Greetings Romans!
We're currently testing town raids in Romestead, so this week we’ll dedicate the devlog to taking a dive into how it works, and what you can expect from the future. We also take a moment to talk about feedback regarding the first few steps in Romestead.
Hold the Door!
The town raids of Romestead will occur every few days, as the mysterious forces behind Rome's fall test your defences. That, or they just want to take your stuff.
Once the message appears in your chat window, you'll have a bit of time to run back home before the raid begins. The raids are set to last for a few minutes, during which you'll have to use all the tools in your arsenal to fight off the incoming hordes.
You'll have a set amount of time to repel the invaders. Failing to do so, or skipping the raid by sleeping through the night will result in a successful raid, causing lasting effects on your town.
No Cost Too Great
If the worst comes to pass, your town can lose resources, citizens can suffer lasting wounds, or even worse. Die.
To see a summary of rewards or consequences, you can open and view a "Town Report" page, that will detail what resources you lost (if any) or what citizens sadly didn't make it through the night.
While your building keeps its upgrade, when a citizen dies they are gone forever, and any levels they had are lost. So make sure you protect them well!
I would die to protect each and every citizen of this New Rome. For without them, I would be lost in the wilderness, surviving only on what I can forage and loot. Without them, there is no New Rome. -Bridget, Discord Citizen
Not All Doom and Gloom
If you feel the dangers are too great to handle alone, fear not!
While not in the game yet, you will eventually be able to construct a barracks, intended to let you get aid from your own citizens in combat.
We also added the possibility to give gifts to your citizens in order to increase their loyalty. Their personalities dictates what they like, so make sure to speak with them to get an idea of how to best serve your people!
The Watchers on the Wall
While your citizens rely on you to save them when larger hordes of enemies arrive, they'll do their best to defend the town during the night when you are out adventuring.
When you build your town, every fortification counts. Walls, traps, ballista, everything has a "defence value" as can be seen in the workbench. You can also view your towns total defence value in the Town Core.
The higher the better! This value is what determines how well your citizens will do without you!
Much like the town raids, you can read a report every day about what your citizens are up to. Here you can see if they've leveled up, and if they've repelled any invaders during the night.
About The Romestead Tutorial
Thanks to all you testers, we've received tonnes of excellent feedback regarding many various aspects of Romestead. One of the points that is unanimously mentioned, is getting started in the game. The tutorial, and the steps required to get into the game are poorly explained, vague, or nonexistent.
We are currently actively working on making the game easier to understand, as well as making the tutorial more extensive and better explained in order to make the initial steps into the world smoother. Thank you to everyone who's submitted feedback and ideas regarding this so far!
If you have access to the playtest, and want to submit your own feedback, please do so in the playtest application forums, found here!
At the moment the scope of testing is ranging up to the first boss, as well as a little bit beyond and around that. We're testing multiple biomes, enemies, and dungeons that you'll come across later in the game, as well as items, armours, and weapons.
What We're Working On
Seeing all the new towns being built, strategies being formed, and bosses biting the dust invigorates us all with energy! Here's some things currently in the works!
- Tutorials - As mentioned above, we're hard at work making the onboarding process a smoother experience for you all.
- New Buildings - New buildings and constructions are constantly being added to the game, be it new roads or a new type of resource gathering building!
- New Enemies - New foes lie in the shadows, waiting to strike when you least expect it. This one uses a type of damage no other enemies do... magic.
- New Crops / Items - Much like buildings and enemies, new items and crops are always being added to the game. Introduced in one of the most recent patches were mint and bay leafs, mainly used for cooking.
Until Next Time
We hope you're as excited as we are to gear up and defend your town from evil.
We will be back in two weeks with more information and behind the scenes!
Until then,
Roma Aeterna
- the Beartwigs Team