Zodiac Legion: A tactical RPG with kingdom building elements

[Vaako]

Looking forward to this.

@Adventurer You guys should wishlist this if it's the kind of game you like

This looks interesting. Anything else like this, King Arthur: Knights Tale, or Wartales I should look for?

Wartales is closer from Battle Brothers. I think it is more forgiving, but it has more non combat related things to do. King Arthur:Knight's Tale is a very good game. It plays quite differently (RT exploration + smaller combat encounter, and a fixed sequence of missions), but I liked it a lot (apart from the exploration).

The Crown Wars: Black Prince, or MASSIVE CHALICE are pretty close from what we are making, but both suffer from a lot of issues (Crown Wars is very bland and buggy, and offers very little build variety. MASSIVE CHALICE was done by Double Fine, and has a weird pokemon breeding system which kind of detracts from the squad management aspects).

Looking forward to this.

@Adventurer You guys should wishlist this if it's the kind of game you like

Not really a fan of games which use these honeycombs spaces on the ground. Breaks my immersion and looks more like a boardgame then.

I could add an option to remove the grid, though. Would that be enough, or are you against the idea of hexagons themselves, because the latter is not negociable.

No need to change stuff for me. Even if it wasnt visible the grid system itself would still exist. And I am not a fan of these at all. Unless it is a chess game. If I play isometric games they look more like wasteland/divinity original sin2.

[WhiteShark]

hexes > squares >>> gridless

[Galdred]

Btw, hexagonal mind trick:

[rusty_shackleford]

[Galdred]

No need to change stuff for me. Even if it wasnt visible the grid system itself would still exist. And I am not a fan of these at all. Unless it is a chess game. If I play isometric games they look more like wasteland/divinity original sin2.

I'll still make grid display optional anyway. As for gridless, I have always found it to be a micromanagement nightmare in TB games. I spent more time getting a single tank to the right pixel position in Combat mission than getting the whole tank company moving in Steel Panthers.

[Magick]

No need to change stuff for me. Even if it wasnt visible the grid system itself would still exist. And I am not a fan of these at all. Unless it is a chess game. If I play isometric games they look more like wasteland/divinity original sin2.

I'll still make grid display optional anyway. As for gridless, I have always found it to be a micromanagement nightmare in TB games. I spent more time getting a single tank to the right pixel position in Combat mission than getting the whole tank company moving in Steel Panthers.

A Keybind to show / hide it would probably be the easiest.
Or a boolean settings option to fully hide it, then also keybind to temporarily show/hide it (depending on whether it's currently visible or not) on press/hold. (This one is likely best, for those who like the visual without)

Highlight the current tile on mouseover either way.


How long would you say the demo is, btw @Galdred? I've STILL not got around to it, yet.

[Galdred]

No need to change stuff for me. Even if it wasnt visible the grid system itself would still exist. And I am not a fan of these at all. Unless it is a chess game. If I play isometric games they look more like wasteland/divinity original sin2.

I'll still make grid display optional anyway. As for gridless, I have always found it to be a micromanagement nightmare in TB games. I spent more time getting a single tank to the right pixel position in Combat mission than getting the whole tank company moving in Steel Panthers.

A Keybind to show / hide it would probably be the easiest.
Or a boolean settings option to fully hide it, then also keybind to temporarily show/hide it (depending on whether it's currently visible or not) on press/hold. (This one is likely best, for those who like the visual without)

Highlight the current tile on mouseover either way.


How long would you say the demo is, btw @Galdred? I've STILL not got around to it, yet.

I'll add a shortcut and a menu entry for that, then.
As for the demo, it is theoretically "endless", but as there is a very limited pool of progression choices for characters yet, no loot, and no wayt to replace casualties, it is more suited for single mission play, so 25 minutes or so until I flesh the geoscape more.
But you should wait until I upload the latest build with improved performances, because it makes the AI turns much more bearable!

[Finarfin]

Any Idea if you will make a supporter edition or something similar?

[Galdred]

Any Idea if you will make a supporter edition or something similar?

I'd like to, but I am still unsure about what to put inside! Probably a few cosmetic items(probably helmets and/or shield variants) on top of the soundtrack. We probably won't have an artbook, because we don't really have any concept art, apart from some wireframe drafts...

[Finarfin]

Any Idea if you will make a supporter edition or something similar?

I'd like to, but I am still unsure about what to put inside! Probably a few cosmetic items(probably helmets and/or shield variants) on top of the soundtrack. We probably won't have an artbook, because we don't really have any concept art, apart from some wireframe drafts...

Do the characters have portraits? If so, you could include the artwork of them maybe. But I think cosmetics, soundtrack and the wireframe drafts might actually be a solid selection already. Either way, I will support you since the game looks great.

[Classix]

Looking forward to this.

@Adventurer You guys should wishlist this if it's the kind of game you like

Been ready awhile now.

