Lichdom

Friday

Lord Nagafen Raider
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UPDATE 20 APRIL 2014

I thought I would toss an update to this game. I think the name has been changed to Lichdom: Battlemage. It has been released on Steam forEARLY ACCESS. TheWEBSITEhas also undergone some changes? I think. They used to have a community forum where the devs responded now but it looks like it has been moved over tosteam discussion area. New video (Lets Play format, from a random video on the steam community page) below.




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Xaviant, Atlanta, Georgia based releasing their first game mid 2014,Lichdom. 1st person Action-Magic using Cryengine 3.

Lichdom is a violent world, where cruel tyrants terrorize the people, and where dark magic corrupts the very land itself. Only one has spent centuries trying to cure the disease that plagues the world: Roth. No one knows who he is, or where he comes from, only that he fights the darkness across the ages.
Now he has returned and has chosen the player as his new champion. As the player, you are "the Dragon," wielder of the most powerful magic the world has ever seen. With it, you will craft an arsenal of magic and create hundreds of different spells to combat the darkness that has engulfed the world. You are the Redeemer.

"YOU WILL FEEL EVERYTHING"
"Our mantra is 'you will feel everything,' which means that our approach to designing games is focused on immersing the player completely in the game," said Michael McMain, CEO and creative director of Lichdom. "When gamers play our games, we want them to forget about things like controllers and keyboards. With Lichdom, we've achieved just that."
The action in Lichdom is intense and dynamic. An advanced targeting system targets enemies based on player intent, rather than manual aim, making the experience feel much more like casting magic and much less like aiming a weapon. In addition, players are not bound by constraints like mana or cooldowns that slow the action, making the gameplay far more fluid.
Lichdom also brings a vast, loot-based approach to spell casting. Players get to craft their own spells, rather than finding books or trainers that teach spells others have constructed. By manipulating a diverse set of properties, players can decide how they want their spells to behave and interact with other spells. Players choose between ultimate diversity in spell selection, or powerful, but complex, synergies to create new, dynamic effects with a smaller selection of spells.
CRYENGINE will bring Lichdom's gameplay, graphics and effects to life with amazing clarity.
"The Xaviant team is highlighting the incredible versatility of CRYENGINE by crafting a unique role-playing combat experience," said Avni Yerli, managing director of Crytek. "We are always thrilled when licensees report that our technology allows them to break new ground in terms of game design as well as graphics, and Lichdom is a stunning example in both regards."
The game's visuals and action will get a further boost from AMD's new audio technology, TrueAudio. The technology will speed the process of creating deeper, richer sounds and music, which in turn will add a completely new dimension to the overall gaming experience.
"AMD TrueAudio technology is a revolution for in-game audio," said Ritche Corpus, director of developer relations and alliances team, Graphics Business Unit, AMD. "It frees game developers to put their unique artistic fingerprint on gaming audio in the same manner that the programmable pipeline did for graphics. We are very excited that Xaviant has adopted the technology to bring their vision to life in Lichdom."
All of these elements and technologies will combine to make the player's climb to power a very satisfying and rewarding experience that they will not soon forget.

 

Vaclav

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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Have fond memories of Hexen - will have to see how it develops.
 

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
<Gold Donor>
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Not much boner inducing about the trailer, imo. It didn't help that it seemed like the dude was getting pummeled in every scene.
 

Rime

<Donor>
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I was hoping that I got to be the Lich and run around, murdering everyone and raise an army of the undead. But the subtitle of 'The Redeemer' or whatever makes that seem unlikely.
 

Seananigans

Honorary Shit-PhD
<Gold Donor>
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But apparently you get to fight the darkness. With magic missiles, perhaps?
 

Alex

Still a Music Elitist
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Not much boner inducing about the trailer, imo. It didn't help that it seemed like the dude was getting pummeled in every scene.
No kidding. The way the character awkwardly holds up their hands is distracting too.
 

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
<Gold Donor>
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No kidding. The way the character awkwardly holds up their hands is distracting too.
I tried not to let the hand thing bother me, but now that you mention it I would like a little more variety and maybe hands dropping below view occasionally or off screen at times.
 

Randin

Trakanon Raider
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Looks like a Skyrim devoted solely to magic users, but without the extra polish and depth that ought to come with a focus on one gameplay style.
 

Caliane

Avatar of War Slayer
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yeah the hands looked terrible. but you have to remember you are a Lich. of course you are walking around like Nosferatu.
 

Droigan

Trakanon Raider
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Bought this game today.

They have updated it with voices, tutorials, etc from when I saw it last.

