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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2016 11:33:47 GMT
This is just to outline the major update to Toldara City, and keep myself efficient, by referring to. Please feel free to comment on any issue I bring up here, so we can have a consensus with major developments before being added.
Phase 1: Room Titles - Mapping out the logistics of where and what everything is in the city.
Phase 2: NPCs - Expansion on generic types, filling of named NPCs. Also, faction review and minor expansion.
Phase 3: Item Expansion
Phase 4: Quest tree review and expansion mapping.
Phase 5: New character / tutorial review and redesign.
Phase 6: Quest and script integration.
Overview: To make Toldara be the "good" city, but have its own manner of corruption / strife within the population; this is planned to be focusing on how the society switched from kingdom (monarchy / serfdom) to a representative (capitalistic / trade) system of government, and cultural revolution in the sun-drenched haze of the past centuries. Just enough story to make an interesting and rewarding content exploration, without needing to add reams of content for players to read through.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2016 11:38:47 GMT
Should the SW building be the previously planned library, or perhaps a fortress or massive lighthouse? It could be either of these things, and be just as useful to build content off of. It could even have been one and then converted to the other. Such as, a lighthouse temple that was turned into a library -- all those books and scrolls and all that fire -- disaster is sure to occur!
But, this coastal city would be terribly weak without any defense, and Toldara is not a city I feel should have a pirate presence. If the SW building is a lighthouse and fort with early cannon technology, it would make me feel proud and secure to be a resident of the city. But, if it is just a library,, then maybe Toldara has really awesome battleships that keep pirates away -- however, then I want to see some damn boats!
Reply, and help me decide, please.
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Post by Afara on Jun 29, 2016 19:25:35 GMT
I trust in your instinct Zaimus, though I really want a library somewhere. In the long run I want it to be filled with books (actually just short texts) that contains riddles, hints to how to solve difficult quests and new quests etc. Image lots of cryptically text messages that makes no sense until you meet the right NPC out in the wild and suddenly you understand something important and find something hidden. HAHA, I love those kinds of stuff and I think a library would be perfect for this.
Though where the library is I leave up to you. The city could be defended either way, or via some magic that someone or something is keeping up.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2016 8:30:40 GMT
What are all of the factions related to Toldara?
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Post by Afara on Jul 11, 2016 7:58:57 GMT
Good question: "Citizens of Toldara", "Warriors of Toldara", "Dominators of Toldara", "Wizards of Toldara" and "Templars of Toldara"
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Post by doulos on Jul 14, 2016 21:08:39 GMT
Do we have a master list of factions anywhere?
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Post by Afara on Jul 17, 2016 15:13:20 GMT
There are core factions, I should probably make them more public available. Putting it on top of my list, will probably be a command or similar.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2016 21:39:22 GMT
I'm wondering if we can remove the "of Toldara" to the factions of guilds, since it will never be the case that there is a second guild of the same name in Bargof, (No Dominators of Bargof). There could be -->a<-- case in which a guild moves in/out of a city as part of some big event, but guilds will more or less be their own entities and work with a city, but also give them a chance to go against a city to some extent. (These would be great fodder for GM led events and give future reasons for refreshing content.)
"Citizens of Toldara", "Warriors of Toldara", "Dominators of Toldara", "Wizards of Toldara" and "Templars of Toldara"
If it's OK, then replacing "of Toldara" with "Guild" would look good. And it could look good to add an apostrophe: "Warriors' Guild"
If "of Toldara" is critical for some reason, then can we just add in Guild: "Warriors' Guild of Toldara"?
This will make it look a little more organized to a user perhaps, when they see their faction list, they would be able to more intuitively understand the different spheres of factions they are related to. There ought to be a distinction between the factions you have high standing in (you are actually part of (joined)) and those which you may not even acknowledge their existence but which are your mortal enemy; for example if you keep killing Raven Scouts of bargof, they all start to know of and hate you.
