Spring Sweet Spring

Hello everyone... welcome to spring :)

After a long dark winter spring has finally arrived and new ideas are blossoming everywhere. I was prepared for this process to be a lot of work, but I radically underestimated just how much needed to be considered. Once again I'm grateful to have such an awesome game to work from, both in terms of the stock ROM 2.4 code and in the awesome storylines and additions which grew up in DR.

Here are some of the things we've decided on for sure:

Vampires and Patriarchs
One major problem with DR as we see it is that vampire activity is so completely dependent on the patriarchs. After much discussion we've decided that anyone who wants to become a vampire should be able to try to become one, and to hard code in possible ways to do this which do not involve pc pats. We may still make it possible for players to become patriarchs. The details have yet to be hammered out, but one possibility is that if a character manages to maintain a vampiric state for more than a hundred in-game years, it would gain the power to embrace minions who had slightly different powers than the vampires which could be gained by approaching the mud as an adventure game. The game in general is going to have a much stronger vampire theme.

Area Use
After MUCH thought and discussion we have finally decided that I'm going to look at the areas of DR like pieces in a puzzle, and break them all apart to reassemble as I see fit, with several changes along the way (including creation of a secret history, quests, clues, and hidden paths to extreme power). I want to make the entire game more cohesive. A lot of areas are getting the axe, and a lot more are serving as inspiration before getting combined with other areas and rebuilt.

I just finished designing a kingdom with dozens of shops and homes carved into massive three-story trees growing in a circle to form a round courtyard for a large castle (houseing storerooms full of loot) carved into the stone wall of a large canyon. Hidden guards and their dogs will roam the valley floor and its edges, with rope bridges for their convenience. Five points to anyone who can guess what three DR areas inspired this one for me :)

Player Houses
This has been requested on DR forever and after much thought we think we have figured out how to solve the problems which stood in the way of it. So, the current idea is, players will be able to buy houses ranging in size from a single hole-in-the-wall to a 16-room mansion, with group rates available for clan headquarters (palaces, castles, etc.). This new feature is going to require another new one: locks and curses which may be purchased and placed on containers kept in a house to further secure the contents.

It's getting late and I better sign off, but stay tuned for new developments. The ball is really rolling now...

Anyone interested in doing some building (either just rooms, or redesigning areas) please send me an email and I'll let you know how to sign up.

Happy gaming everyone :)
S