Cyberpunk fans should keep an eye on Copper Dreams (gritty 80s cyberpunk stealth-cRPG)

[More_Badass]

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http://copper-dreams.com
Details on: dialogue system | turn-based system & health/damage | character attributes

Been following this for a few years. It was Kickstarted back in 2016, and has been making steady progress ever since. While being a cyberpunk cRPG alone would have me excited for it, what makes it unique is its immersive sim-esque approach to systems and design, from how health and injuries are handled, to a flexible dialogue system (bribe anyone anytime, etc), to a heavy focus on stealth, and so on.

Another exciting element is the angle it's taking with cyberpunk. Rather than the glossy high tech style commonly seen in Deus Ex or Ghost in the Shell, the world is more akin to that of Blade Runner or Warren Hammond's Kop series: urban decay, rundown world, rusting cybernetics made from scavenged parts, a corporation-controlled "hive of villainy and scum"-kind of offworld colony perfect for criminals, mercenaries, and tyrannical factions.

Copper Dreams is set on an off-world island colony called Calitana. Owned by the US government, Calitana is one of many interstellar bases, although it is notoriously the least enjoyable to live in.

At the start of our story, the US government has been forcibly sending its citizens to these off-world colonies to free up overcrowding in cities. You play as one of these unlucky draftees, starting your adventure as your pod crashes into the shores of your new home.

Calitana lives up to its reputation, seeing little in supplies or surveillance from the US over the past few decades, giving free rein to the corporations and syndicates that amassed power in the absence of any official rule.

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• An isometric 3d world, where every floor in every building can be seamlessly entered, from basement to rooftops
• Melee weapons and fully-customizable weapons, ranging from stocks and silencers to emp or incendiary rounds
• A complex stealth system that takes into account: line of sight and vision cones, noise, shadows, distance, height, crouching, cover, enemy patrols, distractions, hiding spots, last known position, alert levels, taking out lights and cameras, disabling/hacking security systems
• Turn-based combat with abstracted time (ie a thrown grenade takes time to travel its arc)
• Hands-off quest design revolving around intrigue and corporate espionage
• Day/night cycle and passage of time, which influences guard patrols, if you have time to rest, where a mission target will be, etc.
• A keyword-based dialogue system that dynamically creates queries based on information you know and items in your inventory
• Progression system that completely removes XP for actions, instead revolving around mission milestones, finding/buying better hardware, equipment, and cybernetics, and learning new skills from trainers
• A health system with no HP, instead using a combination of Lesser, Greater, and Mortal injuries (bullet graze, melted femur, pierced lung, etc.) that affect your stats, movement, and status of individual body parts
• Utilitarian black-market augmentations like chainsaw or harpoon arms, coiled legs, cloaking rigs, mobile scouting eyes, and...

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[Deleted member 1656]

I like that art style. The low poly, aliasing, and tacky UI looks genuinely '90s / early '00s. Dystopian, metropolitan hells should look shitty and jaggedy.

 

[foxdvd]

I got excited when I saw this thread,...the game looks amazing. I looked up the studio and realized they made a game I had on my steam library...one that I found underwhelming at best...Serpent in the Staglands...so I will wait to see impressions on this one.

Hope it turns out good..

 

[More_Badass]

Vents


Finalized starting outfit. Actual starting customization includes age, background, virtues, aptitudes, and appearance

What do you think of the faces compared to the original style?

 

[Deleted member 1849]

Big Christmas update:

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...reams/posts/2022737?ref=backer_project_update

 

[TeenageFBI]

I backed this! That update sounds like good times.

 

[saenima]

This looks pretty cool.

 

[Thrill_house]

Cool will pick it up a few months after its out of EA once the game is totally "finished". Looks like it is definitely up my alley!

 

[More_Badass]

The UI looks really slick in the video. Also the game looks it's really coming together

 

[Al3x1s]

Looks pretty promising, will buy if word of mouth is good.

 

[Shodan14]

Keeping all my eyes on this, really love the ruleset they're using.

 

[skeezx]

I got excited when I saw this thread,...the game looks amazing. I looked up the studio and realized they made a game I had on my steam library...one that I found underwhelming at best...Serpent in the Staglands...so I will wait to see impressions on this one.

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that game went way out of its way to be niche though. seems like this is more of a straightforward approach on the genre.

i'll see where it goes. ring me up when it's ready

 

[Desi]

Looks really good. Been following it a little bit here and there.

