148 réponses à ce sujet

[kamalpoe]

Underdark tunnels could actually lead back to the surface elsewhere, though you wouldn't want to put a link via the underdark between the samarach OM and the sword coast OM, at least not one that could work before you enabled travel via the normal SoZ means between the two.

[PJ156]

Shaughn78 wrote...

For a community project I like Gilradthegreat idea of a 1 to epic community project. Group Mod idea: "Character mortar"The SOZ project was fun and should be updated to correct issues but for a large scale add on I don't know.

Gilradthegreat idea will allow a bit more flexability where you can have your underdark mods as well as other settings.
.

I think Githrads idea is good for a long term colaboration. I am keen to be a part of that.

However, for a holiday project then Kamals underdark idea is a good one IMO. Volunteers could put together a series of lairs or encounters which, in turn, would create an underdark sandbox affair for higher level characters based around an OM created by Kamal or another. That could be in SoZ or elsewhere?


More managable IMO for the organisers and the modders and more in keeping the the holiday project concept.

PJ

Modifié par PJ156, 05 septembre 2010 - 11:44 .

[Tiberius209]

Absolutely not keen on the Underdark idea. The major problem is it limits the kinds of encounters that can be there whereas a "normal" area of Faerun - even one not currently covered on one of the OMs - can contain just about anything you can think of, including most of what can be found in the Underdark.

[kamalpoe]

I am not interested in the character mortar project. I do have things from Path of Evil that I can simply break off to be used in a holiday project. My contribution last year was a "broken" piece.

[kamalpoe]

Quick sample I whipped up for the curious.

Underdark "OM".
youtube format
same video, downloadable
Underdark "OM"

Modifié par kamalpoe, 06 septembre 2010 - 02:00 .

[kamalpoe]

Chaos Wielder wrote...
I'm sensing the desire, overall, for something larger,

I think the current OM's are just full. Doesn't seem like much can be added without it become "a dungeon every 5 feet".

[LeeMer47]

Why not set it in Ravenloft? Halloween is almost 2 months away. Barovia is like Transylvania, isn't it? Plenty of variety.



Also spiders and beetles and rust monsters for underdark. And duergar, deep gnomes and xorns. And bats and myconids, oozes, slimes and cubes. Constant brown tunnels would be annoying though. Wish they were tintable.



There are maps from the Unapproachable East Art Gallery at WOTC. These have no writing on them. Great for World Maps. I know everyone loves overland but setting up encounters, goodies and whatnot can be time consuming. Serves the same function. Thesk, The Great Dale, Rashemen, Thay or Aglarond are available. Thesk seems underused.

[WyrinDnjargo]

What about spelljammer and have the overland map as a star system? IIRC Hellfire has some spelljammer content unreleased. Each planet then stands alone for whatever a builder wants to contribute.



Having just done (to death) an OM and encounters, and coping with file corruption in a huge project, I'm needing a break, but will no doubt get itchy fingers in a month or so's time.

[kamalpoe]

WyrinDnjargo wrote...
What about spelljammer and have the overland map as a star system? IIRC Hellfire has some spelljammer content unreleased. Each planet then stands alone for whatever a builder wants to contribute.

From an OM perspective (SM?), it would require a bit of work by HF, as the player model would have to get replaced with the spelljammer ship on the OM. The actual OM would be very simple to make, as it could use a custom vfx to overlay a map of space.

[kamalpoe]

Chaos Wielder wrote...
Looks promising. What music would we use? What about terrains?

Music is not my strong suit. I'd guess something spooky, maybe Shadow Mulsantir. Or skip music and just used placeable sounds.

Terrains are really anything you can have aboveground. It's just that most terrain is narrow tunnel. You could not move around as much as aboveground, most of the Underdark is tunnel. Giant caverns are of course possible, such as the one I stuck the city in. Underground rivers, lakes, oceans, volcanoes, whatever. Of course you're not going to have green grass. I used a dark rocky terrain as the base and laid some desert on it to show the walkable areas in that vid.

[The Fred]

Personally, I like the Underdark idea best overall, for these reasons:
1) It's scalable. Yes, it would need a big Underland Map with encounters and things, and it would need a fair number of dungeons, but beyond that, it would be easier to wrap up if it proved too much work, and yet could be expanded to be potentially very big. It could also be made to have plenty of space for later additions.

2) It's less work to get going than a brand new project, imo. Gilrad's idea is a good one, but something like this would only require the UM rather than all the module setup stuff.

3) It would allow some new environments that haven't been explored that much in NWN2. SoZ players would be able to face more drow, driders, beholders and illithids rather than just tea-drinking reptiles. Like Tiberius, I too am not too keen on being constricted to the Underdark, but right after reading Mokah's post I had the exact same thought that Kamalpoe voiced, which is that Underdark tunnels could always lead back to the surface... potentially, to another new OM (though probably this would be for a future project). As always, you have the option of visiting the planes, as well.