ZL_ive_been_ready.png

[Magick]

FINALLLY got around to playing this. (The reason I joined this forum over a year ago, lol!)
Looking good so far! Love the sound and visuals. Very much looking forward to this. @Galdred


A few comments:

1. Mouse edge scrolling speed is low, but mouse button scroll speed is fast. The scroll speed setting says it applies to the mouse button speed. Shouldn't this ONLY apply to the edge speed / arrow keys? Mouse button / drag speed should be based on the speed of the mouse movement.
2. Can we have a setting for inverting mouse button scroll direction, please? A little annoying that dragging down scrolls "up".
3. I'm a little confused on the ranges of the attacks, especially the ranged attacks. They seem to only be able to attack within the character's own movement range? Will there be some spells that allow them to attack further? For example, in Shining Force 3 on selecting an attack, it will highlight the tiles that are in range of the selected attack (rather than the character's own movement range) in a solid colour. Some games also highlight the tiles that WOULD be in range of the attack IF the character moved in a shaded colour. Look here how it's easy to distinguish the ranges between Move and different types of attacks:
   ► Show Spoiler
   EDIT: I see the dotted line now. Colour attack range in red outline, maybe?
4. Character selection ring should show through walls etc. Maybe make a whoosh sound or something to signify they've been clicked.
5. If I complete my mission goals early, let me continue and choose to End Mission later, so I can collect chests etc. Just show an icon that I can click and bring up the End Mission window again.
6. As per the above, I'd expect me attacking, to attack the tile I select. NOT move and attack. I like to do those actions separately. But a "move & attack (if in range)" setting would be nice for those who like that.
7. Auto select character (setting, for end action) should centre the camera on the character now active. It only does this sometimes.
8. Does choosing to not attack and just ending a character's turn give a small defense bonus? It would be nice if so (at least for melee or those with shields). A "Defend" button can help apply this, and also end a character's "turn", when no "rest" for stamina is needed.
9. Are there chances for critical hits, special moves or counter-attacks? (This can make the melee more interesting, sometimes).
10. A small icon besides characters that are still able to perform actions, would be nice. (I know they're blanked out in the top right bar, but still..)
11. Move combat log to bottom right. Current friendly character's stats to top left, and enemy character's stats to bottom left.
12. Does there need to be a turn timer penalty on ALL maps? Considering the character placement / support bonus, taking the time to explore and position right should be encouraged, rather than speedrunning. Maybe have this be a difficulty setting, or just for certain maps where it's normal for things to be "rushed" or to grab a bonus item. After all, the more turns one plays, the more the enemies get to move / do actions.
    I ended up going from 0 to TEN enemies on me at one point in one turn. I lost two of my guys in one turn because they spawned into the room next to me, ran up and murdered them in one turn. Ridiculous.
    Constant spawns should only be on certain maps. This kills it for completionist people who like to explore, break things and kill every enemy. There's no need to rush the player.
13. Escape should always cancel a selected action.
14. It would be nice if Switch Weapon does not take an action. Archer's melee should be weak enough to compensate (unless they're special with hybrid stats).
15. Archers shouldn't be able to use ANY range attacks if pinned. (That should be what switch weapon is for). They should ALL be able to switch to melee and do at least 1 dmg, though.
16. Let archers shoot breakable items. It's silly but may as well cut out the middleman of weapon switching for this.
17. Telekinesis or Bash, any attack that forcibly moves an enemy should damage or stun that enemy if knocked into a wall, or stun the other enemy if knocked into another.
18. The Pinned status remained for a turn even after I'd killed the only enemy in range. (Edit: It does say "next turn", but this is silly. If I've killed the ONLY guy pinning my unit, it should cancel the status).
19. As per the above, moving an enemy away with a skill should also break the Pinned status.
20. Is there any point to breaking items?
21. Reveal probably wants a cast range, to take an action and/or cost stamina, and a wider area.
22. Sometimes hit impact sounds don't play.
23. Drag-dropping on the lances screen would be nice.
24. Highlight, or have a small portrait icon for the Zodiac characters on the lances screen, so I don't have to remember who is and isn't.
25. Why can't I add Zodiac champs to other lances? Surely it should only prevent me from adding more than two to the SAME lance? I presume in future we'll be able to select which lance goes on a mission?
26. A sound effect on selecting rest, defend (if implemented), selecting characters (from the top-right menu) and Ending Turn would help give feedback these were clicked.
27. Please outline items to be attacked, activated etc. on mouseover. Such as doors etc.
28. Fullscreen should lock the cursor to the monitor the game is on.
29. Will it be possible to pan the camera direction? (Such as, hold middle mouse to turn it around). It would be nice. If so, then a "return to default" keybind is advised to reset to the default zoom / direction.
30. The text in the top left box could use a bit of left padding. Similar to the text in the bottom right box.
31. The Directional setting is poorly explained, maybe a pop-up image would help here? Or "previous tile touched by the cursor" for setting 2. I think setting 1 should be the default.
32. As previously mentioned. A setting to disable / enable the grid, AND a keybind to revert that when held (If setting is hide, holding it shows, if setting is show (default), holding it hides).
33. attachment. ELEVEN enemies attacking me on the very first enemy turn LOL, and I'd already killed two of them. Another SEVEN came running in, the very next turn.

[Galdred]

FINALLLY got around to playing this. (The reason I joined this forum over a year ago, lol!)
Looking good so far! Love the sound and visuals. Very much looking forward to this. @Galdred

Thanks a lot for the detailled feedback!

A few comments:

1. Mouse edge scrolling speed is low, but mouse button scroll speed is fast. The scroll speed setting says it applies to the mouse button speed. Shouldn't this ONLY apply to the edge speed / arrow keys? Mouse button / drag speed should be based on the speed of the mouse movement.

