Questions from Discord - Ongoing Thread
Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2017 7:20 pm
General Questions and Lore
Q: When will COGG become IC?
A: IC will be as soon as I open it up, since the lore's already all figured out, and I think I've got all the basic mechanics in a decent state. So, it should actually be soon.
Q: What does Contrarium Mean?
A: I've had various nicknames and other associations with sea snails for a long while, just because I think sea snails are cool. "Busycon contrarium" is a type of sea snail. I thought "contrarium" both sounded nice and was entertainingly similar to the word "contrarian", and a top-level domain was available for it, so here we are.
Q: Is Riln only used in the Lost Lands?
A: Elsewhere too. Aetgard kind of made it the standard, and a lot of people adopted its use.
Q: Is it reasonable to assume it has been around a long time as even ancient ruins and stuff have it or is that reading too much into it?
A: No, it's been around a goodly while. And while you shouldn't necessarily say "This type of mob drops riln, so it must be XYZ", I think it's safe to say it makes sense to be found in most of the ruins and whatnot.
Q: What is riln?
A: Right now, riln is just a kind of silver coin. Nothing exciting.
Q: How has Mistral Lake fared? Are there still canim?
A: They still have a canim problem, but I won't say more at the moment.
Q: What’s happened with the Dominion since CLOK?
A: Dominion has expanded its influence a bit, but they're far from taking over the whole area you saw in CLOK. Pesky resistances keep resisting.
Q: Are the Hillfolk and Faewyr still being awesome?
A: Yep! Hillfolk are enjoying being mostly left alone between the Fey Forest and the Quarantine Wall.
Q: Will races have special bonuses?
A: I'm meh on racial abilities. Makes people pick a race because they want that +1 instead of because that's a race that they think has a cool feel and lore. That said, I could see a few plus/minus possibilities. Like
Giganti with the option for extra strength (because Giganti) at the expense of less ... something else.
Q: Can we expect to see all the old metals, or are you removing any?
A: I'll probably rename cobalt, just because it bugs me that there's a real cobalt that wouldn't work well as applied in CLOK. But I can't think of any I want to outright remove. And I've added one very cool new metal. At least, I think it’s very cool.
Q: So this brings up another question, are there going to be any ultra-rare metals akin to Clok? Or do you think this sort of breakage system will allow you to make them less rare and input them into the game and see them used?
A: Some will continue to be ultra-rare for sure, because there always has to be that super rare thing. But I'm adding some new semi-rare materials.
Q: Just saying. We should have those crazy Lapis as a race. They are a part of the setting! Xenophobic and all!
A: They wouldn't be mysterious xenophobes if all their info was planted on the wiki for players to peruse as they made their characters.
Q: Will Lapis be a playable race?
A: No, no Lapis playable race, sorry. They're an NPC faction. They're a notoriously xenophobic people. You can't know all their seeeeeeecrets.
Q: Will there be decent progress with sanitation in future CLOK? I'd love to see more water closets.
A: Actually, yes. I was thinking about that specifically just yesterday.
Q: Will testers of Somnium have any special perks? I heard there might be a special bar.
A: Regarding the private bar thing, it'd be just a little novelty perk for the people who helped me test Somnium. I really am considering it, or something like it. Just for fun.
Q: This might be a spoiler, but is the Rook Parlour still around?
A: Well I'll spoil it for you anyway, since it should be common knowledge: Rook Parlour is definitely still around
Q: Where does COGG take place?
A: It's a new area, a bit west-southwest from the area CLOK players are familiar with. Off the known map.
Q: Is it a different area of the quarantine?
A: Same Lost Lands, and you'll be able to visit most of the old sites you knew from CLOK, but the main town is from beyond the southwest border of the CLOK map. Some slight geographic shuffling of minor areas may or may not occur. I have a few spots I want to shift closer to the town.
Q: Will it be one town?
A: One town, with a diverse political scene so people can not feel the need to evacuate just because they have differing ideals or opinions.
Q: Any major guild list changes?
A: Not that I'm willing to bring up at the moment. Nothing final as far as any removals, though.
Q: Will druidic commune still work?
A: Yeah, there'll be communing. That was always super cool. Slightly more involved to perform, though.
User Interface and General Gameplay Mechanics
Q: Will there be helpfiles?
