KOTCL Dev Diaries - The Bjorn Rebalance

Bjorn's Rebalance Will Be Happening!

It’s official! Unofficially, we started working on Bjorn’s rebalance quite a while ago, but it’s still in the documentation stage. Want me to tell you what “documentation” means?

The Bjorn Documentation

On a separate sheet, we write out all of Bjorn’s mechanics, his cards, his items, event rewards, and so on and so on. All of this is done so we can overhaul him from the ground up without forgetting anything.

If you think you can just grab Bjorn’s documentation from somewhere — sadly, no. As I’ve said before, Bjorn’s development turned out quite complicated: one game designer came up with him, another one developed him, and a third one finished the job. Poor Bjorn got passed from hand to hand with words like: “Bro, I couldn’t do it. This son of a gun just won’t get playable for me, you try.” Add to that countless corrections, including situational ones requested by players, and in the end Bjorn’s documentation ended up looking like classic gaming documentation: a little bit of logic, no consistency, and a lot of creative license.

But it doesn’t mean Bjorn’s rebalance will take longer than Persival’s. All the universal mechanics have already been redesigned for Persival, and that was the main part of the work. All that’s left is to redo Bjorn’s specifics—and voilà. And after that, Vanadis’ rebalance won’t take long to start either.

More News

The first batch of tweaks and fixes for Persival has arrived: we’ve polished the rebalance based on player feedback. I posted the patch notes yesterday; feel free to check them out. This patch is only for the public_beta branch, but we’re not abandoning the main version—it’s also getting a patch, which will be out next week.

And now, let’s move on with the lore. I’ve chosen what I’m going to tell you about today, and it is…

The Eastern Khaganate

To the east of the Crimson Steppes lie the Boundless Steppes—vast lands occupied by hordes of orcs.

Here, orc armies hack each other to pieces and pay little attention to the outside world—at least for now. If you go there with the Guiding Star, you could cause real trouble.

The clan rivalries of the Crimson Steppes are child’s play compared to the bloodbath in the Eastern Khaganate, where powerful khans leading countless armies fight for the ever-shifting title of khagan—the khan of khans.

Steam post image

Other Inhabitants of the Eastern Khaganate

Goblins and worms live there too, but they feel extremely uncomfortable and try not to wander too far east. If they do… they’re inevitably wiped out.

You can meet some berserker dwarves, too, of course. In their mindset, berserkers resemble orcs far more than dwarves. There is at least one berserker dwarf in the game who dared to travel into the lands of the Eastern Khaganate and returned alive and well. Try to find him.

Outside the game world, there must be plenty of such dwarves. All berserkers have a good chance of building a career in the Eastern Khaganate (or spend their entire lives as slaves to the orcs; it depends how the dice roll). This once again proves that orcs aren’t racists. They respect brute strength in any form. I’m stronger—you’re my slave; you’re stronger— I’m your slave.

Berserkers can be found everywhere. They’re a means of survival and expansion for dwarves. After all, everyone knows that regular dwarves are the ultimate homebodies, and with a survival strategy like that, you won’t last long. You need adventurers, trailblazers, conquistadors! That’s why peaceful, well-off dwarf families regularly produce freaks who feel the call of distant lands—especially if they see a good brawl is looming on the horizon.

By the way, did you know (or at least suspect) that the Thundering Mountain isn’t the only dwarven stronghold in Midian? The other mountain-states haven’t been developed in detail, so I won’t be telling you about them, I don’t feel like making things up on the fly. But they do exist; they have to. Dwarves will inevitably burrow under any mountain that has something worth digging up in it.

The Thundering Mountain or the Monastery of the Firebrothers?

Now, the Thundering Mountain I can tell you about—it’s well fleshed out.

Or should I talk about the Monastery of the Fire Brothers instead?

Or maybe I should put the diaries on pause after all? Just kidding. Judging by your feedback, we’re not pausing anything. At least for now.