Drag speed is set so that the position of the cursor relative to the point you drag doesn't move.
The scroll setting should not apply to these indeed. However, they were broken, so I am not sure it is fixed in the demo yet, but it should be in the next build.

[*]Can we have a setting for inverting mouse button scroll direction, please? A little annoying that dragging down scrolls "up".

The idea was that you were bringing the "clicked point" down, but alright, I'll add this!

[*]I'm a little confused on the ranges of the attacks, especially the ranged attacks. They seem to only be able to attack within the character's own movement range? Will there be some spells that allow them to attack further? For example, in Shining Force 3 on selecting an attack, it will highlight the tiles that are in range of the selected attack (rather than the character's own movement range) in a solid colour. Some games also highlight the tiles that WOULD be in range of the attack IF the character moved in a shaded colour. Look here how it's easy to distinguish the ranges between Move and different types of attacks:

► Show Spoiler

EDIT: I see the dotted line now. Colour attack range in red outline, maybe?

Right, I need to make it clearer. Red may be a good idea. I didn't want to use it because it is the enemy move range, but it would make it easier to tell it apart from move indeed.

[*]Character selection ring should show through walls etc. Maybe make a whoosh sound or something to signify they've been clicked.

Good point, I wanted to make walls auto transparent near characters too. As for selection sounds, I'll look into it (we planned to have selection quips, but that won't be before some time).

[*]If I complete my mission goals early, let me continue and choose to End Mission later, so I can collect chests etc. Just show an icon that I can click and bring up the End Mission window again.

That is planned indeed, but it will depend on the mission: some will auto loot the dungeon (the ones where your own forces take over). In other, you'll have to loot before your allies secure the complex.

[*]As per the above, I'd expect me attacking, to attack the tile I select. NOT move and attack. I like to do those actions separately. But a "move & attack (if in range)" setting would be nice for those who like that.

Right, I'll add a settings to disable attack+move then. Note that there is a setting to choose how the movement tile is selected (either the last tile entered by mouse before the target, or depending on the cursor position in target tile).

[*]Auto select character (setting, for end action) should centre the camera on the character now active. It only does this sometimes.

It may only do so if the character selected was offscreen. I'll look into it.

[*]Does choosing to not attack and just ending a character's turn give a small defense bonus? It would be nice if so (at least for melee or those with shields). A "Defend" button can help apply this, and also end a character's "turn", when no "rest" for stamina is needed.

Actually, rest now only means "conserve the action and stop being in the "selection loop".
When you don't use your action, you DO get a defense bonus, and if it was not used (because no one attacked you), it gets converted into a rest bonus.

[*]Are there chances for critical hits, special moves or counter-attacks? (This can make the melee more interesting, sometimes).

Critical hits do happen now, but I'll phase them out, because they don't really work well with our granular armor/bypass/penetration system(as we already use the margin of success to bypass armor and increase damage). I'll introduce called shots instead, as it works better with characters not having the same armor everywhere. As for counter-attack, I wanted to add it as a skill. Something like counter attack if your opponent misses by 2 or more.

[*]A small icon besides characters that are still able to perform actions, would be nice. (I know they're blanked out in the top right bar, but still..)

There are tiny icons next to the stamina bar, but they are not super helpful. I'll try to find a better way to represent it on the character sprites.

[*]Move combat log to bottom right. Current friendly character's stats to top left, and enemy character's stats to bottom left.

Why? Isn't combat log to top left relatively standard?

[*]Does there need to be a turn timer penalty on ALL maps? Considering the character placement / support bonus, taking the time to explore and position right should be encouraged, rather than speedrunning. Maybe have this be a difficulty setting, or just for certain maps where it's normal for things to be "rushed" or to grab a bonus item. After all, the more turns one plays, the more the enemies get to move / do actions.
I ended up going from 0 to TEN enemies on me at one point in one turn. I lost two of my guys in one turn because they spawned into the room next to me, ran up and murdered them in one turn. Ridiculous.
Constant spawns should only be on certain maps. This kills it for completionist people who like to explore, break things and kill every enemy. There's no need to rush the player.

We wanted our dungeon raids to be more like fantasy commando operations: get in, complete the mission, and get out before the reinforcements start pouring in. You are supposed to be outnumbered. Also, there is no kill XP. All are mission based. But reinforcements start coming in relatively late. Most of the enemies who attack early on are groups becoming "ready" and sent to reinforce/investigate. But TB dungeon crawlers need tensions to avoid killing the pace (I still have Heroquest PTSD with the heroes waiting for the slowest every single time to breach a room, then they'd only peek and shoot the enemies with a crossbow, before camping the doorway...). But the alarm increase rate depends on the difficulty settings (already in the dev build. I'll upload it as soon as I fix what I broke with map generation).

[*]Escape should always cancel a selected action.

It's fixed in the upcoming build.

[*]It would be nice if Switch Weapon does not take an action. Archer's melee should be weak enough to compensate (unless they're special with hybrid stats).

[*]Archers shouldn't be able to use ANY range attacks if pinned. (That should be what switch weapon is for). They should ALL be able to switch to melee and do at least 1 dmg, though.
[*]Let archers shoot breakable items. It's silly but may as well cut out the middleman of weapon switching for this.

