Harlequins: Making It Work

Chopping up yo faces.

So.. my last post about Harlequins might have been a little too negative.  Don't worry though, just because I'm talking real sometimes doesn't mean I'm going to give up.  You guys have to remember that even though I'm a competitive player, I'm not WAAC.  Think about it:  I've been playing pure Kabal Dark Eldar since 3rd.  I have never owned a single Coven unit because I don't like the playstyle and I despise the fluff.  So what does this mean?  That means that I'm going to be playing boatloads of Harlequins and trying to get them to work on the table.

I've been constructing a lot of lists in the last couple of days with the new book and I've had a lot of thought experiments.  Here are some of the topics that I've thought about the most the last couple of days:

• How viable is Harlequins as a standalone army?  They're so expensive and it's really difficult to get them to work from a raw points-effectiveness standpoint.  The more Harlequins you take, the less other "good stuff" you can take from allies.
• Speaking of allies:  What makes a good ally for Harlequins?  Do you take them with Eldar or do you take them with Dark Eldar?  What about both?  Do you even have enough points to take both?
• There are a TON of Strategems that I think Harlequins generally depend on.  Your model count is low, so you really need to spend CP on them every chance you get to make them worth it.  I think Harlequins might be one of the most CP-heavy armies in the entire game from what I've seen.
• For my playstyle, I'm going to keep the army mechanized because I need to be able to preserve the fragile assault units inside while delivering them across the table.  However, I did think about big units of Troupes a few times because of all the overlapping and stacking buffs.
• What is the best Form that I should take with my army?  I'm mainly thinking about Soaring Spite right now because my forces are mostly mechanized, but I'm also eyeing Frozen Stars for damage, Midnight Sorrow for tieing things up, and Silent Shroud for practicality with Eldar shenanigans.
• I'm still working on the best layout for my Troupes, mainly because I'm focusing on 3 key design principles:  The Form matters, but cost-effective units matter more.  The Troupe must be able to be a melee threat to all targets.  The first Fusion Pistol is a must, the rest is luxury.

With that said, I got started working on some basic list principles:

• Build with as much CP as possible because you should be using Harlequin Stratagems at every chance to keep the army alive.  This means double-Bat is a must-have.
• Build with some kind of Black Heart so you can bring in Cunning and introduce Vect so you can repress enemy bull-shittery while having a CP-farm on your side.
• Build as many threats as possible:  Keeping your Troupes alive so they can make a cost-effective return means you have to introduce some serious threats on your side of the table.

Should I take more Dark Eldar?

Here is the first list I came up with after some tweaking:

Soaring Heart
2000 // 13 CP

Soaring Spite Bat +5

HQ:
Troupe Master, Caress, Fusion = 86
Troupe Master, Caress, Fusion = 86

TROOP:
5x Troupe, 5x Caress, 2x Fusion = 118
Starweaver = 99
217

5x Troupe, 5x Caress, 2x Fusion = 118
Starweaver = 99
217

5x Troupe, 5x Caress, 2x Fusion = 118
Starweaver = 99
217

ELITE:
Solitaire = 98

+++

Black Heart Bat +5

HQ:
Archon, Agonizer, Blaster = 91
Cunning, Living Muse

Archon, Agonizer, Blaster = 91

TROOP:
5x Warriors, Blaster = 47
5x Warriors, Blaster = 47
5x Warriors, Blaster = 47
5x Warriors, Blaster = 47
5x Warriors, Blaster = 47
5x Warriors, Blaster = 47

PARTY BOATS:
Raider, Dissie = 80
Raider, Dissie = 80
Raider, Dissie = 80

HEAVY:
Ravager, 3x Dissies = 125
Ravager, 3x Dissies = 125
Ravager, 3x Dissies = 125

>>>

Firepower:
12 Disintegrators at BS3+
24 Splinter Rifles at BS3+
6 Blasters at BS3+
2 Blasters at BS2+
6 Shuriken Cannons at BS3+
6 Fusion Pistols at BS3+
2 Fusion Pistols at BS2+

