Dev Diary #5: The Obsidian Uprising & Nenukil
Greetings to everyone!
From the beginning, when we started making the game, we always wanted to be able to tell, in a more expanded way, the story of the heroes and some of the important events that happened before the adventure started.
One of those stories was the Wolf Wars with Magnus, Ottis, Andrin and what happened in Senenthia 10 years before the main story arc. The other was the Obsidian Uprising that happened 30 years ago in Velkarath and caused the closing and destruction of the Black Forge, with Cornelius, Wilbur and Amelia.
Now with the announcement of the new story DLC and the new hero, let's take a moment to talk a little more in depth about both.
[h2]Learnings from the Wolf Wars[/h2]
The main idea of Wolf Wars was to explain the story and let you play with the heroes who participated at the time, seeing what decisions they made and how the story progressed.
In order to do this, the party of heroes would be temporarily replaced, and when the story was over, the player would get his heroes back. That's why, since you didn't have your heroes, we decided not to give card rewards after each combat in Wolf Wars. If you were not playing your characters, it didn't make much sense to choose cards and think about how to upgrade a deck of cards that you would lose soon after.
We then realized that this change reduced the replayability of the story and that many would not feel like repeating it after having played it several times and explored the different paths and events in it.
Moreover, this raised another question: do we have to give rewards after finishing the Wolf Wars? At first, we thought that we would give the players some kind of reward, but in the end, we decided to remove them. We felt that if there was a reward, no matter how small, many players would feel obliged to repeat the Wolf Wars story that did not progress the development of the current adventure heroes.
Because of these problems, we decided to change how the story DLCs would work and decided to make some changes to the next one, the Obsidian Uprising. Still, we liked the idea of seeing Cornelius when he was young, so we decided to include him as a skin, along with Wilbur, Amelia, and others.
In the Obsidian Uprising, your group of heroes will travel to the past and actively participate in the story. In addition, the heroes who were there when they were young will give you their point of view on what they remember happening. You will receive card rewards after each battle, and you will be able to obtain a new pet and items that you will keep when the story zone ends.
The DLC subzone will be treated as a new dungeon within Velkarath, and you will access it through a time rift (thanks to Amelia and the inclusion of the rifts in the map). When you finish this adventure, you will come out in the same place where the current dungeon of the Black Forge ends. In this way, the Obsidian Uprising DLC becomes "optional" and repeatable content that you can access and that can affect the run in every way.
Another point of controversy about Wolf Wars was the price and content. As for the price, we thought that when we released the Wolf Wars DLC the price was correct. Since it came with a completely new hero with a fun concept and mechanics and a new story map, in addition to adding 5 new enemies and 1 boss to the game, in addition to 5 new skins and a new pet. We take this opportunity to remember that our intention is to continue improving the old DLCs the Halloween DLC now has 10 skins (we added 3 new skins this last year) and the Wolf Wars will now have 7 skins (we will add 2 new skins with patch 1.4).
We still think the idea of doing Wolf Wars in a story format was a good one, but we understand that not all players feel as invested in the story and lore of the game. Furthermore, being our first content DLC, many players expected something else, specifically a new area with more repeatable content (as Sands of Ulminin later became).
After the very good reception of the new hero, Yogger, many people told us that they were only interested in the new hero and were not interested as much or at all in the story or the new skins.
So now we've worked hard to improve not only the DLC content itself but also to give our players more options on what content they want to obtain. And for that reason, we have decided and strived to release Obsidian Uprising and the new hero, Nenukil, separately in two separate DLCs (with everything that entails both in-game and outside).
We truly believe this is best for the game.
[h2]The Obsidian Uprising[/h2]
30 years ago, the dwarves of the Black Forge discovered a new source of energy within the Velkarath volcano. The two dwarven generals who ruled the city used that energy to build new technology and war machines that threatened to conquer Velkarath.
With no choice, the newly appointed king's advisor, Amelia, joined forces with the leader of the Burning Hand, Cornelius, and other heroes to try to quell the uprising of the dwarven generals before it was too late.
In the end, they managed to quell the uprising, but not without great losses, with the expulsion of the dwarves and the definitive closure of the Black Forge as a result.
In this DLC, you will travel with your heroes to the past and explore the ancient Black Forge in all its splendor while trying to reach the vanguard group led by the young Amelia and the young Corneluis. With the intention of helping them quell the uprising, while you look for a way to return to the present.
