Hey vampires! I know you’re all used to us delving into the shadowy mysteries of game development, but today is all about building up. Join us as we lay the foundations for the symbols of any great vampire’s status.
The Castle; Your Home, Your Heart, Your Soul
The idea of the home is vastly prominent in vampire mythology, the epic presence of their manor looming above a sleepy little village. In a genre like survival games that focus on the shelter, it’s a natural fit for a vampire twist on the genre to use the concept of the vampire palace. We get to lean into that fantasy and provide players with all the tools they need to make a home that can be grand, majestic, but also compelling in its function.
A nice and foreboding entrance.
In V Rising, castles are intimately tied to progression. The central foundation of your court is called the Castle Heart(long time readers may recognize it as the ‘Blood Well’ from back in Dev Blog #6), and it will serve as the foundation of the stronghold. As long as blood is pumping through the Castle Heart, crafting and production stations will be working to provide everything needed to empower yourself for your dark escapades.
If it seemed like you would be a regal dark overlord hammering away at a hunk of metal and sawing at wood to make your own swords and crossbows, think again! Simply create workstations, drop the materials, and give the word. The castle does all the work, using the dark magic of blood craft to weave together deadly weapons, mix alchemical marvels, and stitch together armors and capes to the perfect measurements.
See? No hands.
No matter what the adventure in the world of Vardoran it will always lead back to your domain. The place to return to store the loot and have it made into valuable tools to rise in power. When you die, you return to your coffin to shake off the grave dust and plan for devious revenge. It’s a safe place to share with fanged brothers and sisters and revel in victories after a long night’s hunt.
Raise the Walls
The castle’s heart does more than just power crafting stations; it also defends them. It’s a living, though perhaps not breathing entity. While nourished, it will provide extra layers of protection, making it more difficult for other vampires to attempt to breach the defenses and get to all of your hard-won valuables.
When the Castle Heart is well-fed, other vampires will find it challenging to get in. As long as it’s secured and fortified, it should take some extra effort for someone to break through. Castles will heal themselves over time if they prove unsuccessful or do minor damage. Unless the enemy can do a lot of targeted destruction over a short period, it will be like they never tried to attack.
When a Castle Heart is well-fed, it will be tricky for other vampires to breach your walls. It takes a resource-costly and targeted attack to break down even a single wall. If they can’t get through all the layers of defenses and are forced to retreat, it will be reasonably easy to repair– and more than that, any unbroken walls will heal themselves over time.
Don’t worry, repairing statues and braziers is free.
The amount of dedicated resources and focus it takes for an enemy vampire to break down even a single wall or door means that when they get inside, it discourages them from destroying anything they don’t absolutely need to. All of the hard work constructing the palace of your dreams won’t be so easily undone, and recovering from a successful raid won’t mean cleaning up too much wreckage.
So invest in your estate! Build it big, build it strong, something to be proud of! Dedication will be rewarded. Those who don’t may suffer consequences, however. Ignoring the castle is like neglecting any other living thing and may lead to decay. When the blood runs dry, it will lose those protections, and those mighty walls will crumble over time. While it is sad that a home will be lost, it will be good for that precious real estate to be taken up by another, more responsible vampire.
Breathtaking decay.
Make It Your Own
What is a vampiric acropolis if not a statement of status? We are creatures of the night and proud of it. We take great pride in showing off our opulent status as the apex predators of Vardoran, and there should be no shame in showing off your unique brand of nobility. For this reason, we thought it essential to give plenty of options to tailor the manor to your taste.
From the doorway to the throne room are many opportunities to display a sense of respectability and style. Boast the finest archways in all of Farbane, the most glorious gallery in Silverlight, or the lushest garden in the fertile hills of Dunley. Line your coffin’s chamber with tinted windows and lush drapery. Roll out the red, amethyst, pristine white, or pitch-black carpeting. Line the walls with torches and braziers that burn bright with every color under the sky.
What kind of castle do you want?
Maybe you want to take all of these tools and craft a library from which to gather all the dark secrets of the continent. Create the perfect prison for the most precious human pets. Perhaps make a grand dining hall to meet with clanmates and discuss the brood’s next conquest, or maybe you’ve taken a liking to necromancy and want to construct a vast graveyard filled with skeletons, ghouls, and other horrors.
With the ability to easily rearrange the placement of workshops and decorations, with just a flick of the wrist, it’s easy to expand and craft the perfect palace for your unique seat of power. With all the options available, the only actual limit is your knowledge and imagination. We look forward to seeing what our players will be capable of when they sink their teeth in.
Populating Your Castle
One could imagine those vast halls and chambers getting a bit lonely, and it might be difficult for the eternal to find worthy companions. So why not acquire some servants? Through the magic of, well… magic, an adequately educated vampire can go out into the world and hunt for good help. After wearing down their prey, they’ll be able to bend their will and order a properly enchanted human back to their castle. After bringing the freshly charmed thrall home, it comes time to make an important decision.
The charming process, name entirely metaphorical.
From here, there are a few options. If this particular human seems like a uniquely tasty treat, a vampire might choose to place them in a prison cell to keep as a prisoner and snack on periodically. Keep your prisoner happy enough, and you may even be able to feed on them more often, and if they have some sort of beneficial blood type that might come in frequent handy, you’ll be able to have it on hand whenever you want it.
We put up drapes to make them comfortable.
Alternatively, maybe you need a helping hand. For this, simply lower that freshly gained pawn into a servant’s coffin and allow them to suffer the sweet agony of undeath and eternal servitude. Maybe it would give peace of mind to have someone waiting at the base to deal with any intruders that manage to sneak in, or perhaps you’re sick of having to suffer the indignity of going back to Farbane to gather copper ore when someone else can do it for instead! Command servants from your throne to carry out missions, gathering materials without having to lift a finger or dirty those regal hands.
Arise, champion.
Thralls provide another dimension to the castle, a sense of activity and unlife that adds to the feeling of being a dark overseer, commanding the lessers to further their evil goals. In V Rising, we want our vampires to have that. To, in some small way, roll out the red carpet and hand over the tools required to live the vampire dream.
A little special preview.
And so…
Let’s raise our glasses to the mighty castle, vampires! Cheers! The palace, stronghold, manor, estate, and home. Whatever you call it, they are the steps that we ascend. As you build it into the perfect seat of power, it will make you into the vampire worthy enough to sit at it.
Thanks for reading, everyone! For more information on V Rising, please visit our socials below to keep up with our road to early access launch this May 17th! There has never been a better time to get involved!
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Lots of love and a pint of blood,
/The Marketing Team