Zoria: Age of Shattering News

Greetings adventurers of Zoria,

It’s been a long time since our last Devlog, but there are also many changes that happened to the game in that time. The main reason we’ve been silent is that we’ve been busy making the game.
Because of this, today’s Devlog is a short and introductory one, with a brief description of all the things that happened to the game since.

Alchemy and Cooking: our last Devlog was about Crafting, but in the meantime we also implemented the Cooking and Alchemy systems. We will be making a separate Devlog detailing how the systems work in the following days.



Quest System Update: this update is not something immediately obvious to the players, but it’s nonetheless a very important update, as it allows us far more control in crafting the quests and interactions in the game. With this update we now have far more freedom in making dialogue choices as well as quest choices that have real impact and consequences in the game.



NPC behavior system: we wanted the world of Zoria to feel alive and inhabited by all kinds of characters, each with their lives. We achieved this by creating a behavior system for all the humanoid NPCs in the game, friendly or hostile. Each NPC in the game has one or more points of interests and behaviors, triggered by different events in the game.



Classes and Abilities update: this is a big one. We are in the process of updating the skill trees for all the classes in the game, with new abilities and a completely revamped tree. The update is intended to give more agency to the player in customizing all the followers, as well as making the combat more interesting with all kinds of new abilities.
We will return in the following weeks with detailed presentations for each class, the skill tree and all the abilities available.



Content: Together with all these updates we have been working on the content, with the first big area in the game, Rithvale, almost complete at this point, in terms of main area, dungeons and encounters. There is still work being done on the main quest, side quests and all the small details that make a game good. As with all the other elements described in this post, we will return with a more detailed post about Rithvale.

We also completely reworked some of the scenes from the Prologue (Thallamar for example) and increased the visual quality overall.



Until further details, I leave you with the new Main Screen background:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


If you want to join the conversation, you can join our Discord:

Greetings adventurers of Zoria,

Today is the turn of the Crafting System to receive a thorough presentation. The crafting system is part of the Outpost base and follower management System, but since it is almost complete and ready to go into closed beta testing, we decided to introduce it before the overall presentation of the Outpost.
Crafting in Zoria: Age of Shattering revolves around 2 key elements – recipes and player’s freedom to experiment and optimize.

The Crafting Screen:

• The screen is split in 3 parts:
  
• Available recipes on the left side
  
• Inventory with all the available materials and crafting items on the right side
  
• The crafting area in the center.
  

Once a recipe is selected, that item’s characteristics, bases stats and requirements appear in the crafting area. Each requirement slot must be filled with the specified number of materials (e.g. 2 crystal slots, 1 metal slots).

• The item’s stats change according to the materials used to fill the slots, the complete stats being visible in the upper part of the central screen.
  
• The lower part of the central screen is where the special slots are located: the Crafting Kit slot and the Unstable Slot.
  
• Below them there is the item’s cost to craft and the Crafting Chance, that will remain 100% as long as no material is added to the Unstable Slot.
  

Recipes:
In order to craft any item, Armor, Weapon or Trinket, a recipe is necessary. These recipes can be acquired in a number of ways:

• Exploration – either on the main area map or exploring dungeons and hidden places.
  
• Quest rewards – by performing certain tasks and doing various quests.
  
• Missions – by sending characters on unattended missions that reward recipes.
  

Recipes, just like the items they help craft, are grouped by rarity:

• Common
  
• Uncommon
  
• Rare
  
• Exotic
  
• Epic
  

Each recipe allows the player to craft a certain item: Armor, Weapon or Trinket, of the recipe’s rarity.

All recipes have the following:

• Item Level.
  
• Item Type: Armor, Weapon, Trinket
  
• Base Stats – 1 to 3 base stats, specific to the recipe, depending on item rarity.
  
• Item Durability.
  
• Crafting Kit slot.
  
• Crafting slots, number depending on rarity.
  
• Unstable Slot.
  

Item Level:

• Each recipe can craft an item of a certain level, its base stats depending on this level as much as the recipe’s rarity.
  

Item Type:

• For Armors – Armor Type – light, medium, hardened, heavy
  
• For Weapons – Weapon Type – sword, axe, dagger, …
  

Base stats, depending on item types:

• Armors can have 1-3 Main Stats, depending on rarity - Stamina, Strength, Agility, Intellect.
  
• Weapons can have 1-3 Main or Secondary Stats, depending on rarity.
  
• Shields can have 1-3 Main Stats, depending on rarity and also have a Block Chance Stat.
  
• Trinkets can have 1-3 Secondary Stats, depending on rarity.
  

These stats are fixed for each recipe and will add their values to the custom slots of the recipe.

Item Durability:

• All items have a base durability. This base durability is based on the Common Crafting Kit.
  
• The items durability can be improved by using better Crafting Kits.
  

Crafting Kit Slot

• Crafting Kits are the base of any item to be crafted.
  
• The Common Crafting Kit can be used to craft any item, either weapon or armor, and it comes with a base Durability value.
  
