Atre: Dominance Wars News

[p]Hello everyone,[/p][p]One more time to talk about magic.[/p][p][/p][p]Last week we talked about Initiating and casting spells, this week.. we continue![/p][p]
Spellcasting[/p]

• [p]Inviting others[/p]
• [p]Denying spells[/p]
• [p]Reserving spells?[/p]

[p][/p][p]Atre Magical planes[/p][p]Just a short reminder on four of our magical planes[/p]

• [p]Atre Wud magical plane is about manipulation of mana[/p]
• [p]Atre Men is about knowledge, power, and necromancy[/p]
• [p]Atre Haad is all about destruction[/p]
• [p]Atre Erol is about growth and economy[/p]

[p]
Powerful spells[/p][p]Certain spells like God spells cost a tons of mana but they can alter the entire course of the game.[/p][p][/p][p]Current list of some of the most powerful spells in the game are[/p]

• [p]Army of the Dead[/p]
• [p]Traveler of the Fabric [/p]
• [p]Thirst of the Hollow[/p]
• [p]Call of the Guardian[/p]
• [p]Destroy Region[/p]
• [p]Summon Haad Lord[/p]
• [p]Gaze of the Mother[/p]
• [p]Riftwall[/p]

[p]Can you guess based on the available lore to which faction those spells belong to? Or imagine what the more obscure ones to?[/p][p][/p][p]Here are some effects to get your mind going. Try to connect it with a spell :)[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Inviting other Elders[/p][p]If you are in need of help or if you forcefully enslave an enemy Elder, you can invite him to join your spell, that Elder benefit is that he will be advancing in the research of that spell while helping you cast it, which might be useful if his knowledge in that magical plane is very low, it's a "cheap" way of advancing forward unless your Emperor demands a tons of mana from you.[/p][p][/p][p]The more players or other AI you manage to get into your spell, the faster it will cast, enabling you to truly wreck havoc across the map.[/p][p][/p][p]Denying Spells[/p][p]There is one trick tho. If you start casting a spell on the enemy, he can fire back with a Deny spell. At that point it becomes the contest of "who can invest more mana faster".[/p][p][/p][p]The way deny works is that the enemy elder needs to cast a deny spell on you and fulfill certain mana requirements in order to instantly deny your spell.[/p][p]The thing is.. you can also cast a deny spell on his deny.. and he can cast deny spell on your deny.. and.. well you get the idea, it can get pretty crazy, and each deny is slightly cheaper.[/p][p][/p][p]Information is everything, so casting a proper information spell like - "Intrusion of Mind", will help greatly with shooting down enemy spells.[/p][p][/p][p]Our famous quote regarding the deny spell:[/p][p]"Sometimes magic is like the flow of a river. And sometimes like a tavern fistfight."[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Reserving Spells[/p][p]This is not yet in but we would like to hear your opinion on this, idea is that you will be able to "reserve" your spells, which means you invest mana into the spell, you "finish" it's casting and at the end it burns certain portion of your mana to maintain it's "ready" state.[/p][p][/p][p]Advantage of this method would be, if you are preparing for battle, or for defense, you can reserve spells upfront, and then just pop them on enemy at any time.[/p][p][/p][p]Let u s know what you think.[/p][p][/p][p]And some screenshot of UI in progress for the end.[/p][p][/p][p]Wishlist us here!

[dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]
That's it for now, closed beta is heavily in the works, we just need to fix all the bugs before that, you know how it goes, get's a bit tricky sometimes with all those spellcasters around :)[/p]

[p]Hello everyone,[/p][p]This time we will talk about magic.[/p][p]
Spellcasting[/p]

1. [p]Initiating spells & Casting spells[/p]
2. [p]Completing spells & Countering spells (next week)[/p]

[p]
Atre Magical planes[/p][p]Just a short reminder on four of our magical planes[/p]

• [p]Atre Wud magical plane is about manipulation of mana[/p]
• [p]Atre Men is about knowledge and power[/p]
• [p]Atre Haad is all about destruction[/p]
• [p]Atre Erol is about growth and economy[/p][p]
  [/p]

