Added remap support for keyboard keys R Ctrl, R Shift, R Alt, and Keypad (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, ., -, +, /,
, Enter)
Added Alaric in Windscar
Changed
Hardcore Mode scaled down from +75% to +50% for mobs' increased values
Changed Eye of the Stone quest reward
Changed description for all condition chance attributes to better state their deployment.
Changed display of combat state icon on companions’ combat UI: now it will inform when the character needs to be revived with the proper icon.
Changed display of fast travel options to be visible even when not usable.
Changed spawn point of player in destination scene of fast travels with griffins and boats
Changed how consumables are shown in Character UI recap view: instead of tallying their lapsible bonus(es) in the relative stat bucket, they will now be shown independently.
Scene transitions towards safe subzones won’t require player acknowledgement anymore.
Renabled world map location description for Strongholds in other kingdoms from the player’s one; also updated descriptions of all strongholds.
Revised gameplay values for some enemies.
Griffin Riders codex entry will now be unlocked when visiting a griffin platform too.
Already hired companions will now be displayed first when choosing a companion.
The Hunt quest giver will now be available only on the first two days of the Exile Hunt event. If the player will take the quest, the quest giver will be available throughout the event duration.
Fixed
Fixed various armors not displaying VFX from suffered conditions properly.
Fixed Pest Problems quest markers
Fixed Windback Hearts quest markers
Fixed Jarzothan’s chronicle night layout character positions
Fixed missing blueprints for griffin platforms’ blacksmiths
Fixed enemy champions related codex entries unlock
Fixed hard-to-reach eggs in Dham-Dhorun
Fixed Griffin Keep not unlocking its Codex entry
Fixed antidotes not properly stating their Poison removal deployment in UI.
Fixed Deal with the Devil quest markers
Fixed Double or Nothing quest markers
Fixed Crawling Nightmares quest markers
Fixed The Lost Convoy quest markers
Fixed The Hunt quest markers
Fixed regression of companions becoming unkillable instead of dying on a lethal blow after all revives have been used.
Fixed character becoming stuck upon double-tapping block when using KB&M
Fixed Idaris’ Shrine position in the world map to the relative banner.
Fixed Cortian enemies’ animations for stun/knockdown.
Fixed regression causing Alaloth to have an increased amount of hp, up to twice the intended amount.
Fixed player being able to revive companion immediately when using M&K by interacting with the pointer click.
Fixed The Bleeding Cellar blacksmith portrait, name and dialogue.
Yes, we would like to release the biggest indie RPG ever!
Hello Champions!
First of all, happy New Year! We hope that you had a wonderful holiday season and are feeling refreshed and ready for the year ahead. As we look back on 2022, we are grateful for all of your support and for the opportunity to bring you some amazing RPG experiences with Alaloth! As you know, we have big plans for 2023 and we can't wait to show you what we are working on right now! The team had some rest the first week of January but we are ready to go back in action next Monday, improving the game as much as possible and bringing you even more features and enhancements. Despite the week off, we wanted to drop in today and let you know that we've been discussing a ton of amazing ideas and we have started dratfing a new roadmap for the next months, leading to the full release of the game. While we can't reveal all the details just yet, we can tell you that we think you're going to love what we have in store. We also wanted to take this opportunity to reach out once again and ask for your feedback. We value your input and want to make sure that our updates and future development are in line with what our players want to see. So, if there's anything you'd like to see in future updates, or if you have any suggestions for new features or improvements, please don't hesitate to let us know. You can reach out to us here or through social media, or you can jump in our Discord server: we are in 24/7!
Just a random sketch with a few ideas for new professions. Yes, the one in the middle is a mage...
