Finishing the feature development of an archetype (like the recently-released Templar) is always an exciting time for us as it means we are not only giving you something new and fun to play, but it also means we have started work on another new archetype. For those of you who guessed from our Valentine’s Day video featuring Eric Hart modeling a heart-shaped dagger, the next archetype is the Fae Assassin!
Now let’s talk mechanics!
We have always intended for the Assassin to be our canonical rogue style character with stealth, fast attack animations, poisons, pips and wings. (yes wings!) Thankfully much of the tech to build her has been made in some form when we made the Duelist and other previous archetypes. While the Duelist’s Burrow is a type of stealth, the difference with the Assassin’s is that she will be above ground and semi-translucent all the time. We will use the tech time we allot for every new archetype to make improvements to the stealth system, lay the groundwork for positional-based damage and some of the other cool tech goodies we have been waiting for the right time to implement.
Positional Attacks!
Currently when an archetype is hit, we just care about locations like head, torso, feet and hands. This allows us to check that slot and make mitigation checks versus whatever armor may be equipped in that slot. With the Assassin, we need to know which portion of the capsule was hit. Initially we are going to start with front or back so we can put in powers like Backstab. Since we don’t use a hard target system, we won’t prevent the character from performing a positional-based attack, just reward them if they land one.
One of our first playable archetypes, the Legionnaire, has had the defensive power Rear Kick since the early days. This power was only supposed to trigger when he got hit from behind. Now, with the positional-based tech we are building for the Assassin, we will also be able to make Rear Kick work as it was first envisioned. Positional benefits will start to play a much more important role in combat as we touch up some of the older powers and make sure they are in future powers.
We also plan to spend some time giving the Assassin a functional double jump. (We are going to be spending some time on how jump looks in general.) Her wings will enable her to glide down from heights, which should prevent fall damage and allow her to cover further distances via the glide.
With stealth and all her movement powers, I suspect she is going to be quite fun to fight with, and quite a challenge to fight against.
Here are a few quick renders to show how great she looks!
…and as a reminder for those who don’t read our site as often: While the Assassin was originally a “beast race” archetype, there was a fundraising stretch goal to create a male Assassin and, like all of our archetypes, both genders will be fully customizable…. we just haven’t started building our alternate sex or customization options for archetypes, yet!
Keep an eye here for more information about the Assassin’s powers and playstyle!