5/28/2020 Sins Of A Dark Age Download
After several expansions in the Solar Empire franchise, Ironclad is finally expanding its catalog with, a fantasy-inspired title that combines the real-time strategy (RTS) and multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genres. First shown earlier this year, substantial changes have been implemented since. The core remains the same, though: two teams of six players face off to see who can crush the other side’s base. The primary way Sins of a Dark Age separates itself from the competition is its player Commander. Five players on each team play heroes in a traditional MOBA fashion, while one person per team plays Sins as an RTS.
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Vancouver (May 8, 2015) - Dark Fantasy MOBA, lsquo;Sins of a Dark. Ironclad Games has launched Sins of a Dark Age (Soada) as a Free to Play game on Steam. Artwork is available for download and distribution.
Last time we saw Sins the Commander had to do typical RTS actions like build bases, harvest resources, and construct units, but all that’s been completely reworked. Now Commanders don’t build bases at all, and instead start off with a pre-made town. Resources aren’t harvested from the earth, but are earned by killing enemies and capturing resource nodes scattered throughout the map. With the removal of base building, the way you bring units to the battlefield has also been changed. Instead of the usual system of building a chain of buildings to unlock better units, the Commander constructs a catalog of abilities they want to take into battle.
Then once they’re in the field they upgrade certain technologies in order to make their desired abilities purchasable. For instance you might be an aggressive commander who wants to do a lot of fighting, so you would build out your catalog with a number of abilities that summon units, focusing on upgrading your military technologies. A more support-focused commander would focus on abilities that allow them to cast spells, participating in hero battles by dropping buffs and damage dealing spells into the fray. The biggest difference between now and the last time Sins was shown is the return of cyclical, AI-controlled soldiers called creeps, as well as towers. Previously, Ironclad was adamant that the only non-hero enemy units you’d face would be Commander-controlled, but it has since decided this didn’t make for very fun matches. The team is still toying around with game types where there are no creeps, but for now the mode the studio is refining has them as well as pre-made, pre-positioned towers.
Like other MOBAs, these towers keep one team from pushing too hard early on. The team at Ironclad seems determined to let Commanders build additional towers, they just haven’t figured out exactly how to handle this yet. If a Commander can build towers right next to one another it could result in impenetrable wall, so they know they have a lot of balance work ahead of them in this regard. The Commander plays an important role in every skirmish in Sins of a Dark Age, but most people will be throwing down as heroes. Most of the heroes’ names are temporary at this point, but Sins covers all the MOBA archetypes: tanks (the characters who soak up damage), assassins (the less beefy, more deadly killers), carries (heroes who rely on great gear to make them amazing later on), and support heroes (those who deal less direct damage but augment others to be even more effective).
Sins’ hero gameplay also don’t stray from genre standards with the controls, using the Q, W, E and R keys to cast their abilities. Just like League of Legends, every hero in Sins has three special abilities and an ultimate, and timing their use makes all the difference between success and failure. The plant-based “mandrake” hero I played was a tank, who functions similarly to LoL’s Amumu. Using mandrake’s skillshot, a good player can snag enemy heroes with a vine, dragging them right into his melee range. Then once they’re close he can stun them with a powerful hit and use a thorns ability that deals damage over time to anyone standing close to him. If things get bad he can cast his ultimate ability, spurting out a pool of sap that rapidly heals him while also slowing enemies in the area. He worked especially well with characters like the trickster, a fairy-like unit that can grow friendly units and shrink enemies, as well as deal some damage.
Since most of the fights you’ll take part in will involve multiple heroes at a time, Ironclad is designing powers so heroes can play off one another. For instance a hero currently called “the Sapper” can throw oil on the ground, setting it on fire in order to burn enemy heroes, creeps and Commander units.
Alternatively, he could throw the oil and do a feint, leading pursuing heroes into it and have another hero called “fire queen” set the oil on fire with one of her fireball spells. The oil is flammable regardless of who sets it alight. If you’ve played other MOBAs then it’s likely that the hero gameplay in Sins of a Dark Age sounds familiar, but it differentiates itself in a couple of significant ways. Every MOBA has usually has some way for the hero to rapidly return to base, usually via a spell or one-use item.
Sins has this too, but it can be used as both a means of returning to base and to teleport yourself to areas of the map your team controls. This means that heroes can rapidly deploy to a tower that’s about to be destroyed, or, if your side currently holds them, teleport to a couple of additional forward positions. Battles become just as much about pushing on the enemy base as they do about holding forward teleportation zones, since this can make all the difference when it comes to keeping the pressure on your enemies. Sins of a Dark Age also handles income and experience differently than much of its competition.
Like League of Legends, Sins does away with “denial,” a tactic where you kill your own creeps at the last second in order to prevent the enemy team from getting experience or money. Sins still makes player heroes worry about being the last to hit an enemy (this awards the most gold), but every other hero who participates in the fight will earn a share of the cash as well. Ironclad hopes that this will reduce accusations of kill stealing, and make for a much less toxic player community.
So much of Sins of a Dark Age’s design remains in flux, but what’s there is already every bit as engaging as other MOBAs. With a bit more tuning and fleshing out of the Commander’s gameplay Ironclad’s twist on the genre could become the next breakout free-to-play sensation. It might seem impossible to topple the likes of League of Legends, or to succeed in a time when Valve is releasing their own MOBA, but, as history has shown, overcoming the odds is what Ironclad does best.
