[Background Blog] Astatos - Journey to Irinipolis Update Preview

Hey Patons,

Compymono here again! I wanted to give everyone a little look into some of the progress behind our next major update for Astatos releasing next week. (Hopefully!)

Since our last blog, I’ve been hard at work fleshing out the story trial content and finalising the gameplay for the public release.

First thing to mention is that the “Rogue Trial” mode has been finalised, including a few mechanics changes since we last discussed it.

The base gameplay of a Story 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 based on your AP.
• RP is your Reputation Power. You heal Influence based on your RP.
• In addition to their Ability, heroes may also have an AP or RP value. When activating that Hero Ability, you deal damage, or heal based upon your AP/RP plus your Hero’s AP/RP.

The key difference since the last time this was discussed is the division of AP and RP between the player and their Hero Cards. This deepens the strategic options the player has, along with making every action feel more deliberate.

In particular, this change originated from my observations from playing the previous version. In the previous version the player would regenerate health whenever they passed the Trial Stage. In practice, this caused the Trials to drag on longer than necessary, and it didn’t feel good watching your opponent regenerate a lot of health while also gaining Energy.

While the responses on the new gameplay mode have been very positive in internal playtesting, I’ll be eagerly looking forward to seeing how players react when they get their hands on it!

In addition to the new gameplay mechanics, I also implemented several new Hero Cards uniquely for the story. Due to the scenario design of the story mode, there isn’t much Hero Card variety when you consider the characters within Chapter I. This meant I needed to get creative in crafting a variety of scenarios that the player will experience.

This resulted in the development of 8 Hero Cards for the various side characters you encounter throughout the story.

• Janus: Draw 2 Spell Cards from the deck.
• High Priest: Gain 1 Energy.
• Thinnest: The Thinnest gains all Energy held by Heroes on your opponent’s side.
• Tallest: Draw 1 Card per Energy held on by Heroes on your side. This Energy is consumed.
• Broadest: Gain 1 Energy whenever a Hero is turned to your side. (Passive)
• Strongest: Selects a random Hero from your opponent and turns them to your side.
• Reece: Draw 1 Card for every Hero Card on your side. (Including Reece)
• Legatus: Convert all the Cards in your hand into Energy.

Since this is for single player, I was able to create both some basic abilities for new players, and challenging ones that would be unfair in a multiplayer game. While you may not spend much time with them in practice, I wanted to ensure related characters would synergise with each other. (But who knows, perhaps a few of these characters will make their reappearance in Chapter II)

With the gameplay sorted, I was able to begin working on the tutorials featured during the prologue sequence of the game (Ab Initio). Due to the tight scenario constraints and technical knowledge required, I handled all the design, story writing, and implementation of these on my own. While I think some details could be improved a little more, it felt really great finally being able to complete this part of the game.

I’ve also been able to work on a few other quality of life features Such as a UI element indicating the activation order of Hero Abilities, and the introduction of a colour-blind assist mode.

Although it’s been a monumental task, I’m really looking forward to getting this update out there! It really brings us one step closer to fulfilling the vision we had for the game, and we’ll be poised to create lots of new content faster from here on out!

Thank you for all your support, Patrons!

- Compymono