Trials of Ascension

[Azurite]

Hello old friends

Didn't see any topic about Trials of Ascension and since I know many of you are hardcore roleplayers it might be an interesting game to read up on.

Will quote some simple features:

Overview

Trials of Ascension is a MMORPG project that beats to a different drum. For souls brave enough to try something outside the traditional MMO box, ToA will deliver a gaming experience like no other. We mean it. Seriously.

Where else can you find combat with perma-death, an open-ended skill system without classes, innovations that are unique to the discoverer, dynamic spawning of fauna, flora and dungeons, player-made settlements and structures, a cooperative crafting system and a magic system that will feel as mysterious as magic itself?

See, we told you its different. The question is: are you brave enough to try it?


Skill System

ToA will offer a skill system without classes. You will simply gain mastery of the skills that you practice.

Each skill will have one or more techniques that you can better as your skill increases. Techniques will be a way in which your character can specialize within their skill. For example the smithing skill will have forming, tempering and balancing techniques. A smith that focus on bettering herself in tempering will craft items that are far more durable than smiths without the tempering technique.

There are currently 35 skills slated for development.


Dynamic Spawning

Static spawning will be perma-killed in ToA. You will not see the same creatures spawning over and over again in a given location. Instead, creatures will spawn according to the local climate, their affinity to civilization and a host of other variables.

The trees and plants of TerVarus can be harvested so this same dynamic behavior will extend to the flora as well.

If that's not enough, our interactive GM team will be constantly dropping special spawn points throughout the world. These spawn points will have an incredible amount of flexibility in what they spawn, how long they spawn for and any special triggers the GM team might want to throw at you. A spawn point that generates an orc every 2 to 4 minutes for 24 hours? Childs play. A spawn point that will generate an encampment once the spawned orc count reaches 20? Easy. Placing that spawn point just outside your city walls? Now we're talking!

We will have an ever-growing number of dungeon maps that the GM team will prepopulate with spawn points then place into the world. A GM placed dungeon will not be a permanent fixture of TerVarus and will collapse after a given time.


Combat & Death

Combat in ToA will be non-consentual, meaning you will be able to attack anyone without them needing to be flagged for PvP.

Use this freedom wisely as there will be no 'conning' system to determine combat prowess of others and if your character dies too many times its soul becomes too weak and the icy cold hand of perma-death will take him forever.

Fortunately we will have unconsciousness that will serve as a buffer between life and death so actually killing someone will almost always be a deliberate act.

Not convinced perma-death can work or is for you? Give it a chance.


Crafting

Crafting items will not use the tired old 'combine, click, created' method. Nearly every item will require a multi-step process, each of which may offer the crafter options to enhance the item based on the techniques he has learned.

Since no one crafter will be able to master every technique in his crafting skill(s), crafting items of the highest caliber will require team work. Your character may be the best tempering smith in town but you'll need to work with another smith specialized in balancing and yet another specialized in forming to create that perfectly crafted sword.


Innovations

Every time your character uses a skill there is a chance she will receive an innovation. An innovation is the sudden discovery -- available to only your character -- of how to enhance a craftable item, how to create a new item altogether, or a new skill technique.

Imagine your character being the only one in TerVarus that could craft a new style of armor or learned a new engineering technique that made all structures he builds 20% stronger?

What you do with your newly-found secret will be up to you. You can keep it to yourself or share it with others. Be warned - sharing an innovation with even one person means you no longer have control over its propagation as they can share it with others.

Innovations can also be shared involuntarily. A character with the right skills will be able to extract information from an unconscious target, including innovations.

Want to learn more? Read this article that goes into more depth about our innovation system.


Magic

Wish to delve into the arcane arts? Prepare yourself for a journey that will be as long and costly as it will be dangerous. You must craft your own spell book, come to learn arcane symbology, explore the world in search of rare components and dare to disturb powerful arcane creatures. That's just to get your first spell, which will be a weak version of what you can ehance it to.

