“I know you took my sandwich.” - the Ranger whose importance will soon be revealed



You’ll get a better look at him below, but as we populate your Player Camp and work through the storylines and Quests for Exiles, we’re designing the key actors in the dramas that you will encounter. One is your guide, your friend, your compatriot in knowing what’s what out there in the wilderness, and he will indeed fix you with that Gaze.

Last update, we focused on the Adventure Log, enemy Abilities, the full terror of the Bear, the new Forge and the long-promised 3D traveling camp.This time, it’s the “Explore” feature in PVE, a swashbuckling boss baddie, Embermark populations and the reveal of the Houses redux! Read on…



THAT MYSTERIOUS RANGER

As mentioned, we’re developing this character to help you, inform you and play a part in the drama that goes on within this castoff continent of Embermark. If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice some details from other characters we’ve show on him, and you’ll also covet his gear. Don’t worry, we’re figuring out how to get it to you.

His order will wield a blade such as this, but his will be… different.

Here we are in the new player camp, with an assortment of scrolls, maps and tomes upon the Ranger’s oaken table. Don’t take the “Ranger” menu button seriously– we’re figuring out what parts of the UI will be housed under this guy’s purview.

THE BLIZZARD

Few Abilities in the game come with a more chilling effect than the Mage’s cornerstone Blizzard. As we crank out the VFX for this milestone’s Abilities, we get a sneak peek at where this damaging, slowing spell’s look is developing.

And, of course, we need to see the caster’s effects too:

EXPLORE

As you Quest across the broken lands of Embermark, you will encounter an array of NPCs, make choices about everything from which political side to join to whether or not you should show mercy to a passerby. In addition, you will Explore. The twist on the typical random encounter here is that any given place on the world map where you can Explore can actually have any of the game’s PVE content available. In the below example, an Explore node of “Raiding The Realm” comes with a bunch of hidden content that the player will be served one of, after which they can replay the node to round out the exploration to the number of times available. You can imagine a node full of baddies, a lost treasure that’s super hard to “roll” or a key choice for you to make that you best not leave unchosen (lest some reputation not go the way it needs to).

DARKEYE AND HIS SYNDICATE

The Levels 1-10 experience, where players learn all of the various systems mechanics in the game, will have an assortment of foes to face on the way to freeing Wildewoods from the treachery of the Darkeye Syndicate.

That Syndicate is led by a boss you will eventually face, and he not only dual-wields nasty swashbuckling swords, he’s hiding a blunderblaster behind him… and he WILL use it.

He’s not going to come at you every round of combat, though. He’s mortal, after all. He’ll need to reload.

BADDIE POPULATIONS

This is very much a work-in-progress tool, but the design team is exploring how to visually represent populations and danger and such on the map. An early experiment in this is a heat map we’ve put together to show where some of the key enemies (or simply beings) are concentrating themselves.

It’s not data driven yet, so don’t get too caught up in where the Ethereals lie, but if you want to fiddle around with some of the thinking behind starting populations, check this out.

QUEST INTROS

Part of the design challenge for an RPG like this– making it fiercely mobile while satisfying the needs of a fantasy enthusiast– is providing enough lore and setting for those who desire that flavor while making it super-fluid and quick for those who don’t. How a player gets into an Encounter has changed a bit throughout the game’s development as we think through that challenge.

THE DUNGEON AUTHORING TOOL

A few Updates ago, we previewed the mocks for the way dungeons in Exiles will lay out and and work. And now, we have a TOOL.

It might not be pretty, but it’s awesome. The tool we’re putting together allows a designer to create, edit, populate and publish an Exiles dungeon to the game in real-time (as long as the NPCs, lewtz, and other assets are in the database). We’ve baked in the ability to change configurations of “rooms,” author the difficulty of bad guys, copy and paste and create multiple-run dungeons.

And no, there won’t be a dungeon called this one’s name (but I wish there were).

HOUSE BANNERS

Houses. It’s a system we’re working on to give players cooperation, competition and purpose. It’s a piece of the Exiles lore that frames up history, factionalism and ideals.

We’ve shared a lot about this system in the past. And I’ve shared that the ongoing lore development has led to some changes. Two Houses remained largely the same. Two changed names but not details. And two changed both.

On top of that, we’ve designed the banners to represent not just the ideals of the Houses (that your Guild will one day declare for), but some of the finer points of their cultures too. You will find in each banner multiple images or designs (notice the borders even) that tell you multiple things about each House.

Take a look– and plan on hearing much more about each…

(higher res version here)

ROGUE LOOT

Many in the Exiles community have been pining for the introduction of the game’s Rogue class, and I assure you– no one is as impatient for backstabbing and guile-y hijinks than me. But we’re slowly getting into the production of our 3rd Class as we do a million other things, and the fruits of that production are starting to show.

In the form of loot! Soon enough, you’ll be wielding daggers like this:

Medium chest-pieces like this:

And (if we can make it work) even cloaks! (which would naturally be in the Shoulders loot slot) like this:

NEW BATTLEGROUNDS

As we dive deeper into where you’ll be battling baddies (and each other), another couple environments that we’ll use quite a bit include the spooky ruins…

…and the Bog of Boggeyness (soon to be renamed).

DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER…



We’ll keep sharing details as we head toward testing (go here to sign up for testing and be among The First), and you can count on early impressions from the testers throughout our various channels.

If you haven’t already, follow along with Exiles development on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And if you haven’t, I’ll find you. And SMITE you.

CONNECT WITH OTHER EXILES

If you want to hear about the game, ask questions or connect with others who are helping the development team think about features, design and narrative, hop into the Discord Channel for live chat and say hi– it’s a friendly crew with plenty of daily/weekly/sometimes-planned shenanigans.

BONUS: THE ELF LIKE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN HIM

We’ve shared much about the Exiles version of elves (the Highs left during the Collapse, the Woods are sooooper angry about it, and the others– well– we’ll get to that). And though we won’t light them up in the game this way, the model is quite dramatic presented as such.

BONUS 2: DROPPING A COSMIC SHELL ON YOUR DUMB HEAD

You’re not there yet, but you can imagine what it would be like, right?

BONUS 3: A PRE-TEXTURE ARCANE WALL



Ability: Arcane Wall. Effect: Serious blocking.

(check out the too-big-for-Tumblr gif here)