Quad is an indie game being developed by Worthless Bums. It is currently in Open Alpha and features: -2d retro-styled art and turn based action. -Procedurally Generated Levels and Items. -A squad of combatants fighting for their lives in monster filled dungeons. -Use your squad to cover defensive positions or funnel enemies into chokepoints to blow them up.
Please remember that this is only the Alpha stage, and many things may change. The focus of this Alpha cycle is to implement core game mechanic and fix any major bugs. The following is a non-exhaustive list of currently implemented (though not guaranteed as bug-free) features:- Turn/Squad based gameplay.- Neither squad members nor monsters may move or attack diagonally. The exception is Area-of-Effect (aoe) attacks that can hit every adjacent tile.- Accessing the Squad Information Screen (default keybind is "I") gives you an overview of each Squad Member's health, action points, stats, skills, weapon information, and the squad's inventory.- Left clicking on an inventory item uses that item. Right clicking will drop the item.- Weapons have three numbers to their right separated by slashes. In order from left to right they indicate the weapon's Damage, Range (in tiles), and Accuracy (in hit percentage).- Moving into a monster will auto-melee it.- All squad members may fire through each other.- Moving into another Squad member can swap their positions if both have enough action points.- The Grenadier's aoe attack can damage friendlies. The Grenadier's aoe attack can only kill a target on the tile initially hit. All adjacent targets can only be reduced to 1 hp by the collateral damage.- Moving into a destructible tile will destroy the tile but will not move you on top of it.- Randomized dungeons/weapons/squad member names.- Game auto-saves when the squad descends stairs. Squad death results in save game deletion. Only one save at a time. Creating a new game and descending stairs will overwrite any previously saved game.- All squad members have permadeath.- Firing involves readying your weapon (default keybind "Z") then indicating direction of fire. You can unready your weapon with the same ready weapon keybind.- You can cycle through all live squad members (default keybind "TAB") regardless of their available action points.- There is a portait outline and a character indicator animation to inform the player of the currently active squad member.- Your squad can enter formations that grant bonuses (currently there is only formation one - the Square). Activating a squad member in a Square formation will trigger an animation and sound effect to inform you that his/her defenses are boosted while in Square formation.Non-exhaustive list of features intended to be implemented during Alpha:- Contextual popups when a character walks over something/moves near an object of interest.- Better inventory system that tells the player what an item does.- Keyboard-only support (main menu/inventory use won't require a mouse).- Actual character leveling system. Currently each Squad member tracks kills, experience, and levels, but they do nothing.- Boss encounters in manually created levels.- More tilesets and accompanying monsters with different procedurally generated dungeons.- Lootable chests/boss corpses with randomized armor and weapons.- Explosives using the Demolitions skill that can clear paths and close up monster holes.- Ability to recruit squad members.- Town(s) with the ability to go to different dungeons and zones.- More squad formations.- More squad member actions such as defend, suppression fire, and throw grenade.- Squad Member callsigns grant bonuses. Callsigns will be unique within the squad.- Squad Member armor and weapon art will be separated to make visual combinations of equipment for the avatars.- Gender will play a role in combat (e.g. certain monsters might prioritize targets based on gender).- Melee knockback effects.- Elemental damage effects.- Squad combat combos.Known Bugs (or Features) in v0.1a:- Monsters can spawn on top of each other; Bloats can unburrow on top of each other.- Sometimes firing does not path correctly. You can identify this if a squad member fires at a monster within range and the combat log says you have fired, but no miss or hit event is indicated.- On some computers the Video Options Dialog will detect an incorrect game resolution.- Video Options will save fullscreen selection, but will not launch the game in fullscreen.- The game was designed for a minimum of 800x600 resolution. You may run in a lower resolution, but you will probably see some text issues such as overlap and tearing.- The current character indicator can sometimes fail to auto target the next available squad member when the current member dies and the turn ends. The indicator will resync properly upon the next member action.- Items can spawn on top of other items on the same tile.
