Alaloth – Champions of The Four Kingdoms – Official FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

I see shared/split screen Co-op tag. Will this feature come with EA or later on in the development?

• Yes, coop will be in at launch. Shared screen, no split screen!

Will the 8 new locations added during/post Early Access be late/end game areas?

• We are thinking about two different updates to put in new map-related stuff [probably 4 areas + 4 areas along with other contents]. All these areas will add quests and NPC and don’t need to be unlocked, they will simply be available updating the game on Steam/GOG.

Will companions have a single quest or questline?

• Yes, each companion has its own personal quest of course.

Are the houses/clans purely for backstory/traits? Or is there a questline for each of them?

• Some of the houses/clans are directly connected with a number of quests and characters that players are going to find in-game. Depending on your char/race/reputation you’ll get different reactions around, with special barks, dialogues and mentions in specific locations around the world. Not all houses/clans will have a “family quest” but just the most relevant to keep consistency now. Adding houses/clans-related quests in the future is not a probtlem anyway. Just as anything else, we’ll have to carefully think about the whole thing in full [everytime we add something we literally have hundreds and hundreds of pages to check].

Are there books in the game from which we can learn the history of the world, read short stories, etc.?

• Yes, there are many books in the game containing short stories connected to the lore of the world. You can read books from the inventory [like in Skyrim]. There are also codex entries for in-game/lore events and characters. Moreover, Plamen is full of characters telling you stories about the world and its history. There is a full set of char [Lore Characters, you can find them with a book icon on top of their head], that has been put in to give out these kind of info, clues for things to do around and more. Alaloth’s world has been built to be a cross-media universe so you can find more extra info in the future, through the comics [The Tempest], the books and other media available soon.

We can’t have bows/any ranged weapons as our basic loadout? Only melee?

• In Alaloth, you play the role of a melee fighter and combat has been built around melee fight since the very beginning. However you can customize your build choosing among 3 different Ways of Power [Arms, Nature, Gods]. The Way of Arms is for players willing to build-up a full fledged warrior and the Marksman profession is in, allowing players to master ranged skill that are used as any other skill in the game [have to be learned, have a cooldown etc].

Price?

• The game will be out at 24.99$/€ and will be 20% off at launch. We are working on a special bundle too with a bunch of extra contents to be put in [OST, ArtBook, in-game stuff]. More info to come before D1

So there is time in the game, and actions take time (on the world map and also in dungeons), are there time limited quests?

• There is time in the game, traveling between locations can take days in the game and some quests may depend on certain dates. There are also time sensitive quests but not all are. Special chars such as unique vendors or quest givers can be found only in specific dates, in specific places that [sometime] need to be discovered. Every run is supposed to be different because there is no way to have you checking everything in a single run [intended!].

How many edition/bundles are there, and how much?

• As we just said, apart from the standard edition, we’ll have some different options at launch but we are just putting pieces together right now.

Can we change game difficulty on the go and does difficulty increases when a companion joins the game?

• The game has no typical difficulty setting, like Easy, Normal, Hard. There is a dynamic difficulty system in place, which changes how tough an encounter will be, based on various player’s party specifics (yes, number of companions included). We have two different modes to play: a single player campaign and a competitve one. So basically you’ll be able to choose if you want to have other champions as opponents during your adventure or not. Of course, without them, the challenge will be lower. Other champions will do their own run looking for artifacts as you, to defeat Alaloth

How the different fighting styles work?

• We have 4 different fighting styles: 1H + shield/ Heavy weapons [2h]/dual wielding/polearms. At the beginning, you choose your fav one but you can change your fighting style just equipping a different weapon while playing. Eeach one feature a different set of animations and, of course, different specs.

About the size of the world and locations?

• The game world [Plamen] is quite huge. We built it in a modular way to be easily expanded and to grant players playing different races balanced runs on the go. You start in your stronghold [more to say about this] and each kingdom has a bunch of places to visit: 7 cities [the capital, a major one, five minor], 7 Fighting Areas [FA are the places where you can get artifacts if you are lucky enough], many different points of interest and different sub locations [houses, cellars, throne rooms etc]. Moreover, we’ll have special FA popping-up on the map with quests.