So there is nothing set in stone at the moment, but we though it was great to tell you that a massive brainstorming is in progress, to discuss things we already partially shared and new features that could be put in at some point. We could say that we are going to work on numbers from now on, focusing on balancing and gameplay. Contents are already way more than originally scheduled with EA announcement and even if we are still adding quests, items, chars and so on [with the last bunch of integrations that will be put in patch after patch], the game could be considered ok under this point of view. The number of players with more than 100+ hours under their belt is growing and we are super happy of this. While iterating numbers, we are going to move on improving lore and Plamen itself, making the game world even more dynamic and alive. To do this, we are going to put in a good number of in-game cutscenes to introduce narrative elements that can be missed right now, not paying attention around or skipping dialogues set for this. The modularity of the setting allow us to think about new contents set in different areas of the world, with new territories to discover, new mobs, professions and such. We identified potential world updates, same size of the Winter Update [The Shadow Continent, The North Sea Empire, The Sariqi Caliphate, The Eastern Kingdoms, Arran] and a few gameplay updates considering data collected [Battlegrounds, Sword & Sorcery, Dawn of Dragons]. All of this is on top at the previously confirmed free updates [Arena Mode, skills, traits, crafting rework and so on]. Again, just codenames for a brainstorming but you can probably guess what we are talking about now: enhanced cooperative, large scale battles, endgame contents, new skills, professions, companions and much more, including localization and multiplayer. Keep an eye on FAQ here on Steam and on #the-kings-court on Discord too, we are updating both channels with the latest about EA, following Valve's new policy that was not a thing when Alaloth launched. We had to slightly adapt our plan so far, data at hand. We are sure you will understand and continue to support us as we strive to bring you the best RPG possible!
Revised gameplay values for some enemies, companions and items
Fixed
Grandmasters were deploying as soon as their conversation ended instead of honouring the acknowledgement pop-up’s result. Now working properly
Blacksmiths within griffin platforms were making the game misbehave on interaction due to an authoring issue. Now working properly
Quest Soaring Skies will now be granted to elven players only according to its original design intent.
Griffin Riders will now require Soaring Skies to be completed before offering their services.
Quest Pool of Radiance was unnecessarily failing on Temple of Virtues’ claim. Now working properly
Quest Warlock of the West was misbehaving if the quest had been granted by its quest giver rather than picked up via killing Jarek. Now working properly
Final battle fixed, Alaloth's wrong values are now as intended
As the year comes to a close, we wanted to take a moment to say thank you to our amazing community and players. Your support and enthusiasm for Alaloth has been a constant source of motivation for us, and we are so grateful for your passion. 2022 has been a very though year for us as a team. As you know, we took our game back from our former publisher in May. We were not commenting at time [and we are not commenting this now. of course], but we can say that we are happy to be here today, considering how much we've risked as a company since fall 2021 to the first half of the year. We survived this somehow, as we survived the pandemic and many other issues completely out of our control we had to deal with during the development. We have been forced to release during the summer, squeezing activities that usually take months, to position a product on the market in just a couple of weeks. We kept our vision alive, we've worked hard, we drafted a new plan and rushed to avoid wasting years of blood and tears because of a combo of happenings that would have probably killed any other indie team around. And the most important thing is that we are proud of the work we've done.
Alaloth is a big game, way bigger than the one we had in mind at the very beginning. This is because while dealing with all the shit we had to deal with, we never stopped to think positive and we never stopped development. We had to listen to people insulting us, we had to read about vaporware and such, we had to suffer in silence, being personally attacked here and there by users [rightfuly] asking things without getting answers we were not able to provide. Not the darkest moment of the last years, just because we had to deal with bigger, tragic, things. But as already said, we survived. As we look ahead to the next year, we have some great plans in store for Alaloth and the community. We can't wait to share more details with you in the coming weeks, but rest assured that we are pushing to bring even more exciting content and features to the game, starting from your suggestions and feed. The Winter Update has been the third major update since launch, we delivered about 30 patches to fix stuff, we added contents, features and systems that were not even scheduled, we didn't wipe any save since June 30. No game breaking bugs, hours and hours of contents in, with a ton of player over 100+ hours and others with over 300 hours under their belts. This is not the standard for an indie team. This is not a standard for an Early Access, even for bigger companies. This is our standard: no ovepromise, always answer everyone, always on for our players, always focused on delivering cool stuff for you. We are not even 10 but worth an army. You can bet we'll continuie like this in 2023, it will be fun!
