BioWare’s next Anthem 2.0 blog post will detail skills and progression. The VULKK.com Javelins Armors Catalog is now complete and ready to serve you. Christian Dailey continued to drop hints about new Stronghold content and new regions along with more concept art of potentially upcoming javelin armor sets. These and more in this month’s Anthem 2.0 news recap!
BioWare’s Blog number 3 did not arrive this month. We have a few reveals and hints to discuss from Christian Dailey (studio director at BioWare for Anthem), which he shared in the past few weeks.
As usual Christian is/was very evasive and constantly teasing rather than actually answering questions with a firm confirmation. Let’s read between the lines, shall we!
The Anthem Armors Catalog is now complete!
Before we begin with the BioWare-related announcements, I would like to share with you some fantastic news about me and VULKK.com related to Anthem.
For nearly an year I have been considering and planning a Complete Anthem Armor Sets Catalog. Now it is a fact! Finally!
The new catalog contains every single armor pack and stand-alone armor item ever released into the game. Everything from the Featured Store, Seasonal Store and the in-game Challenges – everything is here.
I would also like to thank all of the fans and players, who contributed with images and/or feedback in the past week while I was working on the final stages of the project – the actual populating of the catalog with content.
You can also find it linked on the Home page of VULKK.com as well as in the main menu of the site, under “Games” – “Anthem”.
Tiers and Javelin Progression
In a tweet posted in July Christian shared that a future Anthem blog will explain how the developers are going to tackle EndGame progression. I don’t think Blog #3 is the one he was referring to.
The third blog post from the studio will talk about Tiers and Javelin Progression. The image Christian shared on Twitter showed a “vertical slice” (word play) of a small portion of a work-in-progress screen with the text “Skills” at the very top.
The tweet‘s text reads: “In the spirit of breaking the Friday Anthem update :) – quick note that indeed the next blog will center around skill trees and Javelin progression. Here is the vertical slice…”. And the image was this one:
Before launch BioWare’s Anthem actually had a simple Skill Tree system available. It was abandoned and removed from the game for launch. Most likely because it was not balanced or even complete and the devs decided to throw it away in order to keep the release date.
The image below is an old one, illustrating what the Pilot Skills system could have been. This never made it into the live game, though.
In my analysis of BioWare’s July blog post I talked about Skills as well, because we saw the top row of the main menu and the Skills tab was present there as well.
BioWare officially revealed the new Javelin Skill Trees and new Builds system in the Anthem 2.0 October blog. You can read the details about it at the link above.
Comparing the image from the July update to this new “vertical slice” we see that the color of the menu at the top is now blue. Christian confirmed that none of the UI elements we see in these blogs are final and they only serve as a placeholder while the team is testing and trying new options and possibilities.
The game’s UI will see huge changes for 2.0 and the performance for all platforms (PC, Playstation and Xbox) will be significantly improved.
The fact that Skills are making their way into Anthem 2.0 is no surprise to anybody. It just makes sense for the devs to want to create a more flexible environment for us, the players, to actually create our own unique pilots and javelin builds.
In my July Blog Post overview I talked about the potential removal of Components and their replacement with mods attached to specific gear parts, based on the screen we saw. The September Blog post should shed some more light into that because it is going to be aimed at Progression and Tiers!
All this would nicely fit with the “new loot system” the developers are currently testing and exploring.
New Pirates faction details and Stronghold possibility
The new Pirates of Blood Wind faction that was teased in BioWare’s May Anthem 2.0 update gets more and more reveals to support the hype building up for the game’s revamp project.
The new faction may actually have its own Stronghold. The latest tease we have from Christian is a gorgeous view at a platform that is could be a part of this new Stronghold. Or it will be a new region in the open world. Or both!
The text of the tweet reads: “All you can handle. Happy weekend all! (what’s behind door #1?)” and the image attached to it:
The view may be gorgeous but the color scheme of this image feels a bit washed out to me somehow. Or maybe I am not a fan of brown colors…
In the far right you can see a turret. There is a bit of a story around this item as well!
Christian shared an interesting art of that turret with information that hints at the possibility of this turret being usable by the players.
The tweet reads” Ending the week with a bit of new. Some Wyvern taming fun. Hope everyone has a good weekend. Stay safe!” and the image is:
This giant harpoon-like turret makes your average javelin look like an ant next to it, as you can compare from the image in the bottom right.
This gun is similar in size to the other stationary turrets that we have already seen and fought against in open world and Strongholds.
Interesting to note is the distinctly different color scheme used for the two red cylinder-shaped tubes sitting on the lower back side of the turret’s horizontal body. This is where the weak spot would be, for your to aim at when trying to destroy the turret.
Christian’s tweet inspires thoughts of the turret being man-operated. This would be a brand new feature as currently we cannot shoot stationary guns in Anthem. They shoot at us.