Will I be able to respec my character freely?

• Yes, in Alaloth you’ll be able to respec your char through the Orbs of Chaos, special items you can find around to be sacrificed on a special shrine you can find in one of the sanctuaries on the map. There is even a second way to respec the char without using orbs but it’s way more lore-related and it differs from this one because once you’ve done with it, you can’t respec again [but you can get some extra help because of the hardcore choice].

Is the targeted playthrough time (main story + all side content; only main story)?

• This really depends by your style of playing and by the game mode you’ve selected at the beginning. First of all, in both modes, the artifacts needed to enter the endgame spawn in a random way in fighting areas. So you could be lucky or just need to clear every FA to get an artifact. You need 4 to be ready to do some “stuff” needed to enter the endgame. If you play solo not a big deal. If you play competitive, you have to take into consideration that IA champions we’ll do their own run. This means that they could find artifacts [there is one artifact per kingdom]. So if you have an artifact for example, they will need to hunt you at some point to get it from you. Same at the opposite: if you miss a piece [or more] and you know that other champions found it, at some point you’ll have to track them to get it back. Just this adds a lot of strategy to the game and could really change the duration of a run. Even consider that the main quest is basically “defeat Alaloth” and in theory you can beat him without doing any of the quest, just playing to find artifacts. We have more than 130 quests, random generated bounties, each champion in competitive, has a different behaviour [passive, neutral, aggressive] so the playthrough time could really be something like 8-10 hours up to 40, 50, 60. Always consider that the game has been thought to give the full cake playing multiple runs because you are probably going to miss some of the contents everytime [think about the timed stuff] and because different races give a different feel back to player through dialogues/barks/quests

Why is there a console interface in all the screenshots?

• The game can be played both with mouse & keyboard and with a controller, so the screenshots you saw have been made while playing with a controller.

When will there be specifics about localization? And which languages will be in Early Access? When is the full release planned?

• We are going to be out D1 with English only. The game is loc ready and we are actively working to add other languages on the way during Early Access, even considering feeds arriving from the market. We are thinking to stay in Early Access for around 1 year but this could change considering the console ports and other biz-related stuff [which means that we could stay a few less or a few more]. Updating all of you in real time as soon as we’ll have news.

Will the game support DLSS or FSR to assist in maintaining high FPS? This game looks like a Unity engine creation (I could be wrong about this). I have found Unity a mixed bag.

• Our beautiful hand-painted world would run smooth on the vast majority of hardwares. For everyone owning a GPU which support DLSS or FSR we have even better news: you will be able to reach high and consistent framerates even at the highest resolutions. Enjoy the native scaling then. There would be no need for either DLSS nor FSR since we’re targeting fairly low minimum requirements: the game is not that GPU-intensive since the majority of the visuals rasterized on-screen are our handpainted prerendered backgrounds and most of our frametime is spent on the CPU-side of things. Yup, the game has been developed in Unity (modificato).

Will a full roadmap from EA to full release be posted on the store page/here?

• Of course. We are going to post a first roadmap with key milestones asap. This roadmap will contain the most important features we are working on right now but we are going to update the roadmap on weekly basis with all the info about every single content/fix done. Consider that we actually build twice per week as average and more info about branches we are going to use to let you test the state of work and things in development will be provided before launch.

Gamera Interactive has been making games since 1923. What was the company known for in it’s pre-videogame days?

• LoL. This is just a funny payoff but a lot of people was asking BTW, founders have a long history in gaming and worked on many different projects since 2001 on [with Midway, Eidos, Bethesda and a few more, both on publishing and development side, ranging from indie hits to AAA products].

What is used to level up character? Is there some currency (like souls) or is it just a simple skill/attribute points?

• We don’t use a standard XP sys to level up. You unlock “levels” through fights. Claiming fighting areas allow you to pick skills, traits, stats points to be spent.

When did you first start working on this project? Yearwise answer would be enough.

