Hinterland

[danielOut]

Hinterland (http://www.tiltedmill.com/hinterland/) looks really interesting to me. I think it only takes listening to a couple episodes of the podcast to understand how much I adore building things. However, a close (so close!) second to building things is killing things. Hinterland lets me build things and kill things. I figure they can't go wrong with this.

I am quite tempted to pick it up, and at only $20 it is pretty much a steal. However, that low price point makes me nervous. Should I just save those $20 smackers for one of the millions of big titles this fall?

Someone who knows something, halp!

[Jackel]

I've been interested in this one as well. I might wait until it is put up on a Steam Weekend deal, or until I've heard some opinions on it.

[danielOut]

What we need to do is find a sucker, and get him to buy it.

[skwish]

you need to find a sucker who likes doing what you do


Then your gold

Skwish = not the sucker your looking for :D

[danielOut]

You're not allowed to be the sucker, Skwish. Not until you catch up to me in WAR.

[Rogue_hunter]

I'm a sucker, and I was probably gonna be buying this game anyways. I didn't know it was up already? Is it?

$20 + Steam + building stuff + killing stuff = AWESOME in the Rogue_hunter math book.

[danielOut]

From what I've read it is up. I wish there was multi. That would be even more win.

Our cities could team up and take over the world!

[danielOut]

<--- Decided to be the sucker himself. Downloading.

[danielOut]

Triple posting. I'm such a bastard. However, I had to let people know...

I just saw mermaid tits.
It was cycling through little paintings on the loading screen, and all of a sudden there were breasts in my face. Starting the tutorial now, but I'm pretty sure the boobs win points.

[pheriannath]

Boobs = Automatic 8.5

[Sandman]

No multiplayer = no sale....even if Ican play it on my crappy laptop. It'll have to wait till the winter drought hits.

[MagGnome]

danielOut - Be sure to give us some impressions! This game just landed on my radar today, but I'm really interested in finding out more about it. It's been far too long since I last got into a good building game. Strategy/God games are probably my favorite genre(s), and this looks pretty cool. It needs a demo.

[Lekon]

Impressions: The game is mixed. The combat is hack and slash, but no special moves. However the loot aspect is great, as sometimes you'll find loot that is damn handy. I never thought I'd say "Hell yes!" at finding a hoe in a chest, since it let my farmer suddenly start making a ton of food.

The game is fairly customizable. You can choose if there are raider attacks, if the King sends requests, if there are random resources or not.

[Lekon]

It still has new game smell, so I can't give an unbiased review, but I have been having fun as a mercenary.

Seems I am having trouble posting. So quick notes: There are a decent number of characters, all basically start with resources, bonuses, and penalties unique to them. The Goblin Chemist is smart, has good items and helps with research, but no one likes him. The Courtesan, well, everyone likes her, but she can't fight worth a damn. Overall: Good game... needs a demo play before you buy though.

[Rogue_hunter]

Boobs = Automatic 8.5

8.5 MINIMUM. God of War = 10, Conan (the single player game) = 8.5, Age of Conan = 8.5 (for the first month), The Witcher (both versions) = 10

I dunno how many other games have boobs, but the ones that do exist are completely awesome. The only one that sucked was BMX XXX, but let's not remember that game, mkay?

[MagGnome]

Thanks for the impressions Lekon!

Hopefully they'll put out a demo soon.

[torrefaction]

I'm digging this. I'm not sure how LONG I'll dig it for, given a lot of the archaic stuff going on, but it's fun for $20.

[Deadend]

This game needs a demo for me to try.

[LordDon]

It almost looks like an updated version of Majesty (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/majestythefantasykingdomsim/index.html).

First King's Bounty and now this. *sigh*

[Ten19]

This game needs a demo for me to try.

Aye, this, and more impressions by suck^H^H^H^H intrepid gamers who try it ;)

[Spigot]

I know Agentgray got this and was loving it. I definately plan to snag it but I'm so swamped with games right now that I need to do my best to stem the tide and actually clear some of them out.

I'll get around to this at some time in the near future though. If I knew my laptop could handle it, I'd get it right away, but that thing can barely run Uplink...

[danielOut]

Just got done player, and I'm beat. With the EAR to IGC transition and site build, watching this site launch, and just it generally being late, i intended to write up some first impressions. However, it'd just be four sentences and then my head hitting the keyboard.

Tomorrow, you get your first impressions. Promise.

[flinxz]

I'll get around to this at some time in the near future though. If I knew my laptop could handle it, I'd get it right away, but that thing can barely run Uplink...

In case anyone missed these:
System Requirements
Windows® XP or Vista
1.8 GHz processor or higher
512 MB RAM Windows XP® (1 GB for Windows® Vista)
64 MB DirectX 8.1 compatible card
350 MB free hard drive space

[Hotcod]

The game is good, for the price tag if you like the idea of it you're not really going to go far wrong but just don't expect to much from it. The environments are the only major disappointment being uninspired and nothing more than a simple grid and the only annoying thing is just how random the game is.

