Finally, Might and Nature factions!

Future looks bright.

Originally posted by Lavapotion:

Super well worded!

Allright, I'll try not to fly away with the words and keep it a bit short. We would have loved to have the game bigger at launch, we really really did, but our chosen method concerning art etc makes it that it takes super long time to make, so making a bigger game than we did would have taken us a couple of years more, and truth be told we might not have managed that economically.

Launching the game now, gives us the option to keep working with it, it's basically as simple as that.

We will make sure that the DLC's aren't pay to win things and that most of whats included in them are free (like artifact sets, new neutrals etc). The expansion bleak is will be pricier because it costs so much more for us to produce.

We are a small company and things take time for us!

We'll hope that we won't disappoint and that we'll show that the trust we have been given hasn't been misplaced.

we are super happy about our release and things have been going great, our plan is to continue on the same trail!

And sincerely, thank you for voicing your opinion and concern in such a well-worded way!

Thank you for answering so fast and for your time.
I understand much better why you chose this path.

Thanks again to the whole team and don't forget to take some well-deserved vacation

Congratulations! (and thanks for Ukrainian lang in game)

TROLLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLANT MONSTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love more non-human races, this is excellent! Thank you!

рад за вас

Unfortunately the roadmap is a huge disappointment.

I appreciate a great idea, good mechanics, unique graphic style, a will to bring back HoMM-like games. But at this point game looks like demo version of full product.

The monetization of content for this game is very aggressive. Devs are small studio but acting like corporation. Game was in Early Access so devs were paid all the time. During last year we didn't get any signifficant stuff. Today we can assume that devs were cutting game into pieces during this time so you will buy every little piece of content separately.

After more than a year of no new factions and very little troops we are informed that:
- the base game price raises (normal for premiere but why if game is not finished)
- you can BUY artbook
- you can BUY soundtrack
- you can BUY supporter edition
- You also will have a chance to BUY 4 little DLCs
- and there are 2 new factions on horizont so you can BUY that in 2025

If the devs worked on all this content already at EA, why are they releasing a truncated game? (i assume that because how fast devs inform about that "business plan") The game is released without half of the content that was announced. EA is created for that you can finish game without worying about money. The game is a not finished half product.

It looks like after a year since launch we will have an indie game worth like AAA game but with still not much content. I don't know who can be convinced that creating a turn based strategy game with 2D graphics generates the same costs as an AAA game with an open world.

Why am i writing that? Because looking at this I can assume that this unfriendly monetization and marketing attitude are only the beginning.

(Above is only a product criticism and is not mentioned to hurt anyone)

multiplayer balance if one player has the dlc everyone in the lobby can use the faction

Originally posted by Joony6664:

Unfortunately the roadmap is a huge disappointment.

I appreciate a great idea, good mechanics, unique graphic style, a will to bring back HoMM-like games. But at this point game looks like demo version of full product.

The monetization of content for this game is very aggressive. Devs are small studio but acting like corporation. Game was in Early Access so devs were paid all the time. During last year we didn't get any signifficant stuff. Today we can assume that devs were cutting game into pieces during this time so you will buy every little piece of content separately.

After more than a year of no new factions and very little troops we are informed that:
- the base game price raises (normal for premiere but why if game is not finished)
- you can BUY artbook
- you can BUY soundtrack
- you can BUY supporter edition
- You also will have a chance to BUY 4 little DLCs
- and there are 2 new factions on horizont so you can BUY that in 2025

If the devs worked on all this content already at EA, why are they releasing a truncated game? (i assume that because how fast devs inform about that "business plan") The game is released without half of the content that was announced. EA is created for that you can finish game without worying about money. The game is a not finished half product.

It looks like after a year since launch we will have an indie game worth like AAA game but with still not much content. I don't know who can be convinced that creating a turn based strategy game with 2D graphics generates the same costs as an AAA game with an open world.

Why am i writing that? Because looking at this I can assume that this unfriendly monetization and marketing attitude are only the beginning.

(Above is only a product criticism and is not mentioned to hurt anyone)

Hi!

No offence or hurt taken of course!

I feel that maybe there has been some assumptions made here and I am of course unsure if I can change that, there could be a example of set mind here, but I'll try!

You are absolutely correct that the DLC's added are paid content, they will however not be necessary buys, no pay to win as I have mentioned before. They (we call them Tales, but that might not matter) are added as small inexpensive stories, focused on a smaller campaign. They will include new features (like artifact sets) but those will be added free.

They are there if people want to support the studio and get some new story content.

The sad fact is that we need to pay rent and above all salaries for our employees, a boring thing maybe but ever so necessary. And hiring personnel and artists costs us, that's funded by a cost.

We really wish that we could have given it all out for free, but that's just not doable from a a economy angle. We hope to continue to produce content and keep this game alive for years to come, at that means we have to keep paying people, And we also have to pay back to our publisher. They are the reason we survived to be here at this point basically and we are super grateful for that.

You had an idea that we were cutting content? That's not true. Now we could have waited another year and a half to release Bleak East in theory and included that in the base game, but that might have had the effect that we wouldn't be here.

We have been super open for years about our Roadmap and what the base game would include, we have reached that point and started to dream about creating more! And that is because we love our game and want it to grow.

Could we have created a cheaper game? Absolutely. Did we? No, our choice of art etc is super expensive and takes time, so we went that path. And running a studio is pricy stuff (Insert joke about THIS economy).

Well I guess this turned out a bit defensive, that wasn't my intention, just wanted to answer a few points.

I guess I won't convince you, and that is fine. But it should be answered.

We plan to give as much as we can for free, and there will be no pay to win as we mentioned earlier. If you are playing someone in a multiplayer match that has a DLC, you will have access to the same stuff, it's a winning concept.

