Sentinels of Freedom

Custom Difficulty Unlocked!
about 8 years ago – Thu, May 03, 2018 at 01:49:47 AM

In talking with all of you, it has been interesting to hear all the many perspectives on various game mechanics. One that continues to come up is difficulty settings - so much so we made it a stretch goal to give you as many options as we can. In our discussions, we felt this was very important to not only fit individual play styles but also increase replayability.

We identified several areas in the gameplay that would provide meaningful changes instead of just adding more health and damage. As we develop the game further, these same systems will all be used by our designers to create the game's base difficulty levels as well. Through the Kickstarter, we are able to make all these different systems dynamic and have a greater range of options plus a few of the settings also have increased art and design work added.

When starting the game or selecting a mission, the player may choose difficulty settings for the upcoming mission; any screen with difficulty will have the previous settings selected by default. For Sentinels of Freedom, difficulty selection is a collection of game changes made including enemy spawns, objectives available, level layout, enemy decision making, hero recovery rates, saving opportunities, and general stat changes. Thanks to the Kickstarter, any of these settings are able to be changed independently of one another so the player may make their own custom difficulty instead of choosing one of the several named difficulty presets.

Enemy Decisions
In addition to several stats that may be tweaked according to difficulty, enemy reactions to battlefield situations may change to make them more or less difficult. Granting additional vigilance actions will cause enemies to act more often outside of their own activation, making them more dangerous. Tightening the margin of error for decisions, like their relative positioning to heroes or their target priority, will also make them more focused on tasks and keep them out of harm's way.

Enemy Progression
More difficult enemies will naturally be revealed throughout the game to keep up with the player heroes, but difficulty may reveal enemies more often by changing the rate enemies are allowed to adapt. The required number of encounters, the amount of contributing points into specialized fields, or the threshold values may change, all changing the overall rate of enemy adaptation and enemy reveals. This may also mean that enemies may require a minimum difficulty to be revealed through gameplay. In addition, the Kickstarter Stretch Goal allows us to provide a larger range of enemies with more unique abilities.

Encounter Changes
When crafting encounters, spawn tokens may have a default spawn and difficulty alternatives. Difficulty alternatives may have no object (enemy/obstacle) listed, in which case, no object is spawned in that difficulty. Also, your continued support allows for the level design tools to be further enhanced, offering Underbite designers a "layered" approach to individual encounters.

Hero Recovery Rates
Between encounters, heroes may have an amount of health recovered as they rest between battles. Between missions, incapacitated heroes may need to recover for an amount of completed encounters. On higher difficulties, this recovery rate may be slowed to mean less health recovered between encounters and greater encounters required before an incapacitated hero returns.

Save/Reload Opportunities
While the player may save the game at any time, the difficulty may restrict the use of the save file. On harder difficulties, saving during an encounter may force the player to quit and may only load the encounter save.

The hope is that through all these options, Sentinels of Freedom can be adjusted for players from casual to expect tacticians.

Thank you for the amazing support!

Christopher Badell's Story Insight
about 8 years ago – Tue, May 01, 2018 at 06:26:38 PM

The Sentinels of Freedom are not so different a team from when they were the Freedom Five; there is a new Legacy now, as Pauline Felicia Parsons has taken up the mantle from her father, who now goes by Heritage and acts more as an ambassador. However, all five members of the team - Legacy, Wraith, Bunker, Tachyon, and Absolute Zero - are now more focused on the training and mentoring of new heroes than on actively fighting crime themselves.

That said, when Megalopolis is under attack, they will not ignore the evil that endangers their city! They frequently use such villainous attacks as training opportunities for new heroes, and that’s exactly where you come in!

Wraith and Bunker are the two members of the Sentinels of Freedom most likely to be patrolling the streets of Megalopolis, so when the heroes are alerted to a bank robbery on Spruce Avenue, those are the first two on the scene. What they find there turns out to be just the tip of a far more sinister iceberg of evil! A threat from the past has allied to take down the united heroes, and their ranks and power grow to a terrifying force!

In Sentinels of Freedom: Cold War, you play as a hero of your own creation, new to the pages of Sentinel Comics. You will fight alongside heroes from the Sentinels of Freedom and add more heroes to your squad as you progress through the game, fighting villains and learning more of their terrible plot. The choices you make in how you combat those foes, and what heroes you use in each encounter, will affect the path your story takes, as well as the types of opponents and tactics you encounters over the course of the game.

Do you have what it takes to fight alongside the Sentinels of Freedom? The peril is great, but only the bravery of heroes like you can prevent the oncoming Cold War.

Recruiter Reward Level
about 8 years ago – Tue, May 01, 2018 at 12:27:49 AM

We have seen several requests to help design some bad guys, so we talked it over with Greater Than Games and they are excited about the idea!

We are looking for your ideas and designs on lieutenants or henchmen. These characters are elite hired thugs that significantly boost the current minions with some motivation and offensive punch. While these enemies are not full-on super villains, they are intended to be pretty formidable opponents, offering a wide variety of potential abilities along with a unique look and feel.

For this reward level, you get to work with us here at Underbite Games, along with Christopher and Adam at Greater Than Games, to help design these new elite hired thugs. Provide direction for abilities, tactics, costumes as well as ideas on variations!

There are a couple important notes to point out. The characters will need to be approved by both Greater Than Games and Underbite Games to make sure they fit the game and universe. Also, keep in mind that these characters will be more like a mercenary squad or team, so the character is likely to show up in multiple levels with slight variations.

INCLUDES: Digital Copy of Sentinels of Freedom PC or Mac, Help design an lieutenant or henchmen for the game, Early Access to Character Builder, Additional DLC, Custom Hero options, Digital Soundtrack, Digital Backgrounds.

New Hero Unlocked: Expatriette!
about 8 years ago – Sat, Apr 28, 2018 at 02:06:14 AM

Thanks to your continued support, we hit another stretch goal, unlocking Expatriette and her side quest.  Here is a teaser for the mission and sketch of Expatriate's new look!

The heroes are in trouble! While trying to stop the villains from obtaining a powerful weapon, they’re caught in the crosshairs of a deadly assassin. However, while the rest of the team is pinned down, a new hero is on the scene:

Expatriette doesn’t have time to sneak around, here. She’s gotta deal with patrolling guards and defensive drones so she can get to that sniper and take him out before time runs out for the rest of the heroes. Fortunately, she’s locked, loaded, and ready for action!

Successfully completing this mission will both rob the villains of a dangerous weapon, and also unlock the gun-toting Expatriette for use in future missions.

A Little Pep in Her Step...
about 8 years ago – Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 09:39:16 PM

The game is continuing to move forward as we dive deeper into all aspects of Art, Design, and Development.

On the visual side of things, we wanted to share a small, but important, update for Tachyon - her movement. Given her incredible speed, she needed faster movement and motion trails.  

 Please note that to keep file size to a minimum, the frame rate is very low.