A question...

[coru]

...l et's assume (hypothetically only of course) that i were to think about what we could do as new extra-levels for Shadow Tactics.
What would (HYPOTHETICALLY!!!!) be something you would love to play if you (HYPOTHETICALLY!!!) could choose?
Would love to hear what you would come up with. So if i was HYPOTHETICALLY thinking about that stuff right now: WHAT WOULD YOU SCREAM AT MY FACE?

[Abbey Road]

Tips/ Suggestions for Expansion Pack/ Sequels

This is going to be a long post, I guess, so strap up!

Firstly, thanks for the generous demo, it helped me make my purchase decision! Also, had it not been for the glowing review at Rock Paper Shotgun, wouldn't have known about this!

Also, whoever designed that main menu moving wallpaper art with the five characters deserves a pay raise, it caught my eye as I scrolled past it on rock paper shotgun, Then ended up reading the positive review and favourable comparisons drawn to Commandos; downloaded the demo and was immediately sold on the game.

So, I decided it might be worthwhile to collate all tips/suggestions for the developers since I understand that there may be some expansion pack/ sequel in the works! Invite other fans to chip in with suggestions!!

Gameplay

Current Features
Pros

• Relatively bug free initial release in this era of humongous day one patches and first release and then fix it attitude!
• Three quick save slots; seamless 360 degrees view; vertical traversal options;
• Taking a risk and reviving a nearly extinct genre in an exciting new way while retaining old positives;
• Good non linear level design with multiple ways to solve and approach situations- pleasure to navigate, analyse, break down enemy patrols and systematically dismantle the enemy network giving an enormous sense of accomplishment and satisfaction at the end of the mission;
• Shadow mode!
• Badges encourage replay ability and make you aware of aspects you may not have realised/come across on the first run through;
• Different enemy types with different abilities (normal, straw hats, samurais so far);
• All characters important and not like Commandos where the green beret was over-powerful that he could solo levels and driver was pretty much a redundant dude;
• Nice character development by way of interactions between lead characters both between missions and during the missions themselves- this aspect was missing in commandos;
• Native joystick support out of the box-both Xbox and even Dual Shock 4 I understand -even some AAA games don't do this at times;
• Missions set at different times of day and weather conditions with discernible impact on gameplay (level of sight system at night taking into account light sources; reduced guard vision cones; venturing through rain puddles make noise);
• Environmental kills

Suggestions for improvement

• Expand Environmental Kills: We should be in a position to observe enemy conversations and use environmental features to kill enemies; basically enhance ability to kill our assassination target through accidents/ disguising and subverting NPC routines and make it appear to be an accident, maybe like in the Hitman games--may enhance future replay value;
• Expand on optional/secret paths to finish missions;
• Retain ability to have a full sneaky non-lethal play through with no-one even knowing of your presence, apart from mission critical targets-tie in some achievements to this!!
• As a stealth play through related point, consider limited ropes per character to tie up guards/civilians for no kill runs /badges and maybe have tied up guys make muffled noise with an audio range when they wake up so that strategic placement of their tied up bodies is also an added consideration;
• Rendered detailed interiors of buildings-with multiple floors, etc.; will add a lot of texture to the game like in Commandos 2;
• Inventories with items with limited charges so you have to choose whether to pick them when doing speed runs/ choose on which characters to use them--consider making all of this available on subsequent runs, etc. to enhance the replayability value;
• Add both online and offline split screen co-operative gameplay similar to Divinity Original Sin-I want to be able to strategize and play this with other folks!!
• Expanded difficulty options that open up for subsequent play throughs after finishing the game once-similar to say, Invisible Inc. or XCOM- Things like use only one character/ use specific combination of characters for missions/ can open up once you finish the game once- will give added replayability value;
• More varied types of enemies that require combination of skills from different operatives for taking them down (with options to avoid them altogether should one choose to do so);
• Different eras for sequels-Suggestions are the golden age of piracy-island assaults then sail away; India in 18th century-Brits, French, native princes all conspiring to get the spoils of India as Mughal power is declining; A post apocalyptic scenario-so no advanced weaponry coupled with gritty story; or maybe, Mimimi's take on World War 2 or for a fresh look, go further back to World War 1 with agents, double agents, different points of view of Brits, Germans, French, etc. with espionage missions taking place all over the world with a nice intertwining plotline; cyberpunk sci fi!
• Add an easy to use level editor/moddability tools---This will tremendously increase the life span of the game;
• Add a rewind feature replacing quick save and quick load routine-this will keep you immersed in the game and also help in co-op without taking you out of the game;
• Add lots of unlockables like alternate skins for characters, concept art, wallpapers, etc. which can be linked to in-game achievements like ghosting, speed run, etc. thereby encouraging replay ability.
• Very nitpicky stuff!!
Mission 5 Spoiler-Dont read this point if you have not completed this mission----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Okay; finished mission 5 recently; Lord Yabu said something in his house; my samurais who were stationed a fair distance away then reacted to and discussed what Lord Yabu just said-this was weird and took me out of the game-did they have 17th century equivalent of electronic bugs planted at Yabu's house that transmitted audio to my samurai's ears in real time??!


