Thread: AZATIIR ~ Official Announcements

Current Map, subject to change as world-development progresses

Welcome to the new Azatiir pre-release information dissemination hub! The old thread was getting untidy and, well, old... so starting fresh allows me to adjust the thread's format to one in which information is more readily available (all new revelations about Azatiir will be chronicled in this post) and to pretend that I haven't been working on this for over six months now.

Azatiir Team:
GM: @Master Mew
Co-GM: @Renewal
Co-GM: @Oblivion

News

Scale

"It's bigger than it may appear. To give you an idea of the scale, Lake Triumphant is MASSIVE... from the western shore, you cannot see the eastern shore. And from the highest point in the city of Pelofest, only the uppermost third of Mount Pariah, leading up to the peak, is visible. Travelling in this RP will take time, unlike in Armeira where two cities on opposite sides of the map where reached within about two posts." 1/6/12

Stats

"There won't be stats. We're trying to move away from the numbers as much as possible. Your aptitude in a certain skill can be measured by the Skill Enhancements you have acquired - i.e. your capabilities. It just makes more sense and is more workable from a roleplaying perspective to tell players exactly what their character is and is not capable of rather than hand them a long list of numerical statistics."1/11/12

"There will be no formal "leveling" in Azatiir, as characters will not have numerical levels. Rather, the skill of a character will be measured solely by that character's abilities (though a rough numerical indication would be that character's number of used "Training Opportunities"). Skills (Marksman, Blade, Blunt, Destruction Magic, etc.) will also lack numerical identifiers. Instead, when you choose to use a "Training Opportunity" (gained in a manner similar to Armeira's XP System), you will acquire a new Capability in the Skill you chose to Train. In other words, the confusion we often dealt with in Armeira regarding questions such as "I have a Blade skill of 19, what does that mean I can do that I couldn't before?" should be virtually non-existent. You will know precisely what you are and are not capable of.

Magic Training will be the exception. We, as a group, felt that magic was far too imprecise and unpredictable to be trained in the same way as Melee Skills. Therefore, the mechanic we are tentatively looking into would involve the player designating a very broad, basic area of magic they intend to use their Training Opportunity on, and then "Probing the Veil," as it were, to see what magical knowledge could be gleaned from it. Thus, the acquisition of Magical Skills will be a combination of a broad designation of your goal, and random chance. To that end, the complete list of possible magical skills to acquire will never be revealed - and will likely be updated with new skills often as we think of them. Who knows what you might learn? (Though you can choose a specific skill you already know to attempt to strengthen)" 1/21/12

Combat

"Once we get the races and combat system worked out, though, we have a fun little diversion planned to test out the combat mechanics - trust me, it'll be fun." 1/20/12

"Player vs NPC combat will follow the same basic formula universally accepted in (nearly) all forum-based roleplays. There will be a few limitations (for the sake of realism), such as a designated maximum number of enemies you can claim to have defeated in a single post, but for the most part PC vs NPC combat will be very free-form.

Player vs Player combat, on the other hand, will be more structured. Many acquired Skills (both Melee and Magical) will designate specific usage limits (and even specifically allow you to break this rule, at times), but the general catch-all rule will be a limit of no more than two of the following in a single post: A single Melee Attack, a single Melee Block/Evasion, and a single Spellcast. Obviously, in situations where there are more than two Players battling, the rules will be adjusted." 1/21/12

"Player characters can die - permanently, and are likely to do so fairly often. Details on this mechanic soon." 7/4/12

"In too many RPs, the success of the players is all but guaranteed due to an implied rule that Player-Characters are virtually invincible. Because of this, inexperienced characters are often seen charging boldly into battle against entire armies of superior enemies, knowing they can somehow “just barely survive.” In the interest of balance, as well as to just generally mix things up with something you don’t really see all that often, death in Azatiir will be not only a possible ending for your character, but in all honesty, if you aren’t careful, a likely one.

At the moment, it is my intention for players to only control one character at a time. In the event that a player’s character dies, that player will be allowed to submit a new character to participate in the roleplay. This new character will automatically receive half (rounded up if necessary) the total number of Training Opportunities of the deceased character (to prevent the player from feeling that all their hard work on the previous character was a complete waste of time, but at the same time not allowing death to become completely inconsequential).

