Kickstarter - Expeditions: Conquistador
 

Here's anotherr Kickstart project, this time sent in by Nova. Expeditions: Conquistador "takes place in central america around 1518, and is a party-based, exploration-fueled RPG with tactical, turn-based combat and tons of choice and consequence." The goal is $70k over the next 38 days.
Engaging and intricately branching storyline with difficult decisions and long-term consequences.
• A gallery of unique expedition members who chime in during events & conversations and react to your decisions - pay attention to their morale or you may have to deal with mutiny!
• Random events that throw you into danger, present unexpected opportunities, and build relationships with the members of your expedition.
• High replayability - dynamic endings reflect decisions you've made throughout the story, how much gold you bring with you back to Spain, and how many expedition members you've lost (or gained!) along the way.
• Detailed and tactical combat - make use of flanking, traps & barricades, attacks of opportunity, interrupts, cover & concealment, character abilities, and more.
• Character management - unlock special abilities by promoting your expedition members, assign equipment to your troops, and treat injured or sick characters with a triage system.
• Dynamic trading system - barter with different merchants and buy & sell resources based on local market conditions.
• Campaign maps based on actual topological maps of the Dominican Republic and Mexico.
More information.

Looks good. Puts me in the mind of Seven Cities of Gold, which I played the hell out of as a kid on the Commodore 64. I'm in. I'm such a sucker for Kickstarters. This is project #10 for me, 6 of which are computer games.

Yeah, I just signed up for this as well. The replay value intrigued me the most, I'd have to say.


-Carn

good looking engine.

Nice to see a RPG that are not set in a Fantasy or Sifi setting for a change :)

Backed. One of the people involved was behind The Nameless Mod for Deus Ex and that's all the credentials i need. I might consider upping the pledge down the line, but i'll probably be a bit short on cash in a month to go for physical rewards.

Seems to be having a tough time taking off though. Have RPS or other "big guns" given this any love?

In all honesty i'm not that surprised it's not doing very well yet. They don't have an iconic industry figure heading their game, like most other successful kickstarters and their presentation shows quite a lot, but isn't very well thought out in my opinion. They don't do a very good job selling their game right now, and frankly that has become a neccessary evil to be successful on kickstarter. Let's hope, they get the party going either through better updates or some prominent coverage. They deserve it, because the setting and gameplay seem fresh and interesting.

They just need some decent PR and they'll nail this. When word spreads, they'll exceed this goal.


-Carn

I doubt it. Next to nobody will be interested in the setting. Yes, a few of you folks will be, but I know I'm not. This game looks abhorrent.

I think the setting is a tough one to draw interest but "abhorrent" seems a bit much…

Why shouldn't someone be interested in the setting? It's an interesting period in history. Why does the game look abhorrent?

I'd take a historical setting (with a bit of flavor naturally) over a run of the mill ssdd high fantasy setting in a heartbeat. Does Darklands look abhorrent to you too?

Eh, yeah. I guess abhorrent is a bit much. I find it uninteresting and vaguely unpleasant, though.

I'd rather take fantasy over this setting in most cases, yeah. Also, Darklands is fantasy. Sure it's a pretty low fantasy but there's magic and dragons and kobolds.

edit: I originally read 'SSDD' as single-sided/double-density and wondered why floppy disks were getting involved. How old am I? Or perhaps how tired.. :o

Maybe the historical context?

And by that I'm guessing you mean atrocities were committed against the indigenous people during this period? Atrocities are committed in every war, and how many games do we have based on war? And most glorify the subject. With any luck, this game will deal with the subject in an even-handed, honest way. You know what they say about those who ignore history…

There is nothing wrong in learning history, it is just knowing that one is playing a game, a role, in committing atrocities that has happened in the past does not sit comfortably with many people, including myself. Imagine a game about how to round people strategically in camps and then starving them and setting them on fire - not good at all to me.

Ditto. Gods grants us something new for change!

I suppose I can understand that point of view. I certainly wouldn't presume to tell you what you should find entertaining. I do, however, think it is a shame if that attitude is pervasive enough to steer developers away from historical subjects.

