Devblog
Kosal vs Dofus Retro
Kosal keeps the slow fights and the crafter's market of 1.29. It has one server and a hero party, and this post says why.
Kosal is a turn-based tactical MMORPG built with the players in mind who went back to 1.29 when Dofus Retro opened. It keeps the slow fights and the crafter's market. It has one server and a hero party, and both were decided on purpose.
The list
The Retro players we have talked to ask for the same things: fights slow enough to think in, a world where the wrong map at the wrong level costs you, professions the market needs, dungeons you prepare for, and money you earned.
What Kosal keeps
Every fight is on the cell grid of the map you are standing on, with action points and movement points. Nothing happens until you pass, and there is no turn timer.
Maps are hand-made and joined by exits, and the camera frames one map at a time.
You gather, you craft, and you sell to other players at the price you set.
Fast travel exists and it is not free. A shrine unlocks when you enter its map, and a trip costs gold that grows with the distance.
Power comes from playing and never from a wallet. It is on the front page.
Where Kosal drifts, and why
No single-account server. Kosal has one server and one ruleset. We decided against a second server because a rule on accounts per machine cannot be enforced across the internet, and because splitting the players halves a playtest crowd and doubles the balancing work.
The hero party. A party holds six combatants, heroes or humans. One person can field up to six heroes and play alone. To group, you bench heroes, so a full solo team cannot join anyone, and every hero in a fight earns more when more humans took part in it. The bonus is a proportional nudge toward grouping rather than a lockout on solo play. If a single-account server is the reason you play 1.29, this is the part of Kosal you will like least. This shape is decided and not built: the build fields one hero today.
Guilds. A guild's charter is an item that any monster can drop. Five percent of each member's combat experience is mirrored to the guild and nothing is deducted from the member.
A Hardcore server, opt-in. Permadeath and full-loot PvP on its own world. It goes further than 1.29 ever did, and the standard world is unchanged by it. This is a commitment, not a build you can enter yet.
Punishment is a tax, never a stolen turn. A spell that punishes charges the target for what they spend. No effect removes a player's whole turn. A mechanic with no counterplay is cut.
What is not done
Dungeon rooms and the quest chains that lead to them exist. Rooms scale on the number of heroes in the fight, four to six. How you enter is not settled, and entry is switched off in the development build. Scarcity in the market is designed and has not been tested by players. There is no public build. Playtesting on Windows through Steam is being prepared, with no date. The newsletter on the homepage is where playtest news goes first.
Get notified when playtesting opens
Dofus Retro is a trademark of Ankama. Ankama is not affiliated with Kosal and does not endorse it. This post compares the two games on public facts and our own memory of playing.