World of Lodor Uploaded - Trial Basis

[Morrus]

OK, I'm giving another module a try. This one is called World of Lodor.

It may need some changes made. It doesn't have Item Level Restriction (apparently that's necessary for some of the sub-race stuff incuded in it). I'm not overly familiar with the module, though, so I'll be learning about it at the same time you are.

1. A deity system to further expand your character. 2. Extra playable races - Drow, Quickling, Brownie, Sylvan, & Duergar.

3. Skills - Alchemy, Mining, & Fishing.

4. Respawnable traps.

5. Factions and reputations.

6. Persistent mapping of areas you explore.

7. Huge, beautiful world spanning over 200 areas.

8. Banks to store gold.

9. Quests that unlock special abilities.

10. Dynamic magical weapons & armor provide thousands of combinations.

11. Dynamic quest system making each quest different.

12. Quest rewarded races - Ogre, Sprite, Minotaur, & Vampire.

Q. What is the World of Lodor?

A. Lodor is months of work on a huge world of my own design. Taking the experience of many online games, I created a game that I think would be fun for all. I plan to improve on Lodor based on player suggestions.

Q. What skills are in the game.

A. Not as many as others. I know some like sitting around making things for hours and hours, but this server is mainly for adventuring. I have a mining skill for those who need metal. You can get wood from destroying many wooden objects. Fishing skill allows one to get food when they are far from home. The alchemy skill allows more options of potion creation. This allows the average fighter to learn enough to make themselves some heal potions. Those with the Brew Potion Feat get an advantage when using the alchemy skill. These skills get better the more you use them. They rank from 1 to 100 except for alchemy, which can get much higher to make Potions of Preservation and such.

Q. What do religions do?

A. Religions are a way to expand your character beyond the NWN standards. A god gives you special abilities and is a great way to role-play wars between religions. It is difficult to keep a religion as it is easy to anger the god you worship. You cannot join a religion at character creation like most modules. You must find the altar for the appropriate god and do the quest they need before they welcome you. You will get a ring with special abilities. Make sure to keep the ring on your hand at all times, or your god will release you.

Q. How do quests work?

A. Quest items cannot be found by anyone unless they are given a quest. This makes room for more exploration as you won't find a normal quest item and ask what it is for. You will have to find out on your own. There is a dynamic quest system that makes random quests in some areas. Other quests offer rewards such as Magic Armor Craft and Crystal Alchemy. Some quests unlock playable races such as the Minotaur or Ogre.

Q. How does the death system work?

A. Before turning level 4, you will suffer no death penalties. This will hopefully get your character going in Lodor. After level 3, all of the items that you are equipped with will drop to the ground where you died, as will all your gold. You have 20 minutes to get back to your loot before the tombstone vanishes. Hope is still not lost. The items on the tombstone will drop to the ground after that. As long as no one enters the zone and leaves, initiating the zone cleanup script, your stuff will stay there for awhile. Beware...any player can loot your tombstone. You can get insurance for your items at the local bank.

Q. How does the Vampire race work?

A. To become a vampire, a quest must be completed. Brownies, Sprites, Quicklings, Ogres, & Minotaurs cannot do this quest. After becoming a vampire, the road is very dangerous. You gain many immunity bonuses and some other bonuses such as turning to bat form and fly back to your grave site, or assume wolf form and run the lands faster than man. You no longer need ropes to climb surfaces. You no longer need food or drink but you do need blood. That is where the potential challenge comes in. As you kill creatures with blood, your blood supply will grow. Killing creatures such as undead and constructs will not give you blood, obviously. Blood is needed to assume bat or wolf form, it is also used to rest. If you die, you lose 5 units of blood. If you go below 0 blood units, you are dead forever and you will spend that time in Hell. There is no coming back from this so remember the risks before becoming a vampire. Becoming a vampire will turn you Chaotic/Evil and the other races will try to kill you on site. If you are above ground during the day, the sun will surely deal with you with instant death. It is a challenge and some players may want that challenge. Remember, Preservation will not only save you from any XP loss, but it will also save a vampire from blood loss.

Q. Can I get bound to areas, like EQ and DAOC?

A. There are Trees Of Bereavement that you can find that will bind your soul to that tree. Upon death, you will spawn at the tree. Trees are located throughout Lodor. Vampires cannot be bound to trees as they have no soul. They must find a nearby crypt or tomb and get bound to a coffin instead.

Q. I have an item I found that I cannot drop. What do I do to get rid of it?

A. You may run into items from time to time that cannot be dropped because they are probably meant for a quest. Sometimes, you get the item by accident or you may have gotten a quest you forgot about. If you cannot complete the quest and you want to get rid of the item, you may buy Orbs of Vanishing at the local provisioner to remove these items from your inventory.

Q. What is Item Insurance?

A. Item insurance was an idea taken from UO, where you can insure items in order to keep them after death. There will be an insurance vault in the local banks that you can purchase item insurance. Insurance rates are calculated at ITEM COST/50. Any ring acquired from a religion does not need any insurance.

