Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms - ARPG with dynamic overworld - now on Early Access

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/919360/view/3225161106684776444

Back from Germany!

Hello Champions!

Monday morning and here we are, back in action, after a super crazy week in Germany. The team took a short break but a couple of heroes [Alberto & Giulia] drove to Cologne for the most important event of the year, 3 years later.
Meeting old [and new] friends has been amazing, we missed IRL stuff so much
. Sorry for being slower than usual in answering on Discord but hope you had a good time playing the game or just enjoying some vacation before September's restart. This update is just to inform you that we are fully operative, working on features announced with our first draft of the roadmap.
Full mouse & keyboard support is our prio now, happening next month along with a very first update of the world map and new other features we are going to explain in details later on next week
. Back to GC topic, a lot of people asked why we were attending the event and we are posting this to answer this question as well!

Making games is about the long term and we had the chance to meet many potential partners to plan the future of the game for years to come. When we started pitching Alaloth a few years ago, we were pretty sure to have a very unique concept. The point is that every single dev in the world is basically convinced to pitch something unique and 99% of the time it is not true.
Validation comes with users playing the game and giving feedback
and that's the reason why now, data at hand, we are pushing so hard and we are asking for support as never before.
"It's like Baldur's Gate and Diablo had a baby"
. This is what people say the most of the time when reviewing Alaloth and this is why we're convinced that the full release has the potentials to be huge with the right partner jumping in. So it's about finding the one open to discuss the next steps toward 1.0 and beyond, with a few DLC already planned and so many ideas on our desk [yes guys, we know everyone is asking for proper multiplayer and online features...]. We'll be focusing on balancing for the next weeks, expect a new patch later on today, fixing a few strongholds-related issues [wrong prices for servants] and some other cool stuff. Thank you all!

Share the love and stay tuned!

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/919360/view/3400803394232438064

A new massive patch on its way!

Hello Champions!

Time for a new update, fall is coming and we can't wait to show you what we are working on! The good news is that we've been incredibly fast during the summer, so the stronghold update has been released before leaving for GamesCom and we had the chance to gain some extra time for the next features scheduled. Mouse & keyboard is the next big thing. We already explained why we had to release with partial support only, so we are not talking about this once again. We are testing right now and even if we were expecting a bit of regression and UI-related issues, everything seems to be fine now. We hope to be able to release the new patch next week, just let us check the last changes we did. We are running an extra week of testing on our internal branch.

No worries, mouse cursor will be bigger

September is even the month of the first world update. As we already said, we are going to add 4 new areas with new NPC and new quests and we are at work to dress each area the coolest way right now. We had a lot of meetings to discuss how to set things properly and we are thinking to split the upload of the new locations as soon as we'll have ready what we need, instead of sending out a massive patch. We'll probably be back on this in the next days because once again, we ended up in something bigger than expected [with the same time budgeted, kudos to the team]. We are going to update the roadmap soon, because we've already finished these areas, other new locations [arena anyone?] and we've just started working on new FA as well. Not talking about dragons, completely new FA with more puzzle elements, traps and so on, introducing new mobs and features that we thought would have been a great addition to the gameplay [more details in the next updates].

Rockstarn

To summarize: no secret that we had a great GamesCom and we were there to catch-up with new potential partners to help with the future of the game and the brand. After the issues we had in the past, we decided to set-up meetings with trusted people only, big guns and people we really feel could help to make Alaloth great. We have now data and info validating what we've always thought and what we've always said when pitching the game: we have something unique here and there is nothing else like this on the market, which is something that everyone knows, apparently [at least who knows about games, you know...]. No rushes on our side and again, we are not going to promise things that we can't deliver but we have a ton of options to consider now and many cool ideas to work on. Full coop campaign, multiplayer, online features, battlegrounds, sieges, new companions, new modes, DLCs... everything is constantly under discussion and be sure that we'll give 110% as usual to move on and be able to improve the game as much as possible.

Giulia, our Producer, with Rick from Fextralife and a very promising young Game Designer sharing some prosecco at our booth!

Last but not least: we've received hundreds of messages, mails, DM with suggestions, feed and precious comments and we want just to confirm once again that we are trying to answer to everyone as usual. Many were asking about three main things: special sales, console versions and retail. About sales: yes, we are going to discount the game in the future of course, because special sales are the best thing to raise numbers and it's pretty normal doing like this for any studio in the world. For sure, we are not going to discount the game more than 20% at least for the first year and yes, we can confirm that the full release is not going to change the price point, despite the huge number of contents we already put in/we'll put in in the future. That's because we thought it was due to the people that supported us at the very beginning and because we are not going to undersell a product that we think is worth the price, considering that we are talking about one of the biggest indie RPG on the marketin terms of contents/repliability value. Just facts. This is the best moment to start your adventure in Plamen, then don't wait!

We have to say that we are working on a very special anniversary sale and something could happen at some point and of course we have to evaluate special events from time to time, to set-up things properly but again, no promises and new info as soon as possible. along with the community-related activities we've teased a few weeks ago. Consoles? We have very good options with top tier publishers willing to port the game on every existing platform [as announced ages ago] but we've been super clear about this: focus on EA and full release on PC first. Retail? Yep, work in progress: we are partnering with a top player for this, hope to share something very soon!

Share the love and stay tuned!

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/919360/view/3310732036323593885
https://steamcommunity.com/games/919360/announcements/detail/3310732036323593886

We've just updated our plan for the next 90 days. Check it out!

Hello Champions

It has been a while since we've published our first development roadmap and it is time to update it! As we announced last week, we have done with mouse & keyboard and tested the new features for a while. We had a bit of regression on the way but it was pretty normal, considering that we had to rework the UI entirely. We don't expect major bugs but in case, poke us as usual and we'll try to fix everything at the speed of light. In general, we have to say that we have been faster than what we've originally predicted and of course even if we have decided to stick with the original plan we've drafted, lot of new ideas have been discussed by the team, following your feed and new inputs from new partners willing to jump in and help us with the development. The result is that the contents that we are going to put in will be way more than the originally predicted ones and we hope this would be just one more proof of the effort we are putting in our work, to make Alaloth the great game we've always had in mind. We spent some time data at hand in the last month, checking other games available on the market as well and putting together a few numbers. We can say that Alaloth is currently the biggest RPG game on the market in terms of contents, considering the size of the world, the number of locations and NPC we have and so on. Proud of this! Let's go with some more info for you all!

17 patches released so far [we promised: no slow down], a major update with strongholds in and the very first round of balancing. Two months and half. We would say that these could be considered good numbers and we are happy of the results achieved in this 60+ days. The game sold very well in July, always considering that we've been forced to launch during a special sale and summer is the worst season to launch a game. But hey, no problem, big things ahead. As we said many times, no need to underline that bug fixing, new contents, balancing etc. will be on-going till the end and so, plans may change moving on with the development. By now, we've always delivered way more contents than originally scheduled and we are going like this if possible: it's our baby, it has to be your fav RPG for a long time!

