Kingdoms of Camelot maker gives audience to Throne Room [Exclusive]
This week in the The Sims Social, players have the chance to win this kind of throne. Meanwhile, in the land of manly social games, players get a shot at something that's admittedly cooler than a golden toilet. Kabam has revealed its next big update to Kingdoms of Camelot to us exclusively: the Throne Room. If you wanted more "RPG" in your strategy MMORPG, this is it.
A feature in which players modify and upgrade their kingdoms from a special room in their castle, the Throne Room nails the stat stickler side of role-playing games. To give us a better understanding of the feature as it nears release, we asked Kingdoms of Camelot producer Brian DeSanti a few questions about the Throne Room. So here you are, everything you need to know about the Throne Room, straight from the warhorse's mouth:
Games.com News: How did you come up with the idea for the Throne Room?
Brian DeSanti: Our team wanted to add another system in KoC that provided players with depth that rivaled building and managing a City, essentially a new core feature to the game. In a roleplaying game, the user's hero has his/her equipment to empower and define them. We decided to create a parallel to this in KoC. Where a hero has his/her armor, a player's kingdom has their Throne Room.
What specific purposes will it serve to players?
The Throne Room allows players to equip powerful items, enhance these items to unlock additional effects and upgrade them to make each effect more powerful. Players can acquire these Throne Room items for free by sending out marches into the world. When the march returns, there's a chance that the player will acquire a new Throne Room item. These items can boost nearly every aspect of the game, from an increase to defense, range and health of the player's troops to a reduction in upkeep.
In addition, the Throne Room also doubles as a showroom for your items, and the update includes thousands of new rewards, so it's a wealth of new content for players to discover and play with.
How can players make the best use out of the Throne Room?
What's cool about the Throne Room is that it plays out for different people in different ways. It lets players change the balance of the scenarios in the game, which help keep it fresh, exciting and unpredictable. Players who enjoy PvP can set up their Throne Room to give them the largest benefit when attacking other players while those that enjoy farming resources for their Alliance can create a Throne Room that improves resource production. It allows players to take more control over the gameplay and change it to match their style in new ways.
What's your number one favorite feature included in the Throne Room?
Upgrade systems have always been one of my favorite features in RPGs and MMOs over the years. I love the ability to change and mold content. Discovering new abilities often times change the way I play a game, making it feel dynamic and alive. I'm really excited to bring this kind of dynamic into Kingdoms of Camelot.
The Throne Room adds a considerable layer of depth. Are you concerned at all that players might not attach to it given the added complexity?
Like everything in Kingdoms of Camelot, we balanced the Throne Room to have a low barrier of entry. We want it to be easy to play, but difficult to master. At the most basic level, players can use items to give their kingdom one or more benefits. This is something that KoC players are already familiar with, whether it's through combat items or our Guardian system. The Throne Room adds an element of customization to the game, giving players the chance to improve their items to compete with other players in their domain. It's a fun diversion for casual players, but not totally necessary. For more competitive players, it could quickly evolve into a critical part of their strategy.
What are the chances of the Throne Room coming to the mobile version of KoC?
The beauty of online games is they're always evolving. If players love the Throne Room as much as we hope, it's certainly something we'll look at bringing to the mobile version.
Speaking of which, what change, if any, does this update have on the cross-platform or social play of KoC?
Currently Throne Room does not affect cross-platform or social play in KoC. In the near future, however, we plan to add the items used in the Upgrade and Enhance systems into the in-game Gifting feature. This will allow players to gift each other items that will make upgrading and enhancing a Throne Room item easier.
What do you think this update means in terms of the game's general direction moving forward?
We're always looking at ways to add depth to Kingdoms of Camelot and improving the experience for users every way we can. We're always testing out new ways to reward and challenge our core players and making the game more intuitive and enticing for newcomers. Please visit our forums and tell us what you think–we're listening.
Are you psyched to check out the Throne Room feature in Kingdoms of Camelot? How will this change the game? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.
