Development Update! Last week, we managed to get personal “Floats” up and running. This was a challenging milestone for RoS, but the results were well worth it.

Floats are the type of housing used in RoS. Much like the town of Nidaria, Floats reside in the upper atmosphere of Skystone, safe from the haze below. Floats are then grouped together into small Clusters.

Each Cluster represents a shared interest, or specific group of friends. All Floats of a specific Cluster are tethered to the Cluster’s hub, a sort of town square. You wont have to worry about Navigating around to different floats on your own, just use your map menu to browse or search for a specific float or cluster hub.

You can deck out your Float with furniture and spoils that you have accumulated over time. Although your Float initially only has one floor, additional floors can be added with the help of Cypress at the Housing Department. Each floor’s wallpaper, flooring, trim, can be customized. When adding a floor, you will have multiple footprints to choose from.

If you’re in your own float (and you have no visitors), you can click the “Edit Floor” button to take you to the easy-to-use Float Editor. You will have options to lock/unlock your doors, only allow friends, and/or kick out unwelcome guests. Your visitors will be able to rate your float based on your design skills, and at the end of the week, the player with the most popular float will be awarded with a traveling trophy.

We could go on and on about all the details on the Floats, but we will save that for later. Plus, we have to get back to work!

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Posted by Tony under Gameplay | Comments » (8 comments) |

You may have seen this character hanging out in some of our previous screenshots: He is a Nidarian Rook, one of many.

Rooks are members of the prestigious army of Nidaria. They are the first wave of troops to enter new lands, and set up strategic checkpoints for players on the ground. You will find these sharpshooting Aeronauts guarding the Etherillium Coils from wayward Mimics. While on the ground, Rooks will point you in the right direction, and quickly drag you to safety if the Mimics get the best of you.

Not only will you encounter these soldiers on the ground, but you will also see them in the town of Nidaria. Some can be found on duty, dealing out quests at Mission Deployment. Here you will be able to take on the latest challenges issued by the General. If you are skilled enough to complete them, you will be rewarded for your hard work.

This is one of the many ways that you can take on “quests” in RoS. All of your missions will be organized in your handy Quests menu, where you will be able to view all active and completed quests, as well as get detailed information about each. Don’t worry, if a quest ends up being more then you can handle, you always have the option of abandoning it.

Some of the Rooks that you encounter may also be on break, enjoying their free time on Nidaria’s many levels. If you talk to them, who knows what they may end up chatting about…

Learn to love these gas-masked grunts, because when times are tough, they may be your only hope of survival.

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Posted by Tony under Characters | Comments » (6 comments) |

Within the industrial landscape of Nidaria lies a lush park at its topmost level. Depending on what side of town you are coming from, the park can be accessed by zip cord or air-lift. On this level, you can chat under the shade of the maple trees, check out some rankings (we’ll discuss that another time), or visit the weathered shack known as the “Housing Department”.

This is where the NPC (non-playable character), Cypress, comes into play.

He works (and practically lives) in the Housing Department, the RoS equivalent of the DMV. Even though work is slow, he has to maintain his dreary post all day and night. When he’s not filing papers, he’s either drawing, tinkering, or dreaming of adventure. People started to notice his rare talent, and would ask him to draw things they would encounter on missions. He had an uncanny knack for taking their descriptions and accurately illustrating them on his office note cards. He soon started to frame his drawings in pocket-watch sized lockets, which he fondly referred to as “Sprockets”. When you open one up, the left side displays a drawing while the right side has a brief description of the subject matter.

After a while, he made a name for himself with his Sprockets, and found himself with a fulfilling side job. He soon (after filing all proper paper-work) converted the second window of the Housing Department to be his own personal “Sprocket Booth”. He makes his Sprockets for players by giving them a challenge relating to its content (kill 20 Mimitaur to get the Mimitaur Sprocket). Then when the challenge is complete, he draws up the picture for you from your own experience.

Not only do players collect Sprockets, but so do the NPCs around town (they are pretty popular in Nidaria). Sometimes, if you are lucky and scratch a few backs, an NPC will reward you with a Sprocket from their own collection.

It’s also not rare, yet still unfortunate, that Sprockets get dropped from above and end up hidden on the haze-filled ground below. So, you may stumble upon a Sprocket as you explore the land.

The Sprockets are divided into multiple series, so you could have the “Rooks” Series A, which has 16 sprockets total, but you only have #1,#5, and #9, so keep on collecting. Maybe you are focused on collecting “Lana Westwood” series B, which covers her back-story, and how she got to Nidaria.

This should be an interesting way to introduce the stories, history, myths and other info in bite-sized, collectible amounts. This way, players can slowly connect the dots of the world of Skystone.

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Posted by Tony under Town | Comments » (3 comments) |