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#285 - 12/03/07 09:03 PM Area ideas - For ideas! No comments on posts!
Cerberus Administrator Offline
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So maybe we should have new areas. Or at the very least, it might be useful for new wizards to have a heavy stock of ideas to pull from if they decide to program an area. To recap, this was the first area idea posted under the "Day-to-day, we're okay, but where are the events?" thread:
 Originally Posted By: Harold
Goal:
The unused troll area, if I recall, is 10 rooms long and contains between level 4 and 12 trolls, none of which fit current race schemes. A recode is in order!

Premise:
A solid society composed entirely rock-trolls is trapped deep in a cave, a massive lake being fed by an underground waterfall surrounds their "city" completely save for a single shaft that runs a long way before finally reaching the surface. At the top of the shaft is a deep, tangled jungle holding a coterie of forest-trolls with a single embattled, ancient seraph as surgeon-general. So entrenched and remote are these two warring factions that they have never had word reach them of the end of the Great War.

Iconic Encounters:
Light side...
1) Surgeon-General Seraph with elite band of Forest-Troll Nurse-Guards.
b) Three to five forest-troll commanders as heads of individual guard patrols, raiding bands, scouting parties, and/or rescue squads, engineers.
3) Forest-troll child ghost in hidden cave-in area
Dark Side...
1) Chained Demon Lord
b) Rock-troll Warrior-King (pre-Chaotic-Lord variant)
3) Warrens mother
4) Water faerie

Ideas:
The Great War is ancient history, so something has to have kept this tiny battle running for so long. Apart from seclusion, the seraph surgeon-general should have (as all seraphs do) immortal longevity and be able to resurrect the fallen. This could be accomplished by forest-troll hospitaleers pulling dead bodies of allies out of the shaft and back to the deep forest where they could be returned to life (on some delay, obviously). Similarly, their foes should be able to keep in the fight somehow, but in the case of evil it could be that the Rock-troll warrens mother is exceptionally fertile, or that an imprisoned demon lord keeps the souls of the dead recycling through new bodies.

The waters surrounding the underground city should have some magical properties too, perhaps repairing damaged weapons to former glory (an allusion toward another way of bringing the dead back, though it would be completely unused by rank-and-file warriors, a warren mother or the warrior-king himself could do the "dirty" work of going near the water). The whole city is probably completely agressive, in all likelihood.
I'll be using the same layout for this one. In light of this, let's get to the idea.

Goal: The enchanter guild is both irreplacable and integral to the mud as a whole. They have very undercelebrated spells in the fashion <golem> spells. This area is designed both as an origin for those spells, and an expansion of the use of enchanter runes. It's intended to be a low/mid level area that can support a single high-level player hunting it at a time. This is an extremely programming intensive area, requiring bot-level NPCs and planned routes of travel for different eventualities.

Premise: A massive city of clockwork golems run by the first dragon engine ever assembled. The city is suspended above an impossibly deep, incredibly wide, strip mine by four ornately arched boernerine struts. The city as seen from afar is an awe-inspiring bundle of ever-building spires, reaching earnestly toward the sky. Its fluted towers glint brilliantly in the light, being entirely made of locally mined ore. Nothing in the place is organic or even non-metal - water is unknown, as the powerful magics of the sentient dragon-engine ruler keep even the rains at bay. The average denizen of Ekem is a clockwork golem, splitting its time between work in the mine and building in the city. The city itself is enormous in proportion, but perpetually unfinished - every building is a thin needle made of a single mineral, reaching higher and higher. Straight lines pervade everything, and although spires tend to end abruptly with rooms unfinished as ingots of the spire's type become less available, the rooms are always habitable.

Iconic Encounters:
  • Pel-Mel: Magnus Officialis. Greets everyone to enter the city via a phasic transport rune in his chamber. Resides in the Mcgrail tower, offers to show new visitors around and speaks constantly, allowing players to use keywords to prompt him for more specific information.
  • Kel-Brussel: Prime Engineer.
  • Mahr Kathos: Sentient Dragon Engine. Only denizen of Ekem to do no building what-so-ever. The classic brooding dragon persona, seems above any living creature. Continually recites the prophecy that has led him to this end.
Ideas: This area is supposed to be filled with enchanters and enchanterish themes. As such, it contains elaborate runes such as a 'phasic transport rune', initially unavailable to enchanters in the guild proper. A hardcoded quest that would be solvable once for each enchanter could add phasic transport rune as a trainable spell for that enchanter. These runes allow one who steps on the rune to transport directly to any player in any of the rune's linked rooms. Enchanters who train this rune should be limited to some number of linked rooms for each rune, but this particular rune would have access to every room of the city.