You'll be able to enhance various aspects of your spell, based on your preference. Would you rather cast your fireball further or have it do more damage, or both?

Casting magic in ToA will not use 'mana'. Instead, it will use stamina, the same stat physical activities such as running and combat will use.

Here is a more in-depth article covering the details of the arcane.


Settlements

Create your own settlement and control tax rates and where your citizens can build their own private homes or shops. Oversee the construction of settlement structures such as a treasury, town hall, walls and even keeps. Ensure your citizens are protected by hiring NPC guards and assign them to guard whatever areas you wish.

Expand your settlement by conquering neighboring lands. If another settlement happens to be in your way, let loose the dogs of war!

Here are a few articles where we explain how to create a settlement and what to do with one once you have it. Here's one describing settlement warfare.


Structures

Players will be able to build structures ranging from a small wooden house to the largest of stone keeps. Building a structure is an involved process that will take significant resources and is sure to keep many talented craftsmen busy around the clock.

Here is some further reading detailing how building a structure is done.

A bit info written on their forum:

We need people to know about ToA. Lots of people. And we need your help.

The game will launch with four starting cities and we're putting them up for grabs! You'll be entered to win just by signing up on the forums.

Each city will be completely built, walls and all, and supplied with a decent cache of gold and guards already on watch. They will have roughly 40-50 private homes within that you will not own but will rule over (they will be owned by other players, probably through KickStarter pledges) along with a number of settlement specific buildings such as a town hall, a treasury and barracks that will be yours to do with what you want!

We'll draw the winners at the end of our KickStarter campaign.

In a guild? Tell them about us! Have some friends that might be interested in playing a MMO that's not a cookie-cutter of what's out there? Tell them too! Help us get the word out and maybe win yourself a city! A city!!

[Azurite]

Questions answered in the second podcast:

Q: Will books be available in game, and can they be written in?
Brax- Yes and yes.


Q: Exactly how would a mage cast a spell? Will there be a little bar so we can select a spell for prep, and then click to cast. Or will we have to open up our spell book and click on the desired spell.
Brax- Once you have gained a spell, you'll be given a button to hotlink, an icon, that you can map to a key.

Leostri- But you have to have the components that requires(empowers?) them.

Varl- It takes all the prerequisites, to get there. Assuming you get the icon. You go through all the hard part to get the spell. Then once you get the spell, you get the icon.

Leostri- Yes, but you still have to have the components upon your person if you are going to cast it. Just because you have the icon, doesn't mean it's going to be successful.


Q: Will players be able to disguise themselves?
Brax- Yes, we have disguise as a skill. The opposition to the disguise skill is other player's perception attribute. So, you can think that you are bluffing somebody, but you won't know. Well, unless it's a guard, and you are on the kill-on-sight list, then you'll certainly know your disguise didn't work.

Leostri- But it's basically your disguise skill check versus his perception check.


Q: How does ToA plan to address sleep? Will it provide an experience bonus, or will one's max stamina slowly deplete, to be regenerated by sleeping?
Brax- We are not 100% percent sure yet, but as of today, there is no sleeping in ToA. You'll be able to sit and rest, and even lay down and rest. and you'll regain certain variable quicker than others.


Q: At two parts during the last podcast, you bring up that merchants are limited to what their player-owner are selling and buying, and the currency they hold, which in turn, means that adventurers coming to town to sell their loot will be limited on that market. Will there be an option besides sell and store when it comes to unloading goods such as salvaging items for raw materials?
Brax- First of all, i'd like to make it very clear that we're not going to have ANY ForgedChaos-owned merchants or venders. Every merchant that you come across will be owned by a player. what they have in their inventory to sell is based what the player has put on that merchant and priced to sell. What they can buy is also dictated by their player owner.

