Oreo47 2008-05-15 11:23:18 (Updated 2008-05-16 01:50:44)

The church has three special units. You will be fighting them or commanding them depending on your diplomatic profile.

Sister - Support type. Wont engage human targets. Moderate healing ability.
Priest - Commander type. Increases units effectiveness and morale vs zombies. Superior melee/ranged attack.
Witch Hunter - Assassin type. Near god-like melee ability. No ranged attack. No body armor. quick and quiet. Uses saber.

The churches only purpose is to purge the undead, and this is reflected in their units. Most of their fighting force is made up of conscripts, who will be equipped with axes/knives/chainsaws or firearms and light attack vehicles, if the church is a dominant faction.
The church sends mobs of conscripts to hunt zombies around the city, and to guard the city if the zombies are closing in.
The church is usually in charge of the last stand of a town on the verge of falling to the zombies (unless the military is there, but they're spread thin), and will pay you alot of money for aiding them.
If you hunt zombies near a town with a church in it, the church's sisters will treat your wounded. They will also help your wounded if you make a small donation of gold. They aren't as skilled as a MASH (which is VERY expensive), so wounded will take longer to recover.
Nuns and priests can be attached to squads or conscript mobs, and can use most weapons. The nuns will only attack zombies, so you only want equip them with a knife or pistol, and keep them in the back rank. The priests make the squad's morale invincible when they are on the front rank vs zombies OR raiders (warriors of sin and evil), but are vulnerable in doing so.
Witch hunters are very rare and enigmatic, and VERY difficult to recruit (you must be declared a saint by the church). They can take out any undead unit, and will only fall if hopelessly surrounded or exhausted, at which point they will detonate their suicide bomb, taking out dozens of zombies in the process.
I'm trying to decide which faction to get 'trailer ready' (both raiders and church need a couple days work on their animations). Any suggestions?

Oreo47 2008-05-16 03:50:31

I don't have a date on it at the moment, but Ill put a date in the next trailer.

Oreo47 2008-05-16 06:50:25 (Updated 2008-05-16 16:34:08)

I want to add that really bad, not just shooting from windows; but room to room fighting. If i figure out an easy system for doing that, then I so will. That way I can put in shotgun/mp5 for CQC advantage. No promises on that one, though.

Oreo47 2008-05-16 16:17:50

You can customize some units apperance depending on faction. Military units have strict dress code, but rebels and conscripts are as varied as zombies (last stand style animation on em). You can customize your characters hair, eyes, gender, retinue, vehicle, etc.
Im not sure if you will be able to customize your characters clothes; If i make it so you can only wear the black army uniform, then the characters animations will look WAY nicer... Or could do the main character last stand style, where they will look stiff, but can wear fully customizable clothing.
I think I'll experiment with things like that through the campaigns, that way AW2 will be built mostly around player feedback, which is how every game should be made.

Oreo47 2008-05-16 19:55:43

Meh, as long as there is a suggestion or comment about what one would like to see in the game, the message is good. Other messages are okay, too; they make me look popular and handsome.
The solders are %100 done, the zombies are about %70, the raiders/civilians are about %25 done. The strategy map is fully functional, and character creation/generation is done. The first campaign will be from the military perspective, again, as they are all ready to rock. hoorah.

Oreo47 2008-05-17 07:09:14

Ehh... you can set up trenches to give cover from ranged attacks (if you're defending), and razor wire to slow zombies... no tunnels though... And there is no map elevaion... If it were a Vietnam zombie game where you play as viet cong, then i would probably try to get that in there...

Oreo47 2008-05-17 15:14:16

Military
-Superior training, vehicles, and equipment
-Low in number
-5 man squads
-Mostly in charge of dealing with raiders, and evacuation of towns and citys.
-Without fuel, can't use tanks/helicopters, making them easier to take out.
-On good terms with church and most towns
-Offers best equipment and medical treatment, and can provide fire support.

Rebels
-Rely on overwhelming firepower
-Can raid and pillage towns enslaving, recruiting, selling, or killing the inhabitants, and seizing their assets (gas, gold, guns, etc).
-Buy and sell salvaged equipment
-squads of 30
-On bad terms with everyone, but can form truces with other rebel factions
-Can demand tributes from towns

Zombies
-Rely on superior numbers and snuffing enemy moral
-Very resistant to small arms fire.
-3 different types
Necro = most common type, resembles cadaver. makes up over %99 of zombies units. Soak up tons of damage when moving slowly, but can bleed out quick when they start running. Assume characteristics of whatever they eat.