• Other Crafting Kits can be used to craft specific items of greater durability – Uncommon, Rare and Exotic Crafting Kits provide greater durability for the crafted item, but they are specific to an item type.
  
• The type of Crafting Kit used is entirely at the player’s discretion, there are no limitations within the recipes.
  

Freedom to experiment and optimize:

The Crafting Slots and Unstable Slot together allow the player to experiment and craft a number of different items based on the same recipe, depending on the materials used.

Crafting Slots

• There are 2-5 crafting slots for a recipe, depending on rarity.
  
• Each Crafting Slot has a Material Type and a quantity – e.g. For a common item, the recipe can have the following slots: 2x Metal and 3x Fabric
  
• For an item to be crafted, all required slots must be completed.
  
• An item will be successfully crafted using any materials of the type and quantity specified in the Recipe: Metals, Fabrics or Crystals.
  
• Each material provides a different stat allowing the player to experiment and create different items starting from the same recipe.
  
• Completing all Crafting Slots with the appropriate materials results in 100% chance to craft that item.
  

Unstable Slot
This is the true wildcard of the crafting system, allowing the player greater freedom in crafting but bringing along greater risk in the crafting process.

• Additional to the normal Crafting Slots, that provide 100% chance to craft the item, all recipes also include an unstable slot.
  
• This unstable slot is completely optional, filling it is not required to craft an item.
  
• The Unstable Slot is the only slot where Fragments can be placed, a special type of crafting material, that provide enhanced stats.
  
• The Unstable Slot allows the player to craft more powerful items but with the added risk of the item’s chance to be successfully crafted decreasing.
  
• For each item placed in the Unstable Slot, the chance to craft decreases by 15% and the item durability decreases by 3%.
  

The Blacksmith:
Being part of the Outpost facilities, crafting is accessible through the Blacksmith and uses the Outpost inventory, where all the materials accumulated during the player’s adventures are located.



As with most of the buildings in the Outpost, the Blacksmith can be upgraded, providing access to more recipes or other bonuses. More about the Outpost and the upgrade system in a future Devlog.

With crafting is almost in testing phase, Alchemy and Cooking are already in development and they will be the subject of our next Devlog, followed by the other systems that make up the Outpost.




If you want to join the conversation, you can join our Discord:

Greetings adventurers of Zoria,

We’ve had a busy couple of months with the release of the Prologue and the Steam Summer Festival, going through all the awesome feedback we have received from you and updating and improving the Prologue based on that feedback.
With Prologue update 0.3.5 launched and all that behind us now, we are moving towards finalizing development for the features that are still missing and adding content for the game.

For today’s Devlog we will make an in-depth presentation of the updated stats system and its influence on skills and items in the game. We will not be discussing exact numbers since game balance is still ongoing and many of these numbers will probably be adjusted several times before release, but the workings of the system remain in place.

First thing to mention, we are renaming some stats that proved to be confusing for a lot of players to be more in-line with classic RPG players expectations.

• Mastery becomes Strength
• Prowess is now more properly named Agility
• Speed is now Initiative, to better illustrate its role in the combat queue.
  

Together with the new Stats we are introducing several new concepts:

• Melee Attack Power
• Ranged Attack Power
• Spell Power
• Block Power

Every ability’s power is influenced by one of these 3 values, and each of these values is directly influenced by a Main Stat.

Block power only applies to characters wearing a shield and mitigates a percentage of the damage received depending on the Block Power of that character.



With all this said, character stats now look like this:

Main Stats

These stats directly influence the character’s various attributes (health, damage) and the power of a character’s individual abilities.

• Stamina: directly affects the character’s health. Especially important early game and the single greatest contributor to player survivability.
  
• Strength: especially important for melee characters, directly affects Melee Attack Power and increases the Energy pool for Lancer class and Captain. Also increases block power for characters wearing a Shield.
  
• Agility: increases Ranged Attack Power for Ranger. Increases Melee Attack Power for Thief. Increases Melee Attack Power for Lancer, Kingsman, Battle Cleric and Captain, to a smaller degree. Increases Energy pool for Ranger, Thief, Kingsman. Increases Crit Chance with values depending on class. Increases Armor.
  
• Intellect: Increases Spell Power. Increases Magic Armor. Increases Crit Chance for magic abilities. Increases Mana pool for Wizard, Necromancer, Priest, Battle Cleric, Bard.
  
• Armor: reduces the amount of damage received from physical abilities and effects.
  
• Magic Armor: reduces the amount of damage received from magic abilities and effects.
  

Secondary Stats:

• Initiative: it influences the character’s place in the combat queue at the start of the combat as well as the place it will be placed in the queue once that character’s turn is finished. A character with a high Initiative value will be placed higher in the combat queue, once its turn is completed, than a character with a low Initiative value.
  
• Hit Chance: chance to hit with an ability. Is directly influenced by level difference between the character and the enemy. The higher the level of an enemy compared to the character, the lower the Hit Chance.
  