All in all, while the Underdark mightn't be my first choice, adding a new OM/UM to SoZ sounds to me like it would be more ambitious than the last project, but not too overoptomistic. With many people working on their own large projects, not everyone will want to do more than a little dungeon. I mean, don't get me wrong, all these other ideas sound great, but a UM seems to me like the most logical step up from simply adding dungeons to SoZ.

[The Fred]

Incidentally, if people are worried about lack of variety of monsters, by using community models and/or getting creative, there are quite a few unusual ones we could use:

The pretty basic:
Drow, Duergar, Svirfs, Driders, Illithid, Beholders, Umber Hulks, Spiders and other insects, Goblin(oid)s, Oozes, Ogres etc

Plus a lot of stuff that works pretty much anywhere:
Undead, Devils & Demons, Elementals, other creatures from other planes like the Githyanki or Shadar-kai etc from the Plane of Shadow, Golems and other constructs, and so on.

Even better, though, are what you could get with a bit of creativity:
Intellect Devourer and Ankheg (if the models are done), Deep Hound, Thrum Worm, Stone Drake, Earth Elemental, Earth Whisper, Earth Weird, Grey Render, Stone Maiden, Caryatid Column, Naga, Minotaur, Cinder Swarm, plus a load of templated creatures like Skitterhaunt Spiders, Voidmind etc.

If we had models for them, we could use things like the Loadstone Marauder (common in the Underdark), Dread Ram, Aurumvorax etc

Modifié par The Fred, 09 septembre 2010 - 09:50 .

[kamalpoe]

The holiday pack did add a bit of loose plot with the "superboss". Any new OM is going to not be tied to the story.

[kamalpoe]

well, then it's not really a soz holiday. not that I care one way or the other.

[MokahTGS]

Couldn't the UM link off of SoZ with a gate that checked for quest states? It was my understanding that SoZ didn't really end...you had to retire.

[Gilradthegreat]

There still are advantages to keeping it a part of SoZ. For one, you ARE still running a successful trading company by the time you would be ready for the underdark. Modders can certainly take advantage of that. Also, it allows you to utilize everything you have made available to you throughout SoZ, possibly even allowing you to expand your trade empire underground (didn't somebody mention they planned on exporting the trading system?)

[The Fred]

I don't really mind either way, but attaching it to SoZ could potentially allow backwards travel, rather than a sequel. That way, players could do some new quests then travel back to do some old ones. You could even, then, have new low(er)-level encounters because people could do them during the story, then travel back, then come back the other way again to do the tough ones (though how you would make sure people didn't try the hard ones without at least some warning would be a different matter).



Though I know what you mean - if this comes at the end of SoZ, people might not want to play through the whole thing to get to it.

[kamalpoe]

The Fred wrote...

I don't really mind either way, but attaching it to SoZ could potentially allow backwards travel, rather than a sequel. That way, players could do some new quests then travel back to do some old ones. You could even, then, have new low(er)-level encounters because people could do them during the story, then travel back, then come back the other way again to do the tough ones (though how you would make sure people didn't try the hard ones without at least some warning would be a different matter).

Though I know what you mean - if this comes at the end of SoZ, people might not want to play through the whole thing to get to it.

You could have a two part UM (like the Samarach OM). Same map but you can't access the entire thing without going through another area connecting them. So an Underdark OM could have a section that is under Samarach, and another under the Sword Coast, on the same game map. Since the camera is locked and there's no minimap, with some planning of the map there would be no way for the player to tell that these locations that are supposed to be far apart are on the same map.

Gilrad asked about expanding the trade system to locations here. I'm the person who is thinking about ripping the trade system out to make it useful for the community. I don't think it would work as a concept to expand the trade network into the Underdark. The underdark is supposed to be very dangerous where even adventurers have trouble. The trade caravans would all get killed. It would also require a lot of work to get the system figured out, and expanded to new towns.

For the record, the Samarach OM is a 20x24 size map. Unless tons of people are contributing I can't see a need for an OM anywhere near that size.

[The Fred]

People do trade with Underdark communities, afaik, but I think they'd be specialised merchants, not just random PCs with trade caravans. Also it's probably more hassle than it's worth.



I agree we wouldn't need a massive map, but it wouldn't hurt to leave some space for possible future expansion. The place needn't be chock-full of dungeons anyway, it's not that realistic.

[nicethugbert]

One of the major complaints about SoZ was the shortness and thinness of the story. So, fleshing out the story would be welcome. Another complaint is too much money too soon. So, the SoZ story could be used as major milestones in a longer story. IIRC, there is nothing in the SoZ story that says the party can't stay a year or more in Samamrach, Things could unfold at a slower pace. Marco Polo's first journey took a couple years.



Going underdark is quite a stretch. The Underdark is quite far from SoZ. It may as well be another plane of existence. Only a major power would bother with all that distance for a major advantage, interest, or necessity.



The Yuan-ti have a presence in the underdark, in Skullport. What does that have to do with the SoZ story?



What is it about the underdark that seems so appealing? How does it fit into SoZ? Why not use other subterranean assets closer to the surface such as Najara.