Mar 25, 2019

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem - calistaen

[DE translation]
[RU translation]

Hello everyone!

It’s now time to focus on the Gameplay Beta transition for everyone and give you some more information about the next days.

Gameplay Beta this week!

As you noticed, the Cloud mode for the Alpha is not working anymore and you can only play offline for the moment. That’s because we are currently preparing the servers for the Gameplay Beta transition. And yes, that means we are getting really close!

The estimated date for the Gameplay Beta release is March 28. Although the testing shows good sign of a stable enough version, keep in mind that this release date is not 100% guaranteed.
Of course, we will keep you updated should this date changes at any point.

With the Gameplay Beta release comes a price increase for Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem. On the confirmed date of the Gameplay Beta release, the game will be available for 29.99€.
Purchasing it then will, of course, still grant you access to the Gameplay Beta and the full release of the game.

Along with the Gameplay Beta release comes all the work we’ve done this last year to make this improved and ambitious version: Multiplayer, new environments, new characters, new animations, new skills and skill variants, new items, monsters, and new game modes with various difficulties for all kinds of tastes in challenges. We worked a lot to polish this awesome gameplay and offer you the best player experience and game quality.

The Gameplay Beta is planned to have regular updates, both for hotfixes and for content, all these will be tracked on the roadmap and announced through news. Also, as announced previously, the Gameplay Beta will not have the campaign mode implemented. However, you will be able to meet with Wolcen’s universe through the lore added on various elements (uniques, skills…).

This is going to be a big step for Wolcen, for you and for all of us. We want to thank you from all our hearts for your support all these years, and mostly for your huge patience and understanding. It was a tough ride, but now we’re getting really close.

Added note for clarification: You can still purchase the game for 19.99€ and have access to the Alpha, Beta, and full release of the game until the Beta transition. The price will change the day of the Gameplay Beta release. You don't have to purchase the game again to have access to future updates and the game release.

Mar 11, 2019

Wolcen’s soundtrack recording in Prague and Beta Passive Skill Tree presentation

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem - calistaen

[DE translation]
[RU translation]

Hello everyone!

On February 18 and 19, 2019, Daniel Dolui and Simon Majar, two co-founders of Wolcen, went to Prague with Jean-Gabriel Raynaud and Cédric Baravaglio, composers, to record our original soundtrack with the amazing City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

Since the beginning of Wolcen, music means a lot to us, many of us are musicians here and we believe music is primordial in a video game. We’ve been working with our talented composers for 2 years, they made an incredible job, and we can’t wait for you to listen to the complete Soundtrack. In the meantime, we want to share these great moments with you and discover our two wonderful composers:

https://youtu.be/cG4EAwxkwko

You will have a glimpse of this music during the Beta, but keep in mind that the versions currently in the game are not recorded at The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra since there are many steps after the recording to process and mix the soundtracks.

Upcoming Beta

Let’s talk a bit about the Beta transition now. We are finalizing the game modes and our game design team is currently working on the balancing for all the new gameplay that you will be testing.

As told in the January news, the PST has been revamped and we are now able to present the Beta version of the Passive Skill Tree to you. Keep in mind that these values are still subject to change.

Ring 1

Soldier

Most armies create their own mythos, populated with larger-than-life heroes that give troops examples to look-up-to. Detractors will always dismiss them as artificial myths created to fuel the war propaganda that surrounds them. Yet, soldier Almarik is very real. He insists on keeping the lowest rank in the Purifiers' army because he categorically refuses to leave the frontline or to burden himself with anything else than the art of killing. His home is the battle.

Choosing a soldier path will allow you to improve Ferocity attributes bonuses as well as your Health and your Resistance, bound to Toughness.

Sentinel

Intelligence gathering is the key to successful warfare. Such a pretty sentence is a staple taught in republican military academies, yet those few words have very real implications on the field. There is an ever growing need for discrete and fast soldiers able to track opposing forces' position, work behind enemy lines, or even infiltrate them for sabotage. They are the backbone that allows Inquisitors to make sound strategic decisions. One of them made herself a name among Republican troops: The Flying Dragoon, a scout from a squad of light cavalry dedicated to harassing the enemy's supply chain. Her reputation states that she is so effective that her sabotages are enough to shatter opposing troops' morale.

The Sentinel path allows you to focus on Agility attribute bonuses, movement speed, Health, and Force Shield.

