Version 1.0.2.4 of Legends of Ellaria improves performance and character control:

Version 1.0.2.4 - Improved performance and character control

Hallo Ellarians,

We just uploaded a new version with major overall performance improvement, reduced loading time between map travel, and a better character movement and jumping.

One of our biggest changes was to reduce the impact of having a large number of characters in the same place. We introduced a new system that changes the character resolution dynamically based on their clothing and complexity, and their distance from the camera. This system reduces the character performance issues by 80% and increases the frame rate by as much as 15 extra frames per second.

In addition, we went over thousands of textures and items optimized them. This optimizations increases the game performance by 25%-50%, the required memory by 25%, and the loading time between maps by as much as 30%.

As a result of these changes, you should notice a significant improvement to LoE performance.

Another improvement that we've made is to the character movement and jumping, as well as the camera following the player. These changes makes sure that you will have a more intuitive and smoother movement and jumping, without changing too much of the character stats.

Our next goal is to improve the story line and quests, In the meanwhile, We wish to thank you for your feedback. We will continue to optimize and improve other parts of LoE as much as we can.

Version 1.0.2.4 Changes (7/2/23)

• Reduced NPC performance cost by 50% near the camera
• Reduced NPC performance cost by up to 90% when far away from camera
• Multiple texture and model reduction, by up to 75% of the original size without losing graphics
• Increased overall graphic performance by up to 50% (depending on the region)
• Reduced the size of the game and memory (RAM) by 25%
• Reduced game loading time between regions by up to 30% (depending on the region)
• Improved character movement and jumping
• Improved camera following the player in third person

Thanks Couchpotato!

Farflame spotted that Legends of Ellaria will get modding support:

Modding Support coming soon

Hallo Ellarians,

We've got some good news for you. After multiple changes and tests, we're getting close to adding modding support to Legends of Ellaria! Modding support means that anyone with the proper skills will be able to make significant game changes and publish them on the Steam Workshop.

Once we expose Legends of Ellaria's game engine and mechanics, You'll be able to control most of the game's logic and also be able to add new graphics. The modding support will be available and accessible for free to anyone with knowledge of making assets and scripts through Unity and C# language.

In addition to the modding support, we will publish a modding tool project and documentation. We're also going to create a new Discord server for anyone with questions and suggestions about modding LoE.

Also, we're going to include some of the Necromancer pack graphics and logics, for anyone who wants to make mods related to the undead. We're not done with the Necromancer DLC yet, but we feel that our community would benefit more if we focus on the modding support and allow anyone to make their own expansions and mods.

We're expecting the Modding Support to be ready in the following weeks. In the meanwhile, please continue to play and send us any suggestions and feedback. We thank you for your support.

Legends of Ellaria has been released on Steam to a 20% discount.

It's full release day!

Good day ellarians! This is a very exciting day for all of us: after 3 years of hard work on Early Access (and not counting the Kickstarter campaign and the pre-production work before all of this), Legends of Ellaria moves to full release!



We can’t wait to hear about your first adventures on Ellaria, where your strategy, management and exploration skills will be continuously tested. What kind of king will you become? What awesome adventures will you live?



To mark this special occasion, Larkon Studios is hosting a special broadcast to celebrate the release of the game here on Steam. We’ll pay attention to your comments during the stream, as well as to our official Discord server, to make this event a bit more interactive. At the same time, some of our community members will be playing Legends of Ellaria on Twitch, so we’d love you to visit their channels, hear their experiences and share new game tips!
Bardon Plays
Goshen
Gamer 4fun2u
impossibrulis
murrayman01


We wouldn't have made it this far without the support, help and feedback of our amazing community. In behalf of the development team, many thanks from the bottom of our hearts for choosing Ellaria as your new homeland. We hope you enjoy the game as much as we have enjoyed developing it. If you want to help us, please spread the word about Legends of Ellaria -- and don't forget to leave your review in the Store page, that helps a lot!

See you soon, Ellarians!

A new update on Chapter 0 for Legends of Ellaria lets you know what to expect.

Greetings, Ellarians! We've got some news to share with you today. As you know, in the last months we've been working on the final details of the game, implementing some advanced features like quests, dungeons, etc. Everything is falling into place, and we're quite happy to let you know that Legends of Ellaria will transition from early access to full release in March. Depending on how the final tests go, that could be early or late March, mind you – stay tuned for more info, in the coming weeks we'll be able to pinpoint it to a more concrete date!

We've got more good news for you: Legends of Ellaria will have a 25% off discount this week. The price may increase as the game gets all the full release features, so this is one of the last opportunities to get it with a reduced price – if you are considering getting the game, don't miss on this opportunity!



Speaking of releases, we've just completed the Prologue. in this mini-chapter, you fight your way from your old homeworld, Marra to reach Ellaria through a portal, before the Amerdan Clan overruns your castle.

We've also polished some of your character's movement and jumping, added new maps and locations, and completely overhauled the kingdom balancing and fixed some important kingdom management issues. We recommend starting a new game so that these changes will take effect



Your feedback is crucial even in this last stretch of development, so you still have a chance at helping us to shape the game. Remember that you can help us a lot by spreading the word about the game. Don't forget to Wishlist and Follow the game on Steam so you don't miss any news, and you can also join our community of Ellarians in Discord! We can't wait to release the final features, and we're looking forward to experiencing with you the adventures that are awaiting in Ellaria. Stay safe and strong, and see you very soon in the fields of Ellaria!



If you own a copy of Legends of Ellaria but still haven't joined the closed Beta, please join us on our Discord server, PM us with @Admin and we will set you up! In case you don't have a Discord, you can also contact us here.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

The latest update on Legends of Ellaria shares progress made and the dev road map.

100 + Improvements(Beta) and Dev Road Map

5 Feb @ 6:53am - Larkon Studio

Dear Legends of Ellaria players,

We're excited to announce a NEW closed-beta version, containing more over 100 fixes and Improvements. These improvements are based on your bug reports, feedbacks and long-planned improvements, along with a new sound system, improved combat AI and visual corrections.

Also, We would like to share with you Legends of Ellaria RoadMap[docs.google.com]
which details our time schedule on important features such as World Domination, Multiplayer, Necromancer and more. The order and date of these features may change, and we will update this list as we develop these features.



Version 0.5.49.01 BETA 1 Contains the following

Combat Improvements

• NPC use tactics depending on their training, including flanking and changing weapons to match yours
• NPCs are less likely to shoot an ally while aiming at an enemy
• Improved NPCs animations
• Citizens reacts to you when you attack them in Casual
• Getting killed dispells all shields and summoned creatures
• Reduced Mana from x10 per Spirit to x5 and reduced all spells by half so that mana potions and apparel will be more effective.
• Added Rage skill mechanics

Sound Improvements

• Created a new sound system for ambient and sound effects
• Added multiple indoor and outdoor ambient and immersive sounds
• Improved the footstep sounds
• Remixed sound volumes and added smoother transitions
• Rebalanced NPCs greetings, shouts, and taunts depending on the environment and number of NPCs

[...]

A new update for Legends of Ellaria introduces the Warrior Spirit class and a new interface.

The Warrior Spirit class and a new Interface!

