The new crafting system.
Patch 1.2.0 Second Age - Preview
I have been very quiet for some time now and for that I am sorry - but I have been so completely caught up with my latest ideas for the game, that I just haven't been able to find the time and energy to write a descent post.
But I now feel that I am ready to shed some light on the next patch for Realmstone.
I have been having a hard time with some of the ways things have been working in the game for some time now, especially regarding character progression. The class based character system introduced a very rigid system that allowed the players very little say in how they wanted their character to develop.
From the very concept stage of the game, I wanted to allow players a great deal of freedom and started out allowing anyone to be anything but that turned out to be too confusing and hard to maintain.
The class system fixed that like a big rock can prevent your desk from becoming too cluttered, removing almost all player influence.
The new system introduces customizable abilities:
- Each weapon is now defined by a subgroup, like Sword, Axe, Polearm, etc.
- Each subgroup defines a number of ability slots, sword for example has one Swift, one Medium and one Heavy action while a mace has two Medium and one Heavy actions.
- When you level a class you will gain class runes that can be slotted into these actions to provide item/class dependent abilities.
This may sound very confusing but it is actually quite intuitive, let me give you an example:
A ranger slots his class rune into his first action slot, he then equips a Short bow that has Swift Non-magical ranged attack as its first action slot. This then becomes Ranger's Quick Shot.
The character setup screen is still work in progress.
If the Ranger where to equip a Sword type weapon the same ability slot would become Ranger's Thrust instead because the Sword has a different type of action slot.
The whole system is generic and you can now gain proficiencies with new Types of gear as you select your level upgrades, this allows a player a great deal of customization as his weapons and class runes can be combined in many different ways and allow him to fulfill different roles in a party just by swapping a few runes or equipping a different weapon.
Another big change is the new crafting system, upon buying a Smithy, you will now be able to craft your own gear from raw materials, this system completely replaces the old item unlock system.
The new system is a mini game that allows players to combine materials to create customized items dependent on the amount of time and resources the player has at hand.
The Faction system will change a lot too, the current guild based system is just plain bad, it is just too difficult for players to organize in any meaningful way, the new system will limit the world to five factions, one for each color. House champions will only be able to pursue color aligned paths.
A house can change faction color but this will lock champions that are of opposite alignment until the color is changed back.
Many players have requested less random terrain - I have listened!. Patch 1.2.0 will include a custom made map with regions and borders (AND a bigger map!). The faction change will also split the eternal battlegrounds into objective based fields that will grant faction wide bonuses, such as increased gold find, better magic find chance and reduced chance of negative events.
There are still some time before all the bugs and kinks have been rotted out but I felt compelled to share the progress with you.
The new changes will unfortunately require a server wipe but I feel that all the new changes will make up for any grief and make leveling a new house an exciting experience.
May the gods watch over you.
