Community Update #2

After two long months without any tasty news to share, somewhat depriving you of clarity about progress on things we've been struggling with, we're finally coming up for some air…

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You know that moment when you want to tidy up a room… and you end up emptying everything onto the floor before you even get started? That's more or less what we did with WAVEN. The clock was ticking, and behind the scenes, we simplified, redesigned, trimmed, reimagined, and sometimes even daydreamed… Between two heated meetings and a number of admittedly heavy game design documents, we pulled ourselves together, keeping one clear idea in mind: How can we make WAVEN simpler without taking anything away from it? As much as we love complex systems, lengthy combos, and mind-blowing builds, there comes a time where even we lose sight of what we're actually doing. So we decided to pick our battles a bit better.

SIMPLIFICATION

As surprising as it may seem, simplifying a game isn't simple. Quite the opposite – it's a really convoluted task. The word "simplification" can be intimidating because it brings to mind losing depth, mechanics becoming bland, and fun being restricted. But that's absolutely not the goal. What we're aiming for is clarity. A game that makes you want to dive in head first, without wondering if you'll be out of your depth. Rereading a spell description six (or more) times to grasp what it does? We don't go in for that anymore. So, we gathered our courage and tackled several fundamental aspects of WAVEN:

• heroes and their spells,

• descriptions,

• the card system,

• companions,

• the AP reserve,

• and a few removed mechanics…

Heroes and Their Spells

Those who followed our Ankama Live in April already got a glimpse of it… but let's lay things out plainly. In the new version of WAVEN, each hero has four unique spells and a passive that is unique to them. That's all there is to the character's identity. All other spells (some 150) are now shared by all heroes – no more class spells, no more impossible builds because "Dang, I want to play that, but it's not for this class". As for hero passives, we're planning to rework all of them, but we'll come back to this in a future post about this project.

Descriptions

Many of you pointed this out to us, sometimes kindly, sometimes less so – spell descriptions were often mysterious. Too long, too technical, too obscure. And we've got to admit, you were right. So we went over it all again, word by word, line by line. The goal? For each spell to clearly state what it does, when, and how, without requiring you to get out a cross-reference table in Excel. We shortened text length, standardized terms, and reworked the order of information. The result? Spells that can be understood by reading them once, without any confusing jargon. And when the effect is a bit more unique, we make it more understandable, either visually or contextually.

The Card System

As we already mentioned, your cards are at the heart of WAVEN's gameplay. Spells and companions are now grouped together in the deck. And that changes everything. Each deck now consists of 16 cards, which you can choose freely from among your spells and companions. Spells still cost Action Points, while companions require Command Points. To earn CP, you have to perform specific actions on the board or play specific spell cards. In combat, you will now have up to nine cards in your hand (instead of seven previously), giving you greater flexibility, more tactical choices, and most of all, less frustration with draws (and less repetitiveness in combat). We wanted each turn to make players think, but also react. Behind this overhaul is a clear intention to reunify systems, avoid overlapping layers that don't go well together, and focus the player's attention on one thing – how they play and why. And since all (or almost all) cards are now shared between heroes, the game also becomes more generous in how it lets you build a deck.

Companions

Companions… What a wonderful topic. They weren't really spells, not really heroes, often useful… and sometimes killed during the first round. Basically, it was time to put them back at the center of gameplay.

Companions are now cards in their own right, on a par with spells. They follow the same deckbuilding rules, are played from your hand, and finally have a real strategic space where they can exist. You no longer place them "because you have to" or to achieve a passive effect – you choose them, you play them, and you evolve them. This last point is important because you can now evolve a companion that is already on the field. Since they exist in the form of cards, once played, they return to your draw pile (like a spell). If you draw them again while they are still on the field, you can make them rank up by replaying their card directly on them at a reduced CP cost. Each evolution improves their attack and health stats and heals them.

Outside of combat, companions can still level up like any other item in the deck. This costs copies of the relevant hero… and a few kamas. When they reach a given level, each companion unlocks a unique special spell that is specific to their own story. This spell is automatically added to your hand when the companion is summoned or when they perform a dedicated action on the field. These special spells all have a narrative link to the relevant hero and make it possible to replay certain original, iconic, or simply fun-to-play actions.