Other uniquely Ekem items, runes, and effects:
  • Rune of Unstable Harmonics - Exploding rune using singing crits. Compounds with each activation, and activates repeatedly at intervals on a person who failed resistance and stays in, or returns to the room, until it is so strong as to destroy both the person and the rune itself.
  • Temperance Conduit - Weapon enchantment increasing item hardness at the cost of reducing the wielder's maximum mana while its wielded
  • Clockwork Creation Rune - Same style as a summoning rune, but contains a certain number of hit points it expels and absorbs in random combinations. If all cloned clockworks are destroyed, the rune evaporates, otherwise the remaining clockworks and corpses of clockworks are returned to the rune with flare! (The remaining clockwork <creatures> gather the battered bodies of their comrads, dragging them toward a Clockwork Creation Rune as they grow ever smaller...)
The Dragon Engine Mahr Kathos has ambitions of building a link between the earth and sky, eventually fufilling a prophecy that only when a conduit feeds the heart of the Shadowlands with nectar direct from the sun and each moon will the Etherals return to their full splendor. Mahr Kathos was at one point an Etheral that in standing aside during the Great War, rotted away until he needed his creations to build a body for him. His only goal is to bring this prophecy to fruition.

This sort of area doesn't lend itself much to hidden areas, but quests or other things to do abound. We haven't even begun to cover the mine portion, focusing mainly on the city proper. In the mine there could be a sudden shortage of some type of mineral - Mahr Kathos may need to be informed and brought to the mine. There could be a worker strike - each clockwork is alive in some very real way, but Pel-Mel may require players to find a source of something to placate the masses. A cave-in or agressive inhabitation by rampant creatures would be beneath Mahr Kathos' attention, but Kel-Brussel may not be able to take care of it on his own.
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#461 - 12/07/07 01:12 PM Re: Area ideas - For ideas! No comments on posts! [Re: Cerberus]
Cerberus Administrator Offline
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Temple of Blood

Goal: The Order of the Blessed Return was once a strong guiding force in the polarization of Darke factions. While it was active, there were frequent sessions of what could be called RP if you favored it, or pseudo-sanctioned slaughter if you didn't. In either case the effect was the same; people took part on both sides and made an effort to engage each other over a single idea. This area is an homage to the fanatics of times long past who paid respects to the history and milieu (it's a word - look it up) of the Shadowlands. In the past, members of The Order of the Blessed Return have risen numerous fortresses and even taken over entire cities by force, occasionally coming close to its ultimate goal: returning Marghuul to reign over the Shadowlands.

Premise: An obscure artifact known only as The Heart of Darkness had been found and used to create a permanent rift between the Shadowlands and the Outer Realms. As Marghuul strained to enter through this portal The Heart of Darkness was sucked in instead, fixing the rift at a size much too small to allow even some of his generals to slip in.

In his characteristic rage, Marghuul unleashed all the demons he could into the Shadowlands. These goalless, unpredictable demons range in power from those not even a middling Chaotic-Lords would stoop to associate with to Demon-Lords who have so often assisted individual Chaotic-Lords that they are revered in story and have their own proper names. The Temple of Blood has arisen under the command of the Demon-Lord Sssla. While it is unusually peaceful currently, tendrils of power creeping out from its walls can occasionally be felt the world over.