The difficulty just seems unbalanced, you can go from being fine to being over run by raiders and losing so much fame that you can't get it back beacuse the only places you can really attack will just get you killed. That and the fact that you can't put ads out for types of people and have to hope you get the right kind of people visiting is just silly... given that you honestly need an inn and a merchant and a shrine as fast as you can get them it's just annoying to be set up to 'lose' by something you've not done if these people take forever to turn up.

Also make sure you read the manual at the site as the ingame help is a joke and there is no tutorial. That said i understand all these problems given its very much a indy game and the devs have a rep for fixing up a game over time and given that this is there baby i hope we see a lot more of that with lots of added content and so on

[Lekon]

Hotcod, where's the manual at the site? I couldn't find it.

The game is fun, I just finished my first game finally. Make sure you play with raiders off your first time, doing that made the game a lot more fun and a lot less painful. I beat it with a mercenary, and oddly enough I only started finding the items I really needed... after I'd pretty much won.

Having a necromancer in the town really helped. She was able (After some research) to summon level 7 undead, which wiped the floor with those last couple monsters.

[Hotcod]

if you've won a game by this point the manual isn't going to help much... but when it just throws you in with no idea what your a meant to be doing it's a nice thing to have

http://www.tiltedmill.com/hinterland/manual.php

[mightbe]

I hope to pick it up when steam throws it on sale.

[biosc1]

Also make sure you read the manual at the site as the ingame help is a joke and there is no tutorial. That said i understand all these problems given its very much a indy game and the devs have a rep for fixing up a game over time and given that this is there baby i hope we see a lot more of that with lots of added content and so on

Dang, that was stupid of me...last night I was trying to figure out how to build an "inn".

It is a fun little game. Definitely has that "just a few more minutes" type game play. Yah, it's simple, but it's fun is in it's simplicity. I consider it in the same category as Sid Meier's Railroads. Not anything complex, but fun nonetheless.

Not sure of the lasting power of this game, but for $20, anything more than a few hours of gameplay and fun would be more than worth it :)

[Hotcod]

i've already dumped enough fun hours in to it for the cost so i'm happy enough. I think i may have to start running it in a window beacuse i keep finding points that i just want to sit back and earn gold from the town and so on... its annoying that there's not a skip day or speed up time function

[jpublic]

Meh, at $20 I said WTH and picked it up. It's pretty damn fun. I think the interface programming is a little sloppy, though.

[squirrelTactics]

All this Hinterland talk has got my interest piqued...

[jpublic]

Be warned there are some hefty issues with it. I can't get this running at all on my Vista box. Works on my WinXP machine.

[danielOut]

Alright, I played through a game. came out with like 3500(ish) as my final score. Not sure how good or bad that is. The early food demand is a fun thing to deal with, and I mean that. Made me feel at home. The real lack of customization in your town layout (as in... it doesn't really matter where you put anything but your guard towers) has me a bit disappointed, as does the preset building sites. I wanted to be able to customize my town more.

The adventuring gameplay is very well balanced with the town management; I go out, clear an area or two, by that time my inventory is full and I head back to town. Sell my stuff, manage my folks, do any upgrades or get villages, move on. However, I wish the adventuring was a little more diverse. A melee/ranged/support set of skills would make it a little more diverse. Could have used some more monster variety, too.

The interface needs a lot of love. It is my only major complaint. The keyboard controls are wacky feeling, and you can't remap them. There is only one zoom level. Things are not presented terribly well. It really needs to be refined and streamlined.

I'm absolutely going to play some more sometime soon. At $20, I am glad I picked it up. I'm sure we'll see an expansion; there is so much great stuff that would be easy to add in, such as more heroes, buildings, etc.

[biosc1]

Be warned there are some hefty issues with it. I can't get this running at all on my Vista box. Works on my WinXP machine.

Are you running into the issue where you can't seem to start it up? It appears to freeze on the grey start-up screen? Just whack a bunch of buttons (I find ESC worked well).

[danielOut]

Runs on Vista just fine for me.

[Bad Buddha]

Dang! Not enough city building in The Witcher.

I might have to pick this up! I've always liked the city building games, and Diablo 2 has never been off of any of my machines. Looks like it might fit the type of game that I like. I like the idea of games that can be finished in a couple of hours, too!

[jpublic]

Are you running into the issue where you can't seem to start it up? It appears to freeze on the grey start-up screen? Just whack a bunch of buttons (I find ESC worked well).

No, I've got the issue where it hangs on 'Waiting for Server'.

[J Arcane]

It looks frankly rather confusing. If there's a demo, I'll check it out, but this isn't one I'm liable to buy site unseen.

Though the fact that it's from the Caesar IV folks might appeal to my roommate.

[Vyzov]

From I've been hearing from folks, it sounds like it's alot of fun. This is probably going to be something I pick up. I especially like the randomness aspect of the game that I keep hearing about. Never knowing what to expect is a selling point for me.

