Ideas, Fixes, etc.

[Coolreject]

Hey everyone, figured I'd make a thread here for ideas we can kick around as well as a place for you all to complain about bugs and annoying little things.

I have a few ideas myself, first I can name is a new death system:

I've noticed that without a cleric, going out to fight monsters seems like a pretty risky proposition. I mean, who wants to get killed and remain dead for a long time until a cleric character logs in?

In such a case, I was thinking of creating a sort of respawn system that still keeps death as a big deal, but allows non-cleric players to resurrect their fallen allies for a price.

When a player dies, they can remain on the ground until they are helped up by a typical resurrection or raise dead spell, or have an option of respawning. Upon respawning, a player will be teleported to a "fugue" plane or "Limbo" type area where they can chill out as a spirit. They will leave behind remains, which will be a container that has amount of gold they will drop, as well as a body or body part.

Players can bring this body from the remains to an NPC cleric in a temple and, for a significant fee, pay for a resurrection spell that will bring the dead player back from the fugue plane and to the temple.

Because of the way players locations are stored between resets, a player in the fugue plane will still act as if they are persistently dead, because if they join the module after a reset, they will be teleported straight to the fugue plane. Going into afk land will also be disabled while in this plane. The only way to bring them back is by resurrection.

If the body is somehow lost, or deleted, or just forgotten, a player can speak to an NPC cleric to perform a "true resurrection" for a higher fee, and receive a list of all dead players in the fugue plane, and select which one they wish to restore to life.

The corpse object could also be brought to any PC cleric and they can cast resurrection or raise dead on it, in order to restore that character to life.

I figure this could also lead to some nifty stuff, as the remains container could also contain stuff like the player-character's head, "Head of <insert name here>" that could be kept as a trophy if you PK an enemy character or as a plot device to be turned into the guards for a reward. Sort of like the "ear" system from the Diablo games.

Basically, this would still prevent players from bringing themselves back to life, keeping in line with the realism and severity of death, but allow the character's friends to bring them back to life by paying money, even if none of them are clerics.

Thoughts?

[Dark-Girl]

Yes to this. ^
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[Nezgul]

I agree to all of that idea except one detail: the fact players would leave behind all their gold. I could see someone being a dick and stealing 30k or so off of a dead person.

[Coolreject]

Oh they won't leave behind all their gold, only a portion of it.

I already have everything coded and set up and it works from all my testing. I will put it in with tomorrow's update, and we'll see how it goes out in the wild. I'll be around to correct any screw ups and don't be afraid to try and break the system as much as possible, let me know of any bugs.

[Nezgul]

I also have an idea. Perhaps renaming Champion of Torm to Divine Champion? Seems more appropiate considering the setting, and if you cut off the alignment requirement it allows Evil characters to enjoy the awesomeness that is CoT.

[Hoboz]

We already did that. (naming it to Divine Champ that is)

[Nezgul]

Oh. Hurr durr. Well, still. The bit about the alignment remains!

[White Rabbit]

I like the suggested death system but I have a few ideas to add on:

When a character dies, they won't really die but will instead enter into a "critical" state where the wounds must be stabilized within a certain amount of time after inital "death" or the character will bleed to death.

Keep in mind that this is separate from what we have implemented where when a character's HP drops between 0 and -10, the character can regain consciousness automatically. The critical state is when the character drops below -10 HP and occurs regardless of how low you've dropped.

When a player nearby wishes to stabilize a fallen friend, they do so using bandages/first aid/what have you (anything non potion/magical) and must roll a heal skill check versus a DC determined by how low of HP the critical PC has dropped. Upon successful stabilization, the critical PC comes back with 1 HP, barely conscious, but at least isn't bleeding anymore.

If, for whatever reason, the critical PC isn't stabilized within a certain amount of time (it doesn't have to be some absurdly short time like 30 seconds), THEN the character officially dies. When the character dies, instead of entering into a limbo state, they instead come back as a spirit right there where death occurred, permanent invisibility, permanent see invisibility, unable to inflict any harm on the living, and all normal voice chat is censored. They'll be able to wander amidst the oblivious living until their body is raised by means of a cleric or what was suggested above.

[Hoboz]

Reminds me a tad of the Hemophiliacs always Bleed system on NW Vault. Except in that system (which I use on WHF) if you die and would be below -5 hp, you're auto-set to that and when you reach -10 you die. There's even a ghost option where you can't move built for hte purpose of letting you barter with players to give them your raise dead scrolls.

By the way. I think instead of CoT getting allignment unlocked, it should be Paladin to go from Lawful Good only to all Goods, to parallel Blackguard better.

