Age of Warscape

Age of Warscape, commonly abbreviated to AoWS, is an upcoming MMORPG-style game developed by ILMXStudios. It revolves around the war between two factions, The Arbiters and the 2nd Legion, and the quest of the chosen Faction Champion of the selected faction. It is developed using Unreal Engine, and is set to be available on Windows and Mac devices.

Plot
Upon the planet of Uloff, tensions between two superpower political factions, The Arbiters and the 2nd Legion, had risen to threatening heights. The two factions were built on the idea of taking total control over Uloff in order to establish their sense of world order, as well as the total extermination of the enemy and their allies. Eventually, the tensions had threatened global war, which caused the Jin'tulu, Elves, Herasothians, and Dryad races to declare their allegiance to the Human-led faction of The Arbiters, and the Gnomes, Dark Elves, Latlazerians, and Orc races to declare their allegiance to the Jaar-led faction of the 2nd Legion. It was then that the two factions began ordering attacks on each other, which spiraled into a global war known as "The Great War".

As the Great War and its effects had ravaged the once peaceful lands of Uloff, millions of soldiers and innocents alike were killed, and thousands of cities and villages were bombarded, razed, or taken over. The faction leaders, King Earnet of The Arbiters and Warlord Bjorin of the 2nd Legion, had decided that neither faction will win and that the Great War will continue to destroy everything unless there is a game-changing asset. Both leaders then figure out that this asset would be a warrior, known simply as the Faction Champion, who would lead their faction's armies and devise new battle plans to give their faction an edge in the war. Calling in a new handful of recruits, the leaders order for the recruits to be put through rigorous tests to decide which recruit will become the Faction Champion, who will be the catalyst to hopefully end the war with their faction as victor.

Purchasing & Downloads
Age of Warscape is to be initially Free to Play, meaning the game can be downloaded and played for free (to those with a valid AoWSID). However, there is an optional account subscription that allows the user to do more than a Free user. However, most features that are subscriber-only do not affect gameplay, and mainly provide mostly cosmetic features. Subscribers also have a lower cost for purchasing Housing, can create more characters, use Legendary Items, can receive any future expansion packs for free, new website/forums features, quicker support, and a higher Gold Pieces cap (5,000,000 instead of 2,000,000). Subscribers also have more mounts to pick from, and can further customize their Guilds.

Subscription is set to cost about $7.00/month, though the price is likely to change. Subscription is not yet available for purchase, but users can receive free subscriptions through promotions.

The game will be available to be downloaded on its download page, which can be found here.

Gameplay
The Player, known as the Faction Champion, must use their full abilities and decisions to advance through the storyline. The storyline that the player goes through varies depending on the race that the player chose during the Character Creation process and any decisions that they make throughout their advancement through the game. This aspect makes each play-through unique to the user, and allows the user to have more control over how they advance through the game. The user can also participate in Dialogue sessions, level up their character to gain new skills and unlock new abilities, fight against hordes of enemies and tough bosses, explore hundreds of different areas, collect all kinds of items, uncover secrets, complete quests, and team up with other users on the same server. How the game progresses will always be different, depending on what the Player does throughout their quests.

Storyline & Dialogue
The storyline is affected by the user's decisions and responses in dialogues or in combat scenarios. The user's alignment is also affected by such, which shows how malevolent or peaceful the user's character is. During dialogue sessions, the Player is given multiple options to pick from, all of which are a different dialogue or action. Every time a dialogue option is chosen, a significant character is killed or interacted with, a quest is completed, or even how a user interacts with other users, the storyline that the user goes through is changed in some way.

Storylines are greatly affected by the user's chosen faction, race, and gender.

Leveling
The user must level up using EXP throughout the game to boost their stats, equip certain items, unlock new abilities, combat certain enemies, and more. If the user's level is too low for a certain area or scenario, the game will be noticeably more difficult. Certain equipment and/or items are also limited or prohibited to lower levels.

Combat
In combat, the user must use their unlocked and available abilities to defeat opposing forces. Abilities can be unlocked through leveling up, equipping certain items, and can vary depending on selected races and items. In combat, the user also can block attacks with shields or their weapon, which reduces damage taken, or can parry attacks by striking at the same time as the enemy, which results in no damage being taken. Combos can also be performed by both the user and an opponent. Combat mode will engage when an enemy sees the user, and will exit when the enemy loses sight of the player or either the user or the opponent is dead.

Exploration
The user is able to explore dozens of locations throughout their storylines. The user is also able to sail towards other continents using their own vessel, which is acquired after they complete their training and testing. Exploration is a primary element in advancing through the game, and can also affect the user's storyline by exploring different areas. Some areas are also designated as Player vs Player areas, where users can freely fight against other users (all other areas are Player vs Environment by default).

Quests
The user is given Quests throughout the game. Each Quest is given to the user by an NPC, and has objectives and completion awards. There are two types of Quests: Storyline and Bonus Quests. Storyline Quests are essential to moving forward, and cannot be cancelled. Bonus Quests are quests that are not required to complete in order to move forward in the game. Certain quests can be available to higher-levels only.

PvP
In certain areas and in arenas, users can fight against other users in a full-on Player vs Player combat. In most cases, PvP in noncompetitive. In certain arenas, PvP will likely be competitive, with league boards as well as certain achievements.

Dungeons
Optionally, the user can explore secret, challenging chambers known as "Dungeons". Dungeons yield high-end rewards, and are typically highly-challenging and are for meant for more experienced or higher-leveled users.

Development
Age of Warscape was first announced on July 31st, 2016, although the idea of the game was originally created on May 21st of the same year. As mentioned by the Game Developers on the game's public Discord Server, the idea of the game was inspired by other popular MMOs, especially World of Warcraft. The initial idea behind the game was to create a "Free World of Warcraft" where users were not limited to gameplay based on whether or not they wanted to play for free (despite this being a common feature for all MMOs of similar nature). While the developers did not intend to create a game that was meant to replace WoW, they wanted to create an "alternative" of sorts.

The concept and foundation of the game began to be planned around June 2016, and had continued to be planned for approximately a year. Details of the game and its lore were slowly released, and were often changed or retracted throughout planning phase. Artwork and details were also released throughout planning. Although the game has had numerous social media openings created, the developers have remained quiet about the game's progress in order to avoid building too large of a community at such an early stage of the game. On October 18th, 2017, Age of Warscape had entered its development phase, as posted on the game's Twitter.

Age of Warscape is currently in Development Phase, and core development is underway. Development Phase also puts out, not only more information about the game and its elements (which sometimes change as time progresses), but screenshots, animated GIFs, and videos of gameplay testing. After Development Phase has been completed, the game will move on to Testing Phase, which is when the game itself will be opened up to a select group of players for Alpha and Beta testing.

System Requirements
System requirements have not been released yet.