Leostri- So, in other words, you'll only be able to have access to an NPC merchant if you own a shop. So, as part of your shop menu of options, you can hire an NPC merchant to sell things for you, so you don't have to stay at your shop. But it is your responsibility as a player to load your merchant with the items that you need to sell. That does not necessarily limit you to what you make, however. So if you decide your are going to sell all kinds of weapons, but you only specialize in only two or three, you can certainly add all those to your merchant, and assign a price to them. Also, you can assign the merchant to purchase certain items. So, if you only wanted to take in scrap metal, for example, you could instruct your merchant to only buy broken items, broken weapons, shields, armor, things you could smelt down to remake new weapons out of. There are not going to be WoW merchants, where they're going to have unlimited amounts of cash and they'll buy anything under the stars. It's not that way. Totally player controlled.

Brax- You will be able to break many of the items back down into their raw resource, of course some amounts will be lost in the process.


Q: What is the day/night ratio like? Will it change with the seasons?
Brax- Right now we are looking at two-thirds of a day will be daylight, one-third will be night. There's been a lot of conversation about that. Should we make it half and half, or whatever. But night is going to night. As in dark. So, we want it to be dark, we want it to be challenging, but we want more daytime than nighttime. It's as simple as that. We are not going to have seasons, not initially. That may change post-launch, but making seasonal changes to areas are too resource intensive right now.


Q: How will systems like carts and wagons work?
Brax- Sorry to disappoint, but there's no wagons or carts scheduled for initial launch. I think there's a misunderstanding on the Forums right now that they are going to be there, but they're not. Again, it's a resource issue. We're minimizing our design so we can get it into your hands, so we can grow it. Trust me, we want carts and wagons and mounts as much as you guys will. But we got to be realistic.

Leostri- I would look for those as one of the first innovation, probably.

Varl- Yes, we want to put that in you guys' hands. So the people who get those innovations initially, will be very popular, wouldn't you say?


Q: What's the current plan for recycling of innovations? A person with an innovation, who doesn't give it to anyone, can die or simply not log on again. How will these innovations ever see the light of day?
Brax- We will monitor every single innovation that is in the game. If we deem an innovation that needs to be in the game, we will reactivate it. We'll essentially put it back in the pool of innovations to be found. Some we will let go dormant. If need be, It's really on a case by case basis for what we think is best for the world.

Leostri- Now, when they are put back in the pool, they are randomly assigned, are they not? Based on the skills? All skill will have their own innovation pool. There is not one giant pool. So you are not going to get a combat innovation if you are crafting leather goods.

Brax- Or there is one giant pool, but each innovation has filters or requirements on what your character has to be doing and have. And when I say have, I mean, in the way of skills already. Some innovations will be available to lower skilled characters, and other will be available to higher skilled characters.


Q: Pets have been mentioned as possible, and i'm assuming horses will be a standard way of travel. Does this current vision support an animal trainer or salesman, maybe someone that gets a plot of land and breeds horses and dogs to sell to other players.
Brax- Well that's a mixed question: a yes and no answer. We're not going to have mounts, so horses are pretty much out, but we are giving you the minimum amount of creatures that you can farm: cows, chickens, that sort of thing. So you can have pets technically, and you could sell them, but not mounts. We have dog and cat slated as in the creature list right now. There is animal taming.


Q: When a mage locates his arcane creature to combat, will he and the critter be fenced off from the rest of reality, or will others be able to watch the fight? If the latter, will people simply be unable to attack the mage or the creature until the fight is over with?
Brax- This comes down to what everything is going to look like in the world once it is populated. We, as you mostly, probably know, TerVarus is a low magic world. So, we don't want arcane creatures popping in to fight mages in the middle of town. That would look bad. Whether the arcane creature could hurt other people or not. Right now, we lean more towards, we throw the mage into an instance, although their body is left where they were, completely defenseless. That's the way we lean right now.

Leostri- So to your companions, you just look like you are in a trance. You would be mentally battling this arcane creature.

Varl- So bring friends to protect your self…

Brax- …well to protect your body. It's your fight between you and the arcane creature. it is strictly between you two. Nobody can buff you, nobody can heal you, nobody can help you. Same for the creature. And the creature won't bother anybody else. So it's strictly mano-e-creatureo(?)