Scholar

One needs foresight, strategy, and knowledge to efficiently lead a battalion. That's why Inquisitors and Justicars of the Republic surround themselves with specialists that know the terrains, cultures, and anatomy of their enemies. For the Purifiers, those enemies belong to the supernatural which forces their scholars to study witchcraft even though they are strictly forbidden from ever practicing it. A thin line that drove many to madness or even to the stake. Yet, Counselor Jeremiah successfully mastered those forbidden arts in secrecy, using them to become one of the best battle masterminds in history. Of course, he has declined all opportunities of advancement, being more than happy to stay in the shadow of ambitious inquisitors while he delves deeper into forbidden knowledge.

Scholars are focused on Wisdom attribute bonuses as well as Force Shield’s amount and regeneration.

Ring 2

Ranger

Like a migratory bird, the flying city of Archion follows a nomadic lifestyle. It has three anchorage points, its easternmost is above a lagoon on the coast of one of the two unexplored continents, making it the most exposed city to the exotic evils of the unknown. Once a year, the Departed, a troop made of brave rangers are sent out to map these frontier lands. Few return, and those that do often come back with mental diseases festering their mind. All know that they should never stay longer than a night out there... except for "Blue", a lone wolf which learned how to survive on his own for weeks. To this day, Blue hasn't shared his secret nor the wonders that he discovered out there.

Rangers are focussed on projectiles improvements in many ways, either by improving their speed, your critical chances with projectiles, or even adding one projectile. And since it applies to all types of projectiles, you will be able to use this specialization not only with bows and pistols but also with spells throwing projectiles and with staves.

Warlock

There's a city cursed with a unique ecosystem. Far away from busy civilizations, Gomora welcomes every and any cult on its island indiscriminately, no matter how evil and insidious. Powerful Arbiters keep most of the madness in check. But still, repeated bloodsheds in the darkest corners of this twisted city has created the space for a vigilante to rise. She is known as the Blackstaff of Gomora, a warlock as devious as the evil she is fighting. She mastered witchcraft and became a faith leech, which might explain why the cultists dread her so much.

Warlocks are solid spellcasters with rough spell damage, they can also improve Willpower replenishment, Life Leech and specialize in Force Shield or even staff mastery.

Praetorian

The kingdom of Laibon has a strong history of assigning their best warriors to the protection of their ruler. Yet, a few decades ago their king disappeared following a series of tragic events. Since then, "The Kingless" remain purposeless, training day and night, ever ready to fulfill their oath should the crown return. But one of them chose not to wait any longer: he left the realm to track down clues of his sovereign's whereabouts. Should there be nothing left to protect then he would avenge him, and bring back the crown for a new king to take the throne.

Praetorians are very resistant champions and solid allies who can improve blocking, resistance, health regeneration and deal deadly damage based on these defense values.

Assassin

Most of the Kuei Empire's territory is covered in jungles. Its cities are connected by a network of trade roads regularly patrolled by imperial troops. But for the past fifteen years, the Jade Legion has been harassing the caravans with ambushes all over the empire.
Their elusive nature has shrouded them in myths concerning their motives and habits. To this day, one of the best-kept secrets of the emperor is that the current Jade Legion's leader is an imperial agent working for him. He infiltrated them, assassinated the previous leader and took his place. Now, the emperor puppets the Jade Legion to justify exuberant taxes over all the cities under his dominion.

Assassins are poison specialists and very fast fighters, their mastery is focused on dodge and dash improvements as well as toxic damage, along with attack speed and critical chances.

Cabalist

The greatest collection of Enneracts known to date is hoarded by a single man: an augur leading the seclusive Cabal of Illumination. Deep into the subterranean city of Salander, he built an academy for his students to train into the manipulations of the precious ancient artifacts. However this augur is a cautious one, he keeps his most powerful Enneracts in a vault at the core of a labyrinth from which only he knows the exit. If his reputation is to be believed, he learned to master all the spells and secrets that came in his possession.

Cabalists are ailments and elemental specialists, pure mages that will focus on affliction damage and generation, as well as elemental spell damage, and spell casting speed.

Warmonger

Every civilization has horrendous tales of barbarian hordes murdering, pillaging, and raiding innocent people. Most of the time these exaggerated stories are meant to give shivers during the long winter nights. But these nightmarish depictions of violence caught up with fiction when the Ravagers of the Blood Tear stormed the lands of Varg. A terrifying warrior depicted as a whirlwind of iron and gore has risen as their new warlord. In his aura they seem to have reached new depths of savagery: cannibalism, blood rituals, dismemberments... the madness knows no bounds anymore.