10 December - Larkon Studio

Fixed getting stuck after dying while aiming(Version was updated on December 11)
Dear Legends of Ellaria players,We're excited to announce a NEW closed-beta version with the following features: Version 0.5.45.01 BETA 1 includes the following features

• Completely remade the User Interface for the First Person mode. More to come
• The new Warrior Spirit skill tree
• You can now perform Focus Attacks by pressing Z
• Added the option to rebind the "Q" key, thus fixing the AZERTY keyboard issues
• Changed the Bow accuracy by skill to non-linear
• Fixed Multiple Jumping and Falling Glitches
• Fixed climbing stairs in the city
• Fixed Unarmed damage amount
• Fixed Blocking Calculations
• Fixed NPCs dying in one hit in some instances
• Fixed Multiple issues with NPCs not dying
• Fixed issues with the inventory quick slots
• Fixed Bow Damage
• Fixed Tutorial quest won't update when taking gear

If you own a copy of Legends of Ellaria but still haven't joined the closed Beta please join us on our Discord server[discordapp.com], PM us with @Admin and we will set you up! In case you don't have a Discord, then just contact us here.

Please share your Feedbacks thought the in-game F8 report system and leave your comments in the Beta Section.
Share your gameplay via the Game Review as well

Thank you for the support, and we hope to build a great game alongside you.

See you in Ellaria,

The Larkon Studio Team

BETA 2 - 0.5.45.02 Changes:

• Fixed Blacksmith door was blocked in older saves
• Fixed unable to shoot when entering a dungeon
• Fixed missing Inventory Experience bar
• Fixed missing quick bar item amounts

In the latest version of Legends of Ellaria (currently in closed beta) the RPG system has been implemented, but it still has places to go.

We are excited to announce that a new version 0.5.42.01 RPG Leveling System is up

We have been working on different features and fixes, and we are finally ready to release some of the progress to you.

In this version, you will now find:

• New RPG system where you can level and invest in attributes, bonuses, and abilities.
• Added support for proficiencies, power attacks, and status effects
• Remade the character inventory and character stats user interface from scratch
• Remade most of the animations
• Remade the character controller. The character movement is smoother now.
• Rebalanced all RPG statistics
• Included a status bar during combat for viewing NPC stats
• Included a 3D character display in the inventory

In future versions we will be adding: 

• New skills
• Vendors
• Buildings
• Kingdom Management
• World map 
• UI and graphics improvements/optimizations

The Legends of Ellaria team gave a short message that they have started working on the RPG system of the game.

We have now started to develop a full RPG system for Legends of Ellaria (yes, finally). For this reason, we will be releasing fewer updates in the summertime, with only bug fixes, optimizations, and some minor features to be released in the meantime.

However, this will all be worth your time since we will be releasing a Major update with a brand new RPG system that includes leveling, talents (similar to Skyrim's skill tree), new animations, attacks, skillsets, magic effects, improved combat system, classes, and much, much more.

There is a new update for Legends of Ellaria, which adds the following:

A New Update is LIVE!

Dear Legends of Ellaria players, 

As you know, we have been working on a new RPG system, fixes, and features in order to enhance your experience in the game. 

Earlier this week, we released a closed beta version (for which if you own a copy of the game you can still join by PMing us on our Discord: https://discord.gg/ThC6x8F) with the following features:

1: We now have a first-person mode! Now you can switch from TPS to FPS view anytime you like by pressing "F" or any other key you bind to this action.

2: Added an inverse Kinematic system (applied to NPC's only for now) that makes them move more realistically. 

3: Added a "WASD" keybinding option.

We have now polished some of the new bugs that arose from the renewed game engine, but there will be still some Early Access bugs and fixes, which we will be happy to receive your feedback to solve them! 

Please let us know any thoughts you have of the version through the #beta-tester in our Discord, pressing the F8 bug system in the game, or on steam through our community discussions :).

We will be introducing RPG features very soon in order to build a complete game and a truly epic title in the future just for you.

A new major update for Legends of Ellaria is available now.

You will now be able to enjoy:

• Overhauled graphics and effects, including better texture display, lighting, shadows and colors.
• Reduced initial RAM usage by over 50%. The game should now load faster and use less memory overall.
• Outdoor objects now getting wet when it rains.
• A second floor to the player's home, which includes more chests and props.
• A "sleep" feature for your king, accessible through the player’s home.
• A more challenging melee combat system.
• Smarter civilian NPCs that now use roads whenever possible.
• Player walks faster.
• Soldiers following you into dungeons when they are in follow state; Otherwise, they will perform the command you have given them.

...

And there is this:

As of now, we are beginning to work on much-anticipated features such as a full RPG system, an initial RTS experience, and 'The Sphere of Influence' (more news on that later).

In the near future, updates will include:

• Full RPG Leveling System
• World Map
• Siege Weapons
• Destructible buildings and castle wars
• Mage Towers
• Kingdom Management
• Cavalry and much, much more

As the title says, the beta for Legends of Ellaria is now a thing.

Please contact us if you volunteered and didn't get the message or if you want to participate in the beta testing.

What’s new in 0.5.39.4 BETA 2:

• Completely overhauled the sky and weather system, improved its performance and graphics
• Temporarily removed VSync
• Improved 20% of the texture and memory usage. Much more to come.
• Fixed an issue where the terrain would be flat or have flat portions
• Improved the camera’s processing and post effects, and its performance
• Completely rebuild the Pathfinder system; NPC goes smoother and smarter from place to place.
• Completely rebuild the follower system; Followers move in an organized formation when possible, and stick with their leader in tight places
• Followers can now follow you indoors. When you enter a dungeon, 3 of your best soldiers will go in with you.

Version 0.5.38.2 introduces a new loot system to the strategy RPG Legends of Ellaria:

Version 0.5.38.2 - The Loot system

Hello everyone,

We just released a new version which contains new features and tweaks. The most notable addition is the looting system; most enemies (and friends) will drop some useful items when killed. We'll also include more loot, items and add looting to all the creatures in Ellaria in the next updates.

In addition, we solved some gameplay glitches as we're preparing Legends of Ellaria for the next step. The next update will include gameplay options, as well as a map system.

Version 0.5.38.2 features by request

• You can take items from fallen humanoids
• Golem is more challenging and has a special move
• Added a torch. You can equip it to light dark places
• Added chests to houses and to the main hall (in new saves)
• Re balanced melee weapon ranges

Bug Fixes

• Your character is no longer wet indoor when it's raining outside
• Fixed player moves without pressing a move button
• Fixed an issue when switching between bow and a spell
• Fixed Kill the Raiders and RiverSide Quests
• Fixed several issues with dungeons
• Fixed Cave crawler not being hit
• Fixed civilian animation bugs
• Fixed followers animation bugs

The sandbox RPG Legends of Ellaria has launched on Steam Early Access:

Larkon studio is proud to present Legends of Ellaria on Steam Early Access:

After four years of development, you can finally build your own kingdom & command your own army, fight alongside them in real time, or simply live your own adventure, the choice is yours!

See you in Ellaria

Known Bugs being fixed in current version:

• When you equip a bow and your character has a spell in his hand, the bow appears in your hand
• Player can use shield while attacking and moving
• Followers stop following after load
• The skies appear black during the day

The sandbox game Legends of Ellaria, merging FPS, RTS and RPG features in one, will be available in Early Access July 28.

We are excited to announce that after four years of development, hard work, and the support of our community, Legends of Ellaria is finally coming to Early Access on July 28, 2017!  

We prepared a Launch Trailer just for the occasion, and it would help us infinitely if you can like, share, and even comment on your thoughts about release!  

Our Official Steam page is approved as well, please add the game to your wishlist and follow it for release, and the more feedback we have from as many players as we can, the more we will improve into the full release of a truly epic game :).

A new video for Legends of Ellaria, showing the new fire spells, has been made avialable.