A: I've resigned myself to the fact that I need to write up documentation. There's already a bunch of crafting help articles on the wiki, which can also be viewed in-game for those with wikiphobia.
Q: Lag is awful, am I right?
A: Things are still running very smoothly on the new Somnium engine as of now, even after having imported thousands of rooms from CLOK. We'll see how it holds up when players are running around and more NPCs have spawned and whatnot, but I'm optimistic. If lag starts becoming a thing again, I do have a list of things I did (or haven't gotten to yet) out of laziness that I can overhaul for increased performance.
Q: Will the ESP system be the same as it was in CLOK or is that going to be closer to the Somnium system?
A: It "listens" to an audible spoken message, and transmits that over the network to listeners' thoughts. No more needing to debate over what can or can't be transmitted via thought. It's pretty much a magic walky-talkie.
Q: Is morale still intended?
A: Character morale, yes. I think it's a fun that that isn't game-breaking for those who largely ignore it, but a nice little bonus for those who want to take it more into account.
Q: What do you mean by character morale bonuses?
A: Various things can raise or lower your character's morale, and morale adds a small amount of weighting to skill rolls. Low morale, weighted down a little. High morale, weighted up a little. So, you have at least a small mechanical reason to want to seek out food produced by a good cook instead of just eating hardtack rations all day.
Q: Are there different stats or is there just a common pool like energy again?
A: We've got Energy and Balance now. Balance currently only applies to combat, but I could see it affecting other things eventually. We also have Risk. The higher your risk, the less likely your risk-based actions are to succeed. Currently only applies to stealing, plan to add it to some spiffy combat moves that can be awesome but shouldn't be "spammed". That’s also going to apply to risky occult practices.
Q: Can high levels of Risk also invite bad times onto characters?
A: I don't know that I want to generalize it too much into general overall bad luck, but performing risk-based actions with high risk is essentially inviting bad luck.
Q: So I noticed in a few places about how tiring it is to wear heavier armors and to get a horse. Because there is no wilderness, how does this translate? Is there a fatigue penalty for moving around in any room? Is it just really severe in combat? Beyond doing stuff like climbing that is.
A: Honestly, not sure at this point. It was mostly in relation to moving from place to place, but without the wilderness thing, it's moot. And I did consider the move penalty just from any room to room, but that seemed kind of terrible.
Q: I know you were talking, at one point, about having like... a hidden "wealth" value attached to PCs so that they're more likely to have stuff stolen from them, to help curb hoarding behavior. Is that something you're still considering?
A: Oh, that was more like, if you walk around in your super fancy duds and carrying bulging coin pouches in the bad area of town, you're more likely to be targeted by NPC thieves. So that people can't always be like "I'm missing some money, and I know Jaster is on because I see him on WHO, so it MUST have been him".
Q: What’s the “watch” command”
A: Watch is good for watching people you suspect are about to try and hide from you or hit you with a dirty trick or something.
Q: Can I ask for some clarification? I never knew whether or not it being dark out actually affected gameplay other than stealth. Will being in the presence of light/darkness have gameplay impacts?
A: It does, yes. Stealth/perception mostly. And it actually gets darker and lighter depending on time of day, now. In outdoor areas, of course.
Q: How clockwork will COGG be?
A: I want clockwork and steam and natural gas techs to be more present in the theme (particularly in the main town), but that doesn't mean there are going to be hordes of new mechanical items utilizing these technologies. There will certainly be some, but it's more of a flavor upgrade than like a mechanical one.
Q: Will there be clocks everywhere?
A: I don't know about clocks "everywhere", but they won't be quite so rare. And the town will have gas pipes and lighting, probably some steam stuff too. Nice tall clock tower in town square.
Q: New here, so COGG has a specific way of dealing with/preventing the grind?
A: I wouldn't say preventing, but hopefully it's less a pain. First off, you get to pick some starting skills, so you don't start completely unskilled. Second, general experience can be put into any skill, though you still do have to utilize the skill a bit to get up to your full potential. So you can't be a masterful blacksmith without ever having ... blacksmithed. But shouldn't be as monotonously demanding as CLOK was. So, still a little bit of a grind, because I feel there still needs to be a journey, but not as much.
Q: Will the death mechanics and alt policy be the same as Somnium or CLOK?
A: Somnium version. Both alt policy and death system. Death was just too much of a triviality in CLOK. Having a survival gimme with a cooldown period should make people take it at least slightly more seriously, I hope.
