Wartales Q&A #5: Contracts & Quests
Attention Mercenaries!
Welcome to this weeks Q&A with the wartales devs!
Today, Quentin is digging into the many types of quests and contract work within the world of Wartales, including (but most definitely not limited to) taking out huge groups of bandits, escorting (or attacking) caravans, smuggling contraband, involving yourself in geopolitical issues, narrative quests and how they affect the world and more...
Read on to find out more!
What kind of contracts can I expect to find?
"In Wartales, you play as a band of mercenaries who roam the plains and mountains of a harmonious but ruthless medieval universe. Survival is difficult and your companions need to be paid, fed, have their armour in good condition, heal their wounds, satisfy their desires... In short: you need money!
Luckily, in these lands, bandits, wolves and other misguided individuals abound and attack honest merchants and brave peasants. So sometimes, those who have some money left over advertise in the villages, in exchange of a service for a few krowns. The supply is high in the villages and the emissaries have to manage the flow of contracts in order to offer the mercenaries only the most lucrative ones.
There are different types of contracts that provide a renewal of the gameplay and a variety of objectives. You can expect to track down a rival gang that is causing chaos in the area, loot all the riches of a bandit's hidedout, attack a caravan carrying contraband liquor (you can always keep the liquor and say it has been misplaced), escort a caravan of foreign peddlers, eliminate a powerful and feared individual, trade with the village of another region, and many more... including contracts specific to each region!
And, if you have a hard tooth, you can negotiate the price of your contracts yourself!"
Are contracts randomly generated?
"Some of it is, indeed. There are two types of contracts in the game at the moment. The first is the procedurally generated contract, which follows very specific rules. If you need money, rest assured: villages will mostly have generated contracts to do and if you don't like some of them, you can always reroll them to get new ones that fit your desires or if you want to group contracts from common locations to maximise your time out of the village. The above list of contract types is only a portion of the ones you will solve but it is representative of what you can do.
The other type of contract is related to the game's narrative system: in each region, you will have the opportunity to experience the resolution of a scenario. While they are by no means mandatory, each scenario in each region is unique and represents the geographical, social and geopolitical issues of the region. For example, in one of the starting regions, war refugees have invaded a region: you can help them settle or, on the contrary, drive them out. Your choices will have a direct impact on the region: you will no longer come across refugees on the roads, the burgomaster will no longer be the same character, certain products will have disappeared from the stalls, etc.
Accepting a "scenario" contract will allow you to experience something different and unique that still exploits the basic mechanics of the game by taking new angles of approach. For example, you can participate in the destruction of a strategic bridge by performing a particular mining activity. Such contracts take longer to resolve, with more steps and twists, and have more narrative stakes than those procedurally generated. We believe that juggling these two types of contracts provides a balance of gameplay and, by extension, interest in the world of Wartales."
Are contracts the only type of quest?
"Not really. There are several layers of completion of a region. The first layer represents the scenario: once it is completed, the scenario layer of the region is completed and it then lies in its final state.
Next, you will be dealing with the objectives of the points of interest. Indeed, most of the points of interest you will come across, such as sawmills, farms or watchtowers, will have their own objectives. These will be referenced on your map, but we have chosen to be evasive about the process of solving them: we want to keep you involved in the game and we are scattering clues in these places to invite you to take action to find out how to solve the objective. Outside of the village contracts, these objectives represent another type of "quest" even if the format is different from that traditionally used in games of the same genre.
Finally, once the scenario has been completed, the contracts finished, all the location objectives validated, you'll have to wander around the area to find the secrets we've taken great pleasure in disseminating. This is the final layer of completing a region.
Other elements take the form of quests in the regions but they are connected to bigger systems that we can't wait to introduce you to: tracking down the Ghost Pack, becoming the local arena champion, clearing out rat nests, exploring a Tomb of the Ancients... and many others !"
