Hi!
It’s Michał again. This time I will tell you more about the strategic layer in Alder’s Blood.
On the screen above, you will spend about 40% of the game time. You will plan your next moves, conducting research, managing resources and doing pretty much other stuff, that we will explain later.
The game world is divided into 4 main locations:
- Putrid Grooves,
- Salty Lock,
- Freeholds,
- Valley of Faces.
The appearance of the terrain (and the fighting grounds at the same time) is different in every location. However, the look is not the only difference. Each location has its own, unique types of monsters. The differences won’t just be cosmetic!
We want to use our Senses mechanics to completely change the style of gameplay, depending on the location we are in. For example: vampires from the Valley of Faces will mainly rely on their hearing. Also, Valley of Faces map will be filled with many terrain elements, that will emit sounds. Those sounds will alert monsters.
Every location is divided into smaller subregions, each with its own storyline and a boss. Performing missions in a specific region will increase our level of control over that region.By taking control over the region, we gain bonuses – different in every region (e.g. faster technology development or increased gold revenue).
When the region is finally in our hands, Hunters are able to set up a hideout in there. We can send henchmen from the hideout to scout the area and search for game’s trivia (mostly small bonuses or resources). Hired guns can also track down the boss of the area.
To fight the boss, we have to perform several missions, which are connected together by the game’s storyline. Every boss has his own appearance and style of fighting. The more information we get before the fight, the easier it will be for us to defeat it.
What we can do about the regions? We can acquire control inside them, we can lose them, we can take them over. Every action requires time and resources, which we never got enough. All these factors will affect the storyline. For example, if we completely lose the control over the region, people from that area will probably die and the storyline will be presented to us from a different perspective than in the very beginning.
Opposite to the tactical view, in the strategy layer time flows linearly. We can control the passage of time in the User Interface (you can pause or accelerate the game). The time will automatically stop, if the event is coming to an end (e.g. termination of the research, finish of the crafting process).
The passage of time is linked to the Moon Phase system. We are currently using 8 different phases (just like in the real life). Every Moon Phase will affect the game world in a different way. During specific phases of the Moon, some of the creatures will be stronger (e.g. werewolfs during the Full Moon). In addition, the Moon Phase can affect the Darkness System (increasing or decreasing its capabilities). While choosing a quest, we should think about our characters’ condition, the equipment and the enemies, that we will face during the Moon Phase.
Between the missions, we will be able to research new weapons and equipment or finding out the nature of our enemies. Research, like most activities on the strategy screen, will require time and resources. The developed technologies will allow us to create items on the crafting screen. You will unlock more tactical possibilities for your characters.
From time to time, the world of Alder’s Blood can be afflicted by the ‘World Event’. For a period of time, this event can strengthen some of the creatures. It can also increase the revenue of the resources or block specific situations (e.g. hold back the research for 5 days). World events can also put a player in front of a tough decision. “Will you spend 1000 gold to expand your characters’ range of sight for another 10 days?”. Sometimes, the possibilities can be “equally bad”. The player will have to choose the “lesser evil”.
On the strategy screen we can also manage our characters. We will be able to check their status (active/not available, because of injury or other reasons). We can also check the level of our Hunter, manage the skill points or choose equipment. We will write more about this topic during the description of the characters’ development system.
That’s all for now. See ya!
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