Town Life
Q: Is there only one town?
A: Yes. Do your best to coexist with any enemies you might happen to make. There may well be opposing faction leanings within town.
Q: Are we still going to have one main town?
A: To start, yes. Depending on how things go, an alternative for "bad guys" may become available. I did like the faction conflict aspect of CLOK, before it got too out of hand (too many factions, too many strongholds).
Q: How can we tell between PCs and NPCs?
A: Right now, PCs show up as blue and NPCs as yellow. I realize this doesn't work for everyone. Also, while all PCs follow the same "generic name" formula, NPC names can differ to help them stand out when necessary.
Q: Will there be town districts and stuff?
A: Sort of. There won't be a whole bunch of districts for every walk of life or anything, but there will be some areas more accommodating of this or that than others.
Q: So how volatile is the situation where the main town is? I mean are people still traveling freely through and into the lost lands even if they can't get out? Is it still used as a dumping point? Or is being sandwiched been two factions mostly cutting off travel?
A: Thankfully, there's still a good deal of land beetween Lapis and Dominion lands. They get caught in the middle of the conflict occasionally, but not enough to really destabilize the town. I mean it has an effect, but it's not killing off the town or anything. It's often used as a sort of neutral ground as far as the Lapis-Dominion conflict.
The Quarantine is still officially in effect, but the eastern lands are having trouble enforcing it because of all the conflict on their side of the mountains. I'm still hashing out all the whys and hows, but it's looking ugly over there right now, so most of the effort they might have been putting toward enforcing quarantine has been pulled back to help at home.
So there's more hope than ever of getting out of the Quarantine, though it's still plenty risky. The Rullendbolg Giganti in particular still enjoy patrolling the waters and stealing any ships, crew, and cargo they find.
Lands routes are still physically blocked off, so the only real hope is by sea.
And yes, the Lost Lands are still used as a place to dump undesirables from other nations.
Skills, Professions, and Crafted Items
Q: Will player characters be able to mend broken bones and stuff?
A: Yes. Characters with a higher Medical skill will be able to help with that type of thing.
Q: So, is every character going to end up/want to be a medical expert? Or is it the sort of thing that wounds of a serious level, if you're wearing armor, aren't as common so you're not bandaging yourself constantly, and when you are injured, you'll have to head to town or find an expert.
A: I'd say for most people Medical will be a one-point wonder, to allow bandaging of just about any bleeder. Going beyond Novice level will be more for specialists who want to perform the more dedicated healing-related procedures like sutures and even surgeries and stuff (gross), since Thaumaturgy is going to have a lesser presence. But for field stoppage of bleeders so you can get back to town to receive medical attention, Novice level should be sufficient.
Q: Is crafting going to be like it was in CLOK?
A: Kind of, only a hundred billion times awesomer.
Q: Will my character be able to be self-sufficient?
A: Are we talking Dunwyr/Snowpine level self-sufficiency where you want to hunt your own food, make and repair your own tools and gear, etc., or are you talking you want to be self-sufficient in a particular role? I'm not sure why you'd need to ask someone for help every 5 minutes.
Q: Can we make our own tea?
A: Sure. Don't forget to put points into Brewing so you can pick up Tea Specialization
Q: Is preparing herbs for tea going to be under herbalism?
A: Could work with that or brewing, I imagine. Kind of like how foraging some items can take the better of your Herbalism or Bushcraft.
Q: Are some abilities locked behind skills and vice versa, like prerequisites?
A: Yes, many abilities will have skill prerequisites. And of course, attempting some rituals without the prerequisite knowledge or specialization could well result in Bad Things (tm). So anyone with enough Arcana skill could, say, perform a basic ritual detailed on a scroll, but only a member of Rook Parlour would be able to perform some advanced sorcerous ritual that's considered a trade secret of sorts.
Q: So, does that mean there won't be an arbitrary amount of slots [for abilities], and it will depend instead on your skills or am I misunderstanding?
A: Ideally, I'd like it to be based on skills, but there are some abilities that aren't linked to any skill, so…
Q: So, can crafters break down most items for components then?
A: Not currently, but it's planned where it makes sense, yes. And hey, at least they don't retain every rivet, tiny wooden wedge, and binding cordage. Though it does make for fun in customizing items, since you can look at each individual component individually.
... individual individual individual.
