by Moorgard on 2001-07-08
Hi all,1. It's very difficult to get a large group of people to agree on what 'role playing' really means, much less 'role playing rules' that would be applied to an EverQuest server.
2. Whatever ruleset we decided upon, who knows if people would like it and play there? It's risky to launch such an experimental server.
3. EverQuest IS an Role Playing Game anyway, so in that sense, ALL servers are RP servers.
Well, some things have changed. Let me address the three previous issues we've had with an RP server:
1. This certainly remains true, but, well, to be brutally honest: too bad We're going to choose some rules, listen to feedback, perhaps make some changes, and launch an RP server. Some players will object, and argue, and debate, and, well, we're going forward anyway. It's either a. we subjectively come up with some rules that some or many might disagree with or b. we don't do an RP server at all. I prefer 'a'
2. You may have noticed Sullon Zek. It has some pretty experimental, wild and crazy rules and ideas as well. This is what's pretty cool: EQ is so big now (400,000+ active subscribers) with so many servers that we can launch some experimental ones. Back in the day when we had 7 or 10 or 15... well, it wouldn't have been prudent. But now, we're going for it
3. This remains true, and to be honest with you, I don't know if I personally like calling this server the 'RP' server. To me it's more like the Siege Perilous server that UO had. Maybe it's the 'hard core' server, or the 'extreme' server... *shrug* But anyway, regardless of what it's called, I'm very excited about the ideas and rules behind it.
Which brings us to this: I'm going to post our initial thoughts on what the rules will be. Now here's where the BIG disclaimer comes in: we are posting these for feedback and ideas from you, but they are NOT SET IN STONE. They are VERY subject to change. Heck, expect them to change.
Disclaimer #2: I do NOT have a date as to when we'll launch this server. It may be the next server we launch, or the one after that. We're not sure yet. Please don't bombard us with 'when' questions, because we won't be able to answer them.
Anyways, here are our fairly solid but not final ideas:
1) Each race/class combination will be assigned an alignment, either Good, Neutral or Evil. A high elven paladin of Tunare will be good (as will a dwarven paladin of Brell, probably), a dark elven warrior of Innoruuk will be evil. This will be a subjective list, so let's not debate yet whether a dark elven rogue of Bristlebane will be neutral or evil. The idea is that eventually each combo will have an alignment. Evils can't group with goods, nor can they heal or buff each other (specific details, such as summoning corpse to be determined). Neutrals will be able to work for either side, and can be healed and buffed by either (Maybe).
2) Common Tongue becomes Human Tongue. This in combination with #3
3) Use of languages will be made more difficult. This will include the removal of the Common Tongue. It will include some sort of restriction on the ability to increase language skills (on a per level or per day basis, most likely). The goal is that trolls will have to expend their time and efforts if they want to deal with humans (and vice versa). The removal of Dark Speech might be necessary here.
4) One character per account.
5) /ooc will be removed.
6) /auction will use languages and will be restricted to city zones.
7) /shout will have a reduced range.
8) /emote will be changed such that one has to understand the language of the emoter (lest the command simply be used to bypass language barriers).
9) Guild membership will be restricted so that goods and evils can't be members of the same guild.
10) /who list will show everyone as 'anonymous'.
11) 'Warrens' loot code turned on for ALL zones.
12) This is a PvE server, NOT a PvP server.
Let us know what you think (via the normal feedback, not Ask Brad).
thanks,
-Brad