Larkon studio have released a video with some of the gameplay features of Legends of Ellaria, using a pre-alpha version of that game.

In a short development update for Legends of Ellaria, the following is stated:

We are proud to announce that our inventory system is finally complete! There is a complete set of items, spells, quick equipment bar, and stats system. 

We will now begin to develop our quests to finally bring you an amazing demo! Legends of Ellaria is closer and closer to release, and as always we want to say thank you to everyone who has been supporting us from the beginning, we will keep working hard for you.

Furtherrmore a reference to an article on their site is provided, with what they think are the 5 best weapons of video games. Here is the one from Fallout:

Fallout is a wonderfully vibrant universe that brings the player in from the very beginning. It also has some great weapons to make sure it keeps your interest. The best of these weapons is the Fat Man.

“The Fat Man is a pre-War heavy weapon that launches mini nukes,” says fallout.wikia.com. That’s a pretty apt description. If you thought the many other violent weapons in Fallout were exciting, the Fat Man absolutely tops that list.

The Fat Man might have much worse ammo prospects than most, the devastation it brings more than makes up for it every time, certainly earning its spot on this list, and in the hearts of Fallout fans.

In a news letter the team behind Legends of Ellaria talk about this:

This week, we finished most of the inventory logics, including cooldown for consumable items, weight, currency (which is divided into gold and silver), as well as stats for items. Items have support for stats (such as extra damage, fire sword, etc.), and some items can boost the character’s abilities (such as a ring that gives you +2 strength). 

We’ve also finished many of the logics for the RPG system, as well as a framework to support stats for your character. These stats includes strength, agility, intelligence and others to determine which weapons you can use and how much damage you do. Although we’re still working on the character’s leveling system, we've already made equipable items such as rings and necklaces.

Finally, we added new magic attacks to wizard enemies and golems, and we finally finished the RTS army control, take a look at the image below.

Furthermore there is also a new blog in which they cover the 5 most iconic fantasy creates of all time.

And on their forums you can participate in a vote about what they should develop next, with a choice between siege weapons or interaction.

Legends of Ellaria will be released as Early Access version on May 26 next year:

Hi Gamers, 

We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

And as the new year is near, we've reached enough milestones in our development to officially announce Legends of Ellaria's Steam Early Access launch: 

The 26th of May, 2017. 

We can't wait to see how the Steam EA launch will come out, and we can already say that it will include the first chapter of Legends of Ellaria's story. Until then, we're expecting to publish new versions , which will include the long awaited inventory, quests and new maps, and much more ! 

So have a happy new year and stay tuned for our next releases

Larkon Studio

The most recent progress report for Legends of Ellaria is about optimizations.

As we've made progress over the past few weeks, we're nearly finished with the optimised version of Legends of Ellaria. Since optimisation isn't something that you finish, but rather improve over the time, the next version will be one of many improvements to the game mechanics of Legends of Ellaria, and it may be ready as soon as two weeks from now.  

The new version will include a better loading screen, won't seem to get stuck before the main menu, and should be much faster and responding on older computers. It already runs as fast as 100 FPS on our computers but we want to fix some issues before releasing it.

A new update for Legends of Ellaria is available, bringing it to 0.5.30. It also comes with a new gameplay video showing some of the game's features.

Version 0.5.29 is out for Legends of Ellaria, which brings the game closer to Early Access.

After some hard work and a complete overhaul of the game mechanics, we finished the next step towards the Early Access.

Our new version includes the following changes:

• New and improved graphics
• A new map Day / Night cycle and weather effects
• A new player controller, including a combat system and a new movement system
• Unarmed combat
• Special combat moves
• A new archery system
• Magic shield for mage class
• Dodge and stamina based blocks
• A new combat AI
• A Login system
• Faster gameplay
• Automatic updates system and version controller
• A complete engine overhaul, allowing more things to be added to LoE

Known issues:

• When zoomed out, the character can’t enter houses 
• LoE has freezes and cpu loads from time to time 
• City life and citizen AI needs improvements 

Since we finished our new game engine, we can expect more features in less time. We’re now planning to release the next version in two weeks. 

Our next planned features are: 

• Barracks and soldier recruitment 
• Blacksmith, tavern and special buildings have menus and serve a purpose 
• The goblins and other creatures has strongholds, and you’ll need to invade them or defend your city 

Later versions will include quests, more maps, and a kingdom management, as well as the beginning of the main story. This also means that we’re starting to design the living weapon, special followers and special events in the near future.

A new 5 minute video for Legends of Ellaria has been made available.

We're about two weeks from the new version, and we're excited about our progress. We've made a complete overhaul of the game engine and finished the new combat mechanism, which also includes unarmed combat. 

We've also finished testing the automatic updates so that new versions will be easy to download, and we're expecting to publish more updates on a regular basis. 

Our next update will include a list of our new features, in the meantime, we published a new gameplay demo of the latest version. Enjoy, and stay tuned for the next version.

In a recent Kickstarter update it was announced that Civcraft - Legends of Ellaria, drops Civcraft and is named Legends of Ellaria now.

We're getting closer to the new version, and we're very excited. We've finished automatic updates, game core elements and a whole lot of technical issues.

in the meantime, we decided to change the name of CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria to Legends of Ellaria. The new name change won't affect anything, other than the name of the game.

As part of our name change, we'll also transfer civcraftgame.com to larkonstudio.com, publish a new game installer, and change the text on all of our sites. This new name will be more unique and catchy, as well as shorter.

So what does that mean ?

• If you marked civcraftgame.com as favorate, you should change it to larkonstudio.com.
• You should enter access our site through larkonstudio.com and not civcraftgame.com
• You should use "Legends of Ellaria" or "LoE", instead of CivCraft in your posts.
• All other login, references and game content are the same.

I assume that all the ruckus about using "Civcraft" in the name of the game had something to do with this decision.

The update also shows some new screenshots.

The early alpha version of CivCraft, which is only available to backers, has been updated and a next version is eminent.

We would first like to thank you for your suggestions and bug reports for us to improve CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria. We hope you all liked it, and since the release we already made some progress.One week have passed since the Pre-Alpha, and we’ve been working around the clock on the major issues with the earlier version. 

First thing we did was to address the biggest issue of all; the massive slow frame rate and CPU cost for running CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria. After a week of coding and optimizations, we’ve doubled the frame rate and speed of the game. In fact, we’ve optimized CivCraft more than expected and decided to add SSAO, Filmic Tonemapping, Normal bump corrections, color corrections, light adaptation, and many other technical words that just makes Ellaria look cool and beautiful!  

In the past week, We’ve also managed to complete our day/night cycle, as well as the weather system. The next version will include this feature, as well as a better environmentally sound.

We’re planning to publish a next version with more areas to explore and with forest life, as well as more things to do in your city. However, we’re planning to publish a version just with the optimization, just as soon as we'll build automatic updates and registration system, so that you’ll receive updates instead of a big installation file, as well as the items or CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria version you backed.

In the meanwhile, we’re also working on the city life, and have opened a vote section here.

In a new backer only Kickstarter update the Civcraft devs tell us that the alpha is ready.

After some massive coding, pizza and a lot of head–scratching, we’ve finished the Pre-Alpha. Bear in mind that this version (0.5.28) is our first playable version and contains bugs and glitches; it is the first of many versions which will update, fix, optimize and otherwise improve CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria.

Our next step is to improve our game engine, terrain, playability, animations, combat system and to optimise CivCraft to run faster, as well as to add quests, other kingdoms, inventory system, a manageable army and multiple maps.