And it also means if someone skimps on your sword and puts a crappy copper cross guard instead of a nice steel one, you'll know.
Q: Item quality was hard to judge in CLOK – especially degradation. Will it be easier in COGG?
A: Well, the new system is improved in that it handles dynamic descriptions better. Like the CLOK items could degrade and sometimes it wouldn't reflect in the item name. In COGG, you examine your dagger, you see the overall description, then you see the components: blade, cross guard, grip, pommel. Each saying what its quality level is.
Character Creation
Q: Will players allocate some skill points during character generation?
A: Yes, though there's nothing forcing someone to use all (or any) of those starter skill points if they don’t want to.
Q: Is there a character limit?
A: 2
Q: What about accounts for alts?
A: Account-based system so link them up, keep any transferable benefits we dream up.
Guilds
Q: Player-organized groups and guilds. Wait, what?
A: I still plan to have a player-organized group (POG?) system to facilitate people setting up their own groups and whatnot. This would be aside from the ability-granting guilds. It'll be pretty much entirely for RP purposes, and will probably be nice for people that prefer not to join any of the guilds, so they can still have the option to join a group. If a group got big or influential enough, they might be able to secure some kind of modest facilities in town. Maybe.
Q: Can I worship Serafina, but also be devoted to an aspect or Aengel?
A: The Church doesn't worship Serafina, they just follow her guidance and occasionally seek her aid.
Q: Will continuous combat be required for certain guilds/playstyles?
A: An anti-resen warrior wouldn't stop just because they got really good at fighting. They're out to get rid of the infested, not on a Progress Quest. So, it's certainly not required, but I can definitely seeing perfectly acceptable character concepts that would spend the majority of their time fighting away.
Combat
Q: How will occultism work?
A: Occultism/magic will be less pew-pew focused, and more about enhancements, utility, and preparation beforehand. Generally speaking, I don't envision people performing occult rituals mid-battle. But for the sake of argument, let's say there's one that ... I don't know, creates a miniature nether-well and allows you to fling globs of nether at your foes. That type of thing would involve Ranged skill as far as combat offense and defense.
Q: So, anyone wanting to utilize "Magic" in combat, should also make sure they grab Ranged then. Also, how bad are armors going to be for failure rates?
A: Considering the procedures won't be things you can just up and do at a moment's notice, armor probably won't have much effect at all. Draw your occult circles and diagrams while wearing your metal. Even unarmored, you're not going to be able to do that while engaged in combat. Makes it kind of hard to draw precise geometric patterns and whatnot.
Q: How will stealth attacks work?
A: Stealth attacks take into account the target's combat ability at least a little, even if they're completely undetected. So no more no-combat Nancy ganking uber-warrior Uther just because Nancy has super high stealth.
Q: Will guns be uber powerful?
A: They'll have their own strengths and weaknesses. I'm still working out the details on firearms, since in Somnium I didn't intend to have them at all.
Q: I take it that armor will play a role in balance, especially regaining it? I'm assuming round losses for armor type (well more weight carried) exist still?
A: I'm still deciding on that, honestly. The energy issues with heavier armor seemed like they might have been a tad too much. Maybe. I didn't do a lot of playing with heavy armor though, what are your thoughts on the experience? I do want heavy armor to have some significant penalties though, because it really is very good at keeping you alive. Even more so in COGG, though lighter armors have seem more relative improvement in that area than heavier. (Note: Seriously, if you're going to do combat, wear armor. Even light leather mitigates a lot.)
Q: Are there specific weapon skills anymore?
A: Melee has been pretty simplified, so right now they're just squashed in with the Melee skill. Might be a specialization ability to use them particularly effectively, rather than a skill.
Q: So will weapon specialization be akin to ability points?
A: Yes.
Q: How advanced will ranged weaponry be? Will there still be firearms?
A: Yeah, there'll still be firearms. Crossbows are fun. I'm keeping the firearms tech level down intentionally. Don't want them to obsolete all the cool stuff.
Leadership
Q: Will GMs from CLOK be involved?
A: I don't want there to be this impression that I'm bringing all the GMs from CLOK over, though. I'm definitely not. Noctere has agreed to help out with make-the-world-alive events and to be part of my idea brainstorming group (because I always do better with people to brainstorm with). So, if you had issues with him, contact me and I'm happy to discuss. Really though, feel free to send me an email (rias@contrarium.net) if you have concerns that you don't want to discuss publicly.
