Hello Dragon hunters,
The City of Montescail offers great freedom, allowing each player to shape their city's development as they wish. However some players get left behind, opting for upgrade paths that hinder their progression in certain aspects.
So for our next update, we'll be redesigning city progression to be more guided, yet still flexible, so that everyone can fully enjoy the experience from the very beginning and to avoid the sense that you've made the wrong choices.
To better understand the issues that led us to rethink the city:
Identifying the Problem
While the current system allows for complete customization of progression and adds a layer of strategic complexity, it requires a solid understanding of the game and a certain level of engagement to make sense of the city's upgrades.
But this isn’t for everyone, especially for players less familiar with ARPGs, who are looking for a more accessible and less demanding experience.
Our goal is to strike a balance between:
How can we help players quickly discover all the mechanics?
How can we guide players so they don’t miss essential services?
How can we maintain a sense of freedom in the city’s development?
Faster Progression
We know that the first few hours of gameplay are crucial, this is when you learn the basics and decide whether you want to continue. Until now, levelling could feel a bit slow.
That’s why we’re increasing the city’s experience gain by at least 30%.
This change aims to let players access the core mechanics of Dragonkin earlier, without overwhelming them with information.
Designing a more Linear Progression
Until now, you could ‘almost’ unlock services in any order, and unlocking them was entirely optional. This meant you could invest your upgrade points elsewhere… at the risk of missing a essential services for your first character’s progression.
To fix this, we opted for a more linear progression. Each service unlocks at the point where it becomes relevant to your character’s powerspikes.
For example:
The Jeweler will be accessible (almost) from the very beginning.
The Ornamentalist will appear later, when your city has reached a stage where their utility becomes more meaningful.
Adding an Upgrade Tree
Although this approach makes progression a bit more guided by automatically unlocking certain services, we want players to retain freedom through an upgrade tree. This will allow you to decide how to develop each service.
Initially, our idea was to centralize all functionalities into a single tree, combining both service unlocks and their upgrades, while also grouping all city districts into one unified tree.
While the concept wasn’t bad in itself, we quickly realized it would have required replacing the 3D City of Montescail with a 2D menu. A flat interface would have far less visual impact and wouldn’t serve the narrative design or immersion we aim to deliver to players.
We therefore ultimately opted for an upgrade tree dedicated solely to service upgrades.
For example, while the Apothecary will be unlocked without spending points, players can choose whether to prioritize developing new potion effects or improving their rarity.
Please note that all the values such as X points are subject to changes are not final.
New Service : Divine Familiar
Among the Quality of Life suggestions we received, one idea was to auto-pick up gold and crafting materials, so here it is!
How does it works?
The Divine Familiar is tied to a City upgrade. Once unlocked, an ally sent by the Eternal will assist you in gathering gold and resources around you.
Note: For our players that prefer picking up resources themselves, no worries, you can either skip the upgrade or disable it at anytime.
More Upgrades
Just like characters, the City can now reach level 50 and will have a total of 50 upgrades, roughly ten more than before. This, of course, includes the much-anticipated divine familiar!
Originally, we planned to add upgrades such as cost reductions for the Enchanter or the Memorialist, but we realized that wasn’t very exciting. It’s important that the upgrades you choose to invest in are fun and worthwhile, so that you can say: “This looks interesting, I want to try it” or “Yes, this is worth it.”
That’s why we are exploring other types of upgrades.
For example, the enchanter could have a higher chance of achieving maximum rarity on a modifier or affix score. meanwhile, the memorialist would no longer destroy the provided fragment, allowing it to be reused.
As for the rest, we’ll leave you surprises whenever you'll get your hands on it.
That's it for today!
We’ve read your comments on our latest DevBlog regarding the upcoming changes, and we wanted to address some of the major points based on your feedback.
We’re deeply grateful to every player who has been following us through the trials of development. And if you’ve just joined us, welcome, fellow hunter!
Thank you again for your unwavering support and see you on Discord!