• That’s a very long story. The game was announced in 2017 but just because we had “to do” this. At time, we were just putting ideas together and we were thinking about setting-up the pre-prod but IGN knocked on our doors because they knew about the involvment of Chris Avellone. When such a huge mag pokes you for this, you can’t say “hey, no, we just have a 3D prototype not even working well”. So we did it. This forced us to start thinking about the masterplan for real and we entered pre-prod by the end of the year. We had something like 14 months of pre-prod which was great and we thought it was the time to start working on it properly. But life is what happens when you make plans [cit.] so we had to face problems such as the pandemic, one of the founders passing away in a mountain accident, Chris allegations, one our coder arrested and tortured in Minsk, a flood and some other event completely out of our control. We would say that team started working “for real” on the game in March 2021, with the people that is still in and without catastrophic events happening.

What’s the target of the game? What i’ve to expect as old school RPG passionate player?

• That’s one of the most interesting question for us. Alaloth has been thought to be IN BETWEEN old-school classics and moder souls-like/action games. This means that we are talking with two different target of the same niche. We have old-school cRPG lovers and minmaxers playing the game at the same time. What we are trying to do is* forcing* both kind of players to embrace a different way of playing their fav game. To be more clear: cRPG players are going to read all the dialogues, barks, books, hints, codex entries and such. They are going to do this to connect dots then and coming back here saying “hey i’ve read this and that and take a look on the web and talking with my 60 years old mate on the other side of the world, that read the comic, we thought that this line is not consistent”. WUUU. Amazing. On the other side diablo-like players are going to skip EVERY single word [actually 300k of words] just trying to create the best build to beat the game. They are going to talk about numbers, stats, weapons, tips and tricks to kill bosses and such. Well, we have to arrive at the end of the day with cRPG lovers enjoying fights and with action lovers enjoying reading. A sample of how we thing it is achievable: you can kill Alaloth without doing ANY of the quest. But you are not going to have your char maxed anyway because you have 4 stats [str, dex, cos, luck] and each stat has 5 points to be spent on. Point is that through fights you are going to just get 10 of these points. To get the others, you’ll have to find special books that are scattered around so you are supposed to do quests, explore and NOT only killing stuff. Again, just a sample. At the same time, cRPG people will have to learn combat properly at some point because to finish the game, you need to beat Alaloth. No matter what.

Will it be possible to disable the red border that encircles the enemies? In my opinion, a visually controversial decision, a red circle under your feet would be enough 🙂

• The color of the cursors at the player’s feet reflects the chosen race, while the red cursors around enemies that you noticed in recent trailers are connected to the lock-system:. When you lock an enemy, a red cursor appears around its “feet” to make it clearer which one you are locking. A red cursor also appears around the enemy you have in front of you, in case you have not locked anyone, to show you which direction your attacks are going to follow in that case.

Will there be manual save? Or is it a constant auto save? Considering this game also has alignment, factions, etc, so choices matter like Pillars, Pathfinder, Divinity, it’d be nice if we can manually save before branching the story?

• The game will automatically save the progress of your character at fixed moments, no manual save is required. It is not possible in game to branch a save to explore multiple paths, you will have to make a choice and stick with it. The game allows to store multiple saves/characters, so there is room to replay quests with other races / alignments / etc while keeping earlier characters.

Can you go into Detail on Alignment? How does it affect gameplay good or evil etc?

• In character creation you will be able to choose your Legacy, Alignment and Deity. Legacy refers to your House, think of something like the Game of Thrones different houses. You can choose among 40 different houses/clans and we are going to add a Legacy Mode in a while, allowing you to create your own banner/motto and start your own house/clan. Alignment is your moral stand: you can be good, evil or neutral and it will determine which companions will be willing to accompany you in your journey and make some quests available or not. Once you choose an alignment it is not going to change during the playthrough but different options will be available for a unique run. So player will have access to unique quests for example, same for NPC around. Finally, Deity, refers to which god you’ve been blessed by, granting you a special bonus. Which deity you can choose from is conditioned by your race and alignment.

Will the camera be fixed or rotational?

• You can’t rotate camera. You can zoom-in/out in real time while moving around/fighting.

What about a crafting system? Will I be able to obtain specific items, armour, spells, and weapons only through such a system?