The list design here was really easy because I think all the right notes.  I originally had Razorwings in the army because I really like having some kind of air, but I didn't have enough boots on the ground for me to be truly influential.  When I first began army list construction, I noticed that I was hesitant to turn my Black Heart Spearhead into a Battalion.  I kept finding that second Archon as a bit of tax, but then I remembered just how many times I'm going to use Harlequin Strategems throughout the game.  While the firepower of the list looks pretty small, one can't remember the absolute monster that is Harlequins in melee once they get there.  With all 5 Players in a Troupe having 4 S5 AP-2 attacks, things are going to get all kinds of disgusting once you actually get in there.  To make things more exciting, I'm planning to make one of the Troupe Masters The Great Harlequin for that tasty re-roll 1s to Hit bubble.

Or should I take more Eldar?

Alaitoc Soaring Heart
1999 // 14 CP

Soaring Spite Bat +5

HQ:
Troupe Master, Caress, Fusion = 86
Troupe Master, Caress, Fusion = 86

TROOP:
5x Troupe, 5x Caress, Fusion = 109
Starweaver = 99
208

5x Troupe, 5x Caress, Fusion = 109
Starweaver = 99
208

5x Troupe, 5x Caress, Fusion = 109
Starweaver = 99
208

+++

Alaitoc Bat +5

HQ:
Farseer Skyrunner = 135
Doom, Mind War

Warlock Skyrunner = 70
Protect/Jinx

TROOP:
5x Rangers = 60
5x Rangers = 60
5x Rangers = 60

FLYER:
Crimson Hunter Ex, Lances = 175
Crimson Hunter Ex, Lances = 175

+++

Black Heart Spearhead +1

HQ:
Archon, Huskblade, Blaster = 93
Cunning, Living Muse

HEAVY:
Ravager, 3x Dissies = 125
Ravager, 3x Dissies = 125
Ravager, 3x Dissies = 125

>>>

Firepower:
9 Disintegrators at BS3+
4 Bright Lances at BS2+
2 Pulse Laser at BS2+
6 Shuriken Cannons at BS3+
3 Fusion Pistols at BS3+
2 Fusion Pistols at BS2+
15 Ranger Long Rifle at BS3+

This one is a bit different and I might be stretching myself too thin.  I've already dropped the Solitaire (which hurts my heart greatly) to make room for some Eldar allies, while greatly decreasing the amount of DE I have in the army.  The Black Heart detachment has been reduced to a small footprint just for the CP farm and fire support, but I've introduced fighters back into the mix with 2x Crimson Hunter Exarchs to give some heavy lances while the Doomseer and Jinxlock go do their thing.  I still have Rangers to be backcap but otherwise, I find this list a bit light on boots on the ground.  Missions might also be a problem, which is why I'm slightly in favor of the first list.

Regardless of which list works out to be better, both lists have a sizeable Harlequin presence with a lot of melee pressure.  The Caress' across the entire army really puts out some good threat, as well as the 22" moving and shooting Shuriken Cannons and Fusion Pistols without BS penalty.  Hell, I even have a pet unit in the first list because I think the Solitaire is the coolest thing ever.  With CP/Ravager farms in both lists, Warrior/Blasters in the first list, and Crimson Hunters in the second, which list do you guys like better?

People Of Frictional: Gregor Panič

WHO AM I?

Hi there! I'm Gregor and I'm a designer and programmer at Frictional, which means I'm responsible for all the fun events in our levels. Okay, maybe they're fun just for us.

It's me! And the sign on our door, printed on an A4 and a little crumpled...

I'm a more recent recruit, having joined around September 2016. My job description, gameplay programmer / designer, is purposefully vague. While I mainly work on level scripting, I also spend time on AI, gameplay systems and level design. I also worked on our collaboration with the Tobii Eye Tracker, which I will talk about later. The great part about this is that my work never gets stale and almost none of my days feel the same.