FULL SUPPORT FOR MOUSE & KEYBOARD
Here we are. We started with just partial support for M&K and yes, we knew you hated us. We updated the game introducing some improvements and we promised full support for September. We've finally added mouse pointer support: cursor can be used both to interact with UI elements and to lock enemies while in a Fighting Area. We have added support for navigating item lists using the scroll wheel and all now works properly. Hope to get people waiting for this back on board and hope to get some thumbs-up from people that were rightfully criticizing us at the beginning [but again: we've been forced to go like this, running out of time for the release]

GRIFFINS AND SHIPS
Nope, we are not introducing fast travel, no worries! Simply, each race has a unique character doing unique things [Forgeback, The Red Mage, Nohrged-Kin...] and elves have Kellis, which is way more a char created for everyone [no spoilers but you know]. We thought that would have been cool to introduce something to balance things a bit and Griffin Riders will be available very soon! The Riders will allow elven champions to travel in Larastir riding a griffin, avoiding random encounters and saving precious time while searching for the shards. Only elven champions could be able to use them and only after proving their strenght in battle. The Riders' HQ can be found in Edhenen and it is one of the first new indoor location we are going to add to each city in the future updates. Ships will be available for all instead, just paying money to one of the various organizations connecting ports of The Sea of Solitude. On boarding will be possible in Baystone and Rockstarn and routes will connect these cities with Na'Sharak, the port of Vhoken-Mahl. This is just a first step to set-up new coastal cities and areas in the bottom part of the map that will be developed soon with super cool FA and POI we are going to share asap!

NEW FIGHTING AREAS AND BOSS FIGHTS
Easy as it is. We are working on new FA and boss fights to increase the number of unique fights you are going to have during your run. We are focusing on areas bringing in a bit of puzzling and Indiana Jones-like sections and all of this will come along with a bunch of new mobs we are working on right now. Design in progress but of course we are building up everything to keep a good balance in terms of options for each kingdoms so if we are going with 4 new FA and 4 new boss fights, everything will be splitted among kingdoms as usual. Sligthly postponed dragon fights in our schedule. They are not appearing in the new roadmap but as for anything else: we can suddendly patch the game and you can find dragons in. It really depends on iterations on the way.

COMPANIONS, CHAMPIONS, PERMADEATH
We are slowly iterating every single item, char, mob in the game. Companions and champions are one of the prio as well and we are going to rework them shortly. We think that the first bunch of fixes for companions has been useful, having the chance to bring back them in action if wounded. We are on numbers now, customizing them by lore, increasing poise for chars like Khoran or making dex-focused chars like Vaden or Zian way more lethal. Same for the others, of course. Champions are prio as well, aiming to create unique duels with each of the 40 warriors available, to increase difficulty in Competitive Mode. A lot of people is asking about difficulty settings and we are on this. Permadeath will be introduced soon and we are thinking about a way to offer new challenges as requested.

ARENA, NEW TRAITS, CRAFTING, ALCHEMY
Arena Mode is going to happen. First of all, we are adding The Bleeding of Hashak in-game. It will be the first available arena to test stuff, using the location as part of the campaign. Hashak will be sligthly modified and the arena will be available at given conditions, considering that it is an orcish environment connected by lore with The Hunt and other major celebrations in Baga. The Arena Mode will follow and will be a stand-alone mode of course. Going to give more details as soon as we'll have details to share for the first iteration! We are adding 12 new traits to customize your char as well. Customization is one of the most requested feature and we are starting with this but new stuff will pop-up in the future [can't say anything now about BG-like portraits but hey!]. Crafting will change: new blueprints will be available and the process will be simplified a bit, changing specs of crafting materials, their availability and prices. Alchemy will be available, giving champions the chance to create potions.

Warm-up here...

...die here

MISC
By the end of the year we are hopefully going to have the full picture for the future of the company and the future of the brand. The end of the year is even the deadline set to have the final round of balancing, using the next months to go through every system. Achieving this, we could focus on new massive features we have in mind and you've asked for. By now, it's a slow process that forces us to constantly iterate even with small changes happening. With the right numbers in place, we'll be able to work on new stuff with solid foundations and in a faster way, starting to consider all the ideas you've sent and all the proposals we are evaluating internally. No worries, we are not revolutioning the whole thing just to put in random stuff because they have been requested. We are not going to turn the game into an online game or such. We hope to develop our community more and more, to work using a partecipative design flow, as we've always wanted. If you want to help now, just talk about the game on socials, share your experience, point people to our Steam page or Discord server and if you enjoy the game, drop a review here. It really helps at this stage! Write soon

Share the love and stay tuned!

 

[Infinitron]

GameBanshee preview: https://www.gamebanshee.com/preview...s-of-the-four-kingdoms-preview/all-pages.html

Introduction

Developed and published by Gamera Interactive, Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms is an action-RPG that's said to offer fast-paced action in conjunction with a deep narrative, which doesn't happen all that often.

It's also said to be inspired by Baldur's Gate and Pillars of Eternity, and feature some world-building by the one and only Chris Avellone. As such, when the game entered early access, we decided to check it out and see what it had to offer.

Baldur's Souls

First things first. While the game claims to be inspired by Baldur's Gate, it has absolutely nothing in common with the venerable CRPG. Whether you look at the game's narrative, systems, or combat, it's very hard to see any Infinity Engine influences there.

Instead, Alaloth's combat system is pretty much a carbon copy of Dark Souls, only isometric. You have your light and heavy attacks, a stamina bar, blocks, parries and dodges, poise, block-breaking kicks, and even the Bloodborne-style "regain" mechanic. The latter provides you with a grace period after taking damage, during which you can hit your enemies back and restore your missing health.

What sets Alaloth apart is the prevalence of fairly standard action-RPG status effects like stun, bleed and poison, infinite throwing daggers that allow you to snipe distant enemies, and the fact that you regain all your stamina upon breaking an enemy's poise.

To the game's credit, it has the smoothest, most responsive Dark Souls-style combat in an indie game I've seen to date. But due to the isometric perspective, it can be hard to see what's happening and react appropriately, and the tilted camera makes it challenging to properly position yourself.

Then, there are a couple of fundamental issues with the combat system that will hopefully get addressed during early access.

First, there's targeting. If you think Elden Ring was guilty of locking you on to irrelevant things, you'll be pulling your hair out trying to target the correct enemies in Alaloth. On top of it, the game's lock-on keeps turning you around as your enemies move, leaving you open to attacks from all directions. It also has the tendency to ignore certain enemies in a pack, and cycling between targets feels almost random.

Then, we have the issue of enemy attack patterns. You see, in Dark Souls-style games, enemies need to have clear attack patterns with equally clear openings for you to learn and exploit. Alaloth doesn't really have those. Instead, enemies mostly just attack you whenever they feel like it.

