Europa Development: March 2010.

[erikbreau]

I open the discussion on what should be included in the next development stage.

Suggestions anyone?

[grob1of20]

Re: essence availability

The other day we talked about an apparent shortage of fire essence, and possibly of earth essence as well.

I've since been keeping notes, and discovered (depending on level) beetles drop 2-6 earth essence, gargoyles drop 2-4 earth essence, and spiders drop 2-6 water essence. Assuming you can extract the essence from the parts those creatures drop, it is only a matter of a few minutes gathering to obtain a large stock of earth essence (thanks to high spawn counts for beetles in Lindsey). Those earthy bits can then be converted to Power and the Power converted into a mix of all elements.

A quick trip to Lindsey can currently provide all the Fire (and everything else) essence you need for an evening of crafting, despite the 50% inefficiency of converting Earth essence into Power essence.

I see no need to shoehorn extra fire elementals into the game. I like the current flavor of them only existing at locations of high power.

Also, despite the relative rarity of earth elementals, Earth essence is by far the most heavily spawned thanks to the distillation of beetle and gargoyle parts.

[erikbreau]

Agreed. However, after I took time from the build yesterday and looked at all the dropped objects currently in play that can be distilled into essences...

•Bat teeth, Ghoul Claws, Wraith Residue & Wyvern Scales (Air).
•Dire Boar Tusk, Skeleton Ribs, Beetle Glands & Gargoyle Horns (Earth).
•Ghoul Claws, Ghast Claws, Wraith Residue (Power).
•Dire Wold Tooth, Ice Mephit Hide, Spider Venom Gland & Bugbear Tusk (Water).

...I realized that there were NO distillable materials for Fire Essence in play as drops other than the obvious dropped by Fire Elementals (as all essences are dropped by their elemental equivalent).

So, I have come up with an idea... WHAT IF, Faint and Weak Fire Essences were not dropped by spawns as loot, but rather, could be cultivated from an items called a firestone? Players would have to seek them out underground, but they could be farmed...they might have a chance of exploding when farmed, or have some form of firetrap? All manner of possibilities are available...

Any thoughts?

Erik.

[grob1of20]

You could work something like limited pyromines into a faction system. Each faction controls a locked mine, and you have to be on good terms with the shopkeeper selling the key. There's phleblotenem in the center of the planet, and helping your faction increases the spawn rate of your mines.

[erikbreau]

This could be done. However, I already have something planned of the sort for the "Paths" that PCs can select after the last Plot Node (after Glastenbury Tor).

I was thinking of something simpler and more immediate that won't take the players away from the quests and plots.

More suggestions? I mean, the obvious would be to add more alternative drops that can be distilled into fire essences, like Demon and Devil Blood. OR, to add a new creature, a 'fire clan' based enemy who would have faint and weak fire essences?

Erik.

[erikbreau]

It was also pointed out by Pelle-Plutt that there are a significant abundance of materials in Europa... really too many. Animal skins, faerie dusts and spider glands abound!
I think this is very true... and steps are being taken that will ensure that not every creature killed drops a material. It will be reduced to 1/4 or less, letting the AI decide which one of the creatures should be summoned on a spawn. Pure chance.
The downside is that this will create a situation where a little more grinding will need to take place...however, that also opens up the door to team-play and cooperative adventuring for crafting and non-crafting characters.

Erik.

[kworgoth]

Yeah I think you'r right. Up until now, Europa has really been a soloist's paradise, in which most quests can be completed by 1 char at early stages (Grob has proven that). It's tough to implement too many group quests because there aren't a lot of players, however a few more would be good.
-Another small glitch I would like to report is just the random zoning when I near one of the zone lines. I know it is probably due to lag, but I often find myself close or not close at all to a zoning point, then zoning, sometimes right into enemies, he he.

[kworgoth]

Erik, I also think that getting Grob on the building bandwagon would be great for the server, . Just a suggestion.

[erikbreau]

Well, that depends on 1) IF Grob is interested, he already does a ton of test playing for us...lol & 2) if he has skills that can be put to use?

Grob?
Care to comment?