Played it for about an hour, quite fun. Read through on the forums that while the initial level(s) are a bit corridor ish, the later ones are supposed to be much more open ended, each one taking 3-6 hours depending on your focus on exploration.

My negatives so far
- Need a much better tutorial on the spell crafting aspect
- Lack of jump is noticed in any game of this sort

Other than that, it seems quite nice. There is a 40% price reduction until June 21st, but I think they have raised the price on it lately. Because I seem to recall it being 20, while now it is 22 euro with the price reduction.
 

Droigan

Trakanon Raider
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Little update again.

Played this roughly 3-4 hours now. It is really fun. If it keeps up, I think it can turn into a little sleeper hit (I certainly haven't seen much press about it yet).

Kind of a Dark Messiah type of feel to it. FPS hack and slash with magic instead of weapons. Bit difficult too, die and mobs respawn, so if you find an area hard, you need to adapt to it. Most areas though can be somewhat cheesed by running away with only a few mobs after you. Harder areas tend to be the "hidden" boss / wave rooms. Either by going off the main route or by finding items that teleport you to boss areas, you tend to be confined in those, and it can be difficult considering how hard most mobs hit if you miss a block or evade. A power swing from regular trash can easily take half you health (1.5 life bars). And once a bar is gone, it won't replenish without finding a shield urn.
--- Annoying bug = sometimes shield urns poofs without you getting to use them.

If you enjoy being a mage, you will most likely end up enjoying this. It is Skyrim magic done right. No mana bars, just cast time, so can spam spells and maintain burst spells constantly.

Regarding spell configurations, it has gotten a bit more complex now. Each spell you learn (start with fire and ice) has 3 modes. Block, range and AE. Each of those can again be configured in several ways. AE can be instant DD or a dot, or a trap, or a trap with a dot or dd. Ranged can be a homing projectile, lob (goes in an arch), splash damage, transfer between people (mainly lighting). Block has several types of trigger effects too. You can make spells really simple or complicated.

Spells are augmented from the only loot I have seen in the game, which are orbs of varying abilities. These can be crafted into your base spells or synthesized to expand/change their abilities. As you progress through checkpoints, the orb drops gain +1 in power at each checkpoint you go through without dying. I think you only get new spells at certain checkpoints, I have only gotten Lightning so far. When I chose that, I had the option of 4 different types. Not sure how many spells are in the game at the moment, but that seems to be the main thing to develop in the game so far, as there is no armor or level ups that I have seen, just spell/orb drops that augment your powers.

Not sure how long it is, but can see re-playability in it as well just by trying different spells.

So far, verdict is "Fun". And it certainly is graphically impressive, and runs quite well.

EDIT: Better overview of the current spells from a dev

Here's how Spell variety is handled in the final version (most, but not all of this is available in the alpha version):

8 "Sigils" of magic (Fire, Ice, Lightning, Corruption, Kinesis, Delirium, and two unannounced types)

3 types of behavior for each Sigil (Destruction, Control, Mastery behavior), i.e. Destructive Ice Slows and does direct damage; Control Ice Freezes and stores Shatter damage.

7 Patterns that allow you to cast the spells in different ways (Targeted Missile, Targeted Lob, Targeted Ray, Nova, Area of Effect, AOE Pool, AOE Smart Trap)

Further, each spell can be cast normally or with a charged crit, which further changes its behavior.

So that means that there are 168 base spells, each of which has different normal vs. crit behavior. When you craft them, you can use different crafting components to change their properties and stats, and in some cases add special behavior, which means there are thousands and thousands of ways to craft spells.

We worked very hard to ensure that each Sigil is differentiated from the others in terms of purpose and behavior, so you should never feel like your ice missile is simply a blue version of your fireball.
 

Droigan

Trakanon Raider
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This entered beta today (5.4 gig update)

BETA Early Access Release Notes :: Lichdom: Battlemage General Discussions

What's New in the Beta Build
NOTE: This update invalidates all save data from previous builds.

New Feature: New Game Plus
The game doesn't stop when you defeat the last boss. Unlock New Game Plus mode and play on as long as you like. Tackle challenging new objectives and earn new tiers of loot to craft the most powerful spells ever.

New Feature: Sigil Powers
Each Sigil has an inherent power that harnesses the energy of rare Apocalypticals. Learn to execute them and experience Flame Walls, Arc Lightning, and more exciting new spells.

Major Performance Optimizations
We have put a tremendous amount of effort into improving performance on low- and high-end hardware. We are modifying our minimum and recommended system specifications to reflect this.