The inventory of the deceased character will be emptied and the “mundane” items (potions, unenchanted weapons and armor, etc.) will be added to the new characters inventory, while any “special” or “unique” gear (enchanted weapons and armor, Torvaic artifacts, etc.) will be spread out randomly among various shopkeepers throughout the gameworld (where they will become available for purchase by not only the newly created character, but any character). The only exception will be if another Player-Character who was present at the time of the character’s death chose to remove particular items from the deceased’s inventory, in which case such items will not be subject to the dispersal." 7/6/12

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To get things started, a promised announcement regarding a significant Game Mechanic:
Note: This section is ripped straight out of the Azatiir development files, so there are likely references to other mechanics you won't recognize (yet).

Player Death

In too many RPs, the success of the players is all but guaranteed due to an implied rule that Player-Characters are virtually invincible. Because of this, inexperienced characters are often seen charging boldly into battle against entire armies of superior enemies, knowing they can somehow “just barely survive.” In the interest of balance, as well as to just generally mix things up with something you don’t really see all that often, death in Azatiir will be not only a possible ending for your character, but in all honesty, if you aren’t careful, a likely one.

At the moment, it is my intention for players to only control one character at a time. In the event that a player’s character dies, that player will be allowed to submit a new character to participate in the roleplay. This new character will automatically receive half (rounded up if necessary) the total number of Training Opportunities of the deceased character (to prevent the player from feeling that all their hard work on the previous character was a complete waste of time, but at the same time not allowing death to become completely inconsequential).

The inventory of the deceased character will be emptied and the “mundane” items (potions, unenchanted weapons and armor, etc.) will be added to the new characters inventory, while any “special” or “unique” gear (enchanted weapons and armor, Torvaic artifacts, etc.) will be spread out randomly among various shopkeepers throughout the gameworld (where they will become available for purchase by not only the newly created character, but any character). The only exception will be if another Player-Character who was present at the time of the character’s death chose to remove particular items from the deceased’s inventory, in which case such items will not be subject to the dispersal.

Do you have a list of skills? And is there, like, a Toughness skill that lets you do stuff like resist magic and maybe swim through lava?

Originally Posted by Pi Face

Do you have a list of skills?

Yes, it is incomplete at present, however.

And is there, like, a Toughness skill that lets you do stuff like resist magic and maybe swim through lava?

Not yet.

QUESTION

Is there sufficient interest in an Alchemy system to bother with designing one?

Like, as in Elder Scrolls, with potions? Not really.

Or as in like machines? 'Cause that'd be cool. Or like with transmutation, like they had in real life, that would be neat too.

TES potion-making was never my strong suit. If there was such a skill included then I would probably never use it.

Originally Posted by Pi Face

Like, as in Elder Scrolls, with potions? Not really.

Or as in like machines? 'Cause that'd be cool. Or like with transmutation, like they had in real life, that would be neat too.

Well, I was thinking more along the lines of potion-making. The concept never really appealed to me, but I wasn't sure if there were a few die-hard fans out there.

Originally Posted by O5-7

TES potion-making was never my strong suit. If there was such a skill included then I would probably never use it.

That's kind of what I was thinking. Thanks! We'll probably leave it out then, other than maybe a few basic functions.

Now on to something we definitely ARE implementing: An extensive Magic Skill-Tree.

The complete list of available effects will not be revealed (even after the RP begins), to maintain a certain level of mystery (as well as allow us to sneak in extra effects if it becomes clear that something should have been included), but I'd like some input as to the sorts of effects you would LIKE to see in the RP - I won't confirm or deny that the effects will be included, but every suggestion will be considered. Rest assured, the final list will be HUGE and it is likely that there will be many effects that are never discovered during the course of the RP.

I'd like to see revive-type magics included, if that would work.

Well, I really like the idea of spells that you can put on your fist, so like you can deliver them by punching. Like, a spell that makes it so when you touch people, they get shocked. That would be cool.

Also, lots of support skills. Like stuff that makes it so you don't get hurt, and let's you heal...You probably already have those. Maybe a kind of force field that goes around your weapon and makes it stronger?

And summoning demons and undead is always cool.

Hm, normally I'd be worried about thread-necromancy and such, but this is really more like sub-forum-necromancy. :p

I suppose the, "Official Announcement," at the moment is that I am, in fact, still working on this - but since I appear to be working on it alone now, I'll be working at my own, rather relaxed pace. The buzz of the original announcement is long gone, so I've nothing to lose at this point by taking my time with this ridiculously complex undertaking.

You can do it man! I believe in you!