Warmongers are ferocious fighters focused on attack speed, life leech, rage generation improvements, and in many different ways to make their enemies bleed even more.

Game progression

Don’t forget that each week you can check our progression on the Trello roadmap, based on our daily scrums.

Environments

You will be able to see here the advancement of the Brotherhood of Dawn Temple, the Brotherhood of Dawn camp, and the beginning of the Red Waste (Act III area).

And that is all for today guys and gals! We hope you appreciated this preview on the Passive Skill Tree :) On the next news, we hope to be able to give you a date for the Beta release, so stay tuned!

Useful links :

Wolcen's Official Website
Wolcen's 2019 Roadmap
Wolcen's Official Facebook Page
Wolcen's Twitter page
Wolcen's Instagram Page
Wolcen's Official Discord server
Wolcen's FAQ

Community websites:
German Fan Site : http://www.wolcen-game.de/
French Fan Site : Wolcen France

Jan 25, 2019

Beta revamps: Defense, Potions, and Attributes. It’s about choice.

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem - calistaen

[DE translation]
[RU translation]

Hello everyone!

Today’s news will be about the other revamps done for the Beta, and most likely for the final game if we are satisfied by these new systems.

But first...

New roadmap

We've made another roadmap that will be used for the Beta and for the game progression. Our teams are going back to working on two versions and we need a centralized way to communicate our progression on this, whether it's on future Beta patches, or on the global game progression.

This new roadmap will offer both options. All sections will be about patches except for one, dedicated to weekly meetings of progression. In this section I will share the latest information I have about the current progression of the team.

As of now, you can take a look! The first game progression update will be on Monday.
https://trello.com/b/OtdXj2DH/beta-transition-roadmap-game-advancement
You can also access it in German, thanks to CoTTo's help.
And in Russian thanks to Destiny's help.

Now we can move to revamp ;)

Potions revamp

Along with the other revamp plans for the Beta/final game, we have come with another system for potions to fit with our difficulty objective and the choice requirements we want in Wolcen’s gameplay.

We wish to avoid the “piano effect” due to the absence of common cooldown between potions of the same type, and mostly we want players to make choices for their potions instead of being able to have everything they need in 5 slots.
Finally, it will also be more easy for game control management to have fewer potion slots.

Therefore, potion slots will be reduced from 5 to 2 and will work with charges.

Using a potion consumes charges, and you will be able to refill them by killing foes. Each enemy type will grant you a certain amount of charges based on the creature difficulty.

Potions won’t have any cooldown anymore. There will be three types of potions: Health, Willpower, and Rage.

Potions will also have levels of rarity that will improve their efficiency, duration, or the number of charges, and eventually grant other bonuses.

Armors, Blocking, Force Shield and Life Leech: survive in Wolcen

Presently, a player in Wolcen doesn’t really have a choice regarding the way he wants his character to survive in the game. Basically, it’s based on Health, Armor, and a bit of blocking when you have a shield.
We want to extend players’ possibilities when it comes to character survival and resistance, so we gathered and came with a final answer to the question “What choice can you make to survive in Wolcen?”.

Armor types

We have 4 armors with archetypes predisposition: Mage, Rogue, Warrior, and Tank.
For character defense, every piece of these armors will grant you 2 Implicit affixes, one major and one minor.
It can improve the values of All Resistance, Health, and Force Shield.

All resistance: This increases your resistance to all types of damage. Your resistance value is translated into a % of damage reduction.

Force Shield: Previously known as Defense, this is a magical protection that can prevent most types of damage. The Force Shield is represented by a filter above your Health gauge, and each attack sustained by your character diminishes this gauge instead of your health.
When you’re not hit by enemies for a few seconds, your Force Shield regenerates.

However, some DoTs and piercing attacks from creatures will ignore Force Shield protection by default. It can be improved through the Passive Skill Tree with specific nodes.

Health: These are Health points. This is the last chance your character has to avoid death.

Blocking

You can block any direct damage with a shield or with an appropriate Passive Skill Tree node allowing you to block with your weapons.

You will then have two important values regarding blocking:
N% chances to block an attack
N% damage absorbed by blocking

When you block an attack, its damage is reduced by the % damage absorbed by blocking.
If you don’t block an attack, only your Resistance value will intervene to reduce the damage you receive.

