Randomly decided to check in after years and see talk of Doordie and Amel. Lots of fun memories! Arguably my first long time character, Narwyn, ended up closely aligned with Amel as his protege.
Doordie was one of the best RP's I ever played with. His stories, with his character Amel, were amazing. Rich, deep, complex. I hope Doordie is doing well! You have a really great Uncle!
Registered Member #279
Joined: 4:17:59 pm GMT 09/25/04
Posts: 5460
Let me introduce you to "Revival", an in-development Lovecraftian dark-fantasy themed MMO which stresses a persistent living world, live (potentially) 24/7 game-mastering/story-telling with sandbox elements.
I really don't know much about it, but the little bit I've seen hits the hot buttons pretty well. I will quote their Mission Statement from the site:
Revival wrote ...
Revival is the rebirth of the player-driven, sandbox, fantasy role-playing world. Player agency, world persistence, and absolutely zero compromises are the cornerstones of our quest for a living, persistent, dark fantasy role-playing world.
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It's apparently quite a while away from going "live"; it looks like 1-2 years by their schedule, which likely means at least that long. They are self-funding, without using kickstarter or other fund-raising, so I'm sure they're strapped for resources. Still, what I see in terms of design looks interesting.
Registered Member #279
Joined: 4:17:59 pm GMT 09/25/04
Posts: 5460
I'm still looking over the material for this game, and found this blog entry on Quests which I find worth reading.
I'll give a quote of the first paragraphs.
Revival Blog wrote ...
“Quest” is definitely a loaded term in the MMO world, these days. It carries with it all sorts of connotations about what you’ll be doing, how you’ll be doing it and who you will be doing it for. For most, a “quest” isn’t much more than a glorified to-do list wrapped in thin fictional premise. Worse, I think, the things you can do are incredibly limited: You can kill a thing, collect a thing, deliver a thing, use a thing, escort a person, talk to a person or go to some area. It’s pretty sad, really. As an industry we preach that MMOs are worlds of infinite play and possibility, but in reality you’re lucky if a game’s quest system can let you do even seven things.
So, for Revival, one of the first things we wanted to do was say “fuck all that.” Honestly, some will probably say we went overboard, but we’ve gone so far as to say “there are no quests in Revival.”
So, that’s it. End of blog. Hope you enjoyed it.
OK, so it’s not really the end of the blog, but it really is an important point we’re making: You don’t take quests in Revival, you go on adventures.
arrivederci, megido Registered Member #1403
Joined: 3:11:09 am GMT 02/26/09
Posts: 1864
Just to be clear, this looks cool as hell so I took a look at their site --
It says in their FAQ that this "24/7 live DM'd storytelling experience" is only available on what they call "gold" (or premium) servers. So you can play this game as an FTP, and run around in the sandbox world enjoying it, but to actually enjoy it as what their mission statement says it is - a DM'd MMO (which sounds hellaciously fun, and similar to what NWN multiplayer servers give that I haven't been able to find anywhere outside of PnP), is really only available if you pay a subscription to get access to it.
They're releasing the game in 6 stages, as well, and I don't think it'll really be worth it until stage 5 or 6, which will only come as soon (hopefully) as 2017. Keeping an eye on it but it's a long time away and possibly a money sink.
Registered Member #279
Joined: 4:17:59 pm GMT 09/25/04
Posts: 5460
As I understand it, there will be three kinds of servers:
1) Gold Server - Subscription required - Has live 24/7 storytelling - Housing can be purchased - SP can be purchased
2) Regular FTP - No subscription required - Does not have live storytelling - Housing can be purchased - SP can be purchased
3) Hardcore FTP - No subscription required - Does not have live storytelling - Housing can be purchased - SP can not be purchased - Limited respawning (unclear exactly how)
Supposedly, Standing Points (SP) purchases are going to be subject to a cap, and there will be a substantial, and non-P2W cash shop more generally. Standing Points are used to influence the world around a player through in-game mechanics such as gaining blessing, extra luck, and so forth. Or even, on the Gold Servers, of getting attention of the storytelling team.
And apparently on the FTP servers, there are still storytelling teams at work, but their actions are more passive than active; e.g., making/validating world changes consistent to what players have done. For example, there's a camp->village->town->city system they have that players can push, but the transitions are actually done by the storytelling team through their standing point system. I'm unclear here, but apparently as a player you can spend your standing points towards an in-game evolving world goal, like promoting a village to a town, or to keeping a road safe, and so on. But the live team won't be possessing NPC's and pointing people at tailored quests and such on those servers.
Finally, their design calls for enough sandbox systems that even without an active live storytelling team presence, the game will feel alive. They expect their different servers to evolves quite differently.
And one note, even if one doesn't buy permanent housing from their shop, you could rent or otherwise use housing in-game. Even from other players who do buy housing, as as a function of housing provided by a large guild to its members.
Every single coin in Revival has literal weight and presence in the world. Coinage is not a number inside your inventory UI that goes up and up - you'll need to carry your coins, store them, convert them into bank bills, or put them in a vault. And, most importantly: transfer them between locations.
The economy in Revival is based around the game's lack of fast travel, including magical bank fast travel. A bank in City A does not connect to City B's bank. A caravan will be used to transfer items. This allows the economy to thrive and expand the options available to players and NPCs: caravans require drivers, beasts of burden (and the people who breed, sell, and take care of them), bodyguards, customs officers at both ends, and they attract bandits. The simple act of requiring real transport of goods presents at least five possible employment opportunities within the game.
Furthermore, the game will not contain "trash loot" sold to merchants for raw coin. NPCs, just like players, will hold coin in their inventory that takes up space in the world. NPC merchants will not have a limitless supply of "3 copper pieces for a wolf tooth". This ensures that a roughly static amount of money remains in the world, though its ownership will move around regularly.
New coinage will be minted per the developers' discretion, and the total amount of money in the world will be carefully monitored.
This is an area where I think most current MMO's really fail, since the cities are basically shells to provide a quest/crafting/market hub. They don't really feel alive to me, and that's a shame. The Revival developer seems to agree; and imo says the right sorts of things in their blog.
However, I think it's an ambitious effort they're lining up for themselves, and it's sure to be harder to do that they expect now, which in turn may take a lot longer and cost more than they're planning. We'll see! I'm glad someone's trying.
Registered Member #279
Joined: 4:17:59 pm GMT 09/25/04
Posts: 5460
There's another blog entry available, and it's about Weekly Blog Update #44: Study Hard -- information and learning in MMO's, and how they plan to make information valuable and meaningful to character development in their game.
Registered Member #279
Joined: 4:17:59 pm GMT 09/25/04
Posts: 5460
Yet another blog, though not the latest. This one is Weekly Blog Update #42: A Day in the Life of a Weaponsmith, which gives some insight into how they intend to handle crafting. Crafting in most MMO's is pretty grindy/tedious/bland, but this sounds more involved.
[ The Island of Thain ]
Revival -- an intruiging Dark-Fantasy MMO in the works