 

[Deleted member 7450]

I'm keeping my eye on this.

 

[jon bones]

i WILL keep an eye out thanks MB

love that art style

 

[Stealthy Cockatrice]

I like crpgs, I love cyberpunk and I adore stealth but somehow this is not clicking with me. :(

 

[Sinatar]

Despite Serpent in the Staglands being wildly underwhelming I still have high hopes for this, it looks great.

 

[More_Badass]

An early look at an enemy being worked on for the alpha

 

[orthodoxy1095]

I ended up backing the Kickstarter just because some people in the old land were so excited about it. Hope it ends up good lmao.

 

[More_Badass]

The aesthetic is coming together nicely. Also they switched to hexagon tiles instead of square

From the latest KS update
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Some other notable info

- Alpha is a solid vertical slice of systems in game, featuring a mid-level operative infiltrating a warehouse of insurgents as various enemy types. Also includes a custom enemy agent. Various challenge and game modes included to unlock with your feedback. Incentives!
- Changed from square tiles to hexagons.
- Our volumetric line-of sight system, which has unseen tiles that are painted black in-world, now includes sensory visuals like the sound you emit and enemy vision cones.
- Line of sight system also now has custom lighting integrated into it — easier visual for what lights are influencing tiles and gives us complete control with what to do with it to influence tiles. Spotlights, flares, tiles on fire, or even the muzzle flash from firing a gun now have clear indication of what tiles they are lighting up.
- Character direction ruleset info implemented for hexes, player can rotate without tick cost for turn. For example shields (or carrying dead bodies in front of you) block attacks from one direction.
- Game feed replaced with more cryptic DM-descriptive health readouts for combatants. Detailed roll information replaced with on-hover details while targeting tiles/characters. Game feed was too heavy before with too much happening, as rolls for aiming were not immediately followed up with a resolution, so things would be out of order. It's also visually and descriptively obvious how a combatant is doing. Also their faces make increasingly ouchy expressions depending on how poorly they are doing.
- Movable and stackable boxes for cover, climbing and puzzles. It's the best thing since sliced bread.

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[More_Badass]

New update showing off environment effects

This reminds me of Shadow Tactics but more systemic

Should you (or an NPC) walk over water or blood tiles, the character will get a 'wet' or 'bloody' ailment, and track that liquid for ~10 tiles. If these footsteps are seen by an NPC faction who is hostile against another NPC (Guards at a compound see thug patrolling), they'll initiate an AI path similar to last-known-position, and track those footprints until the last one, and then do a wary-state check of the area. They obviously also do this to you, so watch where you step! You can also use this to your advantage, toy with NPCs by luring them away from an area, out of sight and hearing of others.

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More at the link
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...reams/posts/2162018?ref=backer_project_update

 

[gcwy]

I like the art style, but eww point and click. Guess they're trying to find their audience.

 

[More_Badass]

I like the art style, but eww point and click. Guess they're trying to find their audience.

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It's a turn-based CRPG. What kind of controls did you expect?

 

[AudioEppa]

I came in here excited by just seeing the word cyberpunk..Nvm

 

[Javier23]

Very excited about this, but should I pass on Serpent in the Staglands then if I ever see a good deal? Don't really mind it since my cRPG backlog is already huge, but this made me curious on it.

 

[Deleted member 8463]

Thank you for reminding me about this game. Really looking forward to it.

 

[gforguava]

Very excited about this, but should I pass on Serpent in the Staglands then if I ever see a good deal? Don't really mind it since my cRPG backlog is already huge, but this made me curious on it.

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I think Serpent in the Staglands is brilliant but it is very much a "love it or hate it" type deal with "hate it" being the more common response.

And I can't wait for this to come out, it just looks better and better every time they show something.

 

[Shodan14]

I think Serpent in the Staglands is brilliant but it is very much a "love it or hate it" type deal with "hate it" being the more common response.

And I can't wait for this to come out, it just looks better and better every time they show something.

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I can't do Serpent for whatever reason, the Ultima 7 thing just kills me.

 

[Fawz]

The game has charm and reminds me of Satellite Reigns. The hex turn based combat isn't really for me, and the fog of war effect is a little excessive, but will be keeping an eye on it all the same.

 

[Fishook]

Looks like my cup of tea, thanks for the heads uo

 

[Deleted member 1849]

Seems like this is coming along really nicely.