• To craft weapons and armors we use of course a blueprint sys. The unique thing we thought something about “why a human smith that always lived in the human kingdom should be able to craft elven stuff?” No way. So that’s the thing: every race has its own blueprint and if you are a human and you need a shiny elven set you have to travel to Larastir and meet and elven smith. The other options are attending special events [markets] where artisans from each kingdoms move into a place or look for travelling merchants around. To craft armors and weapons, you need ingots [and other stuff]. Every kingdoms has 3 unique materials + 2 commons materials shared with other kingdoms. Ingots can be found around, in quests or bought by special vendors.

I’m not very great at souls games, will Alaloth be difficult for people that suck at those types of games?

• Alaloth has two different souls: a cRPG one and an action one. As we said, the idea is to “force” players usually loving one of these two souls to play a bit in a different way. Combat sys is not easy to master but practice is the key. You need a bit of timing to dodge, parry and counter attack properly but it’s really about not rushing in and checking the stamina bar to avoid being not able to perform actions/attacks.

Hope that skills don’t share same and unique cooldown for release version?

• Each skill has its own unique cooldown and there will be some with a max number of charges per fight.

How big are the locations in the game, if we compare, for example, with PoE? And how many are there?

• The world map is huge. Each kingdoms has 7 cities, 7 FA, special areas to be unlocked, sub areas, points of interest. Way more than 100 locations to explore are in [at D1 + new locations on the way]. Not so easy to make a comparison with PoE but we would say that we are more or less aligned in terms of average sizes with them. Always considering that PoE is a game made by a massive team with way more resources than we had as indie studio.

Is there any planned story expansion DLC (separated from the main game)?

• Yes we have plans for this. The world has been built in a very modular way and there are other kingdoms around The Four Kingdoms, PC could already know about through the world lore [The Sariqi Caliphate, The North Sea Empire, The Shadow Continent etc]. Release first, more details about this later on this summer TBC.

Can you go into Detail on Strongholds? Can they be upgraded etc?

• When you start the game, you start in your stronghold [we have one per race of course]. The first content update planned will allow player to customize their own stronghold changhing its layout. The stronghold will be a mini-hub in which players can find useful resources [personal smith, cook etc], their own personal shrine, their stash and so on. From time to time, new QG and NPC will be visiting the stronghold giving access to new quests.

Curious to mounts will races have a class specific mount…like a Elf a Stag…or a Dwarf a boar…or a Orc a Wolf or Warg…humans maybe a Warhorse?

• Yes, each race will have its own racial mount and we’ll be other special mounts to unlock/buy/get as quest reward on the way [ranging from warhorses to battle bears and griffins]. Mounts allow players to move fast on the map. Consider that the terrain you are moving on, influence your movement so a dwarven goat is probably faster on mountains, while a Wold [human warhorse], is super fast on the road. Mounts allow player to expand the inventory as well. Stable Masters are special vendors selling mounts around.

Will any aspects of this be randomly generated?

• Bounty quests are randomly generated. Loots are created from pools of items with different % of being dropped. (modificato).

Can Player 1 use keyboard and mouse. And player 2 use gamepads? Or two player use gamepads?

• Yes, each player will be able to use any available gamepad/keyboard.

Is there diablo’s rift like instant action game modes, maps that we can jump in and start fighting instantly without walking around or chasing a questline? it’s good to jump in and play the game in short free times.

• Nothing like this at EA D1. We have plans for extra game modes [i.e. Arena] but we’ll be able to say more in the future.

How is the replayability? does the game have a definitive end once you are done with the story or can you keep playing it without having to start over from zero?

• The game has been built with the idea that to get the full cake you’ll have to play it through different runs, with different chars from different races. Considering the huge numbers of events, the size of the world, the calendar etc, it is something expected. Before entering the endgame area and facing Alaloth [and not only…], you’ll be notified about the fact that there is no turn-back [Dragon Age Origins anyone?].

Early Access will be like 1/4 of the game being available at start of the Early Access or full game will be available and Early Access exist only to test some outstanding bugs and for community support?

• This is not an Early Access made to grab money and try to fill our pockets with an all-in move.This is not an Early Access where you are going to find T-pose chars, game breaking bugs or missing features. The game we had in mind at the very beginning, is already in, fully playable, but lacking polishing and balancing. Please check our store page for details about what you’re getting buying the game now.

