Town Hall 1st Edition
about 3 years ago – Thu, Apr 29, 2021 at 10:43:01 PM

Greetings, tacticians.

We're publishing our first Town Hall a day early! This is an officially curated series of questions answered by Ocean Drive Studio's Creative Director for Lost Eidolons, Jin Sang! Every week we take questions asked by our community about the game, studio, or the people working on it and put it together in an official format. As a note, in the future all Town Halls will be on Friday. Check it out below.

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LetterDrone: Are there prerequisites to unlocking classes like in Final Fantasy Tactics or Fell Seal? Or is the system in Lost Eidolons more like Fire Emblem: Three Houses where it's more based on weapon proficiency to graduate into a different class?

Creative Director Jin Sang: There are prerequisites to unlock each class.  This could include character's level and/or proficiency level.  I'd rather say it's more like Fire Emblem: Three Houses in that matter.

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Zeke: Have you guys considered dungeons? Stuff like Midlight's Deep in FFT or the bunch of them in TO:LucT like PoTD and San Bronsa Ruins.

Creative Director Jin Sang: I have not considered dungeons yet.  I was more focused on story and the battles around it so far.  I was asked similar questions like end-game contents like endless dungeons and so on after we revealed the game. I'm open to this, but I can't confirm for now, and it might be beyond our immediate scope currently.

Zeke: Are there going to be any obscure requirement to unlock some characters?

Creative Director Jin Sang: I don't think so. While I could have done that, I decided that there wasn't a need for those kinds of obscure requirements to unlock characters. Instead, we made this system where characters visit the camp at certain points of the game and you need to build up a friendly relationship with them in order to recruit them.

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icyski: What are your thoughts on how the battle forecast layout in Lost Eidolons would work in combat? Will all information be shown to the player (like how much damage they will do, chance to crit, chance to miss) before they take an action?

Creative Director Jin Sang: I want players to have every single piece of information possible shown in an easy-to-digest format on the battlefield so that they can always make informed decisions.

icyski: Once the game releases will there be support for mods to the game?

Creative Director Jin Sang: Well, my ultimate goal is to support the mods and let users create the story and the battles as well! However we're constrained by resources right now, so I supposed it depends on the success of the game later on.

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Tsu: I'm just wondering if there might be features similar to the Ace Combat series where there are main battles you would always fight but that diverging paths occur based on choices made that lead to different combat encounters.

Creative Director Jin Sang: Well, I wish I could add those kinds of episodes but I don't think we can currently for Lost Eidolons. Maybe if we make a sequel!

Tsu: Will there be battles or encounters that will be grindable for strengthening characters during the story/campaign or will the strategy aspect extend to planning out experience amongst your characters?

Creative Director Jin Sang: People can play the way that they want. There is a set amount of EXP that we intend for players to get, but for those who really want to grind, they can continue grinding EXP beyond that but at a much slower rate than the intended amount.

Tsu: Will classes be limited to one type of weapon or will we have the ability to customize what weapons we have to an extent?

Creative Director Jin Sang: Characters can equip any type of weapons as you wish.  There's no limit on what you want to equip.  However, you will have to choose wisely what to equip since there will be some advantages and/or disadvantages.

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Severance Bane: Are there plans to add more classes, skills and class upgrades in later updates?

Creative Director Jin Sang: Currently there's 19 classes (not including two base classes) to choose.  Originally there were 10 more classes we wanted to add.  I had to make a decision to cut those for lots of reasons.  If I have a chance to add those after the launch, I'll definitely some of them back in!

Severance Bane: Will we be able to swap from a top down camera angle to a "behind the shoulder" kind of perspective during combat?

Creative Director Jin Sang: You can zoom in and out and rotate the camera during the combat but not the perspective.

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NoirValentine: How come there are only 3 backer options for being featured in the tooltip of unique weapons when there are 8 weapons?

Creative Director Jin Sang: Well, we decided not to give all 8 of them for backer options since there were some unique weapons related to the story that we wanted to keep the flavor text as vanilla as possible.

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Nortar: Are there any elves or non-human races? Can we kill them? How many?

Creative Director Jin Sang: For now, we've decided not to add any non-human races. Humanity is at the mercy of its own kind, and occasionally that of more supernatural creatures.

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MussoBro: What were some of the major inspirations for the story of the game?

Creative Director Jin Sang: I would say that there were two major inspirations.  One came from the history and mythos of ancient China and the other came from the games I developed and played that include the Legend of CaoCao and Fire Emblem series.

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Have a burning question that you definitely want answered at the next Town Hall? You can have your question featured at the next Town Hall by asking it in the #town_hall text channel on our Discord!

Story: The Mercenaries of Eliche
about 3 years ago – Wed, Apr 28, 2021 at 12:13:56 AM

Greetings, tacticians.

