Hey guys,
Well, this will be the last of the "spam" for a while. Arena Monarchy has now been officially released into early access. It will be 10% off for 2 weeks.
As mentioned before, the vast majority of the content in Arena Monarchy has already been implemented, a lot different to the initial EA release of Dead Monarchy. The only major content left in Arena Monarchy that needs to be implemented are the various arena champions that form the "goal" that the player works towards.
Overall, the focus in Arena Monarchy is a lot more refined, focusing solely on combat, theorycrafting builds and collecting loot with some base management on the side as well.
Main Differences:
To reiterate again, here are the main differences between Dead Monarchy and Arena Monarchy.
Arena Monarchy has waypoint plotting for grid movement during combat, this feature will eventually find its way into Dead Monarchy as well as the majority of the content from AM.
Arena Monarchy has base management, the interactions between each building in AM has been streamlined and is a lot more "snappier" than DM.
Click [LMB] on the battle grid to plot a grid waypoint. The orange outline will project the path. You can place multiple waypoints. Click [ESC] to cancel a waypoint. Click [RMB] on the destination tile to move the character along the plotted path to the selected tile.
Wild Strike has gotten a rework. It now costs 10 AP across all weapon types, maximum hit chance is reduced to 50% after getting the bonus perks.
All weapon abilities have a minimum of 50% chance to hit. This is an attempt at trying to bring Wild Strike back in line and make weapon abilities competitive especially after implementing all the new weapon abilities, I want them to be used.
Time progresses forward by one day only when you fight. This means that you can only do one fight per day so you have to pick your fights carefully as you'll need to manage daily wages and intake.
Most of your loot will come directly from the arena fights rather than buying it from the marketplace. Stronger enemies drop better loot so there is a degree of risk involved in acquiring better gear.
All the weapon types from Dead Monarchy are in Arena Monarchy. You do not choose your starting companions in Arena Monarchy. 3 additional companions that specialise in new exotic weapon styles will join you, they are randomised. The pacing in Arena Monarchy is a lot faster than Dead Monarchy so in this way, the playthroughs will start off differently as your starting companions will shape your opening strategy.
Dead Monarchy:
Things will slow down for Dead Monarchy as I shift all my focus towards balancing and fixing Arena Monarchy based on player feedback. If you haven't heard, the vast majority of the content from AM will eventually make its way into DM, so development has not stopped for DM at all, it is just a necessary shift to ensure I am not overwhelmed and burn myself out.
I don't foresee Arena Monarchy being in early access for more than a year or so, that should be enough time to balance and bugfix and once everything has settled in, I will then begin porting the content back into DM.
It will be a lot of work, AM was built off DM, but things have taken their own turn for AM. AM has been upgraded to a newer version of Unity and with additional factors like days/hours being calculated differently and the huge amount of new weapons and abilities that were added in for AM, the changes "under the hood" are quite substanial. Weapons mean new models, new animations, new animations means more rigging, etc etc etc.
It will all be done in good time though, my commitment to Dead Monarchy remains the same. I am quite excited to see what it will be like to essentially combine the two games together. That being said, Arena Monarchy can stand on its own. The pacing is a lot faster than DM and other differences like there only being one marketplace means the progression in AM is a lot different to DM with the majority of your loot coming from risky fights.
Thanks Again:
It's funny but I've been doing this for 8 years now, time flies, part of me feels like not much has changed but looking back at the work that one developer has done, I do believe it is quite impressive and justifies the pricing for the games that I've created.
Thanks again to all the players that have supported me in the past, present and future, your support really does mean the world to me.
Support Links:
Discord Link: https://discord.gg/E35jAfUKrp
Steam Guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421339131
Cheers,
Kevin.