The first swap is free, the second in the same turn costs the action, but you should have little reason to do so! Archer's melee has no particular reason to be weak. They train their upper body strength a lot! Their weakness is mostly the lack of armor (and slightly inferior melee stats, but not by that much).
The plan was indeed to prevent shooting a bow in melee, but it is bugged, and the archer can target anyone not in melee. I will fix it soon.
As for breaking item with archery, no, that will trigger my autism!

[*]Telekinesis or Bash, any attack that forcibly moves an enemy should damage or stun that enemy if knocked into a wall, or stun the other enemy if knocked into another.

I think it is already the case for bash (not sure it is communicated anywhere!), but for Telekinesis, as there is no way to avoid it, and it is a free action, it does no damage. The AoE version (that is currently bugged) will do damage, though.

[*]The Pinned status remained for a turn even after I'd killed the only enemy in range. (Edit: It does say "next turn", but this is silly. If I've killed the ONLY guy pinning my unit, it should cancel the status).
[*]As per the above, moving an enemy away with a skill should also break the Pinned status.

The pinned status should be removed indeed, but the movement points were already spent during the attempt. Imagine it as the same thing as a failed dodge in Blood Bowl. But I'll change it so that you can still spend your action to move once the enemy is removed.

[*]Is there any point to breaking items?

No, except if they block the way. I didn't want to incentive aggressive renovation!

[*]Reveal probably wants a cast range, to take an action and/or cost stamina, and a wider area.

It has a limited range actually, but I'll add a stamina cost indeed. Not sure about the action cost, as it would make scouts even weaker than they are now.

[*]Sometimes hit impact sounds don't play.

I'll investigate it. It may be tied to some combination missing (like crushing on mail or whatever).

[*]Drag-dropping on the lances screen would be nice.
[*]Highlight, or have a small portrait icon for the Zodiac characters on the lances screen, so I don't have to remember who is and isn't.

I definitely need to add both indeed.

[*]Why can't I add Zodiac champs to other lances? Surely it should only prevent me from adding more than two to the SAME lance? I presume in future we'll be able to select which lance goes on a mission?
[*]A sound effect on selecting rest, defend (if implemented), selecting characters (from the top-right menu) and Ending Turn would help give feedback these were clicked.
[*]Please outline items to be attacked, activated etc. on mouseover. Such as doors etc.
[*]As previously mentioned. A setting to disable / enable the grid, AND a keybind to revert that when held (If setting is hide, holding it shows, if setting is show (default), holding it hides).
[*]The text in the top left box could use a bit of left padding. Similar to the text in the bottom right box.

I need to add all of it to the todo list indeed...

[*]Fullscreen should lock the cursor to the monitor the game is on.

I'll investigate it.

[*]Will it be possible to pan the camera direction? (Such as, hold middle mouse to turn it around). It would be nice. If so, then a "return to default" keybind is advised to reset to the default zoom / direction.

Sadly, the perspective and hexagons make rotations impossible

[*]The Directional setting is poorly explained, maybe a pop-up image would help here? Or "previous tile touched by the cursor" for setting 2. I think setting 1 should be the default.

Right, a pop-up image would be the better way of doing it. I'll see how I can hijack the tutorial system there.

[*]attachment. ELEVEN enemies attacking me on the very first enemy turn LOL, and I'd already killed two of them. Another SEVEN came running in, the very next turn.[/list]

Haha, I think the enemy agression has been toned down a little in next build, and the difficulty settings should also help (the existing difficulty has been turned into "hard").

[Magick]

FINALLLY got around to playing this. (The reason I joined this forum over a year ago, lol!)
Looking good so far! Love the sound and visuals. Very much looking forward to this. @Galdred

Thanks a lot for the detailled feedback!

A few comments:

1. Mouse edge scrolling speed is low, but mouse button scroll speed is fast. The scroll speed setting says it applies to the mouse button speed. Shouldn't this ONLY apply to the edge speed / arrow keys? Mouse button / drag speed should be based on the speed of the mouse movement.

Drag speed is set so that the position of the cursor relative to the point you drag doesn't move.
The scroll setting should not apply to these indeed. However, they were broken, so I am not sure it is fixed in the demo yet, but it should be in the next build.

[*]Can we have a setting for inverting mouse button scroll direction, please? A little annoying that dragging down scrolls "up".

The idea was that you were bringing the "clicked point" down, but alright, I'll add this!

[*]I'm a little confused on the ranges of the attacks, especially the ranged attacks. They seem to only be able to attack within the character's own movement range? Will there be some spells that allow them to attack further? For example, in Shining Force 3 on selecting an attack, it will highlight the tiles that are in range of the selected attack (rather than the character's own movement range) in a solid colour. Some games also highlight the tiles that WOULD be in range of the attack IF the character moved in a shaded colour. Look here how it's easy to distinguish the ranges between Move and different types of attacks:

► Show Spoiler

EDIT: I see the dotted line now. Colour attack range in red outline, maybe?

Right, I need to make it clearer. Red may be a good idea. I didn't want to use it because it is the enemy move range, but it would make it easier to tell it apart from move indeed.

[*]Character selection ring should show through walls etc. Maybe make a whoosh sound or something to signify they've been clicked.

Good point, I wanted to make walls auto transparent near characters too. As for selection sounds, I'll look into it (we planned to have selection quips, but that won't be before some time).

[*]If I complete my mission goals early, let me continue and choose to End Mission later, so I can collect chests etc. Just show an icon that I can click and bring up the End Mission window again.

