Swarm: a new mode in the works
Over these two days we started on a new mode. It's called “Swarm”: you gather a little flock of tiny monsters, they fly after you and collect pollen from flowers, and you turn it into honey. The mode isn't out yet — we're still finishing it, and the shots below are from the work-in-progress version.
How it plays
You walk onto a field of flowers and swing your tool — pollen flies into your bag. The monsters in your swarm collect nearby on their own. When the bag is full, you carry it to the hive, where the pollen turns into honey. Honey buys new tools, bigger bags and eggs that hatch new monsters. The bigger your swarm, the more it collects and the further you're allowed to go on the map.
Fields come in white, red and blue, and monsters come in different colors too: a red swarm collects best on red fields, a blue one on blue fields. So it makes sense to grow your swarm for the field you want to farm. And far-off fields give more than nearby ones — so the trip is worth it.
A map of nine zones
The Swarm world is an archipelago: Honey Harbor with the hive in the center, and around it Shell Isle, Reed Isle, the Pillar Gardens, Red Rock Plateau, the Tiltyard, Windy Peak, Stargazer's Perch and the Pearl Skerries. Each zone opens once your swarm has grown big enough, and the far ones also need a bigger bag. The map is built from blocks, like the rest of the game world.
Fifty monsters
We made fifty species right away, across five rarities — from common to mythic. The models are simple on purpose: a cube and little wings, with all the beauty in the artwork. Only the rare ones look more elaborate. Each species has its own ability: one collects pollen all around itself, another speeds up the whole swarm.
There's one hive in the world for everyone: the server has lots of players and there's no room to give each of them a hive of their own. So you set up your swarm in a window: who flies with you and who waits in reserve.
Eggs and merging
An egg gives you a random monster, and duplicates are common — that's intended. Three identical ones merge into one of the same kind, only stronger, and it gets a colored frame. Three of those — the next frame, stronger still.
Every zone has its own “clutch” — an egg that hatches monsters of the local species. The first time you enter a new zone, you're given an egg — it goes into your inventory, and you can open it whenever you like.
And in Anarchy
These days brought no new release for Anarchy: everything that was ready went to the server on the evening of October 26. Since then the game has crafting stations and the first mechanisms, a new sky with clouds, an eternal sunset at spawn and wings on your back. What's been done since is in the list “What we're working on now”.