[danielOut]

It looks frankly rather confusing. If there's a demo, I'll check it out, but this isn't one I'm liable to buy site unseen.

It is rather confusing. Expect a lot of guess-and-check gameplay your first game or two.

[walkstheplanes]

I'm enjoying this thoroughly. With Tilted Mill's reputation of improving their games' content with patches (basically awesome overhauls), I'm seeing this game only getting better. Great deal for 20 dollars.

[IIntrude]

I am very tempted to buy this one, but I would really love a demo first. Been thinking of getting this and Gravitron (sp?) on Steam.

[jpublic]

Gravitron has a demo. Try it first. I thought it was a pain to play.

[Bad Buddha]

First game that I've purchased on Steam. Damn! That was WAY too easy!

Played for about a half hour before I had to start dinner. looks like fun; and a bit frustrating.

[Telefrog]

I want to get this, but I'm going to have to wait for a demo.

[jpublic]

My only real complaint is the fact that something on my work rig - the fact that it's on a domain, the fact that my account on the computer is a AD account (yet a local admin), or something - makes thegame not work on it. Irritates the crap out of me.

[Hotcod]

If your getting the grey screen just press exit, its happened to me twice and that's worked. Anyway just finished my first game, long with no raiders and i rather enjoyed it... i will probably play again at some point with raiders and so on but i'm happy enough with the price that i paid for the time and enjoyment i've gotten already. Given i think nothing of £10 for a taxi home or a few drinks or going to see a film it's good value for money.

My town just before the end
http://hotcod.madebymonkeys.net/hint1.jpg
My party just before the attack on the last base. I had a guard, a necro (with 3 level 14 undead) and a dragon handler... the dragon is a bit sucky really (always dies) but the handler was a good level and kick ass in his own right so the dragon was just a nice extra.
http://hotcod.madebymonkeys.net/hint2.jpg
myscore
http://hotcod.madebymonkeys.net/hint3.jpg

So some hints, first try and get a herb filed... i was unlucky in that it took me a while but it seems you can lots of doctors which means you can get lots of health pots which is a huge help.

A merchant is a must it should be the fist thing you aim for (mannor and inn, i think) as it lets you sell things and lets you set people who make things to selling them which greatly helps with gold income if your at a point you have to sit at the town for a bit.

Also you sell things where ever you are (don't have to be in town) and can shift click things in loot boxes to sell them... i only worked that out towards the end, made looting much quicker and meant you inventory only has to be for things you want to keep.

While i've not gone down the good root so i can't compeer the necro is just awesome... if you get him to research up a few levels he'll be pumping out level 14 undead, 3 of those and your set for just about anything in the medium game.

[jpublic]

Different error HC. Mine comes from the fact that I was trying to run the game on a machine through my Active Directory account. Even though I was in the admins group on the machine, apparently Hinterland needs you to be on a local account, not a domain account.

It's basically shitty programming on their part, and they should fix it.

[danielOut]

Different error HC. Mine comes from the fact that I was trying to run the game on a machine through my Active Directory account. Even though I was in the admins group on the machine, apparently Hinterland needs you to be on a local account, not a domain account.

It's basically shitty programming on their part, and they should fix it.

What has support told you? Any offer on a solution and/or refund?

[agentgray]

I love this game.

However, there is one thing about the game I don't like: the random drops.

I had everything to make a dragoneer but the egg. You really cannot play the game and create what you want until you find it. I wish there were was a way to put it in your favor somehow.

I won my first game, but was a little disappointed when it only gave me five more days to play.


They should let you keep your character from game to game
Make it open ended
it needs online leaderboards
let you upgrade your villagers the way you want
advertise that you DON'T want a particular type of villager (I had five farmers visit at once)


I posted this somewhere else and I think I like the discussion about it better here. I apologize if you've seen it before.

[Hotcod]

ya the whole thing is far to random to the point that if you win a game or not is purely up to if you get the right people at the right time, the right lay out on your map and the right drops.

Also another tip, once people who can make things can research you can use that to pick what you want them to make or research. You just tell them to stop making things and research and then go back to making things and when you do they will start making a random item but since you can keep doing it you can do it till the random thing they start making is the one you want. Which makes me wonder why you can't just pick what you want them to make.

There is, i think, a huge lack of control on every level of the game

[agentgray]

I learned that research trick as well as soon as I played with the game mechanic or researching and selling. I wish there was something that told you how many days are left in the craft.

The neat thing is that the developers are listening to all this stuff voiced by the gamers. I would not be surprised to see a patch.

[jpublic]

What has support told you? Any offer on a solution and/or refund?

Nope. Haven't heard anything. One guy's response (not one of their people)was to use an account on the local machine, and I emphatically told him that wasn't happening, and was a stupid solution. A program should not care whether the account is local or not. None of my *other* Steam games give a shit.

OTOH, it runs fine on my home machine.

[Spigot]

OTOH, it runs fine on my home machine.
Maybe this is just their way of saying, "DON'T PLAY GAMES AT WORK!"

