Fellowship Across Factions – Phase 1 of our Kingdom Evolution Releases Tomorrow!
Hey Travelers and Heroes,
The long awaited kingdom rework has been deep in development and as mentioned in our recent devlog, the rework is going to be delivered in 3 phases.
When setting out to rework kingdoms, we aimed to making kingdoms a core piece of the Orna gameplay loop again, first by removing friction from the kingdom experience and addressing some economy issues, then by adding a true multiplayer feature to kingdoms and finally by turning kingdoms into a social hub filled with shared goals for all members. Above all else, we wanted to inject some fun into the kingdom system!
We’re getting ready to release Phase 1 tomorrow, November 26th. This first phase is primarily focused on getting rid of some of the friction and addressing some quality of life issues with the feature.
The biggest change we’re making with Phase 1 is to remove faction restrictions from kingdoms. Faction locking kingdoms was originally about providing a sense of identity and pride in your faction, and facing off against those who oppose (the mighty Frozenguard). In reality, having kingdoms locked to factions has meant that new players who simply want to play with their friends are penalized for making an early game faction decision.
As such, tomorrow’s patch including Phase 1 of the changes will include the following changes:
- Removal of kingdom faction restrictions.
- Removal of kingdom level cap
- Ascension levels of kingdom members will be factored into matchmaking
- Rebalancing of kingdom gold income, now only awarded from world bosses
Originally, we were aiming to provide a bonus to full, same-faction rosters in Phase 1, however, we’re aiming for a bit more complex of a solution to how factions factor into kingdom gameplay and have moved this change into Phase 2.
We’re already hard at work on Phase 2 of this rework. This Phase will be focused on the fun and is going to add the multiplayer cooperation back into kingdoms with a brand new synchronous gameplay mode called Crusades. After that, we’ll be adding a ton of social features to Kingdoms with Phase 3, but more on that later…
For now, we hope you enjoy rubbing elbows with new kingdom-mates from various factions. Is this our first step to creating world peace?
Till next time.
