Fantasy Friday - The Online Kingdom Factions

[Alex Walz]

FANTASY FRIDAY
2011

Hey all! On behalf of the team, I'd like to wish you all a happy New Years and to thank you for your support over the past year+ that keeps us all going strong! We have a ton of stuff planned leading up to release - and January, in particular, will be a very busy month.

Now, let's reign in the new year with a bang, shall we? We thought you guys might like another batch of fantasy-filled Fridays and therefore, we will be showing you some new media every Friday until release! These "Fantasy Fridays" will be a bit different from the former FFs and some topics may overlap to show the changes in development, but we still have a ton of new features to show off and hope that you'll check back every Friday!

To start with, we'd like to show some of our newer fans what's currently being seen in the beta. With the recent release of beta 4.3, players were introduced to the primary Online Kingdom MMORTS game mode. While it's only a limited version of the full mode, testers can choose their race and homeland, build up a stronghold and economy, complete some early quests, travel the World Map, visit/siege other towns, and chat with other testers.

And for our beta testers, we hope you're all enjoying the game! We hope you're looking forward to seeing the number of NPC strongholds doubled, field battles, siege camp battles, and PvP combat that we have been working on! Remember to keep beta content within the beta forums, but if you want to suggest a future Fantasy Friday topic, shoot me a PM! Thanks for helping us as we work to make DOF virtually bug-free!

So without further ado, check out the five factions (and 13 new screenshots from the MMORTS mode!) they have been interacting with over the past couple of days:

PLAYABLE RACES

Players can choose any of the following three races to play as. Each race offers a choice of three unique regions for the player's homeland and each region/race provides the player with both advantages and disadvantages.

The Human Realm of Teria

Descendants of the Old Dagbor Empire, the noble race of man crossed the sea in the Older Times, settling on the Western shores of Teria. With the best livestock, economy, and farming - as well as the finest strongholds - the race of men is equally suited for offensive and defensive tactics.

The race of men provides gamers with a tactically-balanced army. Men have no major strong or weak points on the battlefield, bringing a medieval style of combat and tactics to their warfare. A skilled player will be able to exploit his opponent's weakness by capitalizing on the versatility of men. Armies of men often require more micromanagement and mix-weapons strategy than the other races.

The men have a traditional RTS economy with the peasant as the standard villager unit. They gather food from farms or livestock, mine stone and gold, and chop down trees for wood. Peasants require drop-off points, such as horse carts, mills, or the townhall, for all resources. Unlike the elves or orcs, the humans can build farms on specified plots to provide a constant, but slow, source of food.

The men have a strong array of technological upgrades which can bridge any defensive or offensive shortcomings. These upgrades include strong counter-siege mechanisms, such as stationary catapults, stone tippers, and oil pots which can be built anywhere along their walls to stop an advancing army in their tracks.

The Elven Realm of Nhob'ru

Centuries ago, the elves divided into two groups: the High Elves, who pursue alchemy and the arts of the intellect, and the Wood Elves, who are devoted to nature and lore. Both are a people of magic and harmony, and their numerous white citadels and tree architecture can be found high up in the mighty trees of the Nhob'ru forests.

Given enough distance and cover, their powerful ranged units make the elves a deadly force. With the game's best archers, elven armies can quickly take control of the battlefield as well as defend their forests. Elves have strong fortifications and economies that do not require territorial expansion as their resources are produced within their buildings and around their homecity. The elves' greatest weapon is their magic. They have, by far, the greatest knowledge of the magical elements, using them in battle and to produce resources.

The elven economy is largely automated, especially in late-game, and features the Warden as their standard economic unit. Wardens can be trained as either male or female. Both units are identical in abilities, except the females wield a bow and arrow while the males are melee units. The wardens can gather fruit and mine stone and gold. Being one with their majestic forests, the elves do not chop down trees for wood or hunt the forests’ animals, although they can breed deer to release into the forest in exchange for food. To supplement this, the elves construct their buildings on great trees which provide a constant trickle of wood. Each elven residencies also provide a trickle of a resource of the players’ choice, and, through the Alchemy Lab building, players can trickle some resources into another resource (ie: drain food, wood, and stone, to get a generous trickle of gold). And at the Symbiosis Shrine, players can summon forest spirits, to provide an increased trickle of wood, or spend resources to summon another resource – spend wood and food to summon an enchanted gold mine.

