Hunter Phase and Beyond
Your discoveries in the Research Center uncover a strange area on the map where winding paths lead to a dark forest where you will have to adapt your Warrior training and commence your journey into the Hunter Phase…
*Note that this will be constructed after New Nations, Subscription NFTs, and the Royales*
Please doubly note that this is a preliminary plan, and subject to change based on how the SQ game progresses, but here to give an indication of where the ARC III Hunter expansion will lead to
Summary
The Hunting Grounds ("HG") is a huge forest split up into a grid of 6000 x 6000 spaces that warriors can travel to.
The main purpose is to go on "Hunts" to gather loot to craft rare strong weapons and armor, and ultimately gain the top ranked Hunter badge to be able to Capture beasts and use them as Mounts in Battles, Royales, and in the Conqueror Stage.
Initially the whole forest will be covered by the fog of war, but as warriors explore the HG, they reveal the landscape.
Users must choose their warrior, their intended path into the HG (and their return journey). How far they can travel depends on the warrior's Health. Eg 25 health = has 1,000 movement points.
Each warrior sets out on hunts starting from one of 5 entrance locations at the bottom of the map.
Every hour, the warrior moves one space along the chosen path. Each movement to a new space uses up one or more of the movement points. When the moves run out, then the warrior has used up their supplies and Fatigue starts to kick in, reducing their stats.
Each space has a % chance to encounter a beast. If a beast is encountered, then the warrior must fight it (using the new battle mechanics). If the warrior wins, then there is as % chance some Common/Rare/Epic/Legendary loot is dropped. If the warrior takes some damage, then the warrior's health is reduced for the remainder of the hunt.
If the warrior loses (aka health goes to zero), then they pass out and drop half their loot, and must crawl travel back to the entrance to heal/recover.
Initially everyone is a Level 1 hunter. A Level 1 hunter can only encounter the 8 Small beasts and carry 1 item.
To advance to Level 2, the hunter must have the L2 Hunter Badge. This is crafted by combining (in the Forge) the 8 Legendary Loots from the 8 Small beasts.
A Level 2 hunter can encounter the 8 Small beasts + the 8 Medium beasts, can carry 2 items, and receive planning permission for 1 Lodge.
To advance to Level 3, the hunter must have the L3 Hunter Badge. This is crafted by combining the 8 Legendary Loots from the 8 Medium beasts.
A Level 3 hunter can encounter the 8 Small beasts + the 8 Medium beasts + 8 Large beasts, can carry 2 items, and receives permission to hunt with a companion (extra battle stats).
To advance to Level 4, the hunter must have the L4 Hunter Badge. This is crafted by combining the 8 Legendary Loots from the 8 Large beasts.
A Level 4 hunter can encounter the 8 Small beasts + the 8 Medium beasts + 8 Large beasts + 5 Mic5 beasts, can carry 2 items, and receives permission to hunt with 2 companions.
To advance to Level 5, the hunter must have the L5 Hunter Badge. This is crafted by combining the 5 Legendary Loots from the 5 Mic5 beasts.
A Level 5 hunter can encounter all beasts, but also has the ability to Capture beasts (instead of simply killing them)
Capturing beasts means they can be used as Mounts, which improve the stats of the rider (for battles in Interstice/Royales, and other hunts which may allow them to travel further, and then also in the next Conqueror stage skirmishes)
Items and Lodges
Items such as Wood, healing potions, bait, repellants, good luck charms, and End Hunt Horn will all be craftable from Loot obtained in the HG. Hunters will only be able to carry a set number of items with them at the start of a hunt, so will have to choose wisely.
When a warrior has obtained their Level 2 hunter badge, they may craft and build a Lodge in the Forest in a Known Area (one that has been revealed). The cost of a Lodge is likely to be very steep, and include many raw materials such as Grit, Wood, Iron (from Rusty Swords), Shards, Glory, MoH, and a hint of Insanity.
Wood is obtained when you do not encounter any beasts in an area. So you decide to pick up some Wood instead.
The Lodge must be placed/built by a warrior for 100 hours. So a Warrior must travel to the location with the Lodge, and spend 100 hours in the Forest building the Lodge. During this time, Beasts may attack them. If the Warrior passes out from Beast attacks (or fatigue), then the Warrior must travel home as normal and then the Warrior must try again.