I'm originally from a little known country called Slovenia, but I've recently moved to the land of the vikings to become one myself. Or, in other words: I moved to Malmö around two months ago and now work from our fairly new office.

My setup at work - right next to the fanart wall! No deskmate yet, though. :'(

I absolutely adore our office and go there pretty much every day to socialize with and get inspired by my co-workers. I'm also the one who nags everyone with occasional movie and gaming nights, where we usually grab some snacks, relax and watch a horror movie (obviously), or games like FIFA and Jackbox Party Pack!

BACKGROUND

I can't really remember the time when I first started playing games. I do know that around the late 90s my dad brought home an Intel 80186 PC one day, thinking he would use it for work. He was wrong. After he showed me a couple of MS-DOS games and I realized I could make things move by pressing buttons, I became glued to that PC. My parents didn't manage to pry me from it, so I've been playing games ever since. Not on the same machine, obviously.

I played a lot of games, but didn't touch the horror genre for the longest time. I still remember having vivid nightmares and being unable to sleep whenever I saw something remotely scary on television. When I was older, however, a friend of mine bought me Amnesia as a "gift". It was a dare, of course, but because I didn't want to disappoint my friend, I played through it. It was just as scary as everyone was telling me, perhaps even more so.

But while I was playing it I also realized that it was about more than just scaring the living hell out of me. It managed to fully immerse me in its world and story, which I had not experienced to this degree before. This is how I got introduced to the horror genre, and to Frictional, which would later impact my life more than I could have possibly imagined.

Making games has been my dream ever since I can remember. Given how much fun I had playing them, I thought it would be great if I could make my own – which is why I always liked messing around with settings, seeing what I could do with cheat codes, and figuring out damage formulas so I could get an advantage. It wasn't until I got sucked into a game called Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, however, that I actually made my first array into creating my own content. I made lightsaber hilts, maps, and even modified some scripts to make the game play like I wanted to.

Unfortunately, growing up in Slovenia there was no real game dev scene there, so I forgot about my dream. It simply never occured to me that I could make games for a living. However, since I was already using my computer so much, I thought it would be fun to work in IT. So I learned some basic C++ programming in high school, then went to a computer science university where I learned a lot more about programming and software in general.

For a long time I resigned myself to becoming a web developer, taking some summer jobs and part-time work in that field. The job became more and more mundane and boring, until I finally realized that I couldn't do it long term, and that I had to find something more fulfilling. That is when I remembered my dream of making games, how much fun they brought me and how great it would be to be able to help someone else have the same experience. I already had a lot of programming experience, so I became determined to join the games industry.

I immediately quit my part-time job and started working on my first small game. I wanted to do everything on my own so that I would learn all the intricacies of game development. A year or so of studying and work amounted to Welkin Road, a little puzzle platformer with grappling hooks.

In Welkin Road you use your two grappling hooks to solve movement-based puzzles.

While I was in the process of finishing Welkin Road, I started looking at potential studios I could join. That's when I saw a tweet from Frictional, mentioning that they were looking for a designer / programmer. I didn't think I was ready, but I figured this was my only chance to work with the company, so I sent my resume in anyway.

To my big surprise they offered me a work test, to see whether I was suitable for the role. I gave it my best, but after I sent in my project I tried to prepare myself for the inevitable let-down. Instead I got a positive reply and an invitation to an interview. The final decision came a couple of weeks later.

Spoiler alert: I got the job.

Given that I was a big fan of Amnesia and SOMA, the decision to accept was a no-brainer. However, it took me quite a while to properly register that I had fulfilled my lifelong dream. A year and a half later I realize how lucky I am to be one of the few people who can wake up on Mondays with a smile on their face.

After joining, I immediately started working on my introductory tasks aimed at learning the new tools. I joined at the same time as Max, so we bonded over struggling to understand all the new stuff. When those tasks were done, I started working on my first real project: designing and implementing eye tracking features in SOMA, which I will talk about in more detail in the next section.