In the meanwhile, any suggestion and bug report will be most accepted and helpful.

The Civraft: Legends of Ellaria is bringing us a gameplay video, showing a tour around the city.

And there is this about the pre-alpha version:

As of now, we’re certain that the Pre-Alpha will be ready before Februar. In fact, the Pre-Alpha is very playable at the moment, but we’re still polishing the Save / Load, which is a must for any gameplay that takes more than a few minutes. The first version of the Pre-Alpha won’t include quests and multiple maps and a main story, but it won’t be an empty world either.

The main elements that we’ll include in the first version are:

• City Life - As shown in the video, we’ll include the main AI engine for your citizen, as well as the ability to expand your city.
• Expand your city - You’ll be able to build basic buildings and expand your city. Some of the buildings you saw in the gameplay video will not be included in the first version, but later versions will allow more buildings, props, road construction and much more.
• Building interiors - You can enter into some of the houses you’ve built That cool spell - For those times when you don’t feel like building, we’ve added the destruction magic spell, as well as a testing area for your pleasure.
• Day & Night cycle - We still have plenty of work on the weather and seasons, but we’ve added a day and night cycle
• A few goblins here and there - When you go outside of the city, you’ll encounter goblins. They won’t challenge your skills at the moment, but they add some immersion to the map
• A large map - Although somewhat empty, your map is very large.

And as usual, have a happy gaming and we’ll see you at the Pre-Alpha

In a progress update, the development team behind CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria, birng us news about spontaneous combat formations.

This week was all about the combat system, and since we do have armies and soldier recruitment, we introduced spontaneous formations. Spontaneous formations means that a group of individuals joining a fight will band together and form a cluster, rather than just come at you randomly. We even introduced groups that forms during a battle and sends unneeded soldiers to the rear, just in case they are going to be out-flanked.

During our tests, we tried sending our poor king to attack a goblin village by himself. The shameful result can be seen here:

In their third progress report for Civcraft, we learn that the release date is set to the first of January 2016.

As we've passed another week of hard coding and designing, we've reached many achievements and milestones. Although it took longer than expected, we finally have an official release date, which we intend to keep to the minute.

CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria's Early Access will be officially released, exclusively to you, on the 1st of January, 2016. The first version will be followed by multiple updates and features and will be influenced by your feedback and votes, for many months to come, until it's release to steam at around mid 2016. Until then, we'll also post several gameplay videos for your feedback, so that we'll know we're on the right track. Once the Early Access is released, we'll also design items, spells, heroes and the tiers we promised to deliver, as well as the Kickstarter edition.

For the "Double" tier owners, now is the time to send us information about the second owners of the Early Access game keys, so that they will receive CivCraft as soon as it's published. If we'll receive their email accounts by the 25th of December, they will get the benefit of playing CivCraft as soon as it's released.

In the meantime, thank you for your patience. we'll release a short gameplay video at around next week, and we can't wait for the Early Access to come out.

Here is a progress update for Civcraft: Legends of Ellaria:

As we're in the final stages for the Early Access, we wanted to share some of our progress and achieved milestones. Our main issue besides composing locations and perfecting the combat system was the high amount of resources it takes to run CivCraft. Long story short, combining a large map for a real time strategy game with high end graphics from first person games takes quite a load on an average computer. In the last few weeks, we managed not only to improve CivCraft's performance to run smoothly, but also improved the terrain's graphics, added 3D clouds, tone mapping and a better terrain graphics.

By next week we should finish tweaking the combat system and the city life, and we'll have an Early Access release date soon. In the meanwhile, thank you for your votes and suggestions, and thank you for your patience, the Early Access is on it's way.

In a rather short status report for Civcraft, the following was reported:

Last week marked major progress and major issues fixes for CivCraft, as well as new designs and theme graphics. Unfortunately the Early Access won't be ready this week, and may be delayed a bit longer. We prefer to delay the Early Access a bit longer so that we'll finish patching all the pieces together and optimize the frame rate and system requirements to play CivCraft.

The good news are that we'll start posting screenshots and videos from Ellaria, with new graphics, features and fixes we've added. To keep you in the loop, we'll also post weekly news about our progress and publish our expected Early Access release date as soon as possible.

It won't be long until the Early Access, and we're working around the clock to finish our cool concept. In the meanwhile, your gameplay suggestions and discussions are like gold to us, and are noted and tagged for future plans. Keep up the good work!

Congratulations - the CivCraft Kickstarter campaign was successful:

Hi Everyone,

There are celebrations in our office as we're an officially funded video game! But there's no time to rest, as our work to shape Ellaria has just began. As a wise man said, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

As we're debriefing our designers for the Early Access, we're starting to build a community system that will be used as a voting system. In the following days, you will receive e-mails with information to subscribe to our new community so that your pledges will be synchronized with our voting system. After that, you'll be able to use your community badge to vote on new features for CivCraft.

We're also having a problem with the link to our site's PayPal. Until we'll fix it, you can access our PayPal account here.

As a bonus to reaching 30K in the CivCraft campaign, the backers get Krassus, the warrior hero.

In addition the roadmap for the game is presented.

Also, here's our planned road map for CivCraft, from top to bottom

• Early Access with our current map and several locations to explore
• More maps unlocked and the ability to travel to distant lands
• Siege weapons and an enemy faction
• Unique spells and items, more locations to explore and lore related quests
• Espionage mechanism, more maps and a new faction with espionage quests
• Stealth mechanism, wall climbing and unique stealth skills
• Dark forests, new locations, factions, spells and content
• Tech tree and spell research, including building and soldier upgrade
• Character customization, expressions and new clothes
• Arch-Mage and unique combat moves, including Arch-Mage types
• Special lore quests and the beginning of the main story
• More features and updates, depending on requests made by you

Our road map include exact dates and assets for our development team and most of the features have been acquired or tested. The first Early Access version will be distributed in October and we'll post each new road map item as an update every two weeks. We estimate that we'll finish the Beta at the beginning of 2016, and the rest will be history :-)

Since we didn't reach the multiplayer and console version stretch goals, we estimate that they will be included at the Beta, along with support for modding. Since Unity5 engine supports multiple platforms, we're planning to add support for consoles as soon as possible.

With less than three days to go, the CivCraft Kickstarter needs another $6K to reach the next stretch goal, featuring the Arch Mages.

The Arch Mage pack adds a whole new mechanism to CivCraft's magic abilities. This package allows you to develop one of the three mage types, to the point that you can destroy entire armies.

The Arch Mage pack introduces the Green Mage, who can summon monsters, heal soldiers in battle and create his/her own Golem army out of rocks or iron.

Another class is the blue mage, who can shield entire cities against siege weapons, harness the power of gravity to stop armies at their tracks, or quickly teleport between key locations.

The most destructive class is the Red Mage. This class is the least versatile but the most powerful one, as a red mage can light entire fields on fire, summon meteorites and destroy a battalion with a single spell.

An Arch-Mage is not easy to master, as you will need special minerals, buildings and spell books to level yourself or your heroes. However, a high level Arch Mage can be more dangerous than the army that follows him. We noticed that unlike conventional RPG games, you'll face entire armies and will have to use your best spells and tactics. The destructive power of an ancient spell wielder is a most welcomed feature in CivCraft.

CivCraft can now do facial expressions. On their Kickstarter page you can find an animated gif with some expressions. In addition they mention adding a new Kickstarter goal at $35K (they are now at $26K, with 5 days to go).

