NO POSTING - Heroscape 2.0 News from Designers and Staff

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Today's Designer's notes

Originally Posted by Encarmine

DESIGNER'S NOTES - DAY 030 - "TO STEP DOWN FROM HER THRONE ENSURES THE DEVASTATION FOR HER RIVALS" Queen Maladrix The Conquerer is the living manifestation of The Craven Court’s utter hatred of their enemies. Her mere presence on the battlefield represents dark omens to her enemies, as the Craven Court’s harbinger of doom. Queen Maladrix’s sheer size allows her to tower over opponents, slicing apart attackers with ease and unleashing a whirlwind of fury and death in the center of the Craven Court’s battle line. As a member of the royal house, Queen Maladrix The Conquerer is able to spawn a brood around her on the battlefield, initially hiding the scale of her forces, then overwhelming enemies with a horde of skittering carnage, while quickly expanding her power across the war host.

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Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

Not what I would consider major changes, no. In the C3V, sometimes a design would get pretty far into the process and we would decide to basically scrap it and push it back to the start. I was worried that would happen here - not for any specific reason, but just because that can happen - but it hasn't.
Powers change, stats change, but the concepts and themes have held tight on everything. It's made it easier.

For quite a few units, we had designs that had to change when we got the art. Which is fine; working from existing sculpts is something that all of us except Sky have been doing for years, and it is exactly what Sky did back when he was designing in the WotC years.

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

Hmm. I have a couple of favorites. You've sort of seen one of them.
I'd have to go back and check.
You have not, however, seen my favorite pirate.
You have not seen some of my favorite designs that I've worked on. That is all I'll say about that.

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper, on many occasions; it's like his motto for new 'Scape

"Suppose as much as you choose; give loose to your fancy, indulge your imagination in every possible flight which the subject will afford."

Additionally, the general public has gotten our second week of Discord previews, which seem to have changed the Wraithriders' tentative name to "Necrotech Wraithriders". No other changes have been observed.

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skyknight offering some context for why a corporation might be reluctant to incorporate historical units into a game.

Originally Posted by skyknight

I think everyone wants historical units, but it’s a tough road. I don’t know how many of you follow other games as of late but it is a mine field. Make a unit that took land, colonizer, use the wrong general, make something not exact and it’s an issue, make it to exact and it’s an issue. The board game Puerto Rico just got a complete reskin because of colonization, the game Endeavor punishes you for using slaves, they just took a bunch of heat. There’s a video of two young reviewers who found a card of a conquistador in their game that they were not expecting even though the game has historical roots. The review is an hour of them literally crying as it forced them to see something they were not ready for…they got a ton of support for that video and the designer had to go back and remove the card from every game (open the unopened) and replace with new cards.

There are definitely historical units in games, I love them. But it is a risk when you start playing that game. There are chances you won’t get your game into foreign markets if you make a misstep.

I think everyone wants the same thing, I just think it takes a whole lot more time, weighing of risk, and incredible oversight to prevent a game killing accident Things were not this was back in the 2000s Times have definitely changed.

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Today's funky bugs.

Originally Posted by Encarmine

DESIGNER'S NOTES - DAY 031 - "THE APPLES DON’T FALL FAR FROM THE TREE" Queen Maladrix The Conquerer never attends to the war torn battlefields of Valhalla without her Festering Honor Guard. Wherever Maladrix stalks, her guards are close at hand, throwing themselves at anyone or anything that would even consider bringing harm to their queen. Bred for carnage by the queen herself, the Festering Honor Guard is equipped to aggressively range out from the queen in pursuit of any attackers, and when necessary kill or be killed in her service. To further strike fear and terror in her would-be enemies, Maladrix The Conquerer uses her enemies as “hosts” to prepare and expand her host of Festering Honor Guards, creating awkward situations for the Craven Court’s adversaries when their closest allies suddenly and violently burst apart in front of their eyes to reveal more skittering creatures to bring death upon those who would dare oppose the Craven Court.

File name: "Like_Gushers_Fruit_Snacks".

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The promised jaw-dropper...

Originally Posted by Encarmine

DESIGNER'S NOTES - DAY 031- "NONE SHALL RESIST THE WILL OF UTGAR!" (Happy Friday! See everyone on Monday.)