Q. How has invisibility changed?

A. Invisibility works the same as in NWN, but one difference...if you are opening a chest or door, any creature that is less than 6 meters away from you will probably spot you.

Q. How does the food and water system work?

A. Food and water are used only at rest time. You need one unit of food and one water to rest. You can also use wine, spirits, and ale instead of water. Food consists of cooked meat or cooked fish. You can get raw meat from killing animals and then cook the meat next to a fire. You can buy fishing spears and fish for food as well. Your fishing skill will improve the more you fish. Your water flask can be filled at almost any water source. You have a food pouch that you can use to put food in. If you pouch has 10 units of food, then it is full. You will have to carry cooked meat and fish in your pack then. Vampires require blood and no longer require food. The principles are pretty much the same.

Q. Is this your first world module?

A. No. This is my second world module. The first was the World of Rhun. The World of Rhun was not designed for persistence as it was more focused on local vault characters. Reading different posts on the Internet about Rhun, I found that Rhun gave too much too fast. Taking this, and other comments, I made a new world that will hopefully challenge people in a better way than Rhun.

Q. So this server is designed for Local Vault characters?

A. No. It is strictly designed for Server Vault.

 

[Chaz]

Ok thanks Morrus. Good of you to give something new a try. I will have a look at it also.
The "drop all gold and items on death" and the "need food & water to rest" things are pretty hard core though...

Peace

 

[cantrip]

And a warning to those who want to bring existing characters:
All gear and gold is lost on entering the world

 

[Chaz]

And a warning to those who want to bring existing characters:
All gear and gold is lost on entering the world

Yea i can verify that for sure. Lost everything on a char. Can we get this shut off?
I took a 2nd lev char in that i had. Lost everything. Anyway... its hard to get started ... cant sell furs or anything. The requirment for food and water is just a pain element that id like to see go.

Anyway can we get the item/gold stripping thing turned off? I will wait to look at the MOD further untill it is.

Peace

 

[Neo]

Few comments/observations so far...

The item/gold stripping when you first log in with a character thing is tied i think to the No Item Level Restriction issue needing to be switched off for custom subraces in an attempt to maintain the balance of the module. The mod is not a powergaming mod like PoA and is more like CHAINMAIL in that items are pretty rare whatever armour and weapons you get and gold you earn you are supposed to make or earn for yourselves. Allowing an influx of PoA items and fortunes wouldnt provide a proper World of Lodor experience for the purpose of giving this mod a legitemate try out.

I'd suggest everyone make a new character just for the trial..and if the mod is later decided upon as a PoA replacement then we can look into sorting something for existing characters/assets?

The food and drink issue to be honest i didnt really find anywhere near as awkward and cumbersome as such things are in many other mods... water and food can be found everywhere! But then you could argue if that was the case then why does it need representing as its obviously not an issue to a character

The loot/gold dropping over 4th is something im not in favour of at all... if you lose all your gear some way away from where you were your expected to run unarmed and naked back to where you died to get them from your headstone...but when you leave a map all the creatures you defeated respawn so next time you run through you trigger and attract all the same old creatures again including the one which killed you...its just not practical.

Havent seen too much in regards of the dynamic quests yet but each starting town seems to have one person who asks you to do something..though these tasks are typically a lot tougher than the ones they are given too.

Different races starting in a different location is a nice idea but the custom factions are a total pain in the butt.. demi humans who dont like your faction dont just ignore you they can outright attack you.. and be warned very VERY few of the NPC's in the various towns are below CR 20! just walking into a tavern can get you killed in seconds as one of the NPC's in there registers his faction hates yours... This is also a problem as it tends to encourage you not to wander outside your starting town and adjoining maps, and also to hang with just members of your own race, which is not entirely practical... Of course you can do things to alter your factions such as being partied with a member of another race..but such faction changes to the positive are far too few and far between to be of much use when you have a CR 20 spellcaster chasing you down the street throwing implosions

lots of crafting and additions to the standard system of crafting which are nice and the maps are well done if somewhat light on locations. Respawns are a little too fast too..as are monsters abilities to move through a transition...you can be on a few hit points and run during a fight hit a transition point ahead of your enemy only to arrive the other side and find them waiting for you..smack..thud...time for a respawn something to be aware of.

Banking system is a nice touch and one a wholeheartedly support! though again factions can prevent banking with any banker except of your own species, so if you head to another town suddenyl you can find yourself cut off from your cash.

 

[Greylock]

Again, hopefully I will be patched by tomorrow night. Lookin' forward to seeing what subraces are offered, and how they are handled...

 

[Chaz]

Few comments/observations so far...

The item/gold stripping when you first log in with a character thing is tied i think to the No Item Level Restriction issue needing to be switched off for custom subraces in an attempt to maintain the balance of the module. The mod is not a powergaming mod like PoA and is more like CHAINMAIL in that items are pretty rare whatever armour and weapons you get and gold you earn you are supposed to make or earn for yourselves. Allowing an influx of PoA items and fortunes wouldnt provide a proper World of Lodor experience for the purpose of giving this mod a legitemate try out.

