- Turn-based play and open crew member turn-order
- Action-point based movement and attacks
- Over-the-top animations, weapons and vfx
- Battlefield pick-ups that affect overall movement and strategy
- Class-based crew members with their own strengths, weaknesses, movement and attack ranges
- 4 different enemy factions, each with their own unique behaviors
- Dozer Upgrades (crew abilities)
- Dozer Weapons (similar to old-school “smart bombs”)
Our battle system is called blitz because the battles are swift, aggressive and intense – it’s an all-out attack from the very beginning! Opposition beware!
Your Battle Crew[]
Your Battle Crew is the first and last line of defense against the hostile enemies that roam the wasteland trying to claim territories throughout Bedlam, threatening the progress of your Dozer and the safety of your passengers. Your crew can be deployed in teams of up to six members, with up to 1 Elite or 1 Veteran per deployment. Crew member death is permanent! But in rare cases, with the use of the extremely rare Cloning Vat Dozer Upgrade, you can resurrect fallen combatants. Those who survive will gain higher levels of experience and status, allowing them to equip deadlier weapons against the ferocious enemies in Bedlam!
Pre-Battle[]
Once a battle is imminent, you will first select the most strategic combination of crew members and abilities from your existing Dozer crew and Dozer Upgrades. From the viewpoint of your Dozer’s bridge, you can preview all the current Dozer crew member portraits, abilities, movement distances, attack ranges and other vital statistics to decide who you want deployed into battle. At this point you won’t know the actual strength of the opposition’s forces, so this is where both strategy and luck come into play! In addition to choosing your crew members, you will have an opportunity to manage the Dozer Upgrades and primary Dozer Weapon. Your current supply levels will determine which Dozer Upgrades and Weapons are available, along with their operating levels and resource consumption. And you will also need to keep in mind that each will have its own recharge period before it can be used again.
Battlefield Deployment[]
Before the action commences, you can first determine the position where each crew member will begin on the battlefield. This is the unique opportunity to craft a potential strategy and arrange your battle team to maximize their combat impact. There is no single universal strategy, but your initial positioning should account for each crew member’s health and class, your selected Dozer load-outs, and the combat environment itself.
Combat[]
The battles in BEDLAM will offer plenty of depth and variety! A battlefield is similar to a chessboard, with an isometric view and each opposing side taking turns. Battlefields can be a variety of sizes and many special battles will take place on larger or irregular-sized boards. Certain battlefields will also feature protective cover, making every battle different! During a turn, each side has two action points to expend. Because there is no forced character turn-order or action order, these action points can be used in many ways. During each turn, you will decide which crew member(s) to move and/or attack, or which Dozer Upgrade or Weapon to use. Each turn gets you closer to ultimately destroying the enemy and overcoming that territory! You also have the option of retreat! It just depends on how much of your crew and resources you are willing to risk versus the possible rewards you could acquire!
A significant strategic element during combat is the inclusion of battlefield Equalizers! These items and objects are randomly inserted onto battlefields and can take many forms: atomic waste barrels, dead creatures, scrap containers, vendetta contraptions, or even packages of coveted resources! Some Equalizers can be used as temporary cover, but you’ll need to be cautious as they can also be destroyed by incoming weapon fire, resulting in the loss of any valuables they might hold! In order to gather the riches that may result from various Equalizers, you will need to maneuver a crew member to that position — which means weighing the risk of those rewards against coming under attack from foes. The caveat is that you must collect these bonus items BEFORE each battle ends!
VICTORY
After kicking some serious BEDLAM butt, surviving crew members will earn points towards their Elite or Veteran status, which can improve their health and the bonuses they receive from active Dozer Upgrades. In addition to any Equalizer pick-ups you collected during the battle, you will also collect any salvage such as Meat, Metal and Crude, or rewards like Dozer Upgrades and Weapons.
DEFEAT
Oh, slag it all! You were conquered by a band of unruly Marauders — tough luck! Any crew members who perished during combat are now unavailable for future battles (unless you are fortunate enough to find an Upgrade that can return them from the dead)! Your Dozer is damaged from the battle, so Metal will have to be spent on repairs. The Dozer is defeated once its armor is completely obliterated or when all passengers and crew are eliminated, which means it falls on the shoulders of another brave and capable soul to pick up the mantle of the Mechanic and survive the perils of Bedlam!