Word of the Day: Cromlech

Cromlech. Say it, krom-lek. Release the cromlech!

So just what is a cromlech? Well ladies and gentlemen, a Cromlech was a Brythonic word (Breton/Welsh) used to describe prehistoric megalithic structures, where crom means "bent" and llech means "flagstone". The term is now virtually obsolete in archæology, but remains in use as a colloquial term for two different types of megalithic monument:

In English it usually refers to dolmens, the remains of prehistoric stone chamber tombs. However, it is widely used in French to describe stone circles (silly french).






Will there be Cromlechs in legacy you ask? You bet your bottom dollar there will!

(Wikipedia ftw)

The more you know...

Creating a Preview Module

So we're working to prep this preview module, hopefully we can get it out this weekend.

We're going to use a few select ares - most likely a sparsely populated caerleon east, our OL map with encoutners, and a prefab from the vault called tourney grounds. We'll do a mini event in the last of these areas, allowing players a chance to battle out their different builds in a fun 'doesnt matter' pvp setting, then we'll close with a bit of a story lead in.

The amount of minutiae work really hits you as you prep something for launch. Creating item stores - getting the gold buyback right, realizing you didnt put appropriate armor icons in for the armors you created, etc.

Screenshots - The New Core of Caerleon and more!

So we've got a near finished version of central caerleon (the new core to you TFR vets) built by none other than MagicChicken. Amazing work. Here's screens:





And here's a manual gallery to click through.

Fealty Screens (work in progress)

Well our plans for the fealty/legacy system just keep getting grander and grander.

Have a look:

Movement in Armor, Fealty System

We just keep on churning out better and better stuff.

Our resident Apep built us a handy dandy armor movement speed script that adds a much needed movement speed reduction based on armor type. Now those wearing heavy armor will experience a reduced speed compared to those wearing, medium, and again compared to those wearing light or none at all. You can check the system out here, as apep put it on the vault for all to use.

We've also got the blueprint laid out for our fealty/vassalage system. This is potentially one of the coolest and most defining systems for our pw. PT is building it. Essentially, it will allow players to swear fealty to npc kings, swear fealty to eachother, own lands/holdings, and determine who these posessions will pass on to (a steward).

This will be based on legacy score. And this very much will be our way to drive guild/group RP and make a 'C&D' system that works and actually encourages/rewards/reinforces group RP. We'll announce more on this once we've built it and we know exactly what it does and doesn't do, but this should be pretty cool.

Also - we are quickly moving into the full blown 'content-generating' mode. We could use area and quest builders to help populate the world. For those of you excited about this project with such skills, the contribution of a single area or set of areas is helpful. We've used some prefabs where appropriate, but custom built stuff is always preferable. So send me a pm at legacydarkage.com if you're interested.

Progress

Progress continues. All but 4 capstone classes are done, so we'll soon have our entire character selection process finished and ready for mass testing (and you thought this was just a preview module for you!).

Also, area building has ramped up into near full blown construction mode. Caerleon east/crossroads is finished. Caerleon core continues to be iterated upon, with teh western ampitheatre next.

Other miscellaneous areas have also been finished. Here's the caerleon feast hall:





Good times.

Screens

Awesome New Video Made By YMD

YMD was awesome enough to make this preview video for our little pw here. I thnk we can all agree it's a little ridiculous, but hey way to go!




Note: YMD did not actually make this video. It's a trailer for a 1980's movie. Which should have already been clear.

Gods, Faiths, and Pantheons Wiki Writeups Are Up

For all those itching to work out your character concepts in advance, head on over to the wiki. We have writeups for each of the faiths/gods/beliefs in the world of Legacy: Dark Age of Britain.

Check them out here.

Overland Map Encounter/Battle Areas Taking Shape

Hey all,

So I only need to complete the Priest and Magician classes and we'll have a full set of all base classes built and ready to be played.

We're on track for the preview module release.

We nearly have Caerleon (Core) complete, with Caerleon (east) already done. Only Caerleon (west) remains and we'll have our starting city. Many other surrounding cities are already complete.

Anrilor has done a great job building the overland map encounter/battle areas players will be ported into upon encountering an enemy on the overland map. Here's a taste of the forest areas he's built:





Full gallery here.

In inventory Lore Item

While some other pw's out there have these, one of our very own has stepped up and created a custom in game lore/rule/whatever we want item to be stuck in inventory on every pc.


Upon logging into the server and creating a pc, the player will immediately have access to this item. By clicking and using it, a conversation tree pops up that includes everything and anything the player needs to know to play: server rules, lore, classes, legacies, etc. All right there. This, combined with the wiki - is all designed to improve players' awareness of the world they're roleplaying in, and thereby improve the quality of roleplay for the server as a whole.

Big thanks to Apep for making it. Link to the system on the vault for anyone interested:

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2PrefabPlaceables.Detail&id=151

And More Work

Work continues on. Still aiming to release the preview module this month (and time is moving quickly!)

We have several of the base classes built and undergoing testing. PT and I will next build the caster classes and spell lists. I'm currently trying to resolve some snags with making higher level feats selectable via the e8 feat system...hopefully I can get this resolved so more feats will be available and hence - more customization.

Legacy system and legacy point feedback are looking good.


OL Map Encounter scripts are built - we need to create 2da files to control the creature spawns.

TJ continues work on the creature menagerie. This will tie into the OL Map Encounters and also give us the list of creatures to populate the world areas.

Anrilor continues work on building the 'encounter zones' players will jump into upon encountering an enemy on the OL Map.

The wiki becomes more complete and polished by the day. Still have errant and 'non-final' entries, but it is getting there as we in turn get there.

PMilk is building Caerleon West for us, and made some revisions to Caerleon East (the two maps together forming our starting town).

Our stonehenge map is still in the pipe from NWN2 Community man DunniteOwl.

No screenies this week - hopefully we'll have some shots of Caerleon.

Work work work work....

Tons of work continues.

Today I built our minstrel, rogue, warrior, and woodsman base classes. Will keep working on getting them all done.

PT showed us a UI mod that will display the player's legacy score and 'status' (i.e. a rough rank approximated to their actual legacy score) on their character page where they would otherwise see their alignment (our war against the stupidities of D&D alignments continues).

Ah and the new website is damaned amazing and impressive. Hope it's impressive to players, cause from teh admin side it's feature set is vastly superior.
Check it out: here

More and more getting done, this preview module should be good to go by the end of the month, with content loading being done from there until launch.