Q: When we log off, will our bodies persist in the game world?
Brax- Only if you have logged off in the middle of combat, or if you have been flagged in a certain way where we're not going to allow you to escape like that. Beyond that, yes your character will log out. I'm assuming that you're talking about in the old design where you could elect to have your body persist to have your body moved around by transport: wagon or ship. Right now, since we don't even have those, it's not really an issue. But we'll certainly be bringing that topic back up when we do have mass transit in place.


Q: How in the world will most of the money be mined if the settlements cannot make coin? Are you saying that gold nuggets will be currency?
Brax- First, miners will not mine coins. They will mine flakes and nuggets. There's going to be so many flakes to a nugget. It's really as simple as that.


Q: What will the economy look like on the first day of the games release. For example, you find a bear hide, and you don't know the value of it. Will the game let you know the suggested value of that hide, or do the players determine the price from the get-go?
Brax- The players determine the price right from the start. We're going to have as little impact on your economy as possible.


Q: Will settlements have some sort of visual representation? And if so, will they be allowed to put an emblem upon banners, flags, and crests?
Brax- So, like a crest, the settlement crest? Yes. You will pick and design your settlement crest upon settlement creation.


Q: Of these 22 settlement locations, are they similar to how Horizons did their cities: 'X' number of large plots; 'Y' number of small, pre-formed, roads; etc? Or will the settlement be able to determine their own layout?
Brax- When you conquer or claim a settleable area, it's borders are hard coded. It is defined for you. How you put your buildings within is completely up to you. So long as you meet certain restrictions like terrain slope. You obviously can't put a building in water, that sort of thing. But beyond that, you can put your plots wherever you want, and therefore you building within those plots. And the are no roads in TerVarus. That is on purpose.

Leostri- Not even game trails, so keep that in mind when you are hunting.


Q: When a settlement is conquered, will it's citizens still maintain their property rights to their buildings?
Brax- Absolutely. This is one of the anti-Lord-griefing countermeasures that we are putting in palce. Just because you lose your settlement, doesn't mean you lose your land. You are suddenly a citizen under a different kingdom now. And a different ruler now. But you get to keep your plot.


Q: As players in civilizations, what will we have to do to earn a spot in the game's history and lore?
Brax- In a word, yes. We want you to be part of as much of the lore and history as you have a right to be.


Q: Will you make up unique names for in game seasons and months, or just use real life names? If you will, can you post them soon so we can start using them in game lore?
Brax- We are going to come up with our own names for the months. We're not doing seasons right now, as I said earlier. But as I said, we're coming up with our own names for months, and we'll send them out to you as they're finalized.


Q: Will the venders in the four starting cities be seeded with equipment at the game launch?
Leostri- That would be determined by the players and their merchants.

Brax- And we're not going to tell you how to be one of those lucky players just yet.


Q: How do you see dungeons playing out? We can assume players will compare them to other MMO dungeons, and you'd probably disagree with that. What makes ToA dungeons different?
Brax- Everything about our dungeons make them different. They're not persistent. They may be for a day, a week, a month. They might feel like they are always there, but eventually they will go away and new ones will pop up from place to place. From within, you're not going to do your typical dungeon runs, where you try to slaughter everything on your way to the boss. The boss might not even be the main achievement of the dungeon. There might not even BE an achievement in the dungeon. Imagine that! Some dungeons will be, once you enter, you cannot exit out the same whole, the same way. So you got to find your own exit. And our dungeons will be, I hope as you suspect, very, very, dark. Unless there is an actual light source, I hope you bring a lot of light-source (torches).

Varl- Think black. Lots of black.

Leostri- So if you plan on doing dungeon-crawls, then you better come prepared with lots of torches.

Varl- And our creatures, some of them I imagine, will be able to see in the dark when you can't. So, have fun out there!


Q: How will throwing weapons work? Will you just throw your main weapon, or will there be dedicated throwing weapons for us to use?
Brax- There are going to be dedicated throwing weapons.


