Frost Protocol · published
It's been incredible! One article on turnbasedlovers.com changed the whole trajectory of Frost Protocol.
Much more important, the Steam Playtest gave me a lot of very valuable feedback, especially from the testers that joined my Discord:
Feel free to have a look and say hi: https://discord.gg/c9K8E24pR
Since then, I have been working on an update. Working on the game and social media and doing Discord and everything else as a solo dev is really time-consuming -> sorry for the irregular dev updates here.
Besides a few bugs, missing QoL, and unpolished systems, my biggest takeaway was that the expeditions need much more work. This is the main point of the game and its design felt shallow and somewhat unclear: You go out to gather resources and then scan some Veyrite and then just mine and do some stuff...
For over 1 year, it was clear to me that Frost Protocol should have a mission design, which I failed to incorporate into the game:
Go on expeditions
Scout and perform other tasks, such as gathering resources
Prepare and defend against THE NADIR
Mine and defend against THE NADIR
Especially the 2 last points weren't really felt in the game so far. Worse than that, the scan and mine system design was very poor. It was more of a chore than an interesting mechanic. However, these mechanics are the most important ones so I focused solely on that.
GONE! No more scanning. I tried several days to find a design where the player can scan Veyrite deposits, and after that, decide, which deposits to mine. There were 2 problems:
either too much RNG
or a "best solution" in how to scan
Both flaws work directly against my main focus of the game. Frost Protocol is about PLANNING and not about luck or some simple repetetive scanning mechanic.
Mining wasn't even part of the expeditions. It was done AFTER an expedition and the outpost was secured. It was the result of scanning and everything else that happened before when in fact this is the more interesting part compared to scanning.
The player has a Veyrite quota to fulfill so the actual mining MUST be part of the game. Mining itself must be a more important part of expeditions so I built a mining ecosystem.
The first version consists of:
Mining Drill
Cooling System
Energy Supply Dock
To activate the Mining Drill, you first have to activate the Cooling System and the Energy Supply Dock. The Energy Supply Dock supplies the Mining Drill with energy (shocking, right...).
In the screenshot, you can see 3 functional Energy Capsule Docks and 1 broken one. You need to at least 1 Energy Capsule to start the Mining Drill. This will "create" 100% efficiency for the Mining Drill. For each further Energy Capsule, you will receive a +10% bonus on efficiency (more on that later).
Different locations will have a different amount of Energy Capsule Docks and your job is to find Energy Capsules (or create them at the HOMEBASE) and transport them to the Energy Supply Dock.
After placing the Energy Capsules, you can activate the energy supply and the first prerequisite is complete.
The Cooling System is much simpler in its design. You just need to activate it (Outpost energy required). However, it can be damaged or not. If it is damaged, you first need to repair it, which will cost you a Thermal Control Unit. Activate it and the 2nd requirement is fulfilled.
The Mining Drill is the heart of each outpost and its activation your main goal. It's the Point of no return. After activation, THE NADIR will increase their attacks heavily (or rather the aggression rises much faster, which increases their attacks).
Activating the Mining Drill should feel like starting a finale for this outpost. In the playtest version, mining secured the outpost but now, it will basically destroy the outpost. You try to mine as much Veyrite as possible before extracting and after that, the outpost is overrun by THE NADIR.
This means, you need to plan what you want to do at the outpost beforehand.
gather as much resources as possible
plan your exit strategy to the Extraction Zone
The Mining UI gives you all the information about the current state of mining. On the top left:
Cooling status - active (white icon) or not (red icon)
Energy status - active (white icon) or not (red icon) AND mining efficiency
Below that:
2 energy icons ( 4 is currently the max value for Energy Capsules of a Energy Supply Dock)
1st one white bright -> Energy Capsule already inserted
2nd one is red -> Energy Capsule can be inserted
Top right:
4 steps displayed with I, II, III, and IV. This represents 1 mining cycle. Each step is 1 turn.
After the cycle ends, you end up mining between 10 and 15 Veyrite (shown right next to the steps).
With each cycle, the mining drill gets deeper into the ground and can mine more Veyrite. This means that with each mining cycle, the Veyrite amount rises. The longer you stay, the more you can mine BUT the more dangerous the NADIR attacks will become.
After each mining cycle, you can see directly, how much Veyrite you have and how much more you need to fulfill your quota (In this screenshot: 0 / 100 Veyrite currently ; you are on day 1, you need to fulfill the quota on day 4 or earlier).
The Vanguard was too weak and everyone just used the Striker. Since the Vanguard had a powerful AoE attack (all enemies hit within a cone), I reduced the damage considerably but in the end I just made it useless. The Striker had a strong attack (enemies in the front are hit first) so the damage could be higher.
I wanted to keep a different attack for both robots to give them more identity so I kept the cone shaped AoE attack of the Vanguard but I changed it.
I also added a special ability to each robot: Grenade Launcher and Shock Pulse. These might / should be used in the finale when being overwhelmed by large enemy groups. Use it to defend a hopeless position or secure your way to extraction zone.
The default attack of the Vanguard: Enemies within the cone are hit BUT enemies in the front block damage so enemies in the back are not hit by the attack (displayed by the indicator).
Still, I didn't want to make this attack overpowered so I reduced the damage for longer range by introducing damage bands. Attack Damage is divided into 2 rangen:
Close Range (blue cone in the front): 6-10 damage
Long Range (orange cone further back): 3-7 damage
2 per expedition. All enemies within range will be stunned for 1 turn.
2 per expedition. Grenade goes boom. Enemies further away from the explosion center receive less damage (not sure if I can keep this because it's hard to visualize / know exactly how much damage each enemy would take).