Another good news is that we can implement much of our Level 1 Immersion and Arch Mage pack by reaching a 35K instead of 50K. We're still planning to reach the Arch Mage pack, but the more we rise towards the 50K, the more funds we can spend on adding features and graphics for this pack. This plan already worked through your backing, since we've used a fraction of your future funding and already prototyped the spells, character expressions, winter pack and many other features, even during this campaign

Billy D (One Angry Gamer) has interviewed game designers Arik Helman and Adrian Tache from Larkon Studio:

CivCraft Interview: Losing Entire Kingdoms And Seeking Vengeance

Persistent MMOs where players can actually gain and lose everything are very rare in today’s market. Very few games actually allow and promote persistence when it comes to building an entire kingdom only to see it lost to fire and brimstone during an intense PvP match. CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria, an upcoming sandbox role-playing strategy game will allow players to build, defend and destroy kingdoms all taking place in a persistent medieval universe.

CivCraft will feature RTS combat, hack-and-slash combat for those who like to get down and dirty on the ground, resource management, diplomacy, questing, magic skills, custom town and castle building, as well as the ability to wage war against rivals and destroy any and everything that stands in the way.

The game is currently on Kickstarter, and at the time of the publishing of this article it has surpassed its basic goal of $12,500 by a significant margin. The developers, Larkon Studio, are currently striving toward hitting the stretch goals as they prep for the game’s release on Steam Early Access. They’ve already managed to get Greenlit for Valve’s service so it’s one hurdle down and just a few more to go.

I had an opportunity to throw a few questions toward game designers Arik Helman and Adrian Tache from Larkon Studio, discussing some of the mechanics of building a kingdom in CivCraft, as well as acquiring siege weapons to tear them down. The game allows players to engage the game either down on the ground like Mount & Blade or command diplomacy and war using RTS and 4x strategy elements. The combination of different gameplay elements, the PvP and the fact that it’s an indie game really piqued my interest. You can check out the full interview below. [...]

We interviewed Arik Helman from Larkon Studio about CivCraft, which is currently on Kickstarter, after we were bribed with the promise of receiveing a bunch of keys. We are suckers for things like that, so here is the result.

RPGWatch: You explained the Espionage pack in one of the updates. What about the stretch goal following that the Arch-Mage pack. Can you shed more light on that goal?

Arik: The Arch Mage pack adds a whole new mechanism to CivCraft's magic abilities. This package allows you to develop one of the three mage type, to the point that you can destroy entire armies.

The Arch Mage pack introduces the Green Mage, who can summon monsters, heal soldiers in battle and create his own golem army out of rocks or iron.

Another class is the blue mage, who can shield entire cities against siege weapons, harness the power of gravity to stop armies at their tracks, or teleport himself between key locations.

The most destructive class is the Red Mage. This class is the least versatile but the most powerful one, as a red mage can light entire fields on fire, summon meteorites and destroy a battalion with a single spell.

An Arch mage is not easy to master, as you will need special minerals, buildings and spell books to level yourself or your heroes. However, a high level Arch Mage can be more dangerous than the army that follows him.

P.S. Once we get the keys, we will have a raffle.

The Espionage pack stretch goal for CivCraft has been reached yesterday. On the Kickstarter page you can find an animated gif of a thief being attacked by a chest (which I won't post here as many of you don't like animated gifs on the front page).

They need to almost double the currently raised amount in the next 9 days to reach the next stretch goal, so that won't be easy to accomplish, but one never knows until it's over.

A Kickstarter update for Civcraft, talks about new graphics (of which they have animated gifs) and that the stretch goal of $50K has been improved to also include extra immersion by means of graphics and sound.

Thank you for your support, we are nearly at the 25K stretch goal!

The past few days have been busy at Larkon Studio after meeting up with new designers who joined our team. Because of the growth of our team, we've been working on new graphics and artwork, as well as the Arch-Mage pack, and are going to publish new content and artwork on a regular basis.

This means that we'll be able to improve CivCraft's graphics and sound even at the 50K stretch goal!

They also mention an interview at RPGWatch, which we don't have as we didn't receive the answers to our questions yet.

12 days to go for the CivCraft Kickstarter campaign - nearly 200% of the original funding goal has been reached, but some interesting stretch goals remain:

Thank you for adding so many features to CivCraft! We've reached the middle of the campaign and are closer than ever to our second stretch goal, the Espionage Pack. We prepared a funny video to post when we'll reach the stretch goal, and can't wait to reach the goal.

In the meanwhile, at our backers request , we added a double tier with DLC's and the special edition. Please tell us if you'd like us to add more tiers, as your opinion matters!

More information for CivCraft's lore can be found in the latest Kickstarter update.

He had found the Huntsman, or so he had called himself, in the Frog’s Nest Inn, the final stop before the marshes spread out into fifty leagues of moss, swamp, ruins and unspeakable monsters. It had occurred to Krassus that he hadn’t an inkling of an idea how to traverse the southern pass through the marshes. The Huntsman had been willing enough, though he could not have seen more than twenty summers, judging by the amount of bragging he had done. The coin that Krassus had agreed to pay would have tempted even the most apprehensive of travelers, but since the pair had set out from the Frog’s Nest the Huntsman had yammered ceaselessly about his exploits, leaving Krassus skeptical about the credibility of his new companion. After a few steps the Huntsman started again, “A fortnight ago, I came upon a dark one, quite an experience, first of all—” “What did I just say?” Krassus interrupted firmly. Krassus slowed the pace. Through the mist, the moon reflected off the moss infested pools, painting the trees an eerie green. Reflections bounced off the branches and tall grass and played tricks with the shadows. In the distance, Krassus heard the croak of frogs and the quiet music of crickets. He smelled the air, thick with rain and soil and… Brimstone…sulfur… A massive shadow moved amongst the ruins in the distance. “Dark ones…” said Krassus after a pause, keeping his eye on the ruins up ahead; “what was that you said?” “Hmm?” “You spoke of dark ones; what did you mean?” Krassus asked. “Oh yes, um, people… people have seen strange creatures, but they dare not speak of them. They call them the ‘dark ones.’, foul beings, each stranger than the other, coming from some place they refer to as Blood Castle.” “Arag…” Krassus said to himself. “Who?” asked the Huntsman. “Arag, the red king of the south, the banished king; who invoked the forbidden magic. Blood Castle is another name for the Red Castle.” “Oh…” the Huntsman hesitated. “My uncle…I mean, we’ve met people traveling from that region. They say the dark started appearing more often, and with them, more people disappear more often. They say these creatures are not natural, that they are not from our land, that they are from beyond…” Krassus stopped walking, looked at the Huntsman and raised an eyebrow “Beyond…? Where...?” “Just beyond…I’m not really sure,” the Huntsman. The man finally silent for the first time in their journey. Krassus continued on, slowly, keeping his eyes ahead. Arag had been an ally to Kael’s father. When Arag started experimenting in the dark arts and red magic he corrupted himself, making outlandish claims about “the new powers of the black magic” and “eternal life under the shadow of our master”. He became so delusional that Kael’s father was forced to shun him, banishing him to the south where he gathered followers and continued his practice of red magic and the dark arts. In the infamous battle for Kourniak, Arag introduced his new powers, raising the dead and unleashing them on both Kael’s father’s army and the collection of southern clans that had rallied to his cause. Arag won the battle but his allies turned against him. At the climax of the battle, Kael’s father was killed by one of his own who had been raised as a dark creature by Arag’s magic. His death broke his army and scattered it to every corner of the land until Kael reunited them.

As we are nearing the stretch goal for the Espionage pack in the CivCraft Kickstarter, which will be available to those who pledged up to that stretch goal, more information about it is made available.

