Forgotten Lore

Apologies to all for the lack of updates on this blog.  As you have probably figured out my game making has been on a hiatus.  But today is a big deal for Cryptic Comet’s future.  The wonderful gang at RPS has included Armageddon Empires in it’s 7th Anniversary Humble Bundle Weekly selection.  It’s a huge honor.

https://www.humblebundle.com/_widget/weekly

So what does the future hold in store for Cryptic Comet?  I am working on a new game.  It’s a turn based strategy game with a map, units, locations and very board game like.  The idea is for the player to use a completely different rule set than the 4 AI’s that he is competing against.  I don’t want to reveal the setting but I think it is going to be pretty far out there.  The player is besieged on all sides and has to manage limited resources to hold off the AI’s until a certain objective can be achieved. Rorke’s Drift is a big inspiration for this but there are no Zulu’s and your victory condition is pretty nihilistic…so it’s Rorke’s Drift meets the end of John Carpenter’s The Thing.  I’ve always wanted to make this game.

Matchsticks for my eyes has done a great design analysis of Armageddon Empires.

Occult Chronicles is all about exploration so I’m hoping it scratches that itch as well as AE did.  I’ve also thrown in a what’s behind curtain #1 slot machine type mechanic.  There are no rolling apples, oranges, stars etc.  but each time you have to determine a reward or punishment you start turning over 10 face down cards.  How many you can/have to turn over depends on how well you did in the Tarot card challenge.  A rare few encounters have the “Instant Death” card hidden among the 10 face down cards.  It’s like that card that will kill you instantly in Dungeon Quest….the huge scything blade one…but you feel like you had a choice rather than just picking it from the top of the deck.  Good times.

If ever there was a kickstarter project to get behind this is it.  When they are playing a game, these guys are funnier than the two guys in the movie “Step Brothers.”  I’ve always thought I would love to see a Tom vs. Bruce magazine so this was my chance to contribute to helping that dream become a reality.   Please check it out and consider contributing.  I really want to see them play some board games like Twilight Struggle or Hannibal Rome vs. Carthage.

Tom vs. Bruce

I apologize for the lack of updates to anyone who still checks this blog for something new here. Six Gun Saga is taking a lot longer than I had expected and I knew I was cursing myself when I hazarded that “couple of months” guess on when it would be finished. I’m going to put this blog on a hopefully short hiatus until I have something positive to report.

Soren Johnson has a google tech talk video up on youtube (hat tip thanks to Inge) that features his “Playing To Lose: Good vs. Fun AI” presentation. At approximately the 4 minute mark you can see a screen shot of the map of Armageddon Empires on one of the slides. That’s pretty cool 🙂

….Where the real money from the game is made.

I made a mouse pad a while back but like so many things I never really finished it off and got a Cafe Press shop online and integrated into my Cryptic Comet website. I do have a shop up now. You can catch it here if you want to check out the mouse pad.

My idea is to add some coffee mugs, another mouse pad and maybe a flame thrower. If you have any favorite images from AE that you would like to see on such bling bling then let me know by replying to this thread in the forums. List your top 5 or so images and I’ll make a tally to get an idea what the most popular images are. Then I’ll try and get some merchandise up on the Cafe Press shop.

A player nick named “Keypunch” has put up an extremely clever deck for warlords of the wastelands to play as a neutral “corporation” called The Underhive. The deck is composed of a real rogues gallery of the independent units in the game. You can check out the deck here:

Underhive Deck

And get a nice AAR here:

Underhive AAR

Needless to say, AE is not the most user friendly game to mod so just getting this to work is really an accomplishment. The whole thematic approach though is what really sends it over the top. If you ever wondered what it would be like to throw Casca, ExU-88 and the Duke together and run around the map with Dune Raiders then this is the deck for you. Just a word of warning though, make sure your wasteland skills are up to snuff. It’s not really an easy deck if you don’t really know your stuff.