Project Nightfall’s design documentation has been updated with a new direction for how normal battles are meant to work. Nothing described here is playable. This is recorded design intent, and several of these systems still need their own design and implementation work before they exist in the game.
One hero, one team
The design calls for each player to field exactly one hero at a time in normal battles. That hero is not simply another unit; it is the anchor the rest of the fighting force is built around. The hero and its accompanying troops together form the active field team.
Team sizes are planned as selectable match modes:
| Team size | Hero | Troops |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 10 | 1 | 9 |
| 15 | 1 | 14 |
| 20 | 1 | 19 |
| 25 | 1 | 24 |
| 30 | 1 | 29 |
Field-team size is not a population limit. Population governs how many units you may own; the field-team cap governs how many of those owned units may march out with the hero. Troops left behind remain yours – they stay at the town or base as a reserve force, which is why economy and production still matter when only a small band takes the field. Whether a player whose field team is wiped but whose reserve survives is still in the match is deliberately undecided.
Builds, talents and formations
Choosing which troops accompany the hero is intended to become a gameplay pillar in its own right: melee against ranged, protecting fragile units, and answering what the enemy brings. The concept is that a hero talent build could strengthen the whole field team rather than only the hero, so composition and talents pull on each other. Talent trees and balance numbers are not defined.
Supporting this is an open-ended set of configurable combat stats, initially including Critical Hit Chance, Melee Attack, Ranged Attack, Spell Damage, Dodge, Parry, Armor and Spell Resistance. No formulas, caps or stacking rules have been settled.
Formations are also set to grow. Building on foundations already in the game, the direction is player-authored layouts: assign specific units to specific slots around a hero or anchor, then name, save and reuse them.
Town Battle, an early concept
The most speculative entry is the Town Battle. When an enemy assaults your town, the current concept is to switch into some form of turn-based city assault and defense, fought largely by reserve troops and feeling distinctly different from real-time field combat. Its detailed rules are not finalised: turn order, action points, grids, siege rules, hero participation, victory conditions and retreat all remain to be designed.
Taken together, this is a direction rather than a feature list. Field-team rosters, composition selection, team-wide talent effects, saved formations, reserve management and the Town Battle each still require their own design work and implementation before anyone can play them.