Wartales – The Compendium and Preview

The latest developer blog for Shiro Games’ upcoming mercenary RPG Wartales is dedicated to the game’s Compendium where you’ll find all your recipes, plans and discoveries, as well as the Knowledge points you’ll use to unlock all those things. Check it out:

Attention Mercenaries!

Welcome to this weeks Q&A with the wartales devs!

Today, Quentin talks all about the all encompassing Compendium of Wartales, giving us insight into how it will impact your troop, their belongings, the bonuses it provides while also delving into why Knowledge points are going to play a huge role in how you approach and progress through the game…

Read on to find out more!

What is the Compendium?

“In Wartales, all of the game’s learnings are stored in the Compendium and divided into numerous categories. The idea is that any item that can offer different apprenticeships will have an entry in the Compendium. So in the Forge category you will be able to see all the plans you have learned and those you have yet to learn, and in the Discoveries category you will find small advantages such as permanent bonuses to happiness or darker knowledge (such as the obscure culinary art of cannibalism).

By the way, there are several ways to unlock new learnings in the game: by spending Knowledge points, by obtaining an item that contains the recipe in question, by completing certain missions in the world and many other ways… You will have to be patient to acquire all the recipes in all the categories!”

You mentioned “Knowledge” there, what is this?

“In Wartales, Knowledge is the sum of all the learnings that your group acquires throughout its travels. You gain Knowledge points that you will spend to learn new recipes or unlock game mechanics. And there are many ways to get them.

The first is exploration. By exploring new places, interacting with new people and discovering new rituals and cultures, you will acquire Knowledge points. Secondly, you will have the opportunity to read certain books such as war chronicles, scientific treatises, learning manuals and other historical, fictional or educational books. Designing newly discovered objects, transcribing world stelae, studying tomb paintings, hanging out in libraries or spending time studying in your Camp: all generate Knowledge.”

How can I spend Knowledge?

“To spend your Knowledge, you simply open your Compendium and choose which recipe you want to learn. The advantage of this system is that you have a real choice for each Knowledge point you get. Indeed, Knowledge is common to all categories of the Compendium: for example, you have just read a sumptuous article on the mushroom beds of the Harag forests, which has increased your Knowledge. You hesitate to learn how to make wolf sausages but you prefer to develop your climbing skills. You spend your point and have just learned how to make pitons that will allow you to mark out your exploration by creating shortcut points at the cliffs. Maybe this skill will allow you to reach some hidden places… Finally, you can always choose to save your points in order to learn more expensive recipes.”

Then, you might be interested in this recent PCGamesN preview that likens the game to Overhype Studios’ Battle Brothers. A quick excerpt:

Combat is turn-based and straightforward. You’ll select starting positions for each unit, then use action points to move and perform attacks and other battlefield feats. Your characters’ skills are tied to the equipment they’re using – holding a bow might enable a vicious shot, while a dagger could be used to ‘stab’ or be dipped in poison. The skills available to a character will change when you give them new gear, and will depend on the quality of the gear you’ve picked out for them. Injuries are important to keep track of, and if left untreated they can severely impair characters’ fighting ability – suffering a concussion, for instance, might cut a mercenary’s constitution in half until he’s seen to.

“The characters are basically designed as classical tabletop character sheets, you have six different attributes that you can level up however you want,” Briatta explains. “Whenever you reach a big step – level 3, level 5, level 7, or level 9 – you have to choose between specialisations.”