Q: What is Dawn of Fantasy?
A: Dawn of Fantasy is an upcoming PC MMORTS title set in the persistent, massively multiplayer online, fantasy world of Mythador. Dawn of Fantasy offers you, the player, the chance to:
- Write your own chapter in the bloody history of this land.
- Explore a richly-detailed, endless world, from the high mountain peaks of Southmount in the human realm of Teria to the swamps of Erthee l'Bala of the Wood Elves.
- Complete dozens of story-driven quests in services of kings, wizards, and fellow adventurers.
- Interact with thousands of other players through trading, forging alliances, and waging war in both Player vs. Player and Player vs. Environment battles.
- Build up your villages into towns and then mighty empires, cast mighty magic upon your enemies, and lay siege to your enemies with great trebuchets, the brute strength of the walking woods, ogres, and dragon mercenaries to reign supreme.
- Play as three different races - elves, men, and orcs, each of which offers a radically different playstyle and has been given a deep, compelling mythology, a dramatic historical background, and a spectrum of complex political ambitions that drive the story and gameplay.
Q: What is an MMORTS?
A: MMORTS is a brand new genre of video games. MMORTS games, or Massively Multiplayer Online Real Time Strategy games, combine the in-depth strategy of an RTS with the common use of a persistent world. As one of the first MMORTS titles, Dawn of Fantasy pits players up against one another on a single, competitive server in which they can seek to branch out and dominate the game world of Mythador through crafting alliances, trading, and waging war on their enemies.
Q: Who is Reverie World Studios, and is this their first game?
A: Reverie World Studios, the developer of Dawn of Fantasy, is a Toronto-based game design studio. While the studio consists of several veterans from the gaming industry, Dawn of Fantasy is its first game as a studio. Prior to the formation of Reverie World Studios, INC. (then: Reverie Entertainment, Ltd.), the founding developers were well-known modders and scenario designers throughout the RTS genre.
Q: Who is the publisher?
A: Dawn of Fantasy was originally completed and launched with international video-games publisher 505 Games. However as of release date Reverie World Studios regained all the right to the title, and continued to market, support and sell title as an independent developer, with significant benefits to the quality and support behind the product.
Q: How does resource gathering work and what are the main resources?
A: The four resources are Wood, Stone, Gold, and Food. Wood is primarily used for archers and buildings, Stone for walls and orc temples, Gold for upgrades and trading, and Food for unit production. Each race gathers resources differently - for example, the orc hunt wild animals and raise wargs to be hunted, while the nature-loving elves live in harmony with the deer and other forest animals, which bring in a slow trickle of food, and gather food from berry bushes, and the men are the only race that can grow and harvest farms. Each race offers a semi-automated economic gathering process, allowing players to dedicate most of their time to questing, kingdom development, and the battlefield.
Q: Can units level up?
A: Yes, units gain experience points for fighting battles. Once they accumulate a certain amount of points, they will level up. Leveling up automatically increases select unit attributes and rewards the player with Skill Points they can use to further develop a stat of their choice for that unit or battalion.
Q: How can units be customized?
A: In addition to the distribution of Skill Points mentioned above, units can be customized in a myriad of ways. They can be grouped into different formations, trained by NPC warriors, upgraded with various techs, specific to that unit, that add not only statistical improvements but visual modifications as well, and a number of general stats can be upgraded through the tech tree. Orc units can be further customized by training Marauder or Labourer units into a warrior unit of your choice at the appropriate training building.
Q: How do battalions and formations work?
A: Most of the units (with the exception of siege weapons, ogres, ships, and heroes) are separated into battalions, allowing for easier micromanagement. Units in a battalion work together to level up, form advance formations, and fight or gather. Battalion sizes differ for each unit but are typically between 8-14 units.
Formations work differently for each race, but each unit has a couple different formations to choose from. These formations greatly affect the unit's statistics and can turn the tides of battle if used properly. For orcs and men, forming up in a unique formation is a quick process which can be done at any time, but for the elves, the formations are more complex and take a few seconds before they become effective. Therefore, it is recommended that elven players task their battalions into desired formations before a battle starts. General formations can be used at any point, but advance formations must be researched before they can be used.
