Zomg, just checked out the web site... they twittered seven days ago that it has already been submitted to Apple... should see it any day now... Edit: I need to learn to read *entire* threads before posting.
Morning all, I'll be posting a "Learn the Basics" video very soon. Featuring full on gameplay.....and my rather red looking hands. I hope that will answer a lot of your questions on how the game works. We'll be rolling all this stuff out to websites next week, so players can read about it and the grab it from the App Store at the same time.
As promised. Gameplay and mechanics from Hunters. Enjoy my dulcet tones! Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Questions?
Yes. 1) How many different weapons and classes of weapons are there? For melee, I see only what looks like a power sledge in the videos. 2) Can you reserve action points and put your hunters into "overwatch" so that they can shoot if an enemy walks into line of sight on the enemies turn? ( like Space Hulk or WH40K Squad Command etc ) 3) Are there grenades/landmines or any weapons that do not do immediate damage, but do damage on a subsequent turn? ( any flashbangs or items that reduce enemy efficiency outside of just reducing armor/health ) 4) Any way to take aimed shots, snap shots, etc a la X-Com? 5) Any vehicles or environmental damage?
I'm playing the full game at the moment (Rodeo Games kindly supplied me with a special pre-release build for my gaming blog) and I'll post some impressions here later, but I'll also have the full hands-on preview with my own iPad screen shots on my blog (see sig), again - very soon.
Hands-on preview posted on my blog - see sig. I'd post some impressions here but ..... nah, I'd rather go back to Hunters
Hmm... some of the tie-ins to 'real wall clock' time make me nervous. Are players limited in some way with regard to the amount of contracts that can be completed each day? What is the justification for the mechanic that the shop inventory changes every wall clock hour? If we are limited to the amount of money we can earn from contracts, I worry that this game is more of a trojan horse to get people to click on some of these advertising 'offers' in order to earn more credits... I've said this many times before, but putting advertising in a game that is paid for, is, in my opinion, in poor taste. Especially when the game is costing $5 to begin with. Rodeo, can you explain how the system works? Are you limiting how much people can play in a day by how many contracts are available a day? Why include adverts in a paid game? Can you offer DLC to remove them then? If the game is actually good, I would pay twice as much just to get any advertising removed and any artificial caps on play removed.
This was my concern as well, as I posted earlier. Just the idea of time based limits to a mobile turn based strategy game seems concerning. Of course I don't know how it's handled. Hopefully the limit is just on taking the contract, not on completing it.
Morning all. So many questions. Let me tackle the advertising question first. Even in the free version of Hunters, you never need to see an advert. They do not intrude into the game in any way, we don't have banners or anything like that. Advertising can really bring you out of a game experience, which is why the only place you'll see it in Hunters is hidden away. Basically at the bottom of your daily contracts, you'll have "Giveaways". As you can see from the linked screenshot below, these do not break the art style of the game, or do any advertising until you tap on them. If you choose to tap on one of these, you'll be taken to a completely separate screen and shown an advert. The "reward" for doing so is an in-game item or a few credits. http://arcadelife.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/img_0154.png Of course, if even the thought of adverts being anywhere near your fingers offends you, there will be an option to turn them off. Even in the free game Ok, what's next. Let's tackle contracts and using real world time, as the gameplay systems feed from one another! @trystero and @artfoundry your concerns are absolutely valid, and from the limited information we've given you, I can see how you'd be nervous. First off, we do not limit the amount you can play Hunters. You could play (as we have done) all day every day, earning credits and levelling up your team as you go. As I've said, there is never any need to use adverts or any other paying system to advance through the game. Each day you recieve five contracts. Each contract takes around 15 - 40 minutes to complete. You can replay and complete contracts as many times as you like, earning loot and experience for your Hunters every time. In fact we've found, that people will play a contract through, then immediately play it again and take a different approach to the mission. Mission objectives and map layouts stay the same for contract replays, but enemies will change their positions and tactics. You're not on your own though. Everyone in the world playing the game, gets the same five contracts each day. Why have we done this? Well we wanted to create a different game experience for people, which isn't based on powering through a game in one sitting. We've found that playing new content every day is awesome. We've all come into the office in the morning and gone "Man, did you play that Assassination contract last night, it was brutal". Taking ten seconds to check the shop for new items when you're out and about is a really compelling experience. But you don't have to take my word for it. You can download Hunters next week for free and try it for yourselves.
I can back this up by saying that, yes, that is exactly what I've been doing - replaying contracts to complete the secondary objective or just finish with more than one Hunter left alive! It requires a bit of an attitude adjustment, not having a fixed campaign or story missions to play through. Once you clear your mind and realise that you are, in fact, commanding a ship of mercenaries and that you are picking up contracts, not saving the universe from Emperor Ming or whatever, the daily contract refresh is a great game mechanic. OCD mission completionists will just have to get over it. And you will get over it because the game is so damned good. Thanks (again) to Rodeo Games for the chance to play this game early.
Love the gameplay video. I'll definitely be giving this a go. Especially if its free to download. Awesome
Thats only the free version the full version is five dollars which is a great bargain for having new content everyday! By the way about how many contracts are there total and after a period of time do they repeat themselves?
Wow This game looks awsome, totaly looking forward to it and just in time for vacation sorry if this was already answered but will it be universal, or will it require separate IAP to unlock on both the iPhone and iPad? Allso if it is universal a feature I have really been wishing to see more of in universal iOS games is the ability to move my game saves between versions, is this a possibility ?
@fractaltears, there are two different versions of HUNTERS: Episode One. The normal iPhone one, and the HD iPad one. At the moment you cannot move saves between devices, although this is definitely something we're looking into for the future. @Arashi, there are over 200 contracts in the release build of the game. We intend to support it with new contracts, environments, characters, every month or so. We also intend to create story mission packs, which'll contain a number of contracts that tell a narrative and flow on from one another. Don't worry, there'll be more than enough content to keep you going.
This looks perfect, I only looked at the thread by chance this morning in work and immediately the game jumped to near the top of my most anticipated pile! (just below shadow era! X-com is a personal favourite of mine, and that combined with the space hulk aesthetic really scratches a major itch for me! Hope this gets approved asap! Goddamn I love my iPhone!
Thanks ScaryPharaoh. We're big fans of those games too. @Trystero, yes there is retina support for iPhone 4.