Iconic Encounters:
  • Sssla, The Chainer - This Demon-Lord has made a name for himself by helping any and all who would abduct their foes rather than vanquish them outright. Its power grows through fear and suffering, and it is known for prolonging agony merely to feed from the wounds of its victims. It appears as an extremely thin-skinned, naked, sexless humanoid whose body constantly drips blood. Its vasculature is visible through its skin, and it has no disernable bones. Its face is a smooth, featureless mask. It has no wings, horns, claws, talons, or any other classically demonesque traits. In its left hand it wields a weapon made of an unidentifiable creature's vertebral column from which a number of skulls dangle. It uses this gruesome weapon interchangably as both a whip and a morningstar.
  • Sanc Oagulum, Mischief Maker - This tiny lesser demon is notorious among Chaotic-Lords and Paladins alike for its incredible capability to avoid harm. It appears as an inverted sprite, which is to say, its innards are on the outside of its body such that skeletal features sit over the musculature with nerves running on their outer surface. It is generally referred to as she, but has no sex. Completely impossible to harm, Sanc Oagulum harasses any she comes across with minor spells and bothersome effects such as slow, bleeding, disarmament, confusion, and the like. What this oft-reviled demon is doing in the Temple of Blood is unclear, but she appears to leave Sssla to its own devices while endlessly harrassing all others.
  • Vess, Headless Smith - Vess is a greater demon whose only ability is to take the soul of a mortal and forge it into a weapon. He was well-known during the Great War for turning the populace of entire captured regions into near-living weapons for Marghuul's side. His presence in The Temple of Blood lends credence to the rumors that abductions of Celebornian supporters and Elves have increased since the Temple's arrival. While he can work with any materials, he prefers the living as they scream most loudly when they are remade.
  • Assorted Celebornian Supporters - Rarely more than a handful of men and women are found alive in the Temple of Blood, but they are always related to Celeborn's followers in some tenuous way. These folk can be saved from their gruesome fate, delivered more quickly to Vess, or otherwise act as player pets while in the Temple.
  • The Rift - Here one can freely enter or leave The Warp (*note: The Warp as a proposed recode is soon to come on this topic from me), but Marghuul's presence can manifest itself to some small degree when such a thing occurs. This is the site where The Heart of Darkness failed to complete the opening of the gateway.

Ideas: A number of mini quests could be available here. We could save the abducted (these would replentish but the quest is only solvable once per individual), banish Sanc Oagulum (solvable every time a particularly unfortunate summon lesser demon spell fumble returned her to the Temple), help Vess build weapons from enemies (blacksmith skill required, solvable once with recurring ability to reach the weapon created), find out about The Heart of Darkness (solvable once ever, then becomes common knowledge through inscriptions or books - maybe open up further quests around this currently-non-existant artifact), build upon the Temple of Blood (on-going quest that must be first given by Sssla, but then allows players to add personal rooms on to The Temple of Blood via an account that tracks some number of pks of higher level players or Celebornians), or widen the rift.

The Headless Smith should be able to smith any type of weapon constantly and at random, as long as he has victims available. These weapons might have some small chance of coming with an innate living weapon lock on them, and some amount of other bonuses - always made of random minerals based on the level of victim. Alternative, or in addition, he could take existing weapons as Okef does and bind living beings to them (mobs, unless there's a method of moving uncon players as was once proposed) to alter them in some way (preferably not usually beneficially). Like the forge in the canyon used to do, a tinker forging a weapon here should have some special effect (and the forge in the canyon should be reinstated).

Sanc Oagulum should be as untargetable as a faerie guardian or shopkeeper is, and should cast low powered (*1 or 2) spells like cause bleeding, decrease metabolism, fear, instill poison, blindness, and the like. It should also have occasional emotes about tripping up whomever is her master at the time (these could be players or mobs alike. Other than Sssla, of course), tiring them out, and other extremely minor yet positively irritating effects. She should also switch owners at random times based on whoever is in the room, so if I happen to be afflicted with this particular pest I could drag her somewhere heavily frequented and see her make someone else miserable.

I think the Temple of Blood should serve as a model for clan-esque castles, in that an individual should be able to pledge their allegiance to Marghuul and the Temple of Blood, then use currency and some bank of stored actions to build the Temple itself. Adding rooms initially, then perhaps doors or hidden passages, then eventually spending their stored actions to submit requests for the wizards to code in terms of mobs; items; or effects. This would obviously be limited to a certain number of rooms per person and would be save rooms that allowed description changes (though these description changes could require review, if it is determined that since they are in a public place they should be on-theme) just like castles or inn rooms.