I do agree that the fog of war effect looks just a tiny bit much, but it still looks good to me.

 

[Deleted member 1849]

Update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649838104/copper-dreams/posts/2195553

 

[More_Badass]

Update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649838104/copper-dreams/posts/2195553

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The more granular hexes and the new systems really makes it seem like it's leaning even more into immersive sim territory than it was originally

Not sure if I like the color palette yet. The original look really fit the 80s industrial cyberpunk/sci-fi style

 

[Ra]

Subbed. Never seen this game before now but I am VERY intrigued.

 

[Zukuu]

Color palette is a total turn off for me.

 

[gforguava]

Looking better and better.

Well, I'm not sure how I feel about the more vibrant colors, like More_Badass I loved the grungy/industrial quality that the early stuff had.

edit: I mean it is still 'grungy' but the colors have gone from something like Gunhed or Hardware(the movies) to Sunset Overdrive, which is a massive change.

 

[Budi]

Damn, you always follow the most interesting games More_Badass. Thanks for the thread and thanks for the bump! Would have missed this otherwise.

 

[Deleted member 1849]

I feel the new colour palette gives the game an almost pseudo-comic book style.

It's nice, but I definitely felt the original gritty style matched the cyberpunk world a little better.

The hex system is looking really good though.

 

[More_Badass]

Looking better and better.

Well, I'm not sure how I feel about the more vibrant colors, like More_Badass I loved the grungy/industrial quality that the early stuff had.

edit: I mean it is still 'grungy' but the colors have gone from something like Gunhed or Hardware(the movies) to Sunset Overdrive, which is a massive change.

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I feel the new colour palette gives the game an almost pseudo-comic book style.

It's nice, but I definitely felt the original gritty style matched the cyberpunk world a little better.

The hex system is looking really good though.

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The devs discussed the new palette in the comments. Also more on the systems-heavy design

Colors will certainly vary depending on the theme of the map, but more grays and drab still works well within our illustrative look. We're just happy to be out of the shovel-ware technology range of visuals we've been at for a while now and working with a style we're loving to use — will be tweaking it through alpha, of course.

Events happening in the game have simple goals in very system-rich environments, we've been working on a lot of simulation systems to that end, so hopefully you'll enjoy it! We'll make a post about that specifically closer to the alpha as we finish some of them off. Civilians for instance use telephone booths if they are near them to call in MFI troops to sweep an area for trouble if they see you as a threat — lots of small-scale ai additions and more large scale simulations make up a lot of the challenge.

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[Shodan14]

Looking forward to the alpha.

 

[More_Badass]

Whalenought posted a lengthy blog post regarding their approach and intent for the social skills aspect of the game
http://whalenoughtstudios.com/commu...ial-skill-disposition-and-character-creation/

In our next Kickstarter update we're going to talk about the design and mechanics behind disposition, which drives how successful you are at convincing someone to do what you want them to do through dialogue. Disposition is made up of a variety of personality factors that are generated through character creation, so we thought it would be helpful to dive into the details of that first so you get the full picture of how to use your social skills to your advantage with the ruleset.

Unlike most CRPGs, your Social skill can be used actively in-game whenever you want, not just when a dialogue allows it. When you are rolling for things to happen in a tabletop game, you shouldn't have to always wait for the DM to give you your dialogue options.

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During the alpha we'll put all these tables and all the rolls in the ruleset page of the game and in a wiki on this site, so they can be viewed more easily and torn apart in full context.

We're planning on that Kickstarter update soon where we can show off social rolls and the dialogue so you can see this in action before you start playtesting. Definitely looking for early feedback on this, as it's a new way of doing things and will ultimately end up being the product of how fun it is to use and play.

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[Shodan14]

Interesting, I really hope they release the ruleset at some point as well.

 

[Fallout 4 Master]

Thanks for the heads, this game looks pretty interesting.

 

[More_Badass]

Interesting details from Twitter

So horror's still a key element, right??

Oh yeah, though through the lens of more of an 80's action film, so less jump scares and more tension. Blackout line-of-sight, perpetual save (like SystemShock, except no reloads) and ailments. It's a very satirical and morbid setting, very RoboCop or Escape from New York

Cool! But euh *no reloads*??...

