New X-COM-like game: Terran Shield

[Arhaeus]

Update - The Defender Hovercraft and some Air Force combat vehicles:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/terranshield/terran-shield-edge-of-the-abyss-0/posts/2651373

[Arhaeus]

Ud'Glee in action:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/terranshield/terran-shield-edge-of-the-abyss-0/posts/2663370

[Nikita_Sadkov]

Cool! But I believe you will have hard time competing with Gollop's newest game, Phoenix Point, which is also based of Terror from the Deep, unless you get some distinguishing feature, like say time traveling aliens and base whole gameplay around time travel, or maybe Star Trek style setting. Otherwise your game will be greatly overshadowed and could go unnoticed - it is hard to compete with Gollop himself ;-)

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Cool! But I believe you will have hard time competing with Gollop's newest game, Phoenix Point, which is also based of Terror from the Deep, unless you get some distinguishing feature, like say time traveling aliens and base whole gameplay around time travel, or maybe Star Trek style setting. Otherwise your game will be greatly overshadowed and could go unnoticed - it is hard to compete with Gollop himself ;-)

I don't think that's really true. Firstly, Phoenix Point is (very loosely) based on X-Com as a whole and not TFTD in particular; much to the contrary Phoenix Point will play more similarly to UFO Defense or XCOM Enemy Unknown. Secondly, Phoenix Point is much further along in its development. It's not unlikely that by the time Terran Shield comes out, people will already be tired of Phoenix Point. And finally, neither game is going to pull in a very large following, at least no so much that they really have to worry much about competing with each other.

It's a good point to consider, but I personally don't feel that there will be significant competition between the two. However I could be wrong.

[Nikita_Sadkov]

Phoenix Point is (very loosely) based on X-Com as a whole and not TFTD in particular;

They even have the iconic Lobstermen aliens! Also, Gollop's game looks much closer to the original XCOM, than the Firaxis ones, although a bit too realistic for my liking. Original XCOM games had that comic book charm.

[Arhaeus]

The Poseidon Cave bas-relief is a fictional representation made to fit the game’s background and lore, but the images which inspired it are very real and ancient. They make us wonder if we really know our true past, history, origin...

[Arhaeus]

Here is the playthrough of our alpha demo on Superhuman difficulty level, with live commentary and explanations. We wanted it to be a loss-free mission, but this time the aliens got Melnikoff with their terrific sonic gun.

https://youtu.be/HRW2anFwquo

[Arhaeus]

We started an Indiegogo campaign in order to achieve the stretch goals for Terran Shield.
You can support us here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/terran-shield-edge-of-the-abyss

[The Reaver of Darkness]

We started an Indiegogo campaign in order to achieve the stretch goals for Terran Shield.
You can support us here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/terran-shield-edge-of-the-abyss

Thanks! This solved the issue I had!

[Arhaeus]

Thanks for the pledge!

Our first inventory model for both Air Force and Aqua Force soldiers. With representation of the spot the soldier has on the map, the attributes, the possibility to switch on the inventory of another team member, the info for selected objects; ground, backpack, belt, right hand, left hand, right leg, left leg, right shoulder and left shoulder slots.

https://imgur.com/w1G4Z5D

https://imgur.com/KM2ZALI

[The Reaver of Darkness]

Question: Are all inventory item bounding boxes rectangular, or do they have more complex shapes?

[Arhaeus]

The boxes follow the shapes of the objects, so they are in complex shapes. A good thing if you want so squeeze some items in the inventory in the available places.

[Nikita_Sadkov]

The boxes follow the shapes of the objects, so they are in complex shapes. A good thing if you want so squeeze some items in the inventory in the available places.

I think you made something nobody before you ever did: made a complete Tetris inventory. Other gamedev never got further than rectangular boxes. Now somebody has to implement that in 3d. Or maybe as a physics game. You can even release it as a separate game "The Inventory Puzzle": the aquatoids are near; quickly! find that last ammo clip, buried somewhere at the bottom of the backpack (think reverse tetris)

[Solarius Scorch]

I think you made something nobody before you ever did: made a complete Tetris inventory. Other gamedev never got further than rectangular boxes. Now somebody has to implement that in 3d. Or maybe as a physics game. You can even release it as a separate game "The Inventory Puzzle": the aquatoids are near; quickly! find that last ammo clip, buried somewhere at the bottom of the backpack (think reverse tetris)

I so fucking love this idea.

[Arhaeus]

I don't think it is such a mental breakdown the Tertis inventory minigame. There are much tougher problems to solve in a TBS like managing the limited resources, trying to outthink the AI, etc...
Anyway, the irregular shape items will be in beta and it is up to the testers if they will made it in the final game.

We have a gameplay walkthrough on superhuman with live commentary, explanations and subtitles here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRW2anFwquo

I've tried a loss free playthrough, but I failed to do it live (even if I new the way the AI handles the battle, it was enough to overexpose the right flank to lose a soldier).

If anyone succeeds a clear playthrough and post it on youtube, we may think of an reward.