AGP::Epica is a co-operative tactical RPG set in a dystopian science fiction future. Are you ready?
Read More
15
backers
$640
pledged of $200,000 goal
0
seconds to go
AGP::Epica is a co-operative tactical RPG set in a dystopian science fiction future. Are you ready?
About this project
AGP::Epica an Open World Tactical RPG currently in development for PC & Linux using the Unreal 4 Engine.
Please Help Support This Project On Steam Greenlight By Voting For It Here!
Co-operative Tactical Action Team up with 64 player co-operative combat ranging from Melee to Capital Ship Battles.
Gear Up Employ over 200 skills and 5 weapons per character to face the merciless world before you.
Rich Crafting & Economy Build weapons,vehicles and armor based on a diverse crafting system using 3D Printers.
Lethal Combat No hit points, no levels, only skills and death.; be flawless in your actions as one wrong move could mean the end.
Multiple Open Worlds Explore planets, moons and astroids, each their own, huge open world.
Capital Bridge Simulation Pilot & outfit massive capital ships and utilize them as a base of operation for your clan
Community Orientation Assets designed by the community for this project are done so using a non-exclusive license to help the indie gaming community grow. Extended Alpha & Beta phases to gather as much gameplay feedback as possible
Free To Play Never pay to win. Long term development cycle made possible by income generated by extra inventory space and cosmetic enhancements.
Development Strategy
This project uses a perpetual development strategy, meaning that several years have been slated towards alpha and beta testing while feedback and artistic assets are gathered from the community. Several prototypes have been completed and the first series of closed alpha tests is nearing completion having successfully tested core gameplay systems, several missions, a variety of weapons and skills from the Common and Assault Skill Trees.
In order to complete the next phase of development this game requires a significant volume of assets in the form of vehicles, spaceships, weapons, a cuztomizable modular pawn *, clothing and armor for the modular pawn,a customizable head** and associated assets, level props, animations, voice acting and music.
While several resources currently exist, such as the Unreal Marketplace, many custom assets which are needed are not currently available. Their development will benefit not only this game, but other games being developed in the community as they are awesome things to have.
So here's my plan: Reach out to the gaming & development community for these assets with the money raised, acquire the assets with a non-exclusive license and encourage the artists to also put the them up for sale on the Unreal Marketplace (or wherever else they feel like), allowing them to have an initial burst of money and opening up a longer stream of income while providing much needed, high quality assets to the development community.
Also with the community input throughout the alpha and beta and taking the time to hone the game will result in a much better game as other games using this model have proven, instead of one that's rushed out the doors trying to meet a deadline.
...I hope you join me on this journey.
~Trey
Creative Director
AGP Studios
* A modular pawn allows players to equip specific pieces of clothing to a particular slot such as gloves, boots, body armor, helmet, cape, dress, etc.
**A customizable head allows players to change facial features with slider bars, change hair, eye and skin color and add or remove scars, tattoos, jewelery, etc.
Gameplay
Players start the game as soldiers who survived a transport ship disaster in deep space. They awake from cryosleep to find themselves on a distant, barren world inhabited by Raiders and Gun Merchants in a failed attempt to sell them on the Black Market as slaves. After being freed they're on their own and must fight to survive, create their own player faction, build capital ships and establish themselves in the system.
Flow Based Gaming
Epica is built around the player experience being a co-operative, continuous experience free of interruptions. This allows players to utilize more of their cognitive functions towards overcoming the tactical challenges which the game presents and less unnecessary interruptions such as clearing out inventory or figuring out which quest everyone in your group is on.
Dynamic Missions
Engage in missions with scaling difficulty the longer you play them.
Each mission area starts off easily and gradually progresses towards an increasing difficulty which each successfully completed objective. At any time the players may vote to end the current mission and collect the collective rewards or progress onward towards a higher difficulty level with more and rarer rewards. At any time other players, regardless of their status in the universe, may assist you in your quests and be equally rewarded.
