Hard to believe it has already been six weeks since I introduced the Myrmidon to everyone! Now that he is what we consider “feature complete” (meaning he is in the final bug fixing and tuning phase), it is time to turn our gaze to our next up-and-coming archetype: the Duelist!
Yes, he is a giant, intelligent guinea pig… or, as we call them in Crowfall®, a Guinecean. (pronounced guh-KNEE-shun. It rhymes with “venetian blinds”.)
If I recall correctly, the entire development team was pretty excited to build this guy… at first. Todd ruined that. The Art team thought he would be super fun (but Todd wasn’t happy with the look), the Design team was excited to build the powers (until Todd disagreed with our vision) and the Engineering team was relieved to find out that he didn’t require any new tech (which, of course, changed as soon as Todd clarified the vision.)
In retrospect, this guy was almost as painful to create as the Legionnaire.
BUT LUCKILY, after banging our heads against the wall for a few weeks (especially our character artist Eric, poor Eric!) we finally nailed it. The result is an archetype that will be a fantastic addition to the Crowfall archetype lineup.
So what does the final vision look like now that it is fully formed? Well, he’s an interesting mix: he looks like a guinea pig, moves like Reepicheep from Chronicles of Narnia, has the mannerisms of Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride and fights with both melee and ranged powers.
Oh, and he’s “bouncy”. (“But don’t make him too cartooney!” Todd added, as if this was an obvious goal for a talking rodent.)
Translating this mix into a playable character was challenging. It’s still challenging, to be honest. We’re not done yet. (Poor, poor Eric. Poor, poor Doggett and Cook!)
The Duelist will join the Ranger as one of our Specialist role archetypes.
In the case of powers and resources we decided his power tray has no power combos, instead he…
- uses a traditional rogue style combo point resource system,
- which drives quick melee and ranged attacks,
- only has a single power tray, and
- can go into burrow mode. (let the speculation begin!)
We’re still early in the process, and (as always) some of this is exploration. We will try him to see what works, and what doesn’t and then adapt the vision to what is actually possible (and fun) in the game.
Here are a few quick renders to show badass this guy looks!
…and as a reminder for those who don’t read our site as often:
- As this is one of our “monster” archetypes, there is no corresponding female version of this archetype (…yet?!)
- Yes, we will ABSOLUTELY allow for full appearance customization in the game at launch!
That’s it for today! Keep an eye here for more information about the Duelist’s powers and playstyle!
See you on the forums,
Thomas Blair
Design Lead, ACE