Fallen Age Info Digest: March 25, 2001 - March 31, 2001
The following list of statements are the highlights of issues discussed on
the forums over at 'The
Official Site' over the past week by Savant and Drysart. There are also
some comments included from
The chat with Savant and
The first FAHOC
Drysart: No, there will not be any NDA attached to our beta. We want people to
talk about our game, post their own screenshots, and generally get other
people interested in it
Drysart: At the moment, the plan for beta [distribution] is CDs for US/Canada,
and a download for overseas. (Shipping CDs overseas is expensive, but we
don't want to totally ignore overseas testers.)
Savant: First phase of Beta starts April 21, 2001
Savant: There will be 500 testers in the first wave, then 500 more added
each week, barring any problems that may pop up.
Roleplaying
Drysart: We'll have some general guidelines in place as far as what is acceptable
RP. For example, talking about yesterday's XFL game isn't roleplaying,
no matter how many times you say it is, and you don't necessarily have to
speaketh liketh thiseth to RP effectively.
Savant: Each character gets a "Profile" when you identify them. Their
profile reveals their class, their rank in that class (not level), if they're
married, their Guild association... You won't be able to see stats or levels
Savant: We're also pondering the idea of letting our special SPC's (staff
played characters) give out special titles in front of your name for all to see
based on what dynamic quest/RP plot you were involved in, or what reputation you
had
Savant: The quality RolePlayers, the ones who do it well, will have an impact on
plots, and will be able to play the hero, or villian. Show our special Merchants
or SPC monsters that you play your role well... and the next time around, you
might find that it's your ear the shadows are whispering in for help. Or it's
you that's been kidnapped that the rest of the server needs to rescue.
Savant: The emperor (which is determined through Colonization mode) gets a
shop filled with NPCs, gets tithe from all his conquered colonies, and of
course bragging rights ;).
Drysart: Yes, they get a special shop in game they can use, we'll have a list
of the current emperors on the website, and we've tossed around the idea of
giving the emperor a special title on his character in game
Interface
Drysart: We're tweaking around the look of the character creation process at the
moment, but I'll see if I can get some samples of the character faces we
have so far up for viewing on Monday (3/26/2001)
Savant: Communication between players in game will consist of the following:
<Enter>what you want to say<Enter> - normal talking
<F9>what you want to say<Enter> - shouting
!playername what you want to say<Enter> - send a private message to playername
@what you want to say<Enter> - send message to group
#what you want to say<Enter> - send message to guild
Savant: There are six base face types, and you'll be able to tweak some
aspects of the appearance, hair, skin tone, etc. The extent of what you'll be
able to tweak hasn't yet been finalized.
Combat
Drysart: In response to "will I find myself camping a certain stock item, gem, or
cube off a certain monster or type of monster", Drops are randomized over
creatures of a given difficulty level.
Savant: A Deathmatch System is in place allowing for 6 on 6 duels. You can
even bet money on duels, and they may occur anywhere, including jail
Equipment
Drysart: I'm not entirely certain on the exact number of different types of stock
weapons, but it was quite sizeable. There's many different types and
styles of swords and daggers. I believe all items have the same number of
gem slots. At this point anyway, that may change.
Drysart: [Use of gems will have] no change in appearance currently, but definately
[some sort of elemental effect] and [statistics adjustment]
Drysart: The gems are varied enough that, depending on your class, fighting style
and tactics, you'll choose a configuration that suits YOU.
Savant: In response to "will there be 2 handed weapons?" - You bet we'll have two
handed weapons and dual-weilding. Where's the fun if you can't carry a huge axe or
sword -- or if you can't slash with a scimitar in one hand, and a divine mark
(ooooh cryptic item!) or dagger in the other!
Housing
Drysart: We do have UO-Style housing, in addition to the Colonization mode. It's
not as simple as buying a house deed though, there are some requirements
your character has to meet first, mainly to prevent urban sprawl.
Savant: To get a house, your character must be 20 years old, and married.
If you get a divorce, the house is repossessed.
Savant: Houses will cost a fortune to prevent urban sprawl, and there will
be a monthly "due" (like a tax), or it will be repossessed.
Savant: There will be 6 types of houses.
