[img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43792072/4359f13464d70583210fab7bf83bd02ec8ea598a.jpg[/img] Hello again, Survivors! In addition to the Memory Bonding system we introduced last week, there are a number of other changes in the new build we're currently testing. Over the coming days, we'll be talking about what these changes are and why we made the decisions we made, but before we get into the more detailed systems, I wanted to give you a quick overview of the New Characters we've added. In fact, if you've been following closely, you may have already realized from the "Memory Bonding" screen we showed you last week that there’s currently a total of Six Characters joining the adventure. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43792072/97216fdb3f0f2cef005956d3eb9a1fce58376eb6.gif[/img] We're also making some big changes to the skillsets of the Royal Guard (Willam), Barbarian (Duirmuid), and Militia (Edwin) that you've seen in Early Access, but we'll talk about those changes after we're done introducing the other systems. Today we'll focus more on introducing the “New Faces!” [h3]Before we get into it...[/h3] As some of you may recall from our old [Archive][url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2225480/view/3896241210483410989]posts[/url], back in the early days of development, when we were focusing on a more "medieval" and "human" narrative rather than "strategy/tactics", we implemented religious figures such as "Monks" and "Nuns" as playable characters. Unfortunately (?), very few people wanted to bring back the bald Monk, but there were quite a few people who played the early demos or watched the reveal videos who wanted the Nun to return. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43792072/53b37b2c64fcce7070f892b0a696653b9706e5c1.gif[/img] So, shortly after the development direction of adding new characters was set, the first thing we started looking at was whether we could reintroduce the Nun to fit the current direction of the game. The main reason why the Nun/Monk were not adopted as playable characters in Early Access was that it was "difficult to give them combat abilities that fit the concept of the class," and while we were thinking about this, we had a great idea.[b] Give the Nun the role of an “Assassin.”[/b] [h3]New Character #1: Shadow Sister[/h3] When we adopted “Surprise” as an official mechanic, we knew from the very beginning that we wanted to make the Assassin a primary class, as we felt this type of character could best lean into this gameplay style. However, the actual name of the class itself, Assassin, was a bit of a challenge, as we wanted to keep it somewhat historical, and the concept of a Middle Eastern "Hassassin'' naturally came to mind. However the actual setting of Remore was more of a fictionalized western to central European world, so it felt inconsistent. While discussing the fact that we were not trying to recreate a completely specific historical real-world space, we decided to think of a concept for an assassin, but with a different physical appearance, and so we thought "what if we didn't have nuns, but instead had a religious group in our world that ran a convent as a kind of assassination organization?" and it was unanimously decided on the spot! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43792072/18160bfb02e5501a4448ac4e85c12c6779c2f73e.gif[/img] The result of this process is the Shadow Sister character, who has [b]Stealth as an active skill, allowing her to move freely and ambush enemies without being seen.[/b] Other characters without the Stealth skill are less likely to be able to sneak up on enemies in close quarters and surprise unhindered, so it's common to surprise one character and then have the rest of them raise the alarm. These new Shadow Sister, on the other hand, are designed to allow the player to [b]make the mechanic of surprise much more proactive.[/b] The tradeoff is that they have a "weakness" called "Stage Fright" that greatly reduces the amount of damage they can deal when they are within an enemy's line of sight. [h3]New Character #2: Jester[/h3] Whereas the Shadow Sister is designed to be a surprise assassination character that most intuitively uses the mechanic of Stealth, the Jester is a character that utilizes surprise play by occupying a specific space using Active Skills and Free Movement. For example, your basic skill, "Backflip," costs 4 TP to instantly move to a specific location, where you can [b]leap over enemy/friendly units or obstacles freely[/b]. Without the Movement skill, you'd be stuck in enemy sight, but with it, you can sneak up behind them and create creative ambush opportunities. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43792072/1f73830c088be3a5109b3b362e25a41d33b4d830.gif[/img] You can also level up to gain a talent called Blindside, which automatically engages Stealth immediately [b]when you enter an enemy's line of sight.[/b] This further enhances your ability to create surprise routes with your backflip skill and makes it easier to "scout" for enemies, such as opening doors to check your line of sight without being spotted. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43792072/6608754ce265515ba07f85d5902f79fa195a12f4.gif[/img] This allowed us to create a character that is similar to the Nun in terms of being an agile, ambush-based character, but very different in how she is utilized. In our testing, we found that while the Jester is a bit trickier to use than the Shadow Sister, it definitely has a "different feel", as if you're playing a different character in the same role in a MOBA genre game... [h3]New Character #3: Inquisitor[/h3] The final new character we'll be introducing is the Inquisitor, who shares the narrative of a religious vocation, but has a "Power/Strength" concept that is the opposite of the Shadow Sister, who is more "Ambush/Assassination" centered. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43792072/dbc257417ca86a7db49015dc87c48b190cca152f.jpg[/img] If you've played the Early Access version of the game, you know that tile manipulation elements like pushing and pulling are very important in the game, and that there is a debuff called "Pain" that increases "Collision Damage". We still see pushing and pulling enemies as an important part of the core fun of the game, and the “Pain” debuff was introduced as a way to make this tile manipulation a unique archetype of the game that can be utilized as a “Damage Dealer” rather than a “Support” role. However, these “Push/Pull” and pain debuffs were mainly just the effects of “Blunt Weapons,” and there wasn't much synergy with the existing three characters. In response, we've redesigned the Inquisitor to specialize in Blunt Weapons, giving him a talent that [b]causes colliding enemies to split their pain between them.[/b] He also has a skill called Merciful Strike, which allows him to instantly execute characters who have accumulated a certain amount of pain. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43792072/958a8c27ad95d13450b3e4530a0311ead3d599b8.gif[/img] We're still working on the animations, so for now we're just using the NPC Knight character sprite for testing, but we'll show you a more polished version once they're done. So, there you have it, the important characteristics and development intentions of the new characters. It ended up being longer than I thought, and I have a moment of regret (?) that I should have dug deeper into each character's features and introduced them one at a time. In any case, in addition to the Inquisitor's sprite, the Jester's movement skill animation and the Shadow Sister's design still need to go through the art team's hands once more, so I think it would be better to introduce them in detail as a kind of showcase when they're finished. Starting next week, we'll be talking about the system changes we're making to these characters. Thanks as always, and we'll see you soon! REMORE