|
|
Post by DM Corruption Overwhelming on Sept 23, 2016 1:26:17 GMT
Hi Guys! It's been a while hasn't it? Boy has a lot changed in that time. Myself and Kittenfish have moved to a new home in real life, blah blah blah - but none of you are interested in that! What you might be interested in however is the IoP Q&A sessions we'll be hosting here on September 30th, 7 pm Central Time (GMT -6). Each of these Q&A Sessions will be done over discord (https://discordapp.com/) which is a free VOIP and Chat client that can be run from a browser, or downloaded like a program (like skype) to be used. These Q&A Sessions will have themes, to touch on, in depth, specific topics about IoP, so expect some focus to what we will and will not talk about so we don't get off topic. Every couple of weeks, leading up to our release, we'll have a new topic and Q&A Session with the public. Feel free to bring your biggest questions, your toughest stumping questions, or heck, any question you might have under the sun! While most of the discussion will be done over voice, you do not need a microphone to take part - you can simply join the discord server and listen to us speak, and reply to us in the chat box provided! Our public discord for IoP can be found here: discord.gg/a3KHaz7The first Q&A Session will be focused on Players, Character Races, and Subraces. We hope to see you there! |
|
Phosphorus
Woke Up Somewhere Strange
please stop this crazy thing
Posts: 20 
|
Post by Phosphorus on Oct 11, 2016 3:52:27 GMT
Draft 1: Player Specific Questions/Inquiries (outside of talking points)
Crafting System:
There will be a crafting/socket customization system coming later, but it has been delayed for launch. Expect it as a major update.
Player Homes:
We, sadly, will not be having custom player housing. If you wish to claim an abandoned home you find in the world, and rp living there, you are free to do it, but there will not be the same rent and build system you see on sinfar.
Tzerys: Is that a.. technical sort of decision made re; Player Housing, or a thematic one?
It's a bit of both. We'd like players to, for the most part, choose to be out interacting with each other in the world rather than hiding in small clusters in houses. Given that we do not want invulnerable doors, and unpickable locks on IoP, it's also a technical one. We don't want to have to constantly check every players house, every day, to make sure they aren't making godwood doors with godsteel locks.
Also, it differentiates us from Sinfar, which is something Mav asked of me. Sinfar has player housing, we, will not, for various reasons :).
Certainly if a character wishes to work on it hard enough, and devote enough time/resources to it, they could over time make some changes to a home. But expect it to take work. Maybe you claim it and make it into an inn? Ect.
Dungeons:
Locust: If some dungeons are storyline based, does that mean they can or will be defeated? Like a dungeon gets cleared out, instead of infintiely respawning for the next few years?
Absolutely. Some dungeons will leave when updates come, and they might not come back - or, maybe they will return later. The setting is a cluster of islands floating in an infinite sky, so sometimes an island just drifts too far away to get to. Maybe... it comes back... maybe... with something else on it.
Player Shop system is already implemented.
Shapeshifters
MintTea: sinfar has a lot of people playing shapeshifters, whats this servers policy going to be on such characters?
Shapeshifters are not going to be considered on the same level as a base or subrace is. The druid Wildshape and Shifter class abilities will be unique to them to allow those characters freedom to change into a variety of forms. The specifics of what shapes and appearances will be available isn't set at this time but this will be worked on amongst our variety of class specific changes to skills, feats, and abilities.
Relevelling
MintTea: Another question, how will releveling your character be handled?
That's something we're still discussing. We want you to be able to fix small errors you make while leveling, but we also don't want people being 20 fighter today, and 1 fighter 19 wizard tomorrow. That breaks continuity really badly.
Pumuki: Something like allowing a level per day will work, want to fully relevel?, your char lvls are messed for twenty days
OnUse Items
Pumuki: What about scrolls, wands and potions? Traps?
We're still discussing those, but I would expect them to be far more open.