Ha! It's a different kind of challenge — Copper Dreams has the long-death, whittling player health, equipment and humanity down until they're destitute and restart or have replaced every limb and continue in a robotic or parasitic rage. We'll write up a post about it!

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https://twitter.com/whalenought/status/1029811513660305409

 

[Shodan14]

Soo like roguelike "horror"?

 

[More_Badass]

New update about how dialogue and social skills work
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649838104/copper-dreams/posts/2271491

Social actions are commands you can attempt to tell NPCs, with failure and success rates like any roll where you'll roll 3d8 under your skill number (+challenge mods). A whole slew of things make up that challenge number, which in this case is the degree of difficulty of what you're asking them and your disposition to one another.

For example you could tell a guard to go home for the night if they encounter you, and if successful they have some contextual things they can mutter, "sure, good, idea, I think I left the oven on". This is to be interpreted as if the Terminator or Snake Plissken is telling someone, not asking. The NPC knows you're trouble, so it's you rolling to just convince them they don't want to make things worse by not listening.

If you have a low roll odds, you have some options for additive modifiers. Bribe, which gives them cigarettes if you have them, is an easy one at the expense of bartering goods. Threaten is more potent, allowing you to choose a weapon, but makes them hostile if you fail, so higher risk. Weapons have a lethal number, so choosing the meanest thing you got is the way to go for this, but is also based on how well your skill is with whatever the weapon is designed for, so you don't fumble.

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[More_Badass]

A new post about Espionage skills
http://whalenoughtstudios.com/community/forums/topic/skills-espionage/
More details and skills at the link

Nerve Strike
[Roll] under skill#
Boolean success — If behind a target that doesn't currently see you (though can be searching for you), a character can strike a critical nerve point and incapacitate them silently. They'll ragdoll, and you can loot them and drag their body elsewhere.
Boolean Fail — You done goofed, and get a 5 tick fumble penalty that gives initiative to one confused or angry NPC to start clobbering you.

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Mark
[Roll] under skill#
Boolean success — Keep an eye on a target and examine weaknesses. Hovering over a marked target lets you see the least defended parts of the body, count bullets to see how much ammunition they have left (if applicable), and get a hit modifier. Can only mark one target at a time.
Boolean fail — nothing

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[Deleted member 2317]

Looks wonderful!

 

[EdibleKnife]

Very sexy! Thanks for promoting it! I'll definitely be keeping an eye out

 

[More_Badass]

A new update, with interesting details on how death and loading works
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1649838104/copper-dreams/posts/2298666

Play it Out
We wanted to design something around the concept of what we do when players might be incapacitated in a tabletop game and the DM doesn't want to make everyone re-roll. There are some fun narratives that can occur that we wanted to explore as a part of normal gameplay, and thought that was worth experimenting with for the main campaign. As the nature of the previous option, choosing to Play it Out saves immediately after, so when they are available it can be more or less of a gamble given the situation/location.

1. Clinic
Your agent in the alpha and main campaign have wicked good health insurance, thanks to your plum job. Playing it Out in a location that isn't heavily fortified or a dungeon lets your HealthInsurance Body-Bots come find you and fly you off to the nearest clinic location. The randomized city is divided up into blocks, and with a few exceptions every one of those has a clinic, so you'll never be far from where you fell.

At the clinic, a half-day passes (! this important for events), and you can choose to stay longer and heal or get back to it. Clinics are automated and will automatically bill you, or if you fail to have the funds bill your Syndicate which will keep a tab on you and make you pay for lunch.

2. Jail
If you fell due to or near by MFI, the city overlords, you'll be tossed into a procedural jail. Like the clinic, every city block usually has an (otherwise inaccessible) jail attached, and depending on your method of breakout you'll be outputted back into the block you were at. These jail maps are relatively small, isolation cubes for the city riff-raff, but will always have your equipment stored in an office that you'll want to loot before leaving. Maybe you can steal other inmates stuff!

3. Event
These can be a gamble for a session. Events occur when you fall in an atypical location, like surrounded by cyber-mutants, in a Syndicate compound, in a sewer system with monsters, or other unfortunate places. Syndicates will throw you in the sewer drain which will put you in a different location, maybe to get help after, or maybe some other problems. At worst you might come out of these situations with a permanent disfiguration or ailment before a Body-Bot finds you, maybe mutants spread a mutation to you before throwing you out, or maybe you have a limb eaten off before you're found.

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More at the link