That is planned indeed, but it will depend on the mission: some will auto loot the dungeon (the ones where your own forces take over). In other, you'll have to loot before your allies secure the complex.

[*]As per the above, I'd expect me attacking, to attack the tile I select. NOT move and attack. I like to do those actions separately. But a "move & attack (if in range)" setting would be nice for those who like that.

Right, I'll add a settings to disable attack+move then. Note that there is a setting to choose how the movement tile is selected (either the last tile entered by mouse before the target, or depending on the cursor position in target tile).

[*]Auto select character (setting, for end action) should centre the camera on the character now active. It only does this sometimes.

It may only do so if the character selected was offscreen. I'll look into it.

[*]Does choosing to not attack and just ending a character's turn give a small defense bonus? It would be nice if so (at least for melee or those with shields). A "Defend" button can help apply this, and also end a character's "turn", when no "rest" for stamina is needed.

Actually, rest now only means "conserve the action and stop being in the "selection loop".
When you don't use your action, you DO get a defense bonus, and if it was not used (because no one attacked you), it gets converted into a rest bonus.

[*]Are there chances for critical hits, special moves or counter-attacks? (This can make the melee more interesting, sometimes).

Critical hits do happen now, but I'll phase them out, because they don't really work well with our granular armor/bypass/penetration system(as we already use the margin of success to bypass armor and increase damage). I'll introduce called shots instead, as it works better with characters not having the same armor everywhere. As for counter-attack, I wanted to add it as a skill. Something like counter attack if your opponent misses by 2 or more.

[*]A small icon besides characters that are still able to perform actions, would be nice. (I know they're blanked out in the top right bar, but still..)

There are tiny icons next to the stamina bar, but they are not super helpful. I'll try to find a better way to represent it on the character sprites.

[*]Move combat log to bottom right. Current friendly character's stats to top left, and enemy character's stats to bottom left.

Why? Isn't combat log to top left relatively standard?

[*]Does there need to be a turn timer penalty on ALL maps? Considering the character placement / support bonus, taking the time to explore and position right should be encouraged, rather than speedrunning. Maybe have this be a difficulty setting, or just for certain maps where it's normal for things to be "rushed" or to grab a bonus item. After all, the more turns one plays, the more the enemies get to move / do actions.
I ended up going from 0 to TEN enemies on me at one point in one turn. I lost two of my guys in one turn because they spawned into the room next to me, ran up and murdered them in one turn. Ridiculous.
Constant spawns should only be on certain maps. This kills it for completionist people who like to explore, break things and kill every enemy. There's no need to rush the player.

We wanted our dungeon raids to be more like fantasy commando operations: get in, complete the mission, and get out before the reinforcements start pouring in. You are supposed to be outnumbered. Also, there is no kill XP. All are mission based. But reinforcements start coming in relatively late. Most of the enemies who attack early on are groups becoming "ready" and sent to reinforce/investigate. But TB dungeon crawlers need tensions to avoid killing the pace (I still have Heroquest PTSD with the heroes waiting for the slowest every single time to breach a room, then they'd only peek and shoot the enemies with a crossbow, before camping the doorway...). But the alarm increase rate depends on the difficulty settings (already in the dev build. I'll upload it as soon as I fix what I broke with map generation).

[*]Escape should always cancel a selected action.

It's fixed in the upcoming build.

[*]It would be nice if Switch Weapon does not take an action. Archer's melee should be weak enough to compensate (unless they're special with hybrid stats).

[*]Archers shouldn't be able to use ANY range attacks if pinned. (That should be what switch weapon is for). They should ALL be able to switch to melee and do at least 1 dmg, though.
[*]Let archers shoot breakable items. It's silly but may as well cut out the middleman of weapon switching for this.

The first swap is free, the second in the same turn costs the action, but you should have little reason to do so! Archer's melee has no particular reason to be weak. They train their upper body strength a lot! Their weakness is mostly the lack of armor (and slightly inferior melee stats, but not by that much).
The plan was indeed to prevent shooting a bow in melee, but it is bugged, and the archer can target anyone not in melee. I will fix it soon.
As for breaking item with archery, no, that will trigger my autism!

[*]Telekinesis or Bash, any attack that forcibly moves an enemy should damage or stun that enemy if knocked into a wall, or stun the other enemy if knocked into another.

I think it is already the case for bash (not sure it is communicated anywhere!), but for Telekinesis, as there is no way to avoid it, and it is a free action, it does no damage. The AoE version (that is currently bugged) will do damage, though.

[*]The Pinned status remained for a turn even after I'd killed the only enemy in range. (Edit: It does say "next turn", but this is silly. If I've killed the ONLY guy pinning my unit, it should cancel the status).
[*]As per the above, moving an enemy away with a skill should also break the Pinned status.

The pinned status should be removed indeed, but the movement points were already spent during the attempt. Imagine it as the same thing as a failed dodge in Blood Bowl. But I'll change it so that you can still spend your action to move once the enemy is removed.

[*]Is there any point to breaking items?

No, except if they block the way. I didn't want to incentive aggressive renovation!

[*]Reveal probably wants a cast range, to take an action and/or cost stamina, and a wider area.

It has a limited range actually, but I'll add a stamina cost indeed. Not sure about the action cost, as it would make scouts even weaker than they are now.

[*]Sometimes hit impact sounds don't play.

I'll investigate it. It may be tied to some combination missing (like crushing on mail or whatever).