A while after I was brought on, the company started looking to set up a studio in Malmö. I already knew that if I wanted to make games, I would most likely have to move, so the decision to move to Malmö didn't take me long to make. Finding a place to stay took a while, but I eventually managed to find a nice apartment and settle in, in no small part thanks to my incredibly kind and welcoming co-workers.

The setup in my new home in Malmö!

FIRING LASERS (more commonly known as Eye Tracking)

As promised, I will now spend some time talking about my adventures in eye tracking. After receiving a unit from Tobii, I first tested it with a bunch of games that already had eye tracking support. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was a particularly useful use case study, since it had a robust implementation and used the eye tracker in interesting ways. I was initially very surprised at how well the eye tracker worked in that game, and how seamless and intuitive it was to use without putting any strain on my eyes. This gave me the confidence that we could use this to enhance SOMA.

Once I got a feel for what the technology was capable of, I read through Tobii's SDK documentation and code samples to figure out how it all worked. In simple terms, the Tobii eye tracker provides a continuous data stream of screen coordinates that represent the location on the screen the user is looking at. Think of it as firing 60+ laser beams per second from your eyes to your monitor. Bring it on, Cyclops!

After I was done feeling like a superhero, I looked into how we could use this in our own engine, HPL3. Since Tobii's SDK was easy to use, integrating it into HPL3 wasn't too difficult, especially with the help of our engine programmer Peter.

With the technical aspects more or less dealt with, I started thinking about the design of our eye tracking features, and how we could best make use of this technology to enhance the game. This included brainstorming sessions, quick prototyping and a lot of feedback from the rest of the team.

It quickly became clear that while controlling and moving stuff around on the screen with your eyes is fun, it becomes tiring and uncomfortable really fast. For a good experience, the player must never be actively thinking about using their eyes. Instead, the game should react to the player's natural eye movements and try to enhance the experience. A negative side effect of this design principle is that unfortunately quite a lot of features become very subtle and hard for the player to notice consciously, despite having an overall positive effect.

The white circle is where the player is looking.

Another interesting aspect of designing these features was how eye tracking could be used in a very immersive first person horror game. Horror games often rely on where the player is looking to trigger certain events, which always means a certain level of uncertainty about whether the player actually registered what was happening on the screen or not. With eye tracking, this uncertainty became very minimal, which meant that the timing of a lot of the events in SOMA naturally improved.

In the end, we ended up with a number of eye tracking features we were happy with. The most noticeable ones are extended view, which makes the viewport pan towards where the player is looking, and the ability to control the flashlight with your eyes. A number of enemies also react to the player's gaze, such as the flesher monster becoming aggressive when looked at and teleporting when the player blinks, or the deep sea diver stopping when the player maintains eye contact.

Other features are much more subtle and designed to enhance immersion and mood. For example, staring at creepy and gory scenes zooms the screen slightly, giving the impression that Simon is in a trance or shock-like state and can't look away. When the player looks at enemies, the screen distortion effect intensifies to further discourage players from looking at them.

Additionally there are some really secret ones, such as Ross' distorted computer messages appearing exactly when the player blinks, to further reinforce how Ross is inside Simon's head. My personal favorite, however, is a subtle reaction from K8, the incredibly friendly and helpful swimbot, which gives the player a small opportunity to communicate with it.

The developer showcase of eye tracking features.

In summary, working on eye tracking has been an incredibly fun and rewarding experience both because of the challenge, knowledge gained and the creative freedom. Besides, who doesn't enjoy firing lasers with their eyes? The end result hopefully enhances the SOMA experience, even if just a tiny little bit. So if you have the PC version on Windows and a Tobii eye tracker, consider giving an even more immersive version of SOMA a go!

The official trailer for eye tracking in SOMA.

Eye tracking is just a small part of my work at Frictional though, as I'm currently working on one of our next projects. I'm already really proud of what we're creating and I'm happier than ever with my choice to follow my dream of making games. We're all really excited to be able to share more of what we're doing, but until then we'll just keep doing our best. This also reminds me it is time for another gaming night, to keep our spirits up!

