Against my better judgement, I am posting this. I say against my better judgement, because the forums seem to be full of people lately that want to do nothing but start controversies.
I haad an idea for a zone and wanted to throw it out there to see what people thoought or what ideas could be had for it. Keep in mind that it's very rudimentary, on purpose, and has only some basic stuff in it.
Zone Name
Village of Aluura
Zone Type
Overland, Non-Persistent, Procedurally Triggered
Zone Level
20 – 30
Zone “Theme”
Undead
When the Zealots of Rha were imprisoned, some in the village of Aluura, including the village leaders, turned to the dark arts in an effort to free them. They failed utterly and there was a catastrophe magical backlash upon the village. This subsequent backlash unleashed an evil curse and this place became a home of the living dead; cursed to live out eternity here.
This zone would be one that is procedurally accessed. Rather than anyone being able to walk into it any time, it would be one that the entrance to only shows up on the New Moon (no moon in the sky) of every month. At that time, a glowing entrance opens up and the group(s) may enter and leave at will. When the “time was up” on the trigger, the zone entrance would disappear. If there are groups in the zone when the entrance disappears, they will have to battle their way through the zone to get to the exit portal (through a mirror in the village leader’s mansion). If the group wipes while they are in the zone, and the zone entrance is closed, their corpses would “spawn” on the ground where the entrance would normally be so that they do not lose them when the zone entrance. If a player dies and it is not a group wipe, the player will spawn on the bridge where they entered and their corpse will remain where they died. It is important to note that despite being difficult to access, this zone is NOT an instanced zone. In the event that a group was able to stay in until the next New Moon, they would be able to see people enter, and even exit the zone themselves.
Over-all the zone would be laid out like any other “well to do” medium sized village, with multi-story buildings in various states of disrepair and decay. You’d have to cross a bridge to get to the village as it is surrounded by a “moat-like” body of blood red liquid (perhaps acidic to cause damage if entered?). The ground would be covered by a knee-high layer of mist/fog (slight glow?) and over-all the air and atmosphere would have a light mist. The zone would be in a perpetual night state with a partly-cloudy sky. Over-all it would be a gloomy “depressed” environment. There would be many buildings, like you’d expect to find in a medium sized building, but a few of the buildings and areas would be more notable than most.
The inhabitants of the zone would all be forms of undead (Wraiths, zombies, ghouls, et al. (no skeletons, lycanthropes, or similar)). The idea is that the villagers still inhabit the town and were cursed to an unending undead life. The village area and content should be sufficiently large to “serve” four to six groups.
The more notable and interesting points in the village are outlined in this section with a list of, possibly, some things gained from them. These areas are in no particular order because I would leave the layout of the village up to you.
In the village grave yard would be Perception clue on how to find the secret door to the magic was performed. There would be rows of headstones. The ground would be covered in mist with the head stones sitting up through the mist.
In the village square, there would be a “memorial” marker that gives the lore of the area prior to the catastrophe with a crudely written “update” of what happened to cause the current village state.
The Loose Goose Tavern; taverns are typically the social gathering spot for everyone, this one being no exception. The Loose Goose would be one of the larger multi-story buildings in the village, to include sleeping and meeting accommodations on the second floor. The first floor would be the main floor of the tavern with a couple of extra private banquet rooms. This tavern could contain lots of “free” food and drink provisions, but don’t partake of them as they are cursed and will inflict curses and diseases on your party.
The village church, being a holy place, escaped the worst of the curse. This is a place of respite where your party (parties) can rest up and gather themselves for more battles. No roaming mobs would come into this area. Perhaps there could be a little “speed enhancement” to medding up being in here. In the Vicar’s living quarters of the church, there would be more information on where to find the secret entrance to the magic room in the village leader’s house as the Vicar was trying to discover, and stop, the people from attempting to free the Zealots. In here is where you would find the item (no-rent ‘holy water’) that could be used, but is not required, to help defeat the village leader and his minions quicker. Clerics and Paladins, upon searching the Vicar’s quarters, providing that they find it, would get a new vs undead spell.
