Jul 29, 2022

Total War: WARHAMMER III – Addressing the Chaos Debate

Total War: WARHAMMER III - CA Evangelos

Hello Total War: WARHAMMER fans! Over the past few weeks, months, and even YEARS, there's been a healthy debate within the community as to how we approach the implementation of certain races in the Total War: WARHAMMER games. Nowhere has that been more apparent than the split between the Warriors of Chaos, the Daemons of Chaos, and the “Monogod” races (Tzeentch, Slaanesh, Khorne, and Nurgle).

With that discussion rising to the forefront following the reveal of the Champions of Chaos, we wanted to take a moment to sit down with our design team and get their thoughts on the process behind it. So today, we’re here to provide you with a clear picture of what, why, and how we’ve split the Lords of Chaos, as well as the role it will play in our forthcoming DLC!

(You ready for a super deep dive? Let’s go!)

CHAOS Q&A

WHY ARE THE FOUR NEW LEGENDARY LORDS CONSIDERED "WARRIORS OF CHAOS?"

With this being the first Warriors of Chaos Lords Pack since 2015, we wanted to reintroduce this iconic race in a way that was befitting of their infamous world-ending reputation. To that end, introducing four Legendary Lords—each of whom is aligned with one of the four Chaos Gods—was a flavorful way to start, particularly given that we already have two Undivided Lords in the form of Archaon and Kholek.

Beyond the flavor that each Champion could bring to this Lord’s Pack, we found that several design elements aligned exceptionally well with the revamped Warriors of Chaos mechanics. For instance, the vision for Azazel was that he’s been sent out into the world to find and lure promising Undivided champions into devoting themselves to Slaanesh. He’s basically an evil talent scout—a role implied as far back as Morkar the Uniter, who may have been persuaded along his path to become the first Everchosen way back in the days of Sigmar.

For some characters, it would have been very hard to find a niche for them in the Monogods roster. Festus is a good example here; he’s a durable Lore of Nurgle spellcaster who’s a master of brewing plagues...but how do you make him interesting alongside Ku’gath, who’s better at all those things in addition to throwing exploding Nurglings? The answer: put Festus in the Warriors and you’ve *immediately* got a combination of features that’s entirely unique!

Finally, this approach allowed us to push the quality of the pack far higher than we could have otherwise. Having the whole team laser-focused on a shared feature-set meant that every single playtest, improvement, and bug fix benefited all the characters rather than one.

It needs to be stressed, though, that even in this context, our goal was to create four Warriors of Chaos experiences that feel like Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch—much in the same way that Wulfhart and the new Volkmar feel like Empire factions even though they don’t share the same mechanics as Karl Franz. These are true hybrids: drawing a ton of flavour and gameplay from their relevant Dark God. They’ll be fully capable of running armies that will look very much like the ones you’d see when playing as the relevant God-specific race...but with Dragon Ogres!

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE THE ‘MONOGOD’ RACES OF KHORNE, SLAANESH, NURGLE, AND TZEENTCH?

It’s important to state: the new DLC characters existing within the Warriors of Chaos race DOES NOT prevent us from adding mortal characters to the Monogod rosters.

This is something we confront on a DLC-by-DLC basis. In some instances, mortal characters might fit better alongside a Daemon-focused roster or the Monogod mechanics; in others, the roster might end up with wildly different, bespoke feature-sets more appropriate to the given faction. Don’t worry; there are plenty of exciting characters who will be joining the Monogods in the future....

It’s also worth stressing that this pack will still massively transform the Monogod playstyle. In some cases, their rosters are almost doubling in size, with each God gaining a new hero and two lords to lead their armies, topped off by the ability to convert Mortal Lords into Daemon Princes. Even older heroes are getting updated: with Cultists now riding the new Warshrines into battle as mounts. Combined with a ton of balance changes and the new Immortal Empires starting positions, we’re pretty sure the Monogods will offer a ton of fresh, new experiences.

WHY ARE THERE TWO SLAANESH LEGENDARY LORDS IN THE WARRIORS OF CHAOS?

With hindsight, everything is much clearer...

It's fair to say that if Sigvald hadn’t already been in the game since 2016, he would have (undoubtedly) been the Slaanesh Champion in Azazel’s place. Beyond that, we wanted to ensure that all four of the Dark Gods had representation within this pack in order to provide you with a larger variety of Legendary Lords to play at launch. Plus, we really like the Swiss Army Knife dynamism that Azazel brings to the roster!

