Overview of Renaissance Design Elements

This update has three main objectives:

- To upgrade some of the older art,
- To exploit the potential of Revelation's infrastructure additions (quest engine, weapon attributes), and
- To add new content which is designed to enhance player-player interaction.

The art for parts of the existing game will be polished to match the look and feel of newer areas such as those added for Revelation, as well as the new areas to be added as part of this update. These efforts will focus on Tos and Raza/Hazar, the former since it is the most popular town and the latter since it serves as the demo for the game, and thus should be representative of its best elements.

During Revelation's development cycle, a number of additions to the code base were made in such a way that they would be easily expandable with a marginally small programming effort - this means more features with less resources expended. For example, the quest engine was written to randomly generate quests based on simple templates. With a few new template building blocks and the introduction of a large number of new templates, we can greatly increase the in-game experience. New quests will include a simple set of errands for the newbie/demo area and a wide variety of delivery quests, such as food to innkeepers, gardening supplies to apothecaries, ale to taverns, and the like. Failure to deliver a shipment will be considered stealing, and will brand the thief an outlaw (a new quest penalty).

Another new feature in Revelation which has a great deal of mileage left in it is the ability for weapons (and other items) to have attributes associated with them. Simple special abilities such as activating existing spell effects will be easily implemented, and also will greatly increase the variety of treasure in the game. The same principle of reusing spell effects for magic items applies to potions and wands as well.

Finally, the centerpiece of this update is the Necropolis, the lost sister city to Tos, which was buried underground ages ago to seal away a great evil from the world. A cult of necromancers has rediscovered the city and its undead queen, and are working to bring her evil back into the world.

The necromancers are part of an ongoing campaign which the events staff has been running for months now. When the furor from Revelation's release has died down, events will resume the necromancer storyline, foreshadowing the unearthing of the Necropolis and leaking bits of its history to the players. After the release, players will be able to explore the Necropolis, discover the ancient evils hidden there, and choose to either fight them or join them.

Those who join forces with the evil queen are granted special powers (along with certain weaknesses, of course) and themselves become necromancers, subsuming the role of the bards from the lead-in events, taking the storyline into their own hands. The necromancers' affliction is that they must kill in order to maintain the dark magic which fuels their power. If they go too long without killing, they weaken and die. In return, when they are at their strongest they receive certain stat bonuses associated with magic use (and penalties associated with hand-to-hand combat). Also if they choose to serve her, the lich-queen's stronghold becomes their own (the equivalent of a guild hall), complete with defense mechanisms such as a player-configurable entryway maze. Their existence is tightly intertwined with that of their queen; if she gains in power, so do they, but if she is slain they all perish, their cult disbanded until another group of evil players comes to re-awaken the slumbering undead queen.

Long ago, at the height of the queen's power, a mage of the earth created a sword which was enchanted to defeat her and her minions. Her power at the time was too great, however, and his champion perished in the labyrinths under the lich-queen's fortress. The sword still lies there, duplicating itself when the moons are properly aligned, and an adventurous player may brave the dangers of the Necropolis to retrieve a Sword of the Hunter and take up the mission of that long-dead champion. Becoming a Hunter, as with the necromancer, affords certain benefits along with some sacrifices. Hunters receive stat bonuses associated with combat, and penalties associated with magic use. A Hunter's sword is particularly effective against murders, especially those who have killed many times; as such, the Hunter is the natural enemy of the Necromancer. Indeed, the hunter must bring murderers to justice in order to maintain his ability boosts (although he will not die for lack of doing so). Hunters also have tracking abilities which allow them to locate nearby murderers and even (with difficulty) to locate a particular murderer or outlaw.

The Hunter-Necromancer scenario provides a framework for players to create their own epic conflict, channeling pk energy away from those who wish to be uninvolved, and providing a template for those who wish to role-play an evil character and those who wish to role-play a vigilante (and sometime defender of the weak). The lich-queen's fortress is a powerful cross between the guild-hall scheme and 'boss' scenarios such as the Lupogg King's den and the lair of the Orc Pit Boss. The lich-queen does not awaken unless players awaken her, whereupon they must protect her in order to remain alive and maintain their powers. The Hunters (and other good players) will naturally want to rid Meridian of the evil necromancers, and can do so by storming the fortress and slaying the lich. The resulting conflict is player vs. player, so it provides the most interesting challenge available, and it's a scenario in which players can become emotionally invested, encouraging role-playing.

At the same time, the roles are grey enough to provide room for complicated player interactions. After all, the Hunters are vigilantes and have a compulsion to kill which is not so unlike that of the Necromancers. Truly good characters might not approve of all of a Hunter's actions. Also, a Necromancer need not join the Order and participate in the Lich scenario - fearing a security breach, other Necromancers might hunt down rogues and force them to join or die (might such a Necromancer then betray his own kind?).

Breakdown of vital features:

Necromancer pendant/Hunter sword:

- Boosted abilities inversely proportional to hunger.
- Hunger, and methods of satiating hunger (visual element on item indicating hunger level).
- Conditions must be satisfied in order to pick up the item (pendant causes death, sword won't budge).
- Penalties of dropping/unusing item or of death (pendant: death and stat penalties, sword: temporary stat penalties, both: destroy item)
- Attack modifiers. Tracking abilities for Hunter sword Proximity sensor.
- Collective 'locate player' spell.

Order of the Necromancers:

- Permanent guild, can only join through the Lich (must have a pendant).
- Quest to awaken lich, establish guild.
- Modifications to guild mechanics: Master may not abdicate, may not disband guild. Guild member who kills another guild member moves up to that member's rank. If the Master dies through other means, a random member of the next rank moves up.
- Periodic tribute to the Lich (analog of guild rent) - periodic quest or special pk. Unpaid tribute dramatically increases hunger of members.
- Killing the Lich-Queen kills all members of her guild, shatters swords, sends a system-wide message.

Fortress of the Lich-Queen:

- Guildmember-configurable entryway labyrinth levers move walls up and down.
- Security cameras offer a bird's-eye view of the maze from different angles.
- Door to Lich's inner sanctum is openable by Necromancers (even rogues) or Hunters.