] and the [name of animal representing fief]!" or "For the [animal] of [location]!" It's ridiculous to read contemporary accounts of the Fourth Crusade attacking Constantinople and have the authors patiently write out, "And then they charged forward against the Greeks, crying 'Montferrat and the lion!' and 'The lion of Flanders!' and 'Picardy and the lion!' and 'For the lion of Champagne!'"

 

Lots of lions.

[Bjorn]

Oh, that's easy then.  So it's "For the puffin of the Internet!"

[feelthedarkness]

for the severed arm of sir samuel!

 

 

 

(i went with Feel the Darkness! har harr.)

[Gormongous]

for the severed arm of sir samuel!

 

I could have sworn that Latin has an all-in-one word for "severed limb," but I was wrong and it only has a word for "severed head."

[thorn]

I could have sworn that Latin has an all-in-one word for "severed limb," but I was wrong and it only has a word for "severed head."

And you didn't think we'd want to know what that word is?

[Gormongous]

And you didn't think we'd want to know what that word is?

 

Decollum or just collum. "De-necked" and eventually just "necked."

[sclpls]

Looking at the game footage on the stream right now, and it's looking pretty great! Love the map, and the XCOM style loadout

[Murdoc]

Well, I forgot I had this option to do the bloodline and currently in crunch time had about an hour to slap something together. 

 

Can't complain, it was my fault for not thinking about this the moment I pledged, but feeling a bit disappointing about my entry. I'm sure that will be alleviated when I start playing the game, hehe.

[Dewar]

The backer beta approaches. I tried to upgrade my pledge to the $50 level after all the fun I've had watching the development of this game, but I was denied the upgrade : (

 

Anyone else going to get to play this next week?

[sclpls]

Yeah, I upgraded my backing level earlier because I wanted to get in on the bloodline, so I believe I should be receiving a beta copy. I haven't followed the game closely, but I did catch a stream they did a week or two ago, and I'm pretty excited with how the game is shaping up. I'm not crazy about the look of the keeps or whatever in the strategic layer. I guess it is kind of underwhelming when you compare it to like the anthill view of your base in XCOM so I wish they were a little more ambitious with the presentation and what you do there, but it's probably too late for that to realistically change. Oh well. Still stoked for the game.

[Bjorn]

I didn't back at beta level, so I've got to wait for it to come out.  Which, I probably prefer it that way anyways.

[Dewar]

I didn't back at beta level, so I've got to wait for it to come out.  Which, I probably prefer it that way anyways.

 

Yeah, it might be for the best anyway. I'm surprised at the value I've gotten for my $20 on this project and I wanted to donate more and maybe get a perk or two for my trouble, but oh well.

[TheLastBaron]

I backed at bloodline level, but I don't know if I want to dump a lot of time into it now or just wait until it's done.

[tberton]

I didn't actually back this game, but I've been following it very closely and I'm pretty excited about it. sclpls, I think comparing the keeps to the strategic layer of XCOM is mistaken: the map is the equivalent, with each keep being more like one of the rooms in your XCOM base. I agree that it would be nice to see some more activity in the keeps themselves, but since they're working on a limited budget I'd prefer that time and money be spent elsewhere.

 

Right now, the only thing I'm worried about is the hybrid classes. This feature seems pretty important to creating depth on both layers and it has yet to be implemented or shown in a very concrete form. I'm sure they'll get it in there, but I'd still like to see how they're doing it specifically.

[Dewar]

From descriptions in the team streams, it sounds like it's basically just going to be a different skill tree and some extra shoulder armor, so it shouldn't be too resource intensive.

 

I really help they get enough sales to make DLC 4th class.

[sclpls]

I didn't actually back this game, but I've been following it very closely and I'm pretty excited about it. sclpls, I think comparing the keeps to the strategic layer of XCOM is mistaken: the map is the equivalent, with each keep being more like one of the rooms in your XCOM base. I agree that it would be nice to see some more activity in the keeps themselves, but since they're working on a limited budget I'd prefer that time and money be spent elsewhere.

 

Right now, the only thing I'm worried about is the hybrid classes. This feature seems pretty important to creating depth on both layers and it has yet to be implemented or shown in a very concrete form. I'm sure they'll get it in there, but I'd still like to see how they're doing it specifically.