Ultimately, our aim has been to ensure that both Slaaneshi Lords offer a distinct playstyle. As Azazel is a Daemon Prince, he has a narrower choice of units to recruit from, solely focusing on Undivided and Slaaneshi units, whilst Sigvald has the potential to branch out into units from all four pantheons and Undivided. That’s not to say you’ll see Sigvald leading armies of screaming Khornate berserkers or festering Nurgle-worshipers: due to the Dark Authority system (see below) Sigvald’s own personal retinue will maintain a distinctly Slaanesh flavour and he’ll need to do some delegation to others to efficiently maintain units devoted to other Gods. So, even though there’s only one Lord in the Slaanesh race, you’ve got three *very* different ways to play a Slaanesh-themed campaign.

HOW DO THE UNIT ROSTERS WORK IN A CAMPAIGN?

While the Warriors of Chaos can eventually access a truly vast array of mortal and daemonic units, it’s not just a case of constructing specific buildings and spewing out multicoloured units... Much like the lore, you’ll have to work hard to amass the forces of multiple Gods, and certain characters will find it easier (or more difficult) than others.

Every unit in the roster is treated as either a “Warband” unit or a “Gifted” unit. Warband units are your bread and butter: consisting of Mortal humans as well as the bulk of the Undivided monstrous units. Almost all of them can be “Marked”—an act that devotes them to a specific God and turns them into a new unit with new visuals, stats, and even new voice lines—though you can’t necessarily Mark a unit right from the start.

Gifted units are primarily Daemons accompanied by a few specialist, non-Daemonic units—such as Hellcannons and Shaggoths—and are recruited by spending Souls on Chaos Gifts (hence the name) or via certain special events. The catch? There’s a cap on the number of these “Gifted” units you can have in any given army; that is, unless you’re Be’lakor, who can recruit as many as he likes! Like Marks, these options aren’t necessarily available from the very start of your Campaign.

In fact, the specific conditions for unlocking these options is one of the key ways we’re differentiating the individual factions. For example:

Be’lakor can recruit a whole bunch of Gifted units from Turn 1 onward, but must unlock the ability to Mark mortals in his skill tree.
Sigvald can recruit Slaanesh mortals and Daemons from Turn 1 onward, but must wait to unlock other God’s forces. (Though he might struggle to keep Khornate units in check...)
Archaon can unlock the ability to recruit God-specific units and is best-suited to access and lead forces that mix-and-match with a bit of everything.
Kholek will have the hardest time getting access to God-specific units, but has easier access to Dragon Ogres and Dragon Ogre Shaggoths.

On top of these special conditions, a “Dark Authority” system restricts which units you can include in any given army. God-specific units won’t simply follow anyone... For example, if you want Nurgle followers or Daemons in your army, you’ll need a Nurgle lord or hero in the army to keep them in line; otherwise they’ll suffer from increased upkeep and reduced replenishment. And if you try and put Khorne units in an army with Slaanesh characters or (Gods forbid) a wizard, you’ll need to make sure there’s a proper Khornate character present to balance things out. We really want to sell the idea that these “Warbands” are perilous coalitions of rivals, forcing you (the player) to think carefully about how you organize your armies.

WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT THE NEW DLC LORDS?

Comparatively, the four new DLC Lords are almost akin to a sub-race within the Warriors: Lords who are more closely aligned to their specific God, and thus limited in their access to the full suite of Marked units in lieu of their patron God’s specific units alongside the Undivided. To accommodate this sacrifice, they instead gain a variety of specialist advantages:

They can start Marking Mortals and recruiting Daemons from Turn 1 and will find it both easier and cheaper to do so.
They share a uniquely structured tech tree—about half of which is built for their particular faction—that allows for more specialization in God-specific units and mechanics.
They spread (and benefit more from) their own God’s corruption, but are actively penalized by the corruption of an opposing God.
They get access to their God’s battle mechanics and army abilities.
They each get versions of certain Campaign features belonging to the main Daemon faction; for example: Festus can brew and spread plagues, but they have slightly different effects to Ku’gath’s.

