Stellar Tactics - Greenlit and Kickstarter

[Myrthos]

The Sci-Fi sandbox game Stellar Tactics has been Greelit and will be starting a Kickstarter campaign next week Monday.

Sci-Fi Sandbox RPG 'Stellar Tactics' Passes Greenlight With Ease And Readies Itself For Some Deep Space Crowdfunding
The Perfect Fusion Of Sci-Fi & Fantasy!

Monument, Colorado, April 19th 2016: Recently announced Stellar Tactics by industry veteran Don Wilkins only took 11 days to reach its first milestone by getting Greenlit via STEAMTM with the generous help and support of the community at large. Next stop for the massively popular Sci-Fi RPG is crowdfunding via KickStarterTM slated for kickoff this coming Monday, April 25. Stellar Tactics is an ambitious tribute to classic RPGs and challenges you to control an elite team of soldiers to explore a vast and dangerous sandbox universe and to boldly venture into the far reaches of space.

Stellar Tactics offers out-of-this-world gameplay and it shows the game has been in development for the past six years. It looks sleek, polished and impressive, even at its current state of Alpha. A masterful tribute to the RPG genre, the game promises to impress with its immersive narrative, deep strategic turn-based combat and rewarding open world space exploration. Your objective is to control an elite team of soldiers genetically modified and bred for warfare, where your deeds will change the destiny of those you protect, and your actions will reflect in the events that unfold as you reach your destination and you are unleashed into the void.

Stellar Tactics includes finely crafted lore specifically designed to mesh with an open-ended sandbox RPG. Destined to entertain for years to come with episodic content spanning thousands of star systems with story and immersion, the game currently features 200,000+ solar systems and millions of planets to discover.

Story Trailer:

Steam Trailer:

https://youtu.be/2Zmc8w71ANE

More information.

 

[mbpopolano24]

OK, I'm in....

 

[muhabor]

I am adding it to my radar.

 

[screeg]

Destined to entertain for years to come with episodic content spanning thousands of star systems with story and immersion...

I misread this as "Designed to entertain for years..." which I think is probably a lot more accurate. How many sandbox indie games are still being regularly updated three years later? Mount&Blade comes to mind, and other than that..?

 

[StellarTactics]

Thanks for posting Myrthos!

I'm happy to answer any questions here.

The game is designed to easily add content in the form of both developer generated stories, log entries, missions and player made content. There will be a mission editor released that allows the community to add content, always interesting. I'm hoping to support the game for many years, even after it stops earning money. It's my creative brain child, so I have a major emotional investment ; )

The Kickstarter will offer early access to the Prologue of the game, Alpha and Beta access, special rewards and early bird pricing. Please do check it out if your interested in the game, it will really help us.

 

[Capt. Huggy Face]

Thanks for stopping by, ST. I've pretty much been done with Kickstarter lately, but I'll likely pledge to yours. Sandbox exploration, character development and tactical turn-based combat are some of my favorute things. Procedural generation always makes me wonder if I'll get sick of the exploration, but if the combat and character progression are good, that's not as much of a concern. Can you describe how leveling up your people works?

But, hell, I've preordered No Man's Sky, and that game's primary focus is procedurally generated exploration.

Also, modding tools certainly help. Hope you have Steam Workshop support for lazy folks like me. Adjustable font sizes are also nice for lazy gamers with poor eyesight like me.

Anyway, congrats on your game. You'll probably have my money soon enough.

 

[StellarTactics]

Thanks Capt. Huggy Face, your pledge will be greatly appreciated. Let me answer your questions. Much more will be available on the Kickstarter page and I'll be doing detailed info posts over the course of the Kickstarter.

You can have up to 4 team members in your party at a time. The characters you create during character creation allow you to assign base stats and allocate base skill points to skills you prefer (rifles, heavy weapons, pugilism etc). During the course of the game you will be able to recruit other characters as you travel the universe. They come with base stats and skills leveled to your level (when you find them) making them specialists in some respects. You can always choose to use different weapons and skill up their required skills to customized them to your liking. I may add a system that allows you to re-allocate their stats and skills, but will let the community vote on that feature.

Levels are gained through advancing your skills (combat, space related skills and general skills like hacking). On level up, you are allocated stat points that you can assign. Skills level through use and at certain "tiers" (levels 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100) you choose perks that allow you to customize your characters further.

In addition, weapons can be modified via a slot system to further customize each of your team members. Quality armor tiers also allow further customization through stat bonuses.

