Early Access Dev Log 18
Hello, peoples!
Having released a big update last Friday, we've spent this week building the plan for the next update – which we aim to release in late April. As usual, it will deliver the next chapter in the story, plus the updated UI and mechanics. Here's what we can share already:
[h3]DISMAL MARSHES[/h3]
The events of Chapter 4 unfold in Dismal Marshes.
Once, there was a city here. But ages ago, it got flooded – with just a few ruins sticking out of the mud.
Dismal Marshes are a sad, and dangerous, place to be: toxic, infectious, unwelcoming.
Who lives there?
[h3]NEW CREATURES[/h3]
There are two intelligent races in the area: Oorls and Drowners.
There's also a very specific predator: Swamp Beasts. They use mimicry to fool the prey, then strangle it with their roots.
Aside from these, there's bloodsuckers (annoying swarms that deal "taunt" tokens), crawlers (spitting acid), earth leeches (poison!) and snarers (static water-dwelling creatures from which you can extract pearls as a loot).
[h3]THE ARTEFACT[/h3]
The Spire can detect another artefact in this region: Weightless Stone.
This artefact allows its owner to control the minds of others.
While it will help the party back at the Spire to open a new room, here in Dismal Marshes it poses a problem: one of the local creatures got it, and is using it to rule the whole region...
[h3]NEW CHARACTER[/h3]
As with every previous chapter, here you will be able to find – and free – another new mage, who possesses special powers. I don't think we should spoil the story, so we'll leave it at that ;).
[h3]NEW RESOURCES[/h3]
Related to all the new creatures, this chapter will have new alchemic resources, as well as a new mineral that can only be found in the swamps. Plus a new food resource.
[h3]USER INTERFACE & MECHANICS: WHAT'S THE PRIORITY?[/h3]
Outside of the story, this month we'll work on improving the user interface – and the flow – in encounters. There's a number of small things that beg to be fixed (such as, streamlining the use of alchemy against opponents) and there's a big elephant in the room that we'll try to handle: tokens.
We love the way that tokens combine, stack, convert... but we think our description of the rules is way too complicated! It is very difficult, at first, to grasp that you can get Damage by casting Acid and then converting it, or to answer the question "which token reacts first?" when sending Fire to the target with Acid and Frost.
We've been experimenting with different solutions, and we're now reviewing all the rules, and the UI, to provide a substantial improvement in player experience.
The other matter is targeting.
When you're attacked by 3 opponents, who use multi-turn attacks, some of which are AoE, it can be very challenging to grasp WHO does WHAT to WHOM.
We've been re-working the UI over the last few days, and we hope to deliver a version that's easier to understand and makes the planning of the encounter more efficient!
–––
And this about wraps it for now.
if you have any comments or questions, we're happy to respond here and on Discord.
Over the coming week, we'll be writing the stories, and creating the new resources and items, as well as building the map. We'll see where we are in a week, when we'l share another update.
All the best!
// team CO
Having released a big update last Friday, we've spent this week building the plan for the next update – which we aim to release in late April. As usual, it will deliver the next chapter in the story, plus the updated UI and mechanics. Here's what we can share already:
[h3]DISMAL MARSHES[/h3]
The events of Chapter 4 unfold in Dismal Marshes.
Once, there was a city here. But ages ago, it got flooded – with just a few ruins sticking out of the mud.
Dismal Marshes are a sad, and dangerous, place to be: toxic, infectious, unwelcoming.
Who lives there?
[h3]NEW CREATURES[/h3]
There are two intelligent races in the area: Oorls and Drowners.
There's also a very specific predator: Swamp Beasts. They use mimicry to fool the prey, then strangle it with their roots.
Aside from these, there's bloodsuckers (annoying swarms that deal "taunt" tokens), crawlers (spitting acid), earth leeches (poison!) and snarers (static water-dwelling creatures from which you can extract pearls as a loot).
[h3]THE ARTEFACT[/h3]
The Spire can detect another artefact in this region: Weightless Stone.
This artefact allows its owner to control the minds of others.
While it will help the party back at the Spire to open a new room, here in Dismal Marshes it poses a problem: one of the local creatures got it, and is using it to rule the whole region...
[h3]NEW CHARACTER[/h3]
As with every previous chapter, here you will be able to find – and free – another new mage, who possesses special powers. I don't think we should spoil the story, so we'll leave it at that ;).
[h3]NEW RESOURCES[/h3]
Related to all the new creatures, this chapter will have new alchemic resources, as well as a new mineral that can only be found in the swamps. Plus a new food resource.
[h3]USER INTERFACE & MECHANICS: WHAT'S THE PRIORITY?[/h3]
Outside of the story, this month we'll work on improving the user interface – and the flow – in encounters. There's a number of small things that beg to be fixed (such as, streamlining the use of alchemy against opponents) and there's a big elephant in the room that we'll try to handle: tokens.
We love the way that tokens combine, stack, convert... but we think our description of the rules is way too complicated! It is very difficult, at first, to grasp that you can get Damage by casting Acid and then converting it, or to answer the question "which token reacts first?" when sending Fire to the target with Acid and Frost.
We've been experimenting with different solutions, and we're now reviewing all the rules, and the UI, to provide a substantial improvement in player experience.
The other matter is targeting.
When you're attacked by 3 opponents, who use multi-turn attacks, some of which are AoE, it can be very challenging to grasp WHO does WHAT to WHOM.
We've been re-working the UI over the last few days, and we hope to deliver a version that's easier to understand and makes the planning of the encounter more efficient!
–––
And this about wraps it for now.
if you have any comments or questions, we're happy to respond here and on Discord.
Over the coming week, we'll be writing the stories, and creating the new resources and items, as well as building the map. We'll see where we are in a week, when we'l share another update.
All the best!
// team CO