Vapourware Realms Beyond: Ashes of the Fallen - Chaos Chronicles reborn and dead again

[Darth Roxor]

I very much like the feeling of "Resource dwindling" dread. "Oh shit, I'm so deep into the dungeon, and I have no way to heal myself, how will I make it?".
It sounds like some of the areas will accomplish that. Looking forward to it

more like

'oh shit, do i use one of the 100 healing potions i've hoarded?

nah, i can make it, 3 hp left on all dudes are still good enough odds'

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

As for the classes, we got 8 basic classes available for the player: barbarian, warrior, wizard, paladin, rogue, druid, ranger, cleric.

We also have prestige classes you can level into at higher levels: Arcane Archer, Arcane Trickster, Archmage, Assassin, Blackguard, Cerebremancer, Dragon Disciple, Duelist, Dwarven Defender, Eldritch Knight, Elocater, Hierophant, Horizon Walker, Loremaster, Metamind, Mystic Theurge, Psion Uncarnate, Psionic Fist, Pyrokineticist, Shadowdancer, Slayer, Thaumaturgist, Thrallherd, War Mind. Those are the ones currently under consideration but we're not yet sure whether they will all make it in, so keep that in mind. But prestige classes are definitely in as a thing.

Those bolded classes are psionic PrC. How do you plan to implement them without the base psionic classes like Psion and Psychic Warrior.

 

[JarlFrank]

As for the classes, we got 8 basic classes available for the player: barbarian, warrior, wizard, paladin, rogue, druid, ranger, cleric.

We also have prestige classes you can level into at higher levels: Arcane Archer, Arcane Trickster, Archmage, Assassin, Blackguard, Cerebremancer, Dragon Disciple, Duelist, Dwarven Defender, Eldritch Knight, Elocater, Hierophant, Horizon Walker, Loremaster, Metamind, Mystic Theurge, Psion Uncarnate, Psionic Fist, Pyrokineticist, Shadowdancer, Slayer, Thaumaturgist, Thrallherd, War Mind. Those are the ones currently under consideration but we're not yet sure whether they will all make it in, so keep that in mind. But prestige classes are definitely in as a thing.

Those bolded classes are psionic PrC. How do you plan to implement them without the base psionic classes like Psion and Psychic Warrior.

Psion is one of the base classes under consideration to be added later.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

i suggest tackling psion, psychic warrior and the psionic PrC in an expansion.

 

[JarlFrank]

Yeah, those classes cause so much additional work that it won't make into the initial release. At some point, we need to start selling the game and if everything goes well, there will be future enhancements such as the Psionic classes.

 

[Sitra Achara]

I very much like the feeling of "Resource dwindling" dread. "Oh shit, I'm so deep into the dungeon, and I have no way to heal myself, how will I make it?".
It sounds like some of the areas will accomplish that. Looking forward to it

more like

'oh shit, do i use one of the 100 healing potions i've hoarded?

nah, i can make it, 3 hp left on all dudes are still good enough odds'

On a related note - how will crafting be handled?
In ToEE it always felt to me like scribing scrolls and crafting wands trivialized resource management.

 

[JarlFrank]

I very much like the feeling of "Resource dwindling" dread. "Oh shit, I'm so deep into the dungeon, and I have no way to heal myself, how will I make it?".
It sounds like some of the areas will accomplish that. Looking forward to it

more like

'oh shit, do i use one of the 100 healing potions i've hoarded?

nah, i can make it, 3 hp left on all dudes are still good enough odds'

On a related note - how will crafting be handled?
In ToEE it always felt to me like scribing scrolls and crafting wands trivialized resource management.

You can't abuse healing potions if there are no healing potions!

We've got potions for curing disease, removing poison, etc. But HP can only be restored by spells or by resting (and resting requires you to have the proper conditions - food and a good sleep; if your character is sick, hungry, or thirsty, or if it's too hot/cold/wet, resting won't restore as many HP as when you're having a good cooked meal and sleep in a cozy soft blanket).

Crafting only lets you create consumables: potions (not for HP), cooked food, bandages, arrows/bolts, etc.

Cooking is going to be an important skill for your characters since our resting mechanics are inspired by the old Realms of Arkania games. Having some well-prepared food will increase the efficiency of resting.

