Legends of Dawn Kickstarter Campaign Update #1, $7125 and Counting

The very first update to the Legends of Dawn Kickstarter campaign is online and ready for your reading pleasure, particularly if you’re looking for more information about the “hardcore” RPG’s combat system. Over $7000 raised so far, and 26 days to go:

Combat is mix of WoW and Diablo. Regular attacks work very similar to Diablo, you click on the monster and your player attacks it. One click per attack. There are cooldowns after each attack, but for most weapons they are very short, half a second or so. Only two-handed, big weapons and ranged weapons such as bows and arrows have noticeable cooldowns. Cooldowns for these weapons are introduced to compensate their increased damage and/or range. Cooldowns are also affected by player’s skills, active spells, other effects such as monster auras etc. Spells work more like WoW spells. Each time you click on the monster, that monster is selected. Click on the spell icon casts that spell toward the monster. This works for missile spells. There are other types of spells, for examples protection spells which work on player and do not require target, or ward spells which create magical wards on the ground beneath the caster.

Skills also play big role in the combat. There are separate skills for all major weapon groups which increase your chance to hit monster. Also, there are (Lore) skills which show how experienced you are to fight creature of specific type (undead, animals, spiders, reptiles etc.). You can use Bestiary panel to search database of creatures you have encountered. As you fight more creatures, you will get more information about them. For example, when you kill single spider, bestiary will show it’s level, health and faith (equivalent to mana). However if you kill 50 spiders, bestiary will display spider’s ability scores, resistance, attack/defense scores, damage and more.

Combat can also be affected by sacrifices. There are shrines of three main gods scattered around the world. When you click on these shrines Sacrifice panel will be opened. You can use it to sacrifice various items (each god requires different type of items, some require food or plants, other requires weapons etc.). Depending on which items you have sacrificed, you will get temporary blessings which help you during combat. For example, if you sacrifice Dagger, you will receive temporary bonus to attack or damage. These bonuses last few minutes and are very useful in defeating major monsters in the game. At the beginning you can sacrifice one item only. However as you sacrifice more and more items, you will get additional options for sacrifice (up to 4 items per sacrifice and multiple blessings at the same time).

It’s worth mentioning that combat is also greatly affected by items you carry (of course 🙂 ). We have implemented crafting system which can be used to create wide range of items. From different armors, helmets, weapons, pants, shields to potions and food. Each time you craft item, there is slight chance that item you create will be magical. More you craft items, bigger that chance is. Magical weapons and armors can have wide variety of bonuses. There are thousands of different weapon and armor variations you can create.

And, in the end, when you find new weapons, armors and other items be careful not to throw them before you have identified them. Certain magical items are unidentified when you find them. Only way to identify such items is to find (identify stone). That’s actually a small shrine usually found in wilderness. Click on that shrine will identify unidentified items in your inventory and allow you to use their full capabilities.