• Crit Chance: Critical chance is influenced by the dominant stat for that class – Agility or Intellect.
  

Elemental Resistances:

All magic effects belong to a type of elemental magic.

• Fire Magic
• Water Magic
• Nature Magic
• Arcane Magic
• Death Magic
• Light Magic

Light and Death Magic are in direct opposition, with Death Magic wielders being especially weak to Light Magic and Light Magic wielders especially weak to Death Magic abilities.
Enemies weak to Fire Magic are also equally weak to physical Fire effects, like the Fire Arrow Ranger ability.
Elemental resistances mitigate a percent of the incoming damage from that specific element. Gear pieces with elemental resistance have values representing their elemental resistance. These values translate to different percentages of elemental resistance, depending on level, making a low-level gear piece more effective in elemental protection for the appropriate level character.



Effects:

These effects are placed on the character by various abilities and can be temporary (only during combat) or permanent (must be removed either by resting, using a potion or in the Outpost). Each effect influences the player’s stats differently:

• Sunder: can be applied by physical abilities. Decreases the player Armor and can stack multiple effects.
  
• Wound: can be applied by physical abilities. Decreases the player Initiative while active.
  
• Bleed: can be applied by physical abilities. Deals damage over time to the character until removed.
  
• Stun: can be applied by any kind of abilities. Locks the character in the current position in the combat queue for its duration.
  
• Poison: can be applied by Nature abilities. Decreases Hit Chance.
  
• Disease: can be applied by Nature abilities. Decreases Agility and Intellect.
  
• Curse: can be applied by Death abilities. Decreases Strength and Magic Armor.
  

These effects do not show on the Character Stat sheet but in the abilities description for each ability that places a certain effect. Some enemies can be immune to certain types of effects, making the abilities that place those effects less effective. This immunity will be shown in the Compendium entry for each enemy.

Stats influence on abilities:
The power of each ability of a certain class is affected by a main stat. Because of this, different builds for a class can benefit from a different main stat.

As an example, below some of the Kingsman’s abilities and the stats affecting their power:

• Strength: Basic Attack, Vanquish thy Foe, Avenger Strike, Bash of Wrath
  
• Agility: Shield Wall, King's Resolve, Deflect, Hold the Line, Avatar of Protection
  
• Intellect: Magic Absorption, King's Fire
  

Fatigue: is a special stat, central to the Fatigue and Outpost recovery mechanic. We will introduce more details on this mechanic in a dedicated post, at a later date.

Together with the Stats update we are also introducing new stats to armor and weapons.

Durability: all weapons and armor now have a certain durability that decreases with each combat. Once a gear item’s durability reaches 0, that item is no longer usable and provides no contribution to the character’s stats.

Armor Types:

• Light Armor: worn by Wizard, Necromancer and Priest classes.
  
• Medium Armor: worn by Ranger, Thief, Bard classes and the Captain.
  
• Hardened Armor: worn by the Ranger, Kingsman, Lancer, Battle Cleric classes and the Captain.
  
• Heavy Armor: worn by the Kingsman and Lancer classes.
  

Weapon Damage and Spell Damage:

• All weapons now have a weapon damage stat. This damage is added to the base attack of the character using that weapon.
  
• Specific caster weapons, like the staff, have a Spell Damage stat instead of Weapon Damage.
  

There are any more changes coming to Armor and Weapons, but we will detail those systems in our next Developer Log, that will focus on gear and the Crafting System.


If you want to join the conversation, you can join our Discord:

Greetings, adventurers of Zoria.

Join us on a developer chat, on our Discord server, June 21st, as part of the Steam Summer Game Festival.

A story-driven, party-based RPG with strong tactical elements, base and follower management that takes place in the expansive Fantasy world of Zoria. A unique story in a world filled with magic, ancient history and countless mysteries. Dangerous dungeons, epic fights, magic, ranged and melee combat, a story of discovery and adventure. The demo is available since June 16th.

Watch the developers play, ask any question and make any suggestions!
Set a reminder and stop by and let us know what you think. We are excited to see you there!

Oh, and if you haven't already make sure to wishlist our game!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1159090/Zoria_Age_of_Shattering/







Meet you there, Sunday, June 21st!

Tiny Trinket Games

Greetings, adventurers of Zoria.

Join us on a developer chat, on our Discord server, June 18th, as part of the Steam Summer Game Festival.

A story-driven, party-based RPG with strong tactical elements, base and follower management that takes place in the expansive Fantasy world of Zoria. A unique story in a world filled with magic, ancient history and countless mysteries. Dangerous dungeons, epic fights, magic, ranged and melee combat, a story of discovery and adventure. The demo will be available on June 16th.

Watch the developers play, ask any question and make any suggestions!
Set a reminder and stop by and let us know what you think. We are excited to see you there!

Oh, and if you haven't already make sure to wishlist our game!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1159090/Zoria_Age_of_Shattering/







Meet you there, Thursday, June 11th!

Tiny Trinket Games