Upcoming Expansion?

[LordGek]

Hey Mr. 4000,

What's all this about an upcoming expansion in August?  Sorry if already already covered in another thread but I'd love to hear what you can share about it at this point...or at least when we might expect some more formal announcement about it.  From what I thought I've gathered so far, it sounds like the people of the rising sun are coming in as a new faction (as I think we've already seen previews of via some of the current bandits).

If keeping a balance between two factions wasn't tricky enough, sure, toss in a third! 

[nas1m]

Welcome to the forums!
See the attached post below for some more info on what to expect about the upcoming expansion "Nihon no mura":

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2013/06/skyward-collapse-1008-massive-bigness.html

Skyward Collapse: Nihon no mura

Alongside the free updates, we're working on the first paid expansion for the game, as well.  This will be called Skyward Collapse: Nihon no mura.  It adds a new Japanese faction, as well as <a href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/16y5lsKgd4FYgjBjnS3GprYfwO99kNa6Uj4EBE43vEh8/edit#\">hamlets[/url].

The Japanese faction is really exciting because they work so differently from a fundamental premise.  They have fewer human units, but more mythological ones.  Their gods have no direct powers and don't stand around passively, but instead wander around causing trouble -- and summoning mythological creatures unique to them.  Rather than three powers per god, it's three unique creatures.  Very different from the Norse and Greeks!

The design for hamlets is still ongoing, but I'm really excited about how this will extend the game into a civilian direction that can be played alongside the main military showdown.  Lots of things on this still need to be fleshed out, and then lots of playtesting needs to happen before those ideas are truly honed.  But we're expecting to hit public beta for the expansion in July, and then do our full 2.0 release alongside the expansion in early August.

Chris (x4000) already stated that only two factions will be part of any given game, though, so no three-faction-clash...

[LordGek]

Welcome to the forums!
See the attached post below for some more info on what to expect about the upcoming expansion "Nihon no mura":

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2013/06/skyward-collapse-1008-massive-bigness.html

Skyward Collapse: Nihon no mura

Alongside the free updates, we're working on the first paid expansion for the game, as well.  This will be called Skyward Collapse: Nihon no mura.  It adds a new Japanese faction, as well as <a href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/16y5lsKgd4FYgjBjnS3GprYfwO99kNa6Uj4EBE43vEh8/edit#\">hamlets[/url].

The Japanese faction is really exciting because they work so differently from a fundamental premise.  They have fewer human units, but more mythological ones.  Their gods have no direct powers and don't stand around passively, but instead wander around causing trouble -- and summoning mythological creatures unique to them.  Rather than three powers per god, it's three unique creatures.  Very different from the Norse and Greeks!

The design for hamlets is still ongoing, but I'm really excited about how this will extend the game into a civilian direction that can be played alongside the main military showdown.  Lots of things on this still need to be fleshed out, and then lots of playtesting needs to happen before those ideas are truly honed.  But we're expecting to hit public beta for the expansion in July, and then do our full 2.0 release alongside the expansion in early August.

Chris (x4000) already stated that only two factions will be part of any given game, though, so no three-faction-clash...

Oh, okay and fair enough (no threesomes), still looking forward to it. 

[Taisuru]

Wow, as someone who just got the game today, Hamlets sound like exactly what I was feeling the game needed. Something non-military with some personality to them, can't wait.

[LordGek]

So, just trying to get this whole hamlet concept.  They can only spring from killed town centers, but what about the subsidiary blocks?  Could one just sprinkle the map with completely undefended lone town centers to intentionally setup for sprawling hamlets or can even the subsidiary hamlet bits be only built on previous ruins?

[Misery]

So, just trying to get this whole hamlet concept.  They can only spring from killed town centers, but what about the subsidiary blocks?  Could one just sprinkle the map with completely undefended lone town centers to intentionally setup for sprawling hamlets or can even the subsidiary hamlet bits be only built on previous ruins?

If I remember correctly from the design notes, each individual building in a hamlet requires a destroyed building tile to spawn on, so if you had JUST a town center, you'd get just one hamlet piece, if that, which likely would do nothing on it's own.

That's not to say that there wont be strategies to intentionally create them though.  If you can spare the AP you could perhaps create a town that's nothing but super-cheap resource buildings like wood/rock producers, and then drop a couple of myth units on them or route some siege units to them.

[x4000]

Yep -- the hamlets design has changed a fair bit from the original design doc, just FYI.  The premise of where those get placed is the same, but the manner in which the hamlets are placed and managed is a lot more straightfoward (no RCI-style bars on each building).  We'll see how well that works in practice, as it may need some iterations.  As part of that I will also be adding a Hamlets Mode to the game, which lets you play with just hamlets and not the rest of the normal game.  That should be pretty fun in its own right, as well as useful for focused testing of just that subset of features.