v0.2aNew Features————————————————-Implemented basic tutorial overlay (default keybind ‘T’).Implemented fire control target indicators.Implemented inventory tooltips.Added f1, f2, f3, f4 keybinds for selecting the individual squad members directly.Added a Continue button to the main menu.New and Load main menu buttons now prompt player if a game is in progress.Implemented new tileset.Added new dungeon generation type, “Cavern”.————————————————-Bug Fixes————————————————-Fixed squad member selection crash if only the Leader and Support were alive.Fixed Load Game function triggering when there is no load state.Fixed weapon ready action persisting to next squad member if manually selected.Fixed weapon data not propogating to Squad Information Screen on load game.Fixed default keybindings not reverting properly.————————————————-Notes————————————————-If keybinds show up blank in the options dialog when you install v0.2a over v0.1a, just hit the button to revert to default settings – that should resolve the issue.v0.3aNew Features————————————————-- Partial Fog of War with line-of-sight implemented.- Monsters can go dormant with no nearby stimuli.- Enemies will now prioritize squad members based on line-of-sight instead of proximity.- Added floating combat damage numbers.- Added treasure chests with randomly spawned weapon loot inside.- Monsters now slide into position when moving.- Unsmashable walls now have a 25% chance of being smashed.- Added scaling number of monster spawns based on dungeon level.- Added new monster types, “Overlord”, “Frost Troll”, “Grinch”.- Made only certain type of monsters appear in certain dungeon types.- Added armor ratings for monsters.- Removed burrowing/unburrowing – not fun.- Separated Armor and Weapon sprites on squad members’ avatars.- Added randomly generated weapon sprites for squad members.- Added partially opaque back panels to squad member information and scrolling event text.- Added new background music for different dungeon types.- New tileset for water dungeon.- New stairs image added.- Added weapon stat labels in the Squad Information Window.- Added level up animation and sound effect.- Background music is dependent on dungeon type.- Monster spawning holes have chance to appear/spawn monsters reduced.- Numerous monster AI optimizations so end turn executes faster.————————————————-Bug Fixes————————————————-- New/Load game now clears the event log.- Monsters will no longer spawn on squad members or on other monsters.- Refactored death handling; should have fixed crashing issue.- Treasure chests will no longer generate loot for dead squad members.- Fixed bug where spawning holes could fail to spawn a monster of the correct type.v0.4aNew Features————————————————-- Implemented Overworld map.- Added Forgotten Ruins, Castle Sun Gleam, Volcano Lair, and Ice Fortress dungeons.- Added unique music for each dungeon type.- Implemented health indicators for monsters.- Added camera movements and a fadeout screen for descending stairs.- Stairs have a random chance to lead to the Overworld. You may chose to continue the dungeon.- Added Leader class Cohort Armor, Scout class Lobster Armor, Grenadier class Frog Armor, and Support class Legion Armor.- Added new Grass tileset.- Added new Crumbling Wall/Vine tileset.- Squad avatars in readouts and squad information window now reflect current equipped gear.- Stripped most unused assets.————————————————-Bug Fixes————————————————-- Fixed fog of war cover not updating properly during load game.- Updates fog of war properly after smashing down all types of walls.- Fixed Support weapons not generating over full range of sprites.- Fixed Leader name overwriting Scout name during stair descent.- Fixed inventory dupe bug involving loading save games.- Fixed bug where squad inventory did not persist properly with an empty inventory.- Fixed bug where spamming end turn key could cause desynchronization with character indicator.- Fixed bug where the save state preview on he main menu had the Support character holding the Scout weapon.v0.5aNew Features————————————————-- Added new Squad Powers Bash and Radar.- Added color coded event log messages.- Forced text reflow for scrolling event log.- Forgotten Ruins now have smaller generated dungeon maps.- Monsters can sleep, allowing the squad to ambush or sneak around them.- Monsters awoken from sleep will awake nearby monsters.- Monsters can have multiple Action Points to draw on per turn.- Fire Elementals can throw fireballs again (damage has been scaled down).- Winged Raptors now have more action points and can gain bursts of speed near their targets.- Frost Trolls can now power up and charge nearby squad members.- Armor names generate properly instead of using weapon names.- The event log now informs the player when the turn has been auto-ended.————————————————-Bug Fixes————————————————-- Fixed squad death sometimes triggering when squad was still alive.- Fixed character level being saved as 1 when it is actually 2.- Squad members can now properly fire over stairs.- Firing at monsters wakes them up, even if the character misses.- Monster bashing can no longer knock squad members onto obstacles.- Fixed bug with being able to descend stairs on the main menu.- Miscellaneous bug fixes involving bashing objects onto other objects.
