Dragonpunk Mod: High-Fantasy meets early Cyberpunk

[Team Dragonpunk]

Hello fellow XCOM 2 Commanders,

While there is still a lot of work to do, the Dragonpunk website is finally up! Dragonpunk is actually seven XCOM 2 mods in one: Dragons, Drones, Multiplayer Co-Op, Magic, Augmentations, Species (Races), and Story. We're posting now to coordinate with XCOM 2 modders that may be working on similar projects. For example, the "Dragonpunk Drone Mod" will create a framework for easily adding new drones into XCOM 2. We'll be introducing 2 additional drones to the game, and would love to collaborate with others creating drones on game mechanics and "lessons learned".

Every aspect of Dragonpunk is decided by the XCOM 2 community, so please follow us on twitter to have your voice heard!


Website: www.DragonWare.Studio
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DragonpunkGame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DragonpunkGame/

[Team Dragonpunk]

We're also assisting other modders, so if you have character modeled and textured, and only need it rigged, then DM us and we'll see if we can help you out!

[TradeGy]

It sounds interesting, are you planning to make your own game if this mod is successful?

[Team Dragonpunk]

TradeGy,

We're releasing a YouTube video to explain this, so I apologize if this textblock is a little confusing. In short, we're spending $25,000 on Dragonpunk initially. That will allow for 3 Dragons, 3 magical classes, 2 additional drones, Multiplayer, 3 races, etc. If this is successful, then we're prepared to spend an additional $500,000 to make this a total conversion. That doesn't sound like a lot given game budgets like Star Citizen, but it means we can make Dragonpunk 20 times larger.

At that point, we would definitely consider trying to make this a standalone expansion to XCOM 2. Right now though, we're just trying to bolster sales. A lot of people are "on the fence" for this game, so we're hoping the "2 Games in 1" aspect will help out Firaxis. Lastly, we aren't accepting donations on our site and won't be doing a Kickstarter campaign. We have the money; we just want to make sure it's a hit before we spend it all lol.

[TradeGy]

Originally posted by Dragonpunk:

TradeGy,

We're releasing a YouTube video to explain this, so I apologize if this textblock is a little confusing. In short, we're spending $25,000 on Dragonpunk initially. That will allow for 3 Dragons, 3 magical classes, 2 additional drones, Multiplayer, 3 races, etc. If this is successful, then we're prepared to spend an additional $500,000 to make this a total conversion. That doesn't sound like a lot given game budgets like Star Citizen, but it means we can make Dragonpunk 20 times larger.

At that point, we would definitely consider trying to make this a standalone expansion to XCOM 2. Right now though, we're just trying to bolster sales. A lot of people are "on the fence" for this game, so we're hoping the "2 Games in 1" aspect will help out Firaxis. Lastly, we aren't accepting donations on our site and won't be doing a Kickstarter campaign. We have the money; we just want to make sure it's a hit before we spend it all lol.

Woah... This sounds incredible. Now I'm looking forward to what you can do with this.

Are you going to focus the mod on SP or MP or aiming for both?

All the best of luck.

[Tohibii]

Sounds great, Dragonpunk. The first thing I thought when I saw the direction of XCOM 2 was that it'd be perfect foundation for a Cyber Punk infiltration game in a Gibson style setting, but Not-Shadowrun is just a hop and a skip from that anyway.

Putting up money like that for a Mod is above and beyond and I'll be eagerly following how it all goes. The augmentations and drone variants sound really interesting of the first wave stuff.

Best of luck with it!

[Team Dragonpunk]

Tohibii,

Lol, I'm glad you made the Shadowrun comparison because it means we are on the right track! This project started off as "Shadowrun: Assets Incorporated" and we still have the original test trailer up http://www.dragonware.studio/#/kalo/ We pitched a "Shadowrun Reboot" to Microsoft and got all the way to the top before it was shot down. We also pitched it to Harebrained Schemes and they said they wanted to focus on the Shadowrun cRPG. We're hoping that either 1 of 2 things happens with Dragonpunk. Either this game gets big, or this shows Microsoft that there IS a market for a AAA Shadowrun game. Either way is a win/win for gamers!