Example: If you’re hit for 100 points with an 80% damage block shield, your character will take 20 damage (if you have a Resistance that applies, your damage will be reduced after blocking and you will take less damage).

Life leech

Life Leech will also be possible. It can be found on items, and different life leech options are also provided in various PST sections.
It will offer another way to survive in Wolcen.

Attributes revamp

We want attributes to be useful for more builds and avoid a "one attribute per play style" system. We want to reinforce the class-free direction, and give players a real possibility to choose, while still offering the possibility to build straight-forward archetypes.

In this attribute revamp, we remove the gauge mentioning the attribute efficiency (“weak” “average” “excellent” etc.). This tends to be frustrating for players and remove the call for choices.

There are still 4 attributes in Wolcen: Ferocity, Agility, Wisdom, and Toughness. But with the Beta transition, each will have interesting bonuses for different kinds of builds.

Here is the list of attributes and their respective 2 bonuses:
Ferocity: Critical chances & Health Points regeneration
Agility: Global speed & Dodge
Wisdom: Ailment chances & Ailment Resistance
Toughness: Health Points & All resistance

Your three higher attributes (no matter what they are) will also grant you damage bonuses for all types of damage distributed this way (values still subject to change):
Main: 0.25%/point
Second: 0.10%/point
Third: 0.05%/point

This will allow Toughness to be a valuable attribute as well.

Finally, we will revamp the Character Sheet to improve readability for everyone, especially for theorycrafting use.

That is all for today guys and gals, next week will be a video on the new Beta AST with some new skills shown in exclusivity. Stay tuned!

Useful links :
Wolcen's Official Website
Wolcen's 2019 Roadmap
Wolcen's Official Facebook Page
Wolcen's Twitter page
Wolcen's Instagram Page
Wolcen's Official Discord server
Wolcen's FAQ

Community websites:
German Fan Site : http://www.wolcen-game.de/
French Fan Site : Wolcen France

Jan 18, 2019

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem advancement - Beta and final game

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem - calistaen

[DE translation]
[RU translation]

Hello everyone!

We would like to share with you some advancement on the final game and how are things going in Wolcen Studio at the moment.

I. Status of the Team and current progression

Wolcen Studio now counts 33 employees at the office, and more will be joining us in the next months to reinforce the crew.

Our programming and game design teams are focussed on the Gameplay Beta transition and the revamps needed to finalize the gameplay.

The artists are working on Act II and Act III content.
All the armors are done for the entire game.
The 4 Apocalyptic Forms are fully designed and are going through concept.
The character artists are currently working on pets, including Kickstarter reward pets, validated apocalyptic forms, NPCs, and unique items.

II. Beta advancement

We are progressing well on the Beta, but we have some refactoring to do that might take us some time. Like I told you on the last news, it is important that we finalize these revamps in order to avoid an early wipe. Even if this means that the Beta will arrive later.

Let’s give you a quick overview of some of these revamps:

1. AST revamp

Here is a mockup of the next AST interface.

At the top left, you have a filter that you can use to select types of skills.
On the left, you have the skills your character has learned.
You can drag and drop them at the bottom left, the skills you choose there will be in your action bar.

At the middle top, you have the skill name, its level, and the modifier points you’ve earned and you can use, and a reset button.
Just below that, you have the list of modifiers and their requirements.

On the top right, you will have the description of the skill you selected.
Just below that, you will have the modifiers description and the lore associated with it.

Why these changes?

We were not satisfied with the AST as it was. Offering only two options at each tier seemed restrictive and we wanted to offer more choice to players when it comes to customizing skills.

We’ve come up with this new system to allow that.
The upgrades will no longer be in pairs and each AST option will have its own cost.
You will gain points as you progress with your skills, and you will be able to use them in the AST to activate modifiers.

There can be similar modifiers such as “increase damage” types for each skill.
There also can be combinations that cannot be done for balancing reasons, although we will do our best to avoid that kind of situation as much as possible.

Overall, you will have the possibility to make game-changing combinations and this system will be the object of a great video to show you the possibilities it offers.

2. PST revamp

The PST is also going through big changes and it will most likely be the object of a future video too. It now contains 3 rings, and each one has its own possibilities.