There will be unique weapons and armors that are broken and can be re-forged, or even weapons and armors with missing pieces that can be used but later be enhanced when you find the missing pieces. You can't re-forge those yourself, though, because you're playing a party of adventurers, not blacksmiths and cobblers. You need to go to a trained craftsman and pay him to do it for you. And not every craftsman can re-assemble every item. Found the hilt and the blade of an ancient legendary sword? You need to find a blacksmith to re-forge it for you. Found the enchanted jewel-studded sandals of an ancient queen, but the jewels have fallen out of their sockets? Either find a cobbler or a jeweler, they might know how to put them back in. Really high-tier broken artifacts will also require you to find an appropriate craftsman who is also skilled enough... the village blacksmith who forges only cheap iron swords and horseshoes won't be able to repair the Greataxe of Murderhobo +4.

 

[Sitra Achara]

I very much like the feeling of "Resource dwindling" dread. "Oh shit, I'm so deep into the dungeon, and I have no way to heal myself, how will I make it?".
It sounds like some of the areas will accomplish that. Looking forward to it

more like

'oh shit, do i use one of the 100 healing potions i've hoarded?

nah, i can make it, 3 hp left on all dudes are still good enough odds'

On a related note - how will crafting be handled?
In ToEE it always felt to me like scribing scrolls and crafting wands trivialized resource management.

You can't abuse healing potions if there are no healing potions!

We've got potions for curing disease, removing poison, etc. But HP can only be restored by spells or by resting (and resting requires you to have the proper conditions - food and a good sleep; if your character is sick, hungry, or thirsty, or if it's too hot/cold/wet, resting won't restore as many HP as when you're having a good cooked meal and sleep in a cozy soft blanket).

Crafting only lets you create consumables: potions (not for HP), cooked food, bandages, arrows/bolts, etc.

Cooking is going to be an important skill for your characters since our resting mechanics are inspired by the old Realms of Arkania games. Having some well-prepared food will increase the efficiency of resting.

There will be unique weapons and armors that are broken and can be re-forged, or even weapons and armors with missing pieces that can be used but later be enhanced when you find the missing pieces. You can't re-forge those yourself, though, because you're playing a party of adventurers, not blacksmiths and cobblers. You need to go to a trained craftsman and pay him to do it for you. And not every craftsman can re-assemble every item. Found the hilt and the blade of an ancient legendary sword? You need to find a blacksmith to re-forge it for you. Found the enchanted jewel-studded sandals of an ancient queen, but the jewels have fallen out of their sockets? Either find a cobbler or a jeweler, they might know how to put them back in. Really high-tier broken artifacts will also require you to find an appropriate craftsman who is also skilled enough... the village blacksmith who forges only cheap iron swords and horseshoes won't be able to repair the Greataxe of Murderhobo +4.

Does this mean no:
1. Creating 100 cure light wounds scrolls
2. Holy axiomatic flaming +5 longsword crafting from scratch?

 

[JarlFrank]

Does this mean no:
1. Creating 100 cure light wounds scrolls
2. Holy axiomatic flaming +5 longsword crafting from scratch?

Yes. Powerful weapons like a holy axiomatic flaming +5 longsword are uniques and found only as rewards in the deepest dungeons, you can't craft something like that from scratch.
In fact, we're not even having the "create wondrous item" feat because in most CRPGs that have it, it ends up being incredibly OP. In both KotC and ToEE you ended up with every party member having two or three items of +6 to [stat], at the cost of only some XP which could easily be gotten back through a handful of random encounters. The inclusion of that feat would completely invalidate our BG2-like itemization of having legendary unique items that take effort to get your hands on. Would assembling the full Flail of Ages in BG2 have been as much fun as it was if the game had also allowed you to create an even more powerful weapon from scratch, just through the use of a feat? Definitely not.

Currently, scrolls can only be bought, not crafted. If we include scroll crafting at all, they will require expensive parchment and ink to craft.

EDIT:
Also, scrolls are an expensive specialty product and not a mass market convenience item, so even if you could afford 100 scrolls of healing, you won't find a store that stocks such high quantities of them.

 

[Sacred82]

surely you would not have random encounters, that shit is so pre-Sawyer

 

[JarlFrank]

Surely we will have world map encounters appropriate to the area you're traveling through.

 

[Sacred82]

but muh balinse shitposting ITT without reading anything, is there an overland map in this game? Will there be skill checks to avoid said random encounters?

 

[JarlFrank]

Oh, also, our encounters aren't random, they're wandering monster groups that you can stumble upon during your travels. Usually, they also have a point of origin - monster spawning lairs, essentially. Which can be found and cleared out to stop that kind of monster group from spawning in the area.
Tired of getting ambushed by web-casting giant spiders? Find the spider caves, kill the spiders, crush their eggs. No more spiders.

