Legends Overload update, Barklord the dog, Boulderball and new expansion details

Update time -- the bad news will be delivered first.

One of the two new modes that was mentioned to be included for Legends Overload has been scrapped. While there were no specific details on it previously (referred to as just an Action type mode), that is one less previously announced thing that is to be added. I apologize for that, and I plan to write up a dev blog page at the time of Legends Overload's release revealing why this 11th hour scrap occurred for this mode and the details behind it.

So far as Legends Overload's progress, final testing is to begin soon and coding is nearly done. A November release is very very tight, but not impossible -- if the testing runs smoothly and the test cases are gone through efficiently, it can still happen (even with needing to also get the marketing materials/admin tasks prepped). I've pumped up my personal hours for this final sprint, so I hope to bring good news on this front -- I intend to provide another progress update by the end of November regardless.

This update also includes a more detailed expansion roadmap -- some of it will look familiar to the July roadmap, but it now includes all expansion names, the addition of a future 6th expansion, new combat mechanics (Barklord the dog and Warbeast summons, in particular), and more specific details on the modes that are intended to come with each expansion. The newer details will be emphasized more heavily, and the details mentioned previously in July will get shorter mentions.

Expansion 1 -- Legends Overload

• Barklord the dog -- a German Shepherd trained as a guard dog, whom the party rescues from a less-than-kind kennelmaster. While Barklord is not a playable character, he is a pseudo-party member who can be called into battle temporarily (and repeatedly) by any playable character once he joins in either Story Mode or Endless Dungeon. Rather than Augmentors, he can gain Daugmentors for customization as he is called in battle, and they can be used to customize his basic attack, Bark Raid, as well as provide party HP regen and lesser summoning cooldown/summoning costs -- there are plans for additional abilities/customization in future expansions. He can also optionally influence the Body and Mind Field Effects. More specific details on Barklord will be provided on Legends Overload's release.
• Boulderball -- A pick-up-and-play Action mode that is essentially a sports game involving a giant damaging boulder as the ball, where the Heroes (consisting of your chosen character and the Sky Corps) go up against the Jerks (Demons). Perma-death is planned as a feature, so fighting the enemy players (and the goalkeeper) while protecting your own teammates will be as important as trying to get the boulder in the enemy net. More details will be revealed on Legends Overload's release.
• New story content and Legend Plus Difficulty for Endless Dungeon, Onslaught, Conquest, Heist and Boulderball (and all appropriate future modes).
• New passive abilities and new Challenges.

Expansion 2 -- Tenebris

• Naval Conquest -- An Adventure mode that is intended to have ship battles, sea monsters and magic used by the party that can include altering parts of the sea battle's environments (for example, Knight's ice magic freezing parts of the sea). May or may not be implemented into Story Mode to some capacity -- there are a number of design factors that will determine this, and the final decision will be made as more of Naval Conquest's specifics are implemented into the game.
• A new original Fire elemental character who is playable across Story and all modes. At this point, they are planned to be a melee-oriented character who has both offensive and defensive stances.
• New story content and new world based on Dragoon's Tenebris Conquest series, which is a more medieval setting.
• New passive abilities, new Challenges, new Conquest Monsters and new Heist Artifact.

Expansion 3 -- Into The Past

• Side Stories -- A Story mode that is intended to consist of very short stories focusing on playable and non-playable characters. The intention is to start with 20 in this expansion and add more with each subsequent expansion.
• RopeRange -- An Action mode that is based off of the minigame in the 2008 The Demon Rush. The character is dangling from an unsturdy rope from a great height and they need to fire their gun at targets while dodging or shooting sawblades that can cut their rope. Different playable characters are planned to have different advantages for this mode.
• Prison Break -- An Adventure mode where the player forms a party of 3 to escape prison and then try and survive being on the run. Some light horror elements may be present when on the run (more for tension/atmosphere, not jumpscares -- I would rather avoid jumpscares for this mode). The broad strokes are still being worked out, so a lot is subject to change.

Expansion 4 -- Warbeasts

• Warbeasts -- A new summoning mechanic that is intended to be similar to Barklord, but planned to remain on the battlefield more persistently rather than being called repeatedly. Each character is planned to get their own unique Warbeast for summon.
• Counterintelligence -- A Strategy mode that is intended to be somewhat similar to Conquest, but with the aim of having more spy-versus-spy mechanics/themes to it. Like most new modes planned for later expansions, the broad strokes and specifics are still being worked out, so plans for this mode can change.
• A new original Water elemental character who is playable across Story and all modes. At this point, they are planned to be a defensive support with long range disabling as a focus.
• New story content and new original world that has themes of war, magic and psychic abilities.
• New passive abilities, new Challenges and new Side Stories.

Expansion 5 -- Forlorn Future

• City Expansion -- A Strategy mode that is intended to also be somewhat similar to Conquest, but with plans to have characters maintain and expand the city. The specifics and the like still need to be worked out, but the overall goal is to have some level of city management and have each playable character bring different skillsets to this management (combat and non-combat).
• A new original Wind elemental character who is playable across Story and all modes. At this point, they are planned to be a defensive area-of-effect character, with the possibility of having enemy mimicry/enemy-based attacks as part of their basic moveset.
• New story content and new original world that is set in a futuristic hedonistic dystopia.
• New passive abilities, new Challenges and new Side Stories.

Expansion 6 -- A Mirror Warped

• New story content and a "new" world that is a mirror version of Altair (with mirror versions of story characters present) -- even if the world looks similar, the intention is to make a number of locations different.
• New passive abilities, new Challenges and new Side Stories.
• No gameplay mode is planned for this expansion, but given how far away this expansion is, there is a good chance that a suitable mode could be planned and implemented for this point (it would be nice to continue the pattern of at least one new mode per expansion).

Final Notes

The roadmap was included alongside this update to make the previous roadmap a little less vague -- saying just "an Action Mode" or "a Strategy Mode" felt too lacking in detail, and this is meant to provide the amount of detail that should have been present earlier.

Now it's time to get back to work on finishing Legends Overload -- hoping to bring good news on it soon.