The mobs that would be available to populate this place are legion. Anything that reveled in death, demons, pain, suffering, or all that is evil could potentially be found here. Think of it as a holy pilgrimage site for all those who are evil.
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Please mail your views on balance to:
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#462 - 12/07/07 01:31 PM Re: Area ideas - For ideas! No comments on posts! [Re: Cerberus]
Cerberus Administrator Offline
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Elm's Farm

Goal: More lower level areas should be available to choose from when learning the ropes. Currently goblin village and the elves/orcs/sprites of Firnville are the only areas near a starting city that are in tune with what a newbie could use to gain experience. This area is designed as a twist on the commonplace notion of farming, and gives a nod to what I understand was at one point a prominent player (and/or demigod). Should I be wrong about that player, the name is always changeable while keeping the area's concept similiar.

Premise: Farms are a common notion, but recently a follower of Nelea and Iislea has nutured a wild area into a producing farm. This follower happens to be an Ent, and the farm happens to grow woodland mammals for consumption by the nearby gnoll hovel, which provide the lands protection in exchange.

The hovel is of middling size, providing a home for ten or so gnolls, the largest and most dangerous of which should be on a level with Gobbla the Squigg in goblin village. Occasionally one of the gnolls will exhibit potential with magic, but it's infrequent at best. The size of Elm's Farm is fairly vast, but not particularly easy to get lost in since the gnoll patrols use the same routes always.

Iconic Encounters: Elm - An ent elementalist of some significant renown. Should be most practiced in wind, water, and earth elements and their kin, and shy away from fire and its kin entirely. He should spawn occasionally, and assist the gnolls in protection, but not get directly involved if any of the crops are attacked outside of their breeding areas, which should be clearly marked.

Ideas: This low level area should allow for things like berry picking and actual hunting; both of which are painfully similiar in function. Some time is spent in the pursuit, and in the case of berry picking some amount of edible materials should be obtained, based on the season. In the case of hunting the time is spent and a mob is possibly spawned - grouse, rabbit, deer, or a wolf if you're unlucky.

There should be a plentiful supply of low level mobs, and their corpses consumable by anyone after being prepared at a fire pit, which will be found just outside the gnoll's hovel. The gnolls are nonaggressive unless their patrol comes across someone fighting in a breeding area. The area is set as one of the few ideal places left, with a babbling brook running through it with drinkable water and friendly (if uncommunicative) denizens.
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#463 - 12/07/07 02:23 PM Re: Area ideas - For ideas! No comments on posts! [Re: Cerberus]
Charon Offline
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I remember, but didn't like Elm. If his mob is going to act like him it should just enter and mouth off a bit by tells, and then dissapear as soon as you enter the room it's in ;\)

I do like the ideas though!
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#476 - 12/09/07 08:08 PM Re: Area ideas - For ideas! No comments on posts! [Re: Charon]
Cerberus Administrator Offline
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The Warp

Goal: The warp has been a place of danger for as long as anyone can tell, but it is greatly lacking in the departments of history and continuity. To greater tie Darke's rich history and one of a character's real rites of passage together, the warp should reflect its position as the space between realities - the reality the Demiurge neglected to mold, the thread weaving the fabrics of realities together - in short, the warp should be unbelieveable.

This is designed as a complete reexamination of the warp's foundations. Currently it exists as one room from which the only escape is through the death of a warp creature. This proposal would see it as an area in itself, one that is detrimental to exist in in keeping with the current version but also give alternate routes of survival and/or escape.

Premise: When the Demiurge turned away from his creation, he left some rules unwritten. The Realms are tied together by these nebulous remains, which contain nothing native but are instead populated by the twisted reflections of numerous worlds. Travelers and scholars alike have made The Warp the focus of their lives; innumerable lifetimes have been spent in vain learning its endless secrets.

Whenever an individual enters the warp, they are sent to a random place within it. Though it initially appears they've been flung to some location they are familiar with in their own world, it quickly becomes apparent that they are in no place they've ever known. The number and types of encounters one can have in this place are limitless. Travelers have stumbled across everything from indescribable beasts who seem to dabble in time itself to the realms of Gods as they survey their home plane.

Iconic Encounters: Every encounter is iconic in The Warp. Every mob programmed on the mud should be available to spawn, though with a special property set - warp monster, or the like. The property would be checked for by the real exciting part - the place itself.