Or, there to be counterpoints to them. E.G. maybe instead of finding scrolls of invis, you find Dust of Disappearance. We are planning on including traps as semi-uncommon loot, as well as present in dungeons to make rogues have more purpose. Expect class specific things in dungeons: Stuck doors a strong character can force. Locks, traps. Maybe an old divine relic you can activate as a cleric.
Prestige Classes
MintTea: Will prestige classes like PM and RDD (or taking one level in SD)be limited in anyway? Or is anyone who meets the reqs free to take them? I've just seen a lot of servers put limits on them (especially RP ones as far as having to RP as those classes). If theres no restrictions RP wise thats fine with me.
No. No limitation.
Deities
MintTea: setting question, what gods will be available? Is it going to be freeform or are there certain setting gods?
Standard Faerunian/Grayhawk pantheons.
Natives to Purgatory
MintTea: related, can anyone be born into purgatory? or do they always come from somewhere else?
Potentially! It'd be really rare though. Growing up there would be... really... really fucking hard. It's not exactly a nice place that promotes a long life. Your character might be more paranoid, afraid of strangers. They likely would have seen multiple people come and vanished. They'd know that people that show up here? Typically are dead before too long. People who survive are exceptional. The plane is a dangerous place
Areas & Conflict
MintTea: are there snow/winter themed areas planned?
Locust: So lorewise, the islands are coming and leaving existance regulary? For whatever reasons.
Tzerys: With regards to faction/conflict, can you expand on what is going to be driving conflict - Fights for resources/space?
MintTea: Is there a central island that never leaves, or is this purgatory just whatever collection of islands is grouped up at the moment?
1) Yes.
2) Yes. The various isles will come and go as the plot and player actions dictate. Player agency on the various islands' fates will be paramount, but if actions aren't taken to stop and island from falling from the collective then it shall do so of its own accord. That doesn't mean it's permanently gone, but it certainly does mean it will go away for a time.
3) The various factions are all vying for the scarce resources available in the various islands strewn about. The more martial factions fight open conflict, some fight more subtle wars and some just go about their business and try to stay out of it. Since Purgatory is a transient, malleable setting the resources available are more valuable than they might otherwise normally be.
4) There is a centralized main city that acts as a starting nexus for new players. It will remain largely consistent for sanity's sake.
|
|
Phosphorus
Woke Up Somewhere Strange
please stop this crazy thing
Posts: 20
|
Post by Phosphorus on Oct 11, 2016 4:35:38 GMT
Draft 2: Things I Spoke About for a Really Long Time
SubracesOur approach to subraces can be broken down in a few sections: Availability, Method of Acquisition, and Justification. AvailabilityThe base races will all have specific subraces that derive from them, including but not fully limited to at this time of the below table. These races derive from a few source books for D&D 3.5e that fit in with the world of Greyhawk, Faerun, and other nearly identical settings. The stat bonuses for these races will be applied in addition to or in replacement of the base race's stats depending on the intention of the implementation to do so (ie Sun Elves get +2INT instead of +2DEX for that -2Con).| Race | Subraces | | Human | Aasimar, Tiefling, Earth/Air/Fire/Water Genasi
| | Gnome | Rock, Svirfneblin, Forest
| | Dwarf | Hill, Deep, Duergar, Mountain, Gold
| | Halfling | Lightfoot, Strongheart, Tallfellow, Ghostwise, Deep | | Elf | High, Aquatic, Drow, Gray, Wild, Wood, Moon, Sun
| | Half-Elf | See Elf | | Orc | N/A |
Method of Acquisition
Much like Amia, we are looking strongly at a token-like system that will allow players to spend a non-character currency in order to unlock advanced character subraces, advanced appearances, and non-mechanical items for roleplay. The currency for acquiring these are done twofold: 1) Have a felllow player or DM nominate you publically for exemplary roleplaying in the appropriate thread 2) Apply directly on the forums yourself In either case, the application would be reviewed by the staff publically and would allow staff and fellow players to chime in for the efforts put in for the reward. Once approved, the player will get the currency and be allowed to spend it at their discretion. Any currency gained will not expire and can be carried over indefinitely. Players are able to carry X number of tokens at any one time and will be unable to be nominated or apply for any further until they spend their current ones. The template for staff posts will be broken down into a few categories: History, Personality, Appearance, and Goals/Other (discussion on character direction or personal likes/dislikes). Specifics as to what each category will represent will be decided by the staff at a later date.