[Hotcod]

posted a thread on the forum giving a much more detailed view of my thoughts on the games problems... http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18639 you can read it if any one cares. I like the game enough that i felt like i should try and given some good constructive feedback.

Oh and there an patch

* Pet dragons now move at the proper speed
* Score modifiers for the difficulty setting have been rebalanced
* When playing on easy, the maximum difficulty level of an encounter has been lowered
* When playing on difficult or hardcore, enemies will work together more frequently when they fight you
* Fixed several issues relating to random chests, the way they were distributed in the world, and King's requests for items in chests
* Audio loading moved from pre-game to scenario creation (may fix some audio driver conflicts, improves game start time)
* Fixed an issue with some versions of direct 9.0c in particular installations of Vista and DirectX 10 that would cause crashes on start-up or when loading
* Switched to starting in windowed mode by default (may fix some crashes on start-up)
* Fixed minimap corruption at higher resolutions
* Fixed a rare infinite loop in scenario creation that caused a lock-up on starting a new character
* Fixed an issue with the game resizing fonts more than necessary (may fix some crashes, particularly upon changing to full-screen mode)

[agentgray]

The mini-map fix is nice. I've also noticed that my characters run faster on the map, but the initial game load is not any faster. Has this patch been applied yet on Steam?

So far, the only games I've played have been on Easy. I really haven't experienced any of those other glitches.

[Spigot]

Must... resist... getting... game...

Nice to see the insanely fast patch though.

[jpublic]

Maybe this is just their way of saying, "DON'T PLAY GAMES AT WORK!"

Look, I don't spend my time making sure all the machines at work rock for games to *not* play games at work.

What are you, nuts?



I kid. Really. I work at a place where we need high performance machines for CAD/Science/Engineering apps. It just so happens they happen to be good for games.

[Hotcod]

exactly my reason for having a laptop worth gaming on... what i needed it to do just so happened to be good for gaming and you don't tend to get laptops with high ram and good processors with out a graphics card.... heh

[Karnov]

Ha! I laugh at your puny score. My dragon kicked ass, but it was level 20ish or so when i realised it could actually take damage... I think leaving it in the pen makes it level up, as I didn't use it for a good while after it hatched. Used a couple of archers and a priest in my party for most of the game.

I really hope they will release some free content updates though, there's not much left to see after your first game. Though the map legend did have an entry for quest location, something I've yet to encounter.

Edit: BTW the female goblin character portraits are worth the price alone.

[agentgray]

Ha! I laugh at your puny score. My dragon kicked ass, but it was level 20ish or so when i realised it could actually take damage... I think leaving it in the pen makes it level up, as I didn't use it for a good while after it hatched. Used a couple of archers and a priest in my party for most of the game.

I really hope they will release some free content updates though, there's not much left to see after your first game. Though the map legend did have an entry for quest location, something I've yet to encounter.

Edit: BTW the female goblin character portraits are worth the price alone.
As McGregor you must have went straight to the fortress? I wish there were a couple of other conditions for winning other than defeating the main stronghold.

[Karnov]

Ah no I think I quit that game for early for some reason or other... but the only win condition I've seen is kill everything on the map..?

[That Darn Kat]

I've been playing this game quite a bit today, and I was wondering if anyone knew for sure whether or not townspeople still produce/research items if they're selling things.

[Spigot]

Gosh darn it all to heck. I cracked. Man...

This game had better be worth the self-loathing I'll feel.

[Hotcod]

dear good god... i'm being some what painted as the aint chirst on the forum by fan boys for daring to try and give constructive criticism based on what the dev have said they wanted to do... they've even resorted to calling it a casual game to defend the lack of depth when it was never marketed as a casual game (far from it) and is under the rpg/strategy section of steam not the casual.... god you'd think some one wanting to help the devs by giving them useful feedback would be welcomed but nooooooo if you don't love the game as it is then you must be expecting something it was never going to be and an idoit ext ext

[jpublic]

On the good news side, apparently they've recognized my problem as an official bug.

Finished my first Easy/Medium-length game last night. Courtesan, 2123.

[Spigot]

Any game that requires me to have to go scouring a website to figure out how to do basic things in it is NOT casual.

I'm still having issues trying to get the game to run. I did get a game running briefly but that was the moment my wife declared that she needed the computer to check her e-mail. Sigh.

Off I go to see if I can get it not to lock up during the world creation part.

[agentgray]

On the good news side, apparently they've recognized my problem as an official bug.

Finished my first Easy/Medium-length game last night. Courtesan, 2123.
I wonder. Does it really matter what you pick as a character type? Does it only affect the score multiplier?
Any game that requires me to have to go scouring a website to figure out how to do basic things in it is NOT casual.

I'm still having issues trying to get the game to run. I did get a game running briefly but that was the moment my wife declared that she needed the computer to check her e-mail. Sigh.

Off I go to see if I can get it not to lock up during the world creation part.
I thought the game play of the game was self-explanatory. Maybe you're reading into it a little too much.

I read of some people complaining about a tutorial or some walk-throughs, but the game is not that complex.

