The Avid & Apathy (Development Thread)
ABJECT_SELF
Member Posts: 24
So I used to have a thread/dev blog about this over at neverwintervault.org until they moved their official forums. Now that I'm making more headway into the mod, I thought I'd shift the discussion over here.
The Avid & Apathy is a singleplayer modern-fantasy module that acts as a follow-up to July Anarchy Prologue (for those who were unfortunate enough to play that wreck), though no experience with the previous module is necessary to understand the story. The gameplay focuses on the concept of building a "rock band" of fighters and taking them on combat missions around the world while hunting down a powerful rogue mage, which quickly leads to a quest of self-discovery for the main character.
Currently the first chapter is playable as an early-alpha build, meaning the plot is not yet complete and a number of features have not yet been implemented, but each update has been a big leap in terms of added gameplay. The story itself most likely won't be completed until all the gameplay mechanics have been ironed out, but there's still a good 2-4 hours of gameplay to be had before you hit the story wall.
The next story segment, which may not be ready for some time, will most likely take place in Brazil and reintroduce a few characters from Prologue.
What will most likely be in the next update is the mechanic I've been dying to see in action since development began, which are Sponsorships. This means that once you attract enough attention, a corporate sponsor will be willing to provide you money, weapons and Respect provided you continue to meet their criteria. Satisfy a sponsor enough, and they'll release a signature weapon with your name on it, which you also get for free. Weapons and Hideout upgrades are notoriously expensive in this game, so having a few Sponsors goes a long way to giving you the advantage you need to survive tougher missions, but signing with them also means you need to follow their rules and avoid using their competitor's weapons.
The process for signing with a sponsor goes beyond a simple "yes" or "no". You'll actually be taken to the company's offices to negotiate a contract, where charismatic characters can try to haggle a better deal out of the sponsor. Each sponsor has a completely unique office that tells you a lot about the company you're about to sign with.
Why the effort? Sponsorships are where a lot of the "commercialized warfare" satire comes into play, and also ties together many of the other game mechanics such as Respect. They give the player a more immediate goal to work towards as they slowly build up their finances to acquire better equipment and improve the Hideout.
I hope to have this all working sometime in early May, depending on how finals go.
The Avid & Apathy is a singleplayer modern-fantasy module that acts as a follow-up to July Anarchy Prologue (for those who were unfortunate enough to play that wreck), though no experience with the previous module is necessary to understand the story. The gameplay focuses on the concept of building a "rock band" of fighters and taking them on combat missions around the world while hunting down a powerful rogue mage, which quickly leads to a quest of self-discovery for the main character.
Currently the first chapter is playable as an early-alpha build, meaning the plot is not yet complete and a number of features have not yet been implemented, but each update has been a big leap in terms of added gameplay. The story itself most likely won't be completed until all the gameplay mechanics have been ironed out, but there's still a good 2-4 hours of gameplay to be had before you hit the story wall.
The next story segment, which may not be ready for some time, will most likely take place in Brazil and reintroduce a few characters from Prologue.
What will most likely be in the next update is the mechanic I've been dying to see in action since development began, which are Sponsorships. This means that once you attract enough attention, a corporate sponsor will be willing to provide you money, weapons and Respect provided you continue to meet their criteria. Satisfy a sponsor enough, and they'll release a signature weapon with your name on it, which you also get for free. Weapons and Hideout upgrades are notoriously expensive in this game, so having a few Sponsors goes a long way to giving you the advantage you need to survive tougher missions, but signing with them also means you need to follow their rules and avoid using their competitor's weapons.
The process for signing with a sponsor goes beyond a simple "yes" or "no". You'll actually be taken to the company's offices to negotiate a contract, where charismatic characters can try to haggle a better deal out of the sponsor. Each sponsor has a completely unique office that tells you a lot about the company you're about to sign with.
Why the effort? Sponsorships are where a lot of the "commercialized warfare" satire comes into play, and also ties together many of the other game mechanics such as Respect. They give the player a more immediate goal to work towards as they slowly build up their finances to acquire better equipment and improve the Hideout.
I hope to have this all working sometime in early May, depending on how finals go.
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