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Welcome to the Book of Lore, Adventurers!
This brand new devlog series will periodically update you on what the IronOak team is working on and what you can expect from For The King II next year. Today, we’re talking four-player coop and the revamped combat system.
When we were making the first For The King, three players felt right. We spent a lot of time wondering if we should add a 4th player, but we were a smaller team then, and it always ended up breaking the experience we were trying to build.
Three was a more manageable number for us then.
But now the IronOak team is bigger, more experienced and, honestly, a little more wild. Four-player coop is by far the most requested feature for the sequel, and we’re giving it to you.
Party of Four
We've managed to make many of the more cooperative elements of For The King II feel like the first game, just with an extra player. Sharing loot and gold works similarly, navigating the overworld feels right, and the overall tactical gameplay is sharper than ever. We've done a lot to improve and revamp these things, but they'll have a nice familiarity to them.
But we’ve also included some welcome changes.
Splitting your party feels much more effective this time around. With three players, it always felt very risky to go in separate directions: that risk is still there now, but with an extra player, you can be a little more intentional about how you go about it. There's a lot of versatility in the way you can mix and match different characters. We want you to be able to cover more ground while remaining competitive in battle.
Multiplayer downtime has been a large focus for us, which may now be extended with an additional player. Because of this, we're giving you a little more freedom during the off-turns by allowing you to browse your inventory, read stats and purchase items.
It's also important for us to keep any UI driving the action synced across all four players so that you can discuss options without having to narrate what is happening on screen to one another. HUDs have also been reworked to present the additional information on screen more efficiently.
One of the biggest challenges with adding an extra player, though, is how it impacts combat. So instead of trying to just fit another player onto the screen, we've entirely revamped it.
The Act of War
One of the first things you'll notice about the For The King II combat improvements are the two battle lanes: the battlefield now consists of 2 4x2 battle grids; one on your side and one on your opponent's.
Adding multiple rows to combat has added this concept of empty space to the mix, and with that, there is now a whole bunch of new of options when it comes to decision making.
The back row provides an evasion bonus while the front allows characters with shields to guard those behind them. Positioning is now just as important as anything else.
Attackers can now target empty space to maximize splash damage, and defenders can spread themselves apart to negate splash patterns of incoming attacks. The empty spaces also allow players to move out of harm's way or reposition to gain a tactical advantage.
Some attacks are spatially dependent now. These can only be performed from certain rows, so different action options will be available or unavailable depending on where your character is positioned.
Some abilities can now provide bonuses to certain squares in the grid. Move a character to that square to take advantage of the bonus.
We've also added push and pull actions in combat. Push actions will move enemies in the front row to the back and pull actions will bring enemies in the back row to the front. You can really mess with your enemies plans by moving them around to give yourself the upper hand; omit opponent attack options, bring them out from protection, move them into a splash damage zone, cancel any stat bonuses.
The battle grid lets you approach combat in more ways than ever, both in how you attack but also how you defend. We cannot wait for you to try it out next year.
If you haven't already, make sure you add For The King II to your Steam wishlist and keep checking back for more the Book of Lore content, we've got a bunch more planned for you. Thanks again for all the support.
See you soon, adventurers!
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