[Hotcod]

it would not have been hard to add some tool tips to explain things the first time you play... once you've played one game you have a good idea but there is still a lot i don't know about how things work and so on

[Spigot]

I thought the game play of the game was self-explanatory. Maybe you're reading into it a little too much.

I read of some people complaining about a tutorial or some walk-throughs, but the game is not that complex.I thought the character type mattered when it came to starting stats/bonuses/etc.

And yeah... It's actually not that tricky once you just sort of sit down and tinker with it. I'm still having issues with it on a technical level, but I've played enough that I can see the brilliance in it.

[jpublic]

I wonder. Does it really matter what you pick as a character type? Does it only affect the score multiplier?


If affects the following:

1) Starting equipment
2) Starting resources
3) Battle effectiveness with various weapons (my courtesan *sucked* with 2-handers, but did well with 1-handers)
4) Growth rate of food/gold from the town.
5) Fame

I recently tried an Easy/Short Outlaw game, and got romped. I just couldn't build fame enough to get some of the townies I needed.

[agentgray]

I recently tried an Easy/Short Outlaw game, and got romped. I just couldn't build fame enough to get some of the townies I needed.
Now, that is interesting. Anybody tried playing as a goblin? I think I may give an easy version of that a try.

[BLeeP]

I've been playing this game quite a bit today, and I was wondering if anyone knew for sure whether or not townspeople still produce/research items if they're selling things.

I went ahead and tried this out for you. I used your game save, though. I didn't get an answer but I did find out that SPOILER

I accidentally killed all of your townspeople and then saved the game.

NOT!

[Spigot]

This game is really chunky on both my laptop and my PC. I don't know why it's running so slowly. I've freed up lots of space on both. I'm not surprised it runs like crap on my laptop because Vista seems to hate games made after 1998.

It will eventually load up on my desktop but the 'create world' screen takes FOREVER to go past and I'm always convinced it's crashing. Sigh.

I like what I see... I just won't be able to muck around with it for a bit.

[That Darn Kat]

I went ahead and tried this out for you. I used your game save, though. I didn't get an answer but I did find out that SPOILER

I accidentally killed all of your townspeople and then saved the game.

NOT!
Ass.
This is the real reason you like the new spoiler text, isn't it? :p

[Bad Buddha]

I did get a game running briefly but that was the moment my wife declared that she needed the computer to check her e-mail. Sigh.

Email? She's out of the kitchen? Where's dinner? ;)

I started a game as a courtesan named Bob. Reached a plateau where all of the remaining regions were much higher levels than my character. Got killed many times and my fame is in the dumper. Couldn't find any weapons better than my starting +2 dagger until I was level 5. Frustrating!

But fun!

[agentgray]

Got killed many times and my fame is in the dumper. Couldn't find any weapons better than my starting +2 dagger until I was level 5. Frustrating!

But fun!
This is really my one big gripe with the game. It seems as when it creates some random maps it's a no win situation no matter what you do. It's almost like a complex game of solitaire.

[Telefrog]

it would not have been hard to add some tool tips to explain things the first time you play... once you've played one game you have a good idea but there is still a lot i don't know about how things work and so on

Yeah. I got through three games before I figured out how to sell crap to the merchant. Dragging items off my inventory into space is not a very intuitive way to sell stuff.

Also, is there a hotkey to bring up the Region map? It annoys me to have to click it to come up.

[Hotcod]

if you hold ctrl or shift (i forget which) you can just click to sell stuff and you can sell stuff while its still in the loot box (saves a lot of time)... as for the region map, tab key will bring it up

[Telefrog]

if you hold ctrl or shift (i forget which) you can just click to sell stuff and you can sell stuff while its still in the loot box (saves a lot of time)... as for the region map, tab key will bring it up

Tab? Crap! I should've thought of that. Thanks!

[QueQueg]

So on the topic of boobs... how explicit is it?

Not that I'm a prude or anything, but I have an 11 yr/old son. I seriously want to pick this one up (I love giving money to indy developers), because both he and I love RTS/diablo/RPG-style games. Is it something that's too explicit for the youngons? Not a problem, but it might just be yet another "Dad-only" game.

[Spigot]

I haven't actually seen any boobs myself.

The female goblin chemists may inspire other reactions, but lust is not one of them.

[Bad Buddha]

So on the topic of boobs... how explicit is it?

I've seen one loading screen of a mermaid with no top. Not terribly detailed; might be nips, might be shadows. I'll take a closer look next time... For science! ;)

[QueQueg]

I've seen one loading screen of a mermaid with no top. Not terribly detailed; might be nips, might be shadows. I'll take a closer look next time... For science! ;)

That's probably tame enough to pass muster. We let him watch Clash of the Titans, that has boobs and butts in it... but it's art :cool:

[agentgray]

The person who mentioned boobs was being way too overly sensationalistic.

I've not seen any.

...in the game.

[jpublic]

In other news, expect another patch soon. I just got a report from a Dev that they're testing the fix for the Domain permissions problem.