A decent scouting skill also allows you to spot enemy mobs from a distance and you can avoid them if you want to.
Weak groups of enemies, like lowly level 1 bandits, will also try to avoid your level 10 party equipped with magic items.

but muh balinse shitposting ITT without reading anything, is there an overland map in this game? Will there be skill checks to avoid said random encounters?

Nigga an overland map is one of our core features, I'm pretty sure I mentioned its existence somewhere in this thread before or it's in one of Hobgoblin's blogposts. Lern2reed.

In short: we got a world map seperated into hex tiles, kinda like the new Civ games if you want something to compare it to, which can be freely explored but some areas will be harder to travel through than others (don't travel through the desert without water unless you like dehydration).
Traveling will take a page from the Realms of Arkania games. You need to camp occasionally and get some rest or risk getting tired. You can forage for berries and hunt for game to supplement your food rations.

 

[Sacred82]

I said I didn't read anything, but I guess you just wanted to say learn2read

So we'll never clear out the XP, I mean, monster generators until they're below our ECL or something? Assuming that's the mechanic you're using. Still, carry on, I can live with the imbalances of the universe that drive lesser autists insane.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I want to believe!

plz hire me to help

I can model 3d boxes. Ask Fargo for reference.

 

[JarlFrank]

I said I didn't read anything, but I guess you just wanted to say learn2read

So we'll never clear out the XP, I mean, monster generators until they're below our ECL or something? Assuming that's the mechanic you're using. Still, carry on, I can live with the imbalances of the universe that drive lesser autists insane.

You clear out the monster generators by clearing out the actual lair, since most monster groups spawn from an actual place.

A bandit threat in a region can be eliminated by finding their headquarters and destroying them.
Some spawn places can also be eliminated by solutions other than straight-up combat. Think blocking off the scorpion caves in Fallout 1. Or maybe a bandit leader can be convinced by diplomacy or bribery to relocate or whatever.

 

[Sacred82]

Not exactly a difference though, is it? You just hold off on clearing out the lair for that sweet quest XP until you've harvested all the combat XP you can.


Unless there's a timer, or a food resource or anything, or even just expensive camping.

 

[JarlFrank]

I mean, if grinding is a thing you want to do... yeah, go ahead and grind. Endlessly farming random encounters isn't what I'd consider fun, but I guess some people do.

You could endlessly farm randoms in Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, and in ToEE, and in the Icewind Dales if i remember correctly, by resting in unsafe places. Same with the old Gold Box games.

 

[Sacred82]

but that was before the Age of Balinse


unless your game is somewhat ironmanable, in that case you don't want to get jumped by randoms while resting too much.

 

[JarlFrank]

Fun > Balance

 

[Jack Dandy]

Tired of getting ambushed by web-casting giant spiders? Find the spider caves, kill the spiders, crush their eggs. No more spiders.

Will we finally have a chance to remove Gobbo?

 

[JarlFrank]

Goblin genocide simulator 2019.

 

[Citizen]

So, learning from the best? ToEE's combat, Arcanum's/Fallout's quests, BG2's itemization, SoZ/RoA's map travelling, NWN's mod support and Grimoire's development time?

Also, what about diseases? RoA's camping was nice and interesting except the "Your head feels like it is stuffed with cotton wool", "Your head feels like it is stuffed with cotton wool", "Your head feels like it is stuffed with cotton wool" part.

 

[agris]

So, learning from the best? ToEE's combat, Arcanum's/Fallout's quests, BG2's itemization, SoZ/RoA's map travelling, NWN's mod support and Grimoire's reasonable development time?

I want to believe.

 

[ArchAngel]

I said I didn't read anything, but I guess you just wanted to say learn2read

So we'll never clear out the XP, I mean, monster generators until they're below our ECL or something? Assuming that's the mechanic you're using. Still, carry on, I can live with the imbalances of the universe that drive lesser autists insane.

You clear out the monster generators by clearing out the actual lair, since most monster groups spawn from an actual place.

A bandit threat in a region can be eliminated by finding their headquarters and destroying them.
Some spawn places can also be eliminated by solutions other than straight-up combat. Think blocking off the scorpion caves in Fallout 1. Or maybe a bandit leader can be convinced by diplomacy or bribery to relocate or whatever.

Could that bandit leader be convinced to share part of the profits with you instead? :D