I'll be looking into Steam Workshop support. Font sizes will be adjustable. It's on my feature list and one of my pet peeves.

 

[Capt. Huggy Face]

Thanks for the outline. Just read your Greenlight pitch properly. There's a lot to like in there: psionics, attribute-based dialogue options, boarding and comandeering ships. Very ambitious. For some people, that's a dirty word, but not me.

But I am most pleased to hear this:

Font sizes will be adjustable. It's on my feature list and one of my pet peeves.

If you're up for it, care to expound upon how the faction system works? How it might change the game universe or possibly the main storyline? Also, your pitch mentions the game is designed to easily add episodic chapters well into the future. Can you outline your plans for your main storyline? Is it episodic or a complete story at release? Do you have an estimated length?

Don't feel obligated to answer. You got my money with the adjustable-font thing.

 

[StellarTactics]

Always happy to answer questions when I can.

When the universe is created, systems are assigned to various factions. A background AI is always running that assigns tasks to militant faction systems. They strive to expand territory, protect and eliminate enemy factions. Tasks are assigned for each and skirmishes break out as enemy AI invade other systems for expansion. Protect tasks are assigned to protect that system. After the skirmish, systems are either assigned to the victor or if defended, remain in the hands of the previous faction.

Missions are assigned to the player based on their faction standing and may put the player in either a defensive or offensive role in that area of space. You can choose to join for a faction bonus, or decline for a faction penalty. The faction system changes the landscape of faction territory.

The choices you make during the story faction dialog options open several optional paths in the game.

The game will have a complete story at release. I am planning for 25-30+ hours of story related game play (though that could change). Beyond that the sandbox continues to offer many, many hours of exploration, character growth and ship development (you can upgrade your ships systems and hard-points). Episodic content will be in the form of DLC to fund further development and at least on expansion. Beyond that I plan to continue supporting it for a long time.

 

[Farflame]

Thanks for coming here and answering questions, "Stellar man".

I have few questions too:
- Is story man-made? Always the same for each gameplay? Or is it somehow generated too?
- Are there also missions and events unrelated to factions? Fo example when you meet some ship that needs help.. or get hired by individual, not a faction. Like in normal RPG.
- Are all factions human?
- Can your team member get sick or badly injured so they will be unavailable for missions for some time?
- Are there some sectors of completely unexplored space? I mean space with no faction, no station… just unknown dangers, few adventurous ships, few surprises, maybe black hole, aliens…
- How much time you will spend flying your ship and fighting/exploring with your team?

Note:
- I hope you will work on flying part a lot because it looks somewhat underwhelming compared to tactical combat. Almost like two different games. Especially that blue and bright space looks bad imho.
- Combat part is MUCH better. Anyway good job and good luck, guys!

 

[StellarTactics]

Here are answers Farflame - happy to talk about the game.

-The story is man-made. Always the same for each new game, however, locations on the star map are randomly generated, so the locations of the main narrative move.
-Yes, you can take missions that are unrelated to faction or the main story. You will meet many neutral NPC's
-All factions are human - at least until the first expansion That doesn't mean that humans are all the same, some are mutated with psionic powers, others are brooding hulks that want their privacy respected and yet others are warring psychopaths that just want to take from others. Every faction has a goal in mind.
-Team members are always available - status effects, illness and other combat initiated effects either go away immediately after combat or dissipate over time
-The Core Systems are all controlled by factions. As you move further from the Core Systems, factions exist, but there are fewer colonized systems, so yes some systems (even in the Core Systems) have no stations - no black holes (there are trans-warp devices for fast travel) - no aliens in the initial release - Aliens exist, but only the remnants of an ancient civilization are left - and a menacing threat that is coming.
-You can spend as much time as you want doing either. The game is a sandbox with a main narrative. The beginning of the game, or Prologue is a hand scripted narrative and set of missions for the game that sets the story line for the entire game. Once the Prologue is completed, you are unleashed into the Stellar Tactics universe and can freely explore as you choose or continue the main narrative.

We are still working on space, space combat etc. and will be for quite a while. The Kickstarter and Early Access through Steam will help us gather feedback and refine the game.

 

[mbpopolano24]

I find odd the complete lack of advertisement about the Kickstarter campaign, which supposedly is going live today. Considering that the first few days are critical for the success of the campaign, this does not bode well. No a line on Greenlight, Twitter, Facebook... A single line on your webpage, linked to dark soul 3.... Not impressed.