I'd suggest everyone make a new character just for the trial..and if the mod is later decided upon as a PoA replacement then we can look into sorting something for existing characters/assets?

Ummm yeah.... Most of these MODS are set up for new chars coming in. I was thinking we were trying to find a stable world that we could bring our exssiting chars in so we DIDNT have to start all over again.

And as far as just checking out the new MOD goes... Here again since it sounded like it was put up for a short test it seemed like the best way to really have a look at it was to go in with a CHAR that you could actualy take someplace and look around. Not to easy with a brand new poor char you have to play hours and hours to get where he can do anything and live.

""Allowing an influx of PoA items and fortunes wouldnt provide a proper World of Lodor experience for the purpose of giving this mod a legitemate try out.""

I was hoping more for a stable world for my chars to explore and continue to grow than a "new Mod" to try out from scratch. Sure I will likely make a new char or two along the way. But right now im just looking to try out chars I already have weeks/months invested in.

Anyway thats why id like to see the item/gold stripping eliminated.

Peace

 

[cantrip]

I was supposed to write this last night after playing, but my laptop ran out of power, and I wasn't going to get up from bed to plug it in

First thing: The save mechanism has to be modified or removed. It's irritating and more importantly distracting.

The world itself looks like a nice place. Although for even 16 players it's huge. Especially if they are of several different races.
I have so far seen the human lands in the north, some of the halfling lands in the east, and travelled naked through the Underpass from the orcish jungles of the south, reaching the surface near the human lands, taking a ship to the elven city in the northwest(Where the epic half-orc was killed by the first elf to catch him).

I think Neo mentioned most of my other concerns.
The death penalty is too severe, and also too easy to cheat.
The factions are a nice touch, but in a short playtest they severely limit what you can do.
The racial starting locations being scattered around the world.

Bugs: If two people(presumably of the same party) are dead and close to eachother, one of them trying to respawn seems to save a chance of bringing the other character back to life(with death penalties enforced), but also preventing the other from respawning. Every time he tries to respawn, the other character is healed to full HP, and suffers the equipment and XP loss as if he had died and respawned.

Other stuff: Most of the encounters seem to be fixed, or with very little scaling so far. The kobold mines spawned similar critters whether the people going there were 1st, 5th, 18th or 29tth level. On the other hand a goblin cave somewhere near halfling lands upgraded all goblins to either hobgoblins or bugbears, don't remember exactly, between levels 1 and 5.

Magic items may be fixed too, except for quest rewards, which seem to come customized to the person doing the quest.(I've seen one quest through twice, so that may or may not be true, and at 5th level, mostly thanks to the previously mentioned bug I found myself in possession of a +2 warhammer with extra cold damage)

Now I'll have some breakfast and then I'll try to repeat some of last nights events(no not all the deaths ).

 

[Neo]

On the other hand a goblin cave somewhere near halfling lands upgraded all goblins to either hobgoblins or bugbears, don't remember exactly, between levels 1 and 5.

The Purg has fixed encounters too bud, those Hobgoblins and cave goblins were spawned by me when I came on as DM to resolve the problem with you being stuck as dead unable to respawn.

 

[Neo]

Ummm yeah.... Most of these MODS are set up for new chars coming in. I was thinking we were trying to find a stable world that we could bring our exssiting chars in so we DIDNT have to start all over again.

And as far as just checking out the new MOD goes... Here again since it sounded like it was put up for a short test it seemed like the best way to really have a look at it was to go in with a CHAR that you could actualy take someplace and look around. Not to easy with a brand new poor char you have to play hours and hours to get where he can do anything and live.


I was hoping more for a stable world for my chars to explore and continue to grow than a "new Mod" to try out from scratch. Sure I will likely make a new char or two along the way. But right now im just looking to try out chars I already have weeks/months invested in.

Anyway thats why id like to see the item/gold stripping eliminated.

Peace

Heya Chaz

Mod Stability is important certainly but that is just one criteria on the list of what is being sought..afterall we have a stable mod already PoA but what were looking for is a more inclusive experience on all fronts, in order to get a persistent mod that has a decent lifespan.

In order to "experience" a mod as it is intended it is necessary initially to work through it as it was designed from first.. this allows you to guages whether encounters balance well, items drop suitably, areas and merchants are accessible enough.. whether the whole progression works fine via quests or simple exploration.. it isnt so much about coming on with an epic guy and being able to go wherever in a sight seeing fashion at least not for the initial trial anyway.

If this mod is the one that is decided upon then im sure the item/gold removal for existing characters can be resolved "Post" trial but until then I think its important people experience the module as it was intended in order to see what the merits and flaws of it are in a "realistic" experience of it from the ground up.

Also bare in mind if this module is kept that it is also quite likely that PoA items would be removed anyway for a number of reasons..so experiencing the module geared up to the eyeballs would only serve to give people a rose tinted view of how their charaters would function in the World of Lodor, which isnt helpful for purposes of getting a fair and honest trial.