Loot Brokerage
Full inventories are the bane of any multiplayer game. Either a player must stop and drop an something, go back to town or miss out on a valuable, potentially rare item. This is disruptive to their gameplay experience and to others. In order to bypass this all quest objective rewards are held by a loot broker. This becomes a collective pot which can be affected by the dynamic missions, for example a completing a mission perfectly may double the existing hoard or failing the mission will empty it.
Classless Character Progression
As players advance through the Universe they are given access to new abilities, weapons, vehicles and skill trees. Players create their builds using variety of combative and non-combative skills ranging from third person combat to hacking computers, piloting ships and trading. Players become stronger as they gather stronger items, vehicles and open up new play styles and techniques.
Local Servers
Play together cooperatively on a local server which acts as an open persistent world which dynamically reacts to the players choices, successes and failures as they explore the Attria Prime star system and beyond.
Allowing players control over their own severs allows for customization and mod support while attempting to do this in an MMO game would be prohibitive.
Alternatively players may play offline in solo gameplay while being able to continue their character advancement and drop into their friends servers at anytime.
Absolute freedom in control was paramount in design. A skill binding system which allows 216 Skills and 5 Weapons to allow the player to hone their own gameplay style without being hindered by having to pause gameplay to switch skills, equip different weapon loadouts or log in a completely different character to fill a particular party role.
Granular Movement Speed on PC
Using the Mousewheel players can take advantage of granular movement speed control, which until now has been nearly exclusive to console gaming and dropped in many of the games which have been awkwardly ported to the PC. Movement speed affects firing accuracy, stealth and flashlight control in dark areas.
Combat Overview
AGP::Epica has no hit points. Many games attempt to achieve difficulty by using the Player/Enemy Health to Damage Output ratios to compensate for weak artificial intelligence.
Lethality
The game uses a system based on Lethality in which each attack such as shooting, has a high percentile chance to kill the target, be it the player or the enemy AI.
Using the power of Unreal Engine 4's Behavior Trees to control the AI, this game has an advanced artificial intelligence capable of challenging even the most advanced players.
This chance can be mitigated on the player by equipping heavier armor, thus increasing their Deflection Rating(DR), by entering an armored vehicle such as a tank or a mech, or being highly mobile and thus avoiding attacks all together.
Combat is designed to span a large spectrum. Much of the remaining development process is around adding in items & enemies which fit into the following categories, as well as accompanying missions:
Upon completing the tutorial area on Pendrith the player gains access to a small capital ship and are free to explore the solar system of Attria Prime.
Pendrith
An abandoned terraforming project, this world acts as a tutorial area for new players. It's host to the Black Market Bazaar - an arms market willing to sell firearms to everyone and anyone willing to make the trek out into the far reach of the solar system. There are a variety of smaller mission areas here to get the player used to the questing system, controls, combat and other gameplay systems It is also where you begin, though upon acquiring a capital ship new players to your server may start instead on your capital ship and skip the tutorial entirely. Players may visit and explore this planet at any time during the game.
Attria Prime
The only naturally inhabitable world in the Attria Prime solar system, it's home to a a variety of cities and most of the factions have a foothold here, under the watchful eye of the Imperial Order which is constantly trying to quell a civil uprising against their imposed rule.
Ulterius
Orbiting at the furthest reach of the solar system lies Ulterius: the Dark World. A world with almost no atmosphere, razor sharp rocks and home to the subterranean temple of the Sabbot Ministries, its orbit strewn with shipwrecks from battles long ago fought. Players can travel here to learn the most advanced skill trees and learn how to use the most devastating weapons in the game.
Asteroids & Dwarf Planets
Scattered throughout the system are asteroids which players can mine for crafting materials or establish outposts on.
Skill Trees
There are currently an anticipated 19 different skill trees from which the player may draw from at anytime after acquiring them. Each skill tree also opens up new mission types and different play style options.
