What exactly is happening March 28th? What does it mean to me if I already have the game? How many questions fit in this header?
Hey everyone, I’ve been seeing a lot of questions lately about what the full launch means for Rivals of Aether, especially with people already feeling like they’ve been playing the full game for quite a while. Whether you’re fairly new or a seasoned veteran, there should be plenty of changes coming that interest you. As a reminder, if you’re a player who has already purchased the game during Early Access, you’ll automatically get the full version of the game on 3/28 through Steam. Read on to find out some of the things that will be included with that version next Tuesday.
Single Player
Our single player modes are getting the bulk of the updates for launch. More than just story mode, this means all kinds of features that give the game a high level of polish and players a chance to have fun offline in a non-competitive environment.
Story mode starts off by digging into the background and relationships between the Rivals through traditional arcade style fights. Once you’ve began to uncover the mysteries of Aether you can jump into Abyss mode.
Abyss mode is where things start to get crazy, letting you play cooperatively with up to 4 people and advancing through waves of different challenges and enemy types. You and your friends will jockey for experience points to level up your Rival so they can equip powerful runes that augment their attacks. You can also take these leveled up Rivals into Abyss versus and compete directly against your friends.
In addition, these modes will all have leaderboards, so you can climb to the top with the best times in story mode or the furthest waves in abyss.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of the things you can look forward to in single player:
- Story Mode
- Abyss Mode
- Leaderboards
- Currency / Unlockables
- Collectible Trading Cards / Badges
- Music (stage music, victory themes, and more)
- Achievements
Multiplayer
Even though the core multiplayer mechanics for Rivals haven’t changed in a while, this update will still shake up competitive play. For starters, the stage count will be increasing from seven stages to eleven. We’ll be implementing a neutral and counterpick system to accommodate the larger stage list and also raising the bans from one to two. We’re excited to see which stages are most popular in tournament play.
For launch we’ll also be doing a ranked ladder reset. This means on the 28th, everyone will be reset to 1000 ELO. The old ladder will still be memorialized on Steam (Ralph OP), but this gives all of the new and old players alike a fresh start. We’ll also be implementing seasons (which will each last 3 months) so the ladder doesn’t get stale.
Lastly, people have asked about it, but I wanted to confirm that the RCS (Rivals Championship Series) will be back for a season 2. You can look forward to more regions, bigger tournaments, and a new points format. Rewards are in the works for the new ladder seasons and RCS S2, but I’ll save those for a later post.
All of these things (and a few others) will come together for our launch on 3/28. Even if you’ve played the heck out of Rivals in Early Access it’s definitely going to be a great time to share it with your friends who haven’t played yet as the game will look and play the best it ever has.
To see all of the new gameplay above in action, make sure you tune in this Sunday to our pre-release party on twitch.tv/RivalsOfAether at 12PST/3EST. We’ll be doing a summit style event – playing different games with Washington locals and a few out of state guests.
We look forward to seeing you all online on launch day!
Final note: If you were hoping for additional characters at launch you’re going to have to wait a little bit longer. You can keep speculating for a few more weeks before our first is revealed 😉