Q: When will COGG become IC?
A: IC will be as soon as I open it up, since the lore's already all figured out, and I think I've got all the basic mechanics in a decent state. So, it should actually be soon.
Q: What does Contrarium Mean?
A: I've had various nicknames and other associations with sea snails for a long while, just because I think sea snails are cool. "Busycon contrarium" is a type of sea snail. I thought "contrarium" both sounded nice and was entertainingly similar to the word "contrarian", and a top-level domain was available for it, so here we are.
Q: Is Riln only used in the Lost Lands?
A: Elsewhere too. Aetgard kind of made it the standard, and a lot of people adopted its use.
Q: Is it reasonable to assume it has been around a long time as even ancient ruins and stuff have it or is that reading too much into it?
A: No, it's been around a goodly while. And while you shouldn't necessarily say "This type of mob drops riln, so it must be XYZ", I think it's safe to say it makes sense to be found in most of the ruins and whatnot.
Q: What is riln?
A: Right now, riln is just a kind of silver coin. Nothing exciting.
Q: How has Mistral Lake fared? Are there still canim?
A: They still have a canim problem, but I won't say more at the moment.
Q: What’s happened with the Dominion since CLOK?
A: Dominion has expanded its influence a bit, but they're far from taking over the whole area you saw in CLOK. Pesky resistances keep resisting.
Q: Are the Hillfolk and Faewyr still being awesome?
A: Yep! Hillfolk are enjoying being mostly left alone between the Fey Forest and the Quarantine Wall.
Q: Will races have special bonuses?
A: I'm meh on racial abilities. Makes people pick a race because they want that +1 instead of because that's a race that they think has a cool feel and lore. That said, I could see a few plus/minus possibilities. Like
Giganti with the option for extra strength (because Giganti) at the expense of less ... something else.
Q: Can we expect to see all the old metals, or are you removing any?
A: I'll probably rename cobalt, just because it bugs me that there's a real cobalt that wouldn't work well as applied in CLOK. But I can't think of any I want to outright remove. And I've added one very cool new metal. At least, I think it’s very cool.
Q: So this brings up another question, are there going to be any ultra-rare metals akin to Clok? Or do you think this sort of breakage system will allow you to make them less rare and input them into the game and see them used?
A: Some will continue to be ultra-rare for sure, because there always has to be that super rare thing. But I'm adding some new semi-rare materials.
Q: Just saying. We should have those crazy Lapis as a race. They are a part of the setting! Xenophobic and all!
A: They wouldn't be mysterious xenophobes if all their info was planted on the wiki for players to peruse as they made their characters.
Q: Will Lapis be a playable race?
A: No, no Lapis playable race, sorry. They're an NPC faction. They're a notoriously xenophobic people. You can't know all their seeeeeeecrets.
Q: Will there be decent progress with sanitation in future CLOK? I'd love to see more water closets.
A: Actually, yes. I was thinking about that specifically just yesterday.
Q: Will testers of Somnium have any special perks? I heard there might be a special bar.
A: Regarding the private bar thing, it'd be just a little novelty perk for the people who helped me test Somnium. I really am considering it, or something like it. Just for fun.
Q: This might be a spoiler, but is the Rook Parlour still around?
A: Well I'll spoil it for you anyway, since it should be common knowledge: Rook Parlour is definitely still around
Q: Where does COGG take place?
A: It's a new area, a bit west-southwest from the area CLOK players are familiar with. Off the known map.
Q: Is it a different area of the quarantine?
A: Same Lost Lands, and you'll be able to visit most of the old sites you knew from CLOK, but the main town is from beyond the southwest border of the CLOK map. Some slight geographic shuffling of minor areas may or may not occur. I have a few spots I want to shift closer to the town.
Q: Will it be one town?
A: One town, with a diverse political scene so people can not feel the need to evacuate just because they have differing ideals or opinions.
Q: Any major guild list changes?
A: Not that I'm willing to bring up at the moment. Nothing final as far as any removals, though.
Q: Will druidic commune still work?
A: Yeah, there'll be communing. That was always super cool. Slightly more involved to perform, though.
User Interface and General Gameplay Mechanics
Q: Will there be helpfiles?
A: I've resigned myself to the fact that I need to write up documentation. There's already a bunch of crafting help articles on the wiki, which can also be viewed in-game for those with wikiphobia.