Currently in progress:
- Common: UI, menus & quest related functions
- Assault: Use of Rifles, Shotguns and Sniper rifles and firearm related skills
The following skill trees have been slated for upcoming development:
- Cybermage: Hacking computers, cameras, drone controls and electronic keylocks
- Commander: Multiplayer party making skills, orbital strikes
- Merchant: Buy and sell items, haggle, remote trading
- Gunsmith: Weapon crafting, weapon customization
- Engineer: Design and deploy turrets and light autonomous mechs to help in the fight and craft explosives to destroy static targets
- Pilot: Fly close air support ships, light fighters, capital ships
- Gunslinger: Use of pistols, dual wielding and gunfu related skills
- Brawler: Engage in deadly hand to hand combat, knives and thrown weapons
- Medic: Revive fallen comrades, apply AOE buffs to increase DR, augment players with special abilities
- Mechhead: Design, build and pilot 50-100 ton mechs
- Scavenger: Pick pockets, locks and salvage items from debris
- Driver: Design, upgrade and drive tanks, attack-cycles
- Outfitter: Design & customize player clothing, equipment and furniture to be placed in player's quarters
- Architect: Design and build space stations, capital ships and cities
- Sabbot Priest: Destroy vehicles with 100mm hand cannons & rocket launchers
- Sabbot Templar: Equip half ton mech armor and heavy tower shields
- Sabbot Blademaster: Equip swords and engage in melee combat
Weapon Customization
After acquiring the Gunsmith Tree, players will be able to customize their weapons:
- Silencers, muzzle breaks and flashes for increased stealth
- Scopes, iron sights, ACOG/Red dot sights while increasing accuracy
- Foregrips, underbarrel weapon attachments, flashlights
- Magazines, Drum Magazines to increase magazine capacity
- Chamber/Barrel assemblies to change caliber for greater Lethality
- Stock Modifications
- Cosmetic Skins
Appearance
After constructing a Medical Bay in a capital ship and unlocking the Medic Tree, players may customize their character in the following ways:
- Hair styles
- Eye color
- Skin color
- Face shape, details
- Gender
- Tattoos
Clothing and Armor
Using 3D printers and the Outfitter skills, a player can make and customize armor and cosmetic items based on blueprints they find while doing quests.
Advanced Economy & Crafting
In order to inspire a deep, rich science fiction world a detailed economic system was developed. While other currency systems such as fiat or credits were potential options, they were limited in creativity and sustainability. Instead an entirely new economic model was created based on the naturally occurring elements in our Universe and their abundances or scarcity using real world data to calculate their value represented by an Elemental Credit (EC).
Rareness has been coded as common (white), uncommon, (blue) rare (yellow) and scarce (purple). Additionally isotopes commonly used in Fusion have been included as many ship engines are planned to use this to power capital ship systems. Similar to a gold standard, items can be assessed for value and traded. Different sectors have different abundances and rarities allowing for a dynamic trading system as well haggling system. Any item can then be recycled for either valuable rare elements or be broken down for the purposes of crafting another item.
Your pledge is important! Without your help this game cannot achieve its full potential. As this game is being designed as a Free-to-Play title, I feel the best way to reward pledge contributors is to offer a combination of digital and physical rewards. Below are the collections of Sabbot Ministires weapon skins Currently these weapons are the best in the game as they offer high damage output, accuracy and rates of fire.
All Skins Marked As Exclusive Will Never Be Available Again.
Risks and challenges
Risk happens in any project, the key is to identify and mitigate those risks. By using the Unreal 4 Engine, a significant amount of risk is mitigated thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Epic Games team and the Unreal Development community, forums & AnswerHUB.
The strongest risk is in delays, rather than an inability to complete the project. The next phase of design requires collaborators from the community to input their artistic talent and feedback and sometimes delays happen. This has been anticipated for with a series of procedures should someone be late with an anticipated contribution, or unable to complete their contribution.
A series of technical demonstrations, prototypes as well as the currently playable game have demonstrated the desired features of the game are possible, or better, fully functional and already implemented in the game.
Finally, as this project is a digital project, data loss is a potential risk which has been mitigated early on. Regular on site and off site back ups are preformed, maintained and verified to ensure that work isn't lost in case of a hardware failure.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterFAQ
Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.
Rewards
Funding period
- (30 days)