Hi everyone !
This is a very exciting day for us, as we have been working hard on what lead up to today’s reveal. We are proud to present you the brand new Passive Skills Tree of Wolcen : Lords of Mayhem, which will be added to the game in the next update. In the video below you’ll see some WIP footage (containing some placeholders) but most of the Tree is already done and working, so enjoy. :)
https://youtu.be/E6mOF6vV424
As you can see in the video, handling of the Passive skills will be fun and will, we think, add a necessary depth to the entire gameplay experience. We are planning on releasing hundreds of Passive Skills at once so balancing things will take a little time, but this way you will be able to test a functional version of the PST real soon.
The design phase of the new Passive Skill Tree started soon after the launch of Early Access, and went through many iterations before we decided on the actual rotating version. We knew from the beginning that we needed a system that allowed a considerable amount of freedom when it comes to builds and gameplay variety, as there is no class system in the game. We sat down and spent time planning each section of the rings, making sure every one of them adds a layer of fun and fantasy to the gameplay and offer interesting skill combinations with other skills. We even made a real world rotating tree made of cardboard !
We want players to be able to craft their gameplay experience by finding their path through a series of templates inspired by various archetypes. Sections that are closer to the center of the Tree represent broader and well known fantasy archetypes, while sections situated farther away from the center are more specialized and advanced.
Designing the PST also was the catalyst of many other changes in the game’s systems. We remade and refactored most of the formulas in the game from scratch, added countless new magical effects, changed how loot and loot drops work. Because some passives depend on them, we added features like dashing, combat stances and weapon enchantment spells. Our Gameplay programmer went from skill to skill for weeks until we had at least 200 hundreds to present you, crossing giants lists on his desk, and will continue for a long time after the first release, as we have two more rings with some really cool archetypes coming up. ;)
As we are still nailing down the details about the integration of the Passive Tree in the lore of Wolcen, we can’t yet reveal the name of the object itself but we can tell you a little about what lead us to design it that way. Did you notice the three statues surrounding the altar ? They’re inspired by the three Moirai (or Fates) of the ancient Greek mythology. They were goddesses who decided the course of destiny of each human being at the time of their birth, and in our case they assist and watch over anyone who wish to take its destiny at hand. But unlike the mythical Moirai, our deities will let you handle the threads of fate and change paths at will.
We hope you’ll have as much fun experimenting with the new passive skill tree as we had designing it, and can’t wait for you to get your hands on it ! We of course absolutely expect players to break the game through crazy builds, that is why we want to release it soon. This will be the very first working iteration, so the tree and its skills will grow along with the community’s feedback and suggestions.
Thank you for your support, and see you on the forums !