There are a couple more factions for Toldara that could be cool spheres for player's to interact with:
"Temple of Lunamyr" which will be the official religion of the city of Toldara. (The crazies and the devil worshipers often follow Lavos.)
"Temple of Lavos" maybe not necessary, but would be the logical rival for the Temple of Lunamyr.
"Nobility of Toldara" these were the lords of Toldara and the area from the previous kingdoms, they used to have power, but now must resort to buying their power, and scheme to take over the merchants and restore the king to power. This sort of power struggle will be good fuel for inner-city politics and roleplaying.
"Merchants of Toldara" maybe not necessary, but would be someone's standing within a league of merchants which make up the investors and masters of the city council and bribe the mayor.
"Toldara City Guards" maybe not necessary, but would be someone's standing with the city guard and the justice system of the city. This could create situations where someone is loved by the city, but is targeted by the city authorities (like Robin Hood.)
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Post by Afara on Aug 3, 2016 18:13:33 GMT
The idea with "of Toldara" is that the faction should be distinguished from the faction of the corresponding type in other cities. If the "Dominators of Toldara" would be "Dominators Guild" it would be hard to know if that is the same factions as for the dominators guild in Bargof (which doesn't even have a pure Dominators guild but that may not the player know). Also if we add cities and would like to add class specific factions they would need to have a different name.
I don't really mind replacing "of Toldara" but I think we need to replace it with something more unique than just "guild".
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2016 18:50:26 GMT
OK, so it sounds like that is a remnant of the first guild system where the 'guild' was basically just the faction, npc and building assigned to a character based on class and starting city.
As long as we are going on with an open guild system where guild names may be other than the name of a corresponding class, there would be no excuse for overlapping guild names other than lack of inspiration of a better name, would there not? [Since guilds would be staff led, we could always have guilds be more-or-less autonomous entities within the cities they are related to; perhaps guilds could fall in and out of favor with the city, and perhaps have branches in other cities, (the Thieves Guild or Pirates Guild would make sense to operate in this way).]
To my understanding guilds are established skill / art / trades groups connected by their own code and methods of operation, to work together to meet their own particular goals. They are professional organizations but have their own organizational structures; 'guild' should be acceptable in the name, but other synonyms to reflect particular styles of order could be used as long as they retain the skilled tradesmen / professionally allied feeling in nature. (Not a Clan and Not a Temple!)
Guild, Collective, Order, Allegiance, Legion, Traders, Circle, Council, Group, Club, Company, Union, Society, Organization, Lodge, League, Federation. We already have a Bargof faction known as "Raven Scouts", so the open naming conventions are already in practice.
[With the increased interaction with the game world via NPCs and room objects, players should be able to learn enough knowledge about the different guilds by passing through the first several levels of the game. [May want to slow down leveling just a little for the first 5 levels or so?]]
If the above names are alright, we can make some really cool factions/guilds for Toldara!
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Post by Afara on Aug 3, 2016 19:06:35 GMT
Sure sounds good. But the class specific guilds in Toldara should mostly be class specific and have a name that one could understand which class it is related to. Others may try to "join" the guild as well by increasing their faction standing with the guild, but there may be very little to gain from it (getting access to class specific quests/gear etc for another class would probably not be super useful)
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2016 20:11:07 GMT
If the above word list is acceptable I would like to propose the factions of Toldara to change to the following: Common to all Toldarans: "Citizens of Toldara" "Nobility of Toldara" "Toldara City Guard" "Merchants of Toldara" Skilled Trades Groups / Guilds (Toldarans may belong to one of these groups, mutually exclusive): "Warrior Legion of Toldara" "East Dominators' Society" (or something like the "Hellfire Club") "Tri-Wizards' Union" "Templars' Guild of Toldara" Toldarans may also become associated with or against the "Temple of Lunamyr" for an added dynamic to the society. I'm wondering if we can remove the "of Toldara" to the factions of guilds, since it will never be the case that there is a second guild of the same name in Bargof, (No Dominators of Bargof). There could be -->a<-- case in which a guild moves in/out of a city as part of some big event, but guilds will more or less be their own entities and work with a city, but