TheGarden of Eyesmod forElden Ringhas gained a lot of traction since its first teaser last year, thanks to its scope, ambition, and dedication to quality. The project features new weapons and armor sets, as well as mounts, bosses, and even entire new areas andgameplay systems forElden Ring.In a recent Game Rant interview, the lead designer discussed the team’s most recent update, which featured their most ambitious addition yet: class-based progression and dynamic difficulty. They also teased an upcoming feature, which will include class-specific story content that will dive into thelore of the Lands Betweenand feature new areas and bosses for players to enjoy.RELATED:New Elden Ring Mod Adds Flying Broomsticks and Harry Potter SpellsThe Garden of Eyes mod will now start players in different areas of the map based on their chosen class, and the difficulty curve of the entire map will be adjusted to fit their choice. If players pick an Astrologer, for instance, they will start inRaya Lucaria, which will have the relative difficulty of Limgrave from the base game. The player will then venture out to the Lands Between from there, with enemy difficulty and essential items re-tooled to ensure seamless progression. In this way, the mod adds a ton of replay value to the game, as players will already encounter new challenges in relation to their new starting area, but that’s not all.
Adding New Story Elements to Elden Ring’s Classes
One of the driving goals behind the Garden of Eyes project is to fundamentally change the way thatElden Ringis played. While they had poured countless dedicated hours into crafting new weapons, equipment, and boss encounters, they were hoping to do something more novel and ambitious.
“…as we worked we were thinking, ‘Hey, we’re adding armor, we’re adding bosses, we’re adding new systems. But you’re still playing the same old Elden Ring at the end of the day. How can we take progression to another level?’ So we looked at the classes, and decided to give each class their own progression path, with a unique starting location.'”
In addition to dynamic progression, Garden of Eyes also seeks to expand thestory ofElden Ring. Once this upcoming feature is fully implemented, each class will have its own story, experienced as memories of the character’s past. These memories will include brand-new areas and boss fights, and will seek to explore new elements of the lore of the Lands Between only hinted at in the base game.
“One of our main goals is to create a story for each class. During your playthrough, you will have a special memory section for that specific class where you will visit new areas and fight certain bosses that are specific to that class… this memory-based story allows us to revisit old events that happened in Elden Ring, and pay homage to things that may have been alluded to in the base game but not featured.”
The user experience is a key area of focus for the Garden of Eyes team. For similar mods, like theElden Ringrandomizer, players have to close the game and open an external program any time they want to change, manage, or edit the mod. But thanks to some clever programming, the overhaul will be a seamless and dynamic experience that is “integrated into the game itself," allowing fans to simply immerse themselves in theworld ofElden Ringall over again.
Elden Ringis out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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