We hope that you have a happy and safe New Year's Eve, and we can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us all! The team will have a short break next week, but a new build will be available in a few days with some last minute fixes we did after the update. We'll be slower than usual here on Steam but you can always reach us on Discord.
Thank you again for your continued support, if you didn't join us in Plamen yet, that's the best moment to get the game, 40% off until January 5!
New features, quests, mobs, locations and much more!
Hello Champions!
Here we are, Winter Update is live on Steam now! As we've already said here, plans have slightly changed on the way, so we are going to provide all the info you need to understand what's going on in the next weeks, leading to a glorious start for the new year! A massive changelog is available at the bottom but let's go step by step and let's begin with the latest news from Plamen!
HARDCORE MODE AND PERMADEATH
Here we are with two of the most requested features since a long time. We have set-up a survey to hear from you about this and, surprisingly, the vast majority of the players asked for these new options as in-game options instead than just tabs in a menu. So we tried to figure out a way in between what's already available in other games and something new as we like to do. We think to have found a good way to integrate both options at the best [nothing set in stone being in EA but still]. Both Hardcore Mode and Permadeath options will be available after a succesfull first run. Once you've done in Plamen for the first time, you can start a new character and you will be able to customize the experience. The initial flow has been changed so you are not going to end the tutorial and jump directly to the capital city. Since now on, you can take some time inside your stronghold before leaving for the capital city and with your second run, you'll have the chance to interact with a character in the training ground, allowing you to turn on Hardcore Mode. This means a few interesting things: all the mobs will increase their HP and PD by 75%, you and your party will start with -25% HP and PD and all the items equipped will be lost in case of death! The choice is not reversible, so it's something to be decided before leaving the stronghold for the first time. About Permadeath: a Martum Shrine is now available on the world map. Worth a visit if you want to bond yourself to the god of death: no resurrection if you die, game over!
There is a new shrine available on the map. The god of Death awaits
After your first run, look for this guy here in your Stronghold
COMBAT AND GENERAL BALANCING
We had a massive round of changes in values for almost every item in-game. Not the final one of course, but we've changed a ton of weapons, armors, etc, to slightly decrease the difficulty at the very beginning and to increase the challenge on the long term. Some of the mobs are now more resistent and hit for more HP, while players' resistance have been changed while fixing a number of armor/weapon sets still having wrong data from the previous iterations. Some FA have been reworked to give a better flow for combat in general, considering the environment and so on. In addition to these features, the update will also introduce new quests to the game, providing even more things to do and discover. Players can expect to encounter new enemy types as well, each with its own unique abilities and behaviors. And to top it all off, the game received a general polish, with various bugs fixed and overall performance improved.
ENEMY CHAMPIONS
A new round of balancing has been done. Not the final one of course, but we've changed a few values for enemy champions to make them more challenging and reworked rewards and the way they are rolled in the Competitve Mode.
NEW BOSS FIGHTS
First and foremost, we have iterated the abilities and tactics of the bosses to make them more formidable and engaging to fight. We have also increased the rewards that can be obtained from defeating bosses, including rare items and equipment that will help players progress through the game. In addition to these changes, we have also made some adjustments to the difficulty of the boss fights to better balance them for players. We have taken into account the feedback we have received, and we believe that these changes will provide a more satisfying and challenging experience for all players. The Burning Feet tribe is now ruling Tyrant's Grave, which has been dressed from scratch, according to the game lore which was not perfectly fitting the mobs there. Amaya and Morana [with their gang, The Sandclaws], are now based in the old orcish fort of Krazurag, protecting an old port wiped by The Tempest and now turned into a cemetery for boats and cargos. The abandoned palace of Dham-Dhorun is now home for the dreadful Lord of The Rats, Rymzek and last but not least, a dangerous warlock is apparently leading the Circle in Larastir now, with The Elder Trees of the Elves in great danger
Rymzek in Dham-Dorun
NEW MOBS
Drolnaks and Reapers! Drolnaks, once beautiful creatures that would pollinate Plamen, allowing nature to live on for the eras to come, now creatures of pain and suffering due to the corruption of Alaloth's Tempests. Slowly they transformed into deformed insects, their stinger deadlier than ever, and their mind knew nothing but death. Before they would stay out of a mortal's way, now they seeks them out, unafraid, in order to destroy what they once help to create.
