A new character!
[h3]Ragnar's Story[/h3]
Ragnar Son of Bjorn was born to an impoverished and struggling family. Bjorn the Ragbearer, as his father was known, was forced to sell Ragnar and his brother into slavery. Fate lead them to the coal mines of Jarl Gosta of the Splinterlands, where they toiled away for 15 years.
[h3]An unlikely hero[/h3]
A violent incident involving the Jarl’s son prompted Ragnar to jump to the young heir’s aid, saving him from a group of hired blades. The Jarl restored Ragnar his freedom as reward, and offered him a position among the Jarl’s Housecarls.
[h3]From thrall to thane[/h3]
Years later, Ragnar finds himself a minor noble, with his own fief and people settled at the border of the Jarl’s territory. His ascension was abruptly cut to a halt soon after a troubling disease made its way among his followers. Troubling reports of the affliction describe a sudden decay of the skin, bubbling pustules, speaking in tongues and irrationally violent demeanour.
[h3]A change in the wind[/h3]
Seeing traditional cures fail abhorrently, Ragnar soon became wise to tales of a distant land, where the blood of giants still boils in the earth. Hearing of an expedition being organised by Aska, Ragnar quickly made all the preparations and joined the voyage. Aska was a chieftain of legend who through her adventures secured the sacred Eye of Odin.
[h3]A new hope in the new world[/h3]
A mythical land, a legendary warrior-woman and an ancient sacred relic seemed to Ragnar to be the best chance he might have of securing a cure and a future for his people.
[h3]Gameplay[/h3]
While the perk system hasn't been fully explored yet in ASKA, our plans are to make each character something akin to a "class". To that end, Ragnar is our first opportunity of giving our characters more character, so they feel more than just "skins".
- Ragnar starts the game with more Strength than other characters, making him ideal for kickstarting a settlement.
- His years in the mines also give him a Stonecutting starting bonus. A true rocker.
- Ragnar’s physical prowess however requires him to consume more food than other characters, making him a bigger strain on the village’s food production.
[h3]A Workhorse[/h3]
Ragnar is designed to excel at physical labor, especially when it comes to breaking rocks. His past as a miner and his obsession with Jotun Blood have shaped Ragnar into a rock-breaking workhorse.
[h3]Perks[/h3]
[h3]About Playable Characters[/h3]
- Characters will be selectable from the main menu when starting a new game.
- Each character has its own world, but in the future you’ll be able to join your friends’ multiplayer sessions using any of your existing characters.
- At the moment Ragnar is still work-in-progress, we’re still in the process of adding animations and fitting existing equipment to his model.
We can’t wait to let you take him for a test drive, as it’s the first time since the start of the project when a character other than Aska is available to play.
[h3]When is the next test?[/h3]
So far we're in the middle of optimizing performance and implementing feedback from our previous Closed Alpha. The merry month of May will most probably be dedicated to this.
By far the most resource intensive aspect of ASKA's development is the multiplayer. We don't have an estimate at the moment for a first playable, but it will definitely be the star of the show for the Open Beta. You can expect at least one more Closed Beta before committing to an Open Beta date.
Although people draw comparisons to Valheim or Medieval Dynasty, the biggest technical challenge for us remains networking our procedurally generated world, as well as all the AI's that are running around. The compact nature of our team also has an impact in terms of development time.
The scope of the game is another reason why we've opted to go for a 4-player format for our co-op mode. We'd rather see it stable in a tighter scenario first, as afterwards we'll be in a much better position to discuss things like dedicated servers or higher player numbers, which have been our followers' major concerns in terms of multiplayer.
[h3]The World Grows[/h3]
Work has begun on new biomes as we get closer and closer to a gameplay loop that involves sailing to other islands. We'll have an update dedicated exclusively to the new environments you can expect from ASKA.
[h3]See Ragnar live![/h3]
We’ve been playing a bit with Ragnar during our last Friday stream, make sure you check out the VOD here.
You can tune in this Friday as well to see us enjoy some more man-action. We do a Dev Stream every Friday.
[h3]ASKA on Discord[/h3]
We're very active on Discord and feature a wonderful community as well, make sure you join us there! All the important news are dropped there first, especially Alpha/Beta opportunities.
