Last week Ian “Mother” Fischer and Patrick Hudson from Robot Entertainment made their way all the way over to Gamescom in Germany to show the masses Orcs Must Die! Unchained. They also took part in the official Twitch stream and as part of their interview showed off what we have to look forward to in the next patch. If you check out the stream here are some of the things you might notice.

New Hero! – Tundra

Yep, if 15 heroes wasnt already plenty we have another hero joining the party and he goes by the name of “Tundra” who is an ice bear. A ranged hero who like Smolder can fire blasts from afar, but of course rather than fire he has an ice attack.

On the abilities front he is able to disable all traps, except ice traps, with his blizzard ability (which might also deal damage). His other ability lets him select friendly bears and highlight a player / guardian for them to target. We can expect to see more of Tundra in the next patch when full details about him will be made available.

Comeback Mine Carts

Also new to the game is a new comeback mechanic that was actually discussed in tandem with Robot on the forums. Sort of in similar vein to Mr Moneybags, around Wave 3 mine carts will appear at each war camp and travel to the opposing rift. If the opposing team manage to kill the mine cart (currently actually a giant) they will gain a ton of extra resources split amongst themselves. The idea behind this is that a team can focus on killing the mine cart they get a big boost of resources to help turn the tide of battle. It introduces another interesting dynamic to the game.

From what we can see so far from the new material shown at Gamescom we are looking at a very interesting new patch coming out later this August.

Check out the Twitch interview

Be sure to check out the full interview and gameplay demo of OMDU at Gamescom on the video below. Just skip to 06:22:00 to see Twitch sit down with the bots!

Watch live video from Twitch on Twitch

Fan Friday is back with the spotlight now on D_W_, another regular on the OMDU North American forums. You may recognize D_W_ from some of the many excellent suggestion threads and new hero ideas. Some of the hero ideas D_W_ has come up with include The Greasy Gnoll, The Elementarist, Haze and Calvin the Hobgoblin Shaman. To find about a bit more about the ideas man we sit down with D_W_ for our spotlight interview!

The Basics

• Name: David William O’Boyle (see where my clever username comes from? :D)
• Age: 28
• Home Town: Wood-Ridge NJ, USA (Currently living in Seattle WA.)

Questions

• What is day job?

Oh boy, right now I’m unemployed and have been looking for work for about a month now. It’s no fun. If anyone needs a sound designer/composer or a game designer or just wants to give me money so I can eat that would be great. Though freelancing doesn’t pay the bills unfortunately. Crappy day jobs here I come!

• Best and worst food?

I make a pretty mean chili. It’s basically the most amazing thing you could eat if you are me. I’m not a fan of eggs or fish. They just creep me out.

• Dream holiday destination?

Some place that has rad people and mini golf. You can’t go wrong with mini golf.

• Whats your taste in music?

This is like the worst question to ask a musician. The best answer is probably “yes, especially instrumental stuff.” The long answer is I literally listen to a bit of everything from pre-renaissance all the way to music so experimental that most people would not describe it as music. To me music is sound made with intention. The real long answer would probably be book length haha.

• How did you first discover Orcs Must Die! ?

I believe it was from GiantBomb.com’s Quick Look video. I bought it soon after and  didn’t really like the game at first to be honest. Eventually I played through it and tried to five skull every level before OMD2 came out.

• Which of Weavers would you recommend players take into battle and why?

Steel Weaver so you can spam archer guardians.. Oh wait you mean in OMDU.

• Whats your favourite OMD trap of all time?

Brimstone and Void Walls.

• What is the one thing you wish OMDU would have that it doesn’t have right now?

Hrmm… There’s a lot of old traps/gear/Minions I’d love to see in it. Right now I think it could use some more elemental variation in minion types so I’d love to see the Elemantals from Orcs 2.

• What do you think about the hero balance, do any of the heroes stand out as OP?

I don’t think any one of them is super broken at the moment. Personally I’d rather see some heroes brought up a bit more, but perhaps I’m just bad at playing them.

• How do you feel about the new AFK / kick timer?

It’s probably too short. 2 minutes is a long time in game, but not in life. There are tons of things that could make a person go AFK. But I don’t know. Other players just have to be understanding of people AFK and keep a calm head. I don’t have solution for that sort of thing.

Shout Out

• Is there anything you would like to say to all the OMD fans out there right now?

Hi, Dwar. Hi. Baehl.

Thanks for taking part D_W_ – we hope to see you composing or designing games soon!

Some of the bots from Robot Entertainment are on route to PAX Prime in Seattle later this month. While there is no Robot booth this time around, a number of the bots will be hosting their own PAX Prime panel. The line up includes Patrick Hudson [CEO], Justin Korthof [Community Manager], Lance Hoke [Producer], Ian Fischer [Design Director], Chris Moffitt [Art Director].