[walkstheplanes]

The newest patch creates invisible raiders that respawn where you downed them when you reload a saved game. Currently, the game is unplayable (at least for me) because of 3 raider groups that spawn in my town and kill all my followers. Tilted Mill has excellent support, though, so I eagerly await a patch.

[walkstheplanes]

Impressions:

The gameplay has a good balance of several genres. It doesn't particularly shine as an action RPG or City Builder, but these elements combined create an addicting, simple-but-not-too-simple game. Considering the price point, the purchase was well worth it to me. I've put in at least ten hours into the game (2 bucks an hour?), and plan to put many more, especially considering Tilted Mill's reputation with patches and content updates.

The basis of the game has you controlling a single frontier hero -- you can choose several characters with differing traits at the start of your career that affect your final score. He or she runs around killing things, looting, leveling, and garnering fame. With the loot you build homes for followers who will defend your town and/or create food, gold, and items. Fame controls the power and class of follower you can hire, and static resources you find outside in the surrounding lands will also determine if you can hire someone (an alchemist needs access to herbs, for example). Other elements to consider are that raiders will attack your town every few days, and that your king will demand resources or that an area get cleared periodically.

Initially, I was fairly confused with how the elements fit together, but after reading the game manual, I found that the fundamentals were easy to pick up. The controls are simple, and once you learn how to manage your followers, things flow fairly smoothly. So far, I have no complains about the interface or controls. Management of inventory and character traits is also fairly straight forward. A character's inventory includes a weapon, armor, shield, and misc. item. A character's stats include an attack rating, defense, and health. This may turn off more hardcore players used to a billion different item slots, but I find it works fairly well. The town is just a simple. You have followers researching, performing their jobs, or following you around. You also have the option of having followers fight or flee in the event of a raid.

I've never been a stickler for graphics (despite owning a Radeon 4870), so I'm fairly forgiving here. The graphics are functional, and I really have nothing to complain about. If you like judging a book by its cover, check out the screen shots at the official site ( http://www.tiltedmill.com/hinterland/ ).

Overall the gameplay is fairly addicting (as seen by my promise to post impressions five days earlier). It reeks of "I'll play for 10-15 more minutes," which turn into maybe an hour or more. However, despite that, the game is easy to pick up and put down. I've had solid half hour sessions before going out for the evening and when I come back and play it's as if I never had left.

I think it's a solid game. It's price point is absolutely perfect, and it's a fairly accessible game (low system req's).

As I mentioned in my last post, the current patch is wonky, but Tilted Mill has always been good with support.

[biosc1]

Holy Update Lego Batman:

Hinterland Grows, Enters the World Stage
October 10, 2008, 10:53 am - Alden Kroll - Press Release
Following last week's successful launch of Hinterland, a fantasy PC title featuring fast paced RPG combat and strategic town-building, Tilted Mill Entertainment announces the first free Content Update for the title. The full title, including the Content Update, has simultaneously been expanded to include French, German and Spanish, as well as English, in a single multi-language version of the game.

Chris Beatrice, Tilted Mill's president, had this to say: "Given all the interest and attention the title has received, and the great feedback we''ve gotten from the fan community, we wanted to demonstrate both our intention to continue supporting and developing the title, but perhaps more importantly our ability to respond quickly and appropriately to input from players. Developing the title initially was very much an iterative process, and now that process has been broadened to include the fan community as a whole. It's really great to be part of that."

The Free Content Update includes:


Two new playable character types - The Elf Archer and the Dwarf Warrior

Creature-specific item drops - Rare and unique items, (e.g. Troll Blood) that give the character who consumes them permanent bonuses

Character Info Screen - Details your abilities, and gives information on the town in general

Resource management through economic means - Dig a well for Fresh Water, plant Herbs, import Iron, etc.

Expanded character customization choices when leveling - Three ability choices instead of two with the third choice based on your character's profession.

Item Sorting - Ability to automatically sort inventory items by type and relative power

Auto-equipping - Townspeople will automatically take items they can use from the town inventory periodically as needed (this can also be turned off if desired)

Miscellaneous balancing, pacing and usability improvements and refinements - made in response to player feedback

[agentgray]

The fact that they are making other victory conditions is full of awesome. Specific drops too.

In one game I'm playing I need a source of fresh water. The difficulty is just as high on that area as the main fort. I also have over 1000 gold playing as an economic character.

Also, you should submit that press release as news.

[Hotcod]

holly crap they may have actually been reading there own forum and taking advice from people like me... that's shocking but so very very awesome. It seems they've found neat ways of addressing issues i was having that i brought up on the forum which makes this update pure awesome... i've not gone back to play the game since finishing my last long one but these updates will get me playing more i think...

i shall just say, yay for choices and control! it will let the randomness work so much better

[Spigot]

Very cool stuff. Now to see if it will work on both my PC and laptop. Why this game keeps either crashing or at least lagging horribly during the world creation part (on both the lappy and desktop) is beyond me. I'm not surprised about it killing this laptop but my PC, while no Crysis rig, is not slouch either...