Q: In a siege, is it possible for an attacker to breach a player's walls without breaking down their gate?
A: Yes. While the main way to breach a city's walls is to break down the gate with a Siege Ram or Treant, there are a couple alternative tactics available. Players can knock down enemy wall segments with brute force or use Siege Towers and Siege Ladders/Vines to climb up to an enemy wall. For this reason, it is highly recommended to back up your walled archers with melee units to counter any potential breaches. Once a unit has scaled an enemy wall, they can head down to destroy the gears behind the enemy gate. Once destroyed, the gate will automatically open, allowing free movement in and out of the city.
Q: What sort of automated defenses will you be able to build to help protect your stronghold?
A: Automated defenses differ for each race. The men can build wall-mounted trebuchets, rock tippers, and boiling oil pots, the orcs can build catapults and rock nets, and the elves can build mounted bolt throwers, Sun Stones, and living defenses. Each race can also build hoardings to provide cover for their walled units.
Q: What purpose does magic serve in Dawn of Fantasy?
A: Magic will make its way into the game shortly after release through DLC from the Dawn of Fantasy Booster Shop. However, at initial release, magic will make its way into the game through elven society - in their resource gathering, special unit abilities, and summonings. Wizards also serve an integral role in Dawn of Fantasy's story-driven campaign and lore.
Q: Does the weather and environment have any affect on game play?
A: Yes. The weather has a great impact on your economy and the global market. For example, in the winter, farms will become obsolete forcing human players to hunt or trade for food. At the same time, the price of food in the NPC markets will increase to meet the principles of supply-and-demand.
Q: How does "game time" compare to real time?
A: 24 minutes of real time is the equivalent of one day, or 24 hours, of game time.
Q: Is there an official trailer out?
A: Yes, there's an official trailer from August 2009, and a gameplay video from May 2010. Check our YouTube Channel for more videos and narrated developer diaries. Another trailer will be launched with the game's release on September 30th.
Q: When will we see more screenshots and other media?
A: Every week, Reverie World releases a new screenshot and an excerpt from Dawn of Fantasy's vast lore. So, check the Media Fair forum weekly for updates!
Other media and development will be posted irregularly in the News forum.
Q: I saw a screenshot with units that looked like dragons and dwarves. Will they be included as playable races?
A: They will not be included as playable races in the initial release. However, they will play a role in some of the campaign quests, and select dragon and dwarf units will be available as hirable mercenaries in the MMORTS mode, and players can visit the dragon and dwarven realms. Both races are likely candidates for playable races in future expansion packs, although nothing more has been confirmed.
Q: What are the system requirements?
A:
MINIMUM requirements :
Windows XP/Vista/7
Intel Dual Core CPU (2,3 Ghz) or AMD equivalent
2 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 (512MB VRAM)
DVD-ROM
3GB of free Hard Disk Space
DirectX 9.0 Compatible Sound Card
RECOMMENDED requirements :
Windows XP/Vista/7
Intel Quad Core CPU (2,3 Ghz) or AMD equivalent
3 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT /Radeon HD 5570 (1024MB VRAM)
DVD-ROM
3GB of free Hard Disk Space
DirectX 9.0 Compatible Sound Card
Internet connection required to play the game
Q: What languages will Dawn of Fantasy be available in?
A: The confirmed languages available are English, French, and German. In addition, text will be localized in Spanish and Italian, however these languages will not feature localized voice-overs - at least not upon initial release.
Q: What is the Online Kingdom mode?
A: The Online Kingdom mode is Dawn of Fantasy's main game mode. In this mode, players are pitted against each other in a unique, massively multiplayer persistent environment. This mode revolves around a player's Homeland territory, which can be built in one of nine regions across the game world of Mythador. Players will develop their homeland from a couple buildings, villagers, and a hero unit to a massive empire complete with layers of heavy walls and keeps, a complex economy, and a number of armies and trade caravans wandering the game world. To develop this city, players can gather resources, construct various buildings, recruit new units, and research powerful upgrades and new abilities. The Online Kingdom mode also introduces an exciting, story-driven campaign which introduces the player to the vast lore that the game was built upon. Players will control heroes that can talk to NPC advisors and merchants for new quests and purchases. In addition to the largely PvE (Player versus Environment) campaign, Online Kingdom players can form alliances and lay siege on one another to reign supreme. Check out the showcase for more information.