[Team Dragonpunk]

TradeGy,
Since XCOM 2 is already optimized for single player, we are going to focus on the multiplayer aspect. As many people have theorized, XCOM Co-Op would actually be slower (and potentially more tedious). I think it will take many variations to find a perfect balance. Games like Divinity: Original Sin already successfully use a turn based co-op system however, so it can be done. We've been working on this for some time. I was actually the guy who asked the question at Firaxicon regarding modding in Co-Op and was mentioned (unfortunately not named) in the PC Gamer article http://www.pcgamer.com/why-xcom-2-is-going-to-be-huge-for-modders/

[Dirty-Yet-Clean]

Looks like it will be great! I hope it all goes well!


Also, what about something like hotseat?

[Team Dragonpunk]

Dirty,
Coding hotseat isn't so much of an issue as having everyone agree on a solution. We've actually been talking about that today on the 2K Forums. http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?3961331-Co-op-campaign-%28hotseat%29

[Dirty-Yet-Clean]

Originally posted by Dragonpunk:

Dirty,
Coding hotseat isn't so much of an issue as having everyone agree on a solution. We've actually been talking about that today on the 2K Forums. http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?3961331-Co-op-campaign-%28hotseat%29

Gotcha, I'm totally new to everything about modding so this might be a silly question but, will the mods be free?

[Team Dragonpunk]

Dirty,

That's actually a great question with all the new Steam policies, because some mods aren't free. Dragonpunk WILL BE 100% FREE and we won't even be taking donations. Not that we're rich, but I think the community is disillusioned with crowdfunding games that don't get made after years of development. We want to earn player's trust now! Like I said before though, we're only spending the $500,000 on this mod if we can help boost XCOM 2 sales. We're still trying to work out the numbers, but we're thinking of something like, "If XCOM 2 sells double what is currently projected, then we'll make Dragonpunk 20 times bigger (and still free)."

[LtCol.Fornax]

Good luck! Will Fireaxis eventually make this an official mode(you know,like advertising the mods for you)? Or is there any plan for it?

[Team Dragonpunk]

Major Fornax,

So that is an interesting situation. Officially, Firaxis is bound by NDA with 2K and cannot provide support for XCOM 2 modding before launch. Some of the Leads HAVE however helped us on general 3D Modelling questions "not officially" related to XCOM 2. Basically, it looks like Firaxis is doing everything they can now. Firaxis's Marketing Director has also pledged her support to all modders. We're all really excited about how far Firaxis is willing to go for this (which is why I'm an unapologetic shill - they aren't paying us a dollar lol). Now if this will become an "Official Mod", that is up to the popularity of the game and 2K to make the executive decision.

[Dirty-Yet-Clean]

Originally posted by Dragonpunk:

Dirty,
Coding hotseat isn't so much of an issue as having everyone agree on a solution. We've actually been talking about that today on the 2K Forums. http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?3961331-Co-op-campaign-%28hotseat%29

Looked at the forum and would like to clarify that I was refering to a multiplayer hotseat. Where I make a loadout and my buddy makes a loadout and we duke it out on a randomly generated map.

[Tohibii]

I think Dragonpunk will have combat that blows away the Hare Brained games, which I generally enjoyed (loved Dragonfall), but more for narrative terms as the combat itself was a pale shadow compared to the tension of XCOM (being more of pure cRPGs, they really pulled a lot of punches with the deadliness of the combat as your teams basically can't lose and there's so many counters to taking damage).

Hopefully the fifth class is an infiltrator and its inclusion inserts a bunch of interesting mechanics that work for runs with leg work and so on. That could save a lot of work and open a lot of doors.

Also, I must say the idea for augmentations with troopers losing limbs and being patched up with Cyber is EXACTLY what I've been wanting. This will be amazing for both the base game and the mod!

For multiplayer, I thought the format of Shadowrun Chronicles was quite effective, but I would guess you all are aware of that system and still on the fence about how to implement things. FWIW, in that game, turn based Co-Op was actually faster than singleplayer in my experience.

Again - best of luck and this looks much more exciting than the 40K and Star Wars mod ideas from where I sit.