I just started getting final Skills, Abilities and Specializations down for the two adventure classes (Mage and Warrior). These should be pretty fun classes. One of my goals is for you all to have a magic system in when we open here for the next testing session.
The quest system is going to be very nice. We’ll have a nice quest log and history log, showing you all the quests you completed and basic statistics such as how long it took you to complete, how many times you died, how many times you failed the quest, etc.
The quest editor is my next big task. Plischa and I will both start pounding on quests for Classes and for general questing.
These are more epic quests and are different for each class. Here is how it works… I’ll use Warriors as an example:
When you become a Warrior, you must visit the Warrior’s Hall in the capitol city. The Warrior Grandmaster will open the crypts of the Ancient Warrior Lords and send you down to find a particular Warrior Lord. Once you find his tomb you are to meditate at his side. A vision will appear before you and the Warrior Lord will issue you a quest. Before you can begin to advance as a warrior you must complete this quest. The quest reward will be a skill, equipment, etc. These things will change during testing a great deal. You’ll all help us decide what is best.
So now, you are running around killing things and advancing as a warrior. Once you hit level 5 you are notified that you must return to the Warriors Hall. You can no longer advance as a warrior until you perform another and more difficult Quest that will be given to you by a different Warrior Lord. And this continues every 5 levels. The quests will get more epic and often be chain quests with branches.
There are some interface changes going into the game. I’ve worked with Ethago to standardize some of the windows that popup and help bring a common and polished look. Slotted inventory is in and fully functional. Many changes were made to Ooz and the core engine to help us prevent ghosting problems of items as you have may seen in the past.
I have an option screen that allows for players to set a huge list of options. The big outstanding task for the option screen is the Keyboard Mapper.
Action bars are in the game and functional. Players will be able to create action bars, place them on the screen and even assign keys to the individual bar items. You can assign a key range to a bar such as F1-F8 or SHIFT-F1 to F8, etc. You’ll also be able to assign regular keys to items in the bar. Action Bars can hold items and usable skills/spells. You can make action bars vertical or horizontal.
I have some sad news and some great news. There actually two items of great news… Great News #1… Tarantula’s metal band The Zombi (http://www.zombideathmetal.com) has taken off quite well. We wish him the best of luck. He is a hell of a musician. That brings us to the bad news… It will be difficult for him to find time to compose music for EL and SW right now. At a point in the future he will have the time, sadly it is not right now.
So finally, Great News #2. I have a guy who is VERY talented working with us now on music for EL. His name is Andrew Sega, I worked with him at Origin and Digital Anvil. He has done some amazing things in the Demo Scene and composed music on games from companies such as Origin/Electronic Arts, Midway and on the PS2 and DS platforms. He has his own little game company if you all want to check out his games (http://www.diffusiongames.com/).
BTW, we currently have about 15 songs for the game. Some from Sega, some from Tarantula and a few I purchased from various music websites.
Plischa is working away at the map, building out the Zima Province. She has been spending a great deal of time in Europe collecting a ton of research material for the artists and design team. Ok, she is having fun too... Who wouldn't have fun in Europe... :D
Icleos has been giving us a ton of new artwork. We have some spell effects, a bunch of terrain bits, even a few monsters. He has also produced several new weapon and armor pieces.
I have written up a ton of details about the first two Provinces (Darnorlth and Zima). I have plotted out the points of interest, the towns, the quest and monster level ranges and of course the types monsters that will exist there. This is actually not as easy as it sounds. It takes a ton of work to make sure the game flows smoothly.
What we want to do is not lock players into areas, at the same time we want to guide them around the world so they are not instantly exposed to a vast world with no direction (Like that Dransik when I opened main land). Most provinces will have content for lower level players (1 – 15). However the general design for each province will be for higher level players as you move further away from Darnorlth. Also, so we don’t have ghost town areas or ghost provinces… Each province will also have mid and high level content. Again, designing this takes time.
We are trying to story drive all the points of interest. I don’t want the random area where FlimFlams spawn for no reason. An example is the Bloodsash Bandits in Darnorlth. They are actually part of a larger organization, The Bloodsash Brotherhood. These pirates and rogues are dotted all throughout Sedok. They have a history and an agenda. In Darnorlth players around level 6-8 will receive quests to deal with the bandits. And at a later time, a higher level (Some mid-ranged) other quests will appear to go deep into their domain and lairs, finding the upper leaders of the Bandits. Eventually this will lead to chains of quests which will end in the players battling the top members of the Brotherhood.
We are trying to make less generic creatures and instead make creatures more specific to the area… So if you fight spiders in Darnorlth, they won’t be the same as the ones you may fight in Anagardon (province in Asper). They’ll have different names, appearance and loot. Not better, just different. There is much more on this front.
Posted by Lothgar
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