Xenomorph = also referred to as 'demons' by the church and raiders. If a necro feeds on animal flesh, it gains that animals ability's, thus becoming a xeno. In most cases, this equates to slightly faster, stronger, more aggesive/perceptive zombies. In extreme cases, should the zombie have enough flesh to feast on, It can undergo a complete metamorphosis. becoming werewolf/harpie like creatures. This is VERY rare, however... anti tank... anti air... hmmm....

Psycophage = Referred to as 'witches' by the church and raiders, Psycophages are produced when a necro consumes enough human flesh. They are the only unit capable of creating zombies. Although they cannot communicate, they are psychic with other zombies, and are highly intelligent. As they resemble a healthy human, they can infiltrate towns at night, and turn people in their sleep, resulting in a 'dawn of the dead' scenario, although a witchhunter can stop this before it starts. There are less then 1 Psycophage per 100 zombies, and act as commanders for zombies. They can give zombies various attack and defense bonuses, and in extreme cases, can enable zombies to use weapons.
The churches pays VERY handsomely for the head of a witch, and the army pays VERY well for 'living' specimens.

zombies only real weakness is that after they take a town, it takes them days or weeks for them to walk to the next town, giving lots of time for preperation, although they will eat animals along the way, which can be VERY bad. It's best to ride out to meet them, which the church will often pay you for.

Towns
-each town acts like its own faction
-can accommodate other factions
-will reward you for guarding against raiders or zombies
-civilians will sometimes approach you to ask to join you, or give you optional missions.
-having church presence protects against zombies
-having army garrison protects against raiders.

There's more, but my fingers are tired.

Oreo47 2008-05-17 20:52:22

I will add grenades if/when I get room-to-room. Different zombies read above.

Oreo47 2008-05-18 07:14:08

I have most of clint mansells stuff from RFAD and LOTR OSTs, his music is good for anything dark or epic. Im limited to royalty free stuff, though, like in the audio portal.
Check out my audio portal favs; I think the song I used was 'dragons' by Edgen. Some of his stuff is pretty slow at the start, but becomes indescribably awesome 3/4 the way through, then you listen to the whole song, and it kinda tells a story, which was basically how the trailer was put together.

Oreo47 2008-05-18 15:26:19

Warhammer games are a trailer makers wetdream. I liked the 40k trailer more, but yea,
churches vs zombies will go alot like the fantasy one.
The first campaign will be played as a rogue cadre infiltrating quarantine; the outbreak is at zero-hour. The church and raiders aren't around till the second campaign, although the rogue unit is led by a witchhunter. The 2nd trailer will go alot like you said, though.

Oreo47 2008-05-19 11:26:53

There will be mission titles, complete with a briefing cut scene (in command room, bunker, abandoned house, campfire, etc). During the first fight, there will also be little credits to make it feel more movie-like.
Most missions will have boss fights, especially in the first campaign, mostly to introduce higher end units. That way when AW2 rolls out, the player will have their own unique strategy that they are free to explore.
You can attach a vehicle to a squad if they're close. You will have to be smart about it though; as you approach a town you're assaulting, you may want to have your infantry squad move through the forest, using the cover, and the tank out in the open, giving fire support, then merge them when entering the town, so that enemy sappers can't satchel the tank, and the infantry have a giant armored beast to use as mobile cover.
You can also have vehicle squads (up to 3 vehicle), with one infantry squad attached. I might increase this to two squads, but then the game really starts to chug.
I want to just drop everything and get AW2 done, but keep in mind I only get paid $1000/game. That game WISP that I made in like 10 hrs payed the same as AW2 will. So it only makes sense that I release a few campaigns first, which let's me both eat AND work on AW2.
I have a bit of work stuff to finish up, but then I'm hoping to get a campaign out every month or so.