Savant: You may only have one house at a given time.
Savant: Houses are placed by players in designated zones.
Savant: Housing isn't for storage. Housing is simply in the game as a
Roleplay incentive. You build your own warehouse and bank for storage and
banking... A house is simply a roleplaying tool, and something to decorate
and have "fun" with.
Volunteers
Drysart: We've decided that all of our customer support will be in-house,
non-volunteer. It was a tough decision to make, especially since a good
volunteer program can add a lot to the gaming experience (I was involved
in the volunteer program for another online game myself, actually), but
there are two main reasons we decided the way we did: Legal, and
Consistancy. Having everyone in-house makes it a lot easier to have
uniform policies and to make sure they're understood by the CS staff.
It also means that you'll be talking to someone who actually CAN help
you, as opposed to a volunteer who would have to pass some situations
to a full GM.
NPCs
Savant: NPC's can tell what you're carrying on you or what monster's
you've killed
Savant: Some NPCs will talk, with real voice.
Colonies
Savant: Performing actions to your colony use "turns". You kill a
few monsters, run around a little, do a little shopping -- wow, you
suddenly got a couple extra turns
Drysart: Colony PvP is Realtime.
Drysart: It's similar to... Command and Conquer... Total Annihilation...
Warcraft... that type of combat.
Drysart: There's a monolith you click in Adventure mode to get to Colony
mode, and switching back is just as easy as clicking Exit in Colony mode.
Drysart: Right now you choose your plot of land, but we're discussing some
potential changes to how your location and your neighbors work.
Servers
Savant: As it stands at the moment, all game servers will be located
in a central location.
3rd Party Developers
Savant: Developers interested in developing game add-ons can contact
me
The Map
Savant: The map is made up of several zones, each 512x512 tiles
Savant: There are 5 continents in the world, 1 or 2 of which will be
open for beta.
Savant: Presently, you cannot pick which town you want to start in.
Savant: There are multiple level dungeons, but no upstairs/downstairs.
Married with Children
Savant: You can get married, buy a house at 20 years of age, and adopt
PC children.
Savant: You cannot adopt without marriage, and no same-sex marriages.
Savant: If you're a family (husband, wife, child) and you hunt together
as a group... you get an EXP bonus.
Savant: Marriage and adoption are handled through code. You can rent a
church and get married.
Savant: If you get divorced, you lose the house, and adopted children
are no longer considered adopted. There are three options
for divorce:
If one of the couple doesn't log on for 3 months, you
can get a divorce for no charge.
You can get a divorce via mechanics for
a fee.
Or you can kill your spouse 3 times non-consentually -- but that
costs you half the money in your bank (which goes to your spouse, and yes
you do go to jail on this)
Savant: You can wear tuxedos and wedding dresses.
PKing
Drysart: You can't PvP until you reach level 30, which means anyone that
wants to PvP will have to invest time in their character.
Drysart: Second, you have a kill count. When you reach three kills, the
next time you die you take a series of punishments: You lose all your unspent
EXP (EXP is used to increase skills), you get sent to jail for 30 minutes of
in-game time...
Drysart: You also have to perform a quest in jail (which has no other
benefits) before you can be released. You lose honor points. Low honor points
mean your colony has a greater chance of falling victim to a natural disaster.
Drysart: You also don't get to see the level of your opponent when you
have a kill count of three.
Drysart: The kill count is dropped back to zero when you get out of jail,
but for someone that wants to grief PVP on a regular basis, those 30 minute
periods add up quickly.
Questing
Drysart: Basically, the quest system is different for each class, and each
quest has multiple solutions, there are randomized components in each step of
each quest, so each time the quest is run, it's a little different. That will
deter spoilers from being able to outline "Do this, then do this, then do this",
because each time the quest is run, you'll get a different grab bag of what each
"this" is.
Nations (Guilds)
Drysart: There are guildwars, we have a cool capture-the-flag game based
around guild conflict, actually.
Drysart: The way CTF works: Your guild has a flag (which you can design!),
and every member of your guild drops one when they are killed in guildwar.
Drysart: The members of the opposing guild take the flags back to their
base and add them to a display case. We keep counts of how many flags each
guild has, and there are rewards for being the top guild.