You pair that with the game's isometric perspective, and you get a combat system where if you want to win, your best bet is to ignore most of it, forget every move other than the heavy attack, never lock on, and just try to overwhelm your enemies by breaking their poise over and over again. And if they manage to hit you during that, it doesn't really matter since you can regain your lost health if you just keep attacking.

Thankfully, this being an early access release, the developers still have plenty of time to address these issues. The basic fundamentals of a good combat system are there. But it has a long way to go before it can become really fun.

Where's THAC0 When You Need It?

Alaloth's character progression could also use some work. In its current iteration, you can pick between four races - humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs. This is the biggest choice you make, as your race determines your starting kingdom. And that determines the kinds of quests you'll be getting and enemies you'll be fighting in the early game when you are at your weakest.


Races also provide minor percentage-based bonuses to various stats like bleed resistance. And these minor bonuses are pretty much a staple of the game's roleplaying system.

Each level you gain (up to 10), you get an attribute point that lets you improve your Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and Luck. A point of Strength, for example, raises your melee damage by a whopping 3% and slightly increases your carry weight. Believe it or not, the other attributes are even less impactful.

All the gear you find also tends to provide similar increases for your stats. But at least there you can find artifacts that give you something like 14% extra crit chance. It's still pretty boring, but at least it's noticeable.

Now, every two levels, you also get a Trait and an active skill. Traits once again provide percentage-based bonuses, but at least they're more inventive and improve stuff like the amount of gold you find.

The game's active skills (limited by cooldowns and a stamina cost) come in three distinct trees - physical skills, elemental skills, and holy skills. These skills range from game-breaking to borderline useless. Thankfully, you can freely mix and match them. But you only get a total of four skills, so choose wisely. The same goes for Traits.

But here's the thing. You gain a level every time you clear a dungeon. And with the way the game is set up, you'll pretty much reach your level cap by the time you leave the starting area. This being an early access game, such limited progression is forgivable, but it really needs to be expanded for the full release.

What Can Change the Nature of a Game?

With that in mind, let's talk about the game's general premise and setup. The world map is separated into four large kingdoms, each with its own cities, dungeons and points of interest. Your race determines your starting location, and from there, you will need to collect four divine shards, one per kingdom, in order to unlock the final dungeon and defeat the evil god chained within.

There are currently two main game modes - solo and competitive. If you choose the competitive mode, the other three kingdoms will have their own AI champions working towards the same goal as you. In theory, this may result in them "stealing" dungeons from under you or ambushing you on the world map. But right now, your rivals are not very good at what they do, and even if you take your time, they'll struggle to deal with even the easiest of dungeons.

Once you beat the game, you also get an option to start a Legacy for subsequent playthroughs, though at this point, it merely offers some cosmetic changes. But eventually, the developers intend to add some gameplay consequences for having a Legacy.

Upon starting the game, you get a quick tutorial and then go visit your king who entrusts you with your mission. From there, you get to explore your capital, trade, craft, and pick up some quests and bounties.

Bounties task you with defeating some enemies of a certain type, while quests usually range between "pick up this item here and go there," and "go somewhere, do something, then go somewhere else." And the game's journal in its current state does little to help you figure out what half of the quests even want you to do.

Listening to the quest-giving NPCs isn't overly helpful either. Especially when you consider that the game doesn't really have dialogues. It has monologues. A lot of them. Every conversation in the game has you pressing continue while an NPC shovels heaps of text onto you. In fact, Alaloth has two different types of NPCs that exist solely to provide you with lore tidbits.


This to me is a great example of working hard instead of smart. The developers here have clearly come up with a lot of rich and deep lore for their game. And they obviously care a lot about it. But they've seemingly forgotten to figure out a way to make their players care about that stuff.

You can't just throw walls of text at people and expect them to care. You need interesting characters, intriguing scenarios, and stimulating conversations where the player is an active participant. You need events that leave the player with new questions and the desire to figure out how everything connects. All of that is lacking in Alaloth at this point. And if you remember that the game is supposed to be inspired by Baldur's Gate, it's hard not to wonder what exactly Alaloth's developers liked there. The camera angle, I guess?

The game does have companions. Four for each of the three available alignments. And they come with their own personal quests that, while more elaborate than the rest, are still way too linear. I'm not sure if it would be possible to add more choices and consequences to the game throughout early access, but it sure would be welcome.

Dungeon Crawling

A curious thing about Alaloth is how its campaign is structured. The four shards you need to find are scattered all over the place. When you start the game, you don't know which of the dungeons hold them, so you'll need to clear out a whole bunch of them before you find the shards.

Unfortunately, the dungeons here tend to be fairly linear and limited in size. You usually have a straight line to your goal, with occasional side passages and closed doors that require you to find a key before advancing.

On the plus side, once you enter a dungeon, you can't adjust your inventory, meaning you have to consider which gear to equip and which consumables to prepare beforehand.

And, at the very least, while not particularly inspired in their level design, all the dungeons look nice and manage to evoke a feeling of a fantasy adventure.

Another thing you have to keep in mind is that you don't regenerate health between encounters. If you want to restore health, you'll need to either use a healing skill, drink a potion, or rest at a tavern.

Considering the game's Dark Souls-inspired combat, you would think this would make it quite difficult. However, once you figure out how things work, find some gear that's not complete garbage, and learn to stop worrying and love the heavy attack, you shouldn't have any issues getting through the currently available content.

In fact, the durability of your gear is a much bigger concern than your health. The better your gear, the more expensive it is to repair it. And early on, it felt to me like I was in one big downward spiral since my gear kept deteriorating faster than I earned gold.

But once I actually figured out how durability worked, things became bearable. You see, each encounter, be it a major dungeon or the two random skeletons that waylay you on your way to the dungeon, reduces the durability of all your items by a single point. So, as long as you avoid random encounters and the bounties that incentivize you to seek them out, you should be good, durability-wise.


There's also another big trap you should watch out for. At some point, chances are you'll run into these so-called Grandmasters who offer to teach you new skills. Now, granted, when you talk to one of these shifty guys, they do warn you that after you agree to their offer, you will no longer be able to respec your character.

Still, I wasn't playing the game just to beat it. I was looking to experience its content for this preview. So, I accepted the offer. And had all my active skills changed to the four skills of the Warlord tree. And among those, only one skill was any good, which was mighty annoying.

You'd expect a Grandmaster to teach you some unique new skills, or at least some improved versions of the existing ones. But nope, all you get for talking to Grandmasters is a botched character and a new weapon that, chances are, is worse than whatever you're already using.

So basically, until you read some patch notes announcing a complete rework of the Grandmaster system, you should keep your distance from these guys. Still, even after suffering such a severe blow to my character's effectiveness, I was able to beat the game with little trouble, which goes to show that it could really use some balance adjustments prior to the full release.

Technical Information

The current build of Alaloth has anywhere between 10 to 50 hours' worth of content, depending on how much of the side stuff you want to do. More importantly, even though a lot of the game's systems currently have a very much work-in-progress feel to them, you can already get the full campaign experience, beat the final boss, and even get a cliffhanger ending.