Crafting System Improvements
The Crafting UI has had a significant overhaul focused on legibility and ease of use. We're not done yet, but Crafting new spells has never been easier or more rewarding.

Synthesis System Overhaul
Synthesis has been reconfigured and rebalanced to allow you to make meaningful choices when you run across items you don't want to use for crafting. A new Reforge feature lets you drop unwanted items into a magical slot machine that give you a chance at Legendary loot with minimal fuss.

UI Improvements
Most of the menus and Heads-Up Display elements have had a major overhaul. This work is still in progress, but just about everything looks better, runs faster, and is easier to use.

Balance Improvements
A big round of balance has been applied to spells, AI, loot stats, and drop rates. We're getting closer to our launch targets, but more work is coming.

Official support for Crossfire and SLI
Users with multiple graphics cards should now see significantly improved performance compared to a single card without graphical anomalies.

Official support for Eyefinity multi-display setups
Although there are some known issues that we are working on, users with 3X1 Eyefinity display setups should be seeing good results.

Known Issues in the BETA Build

Gameplay:

The damage dealt by a Synergy spell cast can contribute to the charging of the Synergy, which in some conditions can enable a crafty Battlemage to fire off Synergy spells very frequently. Enjoy the extra power while it lasts!
An active block will cap incoming damage at the current shield bar. At present, this includes fall damage. This gravity- and lava-defying extra protection will be reined in prior to final release.
The difficulty of the New Game Plus (NGP) areas is still being tuned. At present you may find yourself one-shotting enemies in one area and being one-shotted in another. The desired difficulty range (between "brutal" and "downright mean") should be arriving by final release.
Loot Machines will, on rare occasion, hold onto a piece of loot when the encounter is completed.
Delirium Sigil: Several issues are under investigation
Mastery does always cause your Pet to prioritize targets with Mastery correctly.
The reflect effect may trigger on ranged opponents even when they miss.
Delirium's Invisibility Sigil Power may dispel if one of your spells impacts a wall or other terrain. (It should only dispel when striking an enemy.)

Graphics:

You may encounter a black screen (with audio playing) on game startup. Disabling tessellation has mitigated this for some users, and most users will eventually get video after an extended wait. We're continuing to identify and address the issues underlying this behavior as we find them.
While greatly reduced in frequency, we have still seen the "whiteout" effect in snowy and icy areas in some circumstances. If you can reliably reproduce this issue please start a conversation in the Technical forum to help us identify and resolve the remaining problem scenarios.
A Blur effect that can happen during Boss fights can get 'stuck' in rare circumstances. Reloading the level will resolve this.
Crossfire and SLI: We recommend you disable anti-aliasing if you enable SLI (for now). You may see occasional framerate hitches with Crossfire as we continue to tune and optimize.
Eyefinity: You may see some UI overlap and positioning issues, and under rare circumstances may see graphical artifacts with the player hands/arms (e.g. appearing detached). Rest assured, the Dragon's arms have not been amputated. Fight on.
TressFx: Note: Enabling/disabling TressFX requires a game restart to take effect. Hair color may still be inaccurate, and hair components may be duplicated or otherwise appear floating in the world. Issues with hair everywhere will be addressed for final release.

Animation & Art:

A few characters may have weighting/morphing issues, these will be polished up prior to final release.
Some environmental foliage will 'regrow' after being subjected to fire damage.
We're continuing to polish the animation and physics treatment of enemies subjected to spells, particularly Kinesis.
Some of the "Ghost Echo" scenes still have placeholder or first-pass animations with distortion artifacts. These will be completed and polished for final release.
Lip-sync for most spoken dialog is still being polished and will be present in the final release.

UI:

There are a few areas where the UI is clipped or overlapping.
The descriptions of the Sigils in the Journal are inaccurate and will be updated for final release.
The Reliquary description of the Lightning Sigil is out of date.
Some of the loading screen tips still need a final spelling & grammar pass.

Other:

Avast Anti-Virus can prevent Lichdom from starting on certain machines with AMD hardware. This investigation is on-going; in the meantime uninstalling Avast and restarting will allow the game to start. There are several alternative AV products (including free ones such as Defender/Security Essentials from Microsoft) that will not interfere with Lichdom.
When the camera position is locked for cinematic purposes, gamepad/joystick controller input will only move on the X-axis.
Roth appears in the New Game Plus area, but his spoken dialog is not yet present.
 

Caliane

Avatar of War Slayer
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Just not into fps much lately.

Launch trailer looks WWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better then that old early access one.