Oreo47 2008-05-19 11:39:31

The church is actually mostly based on milita, You can have squads of 5 special units (priests, nuns, a witchhunter, etc), Or you can attach a special unit to a (up to) 30 man milita team to serve as a commander. Militias have poor morale, and make up about %90 of a towns fighting force, so attaching a priest is good if it's a desperate fight.
Militias are where you will get most of your retinue as well. When you attach a special unit to a squad, that squad accumulates experience in battle. Once they attain enough, they become basic faction units (rifleman if its a military commander, raider if its a rebel commanding, priest/sister if its church).
When you add new militia men, the team loses exp. The less characters in a team, the faster they gain experience. So what will happen is you have a witch hunter leading a team of militia men, after a few battles, they will be reduced to only 5 or so, by then, they have enough experience to be turned in to priests. They would be promoted to rifle men if you had attached a soldier, etc.

Mercenaries can be hired for a large down payment in gold. You have to pay upkeep on all your retenue, so if you can afford mercs, they are the way to go. You are free to equip them, but they come with their own gun (militia men don't).

When your doing missions for factions, they will often give you temporary command of some of their assets. If they are low on troops and need to support some of their men, the might give you command of a helicopter for that mission. That would mean that for that particular mission, you could only bring what fits in the helicopter. If that chopper got shot down, you would then be presented the option of launching a rescue mission.

There aren't any Scavengers... raiders are pretty much that though; they mostly equip them selves with fallen solders rifles, pistols, and salvage vehicles. They also mount tank machine guns in trucks, which are great for cutting swaths through infantry formations for a quick mechanized escape.

Oreo47 2008-05-19 20:04:57

Well, the game will let you use strategy, not just tactics like AW1. So if you know you are in for a big fight, you can avoid the battle until you are strong enough. and retreating won't mean game over (unless its a last stand situation). I might still add easy/hard modes though...

Oreo47 2008-05-20 03:28:27

Your character is a 'volunteer' that the witchhunter upstarted to a position of command. I wont give away the story, but you do get to create your character.

Oreo47 2008-05-20 03:33:26

The cadre is made up of officers and NCM's whose family's are in the quarantine. At first it appeared to be a mass hysteria; any outsiders were attacked on sight. The town was sealed off (power, phone, radio jamming, etc) for a month, and no information was released, even to soldiers.
The first mission is zero hour, you command police riot teams trying to contain the situation, and you lose no matter what. The second mission (a month later) you have to infiltrate quarantine as a rogue military single squad on foot, the third mission you encounter...

Oreo47 2008-05-20 16:30:35

AW2 better half of a year, fist campaign <2 month

Oreo47 2008-05-20 20:44:25 (Updated 2008-05-21 00:42:09)

I might add airplanes, but helicopters are the only air support you get at the moment. Some greater xenos that have fed on birds or bats will be able to fly and attack low flying helicopters (don't worry, they don't magically fly or anything, they look like bat demon things).
Psycophages (witches) zombify humans (drains their soul/mind/essence). Once a person is drained, they are catatonic for a few days, then rise and rot as the zombies you know and love. If a group of zombies overpowers a smaller squad of humans by more then 2-1, then the zombies will restrain the humans so that the witch may feed on them (this is one of the ways the zombies can grow their ranks). If no witch is attached, then it's chow time for the zombies.
There will be propaganda through out, and it will change depending on who is in charge; There will be anti-rebel posers if the military is there, anti-zombie preachers if church, graffiti and mayhem if rebels, etc.
I want to add mounts (horses), as that would give you a fast attack\shock unit option if you are completely out of gas, but im not sure the best way to animate that, so that ones in the maybe pile. Having horses would mean paladins and knights for the church... that would be a LOTR kind of epic...

Oreo47 2008-05-21 05:25:49

In the 2nd campaign you will be using a 'mob' faction, and will command squads of 30.

You can have 3 vehicles in a cavalry unit. There are 3 different machine guns:

Light - 5.56 mm round. Excellent suppression, high fire rate, low penetration, low damage. (body armor stops this round %90 of the time)

Medium - 7.62 mm round. Good suppression, high fire rate, medium penetration, medium damage. (can take out light vehicles)

Heavy - 50 cal round. Medium suppression, medium fire rate, very high penetration, very high damage. (can take medium tanks / APCs)

1 browning machine guns will mow down most units you will encounter, 3 of em going at once can take out APC's and medium battle tanks. If you dont have machine guns, but you still need fast attack, you can put 6 infantry into each truck, who can be equipped with rifles and RPGs. Any army with a bit of gas can do this if they are in a town. You NEED your own gas; most vehicles in towns have had the gas siphoned.