Q: What does it mean to have a persistent kingdom?
A: Your kingdom will remain virtually as you left it the last time you changed. Your units will still be spaced how you had them, any techs you researched will carry over, and your customized stronghold will be just as you left it, awaiting your command. However - your economy and resource will continue to grow, as will anything you tasked before signing out. Even when a player is offline, their homeland will still be in development with the worker units still gathering resources and finishing constructing any buildings tasked shortly before logging off. Although, the gathering, construction, and training rates are significantly slower than in the fast-paced Skirmish modes.
Q: Does each race have a unique campaign?
A: Yes, each race has a unique campaign, however there are some noticeable similarities as each takes place at the same time and serves as a different vantage point of the same epic war. Each campaign is sprinkled with that respective races' original lore and political ambitions, allowing for a great replayability value from one campaign to the next.
Q: How does kingdom-building work?
A: Players start with one or two buildings and a small number of peasant buildings. From here, players can gather resources and start to develop their city. Each race takes a different approach to kingdom-building. For example, the men build on specialized building plots throughout their homeland, the elves build largely in their Great Trees, and the orcs can build anywhere on their homeland. Building construction for men and elves is automated, but orc players will need to dedicate some of their Labourers to build a building. Walls are pre-set and can be built (complete with staircases and bastions) with a single research upgrade, all walls start as palisade walls and can be further upgraded to heavy walls. You can continue to upgrade your walls with various counter-siege mechanisms and defenses such as Hoardings.
Q: Will there be side quests, unrelated to the main campaign?
A: Yes, there will be many side quests exploring every inch of Mythador. However, most of these will come as optional DLC packs post-release.
Q: How long does an average MMORTS quest take?
A: The quests typically take longer as you progress in the campaign, with the introductory quests taking only a couple minutes to some of the late-game quests taking over 90 minutes. However, most mid-game quests will take around 35 minutes.
Q: What is the World Map?
A: The World Map is a 3D scale model of the game world of Mythador that is used in both the Online Kingdom and Kingdom Wars game modes. Players can see models of each NPC city, quest areas, environments, and their own homeland on the map and can use it to group their units into armies, which can then be sent to travel the World Map. Upon their destination, players can search for PvP battles with players of their rank, visit NPC cities, enter quest areas, set up camps, combine armies, or lay siege to an enemy stronghold.
Q: Will the World Map be updated in real-time with other play armies and strongholds?
A: No, in order to minimize requirements, Reverie World will limit what is visually represented on the World Map - a common approach for non-browser MMO titles. However, all of the functionality is consistent with what it would be if they were visually present. More information on this decision can be found in this response from the game's Executive Producer.
Q: How many armies can I have traveling the World Map at once?
A: The maximum army count depends on your level and amount of research. In the Online Kingdom mode, established players can have up to seven armies traveling the map.
Q: How big can a traveling army be?
A: Each army can be a thousand strong or so depending on the race, complete with soldiers, worker units, resources, livestock for trade, siege weapons, heroes, e.t.c.
Q: Will there be PvP (Player versus Player) warfare and coop questing?
A: PvP warfare is supported, and encouraged. However, quests are meant to be done solo.
Q: How does PvP work if all maps are instanced?
A: The attacking player(s) will set up an army camp outside of an enemy stronghold within that stronghold's instanced map. However, there will still be plenty of room to explore before battle and an environment you can interact with - including healing springs. You will then be able to take your army and attack the enemy stronghold, just as you would in a Skirmish match.
There are also field battles that can be done for a quick-paced and even battle between two or more equally-ranked players. To engage in a field battle, players must send an army to one of the many regions on the map and search for a battle. The game server will then find you another nearby player of your same rank that you can wage war on.
Q: Can you opt out of a fight?
A: Yes, but it costs resources. If you opt out, the attacking player cannot challenge you again for a predetermined amount of time.