Graphics/UI

Suggestions

• Graphics are already awesome and oh so pretty-so maybe optimize it further to ensure a greater number of systems are able to play the game while also adding in bits for higher end gamers to take advantage of;
• Add an option for walls, trees, in game objects becoming invisible when shifting the camera in order to make the characters visible similar to Divinity Original Sin;
• please add in the ability to change the font size/interface size-See Wasteland 2/ latest version of Sunless Sea /Pillars of Eternity for inspiration in this regard.

Audio/sound

• Many props to the developers for adding a Japanese voice over option-this really added to the immersion-hopefully if sequel takes place in another era we have similar appropriate non English professional voiceovers as an added option;

• Ensure memorable OST for the expansion pack/sequels.

[Abbey Road]

Also, very important from a marketability perspective for the expansion/sequel!!

Make your game known to reviewers, Youtube stars, Twitch streamers, etc. Get them in the loop before release of the game and use them to spread the word! Try to get your publisher to set aside some miniscule portion for advertising the game as I understand that most people were unaware of this game's existence!!

[whodat]

There are no indoor levels. I think it would be fun sneaking in hallways, rooms, kitchen, etc. Maybe inside a castle, brothel, tavern...

I would also like to play more ambush type levels with multiple optional objectives (obviously Nakasendo Road is my favorite map because you get to choose your targets and the way to dispatch them).

[coru]

Thanks for the detailed suggestions Abbey Road! Really appreaciate it.
@mhitzaa thanks as well :)
Keep ideas coming everyone!

[Asuryan]

It would be nice to play a couple of missions where one should collect intel and information in various place of the map and use them to realize which target has to be taken down (e.g. specific NPC, randomly selected) or which objects have to be collected, without being guided too much by game suggestion's. Indeed, an indoor level in a japanese Castle or Daimyo's residence would be interesting, for instance by helping some hostage to escape from it.

[Morialis]

A couple of ideas:

Since Mugen and Aiko have a history, there could perhaps be a mission showing their origin story (which could pretty much be anything)

An interesting concept for a mission might be one where you have access to everyone, get to see the layout of the level, then at one point are forced to commit to using only a select number (like 2 or 3) of the units, which would shape the available options you have for the rest of (or the entire) level (but the level would be completable with any combination of characters, it just allows the player to come up with a strategy ahead of time and they would need to think of all the available techniques they would be gaining or foregoing for the mission)

And the last idea, perhaps there's a sequence where the characters are talking with each other, remembering their past and telling their most epic adventure (and probably embellishing the truth of the story) to the other characters, essentially leading into a mini-quest for each character where they relive their story (might work as a single multi-part mission with a small solo role for each character or as individual missions)

[Myloes]

Zombie Mugen

[SilentOwl]

I'd like multiple endings. Maybe have story choices. Though, that might make you need more missions.

Another possibility is to add 'secret' missions. For example, consider the following possible change to the original game.

In mission 9, the game ends if you complete it the 'normal' way. You have a false victory and you think you've won against Kage sama. If you find the 'hidden' objective, you figure out that Kage sama is actually Noboru and you unlock missions 10-13.