[p]When you are selecting your character you get to choose how many points you have at each of your attribute, which also determines the speed of your research.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Every point above one will give you additional research speed for all spells of that plane. Once we have picked our attributes it's time to jump to our research tree in the game.[/p][p]
There is tons of spells for researching, and it’s up to you to pick on which ones you want to focus first. This is also a crucial part of your strategy.[/p]

• [p]Do you want to focus on your weakest magical plane, or do you want to get strongest spells in the game from your own magical plane first, it’s totally up to you.[/p]
• [p]There is no requirement other then your Omnipresence of which spell you can research, so you can skip spells that you are not interested in[/p]

[p]

Note: UI is not final, and it will be improved, this is just an example[/p][p]
Research and levels of the spell[/p][p]Once the spell is successfully researched it’s not over. Your knowledge of that spell will be barely enough for you to cast it, and while you have access to all of the spell levels straight away, you will simply not be able to invest enough mana to cast a spell in any reasonable time. [/p]

• [p]I mean you can always try casting a powerful spell for one full year, but is it worth it?[/p]

[p]
[/p][p]It’s smart to invest into researching same spell further, and gain as much knowledge about it as possible, later this will enable you to cast higher levels of that same spell in a very few days, which might be the difference between victory and defeat.[/p][p][/p][p]Each spell takes a certain amount of days to successfully cast it, and once it’s casted the spell will take effect.[/p][p][/p][p]Certain factors can affect your spellcasting, we will talk more about them in our next blog next week when we talk about Initiating spells & Casting spells[/p][p][/p]

• [p]Unless it’s denied by an enemy(or friend?)[/p]
• [p]Or your friend decides to abandon the spellcasting and you do not have enough plane difficulty to cast a spell[/p]
• [p]Or you run out of mana[/p]

[p][/p][p] Example of endgame spell where you siphon mana from all the inhabitants of the region[/p][p][/p][p]We know a lot of you are eager to jump into a playtest, but we just want to get game into a really polished state, so that we get some advanced and cool feedback.[/p][p][/p][p]We are also working on a new gameplay showcase and trailer for you all.
[/p][p]Wishlist us here! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2805850/Atre_Dominance_Wars [/p][p]Stay tuned for more next week! [/p]

Hello everyone, we’re hard at working to deliver you a proper version of the game so let’s talk about the features we’ve been working on.

Testing is coming soon, we’ve just been slightly delayed, and we want to cook this one properly.


Multi battles



Last time we’ve talked about battles, let’s dive into multi battles this time.
We’ve decided that we will support battles up to two sides

This means that you can either fight on one team or the another. So what happens with everyone else who is enemies or friends with both teams, well they have to wait out the battle or go around it.

Since each battle is taking a portion of the region it’s also a temporal obstacle that you will have calculate in your movements, or simply decide to join one side.

Our multi battles work in a way where multiple avatars will average out their stats when fighting between eachother. This can lead to interesting situations where you have a formidable force combined of dozen of Avatars on one side but with mediocre stats fighting one big force which is a solo Avatar that has much better stats. This gives both sides an opportunity.



While this opens many strategies like reinforcing your army, maybe you don’t want to push an avatar not dedicated for combat into battle just because he has some small extra force.

With each participating Avatar that brings in the bigger army, the battlefield extends, so you can end up in entire regions of the world being blocked by battle, which might be a cool moment to call in some spells like.. Destroy Region, if you are powerful enough to do it.



Unit Types

We have divided our unit types into 4 core classes.

• 
  
• Melee
  
• Ranged
  
• Assassins
  
• Burrowers
  

Winning battles is primarily about army compositions so let’s talk a bit about those.

Melee units are your bread and butter that clash with eachother and protect your ranged units. An army that doesn’t have melee is army that can be easily broken.



Ranged units have extra attack in the first round which makes them perfect for trimming down enemy army before it can reach you, reducing their first impact, but if melee units ever get in range, they are toasted.



