Ash of Gods: Arena Announced

AurumDust’s narrative RPG Ash of Gods: Redemption featured a turn-based combat system that at least some people wanted to take online. And by the looks of it, they will soon be able to do so thanks to Ash of Gods: Arena, a free to play online title that should be launching into Steam Early Access soon. Here’s a trailer that shows off some gameplay:

This Steam announcement shares some additional details:

Hey, folks! It’s been awhile.

As you may know we were busy with console versions of Redemption and a mobile CCG project in Ash of Gods universe but now it is time to move further and to make another announcement.

Ash of Gods: Redemption was released about 2 years ago but we didn’t have the time to finish its multiplayer. A great deal of players were upset about it because they craved to play with friends and fight each other. So we never gave up the idea to make things right one day. And now we’re gonna make it.

We are going to release Ash of Gods: Arena, an online game based on Redemption’s multiplayer, as a Steam Early Access title to improve it over time with your feedback.

So, what can you expect and how it will be different from the original?

There are few reasons behind our decision to make a stand alone title. Since the release of Redemption we received a lot of feedback about the combat, and reviews were mixed. So we’ve decided to change core gameplay, to make it less random, more rewarding, with a great deal of tactical options for a player. But since Redemption’s multiplayer is binded with single-player mode, it is hard to change anything without breaking the whole game.

Another reason to do that is to significantly increase the number of players to let them play against each other, instead of fighting AI. That’s why we’ve decided to release Arena as a free-to-play title. It will allow us to attract more fans of turn-based combats without having them pay for the original game.

As I mentioned before, the game will be released as a Steam Early Access title. This way we can test changes and add new features based on your feedback. On the release it will be a fully functional multiplayer from Redemption with improved drop and stability, and we are going to constantly release new changes over time.

What are we going to change? We’ve carefully considered your feedback and have set our priorities so far towards a few important things.

THE PRIORITY SYSTEM

No more priority for small teams and no asynchronous rounds. At the moment players do not get a lot of benefits for killing an enemy character. On the other hand, the smaller team gets an advantage. We will change this.

NEW RULES FOR THE DECK

Cards should be used as an additional measure, not to take the whole turn. At the moment you can significantly impact the fight and completely change the course of an entire battle with your deck but the most powerful cards are available only in late rounds while the others are too weak to waste your turn on them.

NEW AND REWORKED MECHANICS

We are not satisfied with some of the existing mechanics. For example, stun can be really disappointing at the end of the round, special abilities shouldn’t require health unless it is appropriate—for berserk class, for example. On the other hand, we want to add more possibilities to impact the fight.

Of course, we are going to make even more changes over time. We intend to improve overall combat’s dynamic, add new combat modes, improve clans and UI, balance and loot. And we crave to hear your opinions about it. We’ve managed to build a small but dedicated community with Redemption’s multiplayer and would be very grateful for your feedback and ideas.