I know that the spells/skills are more so supplementary to melee combat but would making a build inclined towards casting be possible through equipment and passives? (cooldown reduction for example)

• Definitely. Way of Nature and Way of Gods provide magic and yes, there are many different ways to customize the build like this [we have traits influencing cooldown reduction for example, as well as items].

What type of defensive options are available to the player? Dodging, blocking, and/or parrying?

• When it comes to defensive mechanics, you have three main choices: dodge, block or attempt a parry.You can avoid incoming attacks performing a dodge. It cost some stamina, but if you use it strategically, it can help you reposition and counter attack while the enemy is still recovering from his attack. Furthermore, if you dodge with good timing, it can also grant a “slow motion” moment, granting you more time to decide what to do next and assess the situation.You can always block with your weapon or shield. It’s a safer option, but you will still receive some damage and eventually, if you block for too long, your defense will be opened. How effective your blocking is, depends on the equipment used to block.Lastly, you can parry an incoming attack by catching it with the start of your blocking stance. The time is strict, but if you manage to do it, you’ll stun the enemy, giving you the chance to deal more damage, or escape a tricky situation.

If we die, we have to find a nearby resurrection spot and we will lose (drop) our stuff, the question is, will we also lose our currently equipped weapons/armor/potions? Or just the ones that are laying in our inventory? And how about gold, do we lose them all too?

• When you die, you are going to resurrect in the closest shrine available. When you start the game, only a Sanctuary is available on map and you’ll have to visit other spots to unlock them and make them available for you at your convenience. When you die, you get a sort of “Death Summary” with all the info about your equipment which will be damaged and need to be repaired. You are not going to lose your stuff anyway.

Curious as to how races interact with each other…say I make a Elf if I visit the Dwarves will they show resentment etc or viceversa?

• Barks and dialogues will change depending on your race and reputation, from time to time. Not all chars are going to interact the same way but you can definitely expect dwarves and elves arguing.

Will there be twists and turns in the story, or is it just good vs evil again?

• There is no good vs evil, there is chaos and a common enemy for each of the kingdoms. There is no good or evil race by default, even if each race has its own history and background.

Do you encounter your champion if you do a new game (like do your charackters become any kind of lore related enemies/champs/boss fights)?

• Not at D1 but this is very cool idea we could think about for the future [feature-requests channel on its way].

I am vision impaired, and I mostly play on larger screens. Will there be a zoom function for the game?

• Yes, you can zoom-in/zoom-out in real time. We are thinking about extra accessibility feature for the future as well.

Can u kill friendly NPC? Or steal etc?

• Nope, you can’t kill NPC randomically and you play the role of a noble champion fighting for the kingdom so stealing things is not the best practice for such a hero!

What about coop? We received a lot of questions so we are answering all these questions together].

• When we thought coop we had a very simple idea in mind: bring back the good old feel of the ’90s when you spent the summer playing with your friends, just jumping in connecting a joystick or being with while playing arcades on the beach. We have 12 companions to be recruited in the party, 4 for each alignment. When you hire a companion, coop becomes available. You basically have to enter a fighting area and once you are ready to go, a menù appears allowing you to select which companions you want to bring in [you can hire 4 but you can bring 2 with you]. It’s just plug and play so the player keeps control of the game and who’s joining is going to help as a companion for the duration of the fighting area. Companions has their own behaviour when IA controls them [so expect an assassin not caring about you, while Llieah which is a cleric, providing support]. Companions have their own pre-set skills and equipment and who’s joining is going to use them like this. If a companion is wounded in a fighting area, he’ll be out of the action until the fighting area is done. Remote Play works well already and owners of the game can even invite people not owning the game to play coop.

Local coop is already planned, how about a full online coop?

• As just said, Remote Play works on Steam. For future online cool features, as well as pure multiplayer features, we are going to discuss plans internally in the near future [online stuff is a pain and we want to be sure to achieve every single feature we promise, the right way].

Will there be companion romances in the game? Is Romance in the game?

• Not at EA D1. We have plans for this too but we are focused on other features at the moment. Of course it would be great to make something cool considering Legacy Mode and Strongholds.

How much Baldur’s Gate feeling does the game have?

