Hey Everyone,
After months of working in silence finally there is enough stuff to show and tell about, so from now on there are new posts planned every few weeks until release. I’m really sorry for the long time gap since the last post and thank you if you’re still here!
The name of the next GC will be “GemCraft lost chapter: Frostborn Wrath”.
It won’t be the last one in the series, it will tell a story branching in to the main storyline, starting in time just when GCCS ends with the walls of the Spiritforge trembling. There is a world map in the journey notes in GCCS, where you can see a territory not so far involved in the game’s events, named “Frozen forever”, Frostborn Wrath will start there. But more on the story for those who are interested on GCFW’s journey note pages, let’s see the actual game features, starting in this post with gem creating and shrines.
Creating gems has changed a lot not only since GCCS, but since the last screenshot too. The original plan was to reduce the gem creating process to one click and thus make it more straightforward for new players. If you look at the first GCFW screenshot from last December, there was a gem grade selector, which disappeared in the latter post’s screenshot. Playing around with gems showed that it was weird always ending up with grade one gems, so now gem grade can be adjusted for all gems to be created. Setting it to its maximum will make it automatically adjust as you gain or lose mana, so you can always create the best possible gem.
Once created, gems can simply upgraded with the mouse wheel (only upwards of course), while for gems on the battlefield, the mouse wheel fine-tunes the firing range, just as in GCCS.
Shrines had quite an odd role in the last game, they were supposed to be epic, stopping time and unleashing a wave of destruction, but since they were dropped by sparks by the dozen in weird places, many times far from the main path, and they demanded a gem for which they didn’t really give a reasonable return, they were mostly only useful during early game or for getting some achievements.
Sparks don’t arrive anymore stuffed between waves, so shrines won’t be appearing in the middle of the battle, they will be placed carefully to have the real power to make a difference in the battle’s standing.
Shrines won’t need a gem to be sacrificed anymore, instead, after clicking them to activate, they will gather the damage potential of all the gems placed in buildings, and launch those already familiar ghostly waves, dealing both a fixed damage and taking a ratio of all the hit points of the foes caught in the line of fire. Also, the more gems in play, the higher the damage bonus.
That would be for now, sorry and thanks again for still keeping waiting if you read this! Next time I’ll cover the new enraging system and linked waves.