[White Rabbit]

option where you can't move built for hte purpose of letting you barter with players to give them your raise dead scrolls.

Oh! And I suppose it could be made to disallow items and money to be transferred when as a spirit too. Plus a nice glowy effect, something similar to the djjini on the HotU campaign when you summoned him (he actually has an ethereal effect and a white misty effect on him. I'm talking about the white misty part).

[Hoboz]

Could script to have a temp tail/wing effect on? I'm sure that smoke can be made. HABD has the visage only infact : P

[White Rabbit]

What do you mean wing/tail effect? There is an actual glowy-mist visual effect that can be applied to characters.

[Hoboz]

Oh..didn't know there was. Carry on.

[Coolreject]

Yar, you can use a simple scripting command that applies a glowing effect or misty effect to a character, as well as a bunch of other nifty things.

[White Rabbit]

I've been seeing a lack of involvement with events and the setting and a few thoughts came to mind that may help with that problem. We're missing some serious direction in events, factions, or anything, really. Perhaps we can get the factions more at each others throats and then work from there. Total war between Lux and Khaos annoys several people and doesn't seem to work well anyways considering our main areas are based in the city.

I know that the Empire started a bit of cleansing with the Inquisition last summer. Let's work on that, not with the inquisition per say, but with Imperial rule versus uprisings brought about by former Erodemian leaders and guards. The rebels introduced some time ago could use some expanding on since they'd be an excellent addition as a main faction. Give them a name... The Liberation?

We also need apparent faction leaders, clear goals for them to pursue, and the ability for characters to achieve ranks, positions, and assume higher responsibilities. However! I would not give an entire army to a single player or we'll be throwing ourselves into some pretty weird situations (It's difficult enough as is when Kybshe controls all of the Khaos legions). Perhaps the highest a player should be able to achieve is a Centurion or Captain on the Imperial side and whatever equivalent on the rebel side. I think we need appointed sergeants to start us off and then start recruiting and assigning positions.

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Moving along, I'd like to propose an Imperial Legion subdivision that provides a more realistic option for non native characters that wish to serve: "The Rangers". They're mounted units that act out as Guarde but with jurisdiction across the entire province and may receive military assignments normally reserved for the Legions. They could use the ranking system from either the Guarde or the Legions (either works) but probably nothing above Captain or Centurion would exist.

Note that the Rangers wouldn't replace the Guarde as a viable option for players to pursue but as a replacement for the Legions towards non natives. The reason for this is because Legionaries are generally military soldiers who spend years in training, while the Guarde tend to have a limited jurisdiction.

If a player wished to make a character that was born in the province or from the Empire's mainland then I suppose the Legions would be more available in that situation. I think all of our current Legionary PCs are native Imperials so there's no conflicts there... but don't quote me on that. For the inquisition, it could remain as an option for characters who have previously served as either a Guarde, a Legionary, or a Ranger.

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Third on the list is player-requested organizations, races, etc. We have NO system in place for letting players make requests like these which means we're left with either some pretty insane requests or none at all. I'm thinking the latter is due to discouragement and the fear of being turned down because nobody knows what is acceptable and what isn't.

So here's what I'm proposing...

Non standard races (vampires, werewolves, constructs, etc etc) must require one month of play time before new players can request one for their character. Furthermore, a requirement should be made where anyone who plays a non standard race must seek out and improve the roleplay of others (as opposed to yourself) by playing the special race. This will prohibit characters from being a vampire for the sake of being one, and doing nothing more than using the abilities to state their dominance over others. Failure to encourage roleplay with the non standard race would result in the racial privilege being revoked.

Player run organizations (guilds, companies, cults, and anything not established by a DM) are regulated by players NOT DMs. They would not be given custom items, NPCs, or areas. Furthermore, they would not ever make a significant impact on the setting itself. Permission to make an organization wouldn't be required but it would be if players wanted it to be officially recognized. The benefit of having official recognition would be DM plots as well as consideration for a custom made area after one month of activity from the date of the organization's official establishment or until the next online season (which ever comes first). To gain this benefit, the organization would need three active players and a written background and purpose submitted to either the staff or the forums.

Custom made areas (this is mostly houses, guild halls, towers, etc but also includes a player's interest in submitting public areas to the module) can only be requested after the player has played on the server for one month or until the next online season (which ever comes first). Also! Privately owned custom areas (premade houses/apartments exempt) would be given the requirement of encouraging roleplay in some way or another or the area would be pulled from the module.

Appointed leadership positions (anyone who received a leadership position without roleplay working towards it such as a request to be a politician) must require one month playing time from new players or playing until the next online season (which ever comes first). There would also be a similar requirement of encouraging roleplay with others or this privilege would be revoked.