The most observant among you will most likely recognize the artist behind the companion cards' new visual design… We've prepared an interview that will be released sometime later.

We've also made a decision that might just delight some of you. We've expanded the pool of companions with other legends from the Krosmoz and removed those who weren't historical figures (especially characters from the game KROSMAGA). You'll find these changes directly in the game.

The AP Reserve

It doesn't exist anymore… or at least, not in the same form. During our playtesting, we realized that the AP reserve was an unnatural mechanic for new players. In other words, they didn't understand it, so they didn't play it.

So, we've adjusted how it works. Some spells still let you generate additional AP, but instead of storing them so you can activate them when you want, these AP will now be automatically added to your total on the following turn.

Removed Mechanics

This section might set your teeth on edge. We get it. But it's necessary in order for you to understand where we want to go with WAVEN. Nothing is set in stone – the choices we're presenting here are where we are now, so they might still change before the game is officially launched.

We've decided to remove the skill profile and all items from the game (rings, armbands, and brooches).

Why? Because as we kept adding layers, the game became incomprehensible. Worse still, the systems interfered with each other, requiring lengthy testing sessions after equally lengthy theory-crafting sessions, just to validate the desired combos.

The skill profile particularly didn't encourage diversity in builds. For most heroes, a single path naturally stood out as "the best", which ended up restricting the fun.

The same was true of items, which mainly added density without any real depth. Too many micro-effects, too many special cases ("I've got to equip this ring before the other one so that its bonuses will be fully activated…"), and clearly not enough instant fun.

So, we decided to make a more comprehensible and structured game, starting over with a clean foundation and reinventing things. New forms of build customization could emerge later on.

THE HOME SCREEN

You've seen it time and again, liked it, and even complimented it. The home screen was mainly used to select your server, click the "PLAY" button, and admire the fantastic work of Sad! and Franho on the seasonal visual design. It was nice, and it set the mood, but that was about it.

We thought, "What if…"

What if this screen became the game's main hub, a gateway to all available modes? What would it look like? Would the available content be clearer? Would navigating between the different game experiences be easier?

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(Image not representative of the final result)

So this is where it all begins. Each game mode is illustrated by its own card, key information (progress and rank), a short explanatory tooltip, and "let's go". It's a good way for us to highlight new features and seasonal events. It's also a good way for you to select the mode you like best at any time.

The stated mode names are not final.

You already know Story Mode – it's WAVEN's PvE mode. You no longer have to start an adventure (create a character) in this mode to unlock PvP and competitive modes.

We told you about Special Stories in the 2023 KrosmoNote under the name of "Heroic Quests". The idea is to offer immersive transmedia narrative content where you will relive major events from the Krosmoz. For example, fighting the Taurs during their invasion of the Puddly Village in the Wakfu Era (WAKFU – Season 1, Episode 5: The Magnificent Five), or the epic battle pitting Oropo and his allies against Grougaloragran and his brother Chibi on Oma Island (Oropo – Battle for the Eliacube).

Roguelike (or "Survival") is our favorite playground right now (the first one being Expeditions). This mode has developed quite a bit since we talked about it in the last WAVEN Ankama Live, so we'll come back to it in a future post, because it clearly deserves its own section.

Boss Fight (sometimes called "Battle Royale") will be the next system we tackle once Roguelike has been finalized. We can already tell you that all the work done on Roguelike will speed up production for Boss Fight, since both modes share a number of mechanics.

Steam post image​

(Image not representative of the final result)

You also know Versus. And no, we haven't done any more work on it yet. Season mode is the good old seasonal fight in the Time Portal. It hasn't been worked on yet either, not for the time being.

Finally, the modes on the far right of the screen are merely placeholders that are there to help you (and us) visualize what this home screen will look like when new content appears.

So as you can see, there's still plenty to do and share with you. We can't wait for you to try out this new version of WAVEN and be honest with us: Is it better? Does it work? Does it make you want to come back? In any case, we really think it does.

Thank you for your patience and messages. But more importantly, thank you for still being here. More is yet to come.