Pyrian on 6/8/2015 at 07:09

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FIIIIIIIRE!

Glade Raid is on fire. Or at least it has fire. Fire is complicated. In Glade Raid... Grass, ferns, bushes, and trees can be set on fire. That fire can be small, or large. It produces smoke and sparks - more if it's large. Smoke and sparks drift on the wind - normal or magical. Smoke blocks LoS. Sparks occasionally set new fires. Over time, fires turn grass to burnt grass, to ash, ferns to burnt ferns to ash, bushes to burnt bushes to ash, and trees to burnt trees. Large fires occasionally subside, small fires occasionally go out. If the terrain has been reduced to ash, this happens quickly. Any magical berries or flowers in the burning hex are destroyed when fires change terrain types. Even thorns are destroyed when it becomes ash. Soaked terrain resists being set on fire, but dries out instead, creating fog. Various ways of dumping water on a hex (flood, cloudburst) instantly put out fires and soak the hex, creating fog (two fog if it's a large fire). Units in a fire, catch on fire (or dry out if they're soaked). They can put the fire out by rolling on non-burning ground or by moving into a water or deep mud hex, or by getting rained on. If they don't put the fire out, it will grow larger, and then start inflicting damage.

This is a lot of programming.

Don't even ask me about ice.

henke on 12/9/2015 at 05:13

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Making a good trailer for a strategy game is no easy task. Even games I love, like FTL, have managed to have some (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ4FRcu_bjs) boring ass trailers. Those games I've always picked up and started playing because I've read good things about them, not because of trailers.

What I'd do is try to make it either personal or funny. Do something like following one unit's journey through the battlefield, make it a war-journal thing. Tell a short story in the first half of the trailer, then pull out the camera for a full view of the battlefield and tell about the game's mechanics in broad strokes in the second half. Don't get too specific, and I'd strongly advice against including anything like a tutorial, that's bound to be boring as hell and everyone will have forgotten it by the time they play the game anyway. Only include a tutorial if you can make it as funny as the (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TluRVBhmf8w) old Portal trailer.

The one strategy game to actually have a really good trailer - so good it actually made me buy the game despite lukewarm reviews - was (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxxnq5YAVHw) Leviathan Warships. If you can make something like that, you're golden.

PigLick on 12/9/2015 at 17:16

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Henke, if only you were as good looking as pewdiepie, you could be rich!

PigLick on 12/9/2015 at 18:14

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But just think, you could be the anti-pewdiepie. Not quite as handsome, but a hell of a lot less annoying.
I was imagining something like "Finnish Fellow Finishes Games"

Yakoob on 12/9/2015 at 22:48

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Pyrian definitely research trailers of similar games and see how they're formatted and what they focus on, if you're not already. I even heard a good tip of taking your favortire trailer and literally overlaying your own footage/text/music over it to get the "pacing" right.

As for features:

* Procedural overmap (displays an example of navigating the somewhat FTL-esque map of sites)
Yes!

* Extensive tutorial (short video of how the game walks you through learning how to play)

No! A tutorial should be a standard feature in a strategy game these days, not something to boast about imho. Unless it does something truly unique like aforementioned Portal (which I don't think it does).

* Simultaneous turns (shows how each unit performs two orders each turn, trying to outplay each other)
Yes, I think it's important to explain how the system works and stands out from other games. But don't over-sell it.

* Tactical hit/defense system (shows and explains how reducing and overwhelming defenses is used instead of to-hit percentages for a more tactical gameplay)
This could be a good way to distinguish from competition
* Spells (show a series of spell effects - maybe winds and tremors, flames and plant growth)
Yea, a quick showcase of different effects could be nice
* Extensive environmental simulation (show how fires spread, fog and smoke blows, ice entraps or causes dodging units to slip)
I think this could be a Biggie. I remember Maya trailer coming out and shown spreading lava and lots of people commented/liked that
* Leveling up (show the unit upgrade screens and how they work)
Maybe, if it's something really different. Otherwise, dont spend too much time on it. Again, a pretty standard feature of most strategies
* Special attacks (puissant blow knocking enemies flat, whirlwind hitting multiple foes, rapid javelin throwing, fiery arrows)
* Special defenses (Kern dashing through a group of enemies with extra dodges, berserker using his shield and parry to hold off 5 attacks)
This could be interesting/unqiue!

* Story (show screen where a situation is described and three characters make conflicting suggestions about how to handle it, then the player picks a choice and a corresponding encounter appears)
Reminds me a bit of banner saga, didn't they do something like that in trailer? Check out what theirs looks like

* A.I. (Show AI behaviors like defending themselves when hurt, focusing attacks on wounded party members or those that hurt them, going to water when on fire, hungry badgers eating your magic plants)
Hmm are you trying to claim it has some fresh team-oriented AI or something? I like the hungry badgers and going to water. Otherwise, AI is again a pretty standard feature in strats, so only showcase a few unique bits.

my 2c. I dont play many strats so may not be your target audience and as my other thread shows I'm not exactly good at making trailers either ;p So take my thoughts with grain of salt!