Krater: Shadows Over Solside FAQ and Screenshots
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What is Krater?
Krater is a top-down roleplaying game in a colourful post-apocalyptic setting from Swedish developer Fatshark set to be released Q2 2012. It combines the combat mechanics of action-rpgs with the top-down tactics of the classic old-school RTS such as Syndicate. The rich world opens up for the players via exploration of the immense world map.
It is based on a new IP - Krater takes place in a gigantic impact crater, where a city has been built on the aftermath of a bomb. Teams of adventurers, called free-diggers, compete with each other to excavate valuable pre-armageddon technology from an endless system of tunnels, caves and bunkers.
Krater is set in the oddly unique world of lush post-apocalyptic Sweden, where genre-typical deserts are replaced by nordic pine forests and red wooden cottages.
How will the gameplay work in Krater?
In Krater you will control three soldiers at any time, these three soldiers are selected from a larger roster of characters that the player has accumulated during the course of the game. There are four base classes of soldiers in the game: The Bruiser is the tank character excelling in soaking up damage and controlling the aggression of the enemies. The Medikus makes sure that all soldiers stay alive and the Regulator is the best at controlling the battlefield using slows and stuns. The fourth class is a pure damage dealer called the Slayer.
However it is possible with the use of our upgrade and ability component system to change how any class functions their starting class only governs how their base abilities work and what area of combat they excel at.
What is the difference between the upgrade and the ability component system?
The upgrade system lets the player inject his soldiers with increases to any of the stats in the game effectively changing how well that soldier is at performing certain actions. The stats alters how well a character is at anything from doing damage to how fast his cool downs run out.
The Ability Component system lets a player alter how any of the four classes base abilities function. For instance if the player wants a self sufficient tank he can slot his Bruisers abilities with healing components effectively letting the Bruiser heal himself every time he uses one of his abilities.
Combining these two systems lets the player tweak his soldiers to function in a way that suits his or her play style. Adding healing components to the Bruisers stomp ability and injecting him with focus upgrades will create a healing tank that has great survivability but might not be as effective at killing enemies as a Bruiser that has been injected with damage components and strength upgrades.
How will the injury system work?
We wanted actions in the game to have consequences so we introduced a injury system to the game. Every time a character gets knocked down in combat a meter associated with that character will increase. After a set number of knock downs that character will be inflicted with a injury.
Injuries can be a number of different things e.g a broken arm will lower that characters strength effectively lowering his melee damage output, while a concussion will lower his intelligence causing his abilities to have longer cast times as well as longer cool-downs.
If a player is inflicted with too many injuries that character will die removing him from the players roster forever. So it is very important to keep an eye on your team-members and take them to the doctor to get patched up.
So there is permanent death in the game, are there any other permanent choices in the game?
Yes, a lot of the players actions in the game will have permanent consequences and the game is filled with permanent or semi permanent choices. For instance each time you equip one of your characters with an upgrade, or ability component, that is a permanent choice. Also everything the player does in the game is automatically saved so it is not possible for a player to create a save game and make a decision and the reload and pick the other option if he didn't like the outcome of a situation.