Drolnaks: they sting!
Reapers are vicious tentacled plant-like life form, composed of six prehensile tentacles that allows them to move slowly. They lie still until prey comes within reach, then snags the victim, crush the life from it, then swallow it in their beaked maw. These monsters live a long time, and ithey often dwell in such foul, toxic conditions that the contents of their stomach and lungs are filled with horrid gases they can exhale on opponents, to stun or incapacitate them, to make feeding on them easier. Some can even spit these toxins at victims who stray too close for much the same reason.
Reapers: the are poisonous!
WORLD MAP UPDATE
We thought that adding a few new areas would have been great. We were aiming to add 4 new FA and 4 new POI back in September but you know, things change fast in game development. So, yes, we've added 4 new FA to start but 31 new locations followed. We have worked on what you haven't seen yet of Plamen [The Outer World], so we had to connect dots considering the long terms and started doing things, development-wise. First of all, we had to dress the new region of Kalinglad while fixing the new fast travel options. So we created ports, we created griffin platforms, taverns for each small city to rest in, to avoid waiting outside the place, new POI and so on. Considering the whole thing, we ended up with more than 40 locations but the next bunch will be available in a while, along with a first overview on the whole continent, with new kingdoms and areas that will be playable with future content updates and DLC. Always consider that the new areas will be filled with contents in the next weeks and if you find an area which is not full of people and QG, it could be by design so pay a visit in different moments of your run, cool things can happen!
The Four Kingdoms
GRIFFIN RIDERS
Griffin travels is a new feature in Alaloth that allows players to travel around Larastir using griffins as their primary mode of transportation. These majestic beasts are not only faster than any other method of travel but are heavily bonded to the immortal Elves, the only able to ride them in the sky. To use the griffin travels feature, players will first need to obtain the trust of the High Chancellor and of the Griffin Lord Khidell, the greatest rider of all eras. With griffin travels, players can easily explore the far reaches of the Republic of Larastir, and discover new areas and quests. The feature offers an exciting and dynamic way to experience the game world. The Griffin Keep can be found in Edhenen.
Elves only
BOAT TRAVELS
The kingdoms are surrounded by seas and from today, players will be able to sail the Sea of Solitude and The Shimmering Gulf, reaching The Treasure's Bay and the southern region of Kalinglad, a new area of the Blessed Kingdom of Edherest, ruled by many different houses once loyal to the royal family, Player can found a boatman in each port on the coastline, with the chance to travel to Windscar, Rockstarn and Na'Sharak in Baga. Travels are not free of charge but a safe way [at the moment] to avoid long dangerous trips on the road. In general, pawns will not be able to cross big lakes too and even reaching The Vanishing Keep and the Red Mage will be possible only with the help of a skilled sailor!
Pay a fee, sail the sea
WAR ROOMS AND MILITARY CAMP
Players have now access to War Rooms, directly from the Throne Rooms in each kingdoms. Access to these rooms is set for race, this means that even if a champion could be useful in some way for rulers of other kingdoms, this area will be restricted [you can check guards answering in different ways to you, depending on the race of choice]. You can find new quests here at some point but in general, War Rooms are a first step for something bigger actually under iteration. Same for the military camp popped now north of Edherest. Consider these places as new points of interest in which QG can appear with the time passing, but hey...what about large scale battles in the future? More soon.
The Dwarven War Room in Karak-Hohn. Just one of the four available in the kingdoms
Troups of Edherest in the North of the Blessed Kingdom
THE TEMPLE OF VIRTUES
This is one among the new FA available with the update and it's important for a few reasons. It's not a big area but we've used this as a sort of text area for things to come. Puzzles are in there, along with traps, levers and some narrative chronicles, directly connected with some new tech stuff we are on now. It is just squeezing something bigger in a small sized place but you can think about these kind of interaction [both gameplay and narrative related] for the next updates.