In your built tavern, you can recruit heroes. Some heroes are warriors, Mages or Rangers, while others are skilled in the art of stealth. These heroes are proficient in the arts of alchemy, charisma, stealth or intelligence.

Depending on their skills, you can assign a hero to one of the following tasks

• Espionage (intelligence, charisma)
• Incite revolutions, persuade a leader or bribe a general (charisma, intelligence)
• Sabotage (alchemy, stealth)
• Assassination (stealth, alchemy)

Once a spy has been assigned to a task, he/she will travel to the designated target and try to perform your orders as best as possible. There could be many outcomes depending on your orders, the rival kingdom's awareness, counter espionage and your spy's skills.
Any hero can be sent on an espionage mission, but you should only send a skilled hero, since a failed mission could mean an execution, a hostage to rescue or even a declaration of war.

Some animate can be found by following the above link.

The Kickstarter for Civcraft has seen two new updates. The first is about the Reddit Ask Me Anything of yesterday, which covered something about their name:

Although we covered many questions and remarks, the AMA became incoherent when a community claiming for CivCraft's name started "trolling" us. We don't think there's any point in fueling that discussion, except for clarifying the fact that we're not trying to use the name CivCraft for anything other than a cool name, and that we've been around for the same time as any other community or mod, and even have a WIPO Trademark on our name. We're not trying to pick a fight and hope that they will move on.

And on nicer news, there is an update on how stealth in the game works.

Whenever you are in a dangerous area, you may enter a "Sneak mode" and try to evade your enemies. The sneak mode is affected by your skills, so the higher perception your enemies will have, the harder it will be to sneak past them.

Stealth is not a simple thing to master, as you will have to use your surroundings with great care. To successfully pass through entire armies towards your target, you will have to consider the following:

• What you wear will greatly affect your stealth
• Moving while in stealth mode will make noise
• Moving in the shadows or darkness will boost your evasion
• Hiding behind obstacles and foliage will hide you from most enemies
• Some creatures has a keen sense of smell

But that's not all you can do, as a true stealth master will go where his enemies will never expect!

Another cool feature we've been working on is the ability to climb walls and obstacles. Depending on your climbing skill, a master of evasion will scale through walls, evade guards, open the gate and let an entire army pass through.

WCCF Tech has an exclusive interview with Arik Helman, CEO & Game Designer of Larkon Studio, about CivCraft Legends of Ellaria.

• Will it be expected of players to constantly switch between FPS & RTS mode in order to successfully complete the story?
• It won’t be mandatory to play in FPS, and it won’t be mandatory to play in RTS. When you’re in FPS, you can tell your armies to move and attack by themselves, and tell your advisor to expand the city by his own. When you’re in RTS, you can resolve most issues from your RTS menu, and experience a more “Total War Series” type of game.  You can even send your recruited heroes to take quests on your behalf, but will have to choose which one is best fit for the job. We’ve made sure that you won’t be bogged down with unnecessary learning and gameplay modes, and play CivCraft however you want.

• You mentioned that Ellaria, the world of CivCraft, spans for over 450 square KM, which is almost ten times than the biggest open world games available right now. Is the world fully seamless, and are you using some kind of procedural generation to ensure that it’s not empty of content?
• Actually, there are games out there with much bigger terrain sizes, since game terrains are usually measured by how far you can walk and how big the terrain is according to your character. Having said that, We’ve built our terrain around an actual terrain from Nepal, including rivers, mountains and terrain detail, and shaped that terrain to be magical and unique. Since then, our development involves around adding more special locations in Ellaria, as well as adding a unique feeling to it. We admit that not all the terrain will be open during the Early Access, but the terrain will grow from update to update.

An Ask me Anything chat will be hosted on Reddit this Sunday for CivCraft, the game that has just reached it's goal on Kickstarter.

As we're at the end of our campaign's start, we're very excited to see the steady stream of backers and people who like our concept.

In the meanwhile, we want to give you the opportunity to ask us any questions, so we're hosting an AMA chat (Ask Me Anything). You can ask us about us, CivCraft, game development... well, you can ask anything you'd like.

So see you at Sunday 10am (Pacific time), at https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/ (We will post the exact link when the AMA will start).

And about being funded:

We're Funded! Thank you for your pledge and support, we've reached our initial goal in four days!

The last four days have been a roller-coaster, as we didn't know what to expect. We can now announce that Siege Weapons and cavalry are unlocked and will be added to your Early Access.

Since you are the first comers, every one of our backers (who were with us when we reached the initial goal) will receive a unique living and talking magical sword to help you on your adventures in Ellaria!

And so, our next stretch goal is the espionage pack, as the espionage pack brings a true meaning to "Win the Battle Before It Has Begun". There will be times when you'll have to decide when to go to war, and when to eliminate your opponents before they have the chance to win you in battle. In the espionage pack, you will be able to recruit spies In your tavern and send them to spy on your opponents, as well as to assassinate dangerous opponents. The espionage pack will also introduce a new "Stealth Mechanism". This mechanism will allow your character go to stealth mode and sneak past guards, climb walls and infiltrate to dangerous areas. We will post an update about the espionage pack very soon

The Kickstarter for Civcraft has almost achieved its goal and still has some 30+ days to go. In today's update they bring us the first information on the lore of the game.

Kael’s heart raced. Footstep after footstep fell crunching dead weeds and dirt as he climbed the steep incline. He hadn’t slept very well the night before but whether that was due to anxiousness or anticipation he did not know. His arms and legs burned but he was filled with the adrenaline that came with battle. He savored it as it filled his blood. Bow in hand, he charged up the hill.

The first one jumped towards him, massive two-handed sword raised like some crazed reaver flying through the air. Kael drew and loosed an arrow that punched through the attacker’s armor, dropping him mid-flight. He slung his bow and drew his sword as another jumped at him. Kael met him with a shoulder before he could bring his blade down, knocking him to his back. He slid the point of his blade through the warrior’s neck and looked up the hill at the rest of his attackers.

This hill held a crucial vantage point overlooking the entire pass and the movements of both armies. The warriors who had taken the hill had done so in the dead of night, evading detection by Kael’s own scouts. There was only one faction left that had the skill to take such a valuable position without raising an alarm, the royal scouts from the Amerdan clan. They were well trained, but Kael was the king, trained from birth in the fine arts of magic and combat.

Kael noticed their sigil sewn on the outside of their cloaks. This would explain why his army had encountered a well-calculated catapult barrage early in the battle. The precision of the attack took Kael by surprise at first, but, having studied the battlefield thoroughly, he was able to figure out where the attacks were coming from and launch his own counter attack, smashing the enemy to splinters. He then organized a party comprised of his best warriors to retake the hill while the army met the rest of the Amerdan clan on the battlefield.

The band of royal scouts on the hill was dwindling. With renewed confidence, and his warriors at his back, Kael pressed on. He met his final enemy at the top of the cliff that overlooked the battlefield; with his worn armor and faded cloak, he had the look of a seasoned officer. Kael met him with a viscous overhand swing, locking his blade with the scout’s falchion. Both warriors made an effort to wrench their weapons away but the effort ended with sword and falchion clattering to the ground . The scout drew a dagger from his sleeve. Kael side-stepped his first lunge and grabbed his arm. For a moment they struggled over the knife and Kael felt his arms quiver as his enemy pushed. He saw the man smirk triumphantly as if he knew he had the upper hand. His enemy’s sudden smugness ignited Kael’s adrenaline and he threw his forehead into the man’s nose. He heard a crack of bone and the man reeled in a spurt of blood, holding his face. Kael leveled a shoulder sending him plummeting to the valley floor.

