Ask The Devs #1: August 2022

Welcome to a new monthly Q&A series presented by the Conqueror’s Blade development team! We’re starting with questions focusing on the current season of Conqueror’s Blade (Helheim), but this is just the beginning.

We’ve gathered your burning questions and paid attention to feedback from the community to bring you this instalment, so we hope you enjoy the insight from the developers at Booming Tech!

Q: Why did the team decide to make a second Viking-themed season rather than one with a new theme?

A: The Viking era is too vast to cover in a single season. After Season VII: Wolves of Ragnarök, which focused on the early Germanic and Scandinavian mythologies (Sons of Fenrir, Berserkers, and Shieldmaidens), many players requested that we add Vikings more akin to the massive and brutal warriors of history.

Many asked for the Huskarls and Varangian Guards. And with those two units, the game now features five Viking-inspired units, rivalling the rosters of our units inspired by China and Western Europe.

(Editor’s Note: Check out the Behind the Scenes article about this very subject here!)

Q: Why did the team decide to only release two units this season?

A: As this is the first time ever we've only released two units, we believe it’s important that we explain our reasoning.

First of all, designing and creating units' behaviours, animations, and balancing takes plenty of resources and effort. This means that the devs working on these are unable to undertake other equally important tasks. We have collected a lot of feedback from our players that focussing on releasing new units may slow down the game as a whole and that perhaps we should focus more on fixing balance issues and bugs.

We wanted to give our design team and animators time to polish existing animations and AI behaviours, and work on improving the balance of existing units and heroes.

The team was able to release weekly balance patches and address multiple issues for heroes like the Glaive and Nodachi during the production of Helheim. These changes are our initial steps for making these two weapons more viable in the current meta, and we will be analysing data before making any further changes.

Regarding Unit balance, we made changes to the Ottoman-inspired units (Azaps, Jannisaries, and Royal Janissaries), adjusted the Shieldmaidens slightly, and re-worked the Mongolian-inspired Kheshigs. In addition, we made over a hundred minor changes to other units and worked on AI behaviours, animation bugs, and map balancing.

Q: How does the team select themes for new seasons?

A: Many factors play a part in the decision-making. Firstly, while Conqueror's Blade is not a historically accurate game, it is heavily inspired by history and encompasses certain historical time periods from which we seek inspiration for factions, units, and stories. We want the units on the battlefield to look organic when fighting one another, as opposed to having a melting pot of units from every possible era all mashed into one.

While we are based in China, we are an international company with an intercultural team comprising members from all across the globe, similar to how our players come from all over the world. This is why we aim to create a game with a multicultural representation of factions and units.

Some themes and cultures are expansive and very popular among our players, and we naturally want to expand on these when possible.

We need to respect the lore and world vision of Conqueror's Blade. Each following season must be connected and naturally integrated into the world with respect to the game's geography and the lore of previous seasons.

Finally, players often express their opinion on desired factions, and that plays a part in which theme we choose.

Q: Are there any plans to remove "Play X Mode" quests from Seasonal Unit Challenges to make them more accessible?

A: We are continuously adjusting Weekly Challenges and Unit Challenges and plan to continue doing so throughout the upcoming seasons. As many players have noticed, we are adding more and more alternative choices for challenges so that each player can choose those that they enjoy.

At the same time, we want to encourage players to play a variety of game modes and not only grind Siege Battles. That's why we plan to add more alternative goals that can be completed within PvP sieges while still retaining the challenges of other game modes.

Q: Are there any plans to introduce more Weapon Classes to the game?

A: New weapons are always a hot topic when it comes to a new season. For sure, we would love to add more weapons to Conqueror's Blade and plan to do so. However, that being said, we won't be adding new weapons as often as we add units due to balancing reasons and the development time required.

We've seen some really cool ideas from the community and have had serious discussions about those (and I do believe some of you have received our feedback). It also takes plenty of time to bring new features into the game. Most importantly, we would love to hear your crazy and creative ideas! You guys are like a never-ending spring of fantastic ideas!

That's all for the first instalment of Ask The Devs! We know that you have plenty of other questions that need answering, and the Conqueror’s Blade community team will be choosing the most popular topics and sharing feedback with the Development team for next time. Keep sharing your thoughts with us on Discord!