Dinolords Monthly - January

Two Dilophosaurus go round the outside, round the outside, round the outside. Guess who's back, back again? Monthly's back, tell a friend!

It's been a while! Christmas and new years happened, and with Michael's big new years post, we decided to skip the regularly scheduled Monthly, but that means that this edition is just that more meaty! So saddle up your Utah Raptor and let's dive straight in, starting with a look at a new feature!

Wingsight

This is a pretty big one, and some of you might have already tried it during the latest alpha or seen it on livestreams and videos, but we also wanted to show it off and highlight some of the things this new toggle allows for everyone. First, let's dig into what issues we are trying to solve and then look at the solution we came up with.

Dinolords is a genre hybrid, we are trying to mix RTS and strategy gameplay with ARPG elements, and in that, we have a main player character to whom the camera is locked and you move around with WASD. So far so good!

BUT, we also understand that this is very foreign for players coming from more traditional RTS games with a completely free camera and mouse controls.

So we have added, and are experimenting with, a feature called Wingsight (internally also affectionally known as "Bird-mode" even though it's a Dimorphodon and not a bird at all!). Entering Wingsight, adding my ranged units to a control group and sending them across the bridge.

We believe strongly in the fantasy of playing as a character in the middle of the battlefield, and we also find the restrictions of having a following camera to afford some interesting gameplay and suspense about what is going on outside of the screen. But Wingsight serves to alleviate the players longing for more traditional RTS-style free camera, without completely negating the fantasy and gameplay we think is part of what makes DInolords great.

So how does Wingsight work? It is an alternate camera mode you can toggle in and out of via the tab-key. When you press it, the Lord sends out a Dimorphodon that flies high up into the air and the camera zooms out further than normal, giving you a larger, more top-down view than the regular view. You can then move the bird Dimorphodon around much faster than the lord is able to run, but there is a range limitation around the Lord where it slows down drastically.

Furthermore, you have additional zones around your Town Hall, and you are able to place down "Outpost" buildings, allowing you to quickly Wingsight to them and remote control production, or unit movement, even with the Lord not directly present. You can also jump quickly to these points via the minimap, offering an experience that is more akin to more traditional RTS, while keeping some of the interesting elements of the camera limitations intact.

Using Wingsight in combination with control groups adds some pretty cool levels of strategic control to the battlefield, and the ability to micromanage your units a lot more than before, while remaining a feature that can be optional, for those who would like a simpler experience. A display of my strategic genius, letting my ranged units act as meat shields, selecting my melee control group and sending them in after the battle has ended. A true battlefield mastermind, I am!

We are still working on the specifics of Wingsight and everything mentioned is of course subject to change, but so