The first sandbox tower defense strategy mobile game "Dragonstone War" has started paid testing, and SLG has finally figured it out!

Nov 14 2024

I think all SLG players should put "I have played SLG" in red and bold on their resumes!

This means that they have excellent abilities that others cannot see because they will experience too many frustrations while playing SLG. The experience is limited by the content, and the same monotonous gameplay fills every season; the formation of troops is limited by the mechanism, and you can only point generals but not troops; the combat is limited by operations, and you can't march freely and can only rely on fate. As long as the game memory of SLG players is read, the problem of "restriction" cannot be escaped. Even so, the players are still tolerant and accommodating in every possible way, which is enough to prove everyone's emotional stability and strong ability to withstand pressure, all of which reflect the calmness and professionalism of the older generation of core SLG players.

But the worse the environment, the easier it is for people to have expectations. I also often wonder, if an SLG can achieve all-round freedom, can players who are free from restrictions bring more possibilities to the game and achieve truly healthy development of the category?

After I participated in a new SLG "Dragonstone War" that just ended its testing recently, I will firmly tell you that the answer to the above-mentioned questions is yes.

The first impression given by "Dragonstone War" is that this is a free SLG. This kind of freedom not only makes it outstanding in the same category, but also makes all old SLG players shine.

This can be seen from the game's "integration of inner and outer cities" gameplay. "Dragonstone War" took the lead in questioning and innovating some common but unreasonable contents of SLG, such as the main city For players, is it just a decoration or does it need to be given more meaning?

From ancient times to the present, humans have been very particular about the construction of cities. During the construction process of each city, multiple factors such as the city's defense power, the living needs of the residents, and the city's planning and layout will be considered.

It is a pity that such city construction, which can reflect wisdom, is not reflected in SLG, which focuses on strategy. The main cities of most SLG games are often designed in a unified fixed style, and their functions are only for viewing and as a vehicle to increase numerical values. This reduces the significance of the existence of the main city.

But the reform of "Dragonstone War" has made the regret no longer exist. The free construction function of the game gives players the right to build their own main city with their own hands. The player's main city can be as magnificent and luxurious as a "sky garden" or as impregnable as the "Great Wall". Through free construction, players can realize all their ideas for the main city, and they have the final say on their own city!

Under the influence of the free city building gameplay, the game's main city attack and defense battle is no longer a simple matter of touching the city and getting a battle report instantly, but requires entering the opponent's main city to fight. Thanks to free city construction, players can see unique main city layouts on the big map, which changes the offensive strategy in each main city attack and defense battle. Compared with traditional SLG, this is a significant improvement By reducing the proportion of strategy in the game, players can also experience more fun of siege.

The defender can use traps and defense towers to set up defense, and then rely on the guardian dragon of the dragon's nest to further establish a defensive advantage. The layer-by-layer defense process is quite a bit like a tower defense game. As for the attacker, it is necessary to use legion coordination and operations to gain the upper hand, and then cover the entire siege from point to area. When the battle situation becomes tense, you even need to think about how to use military strategies such as "attack in the east and attack in the west" to open a breakthrough. It looks like a strategy + puzzle game. Through the game experience brought by the asymmetric combat mode, players can experience the gaming fun brought by the strategy game three-dimensionally from different angles.

Compared with free-moving SLG games of the same type, the tower defense content of "Dragonstone War" adds more strategic depth, allowing strategy to give the game more playable space. Such a breakthrough is something SLG players would be happy to see.

If we say that the "integration of inner and outer cities" gameplay is in the general direction,��The support provided by the game content and the various detailed gameplay are the reasons that drive players to continue playing.

Under the highly free gameplay of the game, players can arrange their legions as they wish. As players move their unit positions, the battle situation will also change. From a strategic perspective, this provides players with rich combinations to build their legions, which is the fundamental reason why the battlefield is unpredictable and never gets boring.

For example, those players who are accustomed to using the "many protect one" system can use full tank soldiers with a hero as the main output, so as to ensure that the output environment is not affected; they can also use tank shields with assassin units to use tank units. The shield resists damage from the front row, and the assassin attacks the back row units, pulling them back and forth, and the strategy wins. Such free formations allow players to realize their whims in every battle, and even their own lineups have the opportunity to become the 'excellent lineup' spread by word of mouth among players. "In which SLG game can such a different experience be obtained?

In terms of combat performance, all combat units have independent AI pathfinding logic and health bars, and the performance of each unit can be clearly seen during the battle. Compared with other SLG modes that provide instant battle reports, the WYSIWYG battle performance adds a lot of realism to "Dragonstone War".

On this basis, "Dragonstone War" has added an RTS-like gameplay, that is, players can dispatch legions and initiate battles anytime and anywhere. Through real-time operation and unit restraint,

The strategic depth of the game is also different from other SLG games. For example, when the opponent's army has no anti-air units deployed, we can deploy air units to annihilate the opponent's army. And when you find that your opponent's legion is full of air units, you can go into battle against the air units to catch them off guard!

The RTS mode of real-time operation, combined with the conflict between various arms, "Dragon Stone War" can realize a three-dimensional real-time combat strategy from land to sky, broadening the battlefield and diverging players' thinking, making the free battlefield more interesting. do.

For "Dragonstone War", the freedom of operation and freedom of strategy shown in the above content does not seem to satisfy the development team's production ambitions. The game uses the "no waste card" mechanism to significantly reduce the cost of card drawing and development, truly realizing thousands of heroes, each with his own way out. Under the no-waste card mechanism, no matter what quality of hero is drawn, after being trained by players, they can become combat partners with outstanding combat capabilities on the battlefield.

It can be said that the focus of hero development in "Dragon Stone War" is not krypton but operation. As long as everyone is willing to put effort into cultivating them, they will eventually harvest the highest quality heroes. For civilian players, this design is very friendly in the SLG category, which is known for its "heavy krypton".

Based on the game content, it is not difficult to find that there is an ambitious and powerful project team behind "Dragon Stone War". Judging from the performance of several tests, they have responded to the expectations of most SLG players with game content. And this is just the beginning of "Dragonstone War". Let's wait and see what surprises this fantasy-themed SLG game can bring us in the future!