The game runs pretty well and the only bugs I've encountered were limited to your summons occasionally getting stuck on the geometry, and some rare visual glitches.

In general, the game looks quite nice. Both screenshots and promotional videos for the game had me worried a bit before I started my playthrough, as they looked somewhat cheap and choppy. But once you actually get to play the game, you realize that its visuals are quite charming.

Being a Dark Souls-inspired game, Alaloth only offers frequent autosaves as a way to save your progress. Which was especially annoying when dealing with the aforementioned Grandmasters.

The options menu is rather barren at the moment. You can pretty much only change the volume and choose your screen resolution.

You can also rebind controls. But only some of them. When you start the game, you get a message informing you that a controller is preferable for the game. Which again doesn't bode well for those of you expecting a Baldur's Gate-style experience. And while you can use a keyboard and mouse setup here, it's incredibly clunky. Thankfully, the developers fully intend to add proper mouse support to the game in the nearest future.

Conclusion

In its early access version, Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms doesn't really succeed as an example of a narrative-driven action-RPG. And namedropping Baldur's Gate is merely a trick to sneak another Dark Souls under your radar.

However, judging the game on its own merits, while not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, it has a certain honest quality to it that makes you want to keep playing it despite whatever shortcomings it may have.

And seeing how these are merely the first stages of Alaloth's early access journey, there's still plenty of time for it to change for the better.

 

[Frozen]

Fuck this game. Generic story shit, graphics looks like something from mama basement 2004. I had to endure like 30 min of generic story derp intro and 20yo character creator and the moment actual game starts (first city) I lost sound and got BSOD had to literally turn of my power supply and turn it on again just to get into windows.

The moment you go in game it said controller only-fuck you. I launch it again it said preferable for controller like wtf.

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/919360/view/3427829445189637913

Time for a new development update and celebrations!

Hello Champions!

As we already said in our Discord server, we are finally back in action after a crazy October! Last month has been full of meetings and we have been busy with a relocation in the UK [not moving the studio, just opening a new office here!]. The team in Italy worked hard during this week and
we've just released a new patch
, so check the latest changelog and download the latest version of the game which is full of quality of life fixes and some new cool stuff to check. We have to say that we are a bit late with the plan. It's not about contents, everything is almost ready, but we've realized on the way that splitting updates on the way is not the most convenient thing to do at the moment, considering what's happening around us. Time ago, we sat down and decided to go on with small updates adding locations, quests, chars almost on weekly bases. We tried to work like this but we decided to revert and go big with a massive patch expanding the world map and including all the changes announced a few weeks ago. Again, nothing to be worried because nothing changes for the long term, but we really understimate what was happening around us and we already knew that development is not about coding stuff only and communicate things properly is pivotal. Even if we are looking for new people to join us,
our team stays super small
and business related stuff took 100% of the time of the people usually taking care of this [Alberto. Me]. We apologize for this but it is how it works. We literally didn't have time to sit and write down stuff: flights, trains and meetings in four different countries drained our energy. Not whining, all has been great but still a lot of work to do! At some point we've announced that we were running for the Indie Development Awards at
Game Connection
and we are proud to announce that we've won
Best Hardcore Game
!
Game Connection
is one of the most important business event in the world and we love celebrating such an important achievement.

Game Connection
has been a RL event of course but it was not the only one we were attending last week. Just a day before the kick-off in Paris, we've received other amazing news from the US,
with five awards won at
Nyx Game Awards
, PC Game category
. Alaloth has been awarded as:

• Best Indie Game
• Best Gameplay
• Best Visual Art
• Best Role Playing Game
• Best Game Direction
  [lovely personal achievement]

Past editions celebrated games like Dying Light 2 Stay Human, The Last of Us, It Takes Two and many others, no need to say how much we are happy of this. All of this is a breath of fresh air for us, after the storm we've gone through before the release. We are still giving 110% to improve the game, with new features, balancing and all the adds we've promised.

Right now, we're putting together the new locations and yes, we are a bit late as already explained, but of course what will be delivered will be way bigger than expected and way bigger than what we've announced, with way more contents available than originally scheduled. So, yes,
Rockstarn
,
Arrowtooth
,
Mountain's Hands
and
Fal-Thalas
but even
Windscar
[a new city in Edherest] and
Na'Sharak
[an orcish port close to Vokhen-Mahl]. And a few secondary locations filled with quests and new NPC. We've finally defined the new FA as well, with new bosses from The Spectral Circle and other vicious creatures from the abyss.
And much more, details to follow
! Can't wait to see you playing and get new feed on the balancing.

Share the love and stay tuned!

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The team in Italy worked hard

Also, no idea how this won any award. I played it for a bit and it was just... ok.

 

[vortex]

NJClaw , what does he mean when he says they worked hard ?

 

[Nortar]

In times when "gold winner" is apparently not the winner, I wonder how many participants there were for this thing to get 3 "grand winners".

 

[ERYFKRAD]

NJClaw , what does he mean when he says they worked hard ?

Woke up just before noon

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/919360/view/3391801358773896963

Some useful insights for you all!

Hello Champions!

We are planning the next sprint with December approaching and we thought it was a good moment to talk a bit about what's going on with localization and language-related stuff, let's say. We are receiving
hundreds of messages
from players all over the world asking for Alaloth in their native language and we would like to clarify that, as developers,
our will has always been to release the game providing the highest number of languages in
. This has been one of the main reasons that brought us to sign with our former publisher back in 2020.
The original plan from us was set to deliver a D1 release with at least 7 languages in and English dubbing for narration, companions and main quest as starting point
. As you know, taking the game back has been a very long process and the plan changed. Localization is a really important part of game discovery, since it opens up so many new potential markets for us. For example, the Chinese market, is massive on Steam. If the game isn't translated into Chinese, most of the millions of Steam players in China won't even see it as a default game in their Steam store. That's how localization and discovery interact.
This is just a sample to say that we do know how it works but once again, it's about budget and available resources
. Just to give you an idea:
Alaloth is around 300.000 words now and the original content we thought to be considered for dubbing was nearly 75.000 words
. To give you a bit of context: The Lord of The Rings trilogy [books] is 455.000 words circa. Neverwinter Nights is 200.000. Baldur's Gate II is 188.000. 300.000 words means roughly 60.000€ per language [translation, implementation and testing], which is a huge amount of money, considering that we decided to go with a very user friendly price point in many different countries. Despite the great sales we had, these countries should sell x10.000 to make the investment reasonable.
We are trying our best to build-up a plan to go through this, but it will take some time
[and some tech work too]. We've met new potential publishing partners willing to help with this and we confirm our will to slowly include new languages on the way [one by one in case, if still self publishing] but of course it will take some time. We have to say that many indie groups offered their services for free but
we didn't like the idea of taking something without giving back anything
so, at least for now, this is not an option. If you want to help us, just point your friends here, use your social networks and bring people on our Discord server if they have questions. You know we are always on! It was a due update, thank you for the support as usual!

