New CK (Female II)

[Cory Trese]

Discuss, please.

Comments, feedback, bugs, complaints.


Focused thread

[grävling]

I like her face a lot, except that it is done in a more cartoon-ish fashion. I really like the face on the male starter character a lot because of its natural look, with the shading. I realise that this makes it harder to draw, but I get a greatly enchanced experience when the characters look more realistic and less like super hero action comics. I like that she is carrying a gun. I really dislike her legs, in all the views. I specifically dislike that they are 3 times as thick around as her forearms. I don't know why she is wearing studs on the insides of her boots instead of the outside where people can see them.

No combat screens -- I presume they are coming.

There is something wrong with her starting equipment. As an agent X she is carrying a lightfire and a sidearm, but the sidearm is in her starting position like a runner has its weapon, i.e. you cannot remove it, and the lightfire is being carried on top of this. I suppose this makes a certain amount of sense.

But in one starter agent X char, I COULD remove it and have it in my carried inventory (giving her 2 sidearms, because the first one did not go away) available to sell. Despite saying 'uses ranged weapons only' you can equip her with a stunna just fine -- it goes over the starter sidearm -- and this is probably a good idea, as otherwise her capture missions will end up with a dead fugitive.

I couldn't equip her with stunna in hand 1 and lightfire in hand 2 until I unequipped my heavy gloves, which gave me heavy gloves in my inventory to sell.

[gravismetallum]

Check out andrews deviant art stuff, the thick leg thing is part of his art style, doesn't mean you have to like it but that's his thing.

I like the way she looks, nice to have a bit more variety in character choice. I look forward to more.... hoping for a big mean looking bald guy with a goatee.

[grävling]

Ah, now I am getting her combat screens. And I like them. But sometimes I am getting the old female character screen for attacking, which may be related to the fact that I am on a capture meeting and trying to stun the fugitive, not shoot him.

[Ahab]

I'm not fond of the artwork, either, I'm afraid. Her image in the map has absolutely huge boots, even larger than they do in the portrait image--good for stomping, I suppose, but they look like they weigh a ton. The combat images aren't much better, though the rear view of the combat isn't as bad. But, I guess the artwork is a matter of taste, and tastes of your target audience are pretty wide.

I do like that you are expanding player characters. I suppose this one is a step towards the day when specialization gets important benefits. I guess restricting specific characters to weapon types helps reduce the number of combat images you need to draw, which is probably useful. I had been thinking that the characters would be unspecialized until class was chosen. But if this lets you put out a wider range of characters faster, this is probably the way to go. If you do go with specialized characters for the future, I suggest that eventually the original male and female should become specialized. I think that would be better than having some specialized and some not.

[Cory Trese]

May 27, 2012 11:49:06 GMT -5 Ahab said:

I do like that you are expanding player characters. I suppose this one is a step towards the day when specialization gets important benefits. I guess restricting specific characters to weapon types helps reduce the number of combat images you need to draw, which is probably useful. I had been thinking that the characters would be unspecialized until class was chosen. But if this lets you put out a wider range of characters faster, this is probably the way to go. If you do go with specialized characters for the future, I suggest that eventually the original male and female should become specialized. I think that would be better than having some specialized and some not.

We may have different ideas of what 'specialized' will mean in Cyber Knights.

You are correct about the limited weapon / attack types providing faster art production timelines.

[Cory Trese]

You guys are so helpful!

[fallen]

Thanks everybody for the comments on the art and the bug reports. grävling - we will fix the issue with the tasers, she is not supposed to be able to use those (Ranged Only). More of the characters (and especially the story characters) will be limited in their Professions, which does help with getting the art and the character ready faster. On the flip side, we will be adding more weapon types (clubs, etc) that Cyber Knights can use, so they will become more and more varied as we go.

Thanks for all the comments on the artwork. As you know, I am a fledgling artist who started just 1.8 years ago. I try =}

@ahab - you have a point about the boots. the smaller the image, the larger the boots get. the full shot of her shows the boots as pretty reasonable, where the sprite shows them as immense.

@gravis - mean looking bald guy with a goatee who wields hammers and fires shotguns? you got it.

[gravismetallum]

fallen Yes! That is exatctly what I want, couple of small scars on the face and blue eyes and I could really identify with that character...yeah shotgun and a hammer..oh yes. Not that I'm trying to get a character who looks like me in a game or anything... ;D

[grävling]

If she isn't supposed to be able to use tasers, then she cannot take on any capture missions, unless she has somebody with her who can use them?

[gravismetallum]

TB was testing ranged stunners, they must not be out yet...thatl make her a real challenge to play.

fallen I wanted to say I kinda like the huge boot thing...adds a little punk flavor to your artwork.

[grävling]

I dislike the idea of restricting a CK character to using ranged weapons only -- or melee weapons only. I think that you pick your starting character based on the artwork, but the fun of this game comes in getting to experiment with different weapon and armour choices and
seeing how things work for you. Arbitrarily ruling out certain experiments would have taken out a whole lot of the fun I have been having. I'm much happier with the notion of having CKs
show the wrong graphic when fighting (i.e. shows her shooting when she is punching) than with the notion that certain CK cannot use unarmed weapons 'just because'. Especially since she can train in them just fine. Sticking 22 points into improving brawling only to find out that she cannot use gloves would be really irritating.

I'd find it really irritating to find out that I cannot use the artwork I liked for my main character and get the playing style I want. So I am hoping that in the future all CK characters can do all things.

[Cory Trese]

I suspect that the feedback on incorrect artwork being shown would be harsh, public and involve a lot of one and two star reviews on our games. Too much concern on our part for the reaction to that choice.

Future CK may include additional "all class" characters like Daniel and Chyanne.

The release of the new CK did include CK-based profession limitations, so the new one cannot take Cybersword as a class, for example.

I can see an argument for locking out the Brawling skill for the new CK, but Brawling as a skill is useful for defense as well as offense, so I think the 22 points wouldn't be wasted. I do get what you are saying tho.

CK with limited weapon qualifications will receive compensatory starting and maximum attributes.

These "Character Archetypes" are analogous to races or character types in many other games -- I don't think CK will be the first game to say that Elves can't be Paladins

I think at this point we're going to keep working on getting her to work, bug free (from our POV) and introduce additional equipment to enable fun play with the artwork and content that is currently available.

The bugfix release today will include new ranged stun weapons to compensate.

[grävling]

I am happy about the new stun weapons.

Another thing to consider -- should she be able to buy cyber claws? And use them when she has bought them? She can now.

[Cory Trese]

May 27, 2012 16:32:35 GMT -5 grävling said:

I am happy about the new stun weapons.

Another thing to consider -- should she be able to buy cyber claws? And use them when she has bought them? She can now.

No we actually failed to see this conflict for the new runner.

Honestly, the issue exists with some of the runners as well.

Cyber weapons are kind of a hack in STE and CK adds them in a way that we may need to change to support this.