The Black Forge is a city with three layers of height (with the approximate size of the Wolf Wars) in which you will find new enemies, new items, a new customizable pet, a new boss and you will discover the story of what happened then, as well as some other events and surprises.
You can see more about the Obsidan Uprising by visiting the steam page here.
[h2]Nenukil, the Engineer[/h2]
Nenukil was the chief engineer of the Black Forge. He was saved by Amelia when the Black Forge's ancient machine was activated, causing a burst of energy. Feeling indebted to her, Nenukil warned Amelia of the impending Obsidian uprising. He helped quell the uprising and, when it was over, left with Amelia for Senenthia, remaining at her side until she went into exile.
Nenukil is a new scout who specializes in using melee attacks and a well-timed ranged attack. Furthermore, Nenukil can be a more defensive type Scout, taking more advantage of all the defense type cards that scouts have (in patch 1.4 we have modified and redone many of them to better adapt them to Nenukil).
Nenukil's innate trait is called Loaded Gun, and it reduces the energy cost by 2 of all ranged attacks you have at the start of the turn. On the other hand, once you use a ranged attack, Nenukil will have to reload his gun and will not be able to use any other ranged attacks until the next turn.
At level 3, Nenukil can choose between the Double Barrel trait, which allows him to use his initial trait 2 times each turn, so he can use 2 ranged attacks before having to reload. Or choose the Mounted Cannon trait, which installs a cannon on his shoulder that he can fire whenever he uses a defense-type card.
With Nenukil we wanted to innovate and improve in terms of the visual quality of the skins and when you choose any of its level 3 traits, the skin will change according to the chosen trait.
Nenukil also comes with a unique item for him, the rocket boots, which allow him to accumulate Fast charges in exchange for losing them all at the beginning of the turn.
For all this, Nenukil is a very versatile hero who you can build in many different ways, whether maximizing the use of ranged attack discounts, making a more defensive build or even take advantage of rocket boots and make a build more oriented towards speed.
You can see more about the Nenukil, the Engineer by visiting the steam page here.
We hope you like these new DLC and the new free Content Patch 1.4 that will be released on Wednesday the 15th.
- The Ato Team.
From the beginning, when we started making the game, we always wanted to be able to tell, in a more expanded way, the story of the heroes and some of the important events that happened before the adventure started.
One of those stories was the Wolf Wars with Magnus, Ottis, Andrin and what happened in Senenthia 10 years before the main story arc. The other was the Obsidian Uprising that happened 30 years ago in Velkarath and caused the closing and destruction of the Black Forge, with Cornelius, Wilbur and Amelia.
Now with the announcement of the new story DLC and the new hero, let's take a moment to talk a little more in depth about both.
[h2]Learnings from the Wolf Wars[/h2]
The main idea of Wolf Wars was to explain the story and let you play with the heroes who participated at the time, seeing what decisions they made and how the story progressed.
In order to do this, the party of heroes would be temporarily replaced, and when the story was over, the player would get his heroes back. That's why, since you didn't have your heroes, we decided not to give card rewards after each combat in Wolf Wars. If you were not playing your characters, it didn't make much sense to choose cards and think about how to upgrade a deck of cards that you would lose soon after.
We then realized that this change reduced the replayability of the story and that many would not feel like repeating it after having played it several times and explored the different paths and events in it.
Moreover, this raised another question: do we have to give rewards after finishing the Wolf Wars? At first, we thought that we would give the players some kind of reward, but in the end, we decided to remove them. We felt that if there was a reward, no matter how small, many players would feel obliged to repeat the Wolf Wars story that did not progress the development of the current adventure heroes.
Because of these problems, we decided to change how the story DLCs would work and decided to make some changes to the next one, the Obsidian Uprising. Still, we liked the idea of seeing Cornelius when he was young, so we decided to include him as a skin, along with Wilbur, Amelia, and others.
In the Obsidian Uprising, your group of heroes will travel to the past and actively participate in the story. In addition, the heroes who were there when they were young will give you their point of view on what they remember happening. You will receive card rewards after each battle, and you will be able to obtain a new pet and items that you will keep when the story zone ends.