[*]Drag-dropping on the lances screen would be nice.
[*]Highlight, or have a small portrait icon for the Zodiac characters on the lances screen, so I don't have to remember who is and isn't.

I definitely need to add both indeed.

[*]Why can't I add Zodiac champs to other lances? Surely it should only prevent me from adding more than two to the SAME lance? I presume in future we'll be able to select which lance goes on a mission?
[*]A sound effect on selecting rest, defend (if implemented), selecting characters (from the top-right menu) and Ending Turn would help give feedback these were clicked.
[*]Please outline items to be attacked, activated etc. on mouseover. Such as doors etc.
[*]As previously mentioned. A setting to disable / enable the grid, AND a keybind to revert that when held (If setting is hide, holding it shows, if setting is show (default), holding it hides).
[*]The text in the top left box could use a bit of left padding. Similar to the text in the bottom right box.

I need to add all of it to the todo list indeed...

[*]Fullscreen should lock the cursor to the monitor the game is on.

I'll investigate it.

[*]Will it be possible to pan the camera direction? (Such as, hold middle mouse to turn it around). It would be nice. If so, then a "return to default" keybind is advised to reset to the default zoom / direction.

Sadly, the perspective and hexagons make rotations impossible

[*]The Directional setting is poorly explained, maybe a pop-up image would help here? Or "previous tile touched by the cursor" for setting 2. I think setting 1 should be the default.

Right, a pop-up image would be the better way of doing it. I'll see how I can hijack the tutorial system there.

[*]attachment. ELEVEN enemies attacking me on the very first enemy turn LOL, and I'd already killed two of them. Another SEVEN came running in, the very next turn.[/list]

Haha, I think the enemy agression has been toned down a little in next build, and the difficulty settings should also help (the existing difficulty has been turned into "hard").

Thanks. Happy with all that!
Archers not being able to shoot breakables is fine, as long as they can weapon switch and slash them with no penalty.
Either way if someone pins an archer and causes him to whip his sword out instead of being able to pewpew anyone at range, that's essentially "nerfing" him, so weapon switch being fully free shouldn't be unbalanced.
As to dealing with mages, it's probably fine they can continue casting up close. However maybe add a special move to just one of the unit classes, that "silences" spells (magic, not the physical moves / fire strike etc.) for a turn?


As to that last map, whew! I don't mind being outnumbered a bit and being forced to use clever positioning and strategy (and a bit of luck) to pull through, but that 18 enemies in TWO turns was a bit much, then they just kept spawning in groups of 6-8 every turn!!! There was no point grouping up and trying to play intelligently as they just kept coming.

I got right to the end of that mission of escorting the skelly, where a group of three guys spawned in from the next room and the strongest just ran up and one-hit him, failing the mission. I didn't even get the chance to react or do anything... -_-

I think on CERTAIN missions or if a certain objective calls for it (alarm triggered, run!) spawns are ok, but every mission might get a bit annoying for those wanting to explore / be completionist. It kinda kills the "strategic" / "Tactical" aspect and just made me want to just throw my guys forward without caring, due to the "rush" feeling, right from the start of each mission. They certainly need to be spaced out more at least.
If the spawns only started happening at a certain point or near the end of the mission it might be alright, but getting swamped on the first turn and then a CONSTANT barrage after is a tad much. I ended up having to bring the healer and even he couldn't keep up!

On one hand the game is telling me "Formations are important!" and on the other it wants to rush me! heh. If it has constant spawns on every single mission all the way through, (for me) it would be draining. However if that was just on CERTAIN missions, where it made contextual sense, that would be more exciting. But constant? That's just fatiguing. You can see by my **** placement in the screenshot, I'd given up on careful thinking and unit placement, as I knew I'd just get constant spawns anyway.
Totally happy to have lots of static (non-respawning) enemies in a map, otherwise, as long as I can deal with them more at pace.


Unfortunately I probably won't be able to play the next build until I get a new PC as Steam no longer works with Windows 7 for any new deployments, due to a new compression mechanism. It is looking good though, I like the style, and the sounds and music were great. I can tell it is an early build so don't rush it, spend a lot of time finishing things off and polishing, and this should be a good game.



Btw one other thing I noticed is that I had to click on the EDGE of the tiles to get it to register when selecting an attack etc, rather than on the centre. Even for non-directional ones. Presumably that just needs more polishing.

[Magick]

Another way to handle constant spawns, is to have the ability to block, cancel or delay the spawns somehow. Such as destroying a spawner or attacking something that delays them. (Destroying / disabling a teleporter or barricading a door?)

But other than that, I like the ability to feel I've "beaten" a level through tactical learning and placement. Constant enemies make it more of a "luck" factor rather than a problem solving exercise. That's why it would be nice if the constant spawns only start at a certain point, such as the latter half (running for the exit) of a mission.

That would give time for control, exploration and time to check for chests etc. Completionists like me love to have that "time" and "control" over what's happening.
That said, a few missions in Shining force introduced a "time" element (killing enemies before they killed hostages, killing bandits before they looted chests, blocking off constant enemy spawns while simultaneously fighting a boss) etc. But this was only on certain missions, and you still got a couple of turns to get "set up".