There’s also a ton of other variations we’ve made where appropriate; for example, vassals belonging to the DLC lords will take on certain attributes from their masters: spreading their favoured corruption and gaining thematic bonuses in battle. They’ve even got unique ways to keep their troops in line; Festus, as an example, can get more Nurgle Authority by bestowing his armies with plagues, making it easier for him to put Nurgle troops in Undivided-led forces.

All in all, we’ve tried to make these four Champions feel different from the rest of the Warriors of Chaos. Our dialogue engineers have even gone so far as to ensure that units in these characters’ armies use different voice lines when led by one of the characters; you’ll hear Marauders and Warriors and Chosen in Azazel’s army shouting about their allegiance—not just to Slaanesh, but to Azazel himself!

On top of all that, they also participate in a brand-new Campaign set on the Realms of Chaos map, which offers a dramatic narrative following the main game’s Ursun storyline. It’s a nifty, alternate take on the Rifts system: one with more control in the leadup to a truly epic finale.

WHAT ABOUT CONFEDERATION?

Initially, the team were aiming for Archaon (at minimum) to be able to confederate all the Warriors of Chaos. However, there were some significant technical and balance issues that we were unable to resolve in the time we had to implement the rest of their feature overhauls. Given the technical issues, we were concerned that launching with confederation enabled could jeopardize the core experience of the Warriors of Chaos; as such, we chose to disable the option for the initial release of Immortal Empires.

With that said, we know that this is important to you, and will be looking to enable some form of confederation for the Warriors in a post-release patch. We'll talk more about how we'll aim to accomplish that feat in the future!

COMING SOON!

We hope this offers clarity into our design process and helps you understand where our four newest Legendary Lords are landing in the WARHAMMER III roster! As mentioned before, there’s still room for adjustments and changes, so we look forward to hearing what you think when you get your hands on them this August.

Check back next week for another look at an upcoming Champion, as well as more details about Immortal Empires!

Jul 29, 2022

The Pulse Monthly - 7.0

Scorn - MegnaGaming

Hey everyone,

A lot happened last month, from debuting our new gameplay trailer to showcasing our narrated walkthrough featuring Doug Bradley. Perhaps most exciting, we officially announced that Scorn is launching on October 21st this year! This edition of The Pulse is a great opportunity to answer questions we’ve seen come up. We’ll also cover how development has progressed and what we’re currently working on.

Rated M for Macabre

With great attention to detail, we've focused on building a unique world smothered in a dreaded atmosphere of suffering and despair. After so much time and effort, seeing the community’s widespread excitement has meant a lot to the team.

One of my favourite things as the community manager is reading through all the incredibly nuanced fan theories about what’s happening within Scorn. Perhaps just as exciting are when we share clues just to see who catches the subtle hints.

We've always been intentionally cryptic when discussing the game, and that's because Scorn's atmospheric horror adventure has been crafted with self-reflection and exploration at its core. We can't wait for players to share their understanding and interpretation of the story woven throughout the world.

Questions from the Community

We’ve received some recurring questions over the last few weeks, so while this FAQ is not exhaustive, we hope it at least clears up a few things.

Can you provide more details on the digital art book and OST?
As mentioned in June, both the original soundtrack and the digital art book will be available separately across Steam and the Epic Games Store. The OST contains ~2 hours of Scorn’s mesmerising soundscape, with tracks composed by both Aethek and Lustmord. To give you a small taste of what’s to come, we’ve included one of the tracks for you to listen to here:

The 192-page digital art book peels back the layers of the beautifully grotesque universe of Scorn by showcasing concepts, designs, weapons, creatures, and more. Feast your eyes on some of the pages from the art book below:

I backed the game. When can I expect to receive my incentives?
Once we have confirmation on things such as shipping dates, we’ll let the community know through an announcement here. We’ll honour all backer incentives, but most of these will be closer to launch. I anticipate access to the full game directly on launch (October 21st), but we’ll update you with the specifics as soon as possible. Be sure to keep an eye on the email address you used when backing the game.

Will a hardcover version of the art book be available to purchase?
Yes! The hardcover version contains all the same content found within the 192-page digital book, just in physical form. It’s available for pre-order on Amazon and will begin shipping this December.

Is there any updated information on the OST vinyl?
For those who backed the game, we’re currently working on manufacturing the vinyl with a partner. As mentioned in January, we’re investigating options for distributing the vinyl outside of the Kickstarter incentives and will have more information closer to launch.