Ideas: First off, each room that the mud has on it should be fair game to be reproduced in description only for The Warp. These would generally be the starting point for a person entering, so quite a few additional rooms would be required. In truth, any room could be added to the available list whether it was on theme, reachable from anywhere else on the mud ever, or anything else. In addition to every room having a strong chance of multiple warp creatures, they should all have some special feature.

With an area like this, so wide open in terms of what could be possible, it's hard to list all the ideas that spring to mind. Room features alone should include, but not be limited to:
  • Underwater rooms that drown only non-warp monsters only, warp monsters only, both, or neither.
  • Undeground rooms that cave-in, excavate themselves, completely encase and suffocate warp monsters/non/both/neither, are mineable for ingots or gems, or can fill with magma, steam, or other deep-ground phenomena.
  • Outer realms are more tenuously connected, and the further out they are the shorter the stay possible. In rooms like a God's realm, the player should walk from the previous room and into the realm and see the God (or an avatar) but be immediately whisked away such that only a description remains and no interactions are possible. Closer realms like those of a demigod might allow for a few seconds of stay, and have non-random spawns the same as a God's realm.
  • Rooms that modify how a player exists by distorting their age up or down (modification of skills/stats)
  • Replacing English words in descriptions with words of other languages
  • Color or WoRd curses
  • Rooms that lack breathable media and vacuum crit or suffocate warp monsters/non/both each tick
  • Rooms that afflict/effect warp/non/both with random spells periodically
  • Rooms that cease blink into/out of existance, only allowing movement to/from them while they do exist
  • Rooms that have no clear directional orientations so count as falling for the entire time a warp monster/non/both stays in (important for when a room is left)
  • Rooms that put holes in warp/non/both pockets, allowing money to fall out
  • Rooms that are entirely quicksand/quagmire/other sludge that slow all actions taken by warp/non/both
  • Rooms that are seated atop quicksand/mires/other sludge and absorb inanimate objects, flinging them to other places in the warp
  • Rooms that resemble junkyards and pile random useless items into the inventories of warp/non/both


-----------------------------
To be elaborated on later!
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#481 - 12/10/07 08:39 AM Re: Area ideas - For ideas! No comments on posts! [Re: Cerberus]
Charon Offline
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Registered: 10/24/07
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I like the idea of a "warped" warp.

It could be a cakewalk to get out, or it could be a total nightmare. Another variable I guess should be if casting is allowed or not. The fact that casting isn't allowed in the current warp makes it much meaner than it would otherwise be.
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If you say plz because it is shorter than please, then I will say no because it is shorter then yes.

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#487 - 12/10/07 10:43 AM Re: Area ideas - For ideas! No comments on posts! [Re: Charon]
Kim Offline
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Registered: 10/11/07
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"Color or WoRd curses"

Colour curses should never be used, since colours are... technical, meta. Otherwise setenv TERM none, and B&W would not exist. I am also against wOrD curses, for a similar reason. It's meta.

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#488 - 12/10/07 11:12 AM Re: Area ideas - For ideas! No comments on posts! [Re: Kim]
Charon Offline
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Registered: 10/24/07
Posts: 368
Loc: Toronto, ON
I like word and colour curses. Although they technically aren't "part of the game" they add to the experience in a way and can convey confusion in a way that words can't.

That said, they should be rare as they can be incredibly annoying ;\)
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If you say plz because it is shorter than please, then I will say no because it is shorter then yes.

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#491 - 12/10/07 01:29 PM Re: Area ideas - For ideas! No comments on posts! [Re: Charon]
Cerberus Administrator Offline
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You should read the name of a forum's topic before posting in it. This is a place for ideas, not discussion on those ideas - should someone wish to code these, they should set up their own forum with which to debate finer points on whether or not certain things should be added, are fair, are annoying, etc. Please keep this topic as a place for people to post ideas for areas that could be changed, added, or upgraded only.

Or, set up another topic in the forum and quote the ideas you're commenting on!
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Please mail your views on balance to:
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#493 - 12/10/07 03:31 PM Re: Area ideas - For ideas! No comments on posts! [Re: Cerberus]
Shadowraith Administrator Offline
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To be fair, thats the name of this thread, which folks can respect. The forum itself can have comments on threads, save that you requested they refrain in your thread \:\)
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