RWBY: Combat Ready

Campaign Update #18 - The Final Countdown!
over 6 years ago – Mon, Oct 30, 2017 at 12:20:46 AM

It’s the final countdown!  

Congratulations to hitting and blowing past our last Stretch Goal! Everyone who is a Kickstarter backer now will be receiving a trio of Kickstarter Exclusive Objective Cards. These will be shipped out at the same time as your main copy of the game, so you’ll be inundated from the start with a great number of possible scenarios, objectives, and Villain combinations! (This is a super good thing.)

The RWBY: Combat Ready Kickstarter now has less than 24 hours to go before it wraps up at 12:00 p.m. CDT on Monday October 30. That’s in exactly 20 hours and 32 minutes from when this post is going up!  

For those of you who haven’t been able to grasp the enormity of what has been upgraded, added, and offered in regards to RWBY: Combat Ready, we have a brief journal written by our Campaign Manager, Chelsea Atkinson that lays out “The Road So Far.”  

Campaign Update #17 - Rulebook!
over 6 years ago – Fri, Oct 27, 2017 at 11:33:41 PM

Happy Friday!  

Way to go on unlocking our 5th Player Mode Stretch Goal! This unlock will now have a set of rules included with all future rule books explaining how a fifth person can join the game and play as the Villain against the four other players.  

We’ve got just under three days left in the RWBY: Combat Ready campaign and today we present to you something that has been in the works for a long time. Initially developed and written by our partners at Arcane Wonders, the rulebook for RWBY: Combat Ready has been shaped and polished with the constant input from you, our backers, with each comment and discussion.  

We are happy to present a draft of the rules of RWBY: Combat Ready HERE today!

There’s another exciting piece of news we want to present to you. You know how some pledges have the Kickstarter Exclusive T-Shirts, Art Prints, or Challenge Coins? Well - we’re going to be able to SHIP THOSE THIS YEAR! 

That’s right. The Kickstarter Exclusive T-Shirt, Art Prints, and Challenge Coins will be able to be shipped out to their rightful owners in December 2017. This means that as soon as the campaign is over, we will be working on sending out surveys to start collecting addresses so we can fulfill this portion of your pledge.  

Before you ask, yes, we will ask for your updated address in 2018 before we start shipping out the rest of the physical game, RWBY: Combat Ready. :)  

And finally, we have our very last stretch goal to announce…

Have a great weekend and we’ll be in touch soon!   

<3
Rooster Teeth

Dev Update #4: Experience
over 6 years ago – Fri, Oct 27, 2017 at 01:19:29 AM

Hi all!  

Arcane Wonders is back and with this developer update we’d like to discuss Experience Points!  

• What are experience points? 
• How do players earn experience in RWBY: Combat Ready? 
• What is experience used for?  

Experience represents growing in knowledge and capability through battle and overcoming challenges. With each success, the character further develops their combat powers, enabling them to execute increasingly more powerful attacks and abilities.

Players earn 1 experience point (XP) at the end of each successful action. Every round, each player takes one action, such as making an attack or encountering an objective. When these actions are successful (your attack hits, or your attempt succeeds) the player gains 1 XP. However, if an action is not successful (for example, their attack misses), they do not receive any XP.

The center stage player will earn 1 XP each round they hit the Villain. Sideline players earn 1 XP each time they:  

• Attack and hit something (like a Villain, Sub Boss, or Minion). 
• Play an Assist action 
• Successfully encounter a non-combat objective (such as defusing the bomb or acquiring a dust crystal)  

Ultimates! Successfully executing your Ultimate attack provides players with a large XP bonus. Ultimates provide a spectacular and satisfying finish to your Duel, dealing significant damage to the Villain! However, they are difficult to pull off, and thus provide a significant reward. 

Team Experience Bonuses: Players also gain experience from accomplishing scenario goals. These goals are tough to beat, and require coordinated teamwork. These bonuses are usually given equally to every member of the team. Some examples of these team XP bonuses are: 

• Successfully completing Objectives. When Objectives are completed, they reward all players with experience. This can happen right during the middle of a battle! The amount awarded to each player is dictated on each Objective card. 
• Defeating the Villain! Every player receives an experience bonus for defeating the Villain and will be able to use that experience to improve their character for the next battle! 
• Surviving the battle. The players who survived the battle get a small experience reward. This bonus is not awarded to players who are defeated in battle.  

Each time you gain experience, you mark it by advancing your cube the appropriate amount on your Scroll’s experience track:

How You Use Experience  

So what do you do with the experience you have earned? Experience can be spent to improve your attacks and moves by buying new cards. Here is how that works:  

Player decks include a number of special “Upgrade Cards” which can be purchased with experience. Upgrade cards do not start the game in your regular play deck. Instead, they are kept in their own separate deck, called your “Upgrade Deck.”  