Q: Can you comment on mounts and if we'll get them as stretch goals? and if there will be flying, sea-faring, and underwater mounts? If there are quadrupedal races implemented at some point, will the characters be able to be player mounts?
Brax- The first part of the question, mounts could very well make it in as a stretch goal. We just want to get to our goal first. Then we'll reveal all our stretch goals. Types of mounts, probably the basic at first: your horse. We'll start from there and work up to the more exotics. As far as Quadrupedal races, player races, absolutely. When they do come into the game, they will be able to act as player's mounts. They have total control over if they want to be somebody's mount or not. You can't just come up to your Centaur and say…

Varl- "Cummon Jonny! Lets go!" "What the hell? Get the hell off of me! Do I look like a horse to you?" "Well, you're a Centaur." "Oh, ok!"

Brax- And if you are on a mount that is another player, they have total control of the movement, not you.


Q: Will there be a possibility of killing a player in one hit in any circumstances? Especially for would-be assassins.
Brax- In short, yeah. Absolutely! It would have to be a massive amount of damage, but it's possible. I'm sure some of our creatures are going to be able to pull it off.

Varl- How tough do you think that's going to be with our normal weaponry?

Brax- Maybe a head-shot. But you will have to be very lucky.


Q: Will there be rare, special artifacts that are unique and somehow lore connected?
Brax- We're going to have some magic items in the game. We've hinted at that in our lore. Very, very rare. Very unique. Every magic item will have a history to it. Whether you can dig that up or not is up to you. Maybe you have to do that in order to activate the item. Who knows.


Q: Will tamed creatures scale with the character's level, or will they be their own independent entity leveling up.
Brax- This is not WoW. No levels. No hunter class. You're pet can gain in skills, certain skills mind you. But they will do it at their own speed.


Q: When will you guys show us the map of TerVarus? Doesn't have to be a very detailed one. Even a rough sketch of the land would be good enough.
Brax- Back when we were ShadowPool, we were adamant against showing you the map prior to launch. That will probably change. Because of what we have shown in the Navigation article that we posted, the map is only going to give you a high-level view of the world. It's going with the assumption you have grown up in TerVarus. You kinda get an idea which directions certain things are. Certain landmarks or regions of the world. So, there's really not going to be any harm in showing you the map prior to launch. When we have something put together we may throw it out there.


Q: In what ways can I decorate my house? Flower pots? Paintings? How about Pikes on Heads! I mean Heads on Pikes?
Brax- The goal is to allow you as much customization as possible. I was just thinking about this the other day. I would like nothing better than you to build the exterior of the building. Then the interior is essentially a skeleton where you can place wall panels, I dunno, four feet wide by floor to ceiling. So you can essentially block-out your own rooms. Even have some of those panels be secret panels or secret doors. I'll give you a tool to place things on walls. To, put things onto the floor, and move them around. That's the goal. I'm not going to promise anything at this point, but I put a lot of importance on house customization 'cause it is a pretty big deal to me. So if it is not in at launch, then it will be soon after.


Q: Will there be, and how will the mail system work? Sending items and messages to far settlements.
Brax- I think you guys will get a kick out of this one. We're not going to have a mail system. Well, that's not true. You will be our mail system. We're going to have a contract system in place where you can contract with other players to take your items and deliver them to another place by a certain time. You pay a deposit, that sort of thing. If you want to be a courier, we've just opened up an entire industry.


Q: Will you be able to look at the statistics of your current character? As in: Bunnies killed; Miles walked; Buildings built; Trees chopped; People killed; Money earned; Playtime; Etcetera!
Brax- This is something I've been pondering, I don't know if I've even covered it with Varl and Leostri, but, I think a great thing is, once you are perms-dead, to reveal all these stats to you. Kinda like, "here's your final score!" And I use the word "score" very, very loosely. or "Here is your final Lore!" Hopefully in a very organic way. Not just a bunch of statistics. But definitely, I think that could be a very good thing to look back on your character and say, "Wow! I can't believe I killed two hundred bunnies!"

