The Last Federation is a really unique game in that it is a strategy/tactics game set inside a simulation game. Check out its game page for details, or swing by the forums for the game. This is Arcen's largest title ever, and we're really excited to share it with folks.
Alpha Information! Private alpha testing with players is currently in progress, and we will be adding more players throughout the coming weeks leading up to release. If you're interested in signing up, please see this forum post.
This update shows off the next evolution of our combat model for the last federation. The basic gist is that we took what we had, which was something of a twitch-based SHMUP, and we refined it into a thoughtful turn-based tactics model.
You'd be surprised how little we had to remove and add to make that transition -- or, at least, we were. This is something we were kind of naturally building towards as we've gone through our four major combat modes.
The SHMUP version of combat was really quite fun -- it just didn't fit with this game. Twitch action in one mode and deep contemplation in the other made it a bit schizophrenic. With the shift to turn-based combat here, it's grand strategy on the large scale, and tactics on the small scale, which is what we originally wanted anyhow.
But! Since the SHMUP version was so fun, we're going to split that off into its own game later this year, built up around those mechanics specifically. Essentially this game has split into two much more cohesive pieces. And boy... this turn-based combat is the most fun version we've had yet.
If you want to read about the behind the scenes of the combat iterations in the game, here's a cool article about it: Behind The Scenes: Iterative Combat Design In TLF.
Enjoy!
Originally posted by Chris Park on the Games by Design blog.
Interesting. It's been a long time since I've seen a space-themed turn-based game that is as fast paced as this. Are you considering a Replay option? That would be awesome.