Edit: Hmm... Well, I'm already further in the game-loading process than I've ever gotten with the laptop, so that's a good sign.

[biosc1]

Very cool stuff. Now to see if it will work on both my PC and laptop. Why this game keeps either crashing or at least lagging horribly during the world creation part (on both the lappy and desktop) is beyond me. I'm not surprised about it killing this laptop but my PC, while no Crysis rig, is not slouch either...

Edit: Hmm... Well, I'm already further in the game-loading process than I've ever gotten with the laptop, so that's a good sign.

Stop alt-tabbing out and posting here, that might make it more stable ;) You multi-tasker you.

[Spigot]

It probably didn't help that I was running it in power-saver mode.

The game did run, but it was crazy sluggy and it took forever for it to actually get to the game proper.

[agentgray]

Finally. A dragon! Yes, that is my character's name. He's a merchant/economist.

http://www.nintendaddio.com/img/hinterland.jpg

[danielOut]

Dear Tilted Mill,

You sons of bitches. Don't you understand that I'm trying to level in warhammer? Also, don't you realize that the coming months have fourty-metric-fucktons of games I want to play? Who do you think you area releasing a massive patch/content download this time of year? I have shit I need to play! You're supposed to be irresponsible and let you game flounder amidst other high-priced titles. Instead you do this, which makes your game a blast to play. What the fuck, Tilted Mill? Do you not want my Ironbreaker to make 33 before Fallout/Fable launches? You keep doing this shit, and I'm going to have a hard time playing other games. This is very inconsiderate, I hope you know. What devs patch stuff with such speed? Certainly not any in this day and age. Get with the times! You're supposed to make me wait months for this! I now do not know how to react in the slightest, you bastards.

Back to the grind,
-Daniel

[Ravenlock]

Ha! Good to see you're enjoying it as much as I am, daniel. Was going to ask if it had hooked you as much as I expected it would. ;)

[Libuke]

Game sounds good from all of your impressions, but I am still hesitant to buy it as Mount and Blade and Warhammer online have been consuming my play time, and I do not think I would play it for long if I bought it. If it had come out in August or September I probably would of picked it up first day.

Either way it is good to here the game is good so when I one day feel like playing it or something new I will not worry if it is good or not.

[Goronmon]

Man, this makes me really want to give this game a shot. Definately sounds like something that I would enjoy.

[Rogue_hunter]

I hate you guys, you convinced me to buy it. It's downloading right now, and I'll be playing tonight.

[Ravenlock]

Well then, our work here is done. ;)

While we're in a thread on a Steam-based game, could one of you fine gents send me an invite to the CoG Steam group? I'm Ravenlock on there as well. Would be much obliged.

[UWCrash]

Picked this up tonight and immediately dropped about 6 hours into it. In retrospect, Goblin Alchemist probably wasn't the best choice for my first play through. I would've preferred someone who either earned fame faster or was more hardy in combat. Still, I came out of it with a score of 4162 (med difficulty/length) so I guess I was doing alright by daniel's standards. ;)

The randomness was pretty annoying, as I only saw a single Acolyte the entire game. Went the Good path with them so I never got to use a Necromancer. Can anyone confirm that you can still get acolytes after upgrading the temple? I also ran into what seemed like a bug early on when I went to build a Hostel. I must've clicked just as the visitor was leaving because it took my money and placed the building, but the person was gone. Didn't see another one of those for a long time. The Dragon Egg was also the only special item I didn't find during my first game.

I think it's important to realize when you need to start taking villiagers out with you. I didn't until I was around level 5, and then it was only one or two people with a bow. At level 7 I had my Light Priest join as the fourth member of my party and it made things a lot easier. I'm definitely getting a Necro my second game, and hopefully a Dragon as well (if the game will let me).

[Ravenlock]

Went the Good path with them so I never got to use a Necromancer. Can anyone confirm that you can still get acolytes after upgrading the temple?

I cannot, and in fact I feel strongly suspicious that you can't. I too have been waiting for another acolyte to take down the Dark path after upgrading one to Light, but none have shown up no matter how much I advertise. It may be that once you've chosen an alignment, you're stuck with it.

I found one Dragon Egg, but it was a game in-progress when they released the content update (which kind of borked in-progress saves from the previous version), so I never got to hatch a dragon. I've also never found an instrument, and hence have never been able to get a bard.

[UWCrash]

I cannot, and in fact I feel strongly suspicious that you can't. I too have been waiting for another acolyte to take down the Dark path after upgrading one to Light, but none have shown up no matter how much I advertise. It may be that once you've chosen an alignment, you're stuck with it.

I found one Dragon Egg, but it was a game in-progress when they released the content update (which kind of borked in-progress saves from the previous version), so I never got to hatch a dragon. I've also never found an instrument, and hence have never been able to get a bard.

I'm curious if you can get two acolytes in your village at once, and then take each one down a different path, but short of that, do any of the magic users cast healing spells besides the Light Priest? I meant to experiment with what different spells they were, but it was pretty late-game and I just ended up finishing things.

