AD&DRPG - Dragon Coins

Some good news came out for AW games last week as DM Mercury introduced a new element of gameplay to AD&DRPG -- Dragon Coins.

"Some elder dragons have started distributing a new form of currency in the Mid-Rift to their lesser minions in order to gain their support for an uprising.  This currency is quite magical and in the hands of a player can be quite powerful giving players extra abilities that they would not have otherwise had.

You can acquire dragon coins by killing monsters once you are level 10 and fighting monsters who are at least level 10.  Not all monsters will have Dragon Coins.  If you receive a Dragon Coin it will be added to your character automatically, and you will receive a pretty pink message after the kill.

You can view your current Dragon Coins on the /stats command."

So in essence, a special currency was introduced to the game that allows players to perform special commands when they acquire enough of it. The commands that have currently been implemented are as follows:

• /dragon heal
• Cost: 1 coin
• Heals both HP and MP to full
• /dragon gold
• Cost: 1 coin
• Gives you 200gp
• /dragon teleport list 
• Cost: 0 coins
• Lists teleports you have and how many times you can teleport there.
• /dragon bind (n) 
• Cost: 25 dragon coins for 50 teleports
• Sets your current location to teleport (n).  The value of (n) must be 1,2, or 3.  Warning this will override any previous teleport and reset the number of teleports you have to 50.  
• Example usage: /dragon bind 2
• /dragon teleport (n) 
• Cost: 1 teleport
• Teleports you to a previously defined teleport via /dragon bind (n).  Teleports are specific to a Teleport (n), where n is the value 1,2, or 3 that you set your teleport to.  
• Example usage: /dragon teleport 1
•  /dragon refresh (n) 
• Cost: 5 dragon coins for 10 teleports
• This allows you to add 10 more teleports to a bind location you have already set.  
• Example usage: /dragon refresh 3

The big feature here seems to be personalized teleportation... which is great in a game like AD&DRPG where the player is always on the move, and doesn't necessarily have to have a 'home.'  This feature is still in development and DM Mercury is looking for suggestions, so if you have any feedback feel free to visit the forum thread concerning Dragon Coins.

Noticeboard: AD&DRPG Summer Solstice Event (6/17 - 6/21)

AD&DRPG is running an event through the Summer Solstice that doubles player skill experience gains, and quadruples player spell experience gains!  Skill/Spell gains are a factor in obtaining better equipment in the game, so this is certainly good news for players who are working on skills this weekend!

The Summer Solstice (in the northern hemisphere) is on June 21 this year (at 5:16 pm GMT) though I would expect the event will run through the end of the day. ;)

While we're on the topic of AD&DRPG, I may release another video this weekend of my work in the world.  I haven't had much time to build this week because of summer classes, but I get a few hours of break over the weekend. :P

Happy gaming, everyone!

AD&DRPG Visual Renovations - Traloria and Traloria Sewers

Hey everyone... my work continues in AD&DRPG world and has focused on the large town of Traloria.  I had started on Traloria as of the last photo blog, but really underestimated how long it would take to work on.  I'm still not quite done there, but I've completed several areas, including the popular sewer dungeon.  Take a look:

This isn't actually Traloria, but an unrelated dungeon.  Mostly untouched, I've made simple changes for lighting and effects.

The main square in Traloria has been completely redone.  A fire-lit path leads past interactive characters and shops.

A market now exists in the main square, where players can purchase items and join the Traloria Army.

A chamber within the Traloria Sewers where the various tunnels flow out.  Look out for that dragon!

A safe-haven within the sewers, where players can heal and purchase special equipment.  There are various helpful characters around as well.

Many familiar areas have received mostly cosmetic changes.  I really wanted to eliminate all paper-thin walls.

Some areas, such as this stream next to the path, exist purely for detailing to make the dungeon more interesting.

Classes Begin Today

Hey everyone.  Summer classes begin today and I suspect they'll eat away at much of my time.  Oh well.  :)

I also have a link to share:  a thread containing the changelog of my progress in AD&DRPG world.  You can review it here.  There are also some suggestions from other users posted there that are worth a view.  If you have any ideas, feel free to let me know!

Recent Updates with AD&DRPG and an upcoming break

Hey everyone.  Married life is going well and I'll be starting summer classes here soon, so I'll be cutting back on the posts.  I have a few more in the pipes... but I've cut down on AW projects as well.  Most of my time the past few weeks has been in AD&DRPG world continuing my efforts at renewing some of the older builds.  The updated visuals have gotten a lot of good feedback and I've seen a positive upturn to the amount of people in the world, including a few new players.  My goal with all of this was to help AD&D continue to be a stable gaming destination for AW users, and as more people are playing (a lot of tourists especially!) I can feel comfortable that my goal has been achieved.

If AD&D isn't your thing, you may want to check out AWMyths world... they've seen an upswing in activity as well and there seems to be a lot of good things coming out of the world.

AD&DRPG Visual Renovations - Photo Blog

I don't really want to go into another in-depth explanation of things while I'm away on honeymoon, so I've decided to post a photoblog of my progress so far. :)  The visual renovations span over several areas, and I'm trying to work in the order which places the player would generally experience.