These upgrade cards offer the player a variety of improved attacks and abilities. They may deal more damage than your starting attacks, or tout cool and fun new effects and actions not available at the beginning of the game.

Before the game begins, shuffle your upgrade deck and place it face down next to your Scroll Tracker. Then, draw the first 3 upgrade cards from it, and place these face up in a row just above your Scroll tracker. These are the first upgrade cards available for you to purchase with experience points.  

During the course of battle, players are able to see the cards available to purchase, and will be thinking about which ones they wish to buy. Some of these cards are unique and powerful improvements, and players will be encouraged to play well to earn the experience necessary to purchase them!  

At the end of each Duel, players have a chance to purchase one or more of these new upgrade cards. The XP cost for an upgrade is printed on the card. Most of the time you’ll be able to buy a new card, but some Duels you will not. You can always save up your experience to buy new cards later in the battle.

At the end of each Duel, all players simultaneously perform these actions, in this order:  

• 1. All players draw new player cards from their deck, back up to a full hand of 6 cards again. 
• 2. Then, players may buy new upgrade cards from the 3 available, by paying their XP cost. If a new card is purchased, the player immediately adds the card to their hand. 
• 3. Then, players must remove cards from their hand so that they only have 6 cards. They choose which cards to remove. These cards are placed to the side, out of the play area, and have been removed from the game! In this manner, each time you buy a new and improved card, you are also removing one of the cards from your deck. Thus, your deck is always going to have the same number of cards in it, but those cards are always improving and getting better! 
• 4. After all players have finished purchasing upgrades, replace any purchased cards in the upgrade row with new ones.  

What happens if I don’t like any of the 3 face up cards in my upgrade row?  

A player can always spend 1 XP and cycle all of the cards in their upgrade row. Place all upgrade cards on the bottom of your upgrade deck and reveal the next 3 upgrade cards from the top of the upgrade deck, placed face up in a row. This action ensures you have some fresh choices.  

The best part about experience is buying cool new cards for your deck, granting you awesome new actions, abilities, and effects! This allows your character to grow stronger and stronger throughout the current battle and in every battle to come in your campaign!  

We’ll have one more update for you before this Campaign is over, so stay tuned and thank you once again for all of your support in helping us create this incredible game.

Thank you,
Arcane Wonders  

P.S. - Rooster Teeth said they’d have another Stretch Goal, and we’ve got it to upload today!

Campaign Update #16 - The New RWBY Character Stretch Goal is UNLOCKED!
over 6 years ago – Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 01:24:22 AM

Backers. Backers. Have you seen what you did?  

You unlocked a new, never before heard of character! At this time very little is known about this character - their name, gender, race... is currently unknown! To explain the reasoning behind this, here is a brief note from Kerry Shawcross, Writer and Director of RWBY: 

“I am super happy and excited (and not at all sleep deprived) about announcing this brand new character who will be appearing in a future volume of RWBY. All we can tell you right now is that they are a sub-boss! We are taking the integrity of RWBY into every thought and development of this unknown character, so at this moment we have very little to share with you. But be prepared - we do hope you fall in love (or hate) with this character just like we have.” 

A few more business notes regarding the development of the New RWBY Character.

• This character will be appearing in a future volume of RWBY. 
• This character will be a Sub-Boss - 18 card deck with one objective card. (Hint: That means this character will be a bad person!)
• This character will be shipped separately due to creative development and manufacturing time. This may mean it will ship later than July 2018. We will keep you updated.

CONGRATULATIONS! Every single one of you Backers has blown us away right and left, and we couldn't be more proud. We'll have another stretch goal for you all tomorrow with the fourth developer's update!  

From all of us here at Rooster Teeth and Arcane Wonders - thank you.  

<3

Campaign Update #15 - Penny's Booster Pack!
over 6 years ago – Wed, Oct 25, 2017 at 01:35:32 AM

Howdy y’all!  

We’ve unlocked another Stretch Goal! This one is specifically related to Penny and her deck. Due to your incredible support, we have unlocked the Penny 6-card Booster Pack goal. This pack includes six additional action cards for Penny to be used during game play. These cards represent exciting new attacks and actions you can upgrade to during battle. It’ll be INCLUDED for all backers of RWBY: Combat Ready.  

Something cool has also occurred during this Kickstarter, and it’s been happening in the comments section everywhere. People are learning about RWBY, the show, and the lore surrounding the characters and story. To help with this, we’ve put together two starter packs that are now available as Add-On Items!

 Are you starting to get excited? We’re closing in on the big, unknown, incredible Stretch Goal - the new RWBY-verse Character! Stay tuned for the next big update!  

<3
Rooster Teeth