Thanls Christoph.

Over halfway to their goal the Kickstarter campaign for CivCraft brings us an update about sieges and the different weapons used.

Trebuchet

No good siege is more epic than with the Trebuchet, as the Trebuchet is bigger and shoots faster, with more accuracy and larger shots. The Trebuchet is a more expensive variant of the catapult and cannot be moved after it was deployed. However, once deployed, it can hurl massive projectiles at a city or an army. you can load a Trebuchet with scatter shots, fire shots and single massive shots, as well as the choice between shooting stone projectiles or iron projectiles.

Thanks Christoph.

Larkon Studio Inc. just started their Kickstarter campaign for CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria, a Sandbox FPS,RTS,RPG game:

Rule Your Kingdom, Pick Your Adventure!

CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria is a first person Adventure and Role Playing Game where you can build your own kingdom and fight epic battles. The world around you changes depending on your decisions, and it's up to you to choose how to rule your kingdom. You can command armies and build cities in a Real Time Strategy mode, or stay in the First Person Shooter mode and explore the vast and immersive open world by yourself.

Larkon Studio will try Kickstarter again on the 9th of August. The last CivCraft campaign was cancelled in 2014. They are better prepared this time - some information:

Trailer:

Gameplay Demo - Greenside Village

Gameplay Demo - Iladar Mines

Rule your Kingdom, Pick your Adventure

CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria is a first person adventure and Role Playing Game
where you can build your own kingdom and fight epic battles.
The world around you change depending on your decisions, and it's up to you how to chose how to rule your kingdom. You can command armies and build cities in a Real Time Strategy menu, or stay in First Person Shooter mode and explore the vast and immersive open world by yourself.

Larkon Studio has finally posted a new kickstarter update for CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria this week that has some new gameplay footage of the Iladar Mines.

As promised, and fashionably late, we posted our new Gameplay Demo of CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria. Please tell us what you think at this discussion, as any suggestions, questions or compliments are most welcomed!

In the meanwhile, we are getting ready for our Pre-Alpha Kickstarter campaign, as well as tying up some loose ends on our RTS system and kingdom life. We will post more videos and announce our Kickstarter campaign date soon.

Larkon Studio have released the second lore update for CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria.

Here’s the second chapter of our CivCraft:Legends Of Ellaria’s lore.

There are four chapters, which holds some clues of things to come.

“Mystical blue flames danced up her hands to her fingertips as she sharpened her focus until the pile started shaking and swirling, manipulating itself until it formed a large humanoid stone figure standing ten feet tall.

“Destroy,” she whispered from her position.”

You can find the full story on our official Website

In the meanwhile, we have added some interesting new features to our combat system. Your character can now command armies from the FPS menu, and some magic is powerful enough to destroy trees and buildings. Our combat system video is expected to be published very soon. So as always, stay tuned and keep spreading the word!

Larkon Studio have released a new lore update for CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria.

As promised, we’ve published the first of several chapters of CivCraft - Legends Of Ellaria’s king. This story takes place before you arrive to Ellaria, and holds some clues of things to come.

“The scout drew a dagger from his sleeve. Kael side-stepped his first lunge and grabbed his arm. For a moment they struggled over the knife and Kael felt his arms quiver as his enemy pushed.”

You can find the full story on our official Website

http://www.civcraftgame.com/

In the meanwhile, our combat system is in final stages, and we will post a gameplay video soon, as well as information about our Early Access Tester campaign. So as always, stay tuned and keep spreading the word!

Larkon Studio relesed a new Pre-Alpha gameplay video for CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria.

Hi Gamers, we’ve reached a huge milestone today!

After a few months of hard work on CivCraft - Legends Of Ellaria, we have completed our game engine and compiled the first CivCraft full version... Ever! 

 Here’s our first gameplay video. Please enjoy it and send as many feedbacks and remarks. 

In our next post we’ll publish the combat and adventure gameplay video, and later we’ll show our RTS and city life, as well as work on the final parts of CivCraft’s Alpha.

 As we’re reaching the end of our milestones, we can allready estimate that our Kickstarter Early Alpha tester campaign will start at mid January 2015. The campaign will allow anyone to be an early alpha tester and to receive CivCraft quicker and cheaper than it will be in Steam.

It will also mean that you’ll be able to give remarks and ideas before CivCraft will be officially published, as well as help us polish CivCraft into the best game ever! And as always, stay tuned and keep spreading the word!

Larkon Studio posted news about the Pre-Alpha version of CivCraft on the games kickstarter page this week. So if you still follow the game here you go.

After months of development, Ellaria’s publish date is near. In two months or less, we will finish the pre-alpha and be ready to test it. 

Thanks to your support and participation in our last campaign, we will make a new Kickstarter campaign, where you’ll get the chance to test and play CivCraft even before it will be published on Steam. This campaign will be followed by new screenshots and gameplay videos, as well as with some new features

It has been a while since I reported news about the failed kickstater game CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria. The developer released a new update two weeks ago.

It seems the alpha version will be out in two months.

Our team have finally patched things together and have finished CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria's pre-alpha. We expect CivCraft's alpha version to be ready within two months or so, and are extremely satisfied with how it looks and feels.

In the following months we will start publishing screenshots and will start adding some of the features you suggested. If you have any other suggestions, we invite you to post them here: http://www.civcraftgame.com/Community.aspx

We hope CivCraft will be as exciting as we expect it to be. As always, stay tuned and keep spreading the word.

Larkon Studio's latest update for CivCraft: Legends Of Ellaria talks about terrain.

CivCraft - Legends Of Ellaria Terrain

Over the past month we’ve been stirring our terrain engine to make it more flexible and versatile than before. You can change it, shape it, build on it and generally do anything you’d do on it with a civilization. Since we polished our RTS camera as well, we actually had to stop ourselves from playing CivCraft too much.

Over the next weeks, we’ll continue to dedicate our time with improving CivCraft, as well as start implementing some of our community remarks and animations.

So, if you want to send us more requests, now is the time

Larkon Studio

Larkon Studios shares information that CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria will be available for Alpha testing on Steam Early Access soon.

CivCraft - Legends Of Ellaria Alpha Stage

Over the past few weeks we continued our development and are on our way to publish CivCraft on Steam as an Early Access as soon as possible.

We know you are waiting to access to CivCraft, and are working on it’s development day and night, and will post weekly updates on our progress.

Since CivCraft is a community project, we invite you to participate in our community forums and suggest features or ask questions.

And as always, we ask you to spread the word in any way you can.

Cheers, Larkon Studio

Larkon Studios shares information that their kickstarter for CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria has been cancelled. The game only managed to get $5,506 of the games $150,000 goal.

Our campaign is canceled but we move on

The CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria team would like to thank everyone for taking interest in our project, as it gives us great satisfaction to know that you liked CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria and its concept. Unfortunately, because we started our campaign too soon, we now see that we will not reach our goal and are canceling our Kickstarter campaign. 

Our plan is to continue developing CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria, and to have a working version within several months. We will start a new Kickstarter campaign once we have an early version of CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria, and will later on publish the CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria early access on Steam. 

In the meanwhile, we wish to reward our backers with a golden badge in our community, where you’ll participate in the development of CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria and give remarks or requests about how it should look like. 

And again, we thank you for taking interest in us, and promise we will continue to develop CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria.