————————————————-New Features————————————————-- Added a half second delay between each Action Point spent during the monsters’ turns so the player can more easily see what they are doing.- Added Squad Follow/Solo Mode so just one squad member can lead the squad.- Squad members can auto-fire in follow mod.- Added support for Squad Follow mode with less than four members alive.- Added minimap.- Added (better) widescreen support with black bars to maintain aspect ratio.- Added camera shake when a squad member gets damaged.- Updated monster health bar images to avoid render issues at higher display resolutions.- Updated stairs graphic.- Added Imp monster type.- Added temporary fog uncover when initiating fire controls.- Leader class only requires 1 AP to perform a fire action.- Increased Scout weapons’ base range randomizer from 2-4 to 4-6.- Grenadier has chance to destroy destructible terrain with aoe attack.————————————————-Bug Fixes————————————————-- Fixed bug with end turn sound effect being played each time a monster used an action point. This allowed the player to know how many action points the fastest monster on the map had.- Fixed the Tutorial Toggle key not always accepting custom keybinds correctly.- Fixed bug with squad follow mode breaking seemingly at random.- Fixed Squad Follow Mode to be in lockstep with active character movements.- Fixed squad members’ fields of view being skewed slightly east and south.
I promised to give a high level overview of the direction I'm taking Quad. So here it is in amazing bullet list form:*Four distinct classes, one of each type in a full squad. -Leader is focused on low damage, low cost shots and debuffing. -Scout is focused on shooting through targets and dealing more damage at range. -Grenadier has an aoe attack by default and can destroy terrain with it. -Support is focused on high rate of fire and damage and deals more damage close up. -Each class will have its own unique talent tree with 5-7 active talents (no passives).*Overworld map with a main village and four different dungeons.*Each dungeon has its own unique tileset, music, monsters, and procedural algorithm for dungeon generation.*Each monster will have a unique graphic, unique ability, randomized stats, and the ability to use weapons.*Genetic algorithm to make monsters stronger/adapt to your squad tactics and gear as you kill off their brethren.*Primary gameplay focus is on positioning and strategic use of active abilities.*Secondary gameplay focus is on resource management such as ammunition and items.*Gameplay difficulty scales with better pathfinding, monster communication, and other AI promotions.*Environmental effects - destructible terrain, throwable bombs, steam vents, lava flooding, and more.
New Features-------------------------------------------------Added new Inventory Tab which merged with the old Squad Information Screen (opens with old default keybind, “I”).Added new monster, Demon Marine. Attacks at close range with a flame shotgun.Added new monster, Mummy. Slow but evasive and its touch can paralyze.Added new monster, Blackguard. Melee attacks reduce armor rating permanently.Winged Raptors now hiss to indicate a Burst of Speed.Scout firing sound effect is beefier.Active Character Indicator should no longer lag behind when moving squad around.Added camera track speed to options menu.Made fog of war/field of view shared across the entire squad.Weapons with "Inferno" in their names can set enemies on fire.Fog of War works appropriately with new Environment Effects.Added scaling effect to squad member movement.Added fade out fog of war effect.Added doors.Added barrels.Monsters can path through environments or destroy them to clear a path (like smash barrels).Implemented "classical" Fog of War.Because of classic Fog of War stairs are now placed such that the squad can reach them without destroying any terrain.Animated fire path controls.Delayed fire path targeting.Doors in dungeons can generate in series (double/triple doors).Chance to have fleeing critters on uncovered tiles.Added skeleton piles to some dungeno types. Stepping on them makes noise and can wake up nearby monsters.The squad gains experience for spotting monsters and stairs.-------------------------------------------------Bug Fixes-------------------------------------------------Fixed two end turn messages appearing when player manually ends turn.Fixed infinite experience from scope spotting monsters.Fixed squad members growing without check with rapid actions/movement.
