Crowfall

The latest Crowfall developer diary has appeared on the official site, this time dealing with the "item reward cycle" or, more simply, the rewards players gain by completing a activities within the game. While players will earn a variety of items along their journey, those will come with a "diminishing returns curve" meaning the more a player advances, the less impactful the rewards are. "The reason is that we want a player's skill to matter more than itemization".

ACE kicks the in-game industry up a gear as Crowfall takes on speed towards launch. Red Thomas dives into the game again to explore recent updates to crafting and what backers might expect in the way of future support for the player-based economy. Red also invents the new term “tactical economy.”

Crowfall and get the scoop on what backers can expect over the next month or so of development. Better graphics, new worlds, and even more have Red excited.

In a lengthy new blog on the Crowfall site, the team discusses how powerful the art of visual storytelling is to its game. Visual storytelling, in a sense, "brings worlds to life" with the goal to "visually give you a sense of a story without needing words or an explanation behind it". Each player can then take those visual cues and insert themselves into the history and lore of the game world to make it a more personal story and "give context to the greater narrative threads in the world".

The latest Crowfall Q&A is now live, this time with J. Todd Coleman and Design Director Thomas Blair speaking to the current state of the game as well as providing viewers with insight about their vision for the future.

The Crowfall site has been updated with a look at the War Tribes system that will bring complex challenges to players as they "try to wrest control of the world away from the gods and stave off their inevitable destruction". War Tribes can take the form of military encampments, tribal villages, abandoned villages. Usually these will be fortified by enemies that have banded together to scavenge resources and they can be found anywhere within the game world.

Crowfall Creative Director J. Todd Coleman is on hand for a look at some of the big new features coming to the pre-alpha version of the game.

The Crowfall site has been updated with a look at recent changes to Hunger Crystals and how destroying them will yield some pretty sweet loot for those who take part. You may remember that Hunger Crystals are a physical manifestation of the Hunger that spreads throughout the game world and "that drain warmth and life from everything around them". After watching players for the past nine months or so, devs felt players needed more incentive to destroy Hunger crystals. And did they deliver.

Crowfall players have a new series of campaigns called The Trials of the Gods. The Trials feature unique campaign worlds dedicated to each of the Gods. Over the next few months, players will encounter "unique maps, rules, and rewards themed to [each] God's unique persona, powers and domain". The first Trial is underway. Called Trials of Malekai, the campaign will run for two weeks and "pits players against each other in battle to win the favor of Malekai the Faceless God of Deception".

Red Thomas makes another of his frequent trips to Austin, TX. This time, he stops in at the ArtCraft Entertainment offices to talk about the state of Crowfall and what’s on the near horizon for the team. Massive steps forward in December herald a surge in content that should excite fans over the next several months.

Those involved in the current Crowfall test build will be able to check out the new Capture Point feature. Players will be working to capture specific points and to hold onto them as long as possible. The longer a location is held, the more Capture Bonus is awarded. "We've added an element of strategic decision-making to the choice around which locations each team will want to defend or capture".

In a new blog post on the Crowfall site, Creative Director J. Todd Coleman details the "Road to Alpha", numerically v6.0. Currently, the pre-alpha version 5.8 is live on servers and Coleman writes that it has been "VERY well-received" and has resulted in "both increased player concurrency and a noticeable uptick in new players".

From the video description: "Crowfall Creative Director J. Todd Coleman and Design Director Thomas Blair were guests on a live stream hosted by Zybak, a well-known vlogger and a veteran member of the Crowfall community. During the interview, Todd revealed a first look at their vision for Crowfall’s Dregs ruleset, which will deliver competitive Guild vs. Guild gameplay. Coleman said, “This is the single greatest design document I have left to write between now and launch.”"

ArtCraft is excited to announce a new talent system coming to the Crowfall test servers soon. It's a way for players to actively progress as they play through the game.

Crowfall keeps on building towards what will undeniably be one of the most unique MMORPGs in recent memory. Everything the team at ArtCraft seems to do is just a little or a lot different from the norm. And the same goes for how the team approaches their talent system for player characters. We caught up with J. Todd Coleman and Thomas Blair to discuss the newly revealed feature. Plus we have an exclusive look at the video reveal of the system.