Swords and Sorcery - Sovereign is the sequel to Swords and Sorcery - Underworld, currently available on Steam (demo and full):
http://store.steampowered.com/app/408400
The game series emulates party-based RPGs with grid based, first person perspective exploration, turn-based encounters and myriads of complex features that work together to revisit what kept the first generation of role-playing gamers up all night playing (inventory, puzzles, tactics, character development, exploration, NPC interaction, bestiary...).
Sovereign remains, at the core, a very similar game to Underworld but expands on the formula.
*** Combat ***
Combat (turn-based, tactical) remains very much the same as it was in Underworld. Other than the availability of new spells and skills, as well as a long list of new monsters with new abilities of their own, combat is centered on selecting an option for each character when his/her turn comes up from either a list of spells, tactical positionning, offensive or defensive abilities or special skills. There are about 200 monsters planned, or almost twice as many as there were in Underworld, offering larger tactical variety than the Underworld bestiary did.
*** A large open world ***
The teaser gives a sense of the large variety of environments to explore and the map in the screenshots hints at 48 overworld maps, and many more cities, dungeons, caves, underwater areas, and places beyond the "known world". This adds up to well over 100 areas to explore!
*** New magic system ***
One of the effects of a large open world is that exploration can reward the party with new spells, rather than have them be awarded by a trainer. Also, proficiency in various schools of magic can be developped (neophyte to master), and this, however, does require finding trainers and fulfilling their requirements.
There are four to choose from. A caster can choose to specialize in one or unlock more. Necromancy is only available to those that have learned Elemental, Light and Illusionist so there is some incentive for at least one character to risk spreading him/herself thin.
Each of the four schools has four pillars and higher level spells. Elemental, for instance, is the most straight-forward with Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Higher Elemental spells. Pillars only contain four spells each, but this allows for the same policy as Underworld's: making each spell valuable in its own way.
Each pillar requires a learning process from Neophyte to Master. Proficiency in the school can only be as high as the highest rank obtained in the four pillars, and the same goes for the higher level spells.
I wanted to keep using spell components (runes and holy water), but this needed to be adapted to remain compatible with the possibility for all casters to learn more than their native school of magic. At first, a priest only knows Light magic and can cast Holy Water. Later, if he/she learns Elemental magic, which is the Sorcerer's specialty, He/she will not be able to collect runes. But runes are no longer necessary to cast any of the Elemental spells. Rather, they can be used to make them more powerful.
The same goes with the spell Holy Water. It is the one Light spell only Priests will ever be able to use, and they can spend Holy Water to enhance any spell they cast (including spells from other schools).
Therefore, the new class, Druid, is somewhat gimped. They will never have access to any components. But they start out with some proficiency in Elemental, Light and Illusionist and will find more redeeming factors in the course of their travels.
*** Skills ***
There are combat skills and non-combat skills. Some are active and some passive. Combat skills give several new combat options but there are still only three active combat skill slots, so choices will need to be made. Skiils currently include options that could rightly be called feats, so there is no separate feature for those as of today. This may evolve depending on workload though.
*** NPC interaction ***
I am looking to offer more choices than I did in Underworld, but will hold off on details for now as this can easily get out of hand if dialogue trees branch out too much (for a one-man team to handle).
*** Crafting ***
Sovereign has a basic crafting sytem planned. Rather than a very long list of mostly useless craftable items, it will be restricted to fewer but more rewarding recipes. Proficiency in crafting will be determined by what level of mastery has been unlocked, which in turn will require minimal attribute scores and dealing with the proper trainer. I believe this will make crafting interesting, while taking out necessity to grind that characterizes many crafting systems that reward by useage. Your party will have access to basic reagents for sale, but will need to find rare reagents for the most powerful items.
*** Factions ***
I currently have six factions planned and choosing which one to side with will determine access to quests and their rewards which can include equipment, spells, and skills. Some do overlap though so all choices do not permanently bar access to anything but can offset some until another opportunity arises.
Check out the screenshots and video, stay tuned for development updates and please vote for inclusion on Steam!