Q: Lag is awful, am I right?
A: Things are still running very smoothly on the new Somnium engine as of now, even after having imported thousands of rooms from CLOK. We'll see how it holds up when players are running around and more NPCs have spawned and whatnot, but I'm optimistic. If lag starts becoming a thing again, I do have a list of things I did (or haven't gotten to yet) out of laziness that I can overhaul for increased performance.
Q: Will the ESP system be the same as it was in CLOK or is that going to be closer to the Somnium system?
A: It "listens" to an audible spoken message, and transmits that over the network to listeners' thoughts. No more needing to debate over what can or can't be transmitted via thought. It's pretty much a magic walky-talkie.
Q: Is morale still intended?
A: Character morale, yes. I think it's a fun that that isn't game-breaking for those who largely ignore it, but a nice little bonus for those who want to take it more into account.
Q: What do you mean by character morale bonuses?
A: Various things can raise or lower your character's morale, and morale adds a small amount of weighting to skill rolls. Low morale, weighted down a little. High morale, weighted up a little. So, you have at least a small mechanical reason to want to seek out food produced by a good cook instead of just eating hardtack rations all day.
Q: Are there different stats or is there just a common pool like energy again?
A: We've got Energy and Balance now. Balance currently only applies to combat, but I could see it affecting other things eventually. We also have Risk. The higher your risk, the less likely your risk-based actions are to succeed. Currently only applies to stealing, plan to add it to some spiffy combat moves that can be awesome but shouldn't be "spammed". That’s also going to apply to risky occult practices.
Q: Can high levels of Risk also invite bad times onto characters?
A: I don't know that I want to generalize it too much into general overall bad luck, but performing risk-based actions with high risk is essentially inviting bad luck.
Q: So I noticed in a few places about how tiring it is to wear heavier armors and to get a horse. Because there is no wilderness, how does this translate? Is there a fatigue penalty for moving around in any room? Is it just really severe in combat? Beyond doing stuff like climbing that is.
A: Honestly, not sure at this point. It was mostly in relation to moving from place to place, but without the wilderness thing, it's moot. And I did consider the move penalty just from any room to room, but that seemed kind of terrible.
Q: I know you were talking, at one point, about having like... a hidden "wealth" value attached to PCs so that they're more likely to have stuff stolen from them, to help curb hoarding behavior. Is that something you're still considering?
A: Oh, that was more like, if you walk around in your super fancy duds and carrying bulging coin pouches in the bad area of town, you're more likely to be targeted by NPC thieves. So that people can't always be like "I'm missing some money, and I know Jaster is on because I see him on WHO, so it MUST have been him".
Q: What’s the “watch” command”
A: Watch is good for watching people you suspect are about to try and hide from you or hit you with a dirty trick or something.
Q: Can I ask for some clarification? I never knew whether or not it being dark out actually affected gameplay other than stealth. Will being in the presence of light/darkness have gameplay impacts?
A: It does, yes. Stealth/perception mostly. And it actually gets darker and lighter depending on time of day, now. In outdoor areas, of course.
Q: How clockwork will COGG be?
A: I want clockwork and steam and natural gas techs to be more present in the theme (particularly in the main town), but that doesn't mean there are going to be hordes of new mechanical items utilizing these technologies. There will certainly be some, but it's more of a flavor upgrade than like a mechanical one.
Q: Will there be clocks everywhere?
A: I don't know about clocks "everywhere", but they won't be quite so rare. And the town will have gas pipes and lighting, probably some steam stuff too. Nice tall clock tower in town square.
Q: New here, so COGG has a specific way of dealing with/preventing the grind?
A: I wouldn't say preventing, but hopefully it's less a pain. First off, you get to pick some starting skills, so you don't start completely unskilled. Second, general experience can be put into any skill, though you still do have to utilize the skill a bit to get up to your full potential. So you can't be a masterful blacksmith without ever having ... blacksmithed. But shouldn't be as monotonously demanding as CLOK was. So, still a little bit of a grind, because I feel there still needs to be a journey, but not as much.
Q: Will the death mechanics and alt policy be the same as Somnium or CLOK?
A: Somnium version. Both alt policy and death system. Death was just too much of a triviality in CLOK. Having a survival gimme with a cooldown period should make people take it at least slightly more seriously, I hope.
Town Life
Q: Is there only one town?
