All right folks! The new poll is up for the final selection
www.patreon.com/posts/epic-booster-now-19619960At the end of May, your support on Patreon engaged the Epic Booster goal as we crossed the $500/month milestone. From there, you voted to select Heroes of Steel as the game that should receive the epic booster. Then, we held a two week call for ideas to pull together the best 6 ideas for additions or upgrades to Heroes!
Now, it is time to make the final selection. The following 6 options are described in detail below with art to accompany those where it is possible. Please ask any questions you have to clarify.
We will keep the poll open for just over 7 days. You get one vote.
Please note -- the work to add the Epic Booster will not be prioritized above finishing the game's Episode 4 story arc. We are getting closer each week completing that story expansion and releasing it. Once it is published, then our weekly Heroes time will be dedicated to delivering on the booster
Gods and Villains RedrawThe portrait art for Heroes has been created over a 5 year time frame. Many of the original gods and villains are old and dated compared to the important characters appearing in Episode 3 or 4. In total, there are 9 seminal characters who would be redone to match the quality of Ravenna and the Crone. The full list includes spoilers but is as follows: Groth, Rabiel, Ryethin, Seer Lords, name redacted, Tevensa, Vurnak, Evesse, Cortias. Draft art would be shared along the way with all patrons and no additional polls would be required.
Hero Character RedrawThe full-body character art for Heroes has been created over a 5 year time frame. Four of the heroes are still using the very original art from their first release. Selen, Vincent, Kjartan and Kyera would each get redone to match the quality of the new Vraes and Tamilin. Fyona and Kincaid would get slight touch ups. This would also drive updates to the dialog portraits used for all the characters. Draft art would be shared along the way with all patrons and no additional polls would be required.
Hero Sprite RedrawThe sprites for the game’s heroes were mostly developed over a 5 year time frame. While every character can wear two types of armor, only Fyona and Vraes’ sprite responded to the change. While there is only so much we can do at the small resolution and from the top-down perspective, we would give all 8 heroes a sprite upgrade, create variations for their different armor types and improve their animations. Draft art would be shared along the way with all patrons and no additional polls would be required.
Tileset RedoThe tilesets for the game’s maps were mostly developed over 5 years ago. In the sprawling Underdeep and even on the surface, tile variation is limited. While there is only so much w can do at small resolution of the tiles (64x64) and the top-down perspective, we would work on creation differences between the four major regions of the world (western, eastern, glacier/north, surface). There are over 180 dungeon and town maps in the game, and we cannot sign up to rebuild these maps, but we would improve the quality of the tiles used in them. The cities of Riven Field (western) and Brunehorn would have stylistically different buildings. While there would still be rough cavern walls in all 4 regions, they would have different appearance. Draft art would be shared along the way with all patrons and no additional polls would be required.
New HeroThe 8 heroes allow for 16 possible group compositions, and with all the possible Talent builds there are hundreds if not thousands of ways to approach the game. Adding a new hero would increase the combination count to 24 and greatly expand the possible ways to play and enjoy the game’s story. If this booster is chosen, we would hold a series of call for ideas and polls to determine the character slot (warrior, mage, healer, sneak), theme (ice-rogue, monk, druid) and even Talents and weapon choices. Draft art would be shared along the way with all patrons and multiple additional polls would be required.
To be specific, adding a new hero would include:
- 10 new Talents include at least one new combat mechanic that does not exist in the game (examples include damage-over-time, blink movements, etc) but this would be decided by patron vote. Out of scope examples would be summoning or taking control of enemy monsters.
- All the required new art
- Dialog variations equivalent to the other hero in the class (if Tami has a special line, then a new sneak would have a special line)
- A new legendary item and short story arc to accompany it
Epic TalentsAn original stretch goal of the KickStarter was to add “Honor Classes” which would be significant branches in each character’s progression. While we cannot implement the entire original plan, we could greatly increase the Talent variety of play with new Epic level Talents. Each hero would gain 2 new Talent options at level 24. These Talents would be marked in a special way so that it was clear that they are exclusive -- your hero can either train in one or the other but not both. You could Respec from one to the other if you pleased. If this booster is chosen, we would hold a series of call for ideas and polls to determine the honor classes for each hero. Draft art would be shared along the way with all patrons and multiple additional polls would be required.
To be specific, adding epic talents would include:
- 16 new Epic Talents across the game (2 per hero) accessible at level 24
- In order to immediately try out these new Talents, every hero would gain a new Talent point at level 24
- We would add at maximum 2 new combat mechanics that do not exist to the game. (examples include damage-over-time, blink movements, etc) but this would be decided by patron vote. Out of scope examples would be summoning or taking control of enemy monsters. All other Talents would fit in as a variation on the existing abilities but tuned to a specific character.
- Some potential concepts -- Vincent could gain “Icestorm” which has similarities to Firestorm but carries a powerful debuff or Vincent could gain “Never Strike Twice” which is a Juggernaut-like (buff-on-kill) Talent for melee. Vraes could gain “Behemoth” which is a Sure Parry like ability that auto-soaks up 50% of damage from the first X hits from enemies before armor soak is applied or could gain “Pure Fury” an expensive, short-term buff that increases with power with each kill.
- Out of scope is adding new weapons -- so Vraes cannot get a Throwing Ax ability, etc.