Share the love and stay tuned!

 

[Infinitron]

Lots of whining here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/919360/view/3524658636179884738

Read before buying!

"It looks like a blend of early Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook art, Baldur’s Gate, and Dark Souls"

[PCGamesN]


Hello Champions!

We decided to open this new update with one of our fav quote ever for a reason. Autumn Sale started yesterday on Steam,
and we were thinking it was a good moment to clarify a few things
, as we already did talking about localization recently. It's nearly 5 months since we've released Alaloth in Early Access and we are super happy with the work done, with our amazing community, with the feed we've got day by day here and on Discord. Despite this, we had to deal with a few issues on the way, in regards of what Alaloth is and how we push it to the players. You know we've decided to adopt a very clear and straight forward approach to communication and PR. We always answer to people asking,
we can easily say we can be considered one of the most active dev around
and this time there is no exception. Since when we've got back our game publishing rights, we've tried to explain our vision, our approach to development, our long term plans. We've told everyone what to expect, what Alaloth is and what Alaloth is not [and will not ever be]. We've posted FAQ following AMA, we've gone through every single post here, answered almost every good and bad review and so on.
Apparently, this is not enough
. We thought a lot about posting an update like this, but here we are. Being a super small indie team, self publishing its game, putting personal money in, means that we have to carefully weight everything, including the way we handle PR but this doesn't mean that we follow the common habit of passively accepting criticism coming from people saying wrong things, just because
"players are always right"
. We think this is not always true. Sometimes players happen
to be not 100% right
and if for big guns this means nothing, for a small studio getting bad reviews without a proper reason it's a huge problem instead, impacting sales, available resources and the team itself. Just to be clear:
this doesn't mean that bad reviews are not accepted or bad feed are not correct
. Everyone has the right to say whatever he/she wants about the game, destroying it the way he/she prefers but we've set just one rule internally, about this. Getting a very bad feed, insults or whatever is fine somehow, but all of this has to reflect reality and not to be just random words dropped through a keyboard. In these cases, we've always [politely] answered, trying to explain things at our best.

So, just to recap a few things,
we would like to tell you once again what the game is, what you should expect from the game and how things work in Alaloth
, trying to avoid wrong feed based on the fact that
devs have not been clear enough
[even if we've been], as any kind of disappointment in players that decide to support us. We thought to quote a few sentences from reviews, refund notes, Discord posts and board topics:

"Devs said it was inspired by Baldur's Gate but it's not Baldur's Gate"


So true. This is not Baldur's Gate.
This is Alaloth and it is in between old school classics and modern action RPG
. This is how we've pitched the game and this is what comes out of a ton of reviews, good and bad. Point is that bad reviews focus on the sentence above because BG has been taken as an inspiration.
Yes it is
. The game is inspired by Baldur's Gate as it is inspired by The Lord of The Rings, Willow, Dragonlance, Shannara, Game of Thrones, The Wheel of Time, other games like Diablo, Mount & Blade, Dragon's Dogma, Ultima Online, Pillars of Eternity etc. Books, movies, games, TTRPG.
Inspiration means exactly what it means
. Inspired by Baldur's Gate does not mean it is Baldur's Gate. Inspiration is not doing the same thing 1:1. So, again: Alaloth is not a CRPG and is not Baldur's Gate as it is not a book, a TTRPG or a movie.
Alaloth it's a unique game inspired by these experiences
. And yes it is even inspired by Baldur's Gate and Infinity Engine games. That's why we use an iso camera, for example.

"Mouse & Keyboard not supported"


Not true.
The game fully supports M&K
. We've released the game in June with partial support only for M&K [which means that the game supported them at launch as well, even if partially only]. We explained why. We are not crazy but it was about surviving as a company when we've got the game back. We patched the game in September with the full support after a full rework of the UI and since then, M&K has to be considered in full. You can say that it could be improved [we are always improving the game and this makes no exception] and you can say you don't like it but you can't say M&K is not supported. Better with a controller? We just think a controller can give a better exeperience, but you are not forced to use one to enjoy the game at all.
Hades states the same in its main menu
, so nothing weird here. Just a sample of a great PC game working nice with a pad.

"The game needs some extra development"


That's exactly why we are in Early Access now, otherwise we were talking of a full release. Despite this, we have players with 100+ hours under their belt, the game is fully playable since D1, 22 patches so far, 2 Major Updates not even scheduled originally! Yes, the game needs some extra development and we are on it, following feed from our audience. Consider that, right now,
the game is aready three times the original scope and we are adding features on weekly basis with new quests, chars, items, locations and so on
. We could say that Alaloth is already one of the biggest indie RPG out on the market at the moment [the biggest?]. We are not going to stop of course. We iterate a lot. We like the idea to be able to put in new features, even if these features were not part of the original roadmap. This is how iteration in game development works.

"The game is overpriced"


We decided to go with a very low price point and considering contents offered, it is the exact opposite. We were thinking about partnering with a few publishers before going self publishing:
they were suggesting to release at 39.99/49.99 because of contents
, just with the standard game [not considering DLC included in the Supporter Edition]. Just check the store and make comparisons with other RPG and other games.
The game is probably underpriced
but again, it has been a choice we've made when we've got publishing rights back, trying to maximize the huge number of wishlists we have.

"Coop is advertised the wrong way because it is not real coop"


Steam works in a very easy way: you put in flags that pop-up as icons in the store page. We have coop in and it works the way that a player can jump in a fighting session anytime in FA.
It is local only but it works through Remote Play as well and it works the way you can invite friends [not owning the game] and play with them
. To flag Local Coop you have to flag Multiplayer first in the sys, no matter what. If you don't,
you can't flag Local Coop option
which is what is in. There is not an option and no distinction between full coop campaign or small coop options. We are at work to improve this feature as well because a lot of people is asking. You can talk about getting a full playable coop campaign and it is really something we would like to deliver at some point but local coop is in from D1, and it is real.
There is no chance to explain coop if not writing about it right now and as we always did
so please, read all the useful links we've posted or join our AMA or jump in our Discord server. In order to play coop, main char has to find companions first. Companions can be used by other players once invited [both locally or online through Remote Play on Steam. Invites are open to people not owning the game too].

"My choices are not impacting the world"


As already said, Alaloth is not a CRPG but
choices matter
. We used to say that Alaloth is not a player centered game

it is
a world centered game
. Plamen, the game world, move on and things happen with or without you so, depending on your choices, some quests can be unlocked or not, NPC can show up or not, you can meet them or not.
Playing the game more time with a different alignment and with different choices, simply brings on new content everytime
. This not means that players have to rush anything [Single Player campaign allow you to play taking your time of course] but this means that you are going to get 100% of the game playing more than one run, familiarizing with the calendar, scheduled events, timed events and so on. Just a sample: we have unique merchants selling unique goods popping-up during festivals at the same time every year in-game. If you miss them, you can find them in following their route or just waiting one more year. Some Quest Givers work the same way and hints to find wandering chars/special chars/special quests are all around the world in dialogues, barks, items description and so on. Quests are streamlined [even if there are quests around in which you can take different decisions]
but this means also that what happens around you changes the game world
. Read carefully!