Burrowers all around tanks which don’t care for army compositions and they just target everything proportionally with their burrowing attack, useful if you want to breach behind enemy ranks and trim down those archers or assassins.



Assassins fight only in the first round but if you do not have units that will protect you from assassins (special ability Awareness) your army will get decimated. On the other side, if you have to many assassins you might lose the battle due to morale.




Our goal is that there is no perfect army composition, there is only a perfect counter and that’s why we will enable battle simulator for everyone to test and play around with army compositions and battles. Have in mind that while we do have our battle results very deterministic, there are huge amount of factors that can affect the outcome of the battle, so it all comes down to a good play, and even better planning.

Wishlist us here!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2805850/Atre_Dominance_Wars

Stay tuned for more!

Let's talk about Combat!

As probably many of you have been wondering and asking how will the combat look, well we can confirm now that we have a combat that works. - So let’s summarize.

Combat is an simulation that happens on World Map where players can make decisions during combat in order to impact the end result. Rounds last for certain amount of time/days and in that time you can cast additional spells on the battlefield actors.

Disclaimer: Note that this is just first showcase and we are still working on formations and battles itself

Each unit has it's 3D representation with all according animations that simulate the combat flow. We are very proud of this since it gives combat a real time action feeling. Each unit represents a certain number of troops, and the units shown on screen reflect their relative proportion compared to the rest of the army on the Avatar.

We will go over a few subjects regarding the combat.

1. General combat situations
   
2. Changing combat tactics
   
3. Avatar abilities
   
4. Imbuing avatars with spells
   
5. Combat involving multiple Avatars
   

[h2]1 . General combat situations[/h2]

When your avatar encounters an enemy units will start fighting eachother and their deaths will be reflected based on round results.

Battle duration depends on your Leadership attribute. The more leadership you have, the less time/days the battle will take, so attacking with big armies will require higher leadership unless you want to get stuck in the field fighting for some time, giving your enemy opportunity to flank you.

Army morale is another thing that is tied into leadership, it determines how much loses you need to take in order to flee from the battle. If your army morale is low, it might end up bad for you.

Maximum number of combat rounds can be 5, so if a battle goes beyond that amount, it will end up in a draw and you will have to fight another day.





[h2]2. Changing combat tactics[/h2]
Every avatar will receive combat tactics as they level up - Offensive, Defensive, Sorcery, Ambush and Retreat.

It takes one full round to switch from one tactics to another, which means that if you start with Defensive tactics, in order for you to switch to Offensive tactics you will need to queue it up, and at the beginning of your next round your Avatar will start with Offensive tactic.

Offensive Tactics gives you advantage on the kill count, but reduces your magic defenses

Defensive Tactics is good for holding out vs spells or preserving your army

Sorcery will enhance your avatar abilities and spells.

Ambush is a positional tactic that is available to every Avatar if he manages to strike from the shadows. In order for Avatar to start ambush tactics he will need to hide in the woods, as he is doing that his ambush radius will extend. If enemy avatar enters this ambush radius your avatar will be able to charge and attack him immediately.

Charge attack is always succesfull, but in order for it to also be an Ambush attack it needs to pass a check vs enemy Perception and your Terrain lore attribute. If successful your Avatar will receive significant bonuses for the entire battle.



[h2]3. Avatar abilities[/h2]
Every Avatar has an ability that is equal to his starting magical plane, as Avatars gain in levels, those abilities grow stronger. Abilities are used automatically in combat based on Avatar attributes and level.

[h2]4. Imbuing Avatars with spells[/h2]
Before you engage into battle you can imbue and prepare your avatars with various spells, other then simple buff, you can decide to cast a hostile spell (like Fireball) on your Avatar.

Your Avatar, instead of taking damage from that spell will be able to store that spell and use it for the upcoming battles.

Stored Avatar spells will be available as additional options next to Combat Tactics, and player will decide at what time they want to use it, or simply save it for later. And as before, it takes one full round for Avatar stored spell to be cast while inside combat.

The cool thing about that is that avatar attributes enhance those Avatar spells, while it’s a bit trickier to prepare properly, it can give you the advantage you need over the overwhelming enemy forces.