Leostri- So if they have a significant contribution to the world at this point, is there a chance that we could determine whether or not they were significant enough to get their name into the Monolith?

Brax- Absolutely! Worst case, we'll review from time to time all the "death records," if you will, and those that we see that stand out, we will put their names into the monolith. Also, if these stats get implemented, they will be available to the public. That's my goal is so you can look at other players who have since Permadied.

Varl- A hall of records, of a sort.


Q: Can traps be added to a homestead or the world in general?
Brax- Yes, there will be trap-setting for containers and doors and what-not.


Q: Will tamed pets die when you die and will you have to get a new pet when they do [die]?
Brax- No, pets won't die just because you die. They don't have that much empathy for you. They will live until they themselves are killed.


Q: Can players attack and do damage with bare hands? And is there an associated skill with that?
Brax- Sure, you can attack other people with bare hands. You can duke it out with other people. Unarmed combat. Skill and innovations with that? uh…We'll have to see.


Q: Will you be able to die your clothing, armor, and or weapons?
Brax- Probably not armor and weapons, but definitely clothing.


Q: Will the game be seemingly single-shard, or multi-shard like other MMO's?
Brax- It'll be multi-shard. I don't know if the technology is there with our engine to support a single server. And I would rather error on the side of caution and split it into multiple shards.


Q: Will mages have access to spell that can do siege damage?
Brax- There are certain spells that can damage certain structures. I'm going to leave it at that.


Q: Will NPC enemies, like bandits, loot a player's corpse after killing him, or will the corpse be left on the ground for another player to come and loot.
Brax- If the NPC bandit likes what he sees what you got on your corpse, then he'll take it. Otherwise he'll leave it.

Varl- So they will search you?

Brax- Sure. They killed you, they want the loot.


Q: Do new characters start with money? and how do we get food on day one?
Brax- The characters start with zero money. But we are going to provide you with, I'd assume, a pretty ample amount of food and water to start you off. So you should be good to go for quite a while.

Varl- Yeah, you won't starve to death on day one. We're not that mean.

Brax- Well, unless you get all your food taken away from you, stolen or something.

[Azurite]

New update!

Healing

In a game with perma-death, a healer's role is going to be an incredibly important one. They will literally extend the lives of others. We recognize this importance and have gone the extra mile in its designs. Some of you will love it while some might not care for it. Regardless, you won't be able to finish this article and say healing will be a boring lifestyle.

All good healers will know that damage comes in two forms; loss of hit points and critical wounds. Each must be dealt with separately using various skills and techniques. Before we get into those details, let's go over how a healer would know who is wounded.

As many of you know, ToA will use a reticule system meaning your mouse movement is locked to the center of the screen. For example, if you move your mouse left, your character will turn left. To gauge a person's overall health, you will reticule over him in close proximity to him. The proximity will be influenced by your perception attribute, but even the most keen of eyes will not be able to detect a characters health at more than a few dozen meters. When close enough to see their health, you will see a small health bar representing their hit points along with an icon for each critical wound they may have. There will be no options to list all your friends health bars. Even if it was offered, it wouldn't do much good because A) someone can't be healed while in combat and B) the healer must be right next to the patient before attempting to heal them anyway.

It's worth going over how one loses hit points and gains critical wounds. When you take damage via melee, missile and magic, it reduces your hit points. If your hit points are reduced to zero or less, you fall unconscious. If your hit points drop to a certain negative number that is determined by another attribute, fortitude, you die. Simple enough, right? You will receive a critical wound when an attack against you has been extraordinarily successful. Critical wounds are debilitating and will make your character a much easier target.

The good news is hit points recover on their own given enough time. The bad news is a critical wound will only heal with the aid of a healer or until your character's next death.

So how does a healer go about helping those in need?