"I wish you the best, i know you are great, the game is amazing but is not my cup of tea so i'm leaving a thumb down"


We know that a lot of people is leaving feed in good faith to help us improving the game. We could say that we are way more happy of bad reviews with constructive feed than anything else. But something like this does not really help us.
A good average on Steam is crucial at this stage and if you enjoyed the game or just recognized value in it, even if it's not a thing for you, please consider helping us with a thumb up instead
and check the game later on to see how much love and effort we've put in it!

"You should change this and that"


As already said, we take every single feed into account. We included a ton of features requested by users since launch and tried to discuss almost every topic from our Discord server, coming from the channel we've set-up to collect user suggestions. Quality of life improvements and any possible update increasing the overall quality of the game, are probably already in or in the pipeline for future updates. But please consider that we are not going to change 100% of the game because
you don't like it
.
Alaloth is not a CRPG and will not turn into a CRPG, now and never. Alaloth is not Diablo and it is not turning into it, now and never
. We know someone don't like to read stuff but we have a 300k words game we've worked on considering players actually reading texts to get the best from the world and no,
we are not cutting dialogues to add guided quests with a UI bringing you to your quest objective as an autopilot
. Focus is on melee and it will stay like this because magic is described in a certain way in the lore of Plamen but we've received many requests to change this a bit and you know what?
We are doing this, we are enhancing magic and working on new spells and professions because our final aim is to maake everyone happy with a great, fun game
. And this is going to happen for sure but we have to preserve our vision at the same time.

"The game is great but I want it in my language"


If the game is great, leaving a thumb down is not the way to help us localizing it. Thumbs up help with sales. More sales mean more resources to invest, more resources mean localizing the game in more languages. Our will is to localize the game as much as possible. Buying the game knowing that loc is not in, pointing that the feature is not in, does not seem a smart move to us [and it is valid for any feature].

We are working together with you all, our dream of developing a game for players loving good old times and new modern masterpieces is here.
Help us shaping the future of Alaloth
, we have so many cool things on the way, and we can't wait to unveil all asap!

Meanwhile, get the game 20% with the Autumn Sale here on Steam. We've even discounted all DLC for the first time which means a phenomenal 44% discount on the Supporter Edition, including all the additional contents of the Supporter Pack, our amazing 220+ pages ArtBook and a 4 hours OST of epic music we've made in-house!

Hope this update will help claryfing once again what to expect from Alaloth - Champions of The Four Kingdoms.
We've posted this with the aim to underline once again our direct and transparent approach to our community and to development
. This is our life and we are giving 110% everyday to achieve what we have in mind since the very beginning. We know we are not perfect and we know that many things could have been/could be way better on our side too of course. Just join us in this journey!

Share the love and stay tuned!

 

[Nortar]

Lots of whining here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/919360/view/3524658636179884738

Read before buying!

Alaloth is not a CRPG and will not turn into a CRPG, now and never.

It does not even self-identify as an rpg anymore.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

we are not cutting dialogues to add guided quests with a UI bringing you to your quest objective as an autopilot

this line alone will probably make me look at the game more iindepth, stay tuned for a Rusty Review!

 

[Abu Antar]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/919360/view/3648510249337999460

New features, quests, mobs, locations and much more!

Hello Champions!

Here we are, Winter Update is live on Steam now! As we've already said here, plans have slightly changed on the way, so we are going to provide all the info you need to understand what's going on in the next weeks,
leading to a glorious start for the new year!
A massive changelog is available at the bottom but let's go step by step and let's begin with the latest news from Plamen!

HARDCORE MODE AND PERMADEATH
Here we are with two of the most requested features since a long time. We have set-up a survey to hear from you about this and, surprisingly, the vast majority of the players asked for these new options as in-game options instead than just tabs in a menu. So we tried to figure out a way in between what's already available in other games and something new as we like to do. We think to have found a good way to integrate both options at the best [nothing set in stone being in EA but still].
Both Hardcore Mode and Permadeath options will be available after a succesfull first run
. Once you've done in Plamen for the first time, you can start a new character and you will be able to customize the experience. The initial flow has been changed so you are not going to end the tutorial and jump directly to the capital city. Since now on, you can take some time inside your stronghold before leaving for the capital city and with your second run, you'll have the chance to interact with a character in the training ground, allowing you to turn on Hardcore Mode.
This means a few interesting things: all the mobs will increase their HP and PD by 75%, you and your party will start with -25% HP and PD and all the items equipped will be lost in case of death!
The choice is not reversible, so it's something to be decided before leaving the stronghold for the first time. About Permadeath: a Martum Shrine is now available on the world map.
Worth a visit if you want to bond yourself to the god of death: no resurrection if you die, game over!

There is a new shrine available on the map. The god of Death awaits

After your first run, look for this guy here in your Stronghold

COMBAT AND GENERAL BALANCING
We had a massive round of changes in values for almost every item in-game.
Not the final one of course, but we've changed a ton of weapons, armors, etc, to slightly decrease the difficulty at the very beginning and to increase the challenge on the long term
. Some of the mobs are now more resistent and hit for more HP, while players' resistance have been changed while fixing a number of armor/weapon sets still having wrong data from the previous iterations. Some FA have been reworked to give a better flow for combat in general, considering the environment and so on.
In addition to these features, the update will also introduce new quests to the game, providing even more things to do and discover
. Players can expect to encounter new enemy types as well, each with its own unique abilities and behaviors. And to top it all off, the game received a general polish, with various bugs fixed and overall performance improved.

ENEMY CHAMPIONS
A new round of balancing has been done. Not the final one of course,
but we've changed a few values for enemy champions to make them more challenging
and reworked rewards and the way they are rolled in the Competitve Mode.

NEW BOSS FIGHTS
First and foremost, we have iterated the abilities and tactics of the bosses to make them more formidable and engaging to fight. We have also increased the rewards that can be obtained from defeating bosses, including rare items and equipment that will help players progress through the game.
In addition to these changes, we have also made some adjustments to the difficulty of the boss fights to better balance them for players
. We have taken into account the feedback we have received, and we believe that these changes will provide a more satisfying and challenging experience for all players. The Burning Feet tribe is now ruling Tyrant's Grave, which has been dressed from scratch, according to the game lore which was not perfectly fitting the mobs there. Amaya and Morana [with their gang, The Sandclaws], are now based in the old orcish fort of Krazurag, protecting an old port wiped by The Tempest and now turned into a cemetery for boats and cargos. The abandoned palace of Dham-Dhorun is now home for the dreadful Lord of The Rats, Rymzek and last but not least, a dangerous warlock is apparently leading the Circle in Larastir now, with The Elder Trees of the Elves in great danger

Rymzek in Dham-Dorun

NEW MOBS
Drolnaks and Reapers! Drolnaks, once beautiful creatures that would pollinate Plamen, allowing nature to live on for the eras to come, now creatures of pain and suffering due to the corruption of Alaloth's Tempests. Slowly they transformed into deformed insects, their stinger deadlier than ever, and their mind knew nothing but death. Before they would stay out of a mortal's way, now they seeks them out, unafraid, in order to destroy what they once help to create.

Drolnaks: they sting!

Reapers are vicious tentacled plant-like life form, composed of six prehensile tentacles that allows them to move slowly. They lie still until prey comes within reach, then snags the victim, crush the life from it, then swallow it in their beaked maw. These monsters live a long time, and ithey often dwell in such foul, toxic conditions that the contents of their stomach and lungs are filled with horrid gases they can exhale on opponents, to stun or incapacitate them, to make feeding on them easier. Some can even spit these toxins at victims who stray too close for much the same reason.

Reapers: the are poisonous!

WORLD MAP UPDATE
We thought that adding a few new areas would have been great.
We were aiming to add 4 new FA and 4 new POI back in September but you know, things change fast in game development. So, yes, we've added 4 new FA to start but 31 new locations followed
. We have worked on what you haven't seen yet of Plamen [The Outer World], so we had to connect dots considering the long terms and started doing things, development-wise. First of all, we had to dress the new region of Kalinglad while fixing the new fast travel options. So we created ports, we created griffin platforms, taverns for each small city to rest in, to avoid waiting outside the place, new POI and so on. Considering the whole thing,
we ended up with more than 40 locations
but the next bunch will be available in a while, along with a first overview on the whole continent, with new kingdoms and areas that will be playable with future content updates and DLC.
Always consider that the new areas will be filled with contents in the next weeks and if you find an area which is not full of people and QG
, it could be by design so pay a visit in different moments of your run, cool things can happen!

The Four Kingdoms

GRIFFIN RIDERS
Griffin travels is a new feature in Alaloth that allows players to travel around Larastir using griffins as their primary mode of transportation. These majestic beasts are not only faster than any other method of travel but are heavily bonded to the immortal Elves, the only able to ride them in the sky. To use the griffin travels feature,
players will first need to obtain the trust of the High Chancellor and of the Griffin Lord Khidell
, the greatest rider of all eras. With griffin travels, players can easily explore the far reaches of the Republic of Larastir, and discover new areas and quests. The feature offers an exciting and dynamic way to experience the game world. The Griffin Keep can be found in Edhenen.

Elves only

BOAT TRAVELS
The kingdoms are surrounded by seas and from today, players will be able to sail the Sea of Solitude and The Shimmering Gulf, reaching The Treasure's Bay and the southern region of Kalinglad, a new area of the Blessed Kingdom of Edherest, ruled by many different houses once loyal to the royal family, Player can found a boatman in each port on the coastline, with the chance to travel to Windscar, Rockstarn and Na'Sharak in Baga.
Travels are not free of charge but a safe way [at the moment] to avoid long dangerous trips on the road
. In general, pawns will not be able to cross big lakes too and even reaching The Vanishing Keep and the Red Mage will be possible only with the help of a skilled sailor!

Pay a fee, sail the sea

WAR ROOMS AND MILITARY CAMP
Players have now access to War Rooms, directly from the Throne Rooms in each kingdoms. Access to these rooms is set for race, this means that even if a champion could be useful in some way for rulers of other kingdoms, this area will be restricted [you can check guards answering in different ways to you, depending on the race of choice]. You can find new quests here at some point but in general, War Rooms are a first step for something bigger actually under iteration. Same for the military camp popped now north of Edherest. Consider these places as new points of interest in which QG can appear with the time passing, but hey...
what about large scale battles in the future?
More soon.

The Dwarven War Room in Karak-Hohn. Just one of the four available in the kingdoms

Troups of Edherest in the North of the Blessed Kingdom

THE TEMPLE OF VIRTUES
This is one among the new FA available with the update and it's important for a few reasons.
It's not a big area but we've used this as a sort of text area for things to come. Puzzles are in there, along with traps, levers and some narrative chronicles, directly connected with some new tech stuff we are on now
. It is just squeezing something bigger in a small sized place but you can think about these kind of interaction [both gameplay and narrative related] for the next updates.

Check some new tech-related stuff here

VOICE OVER
We are going to tell you more about localization next year [good news!] but in the meantime,
we've added spot voice clips on vendors all around the world
[not in all cities but it's a first iteration]. Even a few mobs and boss have now tailored voice over clips.

COMING UP NEXT
As we already explained, we had to change the plans we've shared back in September for many different reasons. Our team has been working hard to bring you the best gaming experience possible.
We have decided to pivot slightly in order to better align with our goals for the game and ensure that it meets the high standards we have set for ourselves and our players
. This change will allow us to deliver a more polished and enjoyable final product. We are not talking about nothing crazy, no worries! As you noticed, we started with 4/6 new areas in mind and set 35 new areas, with 10 more to come and we've added on features on request such as Permadeath and Hardcore Mode. We prioritized this considering the big picture but
all the other features on the way will be available in the next weeks
[give us time to have a short break for Xmas!]. You can already find The Bleeding of Hashak in-game, to set-up the Arena Mode that is in the work. You can find War Rooms and the first Military Camp in-game,
to open the way to Battlegrounds
[working title]. You are going to get new traits but we need some extra time to blend everything properly, with a new crafting system, new skills and professions and yes, we are focusing on magic and spells, always considering the game lore and setting.
Sword & Sorcery
than [working title]. Ton of new stuff is in the work, just remember we are a team of ten and sometime we need to plan things wisely to avoid burnout and crunch. To summarize: we'll be back at work after Xmas, we can consider this [huge] update as a first part of bigger one, that starts today to end in January
when we are going to provide a brand new roadmap leading to 1.0 with all future contents, DLC and ideas we have to share with you all
. More polls, activities, community related events and such will be real and we are going to announce big things with Spring, hopefully. As usual,
thank you for your continued support and patience
as we work to bring this project among the best. We look forward to sharing more updates with you in a while!

