Calimport: Our Version and Vision

“Calimport? It’s like a grand card game in which everyone holds aces in their sleeves, everyone knows everyone else’s hand, and yet the final throw-down'’s always up for grabs. In a lot of ways, it’s not who wins but how you play the game. Heckuva place it is, guv’nor, but only go there if you’ve got a golem watching your back.”

-Foxilon Cardluck, halfling bon vivant and first mate of the Realmsmaster

(Excerpt from "Calimport" - 9589 - 1st Printing, October, 1998)

   "So...the redundancy of just one big city..", some might say. "It seems like the content will just be buildings, buildings, and more buildings." others may chime in. Well let me assure you, Calimport is more than just that.

Yes, a lot of the city will look very similar in nature, and no, it's not going to be on the extremely grand scale that Calimport is, as depicted in the source materials. However, it's anything but redundant, and it's by far more than just a city.

   Calimport is a central hub in Abeir-Toril, within the Forgotten Realms setting. The Realms are a creation of Ed Greenwood's fantasy, and extremely well documented either by novel, campaign setting source books, or fan fiction. Quite possibly the most famous of novels derived from the fantasy world come from R.A. Salvatore, in his "Dark Elf Trilogy" and further continuation of those series. Salvatore's character "Artemis Entreri" from the afore mentioned series, is just one of many famous identities that hail from this busy metropolis. He is indeed a well documented example of what is bred from within the city. Proof that, while some are skilled in the wilds fighting hordes of orcs, and monstrous creatures of all forms...others are borne out a need to survive against their own in the harsh and hot streets where one is just a speck of dust amongst many other specks.

   I can give my personal vision, and the one that I approached the team with when pitching the idea of this project. I'll try to use, with the same verve and passion that I approached them with, in verbatim what is bringing this project together. Of course...you can't see my face, nor hear my voice. That was probably the more comical, child-like aspect that got more than a few excited about it too...so I'll try to extend that through writ here...

   Imagine a persistent world, where the danger doesn't come from an overt foe springing into action upon you in a field, or hordes of orcs slain one at a time just to "farm the experience". Where players are given freedom to explore, not the boundaries of an area, but the boundaries of a story. The lines would be drawn not by area transition, but by imagination. The city may seem hot, dry, and ever-crowded...but inside every building, behind every corner in every alleyway, a new discovery. Our writing will be the limitations of their interaction, our depth of the city will lie not in distance, but in apprehension of what lies just 'behind the curtain'. For the deeper and further they get into the city, the more intricate they will find the plots, the rewards greater, the impact on the world stronger.

   Vanes made comment, at one point, about the setting: "Yep, perfect sandbox." While we reviewed how the scripts would work in this setting, the term "sandbox" truly applies. In fact, a slogan for the server was coined from it while in that conversation. "Calimport: Our sandbox is bigger than yours."

   We are working with scripts that have been fine tuned from World of Torr, created by DrDread and later taken up by Vanes and Raivo along with community members from that world in Neverwinter Nights. Those scripts have, since my departure some time ago, been revamped and in my opinion improved upon vastly.

   Now, those from Torr may notice more than a few of these functions in Calimport. In fact, they will be ever present, and it will give you a Torr feeling to the server. Which, I'm sure we can all agree is a major bonus to this project, and would be a driving factor for more than a few to delve into it. I will not go further into it at this time as I don't want to give many spoilers as to the changes in those scripts.

However, what you will see are the following:

• Improved NPC AI. Allowing for in depth conversation and a moving feel to the world.
• Law and Justice. A function that will be applied by faction for 8 different factions throughout the city. As the city progresses in size, it will also increase in content and diversity with this complex, in depth living system that will allow your character to be revered in some parts of the city, while a complete outlaw in others. Choose your roads carefully within the City of Glory, for all decisions you make will impact your experience in the world.
• Crafting & Trade. As in Torr, the secondary crafting system will be implemented. It will be a very integral part in our world as the very reason for Calimport existing is its trade and the ability to gain all items, moral or amoral within. This system will be tailored to the world as closely as we can find source material for it.
• Housing/Rental. We will be incorporating a system similar to Torr within the game, hopefully further improved by allowing players to craft furniture of various quality, sell it, and as a further bonus, actually move and rotate furniture to their desire as opposed to having set points. Now, with that said, we will have a cap on placeable items within the area. This is to keep the database from stressing too hard, and to give substantial worth to properties of larger size. The plan is to have chests already placed in, depending on size, that are immovable, but allow all other furniture to be placed.
• Dungeon Delves. Think "instances" when it comes to popular MMOs on the market. These particular dungeons will be set apart with multiple variations of the dungeon and able to house one party at a time. While the other versions may be open to other parties. This is to cut down the area camping by one particular party, and create a non-repetitive type spawn system for the dungeon. It creates an accomplishment by quest type of feel rather than a constant grinding aspect found in so many other servers.
• Achievement Rating. This will give store a value onto the server, as an "achievement". There will be various achievements throughout the world, and while this isn't XP based, it's definitely OC bragging rights. I'm working on this one currently to output the data to our website from the server, and as soon as Vanes and I get into it, we'll find out how to give the player (not just his/her character) bragging rights on the board. This will also log how long you've been on the server and record it onto the site.
• Social Systems. As with so many other servers currently running, we definitely do not want to rule out role-players. In fact, we want them more than any other type. Though we're not ruling out non-RPers. RP isn't for everyone. However, we want to give the role-players a little something extra, so without spoiling those systems, we'll definitely have a RP friendly bonus to those that wish to. Disclaimer: This does not mean experience bonus.

I'll be keeping you all up to date as we make progress with each new system, and releasing the general information as I get it.

Now, back to why Calimport works well with these systems, and how it came to be a chosen setting.

If you read the source books on the city itself, there are very few regions or cities that carry with it as much content as this city does. In one setting, we're able to weave action, romance, mystery, horror, and drama all into one tight knit package.

The areas are broken down into layers.

Top Layer: The Sabbans and "interior areas housed in it". (Outer Sabbans will be getting desert areas surrounding them.)

Middle Layers: Sewers & the Muzad (lower city comprised of many things, but not the typical "drow city").

Bottom Layers: The Underdark.

Now this isn't to say the entire world will be city, underground or desert. In fact, the opposite is quite true.

Calimport is a city of mystery and magic, cunning and surprise. Many the adventurer has been whisked away via portal to another time, or realm to the amusement of a powerful Vizar, or Djinn. So expect the unexpected.

That's my time on this for now. I'll write more when I can!

Here's a bit of eye candy on the Eraré Sabban walls and docks as of this moment. I can not stress that enough. I really dislike showing work before it's finished, but...I figure it'll only sting a little for me in this case. *grins*