Whether this will ever be usable and become a standard equipment placed all over Bastion or an exclusive gameplay feature in a new Stronghold, this is still unclear.
We know that the single player campaign will not be abandoned completely, but the main focus will move elsewhere – the gameplay and progression. The narrative will continue, but it is unlikely that we will have long single player missions like Anthem’s origin story that arrived with the game’s release.
Back in July Christian teased the possibility of Fort Tarsis becoming a Stronghold. At this point we have no official confirmation if the Pirates will have their own stronghold or if they will populate a brand new region and the open world map will be expanded. Both are possible and whatever the studio is working on, it is not yet finished to openly talk about it.
Regarding new regions, Christian wrote not long ago that we will soon hear more about regions. Not region, but regions!
Back on the Pirates topic – we have our second close look at the new faction with the Gunner role being shown in a new art work.
“Hey friends – awesome week. No details to share on the blog, other than it is happening and the title is done :) – more info soon. Thanks again for all your feedback and questions. I’ll end the week with a new sky pirate concept. Happy Friday all!” posted Christian on Twitter.
This would be a similar role to the Scar Hunter (snipers) – a.k.a. the most annoying Scar of all, heh. They even have s slightly similar appearance.
Christian admitted that the two characters are actually built on the same model. This was one thing Anthem development did not do for the original game at launch. Character modelling is among the most expensive parts of the development, Christian said, so they are starting to take advantage of creating different NPCs based on the same core model structure.
So far we have seen the Grenadier and now we get the Gunner. Although we have no direct comparison between the pirates’ suits and our javelins, it is safe to assume that the physical size of the pirates will be around the one of the other factions already available in-game.
The new enemy will be slightly shorter than the Ranger and probably the same size as the Interceptor javelin. Still the Storm and the towering Colossus will make them look small.
Let’s not forget that we still have more Pirates roles to be revealed. These guys will surely wear some heavy armor as well.
In the same discussion under that Pirates Gunner art image Christian also talks about NPC visibility: “visibility in combat is something we are looking at.“
New Javelin Armors that may come soon or with Anthem 2.0
As you know the current Featured Store in Anthem is stuck in an ever-repeating loop with the same old items being rotated each week.
Christian shared in a response to a fan that “we are looking into it. We do want to mix it up, but it is not straight forward unfortunately.“
If you thought that the designers have no plans to create more awesome armor packs and appearance-changing items, you could not be more wrong.
Anthem 2.0 (or however it ends up being called officially) will not be a stand-alone game. It will not be Anthem 2. It will be an update or series of updates to the current game.
What this means is that the income for the developers of this title will continue to arrive almost exclusively from selling cosmetics in the Featured store.
Here are a few armor set designs that Christian teased during the month of August.
This tothy Ranger armor pack concept is an old one and was never finished: “[…]this toothy fiend (you are all quick btw)…..this was an armor set design that never got finished. Keep coming back to it….“. Check the artwork below:
How about a Colossus one too? “Looking through some old armor set concepts. These seem fitting for a Happy Shark Week all!” wrote Christian on Twitter.
Both of these look quite finished and detailed with the Ranger pack clearly in a rough and early stage of 3D modelling. The Colossus one is just in art form for now.
I hope to see them both soon in the Featured Store or at least when Anthem 2.0 releases.
When is the next Anthem 2.0 Blog Post
Speaking of releases, we have an announcement from Christian for when the third blog post detailing the game’s revamp project will be released.
“We are planning sometime in September right now. Hope to share the topic next week.” confirmed Christian.
The usual trollish title did not surprise anybody this time around :)))
This is now falling in line with what seems to be a bi-monthly schedule. The first post came in May and the second followed in July.
Christian teased that he had started the third writing the third one several weeks ago – on August 13th. I admit I had hopes that it will be ready and cleared by EA for publishing before the end of the month, but it didn’t happen.
Note: I seem to have finally settled down on the “Anthem 2.0” term for it. I keep using “redesign project” and “revamp project”. So much is planned and teased that whichever of these end up being the official term that BioWare will be using for their marketing, it will not be wrong.
And let’s not forget the possibility of “Anthem NEXT” following the “No Man’s Sky” idea of how a terrible release could end up in something actually enjoyable… I am told. I never played No Man’s Sky.
This is it for the Anthem 2.0 August news recap. I collected everything I consider important, interesting and worth discussing and analyzing. I hope you have enjoyed this read! Don’t forget to share it on Twitter and Facebook if you use these social platforms. Let your friends know what is happening in Anthem and what to expect from the redesign project.
Next you might want to read the September Anthem 2.0 news and info update. There was no new blog post from BioWare for September, but this doesn’t mean we have nothing to talk about. Check it out!