As for the patch, I'm really glad I didn't get the game until after it came out. While not game breaking, I think I would've been annoyed without the village summary provided in the Character Info Screen they added. The amount of micromanagement I would've had to do without Item Sorting and Auto-Equipping probably would've put me off as well (in addition to making the game unnecessarily longer).

[agentgray]

I'm curious if you can get two acolytes in your village at once
I think your village can only have an affinity towards good or evil and not both.

There are also other rare items besides a dragon's egg. Many give status effects to villagers. I've only seen rares in medium size games and higher.

[danielOut]

I've also never found an instrument, and hence have never been able to get a bard.

I was really upset with my bard; I spent a lot of money to hire him on, after finding such a rare object, and all he did was give a +2 town quality bonus. That's it. Oh, and be shitty in combat. I forgot that one.
For the trouble you go through to get the bard, he really needs to be more useful.


I think it would be really interesting to do a comparative playthrough.... everyone pick the same hero/difficulty/length and then compare results. Perhaps one of the new ones?

[Spigot]

I was able to finally get a game up and running on my lappy yesterday and played for a while but the performance was so janky that I didn't do much outside of clearing a few areas.

I'm going to take it for a spin on my desktop when I get home tomorrow and see if the new patch boosts performance. All I know is that it takes upwards of 5 minutes for the world to be created on my laptop and it was pretty sluggy on my desktop... and if I can run Spore or Halflife 2: Ep 2 with nary a hitch (or Oblivion) then Hinterland shouldn't kill my system.

[walkstheplanes]

High scores, anyone? I'm currently in a competition with a friend of mine. I started up this quick hardcore game and came out with a decent score. I think I can do MUCH better though.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q30/walkstheplanes/screenshots/hinterland2.jpg

[Hotcod]

I think it would be really interesting to do a comparative playthrough.... everyone pick the same hero/difficulty/length and then compare results. Perhaps one of the new ones?

i'm up for that, i'm not very good at the game but it would be fun i think... any one want to pick out a hero and such... i would but i'm lazy

[Arphahat]

I hate you guys, you convinced me to buy it. It's downloading right now, and I'll be playing tonight.

Yeah, I'll second that. Fuckers. I wanted to hold out until the sales dipped enough for Steam to do a 1/2 pricer, but all this talk has made that impossible.

[walkstheplanes]

So I mentioned before that I'm having an informal competition with a friend of mine, both of us trying to one up the other in terms of scoring.

It goes without saying that I'm turning off map reveal, turning the difficulty on hardcore, and turning off all resources. Also, I'm speeding through my game as fast as possible to get that wonderful time bonus.

My question is regarding starting character, fame, and followers.

In regards to characters, the Outlaw comes to mind because it has the highest scoring multiplier. However, because of his lower fame acquisition, it would seem that by end game, his fame is only 500-600 vs. a potential 1000+. As a result (I think this is how it works), the visitors all level in the 6's and 7's at Max, bringing my final score down in regards to both Fame and Follower Level.

I'm wondering, should I try a Journeyman or Assassin, who's multiplier is not as high (knocked down by x0.45), but can gain more fame and higher level followers, or should I continue my game with the outlaw and optimize depending on that? In my play throughs, I did not notice much difference, but my characters always died before I could see end game.

[agentgray]

I think the scoring system is broken. At least it is on my high scores list. It really only keeps the data of my last game and a few others. Some of them even list corrupted data.

[Ravenlock]

I think it would be really interesting to do a comparative playthrough.... everyone pick the same hero/difficulty/length and then compare results. Perhaps one of the new ones?

This is still a good idea, and I'm up for it if anybody wants to do it.

[Xydarc]

Thanks for all the impressions and opinions. Now that this is available on Impulse, I may just have to give it a try.

[agentgray]

This is still a good idea, and I'm up for it if anybody wants to do it.

I agree. I've yet to break 10,000 in score and cannot figure out why.

[danielOut]

i've got some free days next week, we should certainly do this

what would be a good hero?

[biosc1]

Finally getting back into this game...and I find out it has achievements!

It sort of got lost in the shuffle in the last few weeks, but I see it has had many improvements...most important to me being the ability to plant a herb garden for your herbalist, instead of hoping to stumble across one :)

[Ravenlock]

I see that there are achievements now, but is there a list of them somewhere? I love randomly getting achievements, but the real hook is striving for them, and to do that you need to know which ones are available. Tilted Mill's website doesn't seem to have a list.

[Arphahat]

You can see the list via Steam under the stats for the game.

Just a note: I have confirmed that, although not specifically mentioned in the description of the achievement, most of the achievements apply to long, raids on, hardcore.

[biosc1]

You can see the list via Steam under the stats for the game.

Just a note: I have confirmed that, although not specifically mentioned in the description of the achievement, most of the achievements apply to long, raids on, hardcore.

AH...there goes my idea of an easy run and not hiring a companion.