The Feud: Wild West Tactics
Deep in the Mines!
Some of the things we’ve been dealing with are edge cases on abilities. Basically, what happens in very specific circumstances when you combine abilities or use them in unexpected ways. An example would be: “Let’s say someone is stabbing someone to death and you want to casually roll up and give them some medical attention…” how does the game deal with that? IOther items include adding a lot of sound effects to round out the baseline set of stuff and some effects touch ups to help some of the abilities not only more exciting but clear. This goes together with all the normal balance issues and other bugs. Feud turned out to be a large game.
As you might expect we won’t be out in 2018. Red Dead Redemption 2 is right around the corner and while we are a very different sort of western, we didn’t want to ship into their window or the vast number of other titles being released around Christmas. Our hope is, providing testing goes well, an early 2019 release.
As a final note this week. We’ll be actively updating everyone here more often and beginning to be present on other media areas like Facebook and Twitter. Being an extremely small team means sometimes…let’s not kid ourselves and just say most times, we end up focusing on the game over the external areas. Everyone is dedicated to giving Feud’s current fans and future ones a good time and something worth waiting for. In the weeks ahead we’ll be sharing more screens, videos, behind the scenes excerpts and plans for Feud post launch. Yes, there are actually some exciting plans for what happens after the game is out.
Until next week.
The Feud Team
About taking our time and Character Creation
Early on, we really wanted to do a character create, so you could customize Hired Guns. It got placed aside as, at the time, it was out of scope. As we’ve progressed and cleaned up the game we’ve also looked to improve it and sometimes that involves adding frequently requested features.
As we were reviewing the hired guns and touching up some issues with them we took a look at really how much work it was to allow you to configure them...and as a result, you can now visually configure your Hired Guns. We’re glad that we were able to get some customization in. It required a couple changes to the system and a very little bit of new art.
Along with the hired gun customizer we’ve also touched up the levels giving them a round of visual polish and putting in more cover where needed in a few.
As many have noted here, we’re a tiny team. It’s a matter of us QAing it all on our own and tweaking that takes time. We’re done with adding new levels or major characters or anything like that. It’s always frustrating when you want something to release and it’s no less frustrating from our end. I hope when we do put it out, everyone finds it worth the wait and most importantly has fun.
Still Rustlin on the Range
We’re still busy on Saga mode pulling bugs out and touching up gameplay as needed. A few recent additions were the ability to retreat from a fight (not without consequences), changes to starting posses, some AI adjustments, enhanced UI for boss/tough enemies, fixing mysterious vanishing posses, cleaning up some UI inconsistencies, tweaking cover areas in some infrequently seen maps, and balancing loot drops.
While Story mode is pretty well locked down we have done visual improvements. The shot here is of a completely revamped chapter select for the McCoys. Every story campaign now has a 3D scene vs. the previous “functional yet not inspiring” 2D setup. The same goes for the prologues and endings on each story.
Towns, Territories, Larger World Maps and More
It’s has been ages since a proper update. To get the bad news out of the way. Since everyone has been asking, we’ll be pushing into 2018. That said, onward to the good parts.
We’ve been very busy adding features to and polishing Western Saga mode. There is a new territory system where you’ll get a little extra help from the locals if you’re fighting on your home turf or face a little extra opposition from the enemy if you are on theirs. There are other benefits and penalties for being in friendly and enemy territory.
One of the other massive changes was increasing the world map around 5x. It’s a much bigger space to explore and you can find yourself in trouble far from home which makes decisions about what kinds of actions to take a little more important. Along with this came the ability for Hired Guns to travel out to your groups so you can receive re-enforcements in the wild.
Another huge addition was the town system. Towns now have specific benefits you can use which are randomly generated for each game. You may find a valuable town that has Crooked Judges, a Brothel, a Saloon filled with rumors or a Shop ready to sell you valuable items. This comes hand in hand with town names showing up on the map for added flavor and clarity.
As mentioned before briefly we added quirks, perks and names for all the Mines, Mills and Hog Farms that generate resources. It makes the world feel more alive and strategies for which resources give the most benefits change the way you think about what is important.
One of the other most effective new features is being able to tell where enemy groups are headed if they are in visual range. It allows you to make better decisions and ups the desirability for visual range research or different horses.
As we’ve said before Feud is a big game with a small team. We are officially on the final stretch, but the last 5%-10% of a game is always the hardest. Thanks for your patience and interest.
Feud has been a labor of love for everyone on the team. We’ve treated it differently than any game we’ve ever done. While we’ve taken feedback and comments with enthusiasm, we’ve been free from other “overlords” for the first time and it has allowed us to make something amazing that we are excited to share. We have some other good, big announcements concerning Feud that will happen within the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.
Swamps and Other Interesting Places
One of the interesting aspects of Feud is the locations. Since most the game is based in the Appalachian area there is a lot more freedom to go to places that might not show up in traditional games based on the old west. The shot here is from one of the recently touched up swamp locations. Other places include everything from mountains to deep woods and caves. Along with purely natural locations, you’ll also find many with manmade remnants or even an active population. You could have a shootout in an old graveyard, an abandoned church in the middle of nowhere or be surprised to find a camp of traders are actually bandits out for your blood. There are tons of maps and scenarios that can happen.
The Doctor is In
Doc Travis is one of our more interesting characters. You might assume he’s a healer and you’d be right. However, Doc has a darker side and you can pick talents and configure him as a melee killer who uses his scalpel and toxins to give his enemies a fatal prescription. It’s your choice about how you want to play Doc.
