Good day Ellarians,
and welcome back to our weekly dev blog about Legends of Ellaria!
Last week we opened up this blog to your questions in a Q&A, but we couldn't fit them all in just one post, so we saved some for this week. Without further ado, let's go with your questions about how the full release version of Legends of Ellaria will be!
QUESTION: Can you explain how the leveling system will work in more depth?
As it's common in roleplaying games, you gain experience points (XP) by completing quests or performing certain tasks. When you get enough XP, your character levels up and gain points that can be spent in improving your Attributes (Strength, Dexterity, etc.), class Proficiency (Warrior, Mage, etc.), or Skills. These Skills give you specific perks, such as new spells or boosts to your abilities (like a +10% bonus to Melee). You can spend these points however you like – you can combine classes to get a jack-of-all-trades character build, go min/max for a super-optimized character… that's your choice!
QUESTION: Will heroes have their own personality, goals and methods?
Each hero has their own backstory, and you will need to complete certain tasks to hire them. Once they pledge their loyalty to you, though, they won't break their vow nor betray you. And about their methods, it's you who issue orders after all!
QUESTION: Will there be leadership skills to inspire your army in combat?
There is an army morale system and an army strength system. When you gain victories, complete, or use special items, your army's morale will rise for a limited time – which in turn makes your army stronger. On the other hand, if you start losing battles, you will lose morale, which will make your army weaker. There are other events that can affect your morale, like curses. We're planning to add a leadership skill that will give you a bonus to both your kingdom and your armies.
QUESTION: What about civilians – do your leadership skills affect them in any way?
For now, we don't have any rebellion or loyalty/disloyalty mechanic based on your or your heroes' skills. There is an equivalent to the moral system of your army, though: there are events that affect the happiness of your population. Low happiness increases crime, which can generate enemies who will raid your cities.
QUESTION: Can I be evil?
You can choose evil paths in some of the quests. You can also run your kingdom in an "evil" way. There is no Karma system that will tag you as "evil" at the moment, mind you.
QUESTION: Is there a main quest to be completed, or is the game a full sandbox?
Yes, there is. Although Legends of Ellaria is a sandbox with no end or time limit, your quest follows the main story that will take you to different maps and make you face unique enemies. We can't give you more details on that at the moment, though, or we would spoil all the surprises!
QUESTION: Will there be a New Game+ option?
Not as such. You can re-play specific chapters of the main story, though. When restarting a chapter, you will always start with the same XP and completed tasks that you had when you reached that point for the first time. That feature is meant for you to try different choices and approaches. Let's see an example: in a first playthrough, you can try building a military kingdom, researching the most powerful units, and conquering everything on your wake. On a second playthrough, you would follow the mage's path, investing heavily in your magical academy and making mages the core of your army surrounded by a multitude of weaker military units. You would also complete some quests to enlist golems to your army to act as your tanks. In your third gameplay, you can focus on the economic side, making ludicrous amounts of gold and using it to hire mercenaries instead of keeping a standing army. Or you can repeat chapters to experiment with different choices that would change the storyline.
That's it for today! Next week we'll dive into the real-time strategy part of the game, discussing battles and their gameplay, the kind of tactics you can use, how the enemy AI will be…
See you then, Ellarians!