Quality Frictional Humour™ from a recent Jackbox Party night.

Wanna see who else works at Frictional? Check out the rest of the People of Frictional posts!

Ep 29: Gobblin’ Wargames Is Live!

Ep 29: Gobblin' Wargames

We talk with Chris Arnold about our history of making games and challenges game designers face.

https://soundcloud.com/user-989538417/episode-29-gobblin-wargames

Join the conversation at https://theveteranwargamer.blogspot.com, email theveteranwargamer@gmail.com, Twitter @veteranwargamer

Try Audible for your free audiobook credit by going to http://audibletrial.com/tvwg

WSS Rules Challenge:

https://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/wssblog/wss-rules-challenge

Music courtesy bensound.com. Recorded with zencastr.com. Edited with Audacity. Make your town beautiful; get a haircut.

Game Masters Exhibition With Ian!

In this special episode, I talk with my nephew Ian about our trip to the Game Masters Exhibition at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The exhibition is only there until September 3rd, so if you want to go, please hurry! Thank you for listening.

Game Masters at Franklin Institute
Game Masters Wikipedia page
Botanicula by Jaromír Plachý
Child of Eden by Tetsuya Mizuguchi

Good Shepherd Entertainment And SuperScarySnakes' Black Future '88 Coming To Nintendo Switch

Good Shepherd Entertainment and independent developer SuperScarySnakes have announced that Black Future '88, the 2D synth-punk roguelike action shooter, will launch on Nintendo SwitchT in 2019 as a console exclusive.
Set in a grim alternate history where it's always 1988, Black Future '88 puts players on a non-stop dungeon-crawling ascent against homicidal robots, cutthroats, bosses and more to exact revenge on the man who destroyed the world.

Black Future '88 is constantly evolving to try to kill you. As one of the last remaining survivors of nuclear cataclysm, you'll climb a procedurally generated tower through a merciless onslaught of fire, lasers and steel. The only way to kill your mark before your heart explodes is strategically choosing and combining dozens of unique buffs and curses. Choose from several characters with a huge arsenal of weapons and powers as you shoot, slash and dash through anything standing between you and the top of the world.

Survive this nightmarish neon-lit retro dystopia alone or with a friend in two-player local co-op, then measure your mettle against other players by taking on special daily challenges to scale the global leaderboard.

Black Future '88 will also arrive on Windows PC later this year. For more information, visit www.BlackFuture88.com, and follow Good Shepherd Entertainment and SuperScarySnakes on Twitter @GoodShepherdEnt and @SuperScarySnake.

Riot: Civil Unrest Mini Review (NSW)

Written by Anthony L. Cuaycong

Title: Riot - Civil Unrest
Developer: Leonard Menchiari, IV Productions
Publisher: Merge Games
Genre: Simulation, Strategy
Price: $19.99
Also Available On: PS4, Steam

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Inspired by personal experience demonstrating against the construction of a train line connecting France and Italy, Valve editor Leonard Menchiari launched in 2013 an Indiegogo endeavor seen to propel the development of a game aimed at entertaining as well as educating. His intent was clear: Show both perspectives of conflicts by allowing gamers to side with either policemen or with dissenters. And depending on the initial choice, the interface can be either strategic or tactical in nature and experience.

To this end, Riot: Civil Unrest succeeds, and how. It features surprisingly deep gameplay featuring events that approximate real-world dissensions; four campaigns spread across Greece, Spain, Egypt, and, needless to say, Italy (along with some 30-odd single-level scenarios in such notables as France, Venezuela, Germany, and Argentina) are on tap. There's a learning curve, but the standardization of the interface across varied and diverse circumstances enables gamers to keep up with the frenetic pace. For all the initial planning, quick decisions are valued, and every action has consequences. Even public perception is taken into account in attaining long-term success. It's an acquired taste all told, but, with the right crowd, one of ingredients mixed to last.