Elves have the strongest walls and archers in the game. This, combined with their contained economy, caters to Turtle gameplay. While elven players can still opt for a more aggressive play style, the elven units, while powerful, are the most expensive units of any race, so it is recommended that players build up some defenses while building up a strong economy and military force rather than rushing their opponents.

The Orcish Realm of Gokkholm

The orc tribes are renowned throughout the lands as brutal and war-seeking. With a weak economy, orcs have little opportunity for technological advancement. They make up for this with their brute strength as they overwhelm the enemy with their sheer ferocity. Orcs can also train Goblins, Wargs, and Ogres to join in their cause.

The orc player will smash his enemies with sheer numbers. Possessing the game's strongest offensive units, orcs primarily use melee troops to rid their way through an opposing army. Though they have the weakest strongholds, they can construct additional palisade fortresses as they move across the land. Their economy is simple and primitive, focusing on hunting, livestock, and the spoils of war. Their tribal nature gives their Shamans access to magic that, while not on a par with the great elven magic, is still quite formidable.

The orcs have Labourers and Marauders as their villager units. These units serve as the foundation for not only the orc economy, but the military as well. You can task your huts to train either labourers or marauders, at which point battalions of these worker units will be in constant, automatic production at no cost to you. The marauders are fierce archer huntsmen capable of hunting wildlife; while the labourer units are capable of chopping wood, mining stone and gold and building buildings anywhere on the map in an open space – not restricted in building placement like the other two races.

Contrary to the Elves, the orcs are a primarily offensive race. Their worker units are automatically trained from their huts, at no charge to the player. These units can be tasked to select military buildings to be trained in the art of war as a higher-grade infantry or ranged unit, such as a Berserker, Impaler, or Slayer. As orc players can start up a strong offense with only a primitive economy, orc gameplay caters to early attackers, or Rushers, who can pillage an enemy camp before the enemy is able to build up a defending force. Later in game, the orc player's primitive economy will start to take its toll and the player will need to rely on attacking and looting nearby enemies or travel afar to seek out new resources.

VISITABLE REALMS

For the first time ever, I'm proud to unveil the Dragons and the Dwarves in their home regions! These regions can be visited by each of the three playable races and select dragon and dwarven units will be available as mercenaries.

The Dragons and the Dwarves may be playable races in future expansion packs and may be added to in quest packs, but will only be limited factions at release. These two realms will be individually showcased in greater detail at a later date.

The Dragon Realm of Sssilistra

Located just South of the human region of the Rolling Plain, Sssilistra is a land of jagged precipices and volcanoes. This ominous realm is not a place for sight-seeing. Fire-breathing dragons lurk at every corner and require several battalions to take down.

But whatever you seek here, be sure to get out before you run into the Royal Black Dragon!

The Dwarven Realm of the Dwarven Marches

East of Nhob'ru, the Dwarven Marches are a series of mining caves deep within the mountains. Here, players can interact with the dwarves or plunder a bit of their prized gold. The gold mines are well-protected but numerous. Drop sites are also scattered around the caves, which can be conquered to allow your workers to store their mined gold.

But, alas, beware. For Dwarves aren't the only beasts that guard these ancient caverns...


Happy New Years, and see you next Friday!

[Henry Martin]

YAY! fantasy fridays are back. I love the dragon and dwarf regions they look awesome.

[Darathor]

Those dragons and dwarves look awesome! And being able to go into those caves definitely looks cool too!

[Axal01]

Woah, I don't think I can speak much but Woah!

[Tamiel]

[Hans]

Release the game !!!

Game Looks Fantastics !

[LiTos456]

Originally Posted by Tamiel

Tamiel, you've been here for a while, you can do better than that. That's as much of a spam post as it can get.

For the rest of you guys, if you don't have much to say then don't post anything. It clutters up the forum and makes things harder to find.

[Yami-Yagari]

The dragon lands of Sssilistra look swéét .

[Puppeteer]

But, alas, beware. For Dwarves aren't the only beasts that guard these ancient caverns...

Please say it's a Balrog!
Lovely screenshots, particularly the lighting and the weather effects round the opening of the cave - fantastic!

[Ravensshadow]

Originally Posted by Puppeteer

Please say it's a Balrog!
Lovely screenshots, particularly the lighting and the weather effects round the opening of the cave - fantastic!

Nope something far worse. A RUST MONSTER!!!!!