Tuesday Updates

Why on Tuesday? Well...why not?

After very hard work, Vanes has managed to complete our store system and GUI.

I can state, without giving too much away, that players will be rewarded a small amount of experience for appraisal, and that the system will also penalize for poor appraisal. Word to the wise, don't press merchants unless you're sure you can purchase the goods for what you're asking for it.

When I state "what you're asking for it", I'm referring to the system of haggling. A time honored tradition amongst tradesman, and one that is more than appropriate for Calimport, being the central hub of trade within all of Abeir-Toril.

Haggling is a sliding scale of you, the player, being able to test your bargaining mettle against a merchant's own skills in it, by sliding up or down in % of cost the amount you wish to pay. The sliding scale drops the price down 0-15% of the item cost.

Example: The cost of a dagger is 60 gold with a merchant. The current rate he is offering it at is 120% normal cost. In other words, he is selling a dagger worth 50 gold, for 60 gold. You, the "price ninja" decide you can get it at a cheaper price, using your katana-like-tongue. You opt for a lowering of 10% from the price set by the merchant. Upon success, you walk away with the dagger for 55 gold, and a small amount of experience. Upon failure x amount of times...well, only the foolish press an already frustrated merchant. Often times the cry of a merchant is heard in the streets, "Off from my wares beggar!"

Also, we've introduced thievery with merchants. I'll let the picture do the talking.

Yes, there is a limit on how many times you can do this. Those sneaky builders, they're thinking of everything!

Raivo has been popping out interiors, his latest the Wraithshaven Inn. Again, I shall let the picture do the speaking.

Brinley, in coordination with the team is working on the lore for this establishment and its peculiar title. He's been busy quite a bit lately, but promises to begin writing soon.

I've been...well, I've been working on hak packs. I'm ensuring that the content added is not just what we as the builders need, but what you as the user do not need. Bloated downloads of unnecessary proportion will not be included in this module. I've also been working on the exterior for our first sabban, Erarè.

The Erarè sabban is, the basis for how all other sabban will be designed. Some features of our exterior sabbans include tight walkways, alleys, walls upon which the elite and well-to-do tread, and of course secret passages within those walls. Everything completed thus far is geared toward players being able to walk atop walls, rooftops, and buildings, while generating as many of these placeable objects as environmental objects. That's to cut down on the lag or load times. How is this being done you might ask? Trade secret. Just know that three dimensional play is going to be a major aspect in Calimport. You may find yourself a rogue, outrunning the guards, not in the street, but by rooftop...

Now, planned production is as follows:

1. Base hak packs completed and ready for insert.
2. NPC store system completed and ready for implementation.
3. Player run store system completed and ready for implementation.
4. Item creation, and visuals completed for crafted items.
5. Crafting system completed and ready for test.
6. Faction table completed and ready for test.
7. Erarè sabban and housed interiors completed and populated.
8. Quests implemented and ready for test.
9. Two levels of sewers below Erarè sabban completed and populated.
10. First dungeon delve (instance) inserted into Erarè sabban sewers.
11. Calimport Muzad (Erarè sabban section) and interiors completed and populated.
12. Calimport Muzad (Erarè sabban section) quests, and second dungeon delve added.
13. Calimport Underdark (first of x amount sections, still undecided) completed and populated.

Quite literally, we're about 1/3rd of the way into opening beta testing. So this team is flying, and it's quite amazing really how fast things are getting done. That list looks daunting at first, but as fast as this team moves, I'm thinking these will be done in no time.

Now, my last little update is some conceptual items that have come up.

First, we've been talking about a "lore system", one that makes lore useful besides allowing you to identify items, and application in conversation. The concept is, a player taking lore, will have stored pools of points for 24 hours. The amount is capped, by pool, per subject at the players lore level. So a wizard with 13 lore, would have a cap of 13 lore points, per subject. That pool would be gained by doing research on documents, identifying items, or simply in conversation. The amount of lore points earned depends on the difficulty of the subject matter being studied, or the item being identified, etc. 

These lore point pools (again, by subject) can be expended in dungeon delves, during ritual magic as bonuses using the culmination of all lore point pools, or in conversation as a means of greatly influencing the interaction by the revealing of a great secret (see our future post on the Dark Bazaar).

For dungeon delves, this means taking a wizard, bard, or any class really that has a high lore pool in a subject may open a secret door that may otherwise be sealed completely other than the means of speaking the proper phrase that has been lost in ancient times. (Note: These secret doors will change in lore pool types, as well as possibly location and usage per instance. Never rely solely on one subject of study.)

These pools may also allow a character to scribe more effectively. So keep your eyes open for more on this!

Lastly, a bit of concept for dungeon delves. Admittedly I'm a huge fan of MMOs. One of the great things I love about them are instances. I've never particularly liked others intruding on when I wanted to solo, or when I simply wanted to get away with my group and have a closed adventure. While some in the CRPG community may boo this as being unrealistic, or simply detaching characters from the broader world. To that end I say, it's a game, games are meant to be fun. RPGs are not just about the role-playing (though they should be plentiful in it), they are also games. Games need obstacles, goals, and achievements to be fun.
So with that in mind...Dungeon Delves...

These instances will be kept as random as possible. While the area layouts may be similar in nature, we're doing everything we can to randomize them, by spawning walls, and other obstacles to block paths. The algorithms for these will not be very complex, or create much load, but instead, they will create a system where the encounters are new and different, the path-ways are semi-different, and secrets are rarely ever the same. The bosses of these instances will be randomly named, and possibly set from a pool of up to 3 types per instance. Though, the types will not change, we'll try to give you a role-play feel, that once the inhabitants of the dungeon is dead, he is gone forever, into the void. Though, that allows for yet another inhabitant to take his place, at another time...

A particular dungeon delve can only be done by a character once every 2 hours real time to start, once we get more delves in, it may go upwards to 24 hours. Why so long you might ask? This is a role-play server. Besides if we end up with 50+ dungeon delves at various levels, each taking roughly an hour to complete at the level of the delve, 24 hours will be more than enough time. We'll have plenty else to do besides. Also note, this prevents the repetitive hack-n'-slash so many worlds have had to produce to keep players busy. No repetition here, just a pure drop into a dungeon where when something dies, it's dead and you move forward toward the boss.

Oh, and here's a nifty little map of Calimshan, where Calimport rests.

                                           (Thank you to Alaundo's Library for making public)

Leave your comments and suggestions below and I'll respond to them as soon as I can!

I leave you with many fair tidings, and farewell! We hope to see you soon. Goodnight!