A: Yes. Do your best to coexist with any enemies you might happen to make. There may well be opposing faction leanings within town.
Q: Are we still going to have one main town?
A: To start, yes. Depending on how things go, an alternative for "bad guys" may become available. I did like the faction conflict aspect of CLOK, before it got too out of hand (too many factions, too many strongholds).
Q: How can we tell between PCs and NPCs?
A: Right now, PCs show up as blue and NPCs as yellow. I realize this doesn't work for everyone. Also, while all PCs follow the same "generic name" formula, NPC names can differ to help them stand out when necessary.
Q: Will there be town districts and stuff?
A: Sort of. There won't be a whole bunch of districts for every walk of life or anything, but there will be some areas more accommodating of this or that than others.
Q: So how volatile is the situation where the main town is? I mean are people still traveling freely through and into the lost lands even if they can't get out? Is it still used as a dumping point? Or is being sandwiched been two factions mostly cutting off travel?
A: Thankfully, there's still a good deal of land beetween Lapis and Dominion lands. They get caught in the middle of the conflict occasionally, but not enough to really destabilize the town. I mean it has an effect, but it's not killing off the town or anything. It's often used as a sort of neutral ground as far as the Lapis-Dominion conflict.
The Quarantine is still officially in effect, but the eastern lands are having trouble enforcing it because of all the conflict on their side of the mountains. I'm still hashing out all the whys and hows, but it's looking ugly over there right now, so most of the effort they might have been putting toward enforcing quarantine has been pulled back to help at home.
So there's more hope than ever of getting out of the Quarantine, though it's still plenty risky. The Rullendbolg Giganti in particular still enjoy patrolling the waters and stealing any ships, crew, and cargo they find.
Lands routes are still physically blocked off, so the only real hope is by sea.
And yes, the Lost Lands are still used as a place to dump undesirables from other nations.
Skills, Professions, and Crafted Items
Q: Will player characters be able to mend broken bones and stuff?
A: Yes. Characters with a higher Medical skill will be able to help with that type of thing.
Q: So, is every character going to end up/want to be a medical expert? Or is it the sort of thing that wounds of a serious level, if you're wearing armor, aren't as common so you're not bandaging yourself constantly, and when you are injured, you'll have to head to town or find an expert.
A: I'd say for most people Medical will be a one-point wonder, to allow bandaging of just about any bleeder. Going beyond Novice level will be more for specialists who want to perform the more dedicated healing-related procedures like sutures and even surgeries and stuff (gross), since Thaumaturgy is going to have a lesser presence. But for field stoppage of bleeders so you can get back to town to receive medical attention, Novice level should be sufficient.
Q: Is crafting going to be like it was in CLOK?
A: Kind of, only a hundred billion times awesomer.
Q: Will my character be able to be self-sufficient?
A: Are we talking Dunwyr/Snowpine level self-sufficiency where you want to hunt your own food, make and repair your own tools and gear, etc., or are you talking you want to be self-sufficient in a particular role? I'm not sure why you'd need to ask someone for help every 5 minutes.
Q: Can we make our own tea?
A: Sure. Don't forget to put points into Brewing so you can pick up Tea Specialization
Q: Is preparing herbs for tea going to be under herbalism?
A: Could work with that or brewing, I imagine. Kind of like how foraging some items can take the better of your Herbalism or Bushcraft.
Q: Are some abilities locked behind skills and vice versa, like prerequisites?
A: Yes, many abilities will have skill prerequisites. And of course, attempting some rituals without the prerequisite knowledge or specialization could well result in Bad Things (tm). So anyone with enough Arcana skill could, say, perform a basic ritual detailed on a scroll, but only a member of Rook Parlour would be able to perform some advanced sorcerous ritual that's considered a trade secret of sorts.
Q: So, does that mean there won't be an arbitrary amount of slots [for abilities], and it will depend instead on your skills or am I misunderstanding?
A: Ideally, I'd like it to be based on skills, but there are some abilities that aren't linked to any skill, so…
Q: So, can crafters break down most items for components then?
A: Not currently, but it's planned where it makes sense, yes. And hey, at least they don't retain every rivet, tiny wooden wedge, and binding cordage. Though it does make for fun in customizing items, since you can look at each individual component individually.
... individual individual individual.
And it also means if someone skimps on your sword and puts a crappy copper cross guard instead of a nice steel one, you'll know.