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Sins of a Dark Age Beginner’s Guide by OiTheRolkSo I found out some people have no idea whatsoever how to play this game, so I decided to make this rough guide to help them. Enjoy!I suppose as there is no tutorials yet, the best way to learn would be to create a custom game, (with or without bots as you prefer), and just walk around and stuff to get used to the controlsBASICS:TerminologyAt your Keep (the castle near the fountain), you will notice three sets of minions periodically spawning. They will take three paths, where they meet up with enemy minions and attack them. These three paths are called lanes. There is the top lane, the middle or mid lane, and the bottom or bot lane.Everywhere that is not a lane is called the jungle. You do not have to worry about the jungle right now – you will only see junglers and the jungle being used extensively at a somewhat higher level of play.Basic MovementMove: Right click on the ground.
The hero will then walk where you ordered him to.Attack: Right click on a unit. The hero will attack the unit on which you clicked.Recall: At any moment, you may press B to recall. If you are not taking any damage, after a short delay, you will be teleported back to your fountain.Basic CastingYou have four spells at your disposal, binded to the hotkeys Q, W, E, and R.Q, W and E are basic spells, and R is your ultimate. You acquire it at a higher level, but it is also a stronger and better spell than the other three.Upgrading spells: At the very beginning of the game, you can see your four spells at the bottom of the screen. They are greyed out icons, placed roughly in the middle of the grey bar thingy (i don’t know the technical term for it, sorry)Over three of them, you will notice green, shining buttons. Each reads “+ 0/4”. Click on one of them to level the corresponding spell.
You may hover over the spells to read its description (the description will appear over your summoner icon, on the bottom left). This way, you can concentrate on upgrading the spell you think is strongest.Notice that the fourth spell also has a button over it, but that the button is greyed out. This means that you can’t upgrade the spell yet.Casting spells: To cast a spell, simply press its corresponding hotkey, then left click where the spell should go. Some spells can be only targeted on units, whereas others are targeted in a direction or an area. Some don’t require targets at all, and activate as soon as you press the hotkey.NOTE: You will see the corresponding hotkeys if you hover over the spell button. They tell you the hotkey right under the description of the spell (bottom left). ShopTo the right of your spell buttons, you will see two rows of five squares.
Six of those squares are greyed out backpacks, two look like a drawing of a red vial on a parchment, one is a blinking, colored backpack, and the last is a picture of a coin with a number under it. The latter is the amount of gold you have.You may click on the blinking backpack to access the shop.NOTE: you may only buy items when you’re near your fountain (the spot where you spawn at the beginning of the match).Consummables: The two icons that look like drawings of a red vial on a parchment are your slots for consummable items. Consummable items are especially useful if you run out of mana or if you are low on health, among others.Glyphs: On the left of your spells, you will notice two more blinking icons. You may click on one of them to access the glyph shop.Glyphs are basically additional spells that you may buy. Their hotkeys are D and F.
There are different offensive, defensive and utility uses for the glyphs, so you may want to buy them quite early. Be wary, however: once you buy a glyph, you may not sell it back.What items do I buy?: For now, you may stick to the recommended items. If you open the shop window, the recommended items are shown at the top of the window.Earning goldTo buy items in the shop, you need to earn gold. You earn gold by killing minions (the archers and foot soldiers that periodically spawn at your fortress, by killing enemy heroes and by destroying enemy towers.Towers will prioritize focus on minions rather than heroes. Watch out, though: if you attack an enemy hero while he is under his turret, the turret will switch focus to you.MORE ADVANCED STUFF.You may read this part once you feel more or less comfortable with what I wrote above.Advanced movementCtrl+right click: moves your hero to target location. If he encounters any enemy on his path, you will attack him.Advanced SpellcastingCtrl+spell hotkey: quick cast.
The spell will automatically be cast in the direction of the mouse.Alt+spell hotkey: self cast. If the spell may be targetted on yourself, self cast will do that automatically. Items with active sSome items have active abilities. You may activate these abilities at any time by pressing the hotkey corresponding to the item slot in which resides the item. To find out the hotkey, hover over the item slot.Minion and turret aggro (aggression)Sometimes you will find that minions or turrets attack you, and it seems almost like they do it for no reason. Well, here is why:-If you attack an enemy hero who is near to them, and if you are within their range, they will attack you.-If you are within their range, and there are no allied minions around, they will attack you.Other than that, you are fine.How do I get them to stop them from attacking me?Get out of their range, or out of their sight. That includes using abilities to turn invisible, or hiding in bushes.Additionally, for minions, if there is a minion who is your ally nearby(provided you are not attacking their hero), they will switch focus to it.Advanced Tips by AstoraxSlightly more advanced level once you get the basics downPlease ignore this part until you have a handle on the basics, it’ll just make your life more complicated.You only get gold from minions by hitting the last hit on them to kill them.
No matter how much you attack them, if you do not get the final hit, you get no gold for them. The skill for this means you will want to click like a madman around the creeps but not attack them until they are low enough that a single hit from you will kill them.This is for multiple reasons. One, you’re more likely to get the last hit on them. Two, you don’t actually WANT to push your lane too hard. If you push too far forward, it exposes you to ganks from the jungle (gank is a term for an enemy champion surprising you in lane and killing you). It also means you’ll be close to the enemy tower, and the enemy hero.
So they are in a position of strength as they have the safety of their own tower nearby.Another thing to know. In the jungle area (not in one of the 3 lanes, but the areas inbetween) there are patches of leaves that will make you invisible to the other team if they do not also have a champion in the bushes with you. This means you can hide in a bush until an enemy hero comes nearby, then gank them. Often you’ll see groups of champions all hiding in a bush waiting for someone to come by then mass gank them.The recall is free to use. Don’t hesitate, at least early on in game, to use it if you’re low.
It’s always better to lose out on some gold and xp in lane, than to die because you stayed too long and got killed.
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