I know the word DLC can have a sour taste, we hope to prove that it's not always so.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk?

Have an awesome day and cudos for reading this wall of text!

Originally posted by Lavapotion:

Originally posted by Joony6664:

Unfortunately the roadmap is a huge disappointment.

I appreciate a great idea, good mechanics, unique graphic style, a will to bring back HoMM-like games. But at this point game looks like demo version of full product.

The monetization of content for this game is very aggressive. Devs are small studio but acting like corporation. Game was in Early Access so devs were paid all the time. During last year we didn't get any signifficant stuff. Today we can assume that devs were cutting game into pieces during this time so you will buy every little piece of content separately.

After more than a year of no new factions and very little troops we are informed that:
- the base game price raises (normal for premiere but why if game is not finished)
- you can BUY artbook
- you can BUY soundtrack
- you can BUY supporter edition
- You also will have a chance to BUY 4 little DLCs
- and there are 2 new factions on horizont so you can BUY that in 2025

If the devs worked on all this content already at EA, why are they releasing a truncated game? (i assume that because how fast devs inform about that "business plan") The game is released without half of the content that was announced. EA is created for that you can finish game without worying about money. The game is a not finished half product.

It looks like after a year since launch we will have an indie game worth like AAA game but with still not much content. I don't know who can be convinced that creating a turn based strategy game with 2D graphics generates the same costs as an AAA game with an open world.

Why am i writing that? Because looking at this I can assume that this unfriendly monetization and marketing attitude are only the beginning.

(Above is only a product criticism and is not mentioned to hurt anyone)

Hi!

No offence or hurt taken of course!

I feel that maybe there has been some assumptions made here and I am of course unsure if I can change that, there could be a example of set mind here, but I'll try!

You are absolutely correct that the DLC's added are paid content, they will however not be necessary buys, no pay to win as I have mentioned before. They (we call them Tales, but that might not matter) are added as small inexpensive stories, focused on a smaller campaign. They will include new features (like artifact sets) but those will be added free.

They are there if people want to support the studio and get some new story content.

The sad fact is that we need to pay rent and above all salaries for our employees, a boring thing maybe but ever so necessary. And hiring personnel and artists costs us, that's funded by a cost.

We really wish that we could have given it all out for free, but that's just not doable from a a economy angle. We hope to continue to produce content and keep this game alive for years to come, at that means we have to keep paying people, And we also have to pay back to our publisher. They are the reason we survived to be here at this point basically and we are super grateful for that.

You had an idea that we were cutting content? That's not true. Now we could have waited another year and a half to release Bleak East in theory and included that in the base game, but that might have had the effect that we wouldn't be here.

We have been super open for years about our Roadmap and what the base game would include, we have reached that point and started to dream about creating more! And that is because we love our game and want it to grow.

Could we have created a cheaper game? Absolutely. Did we? No, our choice of art etc is super expensive and takes time, so we went that path. And running a studio is pricy stuff (Insert joke about THIS economy).

Well I guess this turned out a bit defensive, that wasn't my intention, just wanted to answer a few points.

I guess I won't convince you, and that is fine. But it should be answered.

We plan to give as much as we can for free, and there will be no pay to win as we mentioned earlier. If you are playing someone in a multiplayer match that has a DLC, you will have access to the same stuff, it's a winning concept.

I know the word DLC can have a sour taste, we hope to prove that it's not always so.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk?

Have an awesome day and cudos for reading this wall of text!

It is quite telling that you just keep repeating that the DLCs will not be pay-to-win, which is absolutely the LAST thing anyone cares about.
Anyway, as the other guy said, very disappointed with this studio and these practices.

Well I for one hope that we will prove you wrong then! Definetly not our intention that anyone would be disappointed with it, we hope that our work the coming year will prove our intention and that it'll all be worth while!

Originally posted by rskolek:

It is quite telling that you just keep repeating that the DLCs will not be pay-to-win, which is absolutely the LAST thing anyone cares about.
Anyway, as the other guy said, very disappointed with this studio and these practices.

Talking about abusive and disappointing practices with DLC etc about this game must be some sort of ironies, I hope so... because releasing OST, artbook etc, and supporter pack are something very common theses days and the prices of each are like any other game.

If you want to target a studio or a game for their practices, look somewhere else.
For example:
- EA and all their sports game.
- Blizzard
- Ubisoft

But you want smaller studio maybe? ok:
-Paradox and their tonnes of DLC, (just look at what they did to prison architect)
- Hinterlands who release a DLC when in the same time, the main game isn't finished many year after claiming being out of EA. And their DLC was sell based on big promises with a price who grow after each new "part" added inside (they invented the EA for DLC with nothing at release)
- Hero Siege of course, a game who was rated overwhelming positive before until 9years later, their dev decided to rework everything.
Making all previous characters from players unplayable.
Adding 18 DLC for classes etc for a game who did have only 2 before this.
Making the game unbalanced, with a new economy around inventory slot.
The result was quick, they lost all their players who now play a non-legit copy of the game before the "rework"
And I just scratch the surface of what happen.

There is tonnes of example like this.
Games who are in EA for more than 10 years with close to no content with the Dev who leave the project without a word.

So, please, better choose your target before saying this.

PS: the "Pay to win" is mentioned 2 time in the answer, it's not really relevant to say that it's something who is repeated all the time. Just saying

So happy to learn that !! :) thank you guys for this great game, looking forward so much to the new factions !

Wishlisted! You guys are awesome, I wish you a good luck in development and making new content and congratulions with your successful launch!

Great was hoping for more factions, keep it up!
Wishlisted
and of course more spells / creatures / new buildings / new artifacts

I would love to see some sort of undead type of faction

Fantastic news! Already wish-listed the Loth DLC. I do love me some skeletons and un-dead!