Check some new tech-related stuff here
VOICE OVER
We are going to tell you more about localization next year [good news!] but in the meantime, we've added spot voice clips on vendors all around the world [not in all cities but it's a first iteration]. Even a few mobs and boss have now tailored voice over clips.
COMING UP NEXT
As we already explained, we had to change the plans we've shared back in September for many different reasons. Our team has been working hard to bring you the best gaming experience possible. We have decided to pivot slightly in order to better align with our goals for the game and ensure that it meets the high standards we have set for ourselves and our players. This change will allow us to deliver a more polished and enjoyable final product. We are not talking about nothing crazy, no worries! As you noticed, we started with 4/6 new areas in mind and set 35 new areas, with 10 more to come and we've added on features on request such as Permadeath and Hardcore Mode. We prioritized this considering the big picture but all the other features on the way will be available in the next weeks [give us time to have a short break for Xmas!]. You can already find The Bleeding of Hashak in-game, to set-up the Arena Mode that is in the work. You can find War Rooms and the first Military Camp in-game, to open the way to Battlegrounds [working title]. You are going to get new traits but we need some extra time to blend everything properly, with a new crafting system, new skills and professions and yes, we are focusing on magic and spells, always considering the game lore and setting. Sword & Sorcery than [working title]. Ton of new stuff is in the work, just remember we are a team of ten and sometime we need to plan things wisely to avoid burnout and crunch. To summarize: we'll be back at work after Xmas, we can consider this [huge] update as a first part of bigger one, that starts today to end in January when we are going to provide a brand new roadmap leading to 1.0 with all future contents, DLC and ideas we have to share with you all. More polls, activities, community related events and such will be real and we are going to announce big things with Spring, hopefully. As usual, thank you for your continued support and patience as we work to bring this project among the best. We look forward to sharing more updates with you in a while!
CHANGELOG
Added
31 New cities, points of interest and misc locations - Windscar, Tanyard Footbrigde, Idaris's Shrine, Skull Rock, Na'Sharak, Arrowtooth, Vaizmil's Crossing, Rockstarn, Witch Waters, Mountain Hand, Martum's Shrine, Military Camp, Knife Ears Hideout, Griffin Keep, Griffin Platforms [Southern, Norhern, Western, Eastern], Path of the Damned, The Three Pigeons, The Hissing Shaman, The Moon Inn, The Wet Castle, The Stony Heart, Fal'Thalas, Boatman's Hut, War Rooms [one for each kingdom], The Bleeding
4 New Fighting Areas - Temple of Virtues [3 skulls], Tyl'Nar [3 skulls], Krazurag [4 skulls], Dham-Dhorun [4 skulls]
3 New Boss Fights - Tral'Motak, Jarek, Rymzek
2 New Mobs - Drolnaks, Reapers
9 New Achievements - Desert Surfer, Virtous, Gardener, Special Guest, Magic Mike, Troll Hunter, Skysurfer, Sailor, Pool of Radiance
Hardcore Mode
Permadeath Mode
Griffin travels
Boat travels
VO SFX for vendors in selected areas [cities mostly]
10 New Quests - Soaring Skies, Lord of the Rats, The Burned Feet, Underground Infestation, Two Greedy Northmen, A Brother's Honor, The Warlock of The West, The Elder Tree, Lost Virtues, Pool of Radiance
9 New items - Glory of The Tribe [Rare], The Wolfmane [Epic], Spider Axe [Epic], Dragonhide Cloak [Epic], The Last Wall [Epic], Ehn-Hohn's Sentry [Rare], Heart of The Woods [Epic], Brooch of The First Era [Epic], Cold Memory [Rare]
Changed
Revised and improved World Map to accommodate the newly added locations
Crossing large stretches of water in World Map will now require the services of a boatman
Replaced NPC Handeim model in Tale of Volkar the Brave quest
Grandmaster Necromancer Julika will now spawn only after player has reached level 4
Replaced Death Sisters in Tyrant Grave with the new boss Tral'Motak: because of this, Tyrant’s Grave has been now infested by desert creatures and trolls from The Burning Feet tribe
Changed Jarzothan shield SFX
Tweaked SFX for Spectral Circle and Imp mobs
Imp mobs wrong texture fixed
Headgear will now always be shown when in a combat area
Headgear toggle has been reinstated in Equipment tab
Revised runtime HP handling values for enemies
Increased damage output for enemy Champions
New UI featuring new Fighting Areas
Changed values for weapons, armors, trinkets and more than 60 wereables
Added ambient SFX in Fifth Kingdom’s wandering fighting area and Fifth Kingdom’s Cemetery.