Once a Lodge is built, it can be used as a new starting location in the forest for all Hunters (thereby allowing Hunters to travel further into the HG than before). However there are two differences:
The Lodge can be named by the Builder/owner.
The Builder/owner can set their own price for others to use the lodge as a starting location, eg 0-100% of someone's HONOR.
General expected process for HG Players
Unlock HG (in Research Center)
Obtain Level 1 Hunter Badge (price tbd)
Choose a warrior to be the Hunter
Choose your item(s)
Choose the Entrance (or Lodge)
Choose your planned Path on the map
Pay the Entrance fee
Click HUNT!
Check back every few hours to see the Hunter's Log of what is happening to your hunter. Note that once your hunter is on the hunt, you cannot do anything with them (except maybe if they have the "End hunt horn" when you can use to tell them to return home)
The Conqueror Phase, Builder Phase and beyond...
These will only be built after the New Nations, Subscription NFTs, Hunting Grounds, and renovated the Forge (for crafting), so this is likely a long time away.
However, the general dream for the Conqueror Phase is:
Unlock Nomansland/Borderlands/Shadowlands from the Research Center and view these areas on the dynamic and ever changing SQ map
This unlocks the chance to go on Expeditions.
An Expedition is where you select a pixel/land on the map at your Nation's border to explore/conquer with your warrior
Explore means you scout out the pixels around you and reveal some of their resources
Conquer means you have to win a skirmish to own it and earn the resources (eg Stone, Wood, Iron, Wheat, Crystal,...)
Fight the skirmish to win land for your chosen Nation. Skirmishes use Interstice battle mechanics, but you might be fighting Beasts, Bandits, Barbarians, Samsars, Camps, and teams/bands/combinations of them.
When you successfully conquer a pixel, you earn half Resources from the land (other half goes to your Nation, so have to unlock Nation Treasury from Research Centre to use these in the future)
You can earn more Resources from a plot of land if you stake a warrior as a "worker"
Green shaded area in the map below are the Borderlands that can be explored and conquered by warriors
Players will likely have to choose a Nation to side with at this stage, and may have to pay Nation taxes for border protection and other benefits.
The dream for the Builder Phase uses the Resources obtained in the Conqueror phase to build Homes, Farms, Villages, Towns, Castles, Cities, Roads, Walls, etc on your pixels.
If you want to start Settlement, you need to have a square collection of pixels that is 5x5 pixels.
You will need to obtain the 5x5 block of pixels either by conquering them from the Borderlands, or by buying them from your Nation, or by buying/trading them with another User.
This means that each Nation pixel should generate some Resources as well, but probably not as many as the pixels in the Borderlands.
The benefit of building a Settlement deep in your own Nation is that you are less likely to be attacked by Roaming Bandits, but you might not receive as many Resources. The closer you are to your Nation border, the more often your Settlement will be attacked.
Resources you collect can be used to:
Start a Settlement
Maintain your Settlement
Build on your Settlement to grow/expand/obtain more resources/fortify it
Start building factories to produce items you need (or want to sell/trade).
Optimize the production lines by breaking them down into smaller parts (eg engine, wheels, chassis factories + an assembly factory instead of just one "car" factory). This means that each of the factories is more efficient- uses less material, in less time, for less work and cost and perhaps produces better cars overall than if it was just a single simple car factory. But the added complexity makes the resource management harder and perhaps more fragile.
Set up Laboratories to research and engineer new items/loot/efficiencies.
Contribute to the Nation Treasury to fortify/defend your border. The Nation Treasury will get very interesting when lots of the lands have been conquered already and there are border skirmishes between Nations. Treasuries will have to decide how much to spend from their coffers on defending the Nation border. We can also introduce Bosses/Monsters that (cost a lot for the attackers to research, train and send) and are sent on a Rampage into enemy territory. They are high stat Beasts that attack the enemy Nation border pixels. When it defeats an enemy pixel/fortification then that pixel is now easier for the attacking enemy to conquer it. The Beast then moves onto the next Enemy pixel and continues on its rampage until it loses all its health and is killed by the defenders.
This will end up with large scale competition between the Nations, and an ever changing map for players to enjoy and take advantage of.
Please note again that these are only ideas and dreams for the direction of where we want to take the Shadow Quest ecosystem, they have not been started to be constructed yet and are subject to change completely. However, if you have ideas, or would like to contribute to the SQ coding, please get in contact via the Discord HERE!
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