Previously, each spawnpoint spawned a specific amount of enemies, a specific enemy type, in a specific time window (e.g., 2 small melees every 2 turns). In addition, when Aggression was at 100 and the Aggression Level increased, a completely different system spawned a larger wave.
Now, there are ONLY normal spawnpoints. Enemies spawn in regular intervals, for example every 2 turns. Each spawnpoint has a budget and each enemy has a spawn cost and spawn weight. The spawn weight describes the chance that this enemy type spawns and the spawn cost decides how much other enemies can spawn based on the budget left.
This leads to a random, but controlled manner of spawning:
NADIR PRIME (melee): spawn often and from the start
SPITTERS (ranged): spawn less often and only when Aggression Level >= 1
BULWARK (elite melee): spawn rarely (but at least once per Aggression Level) and only when Aggression Level >= 3
No more running in a straight line but instead trying to spread across the field if possible. Narrow passages and turns still might lead to line movement. A system to have different enemy types focus different objectives is in place but not yet tested or used.
Now, much more enemies will spawn so I had to make some improvements to increased performance:
Pathfinding enhanced
Enemies explode after death (a natural NADIR response so their corpses cannot be analyzed)
Simple is better (sometimes...). I changed a few things in order to make the gameplay more fluid and simplify explanations and mechanics.
Movement felt "like a chore". The previous movement system allowed movement only in a single "phase", which means that, for example, you couldn't move, shoot, and then move again. I wanted to remove the possibility of "Go in, shoot, go back out"-gameplay BEFORE I even saw that this was a problem in the first place.
Now, movement is absolutely free without any restrictions, except of course the Movement Distance of each robot.
The ability Movement Boost also can be used twice now per turn (previously only once) so it's your decision to use Action Points for more movement or something else.
Hacking and repair tasks were hard-gated by the Specialization Modules of the robots. This removed any kind of decision during expeditions.
Hacking task -> You need to use the robot with the Hacking Module installed.
Carry an Energy Capsule -> You need to use the Vanguard
I removed all of these restrictions. Every robot can do everything. Instead of hard-gating, each task can be done better by a robot that is more suitable for the task. Hacking tasks are more safe when using a robot with a Hacking Module and repairs restore more HP when using a robot with a Mechanic Module. The Striker can carry objects but receives a movement penalty when doing so.
Two exceptions:
Only a Vanguard can push a heavy container
Only a Striker can jump over small distances
Automated Turrets were already part of the tutorial but not part of the first real expedition. The idea was to have them occasionally as a bonus help. But in order to strengthen this finale feeling you have a clear objective to defend the Mining Drill as long as possible.
In order to make this more about planning, Turrets now require Ammunition. Ammunition is a portable item such as Energy Capsules. They are spread among the outpost and you can prepare the finale by reloading the Turrets or at least placing the Ammunition nearby.
Turrets also have HP now and will be attacked by enemies. You can repair them using Repair Kits.
Explosives turned out to not work. Transporting and placing them at strategical points and then shoot them while enemies are nearby is too much work and needs to be simplified.
For now, I remove them and rework the concept.
Energy Shields were kinda useless. You activated them to block incoming enemies but that's it. After they broke, dozens of enemies stood in front of you. Now, they are a big part of defense because you can shoot through them while the enemies can't. Enemies will attack them and destroy the shields eventually but until that it is a vital defensive system.
Now, that Hacking and Repairs can be performed by every robot, I needed to change something so there is an actual advantage to using a robot with a suitable Specialization Module.
Hacking is RNG-based to some extent.
Each Hacking task has a Hacking Difficulty and each Hacking Module of a robot has a level.
If the Hacking Module level >= Hacking Difficulty -> Hacking always works and the task progress is increased.
If the level is below the difficulty, there is a chance for failure depending on the difference between the level and the difficulty. This is called the Access Threshold. Everytime your robot attempts a hack, it gets an Intrusion Score.
Initial Access Thresholds
Hacking Difficulty
1
2
3
Hacking Module Level
0
50%
20%
5%
1
100%
50%
20%
2
100%
100%
50%
3
100%
100%
100%
With each failed attempt, the Access Threshold becomes lower so that eventually, every robot will be able to progress. After a successful attempt, the Access Threshold is reset to its original value. This means that using a the "wrong" robot doesn't mean you cannot hack a system. It just means you cannot be sure how long it will take, which I believe is a great trade-off. You pay with uncertainty in a game that requires planning.
There are 2 types of repairs:
HP restoration
Component repairs
HP restoration restores HP of a damaged object that has HP, for example a Turret. Each repair costs 1 Repair Kit and restores a default repair amount of 5 HP. A Mechanic Module increases this repair amount and the Repair Kit Capacity as well.
Each item (Chassis and Specailization Modules) has at least 1 bonus modifier. For Mechanic Modules, these modifiers are:
Increased HP restore
Increased Repair Kit Capacity
Simply put: A bot with a Mechanic Module can carry more Repair Kits AND restores more HP.
Readability of an outpost and its interactions is vital for planning so I enhanced the UI and made icons for all objects.
Added a "Loot all" button to the inventory - only possible if the inventory has enough space for everything
Double clicking on a robot moves the camera to its position
Movement softlocks resolved (hopefully).
Polished robot animations and movements a bit more (still not final)
Changed the tutorial to incorporate above changes and fixed previous issues
Enemy animations enhanced
Cancel selected abilities by right click anywhere on the screen. Movement Boost and Reload continue to be used directly when clicking.
Added missing localized texts
Tactical View: A system that was only there because there was too much unclear information, such as the different spawning types of enemies or the bloated scan system
I'll have another round of private testing (Discord users and friends) and after that, I will open a second round of public Steam Playtest.
Check out my Discord: