Hi Folks,
First things first, some regular updates we've been working on in the last two weeks (sorry for the lack of update for a week), as we're getting closer to EA release and China's upcoming October Holidays, we're packing a lot of work in to get it ready for release:
1. Adding new specialty skills for heroes based on soldier type they train
2. Adding specialty bonus (such as victory items) for winning a battle
3. Adding info display for war captive UI and notification when player hero becomes captured as war captive
4. Adding "cities" as a term of negotiation
5. Adjusted balance between hero and soldier numerics to give better expression for hero effect
6. Added equipment limits for hero types, such that only when equipment matches the hero, it can be used
7. Added a mission browsing UI shortcut on main screen
A few weeks ago, we released a demo gameplay in a small discord group to get feedback from our core users, below are a small part of Q&A based on the demo:
Q: So far, I've only been able to capture heroes from leagues that I completely annihilate from the face of the earth. Is that intended, or are we supposed to be able to capture heroes from the losing side after battle sometimes as well? The negotiation system suggests that we should be able to as you can offer prisoners of war as leverage.
A: We have designed to capture heroes during battle, but we're still testing out the numerics on this so the probability of it happening is still low. Negotiations include trading prisoners of war in exchange for other benefits.
Q: Does the release or execution of prisoners actually affect your nation? I would imagine that going a bit axe-happy on them would be a cause of concern for the prosperity of your cities. I've executed an entire roster of heroes after conquering them but everyone seems to be just as happy as before. I've also let everyone go free but my people don't seem to acknowledge my acts of kindness lol.
A: Letting your war captives go is a default act of kindness, therefore, currently not designed to impact other numerics (i.e. public sentiment). Based on this feedback, we decided to design some reward and punishment mechanism - for example, by letting them go, you'll be awarded in terms of sentiment levels or exp points and by execution you may face some damage in sentiment levels despite being able to earn the equipments off of your captives.
Q: I've formed alliances with neighboring leagues and it doesn't really seem to do anything other than discourage them from sabotaging my walls and attempting to make my cute heroes go turncoat. There was one rare instance where an allied league was under attack yet I was unable to help them for some reason, so that was unfortunate. I've also attacked leagues that were in an alliance with another neighbor, but they just let them handle things on their own.
A: We're still developing functions related to "Alliances", which is predicted to release as an update after early access. Some functions such as when you're attacking a city that is geographically close to an alliance city, the alliance will send 1-2 armies as support to your efforts; another example is for example when your city is under attack, your alliance will send 1-2 armies to boost up your defense. When you support your alliance cities, this will also boost up your sentiment, exp and finances.
Q: I think interrogations weren't exactly very clear as they appear to help improve the chances of persuading captives?
A: Interrogations will cause a hero's "crash" rate to rise, therefore, improving the chances of persuasion. We are also considering how to expand on this function.
We'll post more in the days to come.
Early access the demo on our Discord