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Author Topic: Heat Signature  (Read 9829 times)

icepick37

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Heat Signature
« on: July 31, 2017, 10:48:50 AM »

Brought to you by Tom Fancis, of Gunpoint fame: Heat Signature.

A game where you fly around in a pod, break into other people's ships and knock them out and steal their stuff.

It's awesome. I'm in a steam beta right now and loving it.

You perform all kinds of missions, from assassinations to rescues. Lots of unlockable weapons, gadgets, and even new pod types. You can retire and leave behind rare items for others to find.

It's kind of rogue-like-y in that you select a character and try for a big end game personal quest, but if you die, you're gone.

I will definitely be purchasing on release. It's already dang fun. The combat/stealthy/micro game is super fun. The macro game is not perfect, but definitely fun.

Check it out if the premise appeals.

http://www.heatsig.com/
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xenoargh

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Re: Heat Signature
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2017, 11:23:04 AM »

Looks a lot like WTF, but it's not clear what the game design's about, other than, "you can go in the ships", "I like maze generators", etc.  I'd like to know more about the gameplay; if we're talking "Teleglitch on random spacecraft" that sounds like something I'd play, especially if it's highly moddable.
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icepick37

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Re: Heat Signature
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2017, 12:30:05 PM »

So you jack into the ships, which are kind of puzzly, with locked doors and differing types of guards (though only 2 types per ship). Then you roll through until you meet your objective.

Usually that's a mission: Kill, capture, rescue or steal. But it's also fun just running into random ships and making off with loot.

You can also incapacitate everyone and jack their ship.

There's loot usually.

The combat can be kind of frenetic a la teleglitch, but it's usually more stealthy. If you trigger an alarm the ship will start flying for the closest friendly system, so you'll either have to set the ship adrift or escape. You can disable ship by breaking all the engines, or taking the captain out.
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RedTheHunter

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Re: Heat Signature
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2017, 05:54:27 AM »

Looks a lot like WTF, but it's not clear what the game design's about, other than, "you can go in the ships", "I like maze generators", etc.  I'd like to know more about the gameplay; if we're talking "Teleglitch on random spacecraft" that sounds like something I'd play, especially if it's highly moddable.
Its definately not WTF, but still very entertaining.
It focuses mostly on interior combat, where as WTF is more of ship design and ship vs ship combat.
Perhaps one aspect that might be similar is frantic high speed docking. Heh heh heh...

Yep, it feels a lot quite like teleglitch on random spacecraft, but add a stealth segment for good measure and versatility. I dont think you'd be dissapointed with heat signature.

It's quite well polished at this point based on released gameplay videos and is stealth based like light by team 17, but when *** hits the fan or you decide to go loud it can be as frantic and action paced as hotline miami or teleglitch.

It also brings games like streets of rouge and cryptark to mind.

Boiled down, think space dungeon stealth/action rougelike crawler.

I'm looking forward to it quite a lot.
« Last Edit: August 01, 2017, 06:01:55 AM by RedTheHunter »
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xenoargh

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Re: Heat Signature
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2017, 07:49:27 AM »

OK, thanks for clarifying how it works.  I may have to give it a go.  Is it moddable?
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icepick37

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Re: Heat Signature
« Reply #5 on: August 01, 2017, 09:07:30 AM »

Not currently. Not sure if it's coming or not. I believe it's been made in gamemaker so far.

Here's a video of some raw gameplay (no player talking) to get an idea of the stealthy game play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OuCDgE2xBU

As you go you unlock technology in stores (like silenced shotguns) that allow you to play differently. Lots of this you will find in game in those crates as well.
« Last Edit: August 01, 2017, 09:13:43 AM by icepick37 »
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Midnight Kitsune

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Re: Heat Signature
« Reply #6 on: August 01, 2017, 01:59:42 PM »

The fact that it takes 8 gigs of RAM and needs an Intel 5K kills it for me... Which sucks as I would love to get into it
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icepick37

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Re: Heat Signature
« Reply #7 on: September 21, 2017, 11:45:58 AM »

Tom said that the min specs are just the lowest they tried it on. So the *actual* min specs are anyone's guess.

That said it's a sim-ish game and does hit the cpu at times.

Also: It's launched! Check it out on steam or humble.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/268130/Heat_Signature/

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/heat-signature
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TJJ

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Re: Heat Signature
« Reply #8 on: September 21, 2017, 05:30:09 PM »

Most impressive part of the game that I've seen so far is the early bird scheme; the "everything gun" being only available for the 1st two weeks.

Genius marketing idea.

Beyond that I'm not seeing a huge amount of depth in the game loop?

Take mission
board ship
complete objective (optionally steal ship).
grab loot
hand in mission to gain control of stations
repeat.

Is the strategy of the combat *that* engaging?
Seems to me like procedurally generated ships will struggle to replicate the puzzle element that the handcrafted levels from Gunpoint (the dev's previous game) managed to achieve.
« Last Edit: September 21, 2017, 05:49:43 PM by TJJ »
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Midnight Kitsune

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Re: Heat Signature
« Reply #9 on: September 22, 2017, 07:43:54 AM »

Wait, what's this about the "everything gun"?
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icepick37

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Re: Heat Signature
« Reply #10 on: September 22, 2017, 08:47:01 AM »

repeat.

Is the strategy of the combat *that* engaging?

It reminds me of starsector in that polishing the micro-game enough can make it super engaging even when it's repetitive.

There's enough variety in missions and gear that I am still enjoying it after putting in a bunch of hours in beta. I think it helps that you are repeatedly driven to complete the personal missions, which really are quite tricky.

I will say that yeah, eventually it'll get old. But it's a chaotic messy trip in the mean time. (a really fun one)

EDIT: Here. This guy explains it better than me.


Wait, what's this about the "everything gun"?

For the first two weeks of game you can track down a special cargo ship with a unique gun in it. It'll then pop up from time to time even after the event ends, but just in random loot crates.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2017, 01:25:51 PM by icepick37 »
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RedTheHunter

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Re: Heat Signature
« Reply #11 on: September 30, 2017, 05:50:12 PM »

One thing I hope is that the dev will continue to release these special unique weapons from time to time.
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Midnight Kitsune

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Re: Heat Signature
« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2017, 10:41:20 PM »

One thing I hope is that the dev will continue to release these special unique weapons from time to time.
I hope he allows for modding or at least releases a tool to access what is in the exe. Sadly  haven't seen a lick of the dev anywhere on the forums...
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