Of course, I believe the new content should be in a new story but that's one idea I thought about.

You could also try secret missions that aren't directly related to the main story or maybe just have some 'side quest' optional missions.

[Mr.Ullrich]

Ich schreibe mal auf deutsch, da ihr ein deutsches Entwicklerstudio seid und ich mich so auch ein bisschen besser ausdrücken kann. Vorneweg: Klasse Spiel! Für mich seit Splinter Cell Chaos Theory das beste Stealth-Game, was ich gespielt habe.

B2T: Es wäre ziemlich cool als junger Takuma zu spielen und herauszufinden, was seinen lockeren, ruhigen und auch irgendwie lustigen Charakter formte oder wie er Tanuki kennenlernte. Ich glaube jeder mit Haustieren, vor allem mit Hunden, weiß, was für tolle Freundschaften entstehen und Geschichten mit einem besten Freund auf vier Pfoten geschrieben werden können.

TL;DR in English:
Playing as a young Takuma. What he experienced in the many years and how he got friends with Tanuki.

[Juan Stamos]

How about an asymmetrical multiplayer mode where one person controls the guards and can only see inside their vision cones?

[RossenX]

I would like a prequal that revolves around the relationship of Mugen and Aiko. Like have a nice little story like of how they met and have missions there, maybe have the other characters be involved but in a none-direct way.
Say maybe Yuki worked at a place that Mugen frequanted and was asked to kill him, but fails then she gets kicked out cuz of it. Then you play Mugen Fighting Aiko to only become team-mates later.

Like in one mission where Yuki said she used to live there, maybe there could be a mission to show what happened to it, since she said BAD STUFF happaned.

Over-all i'd say make a Origin story for each of the charaters and have each one of them be a DLC. Only using that one character and i personally love playing entire missions with just ONE character. I think i've finished every mission with every character only using one character, which is great fun. Even if a mission SEEMS impossible to do with a SINGLE character there's always a way to do it and finding out those ways is the fun of it for me. Since the Loading/Saving is fairly quick failing and trying again is no biggie.

[Gravity_Wolf]

Love

[coru]

Thanks so much so far everyone! :)
Keep the juices flowing, theres good stuff here!

[BjornStrongndarm]

I'm late to this party, but I have a few ideas, both about mission styles and gameplay mechanics. (Most of this is just spitballing, mind.) First, a lot of people are saying, "Play these characters' backstories.' This would be cool, but it might also be cool to play some of them as older. For instance, a mission with a Yuki who is a fully fledged shinobi-type, basically Yuki as Hayoto, and then with an elderly Hayoto that has taken on a Takuma-style role. Maybe even a story involving the adult Yuki that has lots of parts told through flashbacks involving younger versions of the characters.

I also agree with the thought that some indoor missions would be incredibly cool, too. Having to sneak around a building, ducking into rooms to avoid patrols and avoiding getting trapped in a dead-end room and so on would be awesome. (I don't think you'd have to make any real changes to the engine either -- 'houses' that we have now could be replaced with wardrobes or closets or somesuch.) Relatedly: Japan in the Edo period had some serious contacts with England. A mission with a shinobi wandering around an English castle could be very cool, too. (I guess Abbey Road has already pointed this out plus other sites outside Japan and how they could be related.)

Also, whether it's more missions for Shadow Tactics or for some future game with similar mechanics: I LOVE the game, but have been lamenting the lack of two features. The first is the ability to see multiple enemies' viewcones at the same time. When you have two guards and you're trying to surf between them (for instance), it seems like you should be able to see both of their viewcones simultaneously, instead of watching one and then trying to remember how the other one patterned with it. Second, I have found on quite a few occasions I've had someone who I thought was hidden in a bush, and who looked hidden in a bush, who wasn't really hidden in a bush because the bush graphic was just 'blocking' my view of them. If there was just a little icon or something that showed up next to the character image when they were hidden in a bush, that would be very useful.

[Artusad]

Originally posted by BjornStrongndarm:

I'm late to this party, but I have a few ideas...

You are always welcome with new ideas :) Nearly every day, we read the steam forum, even older discussions!