Fixed
Special buffs against enemy types will now show properly formatted values in the item view
Fixed some NPCs playing their idle animations incorrectly
Fixed a bug causing skills to be unintentionally interrupted from movement actions of the character, and still play the skill animation
Improved string input handling (i.e. name field) in Character Creation
Improved formatting for attributes (i.e. racial bonuses) in Character Creation.
Fixed a bug that prevented the cost of resting in taverns to properly take in account the relative innkeeper’s discount factor
Fixed a bug that made the player spawn with no hair if headgear was disabled when in strongholds
Dynora Delven-Keh will now unlocks her codex entry upon interaction
Fozor Ferehk-Quas and Vulud Doh-Decah had their houses wrongly authored, now working properly
Fixed a bug that could lead to a mishandling of a click input when clicking on equipment slots in CharacterUI
Fixed missing portraits and missing descriptions in various items and loots
Two weeks since our latest post so we are here again with some juicy info for you all. As you noticed, we've been a bit late with new features promised back in September. We are very sorry about this but we changed our plans on the way while iterating stuff. This is a pretty common thing in development but we thought it was right to explain this to you all. We originally thought it would have been cool to split scheduled upgrades in many different small patches but while doiing things, we decided to go on in a very old school way. Managing small patches on weekly basis would have been doable but painful at the same time, considering that, as usual, we've added contents to the original plan that were not even part of the one shared. What does it means? It means that we'll go big in a while, putting a great part of the contents you were expecting by roadmap, in a unique Winter Update to be released soon [details to follow]. We are targeting Dec 21 at the moment, but it could be next week, it depends on testing we are going through right now]. So, we are probably going to release a couple of preparatory patches in the next days, prior to the big one. As already said, few things have changed, following feed and requests from you all, so we are taking our time to test everything properly. Prios have been set again and we'll explain our choices as soon as the new contents will be available. Anyway, the Winter Update will be massive, following the Strongholds Update and the Mouse & Keyboard Update that have been the biggest updates so far since we've launched EA back in June. We are pushing hard right now to be able to slow down a bit from Xmas on, ready to be back in action in January, with tons of amazing news and a new updated roadmap.
"It looks like a blend of early Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook art, Baldur’s Gate, and Dark Souls"[PCGamesN]
Hello Champions!
We decided to open this new update with one of our fav quote ever for a reason. Autumn Sale started yesterday on Steam, and we were thinking it was a good moment to clarify a few things, as we already did talking about localization recently. It's nearly 5 months since we've released Alaloth in Early Access and we are super happy with the work done, with our amazing community, with the feed we've got day by day here and on Discord. Despite this, we had to deal with a few issues on the way, in regards of what Alaloth is and how we push it to the players. You know we've decided to adopt a very clear and straight forward approach to communication and PR. We always answer to people asking, we can easily say we can be considered one of the most active dev around and this time there is no exception. Since when we've got back our game publishing rights, we've tried to explain our vision, our approach to development, our long term plans. We've told everyone what to expect, what Alaloth is and what Alaloth is not [and will not ever be]. We've posted FAQ following AMA, we've gone through every single post here, answered almost every good and bad review and so on. Apparently, this is not enough. We thought a lot about posting an update like this, but here we are. Being a super small indie team, self publishing its game, putting personal money in, means that we have to carefully weight everything, including the way we handle PR but this doesn't mean that we follow the common habit of passively accepting criticism coming from people saying wrong things, just because "players are always right". We think this is not always true. Sometimes players happen to be not 100% right and if for big guns this means nothing, for a small studio getting bad reviews without a proper reason it's a huge problem instead, impacting sales, available resources and the team itself. Just to be clear: this doesn't mean that bad reviews are not accepted or bad feed are not correct. Everyone has the right to say whatever he/she wants about the game, destroying it the way he/she prefers but we've set just one rule internally, about this. Getting a very bad feed, insults or whatever is fine somehow, but all of this has to reflect reality and not to be just random words dropped through a keyboard. In these cases, we've always [politely] answered, trying to explain things at our best.
