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Tags: Nick Carver; Obsidian Entertainment; Paul Kirsch; Tyranny
As promised earlier, the latest Tyranny bi-weekly dev diary is about Verse, the roguish female companion we saw in last month's gameplay preview. As many people suspected, she's a member of the Scarlet Chorus faction, and like Barik from the previous update, she suffers from an unusual magical condition. Here's an excerpt from the update:
As promised earlier, the latest Tyranny bi-weekly dev diary is about Verse, the roguish female companion we saw in last month's gameplay preview. As many people suspected, she's a member of the Scarlet Chorus faction, and like Barik from the previous update, she suffers from an unusual magical condition. Here's an excerpt from the update:
Everyone who joins the Chorus gets a new name. The name “Verse” was a compliment from the Voices of Nerat, who – in one of his crazier, artistic moments – heard music in the shrieking and howling of battle. He said that hers stood out louder than anyone else’s, and contained too many parts to be easily defined.
Verse has a special knack for learning the combat styles of others. She could spend five minutes watching a grizzled veteran wield a spear and know the form as if she had used it across a hundred battles. During the war, this talent manifested in an unexpected fashion. During a battle with the defenders of Apex, Verse suddenly froze in panic – a totally unheard-of reflex, coming from seemingly out of nowhere. The Scarlet Furies fighting alongside her died in battle because of this spasm of hesitation.
What happened next was stranger still: Verse felt the deaths of her sister Furies like a part of her mind getting ripped apart, and she stumbled from battle possessing knowledge of the battle stances and weapon acuity of her sister Furies – an unintended, almost parasitic reflex that fascinated and disgusted her.
Verse hates herself for the hesitation that stayed at her hand, and feels revulsion for everything that came after, which casts her instinctive need to challenge others and prove herself in perhaps a sadder light.
Combat Role
Verse was designed to blend between melee and ranged combat with ease, acting as a highly mobile single target damage dealer. Verse’s talent trees support this synergy between short and long ranged combat and allow her to perform the roles of melee assassin or ranged archer on the fly. Verse also possesses unique combat stances that allow her to further match the party’s needs in the heat of the moment.
When designing Verse’s talent trees, we started by splitting them by Melee or Ranged combat specialization. Deep in each of Verse’s trees lie talents that place strong emphasis on one style or another. Talents at earlier tiers are focused on value for both melee and ranged combat, maintaining synergy for users interested in a hybrid approach or those that enjoy switching styles frequently. Verse’s Duelist tree features a twin blade strategy geared around rushing through the fray and unleashing flurries of deadly melee strikes on weaker targets. Her Skirmisher tree is built around escape tactics and long range devastation via bow and burning arrow.
A few of Verse’s notable abilities:
Know Your Enemy: A talent which allows Verse to study her enemies in combat. This allows Verse to become increasingly more deadly the longer that a combat spans, increasing her Dodge and Parry each time she is struck by an enemy. As a quick thinking fighter, Know Your Enemy helps sell the idea that Verse won’t fall for the same combat trick twice.
Rush: As a Scarlet Fury, Verse is no stranger to sprinting into danger with a wave of Chorus allies at her back. The Rush ability gives players the chance to send Verse like a streak of lightning through the enemy ranks, drastically increasing Verse’s movement speed for a short time and making her immune to engagement.
Killing Spree: After felling a foe, Verse will enter a Killing Spree where she attacks multiple times with each of her basic attacks.
Burning Iron: Verse launches a single arrow doused in oil and flame. When it strikes, it ignites her enemy, burning them for Fire damage over time.
Unbound: Verse performs a spinning attack and vaults through the air to a safe location. A remnant of one of Verse’s fallen sisters appears in her place to face her foes.
Verse is a first and foremost a deadly assassin, her ability to dispatch high priority targets and remain mobile on the battlefield makes her well suited for the task. Abilities like Killing Spree and Know Your Enemy give Verse the momentum to tear down nearly any foe. While Verse is capable of dishing copious amounts of damage, she is notably more vulnerable than iron-clad counterparts such as Barik. Those with Verse in their party should expect to keep a keen watch to prevent her from getting in over her head. Abilities like Unbound and Rush are great offensive and escape abilities, though if on cooldown, Verse loses her mobility advantage and is left vulnerable.
