Hello Settlement Leaders!
It was about time we answered your burning questions and on May 3rd that's exactly what we did. Special thanks to r/RealTimeStrategy for allowing us to host and to everyone who left us questions. There were so many good ones and the team had a great time answering.
In case you missed it, here are the question and answer highlights of the event. You can also check out the full thread here: CableHook Games AMA on Reddit.
Q: Arlague
Hey, love the game, having a blast. Wanted to ask a couple questions :
What was the hardest system (eco, mouvement speed, difficulty...) to balance in Here Comes The Swarm, and why?
What player behavior surprised you the most during test or after launch?
A: Phena3d
Hey Arlaque, nice to see you here!
The most challenging with balancing is that each system is connected to each other. When making a change in the economy system to target a specific issue, such as early-game gas supply, it might influence wave difficulty as you are now able to have an army sooner.
With the amount of modifiers the game offers with the Essences, Deities, Difficulties etc. there are so many tiny things that rely on each other. For us the biggest challenge is the testing of it all, with our small team. We want to make sure sure that an intended change does not turn into a whack-a-mole with issues popping somewhere else.
The biggest surprise is definitely the complete opposite of what players consider OP haha. Where one says a certain Essence is overpowered, somebody else calls it the worst. This counts for a lot of elements in the game. I see it as something positive that we have so many variety, but it does not make balancing any easier!
Ah, also I have been getting absolutely clapped by the map rng, with wave splitting 2-3 ways.
Are the any plans to introduce map biome effects? Or some more map generation variety?
A: KoffiePatje
Reposting my comment without embedded URL to make sure it pops up right away (you might or might not see traces of that, no idea);
We’ve definitely seen the wave-splitting feedback come up more often, so that’s something that’s actively on our radar. We still need to find a solution that hits the spot, keeping the game fun and exciting at the same time, but hopefully we can figure something out soon.
Adding more map variety is also something we absolutely want to do later on. It is unfortunately one of the more work-intensive areas, so while we’d love to expand it, other things currently take priority for now. That said, it’s definitely something we hope to get to down the line.
On biome effects, that’s an interesting one. While we do already have a few elements that could be considered biome-like effects, reading this comment is already giving us ideas for more. We also have a feedback channel on our Discord, so if you have specific ideas, we’d love to see them there 🙂!
Q: wildrems
Those kind of defense/Wave RTS are my favorite kind of RTS, so thanks for making one and i really like your game the gameplay is fun and fluid. Question: Do you plan on having other units? Maybe some special unit unlock only a specific deity? Any plan for Air or water unit like Repterra?
A: DaveyBoyHoek
Thanks that is great to hear! We have enough ideas for other units, but no plans. We have a prototype enemy that could potentially fly over water. Making it another hurdle for you to tackle, but that might never reach the game :) I love the idea of deity specific units!
Q: LivelyZebra
Love the format of the arcanum and specialising builds using the same units/buildings, keeps it fresh.
i assume on top of more content and essences etc being added there will hopefully be more expansion into the system itself?
maybe different node layouts/sizes or anything that actually impacts how you lay out your essences more thenjust slapping them in ?
A: DaveyBoyHoek
Developer - Here Comes the Swarm
Hey LivelyZebra, great to hear you are enjoying the Arcanum!
When did you last play HCTS? We changed the empowerment system so you can only unlock essences connected to ones you've already empowered, starting from the default middle essence. Going left, right, up or down opens up the connected path from there, so your choices actually shape the run now. Makes strategizing around the Arcanum a fun thing to do. We also added saving, loading, sharing and importing of Arcanum presets, head over to Discord to find other people's builds and essence unlock orders for optimal efficiency or plain overpowered fun!
The next big update brings a new Deity called Yangwu, specializing in Utility, so expect new essences, a new Arcanum board layout and more awesome utility focussed features! Praise Yangwu! 🐦
A more serious question: How do you see the next deity? What will it focus on, anything you can already share about specific mechanics for it?
Love the game.
- Ganun
A: KoffiePatje
Developer - Here Comes the Swarm
Yangwu is the next upcoming Deity, and it will focus on “utility”.
What that means exactly is something we unfortunately can’t fully disclose yet. Whether that’s because we want to keep it a secret, or because we are still finalizing the details ourselves, is something we’ll leave in the middle for now 👀.
will you add coop?
A: DaveyBoyHoek
Hi! We are not planning to add co-op for now, we have discussed it and it would be a great addition to the game but it is also a huge time investment. We have it on our want-to-have list, so never say never!
Q: timwaaagh
will we get a storyline campaign?
A: KoffiePatje
While we can't confidently say yet whether a storyline campaign is our next direction, it's definitely on the board. We're closely observing the feedback we get from the community and will steer our decisions based on that. Small sneak peek, this one is definitely high up there, but no promises yet.
Q: Khelthuzaad
Zeratul or Tassadar?:))
A: Phena3d
Haha, 100% Zeratul!
Thank you again for all the questions, we look forward to doing more AMA's in the future.
See you in Ulora,
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