URL is "Darkness_Imprisoning_Me", from what is probably my least favorite song.

Originally Posted by Encarmine

I mean, that amulet. It calls, and the darkness can be... enrapturing. Difficult to turn away from. The power is immense, and the mind can only fight back for so long. (Just a theory)

Originally Posted by Grungebob

She’s riding the never released manticore! That is doubly awesome!

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[insert hexagon emoji here]

Originally Posted by Encarmine

I’ll make a deal with the crew though. I’ll change up things next week on the Designers Notes, mix it up.

How about on Monday, we start talking “Terrain” ?

Up to you all, we have many more units to share, but we keep seeing a lot of comments around the terrain.

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This news from Discord is almost a week old now (late on the 2nd + early on the 3rd), but somehow I only just found out and I didn't see it posted in this thread:

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

We were fortunate enough today to have the opportunity to add @Superfrog as a playtester. I'm glad he was available.

We added three people yesterday.

In addition to @Superfrog we also were fortunate to get @vegietarian18 and @Scytale.

...

There are many worthy people in the community.
I want to give everybody hugs. I don’t want anybody to feel left out. But so it goes.

So true. And yet the nature of the beast is that the final number must be low.

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We've got something from Facebook this time. For convenience, I'm transcribing it the same way as everything else.

Originally Posted by Christopher Nadeau

I predict something different.

Also, something for the more immediate future:

Originally Posted by Encarmine

Monday should be fun. I’m going to watch all the scalpers on eBay lose their minds.

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Originally Posted by Encarmine

DESIGNER'S NOTES - DAY 034 - "THE WORLD OF VALHALLA IS BOTH BEAUTIFUL AND TERRIBLE TO BEHOLD" Whether we speak of the sprawling forests of Bleakwoode, the murky depths of Durgeth Swamp, the impenetrable and vile Ticalla Jungle, or even under the ancient trees of the Forgotten Forest, where the Kyrie dare not tread; The forests, groves, jungles and swamps of Valhalla have seen their share of war. Armies hide their advancement under vast canopies of green, warriors ambush their wary adversaries from the cover of thick foliage and the defeated hide in the natural camouflage to plot their violent revenge. Before the war, they represented the pinnacle of beauty on Valhalla, the lush riches of a perfect world, today they have become the implements of war.

URL is "I_Wouldn't_Eat_Those_Berries_If_I_Were_You".
Note the silhouettes of a kyrie wielding a polearm and shield, which we've never seen before.

Originally Posted by Encarmine

Also concepted:

URL is "Old_Mans_Beard".

Originally Posted by Encarmine

I plan on doing all week if you're cool?

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Tonight is ruins night. The kyrie silhouette appears again... and a tiny baseball player in the bottom-left is here too, I guess.

Originally Posted by Encarmine

DESIGNER'S NOTES - DAY 035 - "WAR IS THE SCIENCE OF DESTRUCTION" The Kyrie people are a proud and noble society, and in those long forgotten times of peace they were capable of great works of architecture and craftsmanship, with spires raising as high into the clouds as their wings could carry them. As the war spread across Valhalla, devastation reigned supreme, and the arts of war and siegecraft were all that mattered anymore to those same engineers and architects. Now monuments to the carnage and markers for their loss, the world of Valhalla is littered with a long and mysterious history now crumbling under the strain of ceaseless battle. A sorrowful testament to some, ideal fortifications to others.

File name: "Past_The_Edge_Of_Destruction".

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(This is not today's update)

Originally Posted by Intergalactic Patrick

As promised, I snuck into Encarmine office and grabbed this pic. No other context, just test proofs.

Featuring the Widow and the Lich Lord, whose name has been confirmed as

Originally Posted by Encarmine

*Iron Lich Viscerot

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Well this is hilariously straightforward...

Originally Posted by Encarmine

DESIGNER'S NOTES - DAY 036 - "Scalpers...NO SCALPING!!!" (Come on everyone, you know what you're looking at here. To be fair, how could we NOT do this?)

URL: "We_Did_Say_We_Hate_Scalpers".