With her highly active kit and powerful single target abilities, Verse feels like a storm on the battlefield, aggressive, relentless, and apt for dispatching key foes.
The next Tyranny update will not be about a companion, but about the game's late Bronze Age-inspired setting and how it will be reflected in terms of items and lore. That should make for an interesting Codex discussion thread, I think.Verse has a special knack for learning the combat styles of others. She could spend five minutes watching a grizzled veteran wield a spear and know the form as if she had used it across a hundred battles. During the war, this talent manifested in an unexpected fashion. During a battle with the defenders of Apex, Verse suddenly froze in panic – a totally unheard-of reflex, coming from seemingly out of nowhere. The Scarlet Furies fighting alongside her died in battle because of this spasm of hesitation.
What happened next was stranger still: Verse felt the deaths of her sister Furies like a part of her mind getting ripped apart, and she stumbled from battle possessing knowledge of the battle stances and weapon acuity of her sister Furies – an unintended, almost parasitic reflex that fascinated and disgusted her.
Verse hates herself for the hesitation that stayed at her hand, and feels revulsion for everything that came after, which casts her instinctive need to challenge others and prove herself in perhaps a sadder light.
Combat Role
Verse was designed to blend between melee and ranged combat with ease, acting as a highly mobile single target damage dealer. Verse’s talent trees support this synergy between short and long ranged combat and allow her to perform the roles of melee assassin or ranged archer on the fly. Verse also possesses unique combat stances that allow her to further match the party’s needs in the heat of the moment.
When designing Verse’s talent trees, we started by splitting them by Melee or Ranged combat specialization. Deep in each of Verse’s trees lie talents that place strong emphasis on one style or another. Talents at earlier tiers are focused on value for both melee and ranged combat, maintaining synergy for users interested in a hybrid approach or those that enjoy switching styles frequently. Verse’s Duelist tree features a twin blade strategy geared around rushing through the fray and unleashing flurries of deadly melee strikes on weaker targets. Her Skirmisher tree is built around escape tactics and long range devastation via bow and burning arrow.
A few of Verse’s notable abilities:
Know Your Enemy: A talent which allows Verse to study her enemies in combat. This allows Verse to become increasingly more deadly the longer that a combat spans, increasing her Dodge and Parry each time she is struck by an enemy. As a quick thinking fighter, Know Your Enemy helps sell the idea that Verse won’t fall for the same combat trick twice.
Rush: As a Scarlet Fury, Verse is no stranger to sprinting into danger with a wave of Chorus allies at her back. The Rush ability gives players the chance to send Verse like a streak of lightning through the enemy ranks, drastically increasing Verse’s movement speed for a short time and making her immune to engagement.
Killing Spree: After felling a foe, Verse will enter a Killing Spree where she attacks multiple times with each of her basic attacks.
Burning Iron: Verse launches a single arrow doused in oil and flame. When it strikes, it ignites her enemy, burning them for Fire damage over time.
Unbound: Verse performs a spinning attack and vaults through the air to a safe location. A remnant of one of Verse’s fallen sisters appears in her place to face her foes.
Verse is a first and foremost a deadly assassin, her ability to dispatch high priority targets and remain mobile on the battlefield makes her well suited for the task. Abilities like Killing Spree and Know Your Enemy give Verse the momentum to tear down nearly any foe. While Verse is capable of dishing copious amounts of damage, she is notably more vulnerable than iron-clad counterparts such as Barik. Those with Verse in their party should expect to keep a keen watch to prevent her from getting in over her head. Abilities like Unbound and Rush are great offensive and escape abilities, though if on cooldown, Verse loses her mobility advantage and is left vulnerable.
With her highly active kit and powerful single target abilities, Verse feels like a storm on the battlefield, aggressive, relentless, and apt for dispatching key foes.
Whaaaaaaaaat? Is there anything more relevant for a company than to make critically and financially successfull games, which - by the way - they like making? They had a game which people liked, which brought in money, and which they liked working on. What's more? Oh yes, the most important is that the codex must love it, that is the most important measure of success.