The panel will include talk about studios history including their time at Ensemble Studios, Age of Empires through to modern day Orcs Must Die! For those lucky enough to be in attendance there will also be prizes being given out at the panel. No word on what these are as of yet, but hey, who would say no to free prizes?!

If you’re at PAX Prime be sure to head to the HEDGEHOG THEATRE on SATURDAY 8/30 1:30PM – 2:30PM

Earlier this week on the Twitch stream was the second of the Insider Access streams. Last week saw us chat to Robot artists Bart Tiongson and Dave Kubalak. This week, community manager SixOkay is sitting down with Robot Entertainment newbie designer “Danger Mike” to discuss the new tutorial that will soon be making its way to the beta masses.

No doubt one of the gripes at the moment from OMDU regulars is the incoming swarm of new players who have struggled to grasp some of the key things about the game before starting matchmaking. In particular things like not spending leadership points, closing gates, putting traps in the wrong places etc. As of right now it has been difficult for new players to find out how to play owing to the current tutorial being very basic. Danger Mike is new to Robot Entertainment and his task his to create a brand new, engaging tutorial system for players. On the Insider Access stream we get our first look of his hard work so far. Lets check it out!

As you can see from the video it looks like Danger Mike is doing an excellent job on the tutorial so far. We learn that the tutorial as seen above will be mandatory before players can get into their first game. However as a bonus players will gain experience as well for completing it. We also learn that there will be a number of other optional tutorials as well for players to get to grips with some of the finer details. As such the tutorial above just covers what Robot believes to be the core basic principles of the game.

What do you think about the new tutorial proposals? REF wants to know! Have your say in our poll!

To help satisfy the thirst for Orcs Must Die! Unchained mega fans, Robot Entertainment have made available detailed numbers and statistics for traps, minions, glyphs, weavers and more. Over here at REF we have created a database so that you can delve right in and start number crunching.

Open the OMDU numbers and statistics database

You can sort columns by clicking on the headings. Need to find that minion that deals the most damage? No problem! Just sort on the column header. (It’s the Order Mage, btw.)

We’ll be keeping the database updated as each patch comes out so that it always stays up to date.

If you missed todays Insider Access stream you will have missed out on an excellent video between new Assistant Community Manager Kristen Fuller and Robot Entertainment artists Bart “Yellow King” Tiongson and Dave “kube” Kubalak.

The interview talked us through the early years of both Bart and Dave’s careers, who are both ex Ensemble Studios staff through to their career today at Robot Entertainment. From 12:30 in the stream a demonstration is shown of how the Ball and Chain hero was digitally concepted. The interview is well worth the watch, particularly for those interested in the art field.

Watch live video from OrcsMustDie on Twitch

Day 2

Following part 1 of the heroes on tour blog the fun continues as we look at Day 2. After waking up we met with FaTeReLLa once again outside the hotel as we began our tour around the city.

As we travelled into the city we also met up once again with SiS and we bagan to make our way to the beautiful Botanic Gardens. Here we were able to relax in the peaceful setting and also got to see people pass in costumes as they headed to the second day of the festival.

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We also managed to find an ideal place for an OMD killbox!

After a bit more walking around the gardens it was time to head to lunch. We walked through the city to an awesome pasta restaurant called Vapiano. This has become one of my most favourite Italian restaurants of all time. The meal is prepared fresh in front of your eyes and you can make your own dish by choosing the pasta and sauces you like. Its a bit like going to Subway, but for pasta instead! They also have some great pudding choices, I decided to opt for the more dangerous death by chocolate option.

Healthy options!

Following lunch, next up was to travel to the Karlsruhe Zoo. We didn’t see any Orcs, but we did see a whole host of other animals and have included a small gallery below. We had a good time at the zoo but boy, was it hot!

At the Zoo

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After a nice time in the zoo it was time for us to tragically begin to think abut going home. We headed back to FaTeReLLa’s car to collect our bags. Her car is quite easy to spot, seeing as it has her name “FaTeReLLa”, engraved on it!  With our bags in tow we headed back to the train station. I travelled back with Artimunor, Daeforce and Alastaire61 back to Frankfurt where we went our separate ways at the airport. Then it was back on the plane back to the UK taking back a Gameforge pack which we were all given which included a OMDU T-Shirt, comic book and buttons.

We all had a brilliant time on the Heroes on Tour trip. It was expertly organised by Gameforge and FaTeReLLa who looked after us very well. We hope that there will be another chance for a future trip. If you ever see a competition to visit Gameforge – be sure to enter!

REF would like to thank FaTeReLLa and the rest of the Gameforge team for a such a great weekend!