In the Alpha, it was only possible to travel between rings vertically. In the Beta, you will also be able to travel horizontally between the PST sections, which will unlock tons of build possibilities too and will reinforce the class-free aspect of the game. Of course, you will still have the possibility to turn the PST wheel to associate anything you wish with your node entry.

Ring 1:
This is the first step for character orientation and 3 sections will be available for this ring with 15 nodes per ring.

It will focus on the three main attributes and their passive bonuses: Agility, Ferocity, and Wisdom. Toughness remains a primary attribute as well, but it will be spread through this PST section to improve your character’s resistance to various damage.

Ring 2:
This ring is about archetypes and has 6 sections with 15 nodes each:

2 sections related to Agility attribute and Projectile/Rogue orientations.
2 sections related to Ferocity attribute and Berserker/Tank archetypes.
2 sections related to Wisdom attribute and Ailment/Raw damage bonuses for Mage affinities.

Ring 3:
This ring will be about specializations and will offer 12 sections with 10 nodes each. This is where you will find very specific talents such as necromancer types or even paladin types.

At the release of the game, you can expect a Passive Skill Tree with 21 sections and a total of 255 nodes.
Only Ring 1 and Ring 2 will be available for the Beta. Ring 3 will be added for the release of the game.

III. Other progressions

1. Environments

The Corrupted Primordial Architecture is an Act I environment. You will be able to explore it during the Gameplay Beta.

The Valley of Serenity is an Act II environment and will be available at the release of the game.

The Templar Temple is also an Act II environment as well and will be available at the release of the game. This is the environment our team is currently working on:

2. Creatures

There are many creatures from Act I that you didn’t meet yet.

The Demon of Souls is a very dangerous creature that you will meet during the Gameplay Beta as well in the Corrupted Primordial Architecture. You have seen a glimpse of that demon in the enemies archetypes video.

The Alpha Svriir also appears on this video, he’s the strongest Svriir that you can meet, beware of his claws and his breath attacks.

Finally, the Lantern Bearer is also a creature related to the Cult of Souls and is very resistant, he can drain your character’s life and uses frost damage.

That is all for today guys and gals, thank you for your support and see you soon for a new video!

Useful links :
Wolcen's Official Website
Wolcen's Official Facebook Page
Wolcen's Twitter page
Wolcen's Instagram Page
Wolcen's Official Discord server
Wolcen's FAQ

Community websites:
German Fan Site : http://www.wolcen-game.de/
French Fan Site : Wolcen France

Dec 5, 2018

Tech Beta 2.3 : bug fix, new unique, new creature, new skills!

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem - calistaen

[DE translation]
[RU translation]

Hello everyone!

We’re extending the Technical Beta: Phase 2 for a week to add some features and fix issues, the servers for TB2 will now be available until December 13th.

Mark of Impurity is a rogue skill and the revision of Death mark from the Alpha. It allows you to mark an enemy, making him more vulnerable to your attacks and allowing you, through the Active Skill Tree, to trigger chain reactions.

Sovereign Shout is a warrior skill that allows you to buff yourself and your friends, improving your attack and spell casting speed. Through the AST, other options are available, such as weakening other enemies, or gain armor.

We’ve added a unique staff for mages as well. Chrono Cell allows you to put your foes in stasis, reducing their movement speed.

Finally, we’re proud to introduce the Mother of Svriirs, called Svriir Beta Spawner. Her specialist abilities allow her to make svriir appear around you and she can provide a buff to all nearby enemies.

CHANGELOG

GAMEPLAY
New skill: Mark of Impurity.
New skill: Sovereign Shout.
Fixed a bug where the Player could use a Movement Skill while transitioning between areas
Fixed a bug where using the "ForceStandStill" command with a "Gun-Melee" weapon configuration did not trigger a ranged attack
Negative quality tiers "broken" and "used" have been removed.
New Enemy: Svriir Beta Spawner
Destroyables now loot less items
Specialist creatures drop more items
Chests now loot more items
Creatures have more Health Points
The amount of experience to gain levels has been slightly increased

NETWORK
Fix a bug where you could buy the same item multiple times due to Network latency.

USER INTERFACE
Increased the screen clickable area near the bottom UI elements.

USER EXPERIENCE
Reset targeting Lock-on on monsters casting a Death-Skill

LOCALIZATION
Spanish and Turkish languages can now be selected in the menu, many thanks to Idtime and Yelje for their work on these two languages!
Updated German, Russian, Finnish, and Japanese language files