Last week we met our ambitious protagonist, Eden. To continue the story features, this week we'll be introducing you all to some of the key characters that are closest to him at the beginning of the game.

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Even a small-town hero can’t do everything on his own; he needs a crew that can back him up (and occasionally, keep him from doing something stupid). Today we'll be taking a closer look at two members of Eden's team: Robin and Robere.

At first glance, few would guess the genial-looking Robere to be a mercenary, much less part of a group like Eden's. A woodsman by trade, he hails from a small community outside the fortified town of Eliche, where he and Robin once resided in a carpenter's workshop as co-apprentices.

Resting on the edge of a monster-infested forest, the shop was a target of frequent attacks by colossal insects called formikants. Despite their best efforts to repel the beasts, the damage was often deducted from Robere and Robin's pay, a source of endless frustration. During one such encounter, a bold young mercenary captain and his friends (nearby on business at the time) stepped in to intervene. Impressed by Robere and Robin’s monster-fighting skill, he invited them to join his company, and the pair soon resettled in Lonetta.

As the oldest member of the crew, Robere maintains the group's hideout and looks after the others, particularly Robin. He also does most of the cooking.

Robere’s polar opposite, Robin is a spunky young hothead somehow even more cocky than Eden himself. He enjoys the adventurous life of a mercenary, and considers the crew his family.

Known for boasting about his exploits to attract romantic attentions, Robin has a bit of a reputation around Lonetta for being a lothario, and can often be found sneaking into or out of various second-story windows. But despite his loudmouthed personality, Robin is a dependable ally on the battlefield, defaulting to Eden's leadership and Robere's guidance.

Together, these blue-collar monster-hunters make a formidable duo, standing by their allies through thick and thin.

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That concludes today's story entry. Later this upcoming Saturday, we'll meet the two members of Eden's team that are closest to him: Francisco and Leon.

Weekly Town Hall Notice & Backer Tier Update
about 3 years ago – Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 08:47:17 PM

Greetings, everybody!

It's the start of another glorious week, and we have a few campaign updates to share with everyone today.

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Town Hall Notice

First and foremost the 1st edition of Town Hall is coming later this week. Because the game is in active development and we've shared numerous systems, concepts, and features via our campaign page and blog, we wanted to give our community every opportunity they could get to ask the development team questions that they may have. This is where Town Hall comes into play, which is a planned weekly round-up of questions from the community, delivered directly to the Creative Director Jin Sang every Wednesday, and answered in a simple Q&A format the following Friday.

How do you ask questions to the weekly Town Hall? Simply by asking a unique question that has yet to have been asked in a place visible by our staff. This includes Kickstarter comments, Steam comments/discussions, blog comments, Twitter, Facebook, but most effective of all, is our #town_hall channel in the ODS Discord server. Questions asked here are guaranteed to be seen quickly. But if you don't want to join our Discord, that's no problem, we'll definitely try to include your question nonetheless! 

It doesn't have to be limited to questions about Lost Eidolons either. Want to know more about Ocean Drive Studio since we're brand new? Or questions about the Creative Director and what influences his work flow? What color are the socks we're wearing today? Ask away!

'Monarch of the Empire' Tier Update

We wanted to provide an update on an additional backer tier and the existing Monarch of the Empire tier. Regarding the latter, there were a few backers who requested if it was possible for us to increase the quantity, and after meeting with our dev team we determined that we'll be able to fulfill this request since the player-named NPCs are spread throughout different episodes. 

We will increase the quantity of the 'Monarch of the Empire' tier to 30. This will be done by adding a new tier with the same price and rewards.

This will occur on Friday, April 30th later this week. At 9:00 AM PT we will add the 'Monarch of the Empire (2nd Round)' tier with a quantity of 10.

NEW: $200 Backer Tier, 'Outlaw of the Empire'

We'll also be adding a new backer tier per request as well. Community members wanted more ways to immortalize something about themselves within the game. Being an Outlaw of the Empire confers the following perks:

● We'll put your face or icon on a wanted poster on a bulletin board in the camp. You can provide the picture or draw it yourself, and we'll stylize it on the bill parchment. Your bounty of 200 gold pieces (higher for those who pledged bonus support), as well as a name and reason for being wanted that you provide.
   ● Digital Deluxe package of the game on PC or Xbox console, including digital concept art book, OST, and high-res world map.
   ● PC beta access during the development phase for both PC & console backers.
   ● Your name in the credits as a backer.
   ● 'Outlaw' role on our Discord on request.

Note: Your poster will be displayed in the one of 20 camps in the game, this is the way to give each poster more visibility since we will be displaying very few number of posters at each camp!

This backer tier will go live in one batch of 30 at 9:00 AM PT on Friday, April 30th.

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We are still in discussions regarding adding additional cool rewards. There's still looking at the possibility of a limited run physical copy of the game as mentioned in the previous campaign update. Should we include additional backer rewards again, we will follow the same procedure where we inform first and then set a planned date and time considerate of as many timezones as we can.