The main zone “focus” area would be village leader’s mansion. This is where the dark magic took place that caused the backlash and is the means to escape once the zone entrance has closed. The mansion itself would be a multi-story large mixed use building. In addition to being the home for the village leader, it would also be the center for village government official business. The magic that was performed which caused the subsequent backlash, and the exit from the zone are in the basement that is only accessible through a secret entrance in the side of one of the staircases heading up to the second floor from the first. The zone leader and his wife, plus their “minions” would be located in the basement. There could be progressively higher level mobs as you go up in the village leader’s mansion in an effort to “trick” the players into thinking that the exit is somewhere at the top of the mansion, rather than in the (hidden) basement. Maybe put Perception clues around the village as to where the secret entrance is. Wizards, upon searching the mansion, providing they find it, would find a new spell.
Heal Mitigation – Heals would be 10% less effective and 10% more prone to fizzles due to the cursed nature of this zone.
vs. Undead Spells - .vs Undead spells would be 5% less effective and 10% more prone to fizzles due to the cursed nature of this zone.
Fear Spells – Fear spells would be 10% more effective due to the cursed nature of this zone.
Perception – Perception skill would be 5% more effective due to the players’ heightened senses in this zone.
Teleport/Translocate – You cannot teleport or translocate into or out of this zone. Evac spells are likewise affected.
Interesting....
Just a few thoughts.
We need name lo locations. The tavern have head bartender? Of course a cook? Graveyard would have grounds keeper... ect.
Why would the village leader leave holy water and spells to defeat him in the church? Haha. He would have cleaned that place out long ago.
Lastly, why you got to call his grandkids in the basement his minions. Haha.
Sounds like a fun place, could make all kinds of neat camps, and adventures there.
SoWplz said:Interesting....
Just a few thoughts.
We need name lo locations. The tavern have head bartender? Of course a cook? Graveyard would have grounds keeper... ect.
Why would the village leader leave holy water and spells to defeat him in the church? Haha. He would have cleaned that place out long ago.
Lastly, why you got to call his grandkids in the basement his minions. Haha.
Sounds like a fun place, could make all kinds of neat camps, and adventures there.
Yeah. The point wasn't for me to do "mob placement" as much as to give a general idea of the zone and let others "flesh it out"....hehehe
The village leaader might be trapped and unable to leave the basement when there spell was performed. Maybe he's "bound" to the basement.
Great questions though.
Can you fish in the moat? and if so what sort of fish are in there?
Is the Holy water a throwing item? that needs a throwing skill to use? or will it be a clicky item with X charges? (where you have to get more from the church or stock up). How would you get it? would you have ot dig fresh graves for the church to get holy water? or exhume old graves and subdue the lower level ghosts down to 20pct health to escort them to church graves to get holy water from the vicar.
Will the graveyards have clues in the epitaphs to recipes or items to counter the effects of the tavern food as well as in the outside world? " Here lies johnny blut, ate the root but not the nuts" or "here lies the body of thomas kemp, who lived by wool, and died by hemp"
Would there be factions between the different types? like wraiths, zombies, ghouls? Wraiths would have a deeper storyline as I see them as being tormented by something, zombies may have no bone to pick so-to-speak but are pretty much mindless, where ghouls would have some hunger that needs constant sating.
I like the idea of a gated zone,but I am thinking if the portal shuts, each player is either stuck there until the next full moon, regardless of being in a group, or can die and be exited form the zone, so if only one member of the group dies, they cant get back in but the others can stay or - port out? I think it could work if you were limited in entry but could leave through death or ports. it would encourage those who really wanted to do a nice long dungeon crawl to dedicate soome time to getting in there, and staying in there to make it to the proper exit or subduing the leader.
I like the idea of the bureaucrats in the upper levels and the real sinister elements in the lower levels.
Manouk said: ... I like the idea of a gated zone,but I am thinking if the portal shuts, each player is either stuck there until the next full moon, regardless of being in a group, or can die and be exited form the zone, so if only one member of the group dies, they cant get back in but the others can stay or - port out? I think it could work if you were limited in entry but could leave through death or ports. it would encourage those who really wanted to do a nice long dungeon crawl to dedicate soome time to getting in there, and staying in there to make it to the proper exit or subduing the leader. ...