 

Yeah I think its fair to say it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to prioritize the keeps over other aspects of the game, still feels like a missed opportunity! Probably getting that hybrid class you mentioned is a more important detail.

[Bjorn]

Holy shit, I was wrong, I did back at the beta level.  For some reason I was sure I had backed at the minimum tier, but checking KS, I definitely backed at the $50 tier.  I completely don't remember doing that.

 

At any rate, I'm in the beta.  I do want to play it now that I've got it, but this is shaping up to be a super busy week, particularly with the World Series going on.  Maybe I'll squeeze in an hour or so somewhere to at least check out how it opens.  It's supposed to be a complete game, just a beta for balance and bug squashing. 

 

I also apparently get a free copy to give away?  Which I had no idea about.  So that's really cool.  I've got one friend who might want it, if not, I'll probably give it out here on the forums. 

[Apelsin]

Just played an half hour and quite enjoy it so far.

I'm not sure exactly how much one was allowed to share, I'll have to read through that email once more, but I really just want to state how nicely doubtful I felt deciding which heroes to assign to keeps.

 

I fear having already doomed my playthrough

[Dewar]

Well, they've been showing tons of it on their team streams and the officially gave license to stream it yourself, so I'd say it's pretty much all open to be discussed. I think the only thing they've been hiding are the various events.

 

Edit: Here's a quote from the Kickstarter update.

Stream Away!

A lot of people have been asking us if they’ll be able to stream the game. ABSOLUTELY! One of our favorite things about developing MASSIVE CHALICE has been sharing the it with you guys on Twitch. Please stream away and share some of your favorite moments with us and the rest of the community! !

[sclpls]

Just played an half hour and quite enjoy it so far.

I'm not sure exactly how much one was allowed to share, I'll have to read through that email once more, but I really just want to state how nicely doubtful I felt deciding which heroes to assign to keeps.

 

I fear having already doomed my playthrough

 

I think Double Fine learned their lesson from the weirdness of when they released Broken Age Part 1 early to backers and the press, but were not allowing the press to talk about it, and all the confusion that caused. So now they are just keeping things much more open.

 

Anyway, I'm super annoyed that I didn't get my key, and so now I have to deal with Humble Bundle Support, which in my experience is extremely unhelpful, and painfully slow. I love Humble, but their support is terrible.

[DefaultHuman]

Just played my first little bit of it last night. The upgrade perks and battle tactics do feel very X-COM, but for non-ranged characters the movement feels very limiting.

 

Still warming up to it, I'm in the middle of my first non-tutorial battle and already getting a little bored with it. Hopefully, some of my micromanagement in the world view and doing research adds to the variety and versatility.

 

On an aesthetic/inferace note, the streamlined console-influenced interface works well for the most part, but the size and sometimes color of the text doesn't lend itself well to couch play.

[Bjorn]

I played about 30 minutes last night, and while good, it didn't hook me. I'm used to DF games opening in incredibly strong ways, and making me want to go deeper into their worlds. And MC kind of opens on a whimper. Hopefully that's just because they've focused on the mechanics of it, which do look intriguing the bit of tutorial stuff I did.

[DefaultHuman]

The mechanics are interesting. I'm not yet sure if they intentionally start you off with a bunch of assholes, but my only two characters that aren't profoundly handicapped are female, leaving me to marry them off to puny, near-sighted, drunken bastards.

[sclpls]

I agree that the game doesn't do a very good job of hooking you into the game right away the same way XCOM does. And I think the obvious XCOM comparison is going to be a problem for the game. Because they did a ton of good work to make the game feel similar to playing XCOM, and it's definitely a tactically interesting game with a lot of tough problems to solve on and off the battlefield. But a kickstarter game isn't going to have the financial resources that Firaxis had, and I think that's going to show in the presentation of the game, and that will hurt it. I think what they've accomplished is tremendous, and I'm definitely interested in seeing what the late game looks like.

 

I know DOTA is a huge influence for Brad, and I wish that there were a ton of unique hero types to play with like in DOTA. I know that's an insane amount of work though so I dunno.

 

Anyway, I hate sounding negative about the game because I am having a lot of fun with it, and I think they are on the right path!