Alangara

I think that one of the central themes at the core of Alangara, has always been the concept of "self improvement". And I believe, that this theme can be most strongly seen in the game mechanics design of Alangara. Your character will grow considerably in strength and available equipment over time (even more so than in "normal" NWN), which in turn allows your character to overcome bigger challenges, and potentially culminates in reaching the semi-divine state as a Reborn.

From this perspective, a great many quests in Alangara are designed to function as challenges/obtacles to be overcome, and in so doing, to be rewarded with character progress, that will allow your character to take on the next "tier" of challenges. Additionally, the world design also encourages "team play", especially in order to overcome the later challenges/obstacles.



From an RP perspective, the same theme is one of the driving force behind the enormous freedom that you have to shape your characters, the stories they are involved in, and even, through custom player housing, custom factions, and DM plots, to shape the world itself.

Indeed, most of the plot- and world-development was intended to be player driven, in the sense that the player's actions and motivations (as well as the alliances between characters), combined with the freedom to tell almost any story about one's character, was the driving force behind a significant amount of the "story arcs". In a way, the Alangara world acted as a "backdrop" (or canvas) for roleplaying, and additionally, we also used the "team play" aspects of the game mechanics design, in order to "seed" plots. I.e. a DM would often interact with a "hunting party", to introduce and advance plot elements.

This is also the reason that a lot of Alangara' lore is not currently accessible in-game. Much of the lore was revealed by DMs during plots, and shared between players during roleplaying (i.e. the players who witnessed specific events, would often tell about these to other players, or at least share them with their guild, thereby sharing the discovered lore)



As I see it, the lack of a substantial player base and active "story"-DMs, currently hits the "role playing" and "world development" aspects of Alangara the hardest. You have enormous freedom to craft a character, and plenty of opportunity to face challenges and solve quests. However, while this is providing a satisfying character development in a mechanical sense, it could be said that most of these activities hold little meaning or impact on the world itself. Also, the plot arcs are not moving forward, simply because there is not enough player and DM interaction to drive this.

While it is not a complete substitute for in-game player interaction, I think that some of the above issues could be partly alleviated, by an increased focus on "NPC-driven" plot development.

Specifically, as a first step, I am working on implementing "NPC-driven" guilds/factions, which will offer three new features:

• Firstly, a new range of quests, the purpose of which is to reveal and develop Alangara lore, and/or advance plot arcs. These will be a supplement to the existing "obstacle" quests (which rewards the players with more "tangible" character development/rewards).
• Secondly, persistent tracking of the "plot"-quests completed, which will allow the builders to "react" to the player actions, and change the world accordingly, even when not being constantly present as DMs.
• Thirdly, a reputation/rank system, that will allow characters to achieve "in game" recognition for completing quests, i.e. in effect allowing the characters to become "part of the world" (as well as making it possible for the world to react accordingly). For instance, earning ranks in a guild, and having NPCs react dynamically to this.

My idea is, that we'll be able to use these features to drive DM plots, world development and plot arc progress. Additionally, I hope that they can also "tie together" some of the characters' effort (beyond the self improvement of one's own character), by allowing them to work towards (or contrary) to the same goals, even if players are not online at the same time. Finally, the rank and reputation system will hopefully add some in-game context and flavor to the characters (for instance, by having the world recognize, that you are a trusted member of a specific faction, or that you played a part in resolving a specific subplot).

What other NPC guild ideas do you have?

Aid-bringers seems cool enough, but part of that one wouldn't fit most my character's personality such as Jess more than likely does most the stuff spoken about said group, but she's be adamantly opposed to following strict order and structure. )

I actually don't have but maybe one alt that might partake in that guild, and would kind of not want to commit to one single thing until I seen what was available to choose from.

Great idea BTW , I like it!

Howdy Benevolent

What is important to realise is that we allready have a fully functional guildstructure in place. However due to the low player count it was never really in use after the relaunch.

I asume that the quests and rewards will either be obtainable for all characters or we decide to make a "clone version" in darkmoor and an NPC guild there.

All the mechanics however was always fully atainable to playerbased guilds, but required work in forms of cash, gatherings of resources etc to gain access to improved guild forges and new portal locations only for guilds - most of them epic spots.

This being said I too am looking forward to see what the good Seeker "cooks up"

/tara

Well, first of all, as a bit of OOC information, the good Merlon Gerai does not know all that is to know about the Aidbringers

While all three Ainun are technically answerable to their Ainun leader, and ultimately to the High Organizer, in practice, only the Aran Einun (the "military" branch) are imposing a strict structure and "chain of command" on their members.

Members of the two other Ainun will often have considerable autonomy, depending on their speciality (and the overall guidelines of the current High Organizer).

For instance, the entire "Lore Gatherer" sub-branch of the Darrec, might as well be known as the "explorer" or "adventurer" sub-branch, as it is composed of autonomous "agents", who travel the world as they see fit, promoting the causes of the Aidbringers, and bringing back interesting knowledge and artifacts for further study.

And at the most "unattached", joining as an Associate does not include other requirements than to work actively to promote the causes of the Aidbringers.


As for why the Aidbringers are the "prototype" guild, this was chosen for three reasons:

• Firstly, as Tara mentioned, the Aidbringers were the most "fleshed out" guild, and hence the easiest to build the new systems around.
• Secondly, the Aidbringers are easily the most "inclusive" guild, as they have few requirement of the member's involvement in other guilds and factions, as long as they do not conflict with the (rather loosely defined) Aidbringer Charter (at least not unless you reach the "officer" ranks). Hence, unless specifically playing an "evil" character, it should be possible to progress rather far in the Aidbringers, and still be able to join any later guilds/factions that will be implemented.
• Thirdly, the Aidbringers (and their quests) play an important part of upcoming NPC-driven plotlines.

In the longer perspective, if the system works as intended, my intention is to gradually include more guilds and factions into the system. Which ones will largely depend on the progression and outcomes of the coming plot-lines.


I hope that this answers your questions If not, please ask, and in any case, additional feedback is always welcome.

Ok, I am confused, this is already in and has been?

I mean Jess can get in the adventure's guild, but it looks like an end game quest attached to it in there ..., but didn't sound like what Som was talking about.

The "fully functional guild structure" that Tara refers to, is the "old" player-driven guild system (i.e. for certain factions, there are already mechanics in place that supports "ranks" and player guild association).

The new system I'm currently working on, and have described in the above, is different, and is not yet in the game. When it is ready, it will be mentioned specifically in the "release notes" section on the forum

Ahh, ok ...

Yes, Jess gets her "airheadedness" from me ... lol.

Thanks for making that distinction clear for me though. It did help.

Well I suppose things dont get easier to understand by me meddeling in the debate and starting to refere to different things in one joint heap

/tara

Work on the core systems for NPC-driven guilds is progressing nicely, albeit slowly (since I only have weekends to work on the system).

I ended up having to redo large parts of the scripting systems that save information between server sessions, but I am finally approaching the point where I can start to use the new systems to add actual content