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[/p][h2]⚔️ Hail, adventurers! ⚔️[/h2][p][/p][h3]Today we're back with another ToLLA devlog!😎👇[/h3][p][/p][p]But first, an update on the game itself: the release date draws nearer, and we'll probably end up launching near the end of
August. We're still waiting to get through
Valve's review process (they have to review and approve the submitted build before it can go live), so once that's done we'll be good to go![/p][p][/p][p]In the meantime, you can
wishlist the game right here on
Steam: 👇👇👇[/p][h3][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]Now on to the devlog...[/h3][p][/p][p]The game tells its story mainly through the many NPCs you'll meet in the world, and the quests you'll solve for them, but as longtime gamers ourselves we're fond of old-school cutscenes that show enemies conspiring against your party in the background! Which is why we wanted to add them to
ToLLA...[/p][p][/p][p]The first such scene you'll encounter features
Gortak the Plunderer and
Mhazura Bloodflame! Their interaction triggers the first time your party leaves the intro area. These two orcs were behind the attack on
Fort Ninevus, which
Captain Hale & Meredith held against the greenskin tide... You can check out the art collages below showing how a character goes from rough concept to final in-game asset (all art in the game is hand-painted by our artists in their colorful & detailed style).👇[/p][p]
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Gortak is a mighty black-orc
Chieftain, and leads the greenskin forces in the
Expanse... Lore-wise, the orcs in
ToLLA are not only physically imposing specimens with overwhelming strength and resilience, they're also long-lived and possess a keen intellect... and they get more powerful with age! Far from being stupid brutes, the cunning orcs come in many diverse sub-races, and are led by black-orc nobles like
Gortak. The term 'greenskins' denotes the orcoid race in general due to the green ones being the most numerous, but orcs have a strict pecking order, with their skin color defining their place in orcish society... As mentioned above, black-orc nobles are the leaders and chieftains (think
Uruk-hai from
LoTR!), green-skinned orcs are warriors, brown-skins are the builders, whites are shamans & healers, yellows are scouts/assassins/trackers, and reds are warlocks & blood-mages... And speaking of
red orcs...[/p][p]
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Mhazura Bloodflame hails from the smoke-wreathed volcanic wastes of the
Crimson Ashlands. She's a wily demonologist and warlock who consorts with infernal beings in exchange for knowledge and power... A cunning and manipulative woman with ties to the enigmatic
Crimson Queen, her political savvy is matched only by her skills in court intrigue and spellcraft!
Mhazura leaves nothing to chance, and she's not above getting her hands dirty if need be! She's an orc supremacist who desires to see the
Sollaran Commonwealth demolished, its human population enslaved, and the continent of
Kelembis returned to its "rightful state" under the brutal control of orcish imperiums... just as things used to be, before humanity rebelled and threw off the chains of orcish oppression over
20 centuries ago. Mhazura was the one who masterminded the recent attack on
Fort Ninevus, and she's a powerful enemy you'll need to face before the threat in the
North can be resolved! Ironically enough, she's got a bit of a soft spot for human men, and lusts after them... just like most orc women do, so you may be able to use that to your advantage when you finally face her!🥵🥵🥵[/p][p][/p][p]The scene between
Gortak & Mhazura gives players a sneak peek into the enemy faction arrayed against
Fort Ninevus! If you take the time to play through the whole thing, you'll learn a great deal about your enemies' plans... in addition to seeing the two orcs trading some colorful insults with each other![/p][p]
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[/p][p]We wanted to do something different when we were designing the orc race, and so decided to move away from the usual fantasy template where greenskins are depicted as dumb brutes that exist only for your party to mow through. We wanted to give players a formidable enemy faction, because the stronger the enemy, the more heroic and epic the fight against them! In
ToLLA, orcs used to be the undisputed masters of an entire continent the size of
Pangaea, and the only reason humanity managed to free itself was due to the orcs' internal squabbling as their empires degenerated into infighting and civil war after thousands of years of uncontested dominance. The continent is littered with the bones of their past Imperium; at their zenith, orcs had subjugated the known world and all its races for centuries; now, these monolithic ruins are all that's left of the orcs' past glories...[/p][p][/p][p]
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[/p][p]Nowadays, most orc clans war against each other for territory and bragging rights, having been driven into the mountains by
Commonwealth Legions over the centuries... where they're biding their time, waiting to surge again and reclaim what they feel is their lost birthright... especially if it comes riding on the broken bones of humanity! Orc society is at its core a degenerated civilization that's fallen from grace. Many orcs lament their race's loss of eminence and organized power, but their constant clannish bickering prevents them from unifying - a social defect that could be 'cured' by a new
Horde arising from these exiled remnants...[/p][p][/p][p]In other news,
Vixi (our primary artist) painted a few backdrops for interior locations like the
Smoky Stag Tavern, where many of the initial NPCs you meet are located... We've added the background pic to
Wulfric's convo to test how it plays. Depending on feedback, we might add these backdrops to the rest of the NPC interaction events. Every interior location would have a unique background, which we feel adds to immersion while you're interacting with the various people staying there. Feel free to comment down below to let us know what you think![/p][p]
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[/p][p]Also, quite a few of you asked for a way to replay previous lewd scenes, so we've implemented it! The game now has a
'memory crystal' that's located at the
Herbalist's Cottage in the
Southern Wildlands. This crystal can be used to re-view any lewd scenes you've unlocked in your current playthrough! Right now it's freely accessible, but once we do a mechanics pass and implement a few of the things we have planned you'll need to use
Conviction to access the crystal (
Conviction points are gained by completing quests, and by finding
Captain Hale's hip-flask icons in the game world). We'll migrate the crystal's functionality to the
Lewd Loremaster in the
HQ once we finalize that map... but for now it's freely accessible, so you'll be able to check it out once the game releases.[/p][p]
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[/p][p]Finally, here's the changelog for this update:[/p]
- [p]implemented a fully voiced major scene featuring Gortak the Plunderer & Mhazura Bloodflame[/p]
- [p]added a bonemold convo UI for the purpose of in-game cutscenes between hostile plotcrit NPCs[/p]
- [p]remastered a couple of the VOs for the intro cabin to bring them in line with the rest of that section[/p]
- [p]recolored Meredith's 1st and 2nd footdom heart-icons from sepia to purple... should make it easier for players to find them now[/p]
- [p]added a new tavern background to Wulfric's convo inside the Smoky Stag (testing this setup for now, might add it to other interior events)[/p]
- [p]added a purple viridian memory crystal to the Herbalist's Cottage in the Southern Wildlands (allows replaying of lewd scenes)[/p]
- [p]squashed a couple of minor bugs in various scripts, and ironed out a bunch of text to improve flow & readability & layout[/p]
[p][/p][p]That's all for this devlog! We'll be back with more news & updates soon. Don't forget to follow us directly here on Steam if you'd like to keep up with our work:
https://store.steampowered.com/developer/CrimsonDelightGames[/p][p][/p][p]Much love,[/p][p]
~ the CDG team ❤️[/p]