Good day my friends!
The staff here at Animus has been pretty busy behind the scenes thanks to all the great feedback and suggestions we have been given. It is all really appreciated, please keep it coming. We wanted to give you a peek at where we are looking to take Avalon Lords: Dawn Rises, so this post here will serve as a sort of “roadmap” for the future. To be clear, any of this may be changed, added to, subtracted from, etc., as we go through the Early Access phase. Your thoughts and suggestions on all this are valued, so please share them and comment on our forums!
Empire Mode/Matchmaking
We know that Empire mode doesn't really do all that much at the moment and we have received some excellent suggestions as to how it can be improved. Since we are a very small team of less than 10 people, we need to prioritize our energies. As such, we will temporarily be disabling the Empire mode and instead replace it with a more straightforward matchmaking system that will allow people to get to the action quickly. Don't fear though, Empire mode will return when we can get it to a point where it is a lot more fun. [STATUS: On Hold]
Battle Mode
In a similar vein as above, Battle mode will be disabled. [STATUS: On Hold]
Practice Mode
For the same reasons of being able to concentrate our efforts, Practice mode will be disabled until we can get a proper Tutorial level going. [STATUS: On Hold]
Factions
Since Empire mode is taking a back seat for a bit, we are also going to remove the concept of the Factions. There was some confusion as to the differences between them, and outside of Empire mode they don't serve a game purpose. They were meant to be sub-factions of the same group of people, more like a Greek city-state, but they kept being confused with the idea of a “faction” in a more traditional sense. To avoid that confusion, we will simply remove them. Which leads me to what we will replace them with… [STATUS: Removed]
New Factions/Orders
For anybody who has read about the game world history, you will see that we have in mind three Great Orders, being Dawn, Darkness and Divine. These are “factions” in the more proper sense (different troops types, building types, etc). The Order of Dawn is the “poster boy” faction, while they do have some magical ability they concentrate more on martial aspects coupled with speed and agility. The Order of Darkness values brute strength combined with advanced (medieval) technology to give them the edge over others. Finally the Order of Divine favors magical power over all other things, even their basic foot soldiers have some very basic talent. Currently the troops/buildings in the game are from the Order of Dawn and for the moment it will remain that way as we develop things. The other two Orders will be added later on. [STATUS: Upcoming]
Music/Soundtrack
We are pleased and honored to say that we have a world-famous composer currently working on the soundtrack for the game. I can’t quite say just yet who that person is (stay tuned for an upcoming announcement on that!), but I can say this person has done the soundtracks for a couple other games you have all heard of and the soundtracks for those games are so good that professional orchestras perform them around the world. [STATUS: Under Development]
Art
We have recently expanded our team to include a new artist. We will announce him more formally soon (Peter wants to get some more concept art completed first). He comes as a personal recommendation by the Art Director of another very well-known game I am sure you have all heard of. The general art direction will be updated graphics to be more in line with other modern games people are playing. First we are starting with the buildings and then our thought is to redo terrain followed by the various troops themselves. [STATUS: Under Development]
UI/HUD
Our Game Designer has been hard at work retooling the way the GUI is set up. We are going to do a complete overhaul of the whole thing, including the General Lobby, the Match Lobby as well as the in game HUD. We have been getting a lot of great suggestions on how this should be set up and I think people will be pleased by what they see. [STATUS: Under Development]
Gameplay Features
We have a lot of exciting stuff coming for general game play. Besides improving the overall performance of the game itself we will be improving the AI of the troops so they also perform better. Additionally, a proper tutorial will go in that should help new players who are just learning the game and may even help skilled players become just that much better at things. Also on the list is proper formations so that it is easier for players to control their armies and add that next layer of battlefield strategy. [STATUS - Upcoming]
Heroes
We plan on introducing another popular suggestion made by many people - Heroes! These will be special troops with various abilities and not just your run-of-the-mill footsoldiers. I can’t go into much detail just yet, but know they are on the books. [STATUS - Upcoming]
Online Store
Since Dawn Rises is a free to play game, we will be implementing a cash shop. However, this will NOT be a pay-to-win shop. Nothing offered there will benefit one player’s game balance over another simply because one spent some money while the other did not. General things that will be available includes Troop/Building models, various skins for those models, different unit icons, expanded Taunts and sounds, etc. [STATUS - Upcoming]
eSports
We have the goal to eventually turn this game into an eSport. We know that in it’s current form Dawn Rises needs a little reworking to gear things more in the direction of a competitive game. Plans are to speed up the overall game play so that things happen faster and average match time is cut down. Communication between players and especially team members is important for this of course, so we will also be improving those aspects as well. In the near future we will be announcing some details on plans for having actual tournaments for people to compete in as well as the company we have partnered with to provide some quality prizes. [STATUS - Upcoming]
Player Stats
As part of the eSports thing, we will be adding in a whole bunch more game statistics. This will make it so that you can easily see where you stand on a variety of different aspects and also how you stack up against other players. [STATUS - Upcoming]
I hope that all gives a general look at the direction that we will be heading. Again, any, all or none of this is subject to change as time goes on and we will continue to update people as things get altered. More specific information will come as each thing goes into development so please keep on the lookout for that. Specifically look for some announcements about the art and music coming up in the weeks ahead.
Thanks once again for all the excellent feedback we have been getting from you. We really do listen and carefully consider it all and many of you have already changed things in the game based upon your ideas. Please, keep those coming!
For Avalon!
Chris Schoolcraft (aka “Knightmare”)
Community Manager, Animus Interactive