Let's first talk about helping someone to recover their hit points. When you reticule over someone and see they are low on hit points, you can hit a 'bandage' hotkey. Assuming you have the right supplies in your inventory and you nor your patient is in combat, the healing attempt will begin. The attempt only takes a few seconds but if the healer or patient moves or takes any damage the attempt will fail. Upon a successful skill check of your Field Dressing skill you will have helped to accelerate the rate at which the patient regains hit points. Notice he doesn't gain them back instantaneously.

The other, more complex, side of healing is the critical wounds. This is what will separate the field medics from the doctors.

Critical wounds are split into four types, each of which will have a skill and techniques the player can use to attempt to heal them. The wound types are: organ, flesh, bone, and infections. Some examples would be a ruptured kidney, gaping laceration, and a fractured skull. Infections cover all infections, poisons, and diseases.

When you reticule over someone and see they have a critical wound icon, you would press the 'heal' hotkey. Your potential patient will be asked to confirm your attempted heal at which time he will lay down (becoming very susceptible to attack) for the duration of the healing attempt. Just like with bandaging, should the healer or patient take any damage or move, the attempt will automatically fail. Here's where it gets complex. Each critical wound will have its own set of steps that must be followed in order to begin healing of the wound. Each step might request certain items (scalpel, bandages, splints, salves, etc) or certain locations (an apothecary) but might also let you attempt the heal without them. Be careful though - attempting a heal without the right items or in less than ideal conditions will impact your chance of success and in severe cases could come with unseen ramifications (not using antiseptic on your patient was a good idea at the time...). Assuming you have successfully treated the critical wound, its severity will begin to diminish until it either completely heals or needs more medical attention.

And there you have it, healing, ToA style!

[dylan_the_rabbit]

Well, I've followed the links and read the additional material. What can I say?...

This Game needs to happen.


I'm thoroughly impressed by the scope of Forged Chaos's ambition, so much so I've joined the forum and I will definitely be contributing to the kickstarter campaign when it's launched.

I would encourage anyone else on the LoTN forum, to give a bit of their time to read the extra information on the ToA website and listen to the podcasts. Perhaps you will become as enthralled with the concept as I am.

Maybe this could become one of the 'projects' that have been discussed on other threads here. Something that the everyone on LoTN can get involved in together, heck we'd probably have enough people to form the basis of our own settlement.

Northern Legacy Village anyone?

I need this game in my life, hell when it gets released it'll probably become my life.

Spread the word.

[Azurite]

Glad I found another believer! ^^

Interrogation

Interrogation is another feature of ToA that you don't see much of in other games, especially in MMOs. It opens a whole range of opportunities and adds an insane amount of dynamics to the game.

In order to interrogate someone they will need to be unconscious. Yes, we know you can't really interrogate someone if they are knocked out. It's sort of implied that even though they are out of it they are coherent enough to possibly answer your questions.

There will be a long list of information you can attempt to extract from your target ranging from their name to the secrets of their innovations! The difficulty of extracting information is based on the information you want. Pulling someone's name is relatively easy but you'll be in for a tough go if you try to get their innovation.

Once you've got an unconscious target, you'll select from a list the information you want to attempt to get and select what technique of interrogation you'd like to use to get it. Will you use persuasion, intimidation, or trickery? Each technique has its own advantages and disadvantages and plays against different attributes of your target. For example attempting to trick a target that has a high intelligence probably won't net you anything. Assuming your attempt is successful, you'll get the information you're after.

You can only ask for so much information before your target becomes immune to your efforts.

Finally, interrogating someone will cause you to lose reputation with their settlement and if you're caught in the act you can be attacked and killed with no repercussion to your attacker's reputations. Our advice - choose your targets wisely.

[Azurite]

Permission System

The concept of the permission system is really straight forward. On various objects you own such as your land, the items on your land (such as crops), your house, your treasury strongbox and even your body, you will be able to designate who can affect it in various ways that will allow them to avoid the usual consequences which is typically being flagged as a criminal.