I've always been a fan of pocket dimensions or personal universes, or whatever other term DnD or FG uses. I'm thinking the once every 30 days entrance idea is cool and all, yet additionally, being able to perform a task or quest, outside that window, to gain entrance, would also have some value, especially if it was a very costly item/time/effort sink.
As far as zones like this, using the existing Unity scripts for procedurally generating dungeons or areas to create bottomless dungeons, or endless dungeons, etc as in other games, would be a pretty fun addition to Pantheon. How you combined the key components would be the seed value to determine what you got, and so, would be limited, shareable, reproduceable, and in the open world. Having NPCs in the world, or perception quests to provide combinations for particularly amazing pocket dimensions would be quite valuable, I think.
vs. Undead Spells - .vs Undead spells would be 5% less effective and 10% more prone to fizzles due to the cursed nature of this zone.
Fear Spells – Fear spells would be 10% more effective due to the cursed nature of this zone.
These two seem a bit odd to me.
The first because it kind of neuters a key benefit of Paladin/Cleric when fighting undead is probably already somewhat of a limited thing in the world, if it is like any other MMO.
The second because I imagine undead mobs as being immune to fear spells (save for Turn Undead). Unless you mean mob cast fear spells are more effective?
Iksar said:vs. Undead Spells - .vs Undead spells would be 5% less effective and 10% more prone to fizzles due to the cursed nature of this zone.
Fear Spells – Fear spells would be 10% more effective due to the cursed nature of this zone.
These two seem a bit odd to me.
The first because it kind of neuters a key benefit of Paladin/Cleric when fighting undead is probably already somewhat of a limited thing in the world, if it is like any other MMO.
The second because I imagine undead mobs as being immune to fear spells (save for Turn Undead). Unless you mean mob cast fear spells are more effective?
To answer your first... This is because the area is cursed and undead "as a whole", so that renders spells vs. Undead weaker. Think of it sort of like what they talked about where some types of weapons were less effective based on body types.... Only in this case, the spell is less effective due to "zone type".
To answer your second... Yes, mob fear spells afe more effective for the same reason.
vjek said:Manouk said: ... I like the idea of a gated zone,but I am thinking if the portal shuts, each player is either stuck there until the next full moon, regardless of being in a group, or can die and be exited form the zone, so if only one member of the group dies, they cant get back in but the others can stay or - port out? I think it could work if you were limited in entry but could leave through death or ports. it would encourage those who really wanted to do a nice long dungeon crawl to dedicate soome time to getting in there, and staying in there to make it to the proper exit or subduing the leader. ...I've always been a fan of pocket dimensions or personal universes, or whatever other term DnD or FG uses. I'm thinking the once every 30 days entrance idea is cool and all, yet additionally, being able to perform a task or quest, outside that window, to gain entrance, would also have some value, especially if it was a very costly item/time/effort sink.
As far as zones like this, using the existing Unity scripts for procedurally generating dungeons or areas to create bottomless dungeons, or endless dungeons, etc as in other games, would be a pretty fun addition to Pantheon. How you combined the key components would be the seed value to determine what you got, and so, would be limited, shareable, reproduceable, and in the open world. Having NPCs in the world, or perception quests to provide combinations for particularly amazing pocket dimensions would be quite valuable, I think.
I kinda like the trap aspect of it, too. If a group goes in and one of the members starts losing health fast the fight dynamic changes as all will be changing their fight style to keep the one from dieing and to prevent the one from leaving the zone because of their death untill the next full moon while the others remain in the zone- trapped untill the next full moon.
Unless they port out and join their buddy in the "real" world and wait for the next full moon to go back in- no reagent trigger except for the full moon. (sort of like old mischief and working through VP to get to mischief). OR make it so that once the full moon wanes/waxes(?) and the portal to the "real" world starts to close ever so slowly or so it seems at first, if one member dies once the portals vanish they respawn in the zone- but cannot leave. No one can leave untill the next full moon.
I doubt there will be enough content for a month which is why I like the one-way nature of the trap. You can get in, but getting out has consequences. Either by going out properly via the portal in the basement by the boss and the bossette? or by defeat?.