How long will a full playthrough take?
The world spans a variety of different environments across various levels. Play times, of course, can vary depending on how long it takes someone to progress through the puzzles, but we estimate it’ll take 6 to 8 hours to complete the game.

What specs are required to run the game at 4K 60FPS?
Please bear in mind this depends on the parameters/settings that you select, but here are our recommended specs:

OS: Windows 10/11
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600／Intel Core i7-8700
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (8 GB)
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 50 GB available space
Additional Notes: SSD (Solid State Drive)

Keep an eye on our Steam store page closer to launch for any updates to the recommended specs!

Will there be a photo mode built into the game?
No, however, our focus is on maximising the immersion players will experience, so our UI design is relatively minimal.

I love the original concepts and designs from the 2014 alpha. Were they completely scrapped, or are they still somewhere in the game?
These original concepts and designs certainly helped form the core pillars of Scorn. Since then, they have been revamped, upgraded, and improved to better reflect the kind of quality we envision for the game’s release in October.

Would you say Scorn is a AAA game?
Not at all; it’s an independent production and a passion project! Although we started with just 4 people and a very small budget, we’ve since grown into what you could consider a AA project.

Development Update

These past few weeks have been exceptionally busy, from completing our most recent milestones to announcing our official launch date. Even so, the team continues to work hard to ensure we stay on track for bringing our vision for Scorn to life. For some more insight into what’s been completed and what we’re focused on next, here’s our latest development update from Ebb Software’s CEO and Creative Director, Ljubomir Peklar:

We’re reaching the final phases of making the game, which also means submitting it to our platform partners to ensure everything is going smoothly across all platforms before release. The team is also focusing more on fleshing out the finer details of the game, including several scenes and scripted moments. As we continue to wrap these up, we’ll have more exciting content to share after Gamescom and leading up to the launch.

This October, we hope to share an unforgettable experience that will speak to horror fans worldwide through stunning visuals, engaging gameplay, and immersive sound design. As always, thank you for reading, and follow our Facebook or Twitter for additional updates and behind-the-scenes content.

Jul 29, 2022

UPDATE NOW LIVE | Goats, Bees, Transport Trailers, Banks and Loans!

Ranch Simulator: Build, Hunt, Farm - James Clements

Hey ranchers!

We've just launched a big content update for Ranch Sim!

Expand your array of livestock with male and female goats. They can breed and give birth to kids (baby goats), and you can also now produce goat's milk and goat's cheese! Diversify your produce by slaughtering goats for meat, ready to sell.

Explore the wilds and you may find bees! Use the bee smoker to calm them down, allowing you to safely approach and put the bees into a frame. Back at your ranch, you can now build a beehive and, using a honey extractor and barrel, produce sweet honey to sell.

We've also added bank loans, which are useful when you're short on cash - take one out by visiting the bank, located next to the car shop. Be careful though, as the bank does charge interest! The bigger the loan, the smaller the interest rate. You have a couple of options for how you wish to pay off your loans too: pay it back at the auto daily rate, or visit the bank to pay it off in full.

Additionally, we've added fuel and animal transport trailers which are purchasable from the hardware store. The animal transport trailers are especially useful for transporting your larger livestock!

Full Patch Notes

New:
- Goats, goat cheese and mold for goat's milk (goat's milk cannot be mixed with cow's milk)
- Bees
- Bee Smoker (used to calm bees to allow them to be handled)
- Hive Frame (used to collect bees from wild nests in trees)
- Wooden Beehive and Honey Extractor, available to build in the blueprints book
- Barrel (used to collect honey from the extractor)
- Bank loans
- Fuel transport trailer
- Animal transport trailer
- Day counter (open the in-game menu to view)
- Glossary addition for goats and bees

Fixes/changes:
- Animals will no longer phase through the large wood gate
- Money limit increased to 10,000,000
- Horse collisions adjusted
- Updated to the latest version of the EOS SDK. This may prompt a one time only pop-up about connecting Epic and Steam accounts. This is optional and can be ignored, unless you want to play cross-play with a user on a different platform.

What's Next?

In September we'll be adding crop/wheat production and harvesting, gardening, a greenhouse and more! These features are based on popular requests from you, the community. We can't wait for you to get your hands on the September update, but, for now, we hope you have a great time with today's content update! Goats and bees await.

Happy ranching!