StarCrawlers - Elemental Madness

[Silver]

In the latest patch for StarCrawlers the elemental damage system has arrived. Extensive patch notes can be found here.

Elemental Madness has arrived.
An elemental damage system has been bubbling beneath the surface of StarCrawlers for a while and now it's ready to burst forth in all it's zapping, burning, melting, devouring and terrifying glory. In addition, we've added a Combat Log, new twists to Challenge & Hardcore difficulties, and tons of improvements to class abilities, weapons, armor, shields and accessories. Dig in!

Elemental Damage
Class abilities can now deal basic Physical damage, elemental damage (Energy, Fire, Chemical, Nanite or Void). multiple types of elemental damage, or channel the element of your equipped weapon. Most generated weapons will deal Physical damage, but rarer and high-level items can deal elemental damage. Mobs also deal elemental damage with some of their attacks and the power of elemental attacks from mob abilities grows as they level.

Elemental Resistances
Elemental damage is absorbed by Barriers and Shields as normal, but pierces Armor. The block power of Armor has been increased to serve as a superior defense against Physical attacks, and the absorption power of Shields has been slightly reduced. When facing elemental damage, you'll want to stack resistances to reduce the incoming damage to manageable levels. Armor, shields, accessories, item upgrades and class abilities can all contribute to resistances. Similarly, mobs have natural resistances to some elements and have gained abilities to boost resistances.

Classes
There have been significant changes to the class trees to incorporate the new elemental damage system. All classes abilities that deal damage now deal either Physical, Energy, Fire, Chemical, Nanite or Void damage. Some classes will see further abilities updates and changes as we test the new system and receive feedback.

More information.

 

[They Live]

i so want to buy this one, hope it will get a small discount on summer sales.

 

[Irien]

Have they made any progress in terms of making it feel like a story-game (ie. some form of plot and story progression), or is it still a procedural roguelike with a party and interesting combat?

This is a game I'd so like to see evolve into "might and magic in space", but I fear that it just isn't what I'm looking for

 

[Deleted User]

From what I saw, this is not a story-based game, but a true dungeon-crawling with emphasis on gameplay.

Although, what I saw, I wasn't particularly interested in *too* much, but I was waiting to go back at a later date when it was more fleshed out and see how it looks. I love dungeon-crawlers but in this case, I dunno. The enemy models weren't really looking all that interesting to me. Will check it out soon-ish, though.

 

[Silver]

There is plenty of story in this game. From the kickstarter page:

Player-driven experience

The Narrative AI is also responsive: your choices of allies and how you resolve events alter not only the results of the mission, but how the story of your Crawler crew evolves.

 

[They Live]

Both here and steam forums people ask more story missions, personally i would be happy if they focus on the procedural/sandboxesque aspect of the game : more gear, more levels, perks etc...

It's personal taste but i wouldn't say no to a looooong campaign without a conclusion.

 

[Deleted User]

It seems a sort of trend that all games must include a "campaign mode" or some sort of overarching story now, regardless of the genre or sub-genre.

In dungeon-crawlers, I just want a basic story, and all of the other resources spent to further develop the gameplay ideas.

Take the recent DS dungeon-crawler, The Dark Spire. Here's your story - some evil wizard dude has stolen some precious necklace from the queen, and your job is to traverse his tower (The Dark Spire) and get that shit back. End of story.

Now, of course, there are NPCs to talk to in the dungeon. There are other little story bits to piece together as you go, but the majority of the focus in the game is on the dungeon-crawling, the combat, the resource management, the navigation, etc.

Take the new Doom as well for example. The game even starts with a little cutscene that shows Doomguy flinging a monitor as if to say, "This is Doom! We don't need no damn story!". A few minutes later and they basically say, "Just kidding! Here's the story." So, yeah.

Doom games especially, where the lure of the original games was the excellent gameplay and wanting to see what the next level had in store for you. Not a story.

I love, love, LOVE Elminage Gothic, which is basically a modern Wizardry game, and the story is so minimal there. However, it's not entirely absent, you just piece together little clues as you progress in the dungeons. But it's very simple yet incredibly satisfying, with a high level of intrigue and mystery. Almost like a Dark Souls game.

And that's all I have to say about that.