[Background Blog] Astatos - Story Trials Update

Hey Patrons,

Compymono here! Between my regular work and 3 product launches at Pawprint Press this month I've run a little behind on our update schedule for Astatos, but I wanted to give everyone a rundown on where we're at.

As mentioned in our Steam news post at the start of this month, our next update is going to feature a big revision of Chapter I of the story along with Story Trial gameplay.

Over the past few months I've been working on implementing a lot of the new content for this update! Due to the breadth of content I'll split this blog between story and gameplay sections.

Story
Things to be expected from the story revision: 

• Sprites for the named side characters.
• Added new music.
• Rebalanced the audio volume.
• Added new backgrounds.
• Writing polish.
• Scene scripting polish.

As the scripting tools for Astatos were developed alongside the story mode, some earlier scenes didn't take advantage of functions added later. Additionally, I've taken the chance to add some new scripting functions such as a character cut-in.

The character cut-in allows us display characters who are speaking at a distance. This should really improve a certain selection of scenes where characters aren't visible for an extended period of time.

Additionally, two extra scenes have been added to Chapter I:

• (Cerkles) The Art of Benevolence .5 — Blood from the Stone
• (Zermes) Pro Bono Publico .5 — Vive Ut Vivas

All the above additions are finished and content complete! The only step remaining is for the text to be revised in the Chinese language version of the game.

Gameplay
Things to be expected from the gameplay updates:

• Trial/Card Gameplay introduced into story mode.
• Roughly 22 individual Trials (36 including side variations) for Chapter 0 and Chapter I.
• Over 2,000 lines of scripted dialogue.

Even before release, we knew that getting the story gameplay in wouldn't be an easy task. Last year we solved many technical challenges including:

• PvE battles against AI opponents, introduced as Training Trials.
• The ability for Trials to work offline, introduced in the playable tutorial.
• The in-Trial scripting system, also introduced in the playable tutorial.

With those challenges solved, it became feasible to begin considering story trials at the beginning of this year.

Working with the writers—Tao and George—I planned out the requirements and structure for the text needed in each Trial. Since it's been some time since the original scenes were written, we had to pay extra attention to ensure everything filled the gaps in the original scenes.

Trials not only have variations based on your choices in the game, but also your actions within each Trial! Considering this, I wouldn't be surprised if the raw word count of the Story Mode has increased by 15-25% after this update. Although, the average player will see less than half of this in a single playthough.

Currently, the majority of text for the Trials are complete, however I still need to finish the Trials within Chapter 0 as they're mostly tutorials!

Next up is the gameplay itself! The story will feature a new game mode tentatively called "Rogue Trial". This mode was originally slated to be implemented after the release of Chapter II as PvE content, but I've moved it forward for reasons I'll get into later.

The base gameplay of a Rogue Trial is as follows:

• Based on the mechanics of Takeover Trials, including the same Hero Ability balance, Disparity, and Exchange.
• Influence becomes a standard HP system. Your Influence is independent of your opponent, and you win when your opponent's Influence reaches 0.
• AP is your Argument Power. You deal damage equal to your AP each time you activate a Hero Ability.
• RP is your Reputation Power. You regenerate HP equal to your RP each time you pass the Trial Stage.

Please note that the above mechanics and screenshot are both a work in progress! In particular, the UI graphics for the mode have yet to be finalised.

Even at this early stage, I feel that Rogue Trials are better fit for the Story Mode and give me more options to create engaging content.

At first, I was hoping to implement Takeover Trials in the story, however I eventually ruled this out due to a few reasons:

• Chapter I of Astatos limits me to including Hero Pack 0 and Sulpicius from Hero Pack I. In a few scenarios, less than 6 Hero Cards are available to be used! Ideally, Takeover Trials are at their best when you're using 12-14 Hero Cards!
• Without introducing additional Hero Cards, Spells, Disparity Actions, or other new mechanics it can be difficult to create varied scenarios.
• Takeover Trials aren't as fun against bot opponents, even when they talk back!

As you may have guessed from the name "Rogue Trials" were intended to be a part of a wider system of RNG special abilities, power enhancements, and deck building. Although those parts will have to wait for a later day as I'm focusing on implementing the core features of the game mode and getting this new update in player's hands!

I'm still working hard on the gameplay portion of this update, so I hope everyone can wait a little longer while I work out the kinks over the next month! Thanks for all your support, Patrons!

- Compymono