#15 – EXPLORATION

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Let’s talk a bit about how you can explore the world of the game – Rund.



The world of Spire of Sorcery is known as Rund. Nobody really knows where the name comes from. Some say it stems from “Runes” and some say it stems from “Ruins”, but no one is certain, because this name has been in use for centuries even before the Age of Mages.



We spoke earlier about the general layout of the world. And today we’ll talk about how you actually interact with this world. The global map features three kinds of informational layers:

• Regions
  
• Locations
  
• Markers
  

Region: Ancient Forests.

Regions are what we internally call “biomes”: forests, farmlands, swamps, and so on. Each region on the map has its name: you’ll encounter Dark Woods and Dead Woods and Silver Woods, and many more variations of how the locals name their surroundings. These names come from a database. Each time you start the main campaign, the map is generated from scratch – and these names are assigned from scratch, too. So each player will have a unique experience as far as discovering the world is concerned.

There are many types of regions. We currently completed about a dozen of different types and will continue to add more, as we move towards the launch in Steam Early Access – and then between the Early Access and the Full Release periods. Some of the already finished region types are:

• Farmlands
  
• Plains
  
• Hills
  
• Mountains
  
• Lakes
  
• Rivers
  
• Forests
  
• Ancient Forests
  
• Swamps
  
• Distorted Lands
  
• Rusted Forest
  
• Battlefields
  
• Black Pools
  

Region: Rusted Forest.

The type of region defines how fast your party can move through it when traveling: for example, moving through plains is very easy; while moving through swamps is harder.

The type of region also defines the range of visibility that your party has there: while traveling through hills, your disciples can see far ahead – and can be spotted from far ahead, too, if enemies are around. While traveling through ancient forests, though, the range of visibility is really limited.

The other thing that depends on the type of region is the sort of chance encounters that your party has there: traveling across farmlands may put you in front of a group of peasants going on their regular business (and hopefully, your disciples are able to disguise their magic talents). Traveling across ancient forests may lead you to meet a party of mushroom-eaters returning from a harvest. And traveling across battlefields may throw you face to face with the Bone Creature.

In addition to chance encounters, the type of region through which your party travels dictates the relevant travel risks: mosquito bites in swamps; poisonous air near black pools; dangerous animals in forests. These sorts of mini-events can seriously affect the health and even the lives of your party members.

Each type of region features a different set of resources to harvest: the types of herbs, berries and mushrooms, woods and minerals that your party can forage, depend on the type of region where you’re at.

Finally, the type of region specifies which kinds of dwellings you can find there: mushroom-eaters prefer to settle in ancient forests; cyclops live in caves and catacombs; mermaids are found in lakes and rivers; and so on. Think of it as this: not every ancient forest has a dwelling of mushroom-eaters; but when you find a dwelling of mushroom-eaters, it will be in one of the ancient forests.

Region: Caves.

And what does this all mean for the way you explore the map of Rund?

As you might remember from an earlier blog post, whenever you set up a quest for your disciples, the game will indicate for you the level of danger on that quest. If you’re about to send some weak characters across swamps and ancient forests towards Distorted Lands, you’re likely to see “red” – meaning one or more characters might die on this quest. If you keep the same quest, but change the characters in the party to those who are strong enough, and have the relevant survival skills – you might see the level of danger turn “green”, meaning no risk of death en route.

Your disciples have different advantages and disadvantages on specific region types. So getting to know your disciples better means becoming more efficient in assembling parties to go out to, and through, specific regions.




Locations are points of interest on the map that you can interact with. Here’s some of the more common ones:

• Villages
  
• Towns
  
• Towers
  
• Hermit quarters
  
• Dwellings of non-humans
  
• Mutant settlements
  
• Sources of magic energy
  
• Caves
  
• Ruins
  
• Catacombs
  

Some of these are straightforward: you visit the dwelling of weavers to negotiate, trade, fight or enslave them. Some contain sub-locations and sub-regions that you can explore.

For example, your parties may visit town multiple times, and trade there on the market. And then later on you’ll discover that there’s an alchemist store, or a secret book shop – impossible to access until you learn about it. The same applies to locations like caves and catacombs: explore the cave, and you might discover the dwelling of cyclops or pale ones; or buried treasure; or an old grave.

Sub-regions like caves and ruins do not affect visibility or speed of travel, but like the main regions, they define the type of resources you can harvest; the type of chance encounters you might have; and the type of risks associated with them, as well as the types of dwellings that are native to them.

Regoin: Swamps.

Markers indicate information that is tied to a specific place on the map, for example:

• The place where your party is going to
  
• The place where one of your earlier parties disappeared, and stopped communicating
  
• The place where one of your earlier parties died
  
• The place where something was sighted, for example – somebody’s camp site
  
• The place where an event, often temporary, is happening, for example – a forest fire
  

You also get markers based on information that you learn, such as after hearing in town about a cave in a nearby forest, you’ll get a corresponding marker with this information showing up on the map in the approximate location of such cave.

Like locations, markers show you where you can take action: if this is a grave of your party, you can send disciples to explore the remains and find out what really happened; if this is an event, you can send disciples to discover the details; if this is information that your party learned second-hand, you can send disciples to check it – and so on.

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That’s it for this week! See you on the forums, or at the official Discord server – which by now has over 750 players discussing the game in English, Russian, Japanese and Chinese languages!

ːorange_boxː Bonus content: in this video, you can see and hear the Ancient Forests of Rund:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGDJteLQKu0
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