I prefer to play the Germans in Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy, which, thankfully, includes the Wermacht and the SS, and I don't think that makes me a bad person. They just have way better tanks, for one thing. :p

And I sincerely doubt this game is going to be a genocide simulator. I have no doubt man has routinely done far worse than i have ever done in any computer game. I played the hell out of Seven Cities of Gold and was never once presented with the option of pouring molten gold down Montezuma's throat. You could play that entire game as a peaceful, benign explorer. As I recall, that was the easier path to victory, because you relied so heavily on the locals for supplies.

I wish these developers every success with their interesting subject.matter.

It will also be DRM free via Desura, assuming the backing is successful, I suppose. Up those backings!!


-Carn

Its a bit of a vile setting, however; Akin to playing a rapist in a kindergarten. Like some kinda genocidal, slave trading, gold thieving rapist game. Wipe out the humans who were actually making it work and steal all their gold, women and children for that "God" dickhead and your bitch Queen.

The inkas and aztecs and mayans and all the peaceful tribes all the way up to "Alaska" (and Australia!) didn't have the war technology because they really didn't have war. They would have appeared like children or even clever animals to the Spanish who came with forged metal weapons. Unfortunately, that's what a civilized society would be like!

If we had our shit sorted, as they did, we'd go on about our 'jobs' like a child who's just learned a new song on their recorder and wants to share it with everyone for the pure joy of it. He won't stop until everyone has the song! Gee, so annoying!

Instead we tell him to sell it. He should guard the song so it isn't counterfeited. Get a copyright on it or a patent! Sell the crap out of it!! Put it in a TV ad and make LOADS! So he does. He still feels joy, but its not coming from the same place.

Multiply this by the population and you have a sick society. Seems the "innocent" like "Bobs goodly christian wife" all need to retreat to the imaginary to keep this perspective. But we shouldn't have to be deluded to be wholesome!

Still, I'm no revolutionary. Maybe I'd like to retreat to bed with Yoko until the maniacs running the world all fuck off and die too. But they won't. And if I had the reach of a Beatles song coupled with a message like this I'd be shot too.

TL;DR
I had "7 cities of gold" on Amiga but it wasn't half the game Pirates! was. =)

The Aztecs were a warrior tribe that conquered many tribes while expanding their empire. Their culture included human sacrifice and cannibalism, and cruelty towards those conquered was not uncommon. Hernán Cortés actually found many allies among the native tribes who were not happy with the Aztec rule and helped the Spanish to overthrow the Aztec empire.


Anyway, just forget what I wrote…..it is far better to think in black on white terms …. it makes pointing fingers easier.

I was just going to say that and more. Not just the aztecs had wars. They all had border skirmishes and fought all the time. The Mayan structure was also similar to the Indian structure of castes. Equality my ass. The priest and warriors were the highest. That already tells you how peaceful they were and how different they were from Europeans. (i.e. not much at all)

You don't know shit about history. Sure, it's easy to look at the conquest of aztecs now from behind the curtain of history and say, that it was unwarranted genocide etc. The truth is Aztecs were an expansionist empire (just like Spain and other superpowers of Europe), that was put together by conquest of other less fortunate tribes itself. They practiced among other things such "nice" activities as human sacrifice and cannibalism. Some of those tribes really hated the aztec empire, joined conquistadores and were in fact their main fighting force against aztecs. Despite the superior tech and cavalry (a few horses at most, they probably had a demoralizing effect more than anything else) of the spaniards, the conquest of the aztecs would have been impossible without the local allies.

Yes, the important thing that everyone overlooked - why the hell did the Spanish invade them in the first place? It is non of their business to go across half of the globe to invade the Aztecs - or should I say 'liberate' them in today's terminology!

For the same reason everyone did at every time in history. For more power, more wealth, more land, …

You mean invading parasites. So no army or person coming from outside of their country has the slightest right to claim or justify killing them because of their way of life.

This discussion is funny for me. I actually didn't even give it any thought about the setting. All I cared about was that it was turn based, party, tactical with resource management. That's all I need, I don't care if the setting is in Timbuktu's sewers.

It´s also a roleplaying game, maybe players don´t have to always play assholes.

What ?

Exactly. In fact, the developers have confirmed, that you are not railroaded to play a bloodthirsty self-serving asshole, although you'll likely be surrounded by such characters.

The team released a video of an early combat encounter. I really like what i see so far. Graphics are really nice for an indie game and there are traps and barricades to make combat more interesting. Traps work both ways and barricades are destructible. It also seems, that ranged AI is quite eager to use hit and run tactics, which is a nice touch.