Play testing in general

Tyrion you have a good point here, and I have been considering this very subject.

We DO need a lot of play testing on the existing zones, as well as a considerable amount of tweaking/cleanup to get to where we need to be. I understand that there has been some talk of doing X zones in Y months, etc. but what I – And the rest of you, I would imagine – want, is to have quality, solid areas that can be played through and enjoyed fully without loose ends, overpowered gear and mobs that are way off on the power scale.

To that end, what Makiel and I are currently working on is a revamp of the way object statting works. We are trying to bring it back to d20 level stats, as that is the system we are trying to emulate here. Of course, there are challenges in translation and there are some things that are done better in the MUD world and vice versa.

The current plan is to have object types/templates, so that when you are building an object you first choose the object type, then the appropriate template. The templates are somewhat analogous to the current mold system for crafting. Once you choose a template you will have a generic object of that type with all fields automatically pre-filled. From that point you can customize the object. Ideally, as you add bonuses and maluses, the level of the item will change accordingly, thus preventing any overpowered items. All of this can of course be overridden by World Forgers and above (lvls 33-34) in case we have a special need. A check, similar to zcheck, will also be created that will go through all of the objects in a zone and attempt to match them with a type and adjust their stats accordingly.

The same with mobs, we wish to utilize race, size, level and class to automatically determine things like hit points, attributes, etc. It will be possible to modify these things but a lot of the burden of balancing will hopefully be taken off of the builders’ shoulders.

I am not saying that building will be like legos, not at all – Descriptions, names, stats, everything will be in the builders’ hands. All this system will accomplish is providing a baseline of power that we can rely on to provide balance in the game with a minimum of builder effort.

SO, that is what we are doing regarding items and mobs in existing and new zones wrt balance.

I will be contacting you Tyrion, regarding building. If any of the staff would rather have a different task, by all means, just ask. I would love to find everyone a position where they feel they are contributing to the best of their ability and having a good time doing it!

(Tyrion, regarding monster photos, if they are public doman then I would LOVE them for the website! A bestiary would be pretty sweet :))

Sorry for the wall of text –

tl;dr: If you want a different task, please just ask, I want you to contribute to the best of your ability and have fun doing it!

– Ornir Elunari