Dragonshard Designer Diary #2 + Movie
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One of the few perks of a traditional tech tree is the feeling of advancement over the course of a given gameplay session as you unlock progressively more-powerful buildings and units. With our flattened tech tree, advancement becomes entirely focused on the units themselves. Much like in Dungeons & Dragons, as players kill monsters and complete quests, they receive experience rewards, which get added to their global experience pools. As such, global experience essentially becomes a third resource that players can use to level up all units of a given type--at that unit's building--thus granting those units upgraded stats, new powers, and increased abilities, as appropriate for their type. For example, as the paladin gains levels, he gains moderate upgrades to spellcasting ability, resistances, and the like, but he also gains a substantial boost to his hit points, as well as the holy smite ability, which reinforces his role as a "tank." On the other hand, as the ranger gains levels, he gains--in addition to standard increases in hit points and resistances--substantial increases to his line-of-sight and attack ranges, along with the snipe ability, thus reinforcing both his "ranged attack" and "scouting" roles.
