Valcarta II: Awakening Preproduction Synthesis System!

Today, we are going to show off our new synthesis system!

During the pre-production discussions between Talon and I, we decided to take junk items that are dropped by the monsters of Valcarta I and incorporate it into a synthesis system. Incorporating this new system should give the player the much needed customization feel that Valcarta I seemed to lack.

The synthesis, weapon, and armour systems of Valcarta II will have multiple tiers of base materials; Iron, Steel, Fay Glass, Fay Root, etc. Within each tier there will be multiple weapon and armor types, Cesti, Swords, Eye Patches, Sollerets, etc. In this system, one would be able to take a base item such as a Iron Sword and a piece of junk, acquired from defeating monsters, questing, or even buying from a shop and combine them together to form a new item. Based on what was used within the synthesis, different effects will occur. For example: Iron Longsword + Angel Tear = Iron Longsword of Demonsbane.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well it's actually more complicated then I let on.

You see, I could have Iron Cesti and that same Angel Tear from before, and attempt to combine them, forming a "Holy Cesti" giving me additional Light damage on hit. Different base weapons provide different results, even when the same junk is thrown into the mix, same goes for armor!

Example of two items that have been merged with a base.

With this type of system, we are planning to make certain types of weapons or armour exclusive to certain effects, such as: Only swords can have a "of Dragon Slaying" effect, meaning that regardless of the materials used, weapon and armor bases have their own specific range of additional effects that they can handle. As mentioned above, Swords are the only thing capable of supporting the Dragon Slaying effect, thus making Spears or Axes unable to house this effect through synthesis.

Going even further, we want to make it so that certain base materials can't yield certain effects either! Such as these two weapons, Iron Sword and Adamantine Sword, while the Iron Sword and a few other base types of swords could produce a "of Dragon-slaying" end result, the Adamantine Sword would be unable to merge with the Dragon's Talon due to it's nature to reflect items of intense Fay power. Instead, the Adamantine Sword would yield a different effect, while using the same materials.

Hopefully, we will create a system that is not only fun to play with, but makes you plan ahead before you make a new weapon or armour!

Until Next Time,

Amanda Smith (Mikheli)

Official Lorecat @ Blacksword Games