Q: Can my stronghold be attacked when I'm offline?
A: No, your stronghold will remain untouched.
Q: What happens if a player leaves or signs out in the middle of a skirmish?
A: It will be counted as a resignation, and that player will be forced to pay tribute to his or her attackers.
Q: What happens once you conquer a NPC or another player's stronghold?
A: The stronghold will revert back to the defender; however, you will be able to loot conquered strongholds for lots of resources.
Q: In what ways can you interact with NPCs (Non-Player Characters)?
A: NPCs are marked by the "!" or "?" symbol, and can be interacted with by approaching them with your hero unit and selecting the NPC unit. Some NPCs, Advisors, will give you quests and teach you about the game mechanics early on. Others, Goods and Mercenary Merchants, will trade with you or hire out armed mercenary units at prices comparable to the region they are located in. By visiting one of the coastal towns, you can also interact with Harbour Masters to purchase ships to travel the seas and reach new island locations. And finally, players can interact with Trainers and Medics to train or heal their troops.
To interact with an NPC, players must visit that town via the World Map. After that, they can either go directly to the NPC they seek, or visit the town with their hero and interact with all the available NPC units.
Q: Can you visit all the NPC towns, or just the ones of your own race?
A: Players can visit, and attack, any of the NPC towns - not just the ones of their own race.
Q: Can my hero fight and die like other units?
A: Yes, your hero is an elite military unit. He can die, but can be resurrected at your Homeland as he is needed to interact with NPCs.
Q: How will ships and naval warfare work?
A: Ships will be introduced post-release, at which point they can be purchased from Harbour Master NPCs in any of the coastal towns. Each race has several unique ships that they can load with units, siege weapons, livestock, and resources and travel the seas in search of trade or PvP warfare and to gain access to the island towns. Naval Warfare will come down to what units you have in your fleet. Archers and ranged siege weapons will be able to fire at other fleets and your melee units can board enemy ships to carry out the fight. Select naval units, such as the Elven Kraken, will be able to fight but not transport units or goods.
Q: Will there be some sort of ladder?
A: There will be several ladders focusing on different achievements shortly after the game's release, however we can't reveal much on this yet.
Q: What is Influence?
A: Influence is a fifth resource that can be accumulated as a reward for questing and warfare. Influence can then be spent on DLC and expansion packs in lieu of real money, allowing everyone to upgrade their game with the newest quests and content without paying a dime if they are active enough players.
Q: What sort of content can we expect to see post-release?
A: In addition to the regular patches, there will be expansion packs featuring new playable races, as well as several smaller DLC (downloadable content) packs introducing new mini campaigns, items, and units.
Q: What is Kindgom Wars?
A: Kingdom Wars is an exclusively single-player Risk-style campaign with a mix of Skirmish and MMORTS gameplay elements to create a new, action-packed experience exclusively for single-player gamers. This game mode takes the epic siege warfare, continuous army progression, army construction, and World Map from the Online Kingdom mode and pairs it with an intelligent AI, while leaving out city construction, economic management, questing, and field combat to promote fast-paced action at every turn.
Unlike in the Online Kingdom mode, players will gain control of any strongholds they conquer, as well as their automated economies. These towns will work just like your original homecity and players will be able to train units of that stronghold's race - meaning that they do not have any set race and can wreak havoc on Mythador with Elven, Orc, and Human armies. If the player completes these quests by conquering the twelve main towns, victory is theirs. If the AI takes all of your towns, the player will still be in the game for as long as they have an army. If this happens, it's suggested that they try to recover by sieging one of the smaller main towns or one of the miscellaneous homelands which dot the map.
Q: So if I can attack an AI-controlled stronghold, can they come back and attack one of mine?
A: Yes, Kingdom Wars uses an intelligent AI that will simulate fellow players seeking the same goal as yourself - world domination. This means, that they can attack your stronghold any time. If this happens, you will get a message alerting you of the impending attack and you can either face the onslaught or pay off your attacker with a hefty tribute.
Q: What are the available Victory Conditions?
