Wartales News

Originally posted by author

Attention Mercenaries!

Welcome to the third of our weekly Q&A's with the wartales development team!

This week, Quentin, our Lead Game Designer/Producer returns to talk about the variety of enemies you will encounter, rumours of ghostly wolf packs, champions to be overcome and exactly what to expect of the different foes that will taste the steel of your sword in Wartales.

Read on to find out more...

"Wartales is set in a world directly inspired by medieval Europe. In this sense, the enemies you meet during your first steps will often be human beings with sometimes questionable morals. In Wartales, anything can be your closest ally or your worst enemy. If bandits attack caravans full of goods, you can defend these honest merchants for a little gold and recognition. Unless you want to join forces with the thieves to share the loot. You can also try to keep order by hunting down deserters alongside the Guard, but be careful not to carry stolen goods with you: they could turn against you and send your comrades to prison! Alternatively, if you're dreaming of glory and a cheering crowd screaming your name, you can always fight the highly-trained gladiators in arenas in an effort to take out the local Champion!



If you prefer adventure and exploration of ancient ruins with buried secrets, you can expect to fight cultists amidst mole-rats and crawlers, unkind troglodytes that have taken up residence in these tombs. But if you step into the forest, don't be surprised if you're attacked by a pack of hungry wolves or a herd of boars trying to protect their offspring.



While Wartales is quite realistic, some of the animals we know have grown up a bit. If you're walking through the marshes and you hear a deafening buzz, it's probably because the giant mosquitoes are on your tail. Luckily, there are rumours that there exists a fly swatter that is just the right size for these monsters. If you hear scratching under your feet, it's because the swarming plague rats are trying to make their way to the surface to spread the plague around the world and bring food back to their mother."

Originally posted by author

Thanks for joining us and we'll see you next week for the another entry in our weekly series of dev Q&A's!

Don't hesitate to leave us a question on, Discord, Twitter, Facebook or on our Steam forums, we'll do what we can to get it answered in a future article!

And also, join us on Twitch at 18.45 tonight where we'll be answering some of you guys' questions about Wartales!

- Shiro Games

"We wanted to offer the player a combat system that is quick to learn but whose richness and depth unfold over the course of your playtime. Since the management component is one of the main aspects of the game, it was essential to link it to the combat system. In short, there are two layers of combat mastery; The first is simply winning the battle. The second is winning the battle efficiently, i.e., with as few wounds and armor repairs as possible.

Of course, winning a battle under catastrophic circumstances can be very resource intensive and can negatively impact the player's progress and economic expansion. Thus, the basis of a healthy economy is a good mastery of the combat system.

Wartales is not just a matter of fighting a skirmish to the death, we wanted to make a large variety of fights available to the player: you will be offered different combat objectives such as reaching a point in a given time, defending an area for a certain period of time, escorting a VIP, burning rats nests, fighting in arenas, attacking merchant caravans, assassinating a champion...



We designed a combat system that is malleable and adaptable to all of these requirements. The variety of objectives, encounters and game rules go hand in hand with the procedural generation of the battle area: this guarantees quality gameplay and replayability. The player must then deal with the battlefield, which is directly linked to the environment in which the fight was initiated (in the world) and procedurally generated according to the rules that govern these locations: is it a forest dotted with trees and tree trunks which archers can hide behind? A swamp in which the mud and mire make it difficult to get around? A mountain in the middle of a snowstorm that makes visibility almost impossible? The variety of combat environments and their procedural generation guarantees that the player will fight in a constantly renewed space and, by extension, always experience a different battle."

"Wartales’ combat system was designed to meet two requirements: the first being to distinguish itself from traditional tactical games by offering a more organic and faster system to learn and play. To do this, we removed certain mechanics such as the chance to hit and replaced them with a system of engagement that is simple to understand but whose mastery will make the difference between a perfectly executed fight and a mass grave.



We wanted combat to be based on a turn-based system that valued the player's strategic and tactical intelligence rather than an explosion of varying percentages that affect chance according to dozens of criteria. The second requirement was more of a challenge: we had to create a combat system that was as interesting with six fighters as it is with more than twenty. While each enemy begins at a predefined location during a round, the player can activate any of their units when it is their turn to play. This system has the advantage of preserving the strategic composition of the player's band of mercenaries, rewarding adaptability and tactical intelligence, as well as limiting the negative impacts of too many units: it is possible to focus on the enemies that will have their turn first in order to nullify their impact.



The same goes for Bravery Points (resources to be spent in battle used to activate certain skills): rather than having to manage individual points for so many units, the player has an amount of Common Points to spend as they wish among all their units, which guarantees the implementation of a real group strategy."

Originally posted by author

Thank you once again for joining us and remember to keep an eye out for next weeks Q&A!

Don't hesitate to leave us a question on, Discord, Twitter, Facebook or on our Steam forums, we'll do what we can to get it answered in a future article!

- Shiro Games

Originally posted by author

Hey Mercenaries!

Welcome to the first in a weekly series of Q&A's with our development team that will give you an exclusive look into the world of Wartales, it's development history, the future of the game, some exclusive looks at concept art and upcoming content and more as we build towards our release into Early Access later this year!

In this first Q&A, Shiro Games COO Nicolas Cannasse delves into the lore of Wartales and answers some of the more prominent community questions about this strange and hostile universe that we've found ourselves fighting to survive in.

Read on to find out more...

Originally posted by author

Thanks for joining us and make sure you keep an eye out for next weeks Q&A!

Don't hesitate to leave us a question on any of our social channels, Discord, or on our Steam forums, and we'll see if we can get it answered in one of our future articles!

Thanks again for all of your support and feedback so far, you guys have been amazing and we can't wait to share the game with you all.

- Shiro Games

The Steam Next Fest is in full swing, and there are a bunch of demos available for a range of upcoming games. Wartales, recently announced during E3 2021, is one that caught our eye for two reasons. One: it's from Shiro Games, masterminds of the popular RTS game Northgard; and two: because it reminds us of Battle Brothers.

Battle Brothers sees you lead a band of mercenaries through a grim, perilous, fictional medieval setting. It's secretly the best Warhammer game, even though it's not technically a Warhammer game, and makes excellent use of limited development resources with an artistic 2D aesthetic and an emphasis on tough, RNG-heavy gameplay that will get your favourite characters killed a lot.

Wartales gives off the same energy, although Shiro could have perhaps tried harder with the name. Technically, it's an open-world RPG, but we're not going to quibble over definitions. You lead a group of soldiers struggling to survive in a harsh medieval setting. There's exploration, there's turn-based tactical combat. There are survival mechanics around food, pay, and equipment. There may even be cannibalism. It's Battle Brothers in 3D, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Read the rest of the story...