It's time to talk about the next addition to the game, steeds to travel the world on. When you move around the map, the game calculates how far it is to each town on foot. In short, it takes quite a while to travel around. Even the closest town is several days' walk by foot, and in a game where you only have 300 days before doom arrives, this simply won't be enough time!
That's where steeds come in. Available for purchase at the tavern keeper, steeds increase your travel speed significantly. So far there are only horses available in the game but even the slowest horse will increase your overworld movement speed by 200%+ . An invaluable (though expensive at 5000g plus) addition to the game.
There will be a few other steed types available ( lions, even giant spiders ) that increase your movement speed further and you'll be able to select your mount from the overworld screen. A fun little addition to the game that just adds a bit of depth and gives you something to save your gold for!
The other big update this week is all about loot in Swords and Sandals Immortals. Who doesn't love opening a treasure chest and finding a "Deadly Axe of Beserking!"
Ever since the original Diablo, I've always loved the idea of random treasures in games. Of course, random loot had origins that go way back before that to the early roguelikes, but it seemed to really hit the public consciousness with Diablo and more specifically Diablo 2.
Swords and Sandals III was the only S&S game to feature random loot and had a huge variety of items for players to buy in shops. That template has proved the inspiration for Swords and Sandals Immortals, where randomized loot makes its long awaited return.
So, the system in S&S Immortals is as follows:
When you first start the game, you'll see no random loot. But from level 5 and onward, you will start noticing the shops stocking rare items. The quality and frequency of these items will grow and grow as your level grows, to the point when where you are max level the shops will be stocked with richly powerful items for you to buy.
The tier of items is as follows:
- Common - just regular gear
- Uncommon - one prefix or suffix
- Rare - more powerful again, still one prefix or suffix
- Epic - both a prefix and a suffix, very powerful
- Legendary - hugely powerful, prefix and a suffix
What are prefixes and suffixes ? In essence, they're just words to describe the item at a glance. They represent ability scores and talents that can be upgraded.
A prefix is something like "King's" , which might increase your strength +6.
A suffix is something like "of Infernos" which could add +2 to Fire Mastery.
So you combine these with a humble greatsword to make a King's Greatsword of Infernos which when worn adds +6 to strength and +2 to Fire Mastery.
Both weapons and armour will be enchanted and I'm exploring special effects to colourize them in special ways to make them stand out.
At some point in Early Access I will be adding "Blueprints" to the enchanter that you can buy. So you could buy a "Inferno" blueprint which you can then take to the armourer and he will forge an item of your armour to be Inferno. So your helmet might become a Helmet of Infernos!
You will also find blueprints on felled enemies, in chests throughout the world and so on. This will all be added during Early Access.
In addition to these magical prefix-suffixes you find at the weaponsmith and armourer, I am now looking at adding in Runes to the game. You find these in your travels too, and can take them to the Enchanter. She can then add "Frost Damage", "Fire Damage" etc to your weapons to really customize your gear.
It's a smallish but really exciting addition to the game which I'm sure you'll enjoy!
Until next time, I salute you!
Cheers , Oliver Joyce
Whiskeybarrel Studios