A redesigned town fountain in the entry town of Meriel.  The benches surrounding the fountain are movers that allow the player to lay down and relax, or perhaps take a nice AFK. ;)

The Magic Users guild.  The area in the middle of the room is an anti-gravity zone that lifts players to the next floor, and the cloths in the doorway are cloth objects.  All avatars in the building have sequences applied.

Some new landscaping in the southern part of Merinel.  The knight in the foreground is actually an enemy NPC spawn-point, and I thought it fitting to position them in what seems like an ambush.

A dense scene in Turkel forest that leads players to an important location nearby.  Since players can't fly, the felled trees make a nice transitional barrier from one area to another.

Gro Lahr mansion.  The mansion is plagued by a dark fog, and surrounded by a dying forest.  There has been extensive work on increasing area of this atmosphere outside the immediate area of the mansion, and the trees from Turkel forest now continue into this area.  A sharp gradient occurs where the trees begin to die off.

Turkel forest has been graced with a new mist, low-gravity zones (for good jumping!) and numerous firefly particles.  The low gravity zone makes jumping from trees very enjoyable!

The new appearance of the entrance to Traloria.  Notice the lowered terrain from the original entry as well as the new procession into the city proper.  A lot of detail work has been done in Traloria, though I'm trying to keep with the original vision of the build as much as possible.

A handy newsboard at the ground zero area.  If you click on the postings, they are elaborated upon via the say command in the user's chat.

AD&DRPG Visual Renovations - Title Screen

Hey everyone!  I've spent the past couple of days in AD&DRPG helping to get the world's half-decade old builds back up-to-date.  If you've never been to visit, AD&DRPG is a fantasy-themed role-playing game that uses Dungeons & Dragons gameplay mechanics for character stats, skills, and progression.  If you're a follower of the blog, you'll remember back in March when we reported that AD&DRPG would be open permanently.  Since they're around to stay, I wanted to contribute some of my time to help address the biggest gripe world visitors have had since it returned: the aging visuals.

In addition to the visuals I've also been addressing some navigation issues by making new NPCs that address players via the say command, but overall the chief concern has been to update areas with zones and particle effects, replace really low-res textures, get sequences to avatar objects... things like that.  Anything to help with interaction and immersion is being addressed, and it is really starting to show.

I would like to share all of my progress here on the blog (since this is a building blog, after all) and I think I'll do so in small snippets, to be released while I'm away next week.  I'll set them to be posted at various intervals through the week, so be checking for new posts!

Today, we'll be looking at the new world title screen.  The title screen appears when players drop into Merinel -- the ground zero town -- and is triggered by a simple bump trigger.  You can view it below.

As you can see from the video, there are a few things going on here.  Perhaps most noticeable is the camera switch -- this isn't native third person mode.  The user is forced into this camera position when they hit the bump trigger, and the camera itself is set to a pole object that moves and rotates back and forward.  In the actual view, you see the AD&DRPG logo, a large dragon, and several buttons.  The dragon is simple, and is stationary except for an appropriate flying sequence that has been set to loop. The two buttons on the left link to webpages, and the button on the right sets the camera location to the user -- effectively terminating the title sequence.

Commands used in the title sequence:

• Camera
• Used to begin and end the title sequence.  The 'location' parameter was first set to a named object (the pole) for the title camera, and then set to the user to terminate the title sequence.
• Move
• Used on the camera pole to give the camera the effect of zooming in and out.
• Rotate
• Used on the camera pole to give the camera the effect of zooming in and out.
• Name
• Used for objects that needed to be changed by bump or activate triggers.  In our case, everything that was meant for the title screen had a name assigned to it because when the player clicked 'PLAY,' all of the title screen objects needed to disappear.  'Activate visible <name> no' achieves this.
• Sequence (Seq)
• A flying sequence was applied to the dragon avatar object so that it would remain animated.
• Scale
• Scale is useful for detail work; in this example the dragon and logo were scaled.
• URL
• URL is pretty standard for accessing web-links from Active Worlds.  It is typically accessed via an activate command, and this is true in our example as it is used for interactive signage.
  

Anyway I don't want to go into a detailed explanation of how exactly to make a title screen like the one here, but this should get you started.  There are a lot of ways to go about it; be creative and see what you can do! :)

Noticeboard: AD&DRPG Open Permanently

Hey everyone!  Just a quick note before I get into tonight's post -- I'll probably take a couple of days off the blog Monday and Tuesday to focus on my Calculus midterm.  I've got a lot of studying to do and won't have too much time to blog while I'm doing that.  On the plus side, after this week is over I will be on Spring Break and will have quite a lot of time to devote to projects. ;)

Now to the meat!  I want to use this blog to plug community efforts here from time to time that don't get too much press.  There are a lot of groups in Active Worlds who are actively seeking out volunteers and for whatever reason tend to get overlooked... and since I've got this nice blog now hopefully I can help to put a stop to that.

Without further adieu, today we'll be taking a look at AD&DRPG World. AD&DRPG is a massive gaming world that drops the player into a medieval adventure.  Designed in the fashion of dungeons and dragons, the player builds stats and skills as they increase in level and gain better equipment.  The player's actions influence their moral alignment, and players can even PvP against one-another!