The DLC subzone will be treated as a new dungeon within Velkarath, and you will access it through a time rift (thanks to Amelia and the inclusion of the rifts in the map). When you finish this adventure, you will come out in the same place where the current dungeon of the Black Forge ends. In this way, the Obsidian Uprising DLC becomes "optional" and repeatable content that you can access and that can affect the run in every way.
Another point of controversy about Wolf Wars was the price and content. As for the price, we thought that when we released the Wolf Wars DLC the price was correct. Since it came with a completely new hero with a fun concept and mechanics and a new story map, in addition to adding 5 new enemies and 1 boss to the game, in addition to 5 new skins and a new pet. We take this opportunity to remember that our intention is to continue improving the old DLCs the Halloween DLC now has 10 skins (we added 3 new skins this last year) and the Wolf Wars will now have 7 skins (we will add 2 new skins with patch 1.4).
We still think the idea of doing Wolf Wars in a story format was a good one, but we understand that not all players feel as invested in the story and lore of the game. Furthermore, being our first content DLC, many players expected something else, specifically a new area with more repeatable content (as Sands of Ulminin later became).
After the very good reception of the new hero, Yogger, many people told us that they were only interested in the new hero and were not interested as much or at all in the story or the new skins.
So now we've worked hard to improve not only the DLC content itself but also to give our players more options on what content they want to obtain. And for that reason, we have decided and strived to release Obsidian Uprising and the new hero, Nenukil, separately in two separate DLCs (with everything that entails both in-game and outside).
We truly believe this is best for the game.
[h2]The Obsidian Uprising[/h2]
30 years ago, the dwarves of the Black Forge discovered a new source of energy within the Velkarath volcano. The two dwarven generals who ruled the city used that energy to build new technology and war machines that threatened to conquer Velkarath.
With no choice, the newly appointed king's advisor, Amelia, joined forces with the leader of the Burning Hand, Cornelius, and other heroes to try to quell the uprising of the dwarven generals before it was too late.
In the end, they managed to quell the uprising, but not without great losses, with the expulsion of the dwarves and the definitive closure of the Black Forge as a result.
In this DLC, you will travel with your heroes to the past and explore the ancient Black Forge in all its splendor while trying to reach the vanguard group led by the young Amelia and the young Corneluis. With the intention of helping them quell the uprising, while you look for a way to return to the present.
The Black Forge is a city with three layers of height (with the approximate size of the Wolf Wars) in which you will find new enemies, new items, a new customizable pet, a new boss and you will discover the story of what happened then, as well as some other events and surprises.
You can see more about the Obsidan Uprising by visiting the steam page here.
[h2]Nenukil, the Engineer[/h2]
Nenukil was the chief engineer of the Black Forge. He was saved by Amelia when the Black Forge's ancient machine was activated, causing a burst of energy. Feeling indebted to her, Nenukil warned Amelia of the impending Obsidian uprising. He helped quell the uprising and, when it was over, left with Amelia for Senenthia, remaining at her side until she went into exile.
Nenukil is a new scout who specializes in using melee attacks and a well-timed ranged attack. Furthermore, Nenukil can be a more defensive type Scout, taking more advantage of all the defense type cards that scouts have (in patch 1.4 we have modified and redone many of them to better adapt them to Nenukil).
Nenukil's innate trait is called Loaded Gun, and it reduces the energy cost by 2 of all ranged attacks you have at the start of the turn. On the other hand, once you use a ranged attack, Nenukil will have to reload his gun and will not be able to use any other ranged attacks until the next turn.
At level 3, Nenukil can choose between the Double Barrel trait, which allows him to use his initial trait 2 times each turn, so he can use 2 ranged attacks before having to reload. Or choose the Mounted Cannon trait, which installs a cannon on his shoulder that he can fire whenever he uses a defense-type card.
With Nenukil we wanted to innovate and improve in terms of the visual quality of the skins and when you choose any of its level 3 traits, the skin will change according to the chosen trait.
Nenukil also comes with a unique item for him, the rocket boots, which allow him to accumulate Fast charges in exchange for losing them all at the beginning of the turn.
For all this, Nenukil is a very versatile hero who you can build in many different ways, whether maximizing the use of ranged attack discounts, making a more defensive build or even take advantage of rocket boots and make a build more oriented towards speed.
You can see more about the Nenukil, the Engineer by visiting the steam page here.
We hope you like these new DLC and the new free Content Patch 1.4 that will be released on Wednesday the 15th.
- The Ato Team.
