Strategy Guide Collaboration Thread

[En1gma]

The conversation has already been started, so I wanted to start this so that we have a fresh thread to start compiling our thoughts and threads that should be linked, used, or summarized, as well as working on the layout for the finished product. 

Anyone who wants to, feel free to link a thread/s that you thought were helpful for yourself or others, let us know of anything you feel should be in the guide, and we can get this ball rolling.

Don't forget that it would be nice to have pictures for certain topics!

[CdrPlatypus]

All of John Robinson 's tables and the combat mechanics thread should be linked as apendixes essentially

The Angst and Joy of etheral anguish and the old thread on 3ap weapons would be good to point out too.

[En1gma]

I think highlighting sections explaining miss and soak would be useful- this seems to be a major source of confusion for people.

I also think that group build philosophy should be discussed in length. What effective groups almost always try to include, effective talent combinations, mid-combat group deployment, etc.

[CdrPlatypus]

Sounds like more of a strategy guide than a manual per se

[En1gma]

I would still be happy with that, though. Most of the game's mechanics are clearly explained in the Combat Mechanics Thread, and John Robinson has done most of the heavy lifting as far as tables, character breakdowns, and leveling and talent descriptions go. To rehash them seems redundant to me. A game as in-depth as this one should have a guide to it, and I think we can make one that will be killer.

So say we do end up with a strategy guide instead of a true manual. We link to the utility threads like the Mechanics and John Robinson's threads, contributor's Zone Maps, then what do we have left?
- We can do descriptions of each major city/area, which creatures/enemies you will encounter there.
- We can break down each character, link to the proper leveling table, then list strengths/ weaknesses, which types of armor/weapons each can use, and discuss each of their abilities.
- We discuss FaQs
- We can discuss group build philosophy, what works, what doesn't, what talent combinations are particularly effective, and which aren't.
- We can discuss how enemies move on the battlefield, how they approach combat and how they choose targets. We can also warn of enemies that move again after combat such as Rat Swarms and certain Krete, etc.
- We discuss curses, both ours and the enemy's- and how to remove them
- We discuss Soak/Miss
- AoE Templates and how to use them (I can link the thread I wrote up)

More ideas?

[fallen]

Here is a great guide that John Robinson has also written. Consider the amount of updates the game has seen, parts of it may be dated.
www.indiegameguides.com/Heroes-of-Steel/tutorial

The easiest place to author the guide may be directly onto indiegameguides.com or onto tresebrothers.com, using their GDoc's like page editor. This would avoid re-work / transfer to make it more readily available to a wide audience.

[John Robinson]

Just got home. Taking some time to think not ignoring this thread. Hope you will take a peek at the indiegameguides fallen pointed to. As Arnold S. says "I'll be back"

[CdrPlatypus]

John Robinson I did take a peek at your guide. It's a really good primer, just needs updating like fallen said. En1gma maybe we could collaborate on more of a strat guide? And team build philosophy guide. I think would be great just need to title it strat guide instead on manual

[fallen]

"Strategy Guide" - that is the kind of high value content that gets me excited.

[En1gma]

CdrPlatypus- Agreed. On all counts. I'll revise the thread title and we can get to work for real. Gawd I'm busy here lately I love it though.

[John Robinson]

CdrPlatypus En1gma Totally agree. You are both very talented a "Strategy Guide" guide really plays to your strengths.  I'm with fallen this is exciting high value content!

Yes mine is meant to be a primer. The avalanche of content Cory Trese and fallen added, make it look ancient.  It's been on my "To do List" for a very very long time and will take allot of work to get it back on "The done List" harhar 

[CdrPlatypus]

Ok. I've been giving some thought to how to write this up, so here goes for alpha draft. I'll be adding and editing for awhile. Feedback appreciated.

Heroes of steel is a deep tactical RPG with different layers of strategy I will outline below and then address each in sections.

Team Build
The first part of your overall strategy is the team build. At the game creation page you pick 4 out of a current 8 heros to take on your adventure.  Each hero has strengths and weaknesses and a unique set of talents. You cannot max out all of a heroes talents you are going to have to choose what you want to focus on them both individually and how all four heros and their talents will work together.

You will also select the difficulty level for the adventure you are about to start. The game can be enjoyed at any difficulty, but higher levels of difficulty will require more focused/optimized builds.

Tactics
This covers general battlefield tactics that apply to all teams as well as tactics specific to certain types of builds. When to attack, when to retreat, how to use terrain to your advantage, and contingency plans. What do you do if you get outflanked? Or if all the dice rolled in favor of your enemies?

Logistics
How to manage your loot. As difficulty levels increase not only are the monsters harder, but so is the economy. Also if you are interested in competitive play at any difficulty level your gold on hand is one of the bigger factors affecting your leaderboard score. So, get the best bang for your buck without being too cheap to stay geared enough to survive.

At times in the game you have the choice of where to adventure next. This can also be an important factor for the competitive types trying to squeeze out every point possible, or you might want to pick one order just to try another on your next play through.

*ill be starting to go into detail later this is a table of contents / outline*

[slayernz]

Maps of each section would be very useful - and to make it funkier, instead of just screen-capturing the map (or otherwise using the map directly from the game), it could be cool if it were hand-sketched as if Vincent was marking things down on a parchment as the party progressed.

If there was enough "high value" content, I'd even be okay with us not making it publicly available, but rather, make it available for the TB's to package appropriately and sell as an IAP.

[En1gma]

slayernz, awesome idea about hand drawing the map. If anyone has a large screen they play on, this would make for a hell of a nice touch!

I haven't forgotten about this thread, I've just been busy lately... I've been thinking, I might be best served for this project by doing compare and contrasts between characters and their abilities. I was also thinking that I could do a piece about the lower difficulties- hard and below- and the strategies involved with them. Perhaps CdrPlatypus and other veterans of brutal and above could do a separate but similar piece about how these strategies differ from those used on hard and below. After all, they're really completely different strategies, and should have separate write-ups.

CdrPlatypus, are you planning on compiling everything for html format and the final product? If so perhaps we can email you the different parts once they're finished? If you weren't planning on this, does anyone know html that wants to?

[CdrPlatypus]

En1gma I was just posting on here, but I can keep a group file in google docs fallen informed me that google docs formatting is all html tagging under the hood So I can handle it. I use google docs already for college etc...so I have it setup and am familiar with it.

So what I could do for things I write is to author them in google docs and then past them in here for people to read on the forums.