• Baldur’s Gate is one of the main inspiration behind Alaloth. When we are talking of visuals, the isometric stuff we did, for sure reminds the good old times of the Infinity Engine games but we had many other masterpieces in the past, that influenced us. Temple of Elemental Evil, Icewind Dale but even TSR games or such, always considering the new gen of old school stuff such as Pillars or Pathfinder. Would be great to take a spot among these big names and be here in 20 years saying “WTF, Alaloth was great, let’s play Alaloth IV :D”

If we suprass the weight limit the character just stops moving or gradually slows down? i am a hoarder.

• The player won’t have the chance to surpass the weight limit. When trying to take something that would make you surpass your max weight, the game will inform you that you can’t do that. At that point you have to make a choice. Leave the item you wanted to get, or get rid of other stuff in your inventory to be able to take it. In case you’re receiving the reward for a quest and your inventory is full, the reward will immediately be sent to your stash chest.

Will there be a New Game + in the future it is very important to me 2) Will there be an opportunity in the game to transfer the appearance of things in order to feel the character of an individual and enjoy it to the fullest 3) I may not be attentive, but I read all your issues, please tell me if there will be twin blades or swords in the game?

• Once you’ve finished the game the first time, you’ll unlock the Legacy Mode, allowing you to play with a House of your creation. There’s no “classic” New Game + for now, where you can start over with all your upgrades etc. As of right now, you can’t transfer the appearance of an item on to another but we have plans for this. In the game you can always equip two one handed weapons of any kind, so yes, you can play with twin blades, be it two swords, a dagger and an axe etc.

What about the OST of the game? It is original? As a collector, i’ll be able to download it or buy it?

• More than 170 music tracks in-game a the moment, for a total of nearly 4 hours of in-house created music. We have all the loops and ambient music used for each single locations as well as stand alone tracks. As any other part of the game, music/sound-related stuff has been built following the structure of the 4 kingdoms: each of them share different types of instruments. Also, mood is based on lore of each location. You’ll be able to buy it on Steam.

How many quests will be available at EA? What’s the main quest?

• We have around 130 working quest at the moment. A few quest have to be polished and we are going to modify things on the way if necessary. The main quest: prevent Alaloth destroying Plamen.

How many special chars will be available in the game?

• Not considering “standard” NPC or QG, we’ll have companions [12], special vendors from other kingdoms roaming the map [3], tons of boss and miniboss and some other unique we can’t spoil right now. All in at EA launch.

Are enemies dead for good once you’ve killed them or do they respawn after a while?

• Enemies respawn if you fail to claim a fighting area. If you claim it, you can enter the fighting area again finding a different layout and a different loot.

What’s the state of the game in terms of set-in-stone features? Can we expect features on top of what we’ll find on EA or suggestions are accepted?

• We are going to set-up a channel for feature requests by launch date. EVERY single feature in-game could be revisited [when possible] to give a better gaming experience. EA has been set to develop things with the help of the community in many different ways.

What you are working on right now 10 days to the release?

• We are actually iterating on combats [playing with numbers], loot and items. We are basically checking all the stuff that will be in-game at D1 and changing numbers here and there when needed. Moving items from a pool to another for loots and all this sort of things. This is the work we are going to focus for a while after the release while gathering feeds

What about dark elves? Are they in?

• Dark elves are in. Dark Elves in Alaloth are a bit different from the usual Dark Elves around. They are basically mentalist, living in a sort of magic limbo where they’ve been trapped. They are back through rifts all around Larastir, where you can even find a huge guarded portal that could be considered the access to their kingdom, The Shadow Continent

What about Orcs in Alaloth?

• Orcish kingdom takes its name by the most famous living [?] hero of time so it has changed many names by lore and other races refer to Baga simply as “the orcish kingdom”. Orcs live in a matriarchal society, they live by honour and you can consider them as a sort of spartan-like warriors. There are “citizens” and “savage” orcs. Citizens live in human-like cities with walls and palaces, savage are way more wow-like. The orcs that left their honour committing crimes are named Exiles, they roam Baga as criminals.

Any chance to enchant weapons?

• Yes, enchanting is in. Enchanters will be able to put gems [offensive/defensive] in socketed weapon.