Each object will have its own unique list of permissions. For example, on your body, you can designate who can legally loot your corpse, steal from you, and/or attack you. Your house on the other hand would have permissions like who can build/repair it, who can be inside, who can open which door, who can move items within the house, and who can take items from the house.

You will be able to set these permissions to an individual, to the citizens of a settlement, and/or even globally.

You will be able to modify any of the permissions you've given.

Hmmm, I thought it would take more to describe permissions but I think that sums it up. It just goes to show that the design is as simple and elegant as it is functional. The mark of a real sandbox feature!

[Azurite]

Plagues & Diseases

First off, let me say that the introduction of diseases into TOA was an easy decision. As dynamic and organic as the systems of the game are, the inclusion of diseases felt like a natural thing. What I will touch upon in this article are a few of the effects of diseases upon not only the players, but upon the world of TerVarus.

Most of the MMOs of today do not have diseases or plagues that directly impact players. The effects that could be considered a disease are often called dots, or damage over time spells. These effects seldom if ever have any conditions, variability or incubation periods of any significance. At worst, they temporarily deal damage or some other minor debilitating effect that comes with very short durations.

While these types of diseases are a viable option when it comes to implementing a diseases and plagues system, they should, for the most part, be considered minor or weak diseases. Plagues, on the other hand, are virtually unknown in MMOs today. Something as serious as a full blown plague isn’t something the conventional MMO development teams are willing to subject their fans to, out of fear such negative effects within the game might cause players to become frustrated with the effects, and possibly unsubscribe.

Let’s look closer at the reasons why diseases and plagues become another obstacle or objective to be overcome by the players.

The Benefits

While it might seem a bit odd to try and see the benefits of diseases and plagues, but there are some. The most obvious benefit of the presence of disease are healers. Healers typically are treated as walking medics in MMOs as hit point regenerators, but they’re not usually thought of as disease curers because the diseases that exist in MMOs aren’t worth having spells to cure diseases.

A Few Examples

In TOA, Hell Hounds aren’t going to be the flame-shrouded monsters of ash and fire you think of when you think Hell Hound. Hell Hounds are going to be disease and plague carriers, and what a better reason to have healers in TOA than if you’re unfortunate enough to survive a Hell Hound attack. The sources of diseases are many and wide ranging. Certain plants might spread disease, dead carcasses could, and there might even be area-affecting plagues where the contagion is airborne.

The possibilities of diseases in TOA are great as are the myriad of effects each might have. Certain diseases might not be curable at first, and require an incubation period before they can be cured. A disease might have contagious effects that spread by touch, taste or proximity. A disease might go dormant in TOA for months or years of real time, and then suddenly re-emerge upon the unsuspecting masses. A disease might have subtle exposure triggers that you might not think could spread a disease. You might be required to have an innovation in order to cure a disease! Healers eventually might be able to cleanse an entire area of a plague. Some diseases might even cure themselves by having a fixed incubation period and then fizzling out by itself.

It’s not just about the positives of removing diseases, either. Some diseases could be used strategically against enemies, forcing the defenders healers to focus entirely upon curing the diseases the enemy inflicts. Imagine the puzzles that healers will have to solve!

Negatives into Positives

How does one turn a negative like a disease or plague into a positive? Well, from the player’s perspective, it is to find cures for the diseases, if there is a cure to be found. For the staff of TOA, it’s our ability to create and run in-game events centered around the idea of a disease outbreak or plague event spreading across TerVarus. To my knowledge, no other MMO has ever attempted diseases and plagues on the scale we’re thinking, but we at Forged Chaos think it’s high time there be other threats to the characters in TerVarus more than just monsters and other players, and we’re confident that our players will be able to handle anything we try and throw at them.

Conclusion

Remember, diseases can and will come from a myriad of causes. Some will be minor irritating things that can be easily cured while others might be contagions that spread like wildfire throughout TerVarus unchecked (or at least until a healer innovates or discovers a cure for it!). This article merely inflicts a minor rash upon the unsuspecting character; the real danger has yet to be identified.

[Azurite]

It now has its own Kickstarter!