[Galdred]

Actually, most of the enemies you see are present on the map from the beginning of the mission.
The reinforcement parameters should be that enemies start appearing on turn 16 or so. Did the mission take that long? Otherwise, it is mostly enemies present on the level giving chase.
It may also be bugged in the demo build. I'll check it out.
Anyway, the reinforcement rate will be controlled by difficulty level. I'll add a custom options later. The issue is that moving through empty levels is not very engaging after all the mobile defenders have been dealt with.
As for holding formation, the idea was to have the player decide between moving slower and in formation, at a risk of facing more coordinated opponents, and reinforcements, or moving faster (and even splitting the party) to rush enemies before they are organized. I'll add a readiness malus for enemy groups that have not been activated yet.

Anyway, the artist cobbled some screenshots for his artstation with the new armors and shield, but now, I want to make a squad based spin-off:

[Magick]

The problem was on any levels I played, enemies were constantly spawning in off-screen and then on-screen attacking me in a turn or two, EVERY turn. In groups of 3-6+ each time lol. Literally no breather. I completely gave up bothering trying to position anyone or "think" much since it seemed best to just rush forward.

Great animations! That bridge battle looks awesome.

[Galdred]

The problem was on any levels I played, enemies were constantly spawning in off-screen and then on-screen attacking me in a turn or two, EVERY turn. In groups of 3-6+ each time lol. Literally no breather. I completely gave up bothering trying to position anyone or "think" much since it seemed best to just rush forward.

Great animations! That bridge battle looks awesome.

Oh, but in the prison level for instance, most opponents don't spawn. It's just that they eagerly abandon their guard post to hunt your party. The only spawning point is the teleporter close to the prison.
Unlike in most RPG, enemies don't care about whether you saw them or not. They engage as soon as they are "ready". It depends on their initial readiness level, but they become ready way too early in the demo. That will be fixed in the next build.
Indeed, the best course is just to fortify the entry room, kill the initial wave, and clear the empty dungeon before reinforcements start coming in. The only enemies that will remain are those guarding treasures and objectives (but I think their AI is bugged too in the demo).

[Galdred]

The new demo update is online. As we added most map "patterns" for level generation, there will probably be some issues left, but I think I fixed most "room without a door" problems, and the performance and general improvements were so massive we decided to push the update despite possibly broken generation.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/812910/e ... 188018849/

► Show Spoiler

Zodiac Legion major demo update for the No Time To Loot Festival
Greetings, commanders,

We’re excited to share a brand-new festival build of Zodiac Legion, featuring some of the biggest improvements yet.



Major New Features
Outdoor Areas

Battles no longer happen only in dungeons! Fight across ruined villages, forest clearings, and mountain passes (the outdoor maps had been removed when we moved to procedural generation).

Trees and natural obstacles may be easier to navigate than dungeon walls, but they make the job of archer harder as they will hinder your line of sight.

Outdoor maps create faster, more dynamic encounters.

Armor Overhaul

Every piece of armor now affects movement, stamina, and protection.

Choose between coverage, protection and encumbrance.

Helmets trade vision and stamina recovery for safety.

Faster Computations

Enemy turns are now much quicker. The game should also be more responsive during player turn.

Improved Maps

A new system creates more varied layouts with better room connections.

Special rooms like treasure vaults and guard posts are placed in more logical (and "organized") spots.


Quality of Life

Improved UI feedback and clearer combat information.

Easier navigation through loading screens and dialogs.

More responsive map generation — no more failed maps.

Difficulty slider impacting enemies fielded and reinforcements


What’s Next
We’re continuing to polish visuals and animations, expand map variety, and refine combat balance. Your feedback during the festival is crucial to help us shape the full release!


Try the demo during the No Time To Loot Festival, and tell us what you think. Note that our reworked map generation may cause some unfortunate issues, as we are still ironing the system out, but we thought the added variety and overall better "flow" was worth it.


Note that this update doesn't contain changes to the geoscape (and we don't have the UI to mix and match armor yet!). I had planned to flesh it out, but the performance and map issues were too critical, so they will be the focus of the next update.

Until we meet again.

[Acrux]

I saw there was a demo update today. How's it going on this?

I remember you were going to have to release in 2025 or risk losing your funding? What happened with that?

[Norfleet]

"room without a door" problems

WHO DARES WIN MUSHROOMS?

[Galdred]

I saw there was a demo update today. How's it going on this?

I remember you were going to have to release in 2025 or risk losing your funding? What happened with that?

Here is the update text:

► Show Spoiler

Zodiac Legion Turn based Thursday fest demo update
Major demo update with tutorial rework
Greetings, commanders,
We're back with a new festival build, and this one brings some substantial changes to the combat experience. Campaign mode is disabled in this version while we rework he strategic layer, but the tactical side has received a lot of attention.

Content changes
Tutorial Rebuilt
The tutorial has been completely rebuilt as 7 standalone topic-based challenges: movement and terrain, melee combat, ranged and magic, zones of control, flanking and advanced tactics, interactions (levers, traps, secret exits, treasure chests), and VIP extraction. Each one has a hand-crafted map, a curated party, and signposts explaining mechanics as you encounter them.
It is entirely optional and you don't have to do it in order.

Challenge Missions
We put our 3 initial hand-crafted tactical missions with pre-built parties, along with 3 randomizd ones, so you can jump straight into combat. Campaign mode will return once the strategic layer is more stable.



