Hello everyone! We hope you are all enjoying this new year 2017. Nineteenth Development Update is upon us, one wherein we take a look at two important gameplay mechanisms of the game and showcase some new content. Enjoy!
Nonlinear gameplay in Regalia
When we set out with our Kickstarter campaign, one of the bullet points there was a game world which could be explored in a free, nonlinear way. Let's discuss briefly how it works.
Chapters
Regalia is divided into six chapters. Each chapter, while being a part of the overall structure, is also a self-contained entity in terms of gameplay and story. Each chapter will feature its own mini story arc, introduce new characters (playable or otherwise), and will also come with its own set of requirements to complete.
Time is a finite resource in Regalia - as such, each of the chapter's requirements must be completed before a deadline. These requirements usually (with exceptions, of course!) consist of two major parts:
- a number of Kingdom Quests must be completed before the deadline
- a Story Quest must be completed before the deadline
While you will be given a new set of requirements with each chapter, the game will nevertheless give you free reign in how and when to tackle them. There is no hand holding involved at all, meaning each Chapter can be completed in many different ways. This is made possible through the use of the aforementioned Kingdom Quests.
Kingdom Quests
While the main story hobbles along from chapter to chapter, the central mechanic of each is the concept of rebuilding your city and paying off the massive debt that looms over Kay's head.
To achieve that, you will need to complete a set of Kingdom Quests each Chapter. The exact number of quests will depend on your selected difficulty level and your progress in the storyline. The kicker here is that it's not your traditional list of tasks that rotates after each chapter - that would result in a linear progression, and that's something we wanted to avoid.
Instead, as soon as the game begins, you will be given this large set of all possible Kingdom Quests to complete in a game (over 50 now and counting!). It's completely up to you which one you'll choose to complete and/or in what order. Do you feel like focusing on Social Links in this Chapter? There are Kingdom Quests for that. Perhaps you want to focus on clearing dungeons? Here you go. Extended participation in mini-games like fishing? Yep.
This list is WIP. More quests are coming!
The game only asks you to complete a set number of them by a given date. The rest is up to you!
Main Story Quests
These are required to progress the main plot of the game. While the story itself stays linear, you can choose to complete these Main Story Quests whenever you feel like it, as long as you make it before the deadline.
Free-roam in the World
Again, there is no hand holding here - which means that right from the get go, you are able to set course for a Dungeon and start adventuring and killing stuff. Clearing Dungeons within specific regions unlocks the so-called "High Threat" Dungeons, or, more precisely, harder areas that crown a specific region. Alternatively, you could clear all the easier stuff first and come back for the difficult content later. It's up to you!
Fishing!
One of our stretch goals is now finally fully implemented in-game! You'll first need to upgrade your town's Pier to gain access to the fishing tools, but as soon as that little obstacle is dealt with...fishing time!
Fishing takes a full day off your calendar. During that time you'll be able to attempt the minigame five times. This number can change based on the different factors in play (more on that in a second).
_
The mini-game will challenge your reflexes in the vein of, say, Mortal Kombat's Test Your Might. To catch your fish, you'll basically have to keep pulling, aiming to keep the fish in a "sweet spot" for the required amount of time. Pull too slowly, and the fish will flee. Pull too quickly, and the line will break!
You may ask: okay, but I'm a king, why would I want to fish? Because of the rewards, of couse! Fishing lets you catch three distinct types of stuff: fish, items and junk.
Junk is pretty self-explanatory. It serves no purpose in the game itself, but it can be sold at Haksun's so it's not completely worthless (and there are multiple quality levels of junk as well!).
Items are various equippable trinkets for your characters. The chance of catching an item is the lowest of all three types, so be ready for a challenge! Oh, and since this is a lake, there juuust might be a very,
very,
veeeery rare sword for you to catch. There might even be an achievement for doing that! Finally, you can catch
Fish (duh!). So what can you do with fish? Well, you can use them in battles of course! Think of them as an exotic consumable item: some may buff your guys when they eat them, others may explode when thrown. Who knows what you'll catch?
Finally, you can cheat a little and improve your chances of catching rarer and cooler stuff either by increasing your Social Link with Shichiroji or applying special baits to the fishing hook. Both of these modify your fishing attempts in various way. They can grant additional fishing attempts during the day, increase chances of finding a specific type of item or outright increase chance of finding rare stuff.
_
Combat School, part 4
This month we take a look at Theo, our very own vampiric hairdresser.
_
New Content
First three finished Faction Units revealed!
Gnomish cavalry! On turtles! With spears! Woooooo!
One should not ask: "why turtles?" Instead, the true question is: "why not?"
_
Also, it's time to put on your robe and a wizard hat. The Shedurians have arrived!
In Shedu, spellcasting and proper nail care are mutually exclusive concepts.
_
And now for something completely different. We move north, to the cold domains of the Fair Folk...
We come from the land of the ice and snow / From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow!
_
It's a B-b-backer Boss!
We're extremely proud to present the first Backer Monster for you to vanquish in Regalia!
Hi.
_
New battleground
It's been a while since we have seen these, hasn't it? This month we have something different, an indoor battleground, so a true dungeon. It's also modular, which enables us do some cool stuff with the different shapes of the battle grid.
If you squint, you may spot a seagull.
_
Night has fallen over Rashytil
We're improving the visual variety of all the different backgrounds in the game by creating their night versions. A sample of the eye-candy below!
_
_
_
New 3D Models
_
_
Cool Stuff
Did you know that Theo can teleport around the battlefield in a true vampire way? Think of the tactical possibilities!