Hi everyone!
To safely traverse the desert you’ll have to keep your eye on several resources. Here we’ll tell you about them.
Health - represents your character’s ability to survive fights and harsh environments. Once a crewmember drops to 0 health, they can no longer participate in battles or events. If everything goes badly and the whole team is at zero, you immediately lose the game. The only way to restore health in Ragtag Crew is resting, so try not to get hurt.
Rations - are used during resting and travelling. Every time you move to a new location, you have to spend 1 ration. If you want to recover some health you’ll have to spend even more. Carrying enough food is crucial, but you can only fit that much in your bags. Make sure to restock in settlements and forage whenever possible.
Money - money alone can’t help your survival, but it can buy everything that will help: food, equipment and training. The main way of acquiring money is looting ruins, but you can also sell you equipment or find opportunities to earn some cash on the road.
Morale - crewmembers are tough, but they aren’t made of steel. If your character’s morale is high, they will perform better in combat. If they’re demoralized, don’t expect them to show their best during fights. The may even throw an occasional tantrum! To keep spirits high try to take character preferences into account during events. Each team member has their own moral code and way of thinking, so keep that in mind.
Hi, everyone!
You’ll have to carefully plan your journey if you ever want to get to the end of it. Here are the places you’ll see on your way to the big prize:
Desert - the most common location, that will test your skills and combat strategy. At times you’ll get lucky and get something useful there. At times you’ll be thankful you went through in one piece.
Ruins - remains of the old civilization. Here you’ll find ancient technology alongside danger. Scavenging these places is your main way of getting money and equipment, but your sweat and blood may be the cost.
Deadly Ruins - especially dangerous ruins. Once you get there, prepare to face the toughest challenges and fight the strongest enemies. Pull the victory and you’ll get generous rewards.
Deathtrap - a forsaken place, where you won’t find anything valuable, only hardship and perils. Try to avoid it, if possible.
Settlement - a small island of civilization. Spend your hard earned money on rations and equipment.
Shelter - a safe resting place. Here you can recover without worrying about food or enemies.
Oasis - hunting grounds, where you can forage and refill your supplies.
Travelers Camp - a place, where survival experts gather. Here you can improve your skills if you have enough cash.
Unknown - territory, waiting to be explored. It can be any location of the above, and the only way to find out is to visit the place.
Calculate risks, keep track of your resources and plan your journey accordingly. And remember to stay alert in the desert!
Today we present you yet another unpleasant inhabitant of the deserts, the evasive subterranean worm.
This creature will hunt you down from the underground, striking the unaware prey with its spikes.
When it emerges, you can try to attack it, but beware: whenever it gets damaged, it will burrow under the ground, becoming completely immune to any further harm till the end of the turn.
To overcome this annoying ability, you can try to hit it with your strongest attack each turn. Alternatively, just attack with one crewmember and buff her with the others.
Desert is filled with scary beasts, but you should never forget about the most dangerous game - man. Today we present you a new enemy - Scavenger Technician.
Scavengers aren't looking for trouble, but cross their way and you'll be in the world of pain. A technician is no exception: he has a fine gun, though his strongest ability is repurposing ancient robots.
Like some other powerful moves, robot activation takes several turns. You can recognize that by a small clock icon near the planned action.
If scavenger isn't killed or interrupted during the preparation turn, his little toy is released.
Use this information to your advantage and remember to stay alert in the desert.
Ragtag Crew battles are harsh and unforgiving. Once your character gets hurt, there is a little to no way to heal him during the combat. And even when the dust settles down and the fight is over, you’ll have to spend precious resources to patch your heroes.
What does it mean for the player?
First, even the easiest fight should be taken seriously: maybe your opponents aren’t strong enough to kill you, but each point of damage they do will lower your chances in the upcoming battles. Second, there is no way to stall the encounter for the purpose of using healing abilities over and over.
When it’s hard to get rid of the wounds, you should instead try to prevent taking damage at all. There is a variety of ways to do that and the most common one is using shields.
Shields are shown at the left side of HP bar and work as temporary hit points until the end of the battle.
When a creature takes damage, shields will be first to take the hit. If you don’t have enough of them, the rest will be subtracted from your HP as normal.
The main drawback of using shields is that they require you to be proactive. You have to put them in the right place before enemy strikes.
Fortunately, in Ragtag Crew you always know your foes’ plans for the turn. And if that’s not enough, there are numerous ways to manipulate your opponent into attacking the target you’ve chosen.
Use this knowledge to keep your team alive and stay alert in the desert!
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Devlog: The Screetcher
Hi, everyone!
Today we’re going to introduce you to a new enemy you’ll see in the game. It is one of the horrible desert beasts called The Screether.
The Screetcher
While the screetcher is not the toughest opponent, it sure can scare the crew with its terrifying shrieks. If you ever get hit by this ability, all your characters will temporary lose some Ability Power.
“Terrifying Shriek” ability
Try to kill it quickly, or your the battle will turn into a slog in no time.
Goodbye everyone and remember to stay alert in the desert!
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Devlog: AI in Ragtag Crew
Hi there! This is a blog about Ragtag Crew, a new game by Hardlane Studio.
Here we are going to cover our thoughts on designing the game and show bits and pieces of the development process. Let’s start with AI actions.
Ragtag Crew has a turn-based combat system with a twist: player always knows what enemies will do on their turn.
Sniper wants to attack the bearded tribesman fodamage.
Robot plans to power up and get a whooping +4 damage to its attacks.
Sniper is going to attack the tribesman, while robot is boosting its damage. Knowing enemy actions, player can adjust his tactics to get the most out of the turn.
Can tribesman survive snipers attack? Will I have enough time to destroy the robot before it puts this bonus damage to use? Should I focus on disrupting enemy plans or just go for the perfect ability combination?
It may seem, the game loses its depth, if enemy actions are revealed from the start. We don’t think it will be the case. Knowing players see every move AI makes, we can introduce more powerful foes and abilities, that force you to play around them.
Smoke Bomb - All heroes elimination abilities get -50 to accuracy until the end of the turn.
Every battle will be unique: you’ll get different enemies to deal with and each enemy will require a specific approach. Carefully plan your actions, ruin your opponent’s plans and you will prevail!