If you just like the traditional spellcaster style you can just spam enemy avatars with Fireballs, Call of Tars Munas and all the cool spells that make their army go poof before they even reach you. It's a perfectly valid tactic if you decide that's your thing.




[h2]5. Combat involving multiple avatars[/h2]
This is situation where 2 sides are engaging in a battle, and third side which is an ally to one of the sides joins that battle, the combat situation changes and the minority side will have to split it’s attention towards new army now.

We are still working on this part and once it’s ready we’ll talk about it in a lot more details.



https://store.steampowered.com/app/2805850/Atre_Dominance_Wars/

Hello again!



This time we will delve deep into our race from the ATRE MEN world.

Men is one of the four magical planes that were merged into one in the Great Merge. Environments in Men are usually green, lush, with forests surrounding them. They also hide a dark secret, a secret of the race that became corrupted in order to survive extinction. They used magic in unnatural ways to twist their souls and harness the rage of the Haad plane in order to become who they are today – Menar Um, warriors who know no fear and are willing to do whatever it takes to stay alive, even if it means corrupting their own souls.

Army introduction:

Menar Um - a melee warrior, with the essence of Mother's root, they do not know fear.


- A fragment of Truth, taken from the Book of Ezul - Page #66

• Since Menars didn’t have a Kan-tso, the essence of Mother’s root was magically infused with their blood by the Erolek magicians. With this transformation the Menars lost whatever little Bond they had left, but could withstand the terror of the Void. They now became the Menar Ums.

Menar Ka - mighty cavalry, which both the horse and the horseman have their armor infused with the Wraith - Tars Muna



- A fragment of Truth, taken from the Book of Ezul - Page #74

• With these dark-filled Kan-tso magically fused together, a suit of armor was made. The Dark Armor. The soldiers who wore them became a cavalry regiment. The dreadful and fearless Menar Kas - the armored Menars.

Un Menar Ka - pure darkness, a death cavlary, with their infused spirit armor, and Tars Muna chained directly to their soul, there is nothing that can withstand the horror and powerful charge from this cavalry.



- A fragment of Truth, taken from the Book of Ezul - Page #78

• The dark horsemen gathered, with wraiths hovering above their heads. Un Menar Ka.
  With one dread-inducing charge, echoing with screams and heavy hooves stomping the dirt, the dark armor cavalry sliced through the enemy ranks. Some were cut down. Some got crushed under the heavy weight of armored horses. The lucky ones got taken by the wraiths. Whispered away… loudly. It is fascinating, to an observer like me, how the ingenuity of mortal beings centers, quite ironically, on expediting the mortality of others…
  

Below is a list and description of abilities that can be researched and applied to certain units through transformation spell.

Um - Awareness
- ability gained by magically absorbing the Mother’s Root into their bodies, gives resistance to Terror and Assassins, originated from Erol plane

Un - Terror
- ability gained through essence of Haad or through dark ritual by chaining Tars Muna wraith onto their soul, induces Terror on all units

Ka - Armsmaster
- ability infusing an essence of spirit into the weapons and armor of the wielder, Armsmaster is an unparalleled melee warrior, created by Men


Settlements of Men
Here you can see 4 tiers of Menar settlements.
Upgrading your settlements enables you to have a bigger population and unlock additional region specializations, as well as the ability to build walls around your region.





In every region there is various buildings you can build that will enable you to specialize region into warfare, economy or magic.

Barracks
Increases amount of units you will gain in region. Enabling you to have bigger army sooner.


Abode
Increases population growth, which will create more followers, enabling you to amass more power sooner.


Temple
Enables you to gain mana faster and cast bigger and better spells.



Level Editor
We are proud to announce that we will be releasing the game with Level Editor, enabling players to create their own maps and share them.

So far we don't have exact details but as we dive more into the level editor we will share this with community.




Thanks for reading this and in order to support us if you like the game help us by:

- Press FOLLOW on the store page -

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2805850/Atre_Dominance_Wars/

Farewell Sorcerers!