Turbine Nation
Crafting is complete. Vendors have only a few months left before they are implemented. The Billing System is in the final stages of development and soon ready for integration. Heck, even levers are in the game. So what is next on the large scale development front?
Well, it looks from here that it will be Building Interiors and KvK Land Ownership, tied in with a re-design of the Kingdom Skills. But there are more features tied in with KvK Land Ownership than that. Read on and you can see some of the ideas the Dev Team is kicking around today for your future enjoyment, even if you aren't a PvP participant.
Buildings
It looks as if the time will finally come that we can participate in the rebuilding of Dereth. While the original Development Team planned a gradual restoration of the destroyed cities based on population density, this has not met with much player enthusiasm. The changes have been gradual at best and the practice may even have been abandoned as the population has spent much more time gathering in hunting grounds than in the cities.
While the population patterns are undoubtedly changing due to the pull of crafting and other changes over the life of the game such as the continental nexi and quest location, superficial changes to the facades of buildings don't seem to be "Rebuilding the World". Many people were drawn into the game by that promise, vague as it was. And yes, the original plan did fit it technically, but everyone wants to be more actively involved than just being a part of population numbers.
The Live Team has been listening. Now that the craft redesign is complete, creating usable interiors to the buildings is making its way to the top of the priority list. Currently, the plans mostly consist of concept drawings and early spec drafts, but they do have some ideas they were willing to share with us.
First, initial building interiors will likely be reached by clicking on the doorway, which will portal you to the interior. This is admittedly less attractive than simply stepping through an open door, but won't require: a) a complete redesign of every city or b) extravagent client graphics capability to render the kind of additional detail added to the city areas (remember, even if you can't actually see it, your computer has to load and draw everything close to you). You will not see portalspace in this transit, but instead probably a static interior view of the building while you progress.
Secondly, when building interiors are added to the game, they won't simply all be open when you log in after the patch. Quests will need to be done, which will almost certainly involve some crafting. Only when each quest is completed will the building be opened for business. It is possible that they may even require quests to seek out the NPCs who will staff taverns and the like (although they didn't say so...this is just my hope speaking...it may be too complex to do quickly).
I think this gives a wonderful foundation for rebuilding the world. One-time quests can be run to open buildings in which repeating quests take place. Or to break through cavern walls to caves of unknown dangers...and so on and so forth. Grand possibilities.
What kinds of buildings are we likely to get? Taverns, certainly. Perhaps a spot where the Consignment Vendors will move to get themselves out of the sun after a few months. Maybe government buildings as organized civilization reforms?
Land Ownership
Land Ownership is visualized by the Live Team as a KvK mechanic. Most likely it will be tied in to a thorough re-write of the Kingdom Skills. Right now they are a meandering combination of overpowered, underpowered, unbalanced and inaccessible. Not exactly the best of all possible worlds. However, they aren't completely out of line at the level of kingdom points most players are dealing with currently. In fact, one of the reasons we aren't seeing more quests that give out kingdom points is likely exactly that list above. The Live Team doesn't want large portions of the populace at high kingdom point levels today, before they have a chance to redo the system.
The current vision the Live Team has of Land Ownership ties the various kingdom skills (among other things) to various land areas. These areas will be able to be owned by players or groups that complete quests or tasks. In some cases, these will need to be periodically repeated...in other cases, they may be a constantly ongoing task.
These are some of the Dev Suggestions for methods of winning land:
And here are some of their ideas for rewards of land ownership:
Discussion will be opened up (before the end of the year, most likely) with the playerbase for suggestions both for winning land and the rewards. So put your thinking cap on in the meantime. Keep in mind that the implementation of Land Ownership is 6-12 months away...so there is a lot to come in the meantime.
Now, I'm sure that many of you noticed that some or all kingdom skills will be awarded by land ownership. Currently, they are earned by reaching a threshold of kingdom points. The power of each skill is also decided by these points. So the more skills you have, the more powerful each skill is. Doesn't make much sense now, does it?
When the land ownership dynamic is released, all kingdom skills will be re-evaluated and rebalanced for both usefulness and sheer power. While the actual skills will come from the KvK struggle for land control, the power of each skill will be determined by the kingdom points of the specific kingdom member. Right now, they have not made it clear whether you will recieve points of power to distribute among the various skills or if the points will determine an overall level which will be applied to any skills your kingdom has active.
Reconstruction and Land Struggles lie in the future of Dereth. It is a bright future, and I'm looking forward to it!