Release Timeline, Physical Copy, and Fulfillment Schedule
about 3 years ago – Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 10:22:49 PM

Happy Sunday, tacticians!

What a pleasant milestone for our team at ODS to wake up to! We're now 40% funded and creeping up on the halfway point with 25 days to go. Thank you guys for continuing to support Lost Eidolons and spreading the word about it! 386 of you at the time of writing this post have put your faith in an unknown studio to make something worth your time and money. We'll do our absolute best to bring you guys the best game that we can make.

Today we're talking a few campaign-related matters. As you can see by the title, we're going over the 1) release timeline for Lost Eidolons, 2) potential limited run physical copy of the game, and 3) the fulfillment schedule for your backer rewards. To start, let's go over the known and future timeline for the project.

• Lost Eidolons was announced to the public on Friday, March 26th.
• The Kickstarter campaign began on Wednesday, April 21st.
• The Kickstarter campaign ends on currently runs until Friday, May 21st.
• There will be a Windows PC beta testing period sometime between the end of campaign and Early Access, TBA. All backer tiers $25 and up have guaranteed beta access.
• Early Access is planned to start in October 2021.
• Early Access will run until Full Launch. During Early Access, we'll be regularly looking to collect feedback on Lost Eidolons in order to make updates that align with players' thoughts.
• Full Launch is planned for Early 2022, however, we're giving ourselves additional headroom of up to Q4 2022 at the latest. 

This entirely depends on how successful the project is, and if Lost Eidolons gains a respectable amount of traction we'll want to spend more time polishing and potentially adding more features, which would require more development time, and could result in us delaying the planned release. We will target to complete by Early 2022 as we mentioned nonetheless.

Secondly, we wanted to probe the community on what their thoughts were on a limited physical run of the game. We talked with some of our friends and noticed there are many video game enthusiasts out there that prefer to own the physical copy. It would be introduced as an add-on to any existing tier should we pursue this. Included within the physical copy could be other neat ideas (we're still discussing this, so it's a work-in-progress). Let us know if you all would be interested in this kind of initiative.

Lastly, we wanted to go over the fulfillment schedule of backer rewards. Not all rewards can be fulfilled by the start of Early Access and will have to be implemented during the course of it. We want to keep our supporters in the loop, so we'll share progress updates of their rewards along the way. Please let us know if you have any questions about the fulfillment schedule and we'd be happy to answer!

As an aside, we're currently internally discussing potential new backer tiers that supporters can upgrade to as per request from community members who missed out on the packages that had sold out nearly instantly. Should we decide to do this, we'll let everyone know well ahead of time and drop the new backer tiers in installments so that supporters of every time zone can have equal opportunity to pick them up should they want them.

Story: A Hero in the Making
about 3 years ago – Sat, Apr 24, 2021 at 10:22:25 PM

To help you gain a penchant for the world and characters in Lost Eidolons, our writing team plans on putting together short stories to introduce some of the key members of the rebellion and also about the circumstances of the brooding war. We'll be sharing a Story Feature every Tuesday and Saturday from now until the end of the campaign, each with a different topic. These won't provide any spoilers, but instead give small insights on different people, places, or events to contextualize their place in the story. Today's topic is about our protagonist Eden, with next Tuesday's article talking more about some of his closer companions.

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In Benerio Province, where theatrical forms like opera and puppetry are proud traditions, everyone knows that the best epics starts in small towns, and the best heroes come from nothing.

For example, a charming sellsword named Eden.

If those who know him were to summarize Eden in a few words, they would be "everybody’s best friend.” Hailing from the coastal fishing town of Lonetta, Eden is a kindly wisecracker, a stark contrast from the usual gruff stereotype for those in his line of work. Ever the charitable soul, Eden has built a reputation for helping those in need, without heed for pay... or lack thereof. As a result, he is widely beloved in his hometown, even if his insatiable do-gooding sometimes wears on his friends’ nerves.

Yet for someone so popular, little is known about the circumstances of his birth, including by Eden himself. Supposedly he first arrived in Lonetta years ago, just another penniless urchin orphaned by the war. As fate would have it, he was taken in by the parents of a boy named Leon, who raised him as if he was their own blood, laying the foundations for a lifelong friendship.

On a day-to-day basis, Eden and his scrappy streetwise crew make ends meet by protecting travelers around Lonetta from hazards like bandits and monsters. Though he may not go looking for danger, Eden never shirks from a fight. In combat, his cunning leadership and endless good cheer make those at his side feel as if they could do anything.

Though the spark of greater ambitions burns within him, Eden’s priority most of the time is simply to protect his friends, pay forward the kindness others have shown to him, and hopefully earn some drinking money in the process. But in an empire rife with corruption, it's only a matter of time before anyone with a conscience is forced to choose a side...

... and a small-town merc is forced to become a hero.