Justification
The reason the Purgatory Staff wish to restrict specialized player races, appearances, etc. is due to the inherent nature of the Sinfar culture to accept and embrace the unique and freeform style of roleplaying a sandbox encourages. As much as the staff dislikes the overly restrictive policies on other roleplay servers, we wanted to be sure to keep to the spirit of allowing opened character creation within reason while also maintaining a semblance of consistency in the setting. Things such as devils, planar creatures, advanced undead or other unique subraces are both hard to balance mechanically when they're easily accessible and also difficult to balance a world around once they're more common than the standard subraces. Something myself and the staff would like to encourage is development of interesting characters without the use of racial features as a crutch for a lack of personality of compelling storyline. This is not to say that a tiefling could not be a compelling character due to the adversity they faced growing up, but more often than not this is used as a crutch for character development and instead is a trope that gets used painfully often enough to become mundane. We do not expect to be particularly strict about what constitutes "interesting" as that is a subjective concept, however there are some things that we will be explicitly clear about when evaluating requests to be sure that we're as transparent as possible in our review. We welcome feedback from players in this process going forward, so if you have suggestions or ideas on how we may better handle this process then please let us know.
Story / Plots
Tl;dr: islesofpurgatory.boards.net/thread/5/isles-purgatory-loreIn essence, the world of Purgatory will focus around the collection of islands that seemingly get plucked from all over the realms to be coalesced together in one big cluster. Particular parts of Purgatory seem consistent, but the outer edges of the plane seem to shift and change depending on a number of known and unknown factors. One common factor is the setting is the changes to the divine: they are utterly silent to the calls of their followers; however, spells granted by deities still seem to work but direct divine intervention is completely unheard of by any of the locals. Spells that effect the very fabric of the plane fizzle out, and anyone connected to the divines or the fibres of the world around them would feel an oppressive, unexplainable force that always seems to be watching. Purgatory's main driving conflict is the various factions and parties vying for control in this world. Rather than trying to find a way out (as all methods known have been exhausted and abandoned), the various groups work in tandem and opposition to try to gather as much resources as possible to secure a foothold where possible. Some groups act alone and hold what little they can together to eek out an existence while others move to zealously guard large swathes of land to assert their dominance. Players will either have to work with or against these factions in order to carve out a niche in this world. Server PhilosophyFuck you corruption you do this part.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kittenfish on Oct 24, 2016 21:37:44 GMT
Don't worry Phoosy, I've got this. Server Philosophy
The Idea The idea behind IoP started with a thought of how to provide the most enjoyment to players. It took months of research by asking several players what they enjoy in games, what they think would help make the game more enjoyable, and what would make them feel more involved in the world they play in. There were a lot of answers to these questions, and a lot of questions that came from those few questions. With Sinfar being the player base we had at hand those are the people we asked. A lot of people are happy with the way things are there, most of these people are more social players and for them Sinfar is a great place to play. Yet as I went on with the research there wasn't a lot of lore based RP, or not enough constructive PvP. I had a few people tell me that they were interested in exploring what Sinfar has to offer, but the areas felt to large and expanded out to far to adequately explore. After putting all the information together, we wanted to make a place for people who are serious about lore based RP, constructive PvP, and a feeling of adventuring. Why Floating Isles One of the hardest things as a builder is creating areas that people could explore, but not feel like they where so large that they would get lost or bored. At the same time you couldn't have an Adventure when you've seen everything. So it brought up the idea of how do you create something without it becoming to large. Floating isles was the idea that came to mind to solve such a problem. It also fixed a few problems with areas not seeming to blend together as nicely, such as a dessert leading to a forest almost instantly. At the same time it provides the ability to expand the number of monster types that could be used, along with the ability to add and take things out to move story along when needed. It also helps to provide the idea that you are trapped in this realm. RP