So, just to recap a few things, we would like to tell you once again what the game is, what you should expect from the game and how things work in Alaloth, trying to avoid wrong feed based on the fact that devs have not been clear enough [even if we've been], as any kind of disappointment in players that decide to support us. We thought to quote a few sentences from reviews, refund notes, Discord posts and board topics:
"Devs said it was inspired by Baldur's Gate but it's not Baldur's Gate"
So true. This is not Baldur's Gate. This is Alaloth and it is in between old school classics and modern action RPG. This is how we've pitched the game and this is what comes out of a ton of reviews, good and bad. Point is that bad reviews focus on the sentence above because BG has been taken as an inspiration. Yes it is. The game is inspired by Baldur's Gate as it is inspired by The Lord of The Rings, Willow, Dragonlance, Shannara, Game of Thrones, The Wheel of Time, other games like Diablo, Mount & Blade, Dragon's Dogma, Ultima Online, Pillars of Eternity etc. Books, movies, games, TTRPG. Inspiration means exactly what it means. Inspired by Baldur's Gate does not mean it is Baldur's Gate. Inspiration is not doing the same thing 1:1. So, again: Alaloth is not a CRPG and is not Baldur's Gate as it is not a book, a TTRPG or a movie. Alaloth it's a unique game inspired by these experiences. And yes it is even inspired by Baldur's Gate and Infinity Engine games. That's why we use an iso camera, for example.
"Mouse & Keyboard not supported"
Not true. The game fully supports M&K. We've released the game in June with partial support only for M&K [which means that the game supported them at launch as well, even if partially only]. We explained why. We are not crazy but it was about surviving as a company when we've got the game back. We patched the game in September with the full support after a full rework of the UI and since then, M&K has to be considered in full. You can say that it could be improved [we are always improving the game and this makes no exception] and you can say you don't like it but you can't say M&K is not supported. Better with a controller? We just think a controller can give a better exeperience, but you are not forced to use one to enjoy the game at all. Hades states the same in its main menu, so nothing weird here. Just a sample of a great PC game working nice with a pad.
"The game needs some extra development"
That's exactly why we are in Early Access now, otherwise we were talking of a full release. Despite this, we have players with 100+ hours under their belt, the game is fully playable since D1, 22 patches so far, 2 Major Updates not even scheduled originally! Yes, the game needs some extra development and we are on it, following feed from our audience. Consider that, right now, the game is aready three times the original scope and we are adding features on weekly basis with new quests, chars, items, locations and so on. We could say that Alaloth is already one of the biggest indie RPG out on the market at the moment [the biggest?]. We are not going to stop of course. We iterate a lot. We like the idea to be able to put in new features, even if these features were not part of the original roadmap. This is how iteration in game development works.
"The game is overpriced"
We decided to go with a very low price point and considering contents offered, it is the exact opposite. We were thinking about partnering with a few publishers before going self publishing: they were suggesting to release at 39.99/49.99 because of contents, just with the standard game [not considering DLC included in the Supporter Edition]. Just check the store and make comparisons with other RPG and other games. The game is probably underpriced but again, it has been a choice we've made when we've got publishing rights back, trying to maximize the huge number of wishlists we have.