also give them a chance to go against a city to some extent. (These would be great fodder for GM led events and give future reasons for refreshing content.) "Citizens of Toldara", "Warriors of Toldara", "Dominators of Toldara", "Wizards of Toldara" and "Templars of Toldara" If it's OK, then replacing "of Toldara" with "Guild" would look good. And it could look good to add an apostrophe: "Warriors' Guild" If "of Toldara" is critical for some reason, then can we just add in Guild: "Warriors' Guild of Toldara"? This will make it look a little more organized to a user perhaps, when they see their faction list, they would be able to more intuitively understand the different spheres of factions they are related to. There ought to be a distinction between the factions you have high standing in (you are actually part of (joined)) and those which you may not even acknowledge their existence but which are your mortal enemy; for example if you keep killing Raven Scouts of bargof, they all start to know of and hate you. There are a couple more factions for Toldara that could be cool spheres for player's to interact with: "Temple of Lunamyr" which will be the official religion of the city of Toldara. (The crazies and the devil worshipers often follow Lavos.) "Temple of Lavos" maybe not necessary, but would be the logical rival for the Temple of Lunamyr. "Nobility of Toldara" these were the lords of Toldara and the area from the previous kingdoms, they used to have power, but now must resort to buying their power, and scheme to take over the merchants and restore the king to power. This sort of power struggle will be good fuel for inner-city politics and roleplaying. "Merchants of Toldara" maybe not necessary, but would be someone's standing within a league of merchants which make up the investors and masters of the city council and bribe the mayor. "Toldara City Guards" maybe not necessary, but would be someone's standing with the city guard and the justice system of the city. This could create situations where someone is loved by the city, but is targeted by the city authorities (like Robin Hood.)
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2016 20:19:21 GMT
Sure sounds good. But the class specific guilds in Toldara should mostly be class specific and have a name that one could understand which class it is related to. Others may try to "join" the guild as well by increasing their faction standing with the guild, but there may be very little to gain from it (getting access to class specific quests/gear etc for another class would probably not be super useful) Agreed. Some players will undoubtedly attempt to make their own custom combination "a sorcerer in the warrior legion" for example. One way to evolve the system further could be to make some ability chains or the abilities themselves "purchased" or learned from your 'guild' (or whatever your trades group is called), and lead to really diverse character types from hardcore players. In the meantime, I will make a system similar to Bargof's in regards to joining a 'guild', with some exclusivity -- making it near impossible to join more than one - (keeps players from able to get through too much content on just one character.). By commercial launch the system will be expanded to allow for automated ways to join/leave a 'guild' etc., even leaving the city by your own will or exile. Look forward to a real city and responsive systems to your character's actions.
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Post by Afara on Aug 3, 2016 20:26:35 GMT
If the only way to join a guild is to increase your faction with it, how do you leave a guild?
Do you want a new feature technical feature to handle guilds in addition to factions?
I'm not sure how to go about it. It would be nice to use tried techniques and don't spend too much time implementing new stuff that we are not sure "are going to fly".
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2016 20:47:00 GMT
If we look at the Bargof system as a success, then it would seem that upgrading the Toldara 'guilds' to having their own type of initiation or ritual for exclusive membership to the trades group would not only fly, but soar.
Sure, one may be able to gain approval with a guild, but if they don't got the secret code ring, they can't decipher the hidden messages, or if they don't got the hall's key, they can't get into the guild's buildings. Access to exclusive content at the moment is the main drive for being part of a guild. The exclusivity of access to the content is probably the main proponent to having that access being meaningful and exciting -- something worth playing the game for.
Any future systems which can increase guild interaction as a collective group for our community will be welcome -- guild bank, tithing, guild channel, guild experience pool, maybe even guild levels that assign a rank at various level achievements? Anything we do that can allow guilds to compete will add layers of interactive gameplay. But should only become priority when we need to shake up the player base to encourage more playing. It would be easy to imagine the rivalries that may arise between guilds even within the same city.
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