As for the zoning issue, I'm really not sure what is happening there. Could be a server issue, could be a end-user issue? Note that when some players experience this zoning issue, others online at the same time do not...

Erik.

[grob1of20]

Yes, I am interested in helping to build Europa.

I'm familiar with the NWN1 toolset, but have not started playing with the NWN2 toolset because it will crash every time I start it. I've made a fairly advanced character trainer module, and designed a few dungeons. I've been playing D&D for a long time, and know what a large variety of character builds are capable of and how to challenge them.

I've taken a handful of programming courses, and once upon a time wrote a DOS based tic-tac-toe game in C++. I'm an adequately skilled scripter.

I've also formally studied Psychology, and have read numerous articles on reinforcement schedules in RPGs.

I'm using 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate on an i5 750, 8GB RAM, with Folding@Home and 2 virtual machines (both running 32-bit Windows XP Pro with 2GB RAM) going in the background at all times. It is likely a 64-bit compatibility issue.

I'm going to try bumping up the RAM on one of the virtual machines and installing NWN2 there.

I'll let you know when I get the toolset working.

Mar 14, 2010 14:24:08 GMT -5 kworgoth said:

most quests can be completed by 1 char at early stages (Grob has proven that). It's tough to implement too many group quests because there aren't a lot of players, however a few more would be good.

I think it would be very difficult to start a rogue or wizard if the early game were balanced to be challenging to a Barbarian with 20 STR and 16 CON in Full Platemail. Grob's build is specifically designed to be highly survivable at low levels - it is always the first character I create to explore a new server.

As the server ages, the tendency will be a cluster of characters at high levels and almost nobody at low or mid levels. You can either work with that, or give high level characters a reason to be in low level areas or to create low level alts.

One way to encourage cross-level cooperation without forced grouping is level-capped dungeons that hold single-use keys to higher level dungeons.

A more group-questy design would be to have a lever in a low level dungeon that opens a door in a high level dungeon (and a ways behind that door is a lever that opens a door in the low level dungeon, allowing access to a lever to open the next door, and so on). To complete this quest, you NEED at lest two players (forced grouping).

To encourage the endgame cluster of characters to play together without strictly forcing it, try mixing creature types with different vulnerabilities. For example, Iron Golems are immune to magic, while Stone Golems are highly resistant to physical damage - put them in the same room. Maybe there is a mechanism in the room that forces slain Golems to instantly respawn, and a disable device check would shut it down. The portal/door to the next area is behind several layers of bashable/blastable rubble that will take a dangerous amount of time to clear.

[grob1of20]

Toolset is working on Windows XP.

[pelleplutt]

Mar 15, 2010 22:50:50 GMT -5 grob1of20 said:

I think it would be very difficult to start a rogue or wizard if the early game were balanced to be challenging to a Barbarian with 20 STR and 16 CON in Full Platemail. Grob's build is specifically designed to be highly survivable at low levels - it is always the first character I create to explore a new server.

As the server ages, the tendency will be a cluster of characters at high levels and almost nobody at low or mid levels. You can either work with that, or give high level characters a reason to be in low level areas or to create low level alts.

One way to encourage cross-level cooperation without forced grouping is level-capped dungeons that hold single-use keys to higher level dungeons.

A more group-questy design would be to have a lever in a low level dungeon that opens a door in a high level dungeon (and a ways behind that door is a lever that opens a door in the low level dungeon, allowing access to a lever to open the next door, and so on). To complete this quest, you NEED at lest two players (forced grouping).

To encourage the endgame cluster of characters to play together without strictly forcing it, try mixing creature types with different vulnerabilities. For example, Iron Golems are immune to magic, while Stone Golems are highly resistant to physical damage - put them in the same room. Maybe there is a mechanism in the room that forces slain Golems to instantly respawn, and a disable device check would shut it down. The portal/door to the next area is behind several layers of bashable/blastable rubble that will take a dangerous amount of time to clear.

These are good suggestions. I like them.

[erikbreau]

And these suggestions have been taken into great consideration.

Europa will be changing. She will be REBORN!
Read the new post on the development of ~Europa II~

This post will now be closed.
Erik.