"Coop is advertised the wrong way because it is not real coop"
Steam works in a very easy way: you put in flags that pop-up as icons in the store page. We have coop in and it works the way that a player can jump in a fighting session anytime in FA. It is local only but it works through Remote Play as well and it works the way you can invite friends [not owning the game] and play with them. To flag Local Coop you have to flag Multiplayer first in the sys, no matter what. If you don't, you can't flag Local Coop option which is what is in. There is not an option and no distinction between full coop campaign or small coop options. We are at work to improve this feature as well because a lot of people is asking. You can talk about getting a full playable coop campaign and it is really something we would like to deliver at some point but local coop is in from D1, and it is real. There is no chance to explain coop if not writing about it right now and as we always did so please, read all the useful links we've posted or join our AMA or jump in our Discord server. In order to play coop, main char has to find companions first. Companions can be used by other players once invited [both locally or online through Remote Play on Steam. Invites are open to people not owning the game too].
"My choices are not impacting the world"
As already said, Alaloth is not a CRPG but choices matter. We used to say that Alaloth is not a player centered game it is a world centered game. Plamen, the game world, move on and things happen with or without you so, depending on your choices, some quests can be unlocked or not, NPC can show up or not, you can meet them or not. Playing the game more time with a different alignment and with different choices, simply brings on new content everytime. This not means that players have to rush anything [Single Player campaign allow you to play taking your time of course] but this means that you are going to get 100% of the game playing more than one run, familiarizing with the calendar, scheduled events, timed events and so on. Just a sample: we have unique merchants selling unique goods popping-up during festivals at the same time every year in-game. If you miss them, you can find them in following their route or just waiting one more year. Some Quest Givers work the same way and hints to find wandering chars/special chars/special quests are all around the world in dialogues, barks, items description and so on. Quests are streamlined [even if there are quests around in which you can take different decisions] but this means also that what happens around you changes the game world. Read carefully!
"I wish you the best, i know you are great, the game is amazing but is not my cup of tea so i'm leaving a thumb down"
We know that a lot of people is leaving feed in good faith to help us improving the game. We could say that we are way more happy of bad reviews with constructive feed than anything else. But something like this does not really help us. A good average on Steam is crucial at this stage and if you enjoyed the game or just recognized value in it, even if it's not a thing for you, please consider helping us with a thumb up instead and check the game later on to see how much love and effort we've put in it!
"You should change this and that"
As already said, we take every single feed into account. We included a ton of features requested by users since launch and tried to discuss almost every topic from our Discord server, coming from the channel we've set-up to collect user suggestions. Quality of life improvements and any possible update increasing the overall quality of the game, are probably already in or in the pipeline for future updates. But please consider that we are not going to change 100% of the game because you don't like it. Alaloth is not a CRPG and will not turn into a CRPG, now and never. Alaloth is not Diablo and it is not turning into it, now and never. We know someone don't like to read stuff but we have a 300k words game we've worked on considering players actually reading texts to get the best from the world and no, we are not cutting dialogues to add guided quests with a UI bringing you to your quest objective as an autopilot. Focus is on melee and it will stay like this because magic is described in a certain way in the lore of Plamen but we've received many requests to change this a bit and you know what? We are doing this, we are enhancing magic and working on new spells and professions because our final aim is to maake everyone happy with a great, fun game. And this is going to happen for sure but we have to preserve our vision at the same time.
"The game is great but I want it in my language"
If the game is great, leaving a thumb down is not the way to help us localizing it. Thumbs up help with sales. More sales mean more resources to invest, more resources mean localizing the game in more languages. Our will is to localize the game as much as possible. Buying the game knowing that loc is not in, pointing that the feature is not in, does not seem a smart move to us [and it is valid for any feature].
We are working together with you all, our dream of developing a game for players loving good old times and new modern masterpieces is here. Help us shaping the future of Alaloth, we have so many cool things on the way, and we can't wait to unveil all asap!
Hope this update will help claryfing once again what to expect from Alaloth - Champions of The Four Kingdoms. We've posted this with the aim to underline once again our direct and transparent approach to our community and to development. This is our life and we are giving 110% everyday to achieve what we have in mind since the very beginning. We know we are not perfect and we know that many things could have been/could be way better on our side too of course. Just join us in this journey!
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