Apr 6, 2022
The Slormancer - Ashmore[The Slormancer]
Hello everyone!
First and foremost, the Mage Academy Update Part.2 will be released on April 18, 2022.
We're pretty much done with what we wanted to add for this update. We'll try to sneak in a couple more changes and reworks during the remaining days of this week and use one additional week to polish things out and remove as many bugs as possible.
Since we've been reworking the early part of the game, we want to be extra cautious with what we offer to brand new players and make sure there are absolutely no bugs or unintended behaviours.
Now that all dialogues and missions have been written, we can talk about the details of The Mage Academy, without revealing too much of course.
The next part of the story will take place in the Mage Academy, where you will have to find the Destroyer of Indestructible and Unbreakable Seals that Olorin, the Archmage, uses as a paperweight.
To get to it, you will have to face students, teachers and other weird creatures now under the control of Ohm Agad.
Students in the Mage Academy are divided into 4 Houses: Arcaiman, Temppopotamus, Oblitelican and Necromanchovy (you might be familiar with the idea).
We tried to add diversity by recoloring clothes and other parts of enemies (even from older ones) depending on where you are in the Academy.
If you are in a common room such as the Great Hall, then you will meet students from all houses, but if you are in say, the Arcaiman dormitory, then you will only encounter Arcaiman students.
We've also tried to work on a different ambiant lighting for every house so you can feel different ambiances.
The Great Hall
Arcaiman's Dormitory
The Mage Academy includes a boss fight against Alarin, Olorin's Evil Twin!
You can also read our previous Slormite Chronicle to get more information about The Mage Academy.
So we've been taking the time to rework most missions and the overall pace of the early game:
We've greatly increased the diversity of enemies that you can find in Act 1 (from 4 to 12), we've reduced the size of the larger maps while increasing the density of enemies when possible. We also tried to create more interesting yet approachable fights and compositions.
We've also added Named Elites and Exalted Breaches throughout Act 1.
Regarding pacing, we've reduced the evolution level of Adam Nostrus' Reaper (the base reaper), from level 36 to level 8, so players are introduced to the evolution mechanic much sooner.
We've also forced the loot of specific Slorm Reapers at key points during the history. These are different based on the class you are playing. Again, we want to make sure the "Slorm Reaper loot" mechanic is properly introduced to new players, in an exciting fashion.
We've also changed the 2 missions in Act 1 that let you unlock new classes: These can now be accessed much sooner (after the second mission), and are no longer mandatory, so you can unlock missing classes whenever you feel like it.
All these changes should make Act 1 more dense and interesting.
We also plan to keep improving new player experience and pacing of new mechanics over the duration of Early Access.
That's about it for now!
Oh, and in case you didn't read the very first line and jumped to the end of the article: The Mage Academy Update Part.2 will be released on April 18, 2022.
Cheers!
First and foremost, the Mage Academy Update Part.2 will be released on April 18, 2022.
We're pretty much done with what we wanted to add for this update. We'll try to sneak in a couple more changes and reworks during the remaining days of this week and use one additional week to polish things out and remove as many bugs as possible.
Since we've been reworking the early part of the game, we want to be extra cautious with what we offer to brand new players and make sure there are absolutely no bugs or unintended behaviours.
Act 3: The Mage Academy
Now that all dialogues and missions have been written, we can talk about the details of The Mage Academy, without revealing too much of course.
The next part of the story will take place in the Mage Academy, where you will have to find the Destroyer of Indestructible and Unbreakable Seals that Olorin, the Archmage, uses as a paperweight.
To get to it, you will have to face students, teachers and other weird creatures now under the control of Ohm Agad.
Students in the Mage Academy are divided into 4 Houses: Arcaiman, Temppopotamus, Oblitelican and Necromanchovy (you might be familiar with the idea).
We tried to add diversity by recoloring clothes and other parts of enemies (even from older ones) depending on where you are in the Academy.
If you are in a common room such as the Great Hall, then you will meet students from all houses, but if you are in say, the Arcaiman dormitory, then you will only encounter Arcaiman students.
We've also tried to work on a different ambiant lighting for every house so you can feel different ambiances.
The Great Hall
Arcaiman's Dormitory
The Mage Academy includes a boss fight against Alarin, Olorin's Evil Twin!
You can also read our previous Slormite Chronicle to get more information about The Mage Academy.
Act 1: Rework
The Slormancer slowly reveals its features and richness over the course of the first dozen of hours. Unfortunately, a significant number of players simply does not get to this point and simply stops in the middle of Act 1. To most, Act 1 is boring and repetitive, which is a big issue for us.So we've been taking the time to rework most missions and the overall pace of the early game:
We've greatly increased the diversity of enemies that you can find in Act 1 (from 4 to 12), we've reduced the size of the larger maps while increasing the density of enemies when possible. We also tried to create more interesting yet approachable fights and compositions.
We've also added Named Elites and Exalted Breaches throughout Act 1.
Regarding pacing, we've reduced the evolution level of Adam Nostrus' Reaper (the base reaper), from level 36 to level 8, so players are introduced to the evolution mechanic much sooner.
We've also forced the loot of specific Slorm Reapers at key points during the history. These are different based on the class you are playing. Again, we want to make sure the "Slorm Reaper loot" mechanic is properly introduced to new players, in an exciting fashion.
We've also changed the 2 missions in Act 1 that let you unlock new classes: These can now be accessed much sooner (after the second mission), and are no longer mandatory, so you can unlock missing classes whenever you feel like it.
All these changes should make Act 1 more dense and interesting.
We also plan to keep improving new player experience and pacing of new mechanics over the duration of Early Access.
That's about it for now!
Oh, and in case you didn't read the very first line and jumped to the end of the article: The Mage Academy Update Part.2 will be released on April 18, 2022.
Cheers!
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