Combat rules changes
Archers
Archers no longer exert Zones of Control, so you can move past them without penalty. However, ranged units caught in melee can no longer shoot and must swap to a sidearm. The AI handles the weapon swap automatically. Magic is unaffected.

Weapons & Armor Balance
Armor and penetration reworked. Armour should always help now, regardless of the opponent penetration.
Success margin allocation fixed (margin was added both to damage and for bypassing armour).
Swords can now use a thrust attack against opponents.

Technical changes
Performance
Pathfinding should be roughly 80% faster as caching is more agressive and initialization greedier .
Level generation calculations have been streamlined, and should now be about 75% faster.

Enemy AI
The AI has been restructured so that all enemies now coordinate across a shared turn: ranged units shoot first as a group, then melee units move in together.
Target selection has also been fixed (they were attacking the lowest-priority target first, which... explained a lot), and they won't go around the map for a 10 turns detour to try to hit your rearmost character anymore.

Combat Feedback
Lockpicking attempts, trap disarming, and trap avoidance rolls now appear in the combat log. More floating labels were also added to explain action failure: "Exhausted" (no stamina), "No Action" (no actions left), "No Target" (artillery with nothing in range).

May the stars watch over you.

TLDR: The tutorial was split into 7 shorter bits. We added standalone missions but removed the campaign because it had many missing parts and partially implemented features.
Performances should be much better now, both during AI turns, hovering and map generation.

Our artist also added quite a few Zodiac themed portraits.

As for the funding issue, I sent them a release plan for 2026 and didn't hear from them since. I'll try to win some more time and release during the Summer.

[Magick]

I saw there was a demo update today. How's it going on this?

I remember you were going to have to release in 2025 or risk losing your funding? What happened with that?

Here is the update text:

► Show Spoiler

Zodiac Legion Turn based Thursday fest demo update
Major demo update with tutorial rework
Greetings, commanders,
We're back with a new festival build, and this one brings some substantial changes to the combat experience. Campaign mode is disabled in this version while we rework he strategic layer, but the tactical side has received a lot of attention.

Content changes
Tutorial Rebuilt
The tutorial has been completely rebuilt as 7 standalone topic-based challenges: movement and terrain, melee combat, ranged and magic, zones of control, flanking and advanced tactics, interactions (levers, traps, secret exits, treasure chests), and VIP extraction. Each one has a hand-crafted map, a curated party, and signposts explaining mechanics as you encounter them.
It is entirely optional and you don't have to do it in order.

Challenge Missions
We put our 3 initial hand-crafted tactical missions with pre-built parties, along with 3 randomizd ones, so you can jump straight into combat. Campaign mode will return once the strategic layer is more stable.



Combat rules changes
Archers
Archers no longer exert Zones of Control, so you can move past them without penalty. However, ranged units caught in melee can no longer shoot and must swap to a sidearm. The AI handles the weapon swap automatically. Magic is unaffected.

Weapons & Armor Balance
Armor and penetration reworked. Armour should always help now, regardless of the opponent penetration.
Success margin allocation fixed (margin was added both to damage and for bypassing armour).
Swords can now use a thrust attack against opponents.

Technical changes
Performance
Pathfinding should be roughly 80% faster as caching is more agressive and initialization greedier .
Level generation calculations have been streamlined, and should now be about 75% faster.

Enemy AI
The AI has been restructured so that all enemies now coordinate across a shared turn: ranged units shoot first as a group, then melee units move in together.
Target selection has also been fixed (they were attacking the lowest-priority target first, which... explained a lot), and they won't go around the map for a 10 turns detour to try to hit your rearmost character anymore.

Combat Feedback
Lockpicking attempts, trap disarming, and trap avoidance rolls now appear in the combat log. More floating labels were also added to explain action failure: "Exhausted" (no stamina), "No Action" (no actions left), "No Target" (artillery with nothing in range).

May the stars watch over you.

TLDR: The tutorial was split into 7 shorter bits. We added standalone missions but removed the campaign because it had many missing parts and partially implemented features.
Performances should be much better now, both during AI turns, hovering and map generation.

Our artist also added quite a few Zodiac themed portraits.

As for the funding issue, I sent them a release plan for 2026 and didn't hear from them since. I'll try to win some more time and release during the Summer.

Thanks mate, interesting!
Are there any particular differences or themes between the different groupings of soldiers per Zodiac?

I'll give the update a play when I can.

[Galdred]

Thanks mate, interesting!
Are there any particular differences or themes between the different groupings of soldiers per Zodiac?

I'll give the update a play when I can.

Thank you!
Each Zodiac sign will be 1 champion + his lance (squire and other helpers). Characters can get promoted to champions in another lance when a free spot opens (or early on, as you start with 0 champions).
In this case, the original sign becomes the ascending sign.

Each sign will lean more into a few archetypes than other, but it will be relatively freeform. If you really want you "spellcasters" to be clad in plate and wield a two hander, you can, but some will be more natural fits than others.

For instance, Leo will have abilities focused on dueling an opponent and intimidating the others, provided that their rank is lower than the dueled opponent.
Capricorn will be more about planning the whole mission beforehand and using his prescience to defend himself or guarantee a devasating blow against an opponent.
Virgo will be about spreading the blessings or wrath of its guardian virgin Goddesses (Athena, Artemis and Hestia), and so on.

We tried to draw both from the classic Zodiac (Greek and Babylonian), along with the modern one for the abilities.