One of the few things that is hard to conjure up is RP without the DM's having a heavy hand in everything. Coming up with interesting ways to move stories along isn't as easy as people seem to think. Especially when it's not just one persons story your moving forward. Consequences are very hard to enforce as well, but very necessary when decided if players should let certain events happen or not. What happens if players don't do anything when a DM is having an event? How do you make a world that feels lived in? These are questions that are very important. One of the most important thing to remember is that things happen even if the players are not there. New islands float by, perhaps it's got something dangerous on it that needs to be dealt with. What happens when that threat has been eliminated? Well, it disappears. Maybe not right away, but rather quickly. I've had people ask me why would I want the areas I build to be destroyed. The answer is simple really, it's what the players decided to do. It provides RP and good RP that makes the players feel like they have accomplished things. At the same time those players have to remember that there are consequences for their actions. If a player decides to go around destroying places eventually the other players might decide that's a bad idea. If a group of players decide to stay on an Island that floats away, well odds are they may never come back. It's our goal to help provide plenty of opportunities to advance the players RP experience. However it's not a DM's job to do so on a one on one biases. It is up to the players as well to help provide constructive RP for the DM's to work with as well.
PvP
Our goal for PvP is to set up areas that are focused on PvP and constructive PvP at that. We want to make it so players understand what they are fighting for and how important it is that they keep fighting. In order to do this we won't be having PvP on the server right away. It's important to have a back story as to the what and why people are willing to kill. It also makes it so we can have a live player base to test the PvP areas as we're scripting them. One of the things we're going to be rather harsh on is random PvP. I'm sure we can all understand that nobody has fun when they are killed in the middle of doing something for no reason. We will be working on a way to deal with players who do such things. Though there is a difference between being an ass to someone and getting killed for it and being randomly PvPed.
Adventuring
Everyone enjoys adventuring from time to time, wither it's going to see the new island that's floating by or going to look for that new sword that's been rumored to drop off a monster. I've made it my personal goal to reward the players who spend time looking for hidden nooks on the islands. Be they in dungeons, on the battle fields, or in the world around you there is always something new and fun to find. I've implemented areas that are hidden though out the world from a hidden lake to a clearing in a forest that so happens to have a tent, to a hidden door in a small dungeon. We've actually had a lot of players request stuff like this and I can happily say I beat them to it. Though that doesn't mean we wouldn't like to have feed back or ideas on the matter. There are a few things we didn't think about doing until a player suggested that we use skills for such things and it's a great idea.
Living world
This is something we really want to focus on, making the world feel like it's lived in. It's also the hardest aspect to achieve since not everyone is on at the same time and doing the same thing. That' why we're going to try and implement something in to help with this. The what is still in question for the most part. Obviously events will impact the areas they are held in, but there will also be other things they impact.
Fairness
This is something that's the hardest to achieve in all eyes. Someone may feel like they are being cheated in one way or another. They may ask for DM involvement, which is one of the things we are here for. It is important to make sure you document everything you can when it comes to things like this. When a DM makes a decision, you can bet that the entire DM team works together. This having been said, most stuff will stay behind closed doors when dealing with things. For the sanity of everyone however, if a player decided to continue to drag things out then the DM's will post the accounts to the public. Another thing to point out is that NO DM has immunity. We as a staff are responsible for our actions and will be judged just as harshly, if not more so, as the players when doing something wrong. That means that if I do something against the server rules and there is proof, I will be punished just the same as any other player.
If there are any questions on the subject, or we forgot something, please ask here. Odds are that others have the same type of questions.
|
|
