Dawn of Fantasy/Gameplay

Intro
''Smoke hangs over a ruined world. Once, there was peace - peace so long that only elders talked of battle. Now, the earth trembles from a war that tore all things asunder. The war has passed, but only fools have put away their swords. Wizards walk with grim intent, and trust is gone between the races of this world. Though peasants race to rebuild homes, nobles scheme and plot. Dark times show no sign of light. In every land, a foulness brews. In the mighty realm of orcs, would-be leaders cry for elven scalps. Across the border, once proud humans squabble while the traitors build their forces. And in the great forests of the elf domain, the archons war across a vacant throne, while innocents are slaughtered in the shadows...''

''These are times of fear. Veterans of the ancient wars are called to arms once more. Walls are strengthened and weapons readied. Strongholds are prepared for siege. A new conflict is in the wind, and the wind is building. This is Dawn of Fantasy. Make yourself at home. And sharpen your sword.''

Set in the persistent massively multiplayer online 3D world of Mythador, Dawn of Fantasy offers you the chance to write your own chapter in the bloody history of this land. Explore a richly-detailed, endless world, from the high mountain peaks of Southmount in the human realm of Teria to the swamps of Erthee l'Bala of the Wood Elves. Complete dozens of story-driven quests in services of kings, wizards, and fellow adventurers. Interact with thousands of other players through trading, forging alliances, and waging war in both Player vs. Player and Player vs. Environment battles. Build up your villages into towns and then mighty empires, and lay siege to your enemies with great trebuchets, the brute strength of the walking woods, mighty ogres, and fire-breathing dragon mercenaries to reign supreme. Play as three different races - elves, men, and orcs, each of which offers a radically different playstyle and has been given a deep, compelling mythology, a dramatic historical background, and a spectrum of complex political ambitions that drive the story and gameplay.

With a rare combination of the RTS and RPG genres in its persistent MMO environment, this is definitely not your average RTS.

Dawn of Fantasy represents the culmination of years of development and ambitious ideas generated by ambitious gamers from across the world to create something truly exceptional: a persistent world, yours for the taking. Dawn of Fantasy allows players to craft their own game – avenge a fallen Orc king, establish an alliance against the feral Wood Elves, set up a trade route with the noble King Erian of Dagbor, duel trespassing players, tame the mighty dragons, plunder the ancient dwarven caves, or lead your guild to total domination with camps spread across the game world of Mythador and control of the global economy. In addition to completing over 50 complex and unique quests per race in the enthralling Online Kingdom campaign, players can put their skills to the test with single-player and multi-player skirmish maps, an epic single-player Conquer-the-World campaign, and by laying siege to over 25 historic NPC towns and unlimited player homelands. And last but not least, purchase a continuous stream of quest packs, new units and items, and other post-release DLC content, with either in-game Influence points or cash, for unlimited playability, in its truest sense.

Online Kingdom
Offering a persistent online experience, Dawn of Fantasy's MMORTS, or Online Kingdom, mode gameplay revolves around a player’s Homeland territory, which can be built in one of nine regions across the game world of Mythador. Players will develop their homeland from a couple buildings to a massive empire complete with layers of heavy walls and keeps, a complex economy, and a number of armies and trade caravans wandering the map. To develop this city, players can gather resources, construct various buildings, recruit new units, and research powerful upgrades and new abilities. Even when a player is offline, their homeland will still be in development with the worker units still gathering resources and finishing constructing any buildings tasked shortly before logging off. With this in mind, the gathering, construction, and training rates are significantly slower than in the fast-paced Skirmish modes.

At the homeland, players will meet an Advisor unit, who will give them their first quests, which will ease the MMORTS learning curve in their introduction to many of the game's mechanics. These quests form the foundation of the MMORTS Campaign storyline and unlock various elements of the game, through which players will discover the large world of Dawn of Fantasy, with its myriad of characters, events, and subplots.

Players can interact with the greater game world using the game's dynamic World Map, a portal for interaction with other players and the many story-driven quests. By grouping units into armies, players can send troops to distant NPC strongholds, army camps, quest locations, and other players' homelands. Upon reaching one of these destinations, armies can set up camp and proceed to lay siege to an NPC or player stronghold in a scenario similar to the Lay Siege Skirmish mode, receive or complete various tasks from local NPCs, or trade with goods or mercenary merchants. Alternatively, players can use the Auto-Match feature to find a compatible PvP opponent within seconds.

Players can also temporarily align themselves with other players to take on the mightiest of Strongholds or advance in their questing. For a more permanent alliance, players can establish guilds and engage in large-scale Guild vs. Guild battles.

Kingdom Wars
Kingdom Wars is an exclusively single-player Risk-style map with a mix of Skirmish and MMORTS gameplay elements to create a new, action-packed experience exclusively for single-player gamers. This game mode takes the epic siege warfare, continuous army progression, army construction, and World Map from the Online Kingdom mode and pairs it with an intelligent AI, while simplifying economic management and leaving out city construction, questing, and field combat to promote fast-paced action at every turn.

In Kingdom Wars, players will start off with the ability to choose their kingdom name as well as their homecity, which can be any of the 12 main NPC towns of the game world of Mythador. This town will automatically be under the player's control, making the quest for world domination one stronghold easier. Contrary to that of the other Dawn of Fantasy game modes, the default view in Kingdom Wars is the World Map. This map works similar to the MMORTS map and allows players to group their units into armies, merge or split armies to take on strongholds of any size, set up army camps adjacent to enemy strongholds, and lay siege to anything that stands in your way. In addition, enemy towns conquered in Kingdom Wars will fall under the control of the victor whereas it would revert to the defender in the Online Kingdom.

From the beginning, players are presented with the choice of three epic quests: to unify their realm, to take the other two realms, or to conquer the world. This, however, is easier said than done. Many of the strongholds you have to destroy are massive and will put up quite a fight. In addition, the AI is working toward the same goal as the player and will simulate PvP combat by attempting to lay siege to the player's own towns.

Skirmish Mode
There are two main skirmish modes available in Dawn of Fantasy online and single-player gameplay: Lay Siege and Stronghold Defense. Each of these modes can be played as either single-player or multi-player team matches. These modes are cut down, fast-paced samples of MMORTS gameplay, meant to provide training ground for players to test out their MMORTS builds and strategies.

In the Lay Siege skirmish mode, players can lay siege to any of the twelve major MMORTS strongholds. No base building or economy to worry about - just one epic battle awaiting the player. To win, players must breach the enemy walls using an assortment of siege weapons and, ultimately, kill the enemy king unit, hidden deep within the stronghold.

In Stronghold Defense, prepare to defend one of the twelve NPC strongholds against combined enemy armies. Face hundreds of advancing troops at once, attacking from multiple points along your outer walls. Make a stand, until the last of the attacking army falls, to keep your king alive. Await arrival of mounted reinforcement for late-game aid, repair your walls and gates in between waves, and upgrade your walls with mounted defenses to drive the enemy forces out of your stronghold.

Scenario Design Editor/Custom Scenario
The Dawn of Fantasy Scenario Design Editor is one of the most powerful and easiest-to-use RTS editors to date. With an array of original features, including Bridge Markers, Effect Editors, and an abundance of environment options to suit any scenario, Dawn of Fantasy's Editor allows designers to create a new map in minutes to play online or offline. Making use of the Lua script language, the possibilities of custom scenarios are limitless.