Nexus Conquest by Blazejmg917

DESCRIPTION
Test your luck at planetary conquest in this sci-fi tactics and management game! Play as an intergalactic arms dealer as you summon soldiers and send them out on contracted missions. Manage your army and complete the objectives to earn money you can spend on equipment and EVEN MORE SOLDIERS. Will your business die out like so many before you, or will you become strong enough to rule the galaxy from the shadows?
LORE
The planet Phaerys IX is locked in an endless war. Summon trained mercenaries from across the galaxy using the Nexus Rift---a wormhole that acts as a strategically important trade port---and loan your band of mercenaries to other summoners across the galaxy to fulfill contracts for cash as you grow your company. Be careful which soldiers you choose, they're trained with specific weapons and won't easily learn new tricks. And remember, flesh is weak, but wealth is forever.
ITCH PAGE
https://blazejmg917.itch.io/nexus-conquest
CONTROLS
Fleet
Navigate Menus: Left Mouse Button
Open Inventory: Double-click a unit on the right side of the screen
Change your squad: drag units into the open space on the mothership from the right side of the screen to add them to your squad, or drag them out of the space to remove them.
Combat
Move Cursor: WASD
Select: Space
Cancel: Tab
Pop-Up Info for Weapon/Equipment of Hovered Unit: 1,2,3,4 (for each of a units 4 slots)
GUIDE

Fleet
Main Fleet Screen: Select one of the four main structures, or double-click a unit to open their inventory
The Rift: Use the unmatched powers of the rift to summon new pawns for your ever-growing army
The Black Market: Purchase gear to strengthen your favorite units so they can survive for... slightly longer than usual
The Med Bay: Send your soldiers here to recover from their injuries in battle. But be careful, your soldiers can't fight for you when they're being treated and will be unusable until you return from your next mission
Inventory: Check your units' stats and equip them with gear to make them more valuable assets
The Mothership: assign units to your current squadron, and select one of three contracts to loan your troops out to a summoner in need. The contracts you choose will determine your next mission, so choose wisely
Combat

Combat is deadly, wounds linger after battles, and the dead cannot return. Choose your moves carefully and remember: Every life has its price
Each mission has a clear condition you must match to earn your reward, so pay attention and strategize accordingly.
Rout Mission: You must clear the battlefield of all enemies to succeed. Leave no survivors
Defend Mission: You must guard a strategic point for long enough to succeed. Stand firm and hold the line
Seize Mission: You must take over a valuable position from the enemy to succeed. Move fast and strike hard
Bug Fixes
- Resolved major bug causing unit name/portrait generation to crash game
- fixed missing/incorrect tooltip/item displays for weapons/items/contracts
- fixed unit persistence bug
- fixed heat buildup and bugged active items
- fixed weapon selection/missing keyboard shortcuts
Credits
- Jack Grace Systems & UI Programmer - Fleet, Designer
- Faye Glynn Systems & UI Programmer - Combat, Designer
- Haley Barnette Systems and AI Programmer - General
- Charlie Lomax Systems Programmer - Units/Weapons/Equipment, Designer
- Max Eddington Artist - UI & Character, Designer
- Maverick Middleton Artist - Environment & UI, Designer
- Mitchell Dunning Artist - Equipment/Weapons, Designer, Concept Artist, Musician
- Landon Sugar Composer, Sound Designer, Musician
| Game (Itch) Page | https://blazejmg917.itch.io/nexus-conquest |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/nexus-conquest |
Ratings
| Overall | 493th | 3.644⭐ | 54🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 590th | 3.441⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 880th | 3.039⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1154th | 2.608⭐ | 53🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 514th | 3.817⭐ | 54🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 283th | 3.71⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 821th | 2.61⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 600th | 3.528⭐ | 55🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 77🗳️ | 95🗨️ |
The help text was long and written in capitalised letters, so it was a bit hard for me to grasp everything at once, though it gradually became clear later. Some revisions on this might be helpful.
Some of the tutorial presentation could've been staged a little gentler.
The music is really nice in terms of writing but the levels are a bit high for the more intense parts of the in game loop, the lower freq levels in the menu music were also very strong and overwhelming for headphones.
Overall a good experience though!
I did find myself a little confused at the beginning, just grasping the controls over my troops. Also, I found that the game at one point just did not allow me to make any moves. I thought I would just bring this up in case anyone else has encountered a similar thing.
This falls short on the theme, for me. There's not any difference between "summons" and "hire for cash", and I feel the theme could easily be absent and the game wouldn't be any different for it.
Mission 1 felt way too long; it took 10+ minutes before I got to the fleet action part of it, and with so many enemies I went down to 1 badly-wounded unit, which ensured my demise on the next mission.
Overall, great job!
The upgrades/mothership system was unexpected and very well made. Definitely not a detail I expect from a jam project. Teamwork is a learned skill and its very clear that this group worked together very well to create a lot for this project. Great job!
There is a lot of depth and detail here but the game falls a bit short at the level of fundamental controls and pacing. Think you should make it work with mouse or at least let the player step through the crew with keys instead of having to navigate to them for selection, this was by far the most hectic aspect for me and it makes the game much slower than it could be.
There is a bit too much moving around as well without any interesting choice to make or action to have, you could make smaller levels or somehow let the player move multiple units together to help with this.
Either way, it's an impressing entry, especially considering your team size which I imagine could have been hard to coordinate.