Larkon Studio's posted a new kickstarter update for CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria that goes into detail about how the games First Person Mode will work.

CivCraft First Person (FPS) mode

Here is our CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria FPS mode in detail, as asked by Kickstarter members and by our community.  

Though you can play CivCraft is FPS or RTS modes, you will probably spend some time in first person mode, whether to fight battles , explore the land around you or just admire the view.  

CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria FPS mode is similar to other FPS games; you have a crosshair, a health bar and a quick item switch slot, as well as a manna and stamina bar.

But there's more than meets the eye in CivCraft combat system, as we added some extra features that adds more ways to fight your enemies, as well as some realistic elements that we thought CivCraft gameplay should have.

Left/Right hand assignment

Through your inventory, you can set both left and right hand item for each quick select slot in your inventory. For instance, you can set a sword, along with a shield or a magic and use any or both of them simultaneously.

Compass and locations indicator

Well, we don't want you to lose your way in Ellaria, so we added a compass to the top of your screen. The compass will also indicate the nearest city and interesting locations, as well as a quest marker to your current quest. A must have for any adventurer.

Enemy sound tracking

Since we noticed not everyone has surround speakers, we added a sound tracking display that will show new enemies on your HUD. Whenever an enemy makes a sound, hits you or generally alerts you, you will see a "radar" display, indicating his general direction. Of course, you'll have to learn and master the stealth skills if you want to use this system effectively, as anything is skill based in CivCraft.

Combo moves

As your skills increase, you'l notice you have more options in combat, as we designed CivCraft combat system for combos and timed attacks. Every repeated attack with the same melee weapon will result in a new and more deadlier strike, and skilled warriors can deliver multiple blows to an enemy. You should be careful though, as your stamina can decrease rapidly during combos, and skilled enemies can block and counter attack your combos.

Stealth System

In the Espionage pack, we will include the ability to enter stealth mode. When in stealth mode, you can sneak behind unsuspecting enemies, as long as you are in the dark, unnoticed and silent. Why develop a stealth system? Because it's fun and useful! You can open castle gates, sabotage the enemy's buildings or sneak past that huge ogre and into the treasure room.

Mage combat system

Mages in CivCraft are not just a glass cannon, as we added many features to help mages both in close quarters and against other mages. Although magic has a longer skill tree and is harder to master, mages can shield themselves from melee attacks, teleport to safety and push enemies away. In addition, you can master one or several types of magic, each with it's unique abilities and spells.

The latest kickstarter update for CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria has news from the game developer the game has been Greenlit on Steam.

CivCraft is Greenlit!

Yesterday, after less than three weeks, Steam Greenlight approved CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria. We received good responses and are in the top places. We thank everyone for for your vote, approval and encouragement!

The next days are going to be exciting. We are going to appear on the map, as we will be published on major video game news websites. We will also publish more news and updates and show you more about CivCraft and it’s expansions.

Stay tuned, and remember, you can make it happen!

Larkon Studio's has posted the second update for CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria that goes into detail about gameplay, and hopefully answers any questions you all have.

CivCraft gameplay in a nutshell.

Here is our CivCraft gameplay in a nutshell, as asked by Kickstarter members and by our community.

CivCraft is a fantasy first person shooter with the ability to build cities, fight strategic battles and expand your kingdom. It has two modes - First Person Shooter and Real Time Strategy mode.

First Person view

Whether you manage your kingdom or explore the land by yourself, you control your own character and develop your abilities. Your combat view shows what you need to know about your abilities, health, manna and location. You’ll be very familiar with our first person view, as it follows the same standards as other FPS games.

Real Time Strategy menu

The RTS menu is fairly easy to learn, and has kingdom management, construction management and unit control. However, in CivCraft, you don’t need to control every single person, as they go to their daily duties and gather resources, run buildings or just go about their business. During battles, you control formations and army tactics and can manage your entire army through the RTS menu.

Switching between FPS and RTS

CivCraft view modes can be switched at any time with a single button (The ‘R’ key, if you were wondering), and you can use both menus throughout the game. You can’t, however, use the RTS menu in “Quest areas”, since these areas are meant for small groups.

Quest Areas

Through Ellaria, you’ll find “Quest Areas”. These locations are either enemy camps, caves, ruins, other dimensions or as part of clues given by a fellow adventurer . Since you can’t fit an army into a quest area, you’ll have to take action and go there by yourself, or send one of your heroes. Quest areas are usually dangerous and affect the entire regions around them, but can contain clues, special artifacts and riches that will help you grow your kingdom.

Your world

We have designed CivCraft to contain a huge world where you can explore and expand. However, since many kings lost their way in Ellaria, we divided it into 2Km maps and added an overlook map. Each place can contain a city and several towns, and is owned by a kingdom or is neutral. The result? kingdom borders, easy travel and quick loading between maps.

Kingdoms

Kingdoms in Ellaria, whether players or computer based, has their own area and towns. They react to your actions and can be your friends, allies, enemies or just neutral. You can, and should, establish trade routes and treaties with these kingdoms to empower yours, and can visit friendly kingdoms personally. But beware, your actions inside another kingdom will greatly affect your relations, as you represent your kingdom in these foreign lands.

Construction and expansion

Just in case you want to manage your city construction, you can set a location of a city through the RTS menu, then construct buildings in that area. Each building you construct requires resources, people to build it and has an upkeep. There are several types of buildings and each can help your city. For instance, you can build barracks and train soldiers, houses and many other types of buildings. However, if city engineering is not your style, you can always tell your advisor to manage the city construction by himself.

Your role in Ellaria

Your adventures in Ellaria are not just by expanding your kingdom. We’ve built a unique story that you can follow, which involves your former enemy and invaders from other rifts. Though the story of Ellaria is not forced on you, we’re sure you'll be drawn to it from the very beginning, as it contains it’s own rewards, a great story and an epic battle in another dimension.

Larkon Studio's has a new update for their kickstarter game CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria with a thank you to eveyone who has backed the game so far.

Thank You!

We thank you for your support!

We've been working on CivCraft for over two years, and with your support it’s starting to take shape. We've had some awesome responses and were excited to read that you think CivCraft will be amazing. 

We’ll be glad to answer any question and of course, we read all your comments. We will also be posting updates about our combat system and gameplay, as well as details about our stretch goals and our planned expansion packs, so stay tuned! 

If you don’t want to miss anything, make sure you visit our official site, or like our Facebook page. And again, we thank you for your support. Your support is bringing CivCraft to reality!

Larkon Studio's new game CivCraft: Legends of Ellaria has just gone live on kickstarter asking for $150,000. Here is the usual video and game information.

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Have you played a really good FPS game, but felt you are limited in its possibilities to act? Have you played a really good RTS game, but noticed your view is too far from the real action? Have you ever wanted to combine these genres but in a simple and controllable way?

And maybe not just combine, but to switch between them at will, and take your experience to a different level, taking command of individuals or entire armies?

Well, now imagine you can, in an RPG game platform where you control every aspect of your world, follow the main story or create your own, embark special quests, craft items, level up your characters, interact with anyone and anything in Ellaria’s endless realm.

CivCraft Legends Of Ellaria is a new FPS Sandbox game that seeks to combine RTS & RPG game genres. If you're interested here is the games official trailer.

CivCraft - Legends of Ellaria is a sandbox game, with a combination of full first person shooter with features from other game genres, such as RTS and RPG. The result is an entirely new game that affects the player’s whole gaming experience.

The games developer Larkon Studios is also active on our forums also. So ask any questions you may have in the following thread.