CHANGELOG
Added

• 31 New cities, points of interest and misc locations - Windscar, Tanyard Footbrigde, Idaris's Shrine, Skull Rock, Na'Sharak, Arrowtooth, Vaizmil's Crossing, Rockstarn, Witch Waters, Mountain Hand, Martum's Shrine, Military Camp, Knife Ears Hideout, Griffin Keep, Griffin Platforms [Southern, Norhern, Western, Eastern], Path of the Damned, The Three Pigeons, The Hissing Shaman, The Moon Inn, The Wet Castle, The Stony Heart, Fal'Thalas, Boatman's Hut, War Rooms [one for each kingdom], The Bleeding
• 4 New Fighting Areas - Temple of Virtues [3 skulls], Tyl'Nar [3 skulls], Krazurag [4 skulls], Dham-Dhorun [4 skulls]
• 3 New Boss Fights - Tral'Motak, Jarek, Rymzek
• 2 New Mobs - Drolnaks, Reapers
• 9 New Achievements - Desert Surfer, Virtous, Gardener, Special Guest, Magic Mike, Troll Hunter, Skysurfer, Sailor, Pool of Radiance
• Hardcore Mode
• Permadeath Mode
• Griffin travels
• Boat travels
• VO SFX for vendors in selected areas [cities mostly]
• 10 New Quests - Soaring Skies, Lord of the Rats, The Burned Feet, Underground Infestation, Two Greedy Northmen, A Brother's Honor, The Warlock of The West, The Elder Tree, Lost Virtues, Pool of Radiance
• 9 New items - Glory of The Tribe [Rare], The Wolfmane [Epic], Spider Axe [Epic], Dragonhide Cloak [Epic], The Last Wall [Epic], Ehn-Hohn's Sentry [Rare], Heart of The Woods [Epic], Brooch of The First Era [Epic], Cold Memory [Rare]

Changed

• Revised and improved World Map to accommodate the newly added locations
• Crossing large stretches of water in World Map will now require the services of a boatman
• Replaced NPC Handeim model in Tale of Volkar the Brave quest
• Grandmaster Necromancer Julika will now spawn only after player has reached level 4
• Replaced Death Sisters in Tyrant Grave with the new boss Tral'Motak: because of this, Tyrant’s Grave has been now infested by desert creatures and trolls from The Burning Feet tribe
• Changed Jarzothan shield SFX
• Tweaked SFX for Spectral Circle and Imp mobs
• Imp mobs wrong texture fixed
• Headgear will now always be shown when in a combat area
• Headgear toggle has been reinstated in Equipment tab
• Revised runtime HP handling values for enemies
• Increased damage output for enemy Champions
• New UI featuring new Fighting Areas
• Changed values for weapons, armors, trinkets and more than 60 wereables
• Added ambient SFX in Fifth Kingdom’s wandering fighting area and Fifth Kingdom’s Cemetery.

Fixed

• Special buffs against enemy types will now show properly formatted values in the item view
• Fixed some NPCs playing their idle animations incorrectly
• Fixed a bug causing skills to be unintentionally interrupted from movement actions of the character, and still play the skill animation
• Improved string input handling (i.e. name field) in Character Creation
• Improved formatting for attributes (i.e. racial bonuses) in Character Creation.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the cost of resting in taverns to properly take in account the relative innkeeper’s discount factor
• Fixed a bug that made the player spawn with no hair if headgear was disabled when in strongholds
• Dynora Delven-Keh will now unlocks her codex entry upon interaction
• Fozor Ferehk-Quas and Vulud Doh-Decah had their houses wrongly authored, now working properly
• Fixed a bug that could lead to a mishandling of a click input when clicking on equipment slots in CharacterUI
• Fixed missing portraits and missing descriptions in various items and loots

Share the love and stay tuned!

 

[deama]

So I tried playing this but gave up after an hour.
The intro is very disjointed. There's 4 kingdoms (races), you pick one, then you pick a house (like 5 for each kingdom) and you are summoned to the king of your kingdom, and he tells you you're their only hope, go to some dangerous place and kill a god so the world is at peace again.

Combat is ok, it's topdown dark souls, very similar to revenant if you've played that one (but with a bit more complexity).

The game isn't grabbing me though, maybe cause it's still in early access, but the intro was very icky for me.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Is the mouse support implemented yet?

 

[Harthwain]

It does not even self-identify as an rpg anymore.

I thought it was always considered to be an "aRPG", not a "cRPG"? Something like Diablo or Sacred (2004), with a bit of Dark Souls injected into the hack'n'slash mechanics? Visually it reminds me of Sacred the most.

 

[deama]

Is the mouse support implemented yet?

Worked fine for me when I played it, I ignored the lock-on and just used the mouse.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I played with mouse+kb when it first released into early access just fine, iirc it mostly affected the UI which you navigated with the keyboard or something

 

[Volourn]

Wow. Skimmed the thread just now. Was intrigued at first. This last page - since I skipped majority of middle ones - were annoyed. Another group of devs trying to make money off the BG name.

"BG inspired us, everyone! if you like BG you like this!:

later on...


"This was not BG. Nor wa sit never gonna be BG. We just vaguely meant inspoiring as they ar eborth fantasy 'real time' rpgs with dwarves and elves! SUCH AN INSPIRATION!!"


Fuck off. You could have just said this is a fntasy real time rpg without the bullshit name dropping.


Damnnit. Another game with dwarves I'm not allowed to play.

 

[Zibniyat]

So I tried playing this but gave up after an hour.
The intro is very disjointed. There's 4 kingdoms (races), you pick one, then you pick a house (like 5 for each kingdom) and you are summoned to the king of your kingdom, and he tells you you're their only hope, go to some dangerous place and kill a god so the world is at peace again.

Combat is ok, it's topdown dark souls, very similar to revenant if you've played that one (but with a bit more complexity).

The game isn't grabbing me though, maybe cause it's still in early access, but the intro was very icky for me.

I tried it some months ago. It has nice visuals, seemingly at least, of course zooming-in reveals lack of details and pretty basic aesthetics in my opinion. Biut then again I did play Exiled Kingdoms for 100 hours and aesthetics there somehow were not a problem, as basic as they were, so maybe I am being nitpicky. However, I could swear the game had (at that time, at least) implemented MOTION BLUR despite having a top-down/isometric/whatever perspective. Can someone confirm? I was shocked. And very displeased.

Other than that... It is the same boring, generic, seen-it-a-hundred-times story about a great evil coming to conquer all and enslave and blah blah. Generic. Mediocre. Predictable. It did not grab me then and I doubt I will ever return to it.​

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Fuck off. You could have just said this is a fntasy real time rpg without the bullshit name dropping.

Describing your game as 'like X and Y' or 'like X mixed with Y' is one of the worst recurring things I see in steam game descriptions.

 

[Volourn]

I'm fine with it IF they actually mean it. Not the 'ol bait and twitch nonsense. I'm just glad I didnt notice this thread until now. I probably would have gotten too excited. A BG style game where you get to be a dwarf? yes, please. But, nope. Not really a BG inspired game. Just BG name dropping.

 

[Alberto Belli]

We already tried to explain here and there what "inspiration" means. And yes, this is inspired by BG as it is inspired by movies, books, TV shows, TTRPG, Dungeons & Dragons and more. Inspired by does not mean "1:1 same stuff". Alaloth has never been a cRPG nor Diablo. It is in between old and new. Easy as it is. On top of this: when you see shots you don't think about BG or Infinity Engine games? Srsly?