A: There are three ways to play Kingdom Wars: the short campaign (Unification War), the long campaign (Realm War), and the epic campaign (Total War). In the short campaign, players start with one major town and their goal is to conquer the other three major towns of their race as well as 50% of their race's minor towns. In the long campaign, players start with one region - one capital town and two minor towns, and their goal is to conquer one of the other two races and to conquer all of their major and minor towns. In the epic campaign, players start with one region and their goal is to conquer every major town on the map for all three races, as well as 50% of all the minor towns.
Q: What are the available Skirmish modes?
A: Lay Siege and Castle Defense are the two Skirmish modes that will be shipped with the game at initial release.
Q: How do skirmishes differ from Online Kingdom sieges?
A: Skirmishes are quick-paced and focus almost primarily on the siege itself, rather than placing an emphasis on economies and story-driven quests. They are meant to serve as a training ground for players to try out new strategies before using them where it really matters - on the MMORTS battlefield.
Q: What are the different options for Lay Siege skirmishes?
A: Customizable options for Lay Siege include the stronghold to lay siege to (any of the major or minor NPC towns), your race, the difficulty, the season, and whether or not you have cavalry reinforcements come in after a predetermined amount of time to back up the defender, as well as the size of the reinforcement arm.
Q: What are the different options for Castle Defense skirmishes?
A: Customizable options for Castle Defense include the choice of stronghold to defend, the number of attacking armies, the race and size of each attacking army, how many waves the enemy comes in, the difficulty, the season, and whether or not you want timed cavalry reinforcements to help defend your stronghold, as well as the size of the reinforcement army.
Q: How many players can you have in a multi-player skirmish?
A: Skirmish maps will be able to be played with up to four players. This number may expand to six, but it is still being decided.
Q: How long does the average skirmish match take?
A: A two-wave medium difficulty skirmish match takes around 30 minutes for the average player.
Q: When will Dawn of Fantasy be released?
A: Dawn of Fantasy will be released on September 30th, 2011.
Q: How will Dawn of Fantasy be distributed?
A: Dawn of Fantasy will be available at most major gaming retail stores as well as a via digital download on our website and various digital video-game merchants.
Q: How much will Dawn of Fantasy cost?
A: Dawn of Fantasy is expected to sell at $30-$40 USD.
Q: Will there be a monthly fee?
A: Nope. After the initial purchase, you can play Dawn of Fantasy online free of charge without having to pay a monthly subscription fee.
Q: How will post-release DLC (downloadable content) work?
A: DLC will be available via our site and Reverie Online, and will allow players to purchase additional content in the form of expansions, quest packs, and new units and items in exchange for a small fee or in-game Influence points.
Q: Will Dawn of Fantasy ship with a scenario design editor?
A: Yes, Dawn of Fantasy will ship with the same editor that was used by Reverie World to make all the strongholds and quest environments.
Q: Will the editor be based off of triggers or scripting?
A: Triggers are unconfirmed at this point, but Dawn of Fantasy's editor will allow for scripting with the Lua language enabling experienced scripters to design just about anything without restrictions. However, a lot of changes, like modifying unit stats, can be done in the editor without the use of triggers or scripting.
Q: What is Lua?
A: Lua is an easy-to-learn lightweight programming language influenced by C++. It is the language of choice by many games including Civilization V, Fable II, and World of Warcraft.
Q: Will there be a place to find and host user-made maps online?
A: There will be a place to do so on Dawn of Fantasy's Reverie Online multiplayer server. At this point, it is unconfirmed if there will be an additional hosting area on the official website.
Q: What other tools will Dawn of Fantasy ship with?
A: Dawn of Fantasy will also ship with an Animation Viewer, which will allow designers to load models and textures, view animations, and edit a unit's scale and walkmesh. DOF may ship with a couple other tools, but these are still unconfirmed.
Q: How easy will it be to mod the game?
A: Very easy. Almost all of Dawn of Fantasy's game files will be left unlocked and open to modding by anyone with knowledge of the Lua scripting language. Even without prior knowledge, modders will often be able to easily look up a configuration page and edit its values based on name alone.
Q: What format does Dawn of Fantasy use for its textures?
A: Dawn of Fantasy uses the common .dds extension for textures, allowing them to be easily opened with most imaging software.
