Ash of Gods Developer Diary #7

The new Developer Diary for Ash of Gods, a Banner Saga-like RPG slated for a March 2018 release, is focusing on the intricacies of the game’s turn-based tactical combat, its diverse character pool where different characters are going to appeal to different kinds of players, and the unique features that set it apart from The Banner Saga. A few snippets:

THE CHASE FOR UNIQUENESS

I have tried very hard to make the game classes not only attractive to the player, but also unique in comparison with each other. This feature is even more pronounced when the player begins to think through the party development plan, distributing skill points. For example, you can develop Thorn into a powerful AOEher or an excellent support character.

I’m sure when you start playing, you will have your own favorites in the team. Personally, I adore Fisk and Ramlin – I constantly buy and give them the best equipment, despite the fact that they are very unique and are not always effective. If the story suddenly poses the question of “lose a good friend or save Fisk?” – I’ll answer it easily.

Let the favorite characters finish off as many enemies as possible, and with the additional experience they will level up much faster than the rest of the team.

Fisk, who has a weakness for alcohol and has seen things, is in fact a fragile, but very strong damage dealer. If you are not careful with him, in the later stages of the game this spearman may well be killed by one powerful shot.

Some of my colleagues do not like Fisk for his low survival rate (and even by leveling up you will not be able to raise his health very soon), but in skillful hands he can work miracles.

For this character the turn order is very important. Due to the possibility of increasing his own protection, well-equipped and properly leveld up Fisk can sometimes even tank.

Ramlin is a support character. He had some witchcraft skills from his grandmother and in battle he can strengthen your party members for the duration of the battle. Many people are immediately deterred by his ridiculous attack value of one. But if you develop your strategy, based on the presence of Ramlin in the party, you can achieve impressive results.

A lot of the skills in the game are calculated from the character’s attack value: for example, Thorn’s defence depends on his attack value.

Ramlin can significantly increase the attack of another character – and then their abilities start to get out of control and become deadly. Also he can take the attack points from his party members and then steal a lot of energy from the enemies.

[…]

CRAZY SYSTEM

Even before I’ve joined the team pretty bold foundations were laid for the combat system: for example, the ability to almost infinitly raise the character’s attack in combat without restrictions or diminishes. Or heling, which in our game is not traditional, the one everyone is used to, but is, in fact, a health buff.

So, when healing a completely healthy character, you increase the amount of his health and there are no limits for this. On one hand, it makes possible the use of cheesy strategies, on the other – adds lots of fun to the game and plenty of room for experimentation.

Choosing between the correct mathematical methods of calculations for strict balance and fun, we took the side of the latter – and I’m scared to think of what some ingenious players will be able to create on the release with the opportunities that we give them.

Imagine that you take two clerics aside and buff your tank – already pretty fat – with health, and then watch the vain attempts of the computer to kill this mammoth.