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THE GOOD

• Deep gameplay
• Stunning pixel art and sound mix
• Outstanding representation of real-life events

THE BAD

• Clunky controls
• Quirky Artificial Intelligence
• Quality of Life issues

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RATING: 7/10

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Storium Basics: Wild Cards

Welcome back to my series on Storium basics. Today, we'll be discussing Wild Cards.

When you create a character, you start with a defined Strength and a defined Weakness. Usually you'll start with more than one copy of each, making it your character's strong theme - the amount can vary depending on your game's settings. However, in addition to those, you'll also usually start with a few wild cards - some Strengths, and some Weaknesses.

These are how Storium handles the mechanical side of character development.

Wild Strength and Wild Weakness cards are Storium's way of letting you develop your character and reveal new traits about them. When you pick one, Storium will ask you to title it and write a description for it, just as if you were creating custom cards during character creation. You can also select from other cards the narrator had as options for character creation, or from cards you've already played in the game.

Which should you do? Well, that's up to you.

Early in the game, it's probably best to either pick another card from the character creation list that seems to apply to your character, or write a custom card.

Picking another card from the list is pretty simple - just find one on the "Existing Cards" list and select it. Make sure to pick something that feels like it applies to your character - something that fits with your concept.

My preferred method, though? I prefer to write my own Wild Cards. Once you've started the game, you're probably starting to develop your character's identity and traits in your head. The other existing cards might apply, but I tend to find that only works for one additional card, two tops. To really reveal who my character is, I find it's best to write up some custom cards.

It's also lots of fun.

When you're writing a new card, what you want is to aim for something that feels broad but still descriptive. Strengths and Weaknesses in Storium work best when they can apply to a wide variety of situations, but they still need to say something specific about your character. Not that you can't use very specific facts from time to time, but overall, I find it easier to write things you can use again and again. For more on that, see the links below.

The other thing you want to do here is say something new about your character. Something that spins off of what we know about them, but that is different in some way from what we knew before. You'll get the most fun out of Wild Cards if they differ from cards you've already played. They can be similar, but there should be differences. As an example, if your original Strength card was something like Brilliant, reflecting your ability to use intellect to find a way through your problems, maybe your new Strength might be something like Lateral Thinking, reflecting a particular and unusual strategy that allows you to find creative solutions, or Multitasking, reflecting your ability to split your brainpower to handle multiple tasks at once. They still relate to your intellect, but they tell you something new.


Now, it doesn't have to be that direct of a link all the time, but it's important to try to link Wild Cards to your character concept. You're describing new elements of your character, but they shouldn't (generally) feel like they come entirely out of nowhere. Build on what you've done so far or formalize traits you've hinted at in the past. There may be times where it's appropriate to reveal a totally surprising character element, but done improperly, or especially done too often, it ends up just feeling like bad writing. So: Tell us something new about your character, but not something outlandish about your character. In general.

Late in the game, when you've already made a lot of wild cards, you may find it easier to start using the "Previously Used Cards" tab to select cards you've played earlier in the game. In the late game, you've already got a pretty decent list designed and it may be hard to think of new traits for your character. That's when I find it handy to sometimes use this list and just bring another of my existing traits to the fore. In the early game, there's just not enough on this tab and using it will stop you from adding new traits to your character - but in the late game, it can be very handy.

Whatever you do, you'll then play that card just like any other card - write your move according to the traits you've revealed. Once you've written the card, there's nothing particularly different about using it than using other cards.

At Refresh (more on that next week), any wild cards you've played will show up with their names and descriptions as options you can choose. This is how you can change your character's primary, noted traits over the course of a game. A paladin who starts out with Toughness as his starting Strength may turn out to concentrate on Inspirational Leadership and Empathy by the end of the game - so Wild Cards don't just let you reveal new things about yourself, they can ultimately let you change your character in accordance with the story.

For more on Wild Cards and writing Strengths and Weaknesses, see these articles:

• Writing Good Strengths and Weaknesses
• Character Development Through Wild Cards
• Situational Strengths and Weaknesses
• Choose Cards You Want to Play
• Build Towards Something