Q: Item quality was hard to judge in CLOK – especially degradation. Will it be easier in COGG?
A: Well, the new system is improved in that it handles dynamic descriptions better. Like the CLOK items could degrade and sometimes it wouldn't reflect in the item name. In COGG, you examine your dagger, you see the overall description, then you see the components: blade, cross guard, grip, pommel. Each saying what its quality level is.
Character Creation
Q: Will players allocate some skill points during character generation?
A: Yes, though there's nothing forcing someone to use all (or any) of those starter skill points if they don’t want to.
Q: Is there a character limit?
A: 2
Q: What about accounts for alts?
A: Account-based system so link them up, keep any transferable benefits we dream up.
Guilds
Q: Player-organized groups and guilds. Wait, what?
A: I still plan to have a player-organized group (POG?) system to facilitate people setting up their own groups and whatnot. This would be aside from the ability-granting guilds. It'll be pretty much entirely for RP purposes, and will probably be nice for people that prefer not to join any of the guilds, so they can still have the option to join a group. If a group got big or influential enough, they might be able to secure some kind of modest facilities in town. Maybe.
Q: Can I worship Serafina, but also be devoted to an aspect or Aengel?
A: The Church doesn't worship Serafina, they just follow her guidance and occasionally seek her aid.
Q: Will continuous combat be required for certain guilds/playstyles?
A: An anti-resen warrior wouldn't stop just because they got really good at fighting. They're out to get rid of the infested, not on a Progress Quest. So, it's certainly not required, but I can definitely seeing perfectly acceptable character concepts that would spend the majority of their time fighting away.
Combat
Q: How will occultism work?
A: Occultism/magic will be less pew-pew focused, and more about enhancements, utility, and preparation beforehand. Generally speaking, I don't envision people performing occult rituals mid-battle. But for the sake of argument, let's say there's one that ... I don't know, creates a miniature nether-well and allows you to fling globs of nether at your foes. That type of thing would involve Ranged skill as far as combat offense and defense.
Q: So, anyone wanting to utilize "Magic" in combat, should also make sure they grab Ranged then. Also, how bad are armors going to be for failure rates?
A: Considering the procedures won't be things you can just up and do at a moment's notice, armor probably won't have much effect at all. Draw your occult circles and diagrams while wearing your metal. Even unarmored, you're not going to be able to do that while engaged in combat. Makes it kind of hard to draw precise geometric patterns and whatnot.
Q: How will stealth attacks work?
A: Stealth attacks take into account the target's combat ability at least a little, even if they're completely undetected. So no more no-combat Nancy ganking uber-warrior Uther just because Nancy has super high stealth.
Q: Will guns be uber powerful?
A: They'll have their own strengths and weaknesses. I'm still working out the details on firearms, since in Somnium I didn't intend to have them at all.
Q: I take it that armor will play a role in balance, especially regaining it? I'm assuming round losses for armor type (well more weight carried) exist still?
A: I'm still deciding on that, honestly. The energy issues with heavier armor seemed like they might have been a tad too much. Maybe. I didn't do a lot of playing with heavy armor though, what are your thoughts on the experience? I do want heavy armor to have some significant penalties though, because it really is very good at keeping you alive. Even more so in COGG, though lighter armors have seem more relative improvement in that area than heavier. (Note: Seriously, if you're going to do combat, wear armor. Even light leather mitigates a lot.)
Q: Are there specific weapon skills anymore?
A: Melee has been pretty simplified, so right now they're just squashed in with the Melee skill. Might be a specialization ability to use them particularly effectively, rather than a skill.
Q: So will weapon specialization be akin to ability points?
A: Yes.
Q: How advanced will ranged weaponry be? Will there still be firearms?
A: Yeah, there'll still be firearms. Crossbows are fun. I'm keeping the firearms tech level down intentionally. Don't want them to obsolete all the cool stuff.
Leadership
Q: Will GMs from CLOK be involved?
A: I don't want there to be this impression that I'm bringing all the GMs from CLOK over, though. I'm definitely not. Noctere has agreed to help out with make-the-world-alive events and to be part of my idea brainstorming group (because I always do better with people to brainstorm with). So, if you had issues with him, contact me and I'm happy to discuss. Really though, feel free to send me an email (rias@contrarium.net) if you have concerns that you don't want to discuss publicly.