COMING DECEMBER/NEW YEAR - Must Read!

[DM_Kev]

INTRO
I'm sure you all know by now that the module you are playing is named Untold Tales Of Tolkien. Since its launch online in October/November of 2003, it has become increasingly successful and much more popular with roleplayers and Middle Earth enthusiasts. Attracting the right target audience can be tough; we are looking for players committed to full Middle Earth spirited roleplay and not players from the 'when I feel like it' crowd which dominates most MERP servers.

Many rounds of changes to many of the worlds systems of the last year, such as changes to; NPCs, Key areas, items, quests, merchants, module scripts, etc, have unlocked a lot of potential the world has for roleplaying and more unusual and exciting activities for players.

A lot of recent additions to the world show some of the sort of standard we are looking to achieve with the gameworld. I want to make this standard consistent throughout the entire world. I want to take everything that is positive and good about the gameworld now, enahnce it further and make such content common place throughout.

But rather than 'patching' things up here and there and releasing weekly updates, I have had a different idea; Enter Untold Tales Of Tolkien II...


HOW IT WILL BE BUILT


Note that this will NOT be a 100% new module and content. Visually, its pretty much the same world.

All existing areas will be taken and imported into a new module file. Large numbers of interactive features will be removed/redesigned.

The worlds ENTIRE NPC range is going to be remade and also extended.

We are removing all items and replacing them with our item system and new itemset guidelines.

Before the main build begins, the entire Middle Earth lands will be mapped out - this time all significant regions will be in the world.

Some changes will be implemented to the game rules system to enhance the Middle Earth environment and to better support our gameworld in a more representative way.

Most existing module scripts will be used again.

Heavy player involvement - this is one of my main interests. The current module version was pretty much build by myself alone. This time there is a team of about 8 others working with me, not including player input. We have a lot of excellent players here who have really helped make the world what it is today. There is a niche group of about 20 who I believe to be absoloutely exceptional people, regulars of the server and long standing players - I really hope you people decide to get invoplved in ideas and discussions. This is an opportunity to get things exactly how we want them.



NEW CONTENT/FOCUSES


A lot of faction related quests for those wishing to be involved in the war of the ring or other disputes, or those seeking to roleplay the more heroic types.

More emphasis on ways of gaining experience without always using violence; more support for those skilled in abilities other than fighting.

All quests and adventures to be much more story driven; to give purpose to why you are in a certain area, to make players think more of the task they are carrying out, other than 'to get x item', or to 'train'.

Many more opportunities for tricks and traps and special features on adventures to be used and setup, thanks to extra flexibility granted by the new itemset and system.

Greater focus on player-run features, such as shops/services, mercenaries and guilds. We intend to have several of these features noticeable 'embedded' into the world when we launch this new module version.

Lots of new NPCs. Entire existing range recreated in line with our new game system, but also a huge range of NEW npcs - a great deal created through creatures described by Tolkien and a great deal created through our own imagination. All your old favourite npc's are set to return, better desinged than ever before and sporting some abilities that before they would have been unable to use for various reasons.

MERP UK's own item crafting system!

MERP UK custom classes and Middle Earth Subraces!

Economy will be much more tighter. Much less surplus gold about. It is intended that the average player 'just about breaks even'.

Item availability more 'true' in terms of item type and the region of the world that you are in. This can encourage more exploration of the world and demand characters to learn more about their surroundings as opposed to blagging fame and fortune from one part of the gameworld.

More support and content for evil players. Bree will become a neutral/good start area only, but an 'evil mirror' of Bree will be created as a low level evil starting area somewhere in the gameworld - likely to be Dol Guldur in Mirkwood, or perhaps in Mordor.

Through the inclusion of what will be over 300 books, and descriptive monuments and supporting material, the world will not become just a place to play, but also a place to learn about one of the greatest mythologies ever written. It will be more than a game. It will be a tribute to Tolkien too.

The new game system will reinforce and enhance the roles of characters in a party via the flexibility granted through our new itemset/system.

DMs will get their real jobs back! Less time will be spent watching and chasing players who are detracting from the gameworld. Our new game system will automate some of the community rules by simply disallowing certain actions. A range of DM tools will hopefully be added too, to help DMs run some really exciting and memorable quests and activities.



OTHER INFO

So when is this all going to happen? Well, full building began today! All of this week has so far been spent setting up all the NPCs and itemset. All the module scripts have also been copied in too. Now that building is in progress, I don't think it will take too long to get much of this done, as much of our content already exists. Its just a matrter of building on top of it.

Without any major setbacks or problems, I am confident that we can put Untold Tales II online by Xmas time or early in the new year.

Meeting this ambitious release date is also dependant on player input. As I said, we have a lot of experienced, longstanding players here who have contributed immensely. Im very keen to see you all have a hand in shaping this world - You all know what makes this world good, and I've built a lot of stuff around your activities, so I encourage many of you to jump into the PCT thread and offer your thoughts.

The current module will remain online until this new version is ready to replace it. Updates will be made to it as necessary/needed, though as you can imagine, the bulk of our energy is going into this new version. The curent module is in a pretty good state at present, so im sure you will all be able to amuse yourselves on there for a short time with some dm events going on now and again.

So there you are. I am extremely excited about this project - I have seen the impact Untold Tales has had for over a year and i've noted the things that really made it successful and what people most complimented about and wanted to see more of. Untold Tales II is all about MORE; more of the things that made the game so addictive and exciting. UTT2 will also, it is hoped, offer more of a challenge to people with the increased flexibility we have.

Many more announcements will follow in this thread. Please feel free to use this thread to talk about UTT2 in general. Though please keep heated content discussion to the PCT thread. That is where I look for ideas to pick up on from players. I know I keep rambling on about itemset and systems; I will be posting again soon where I will detail exactly how the UTT2 system will work.

We are all in for a fine xmas/new year I think :)

[Visardi]

Absolutely great news, i guessed something big was going on but this still took me by surprise.
Cant wait to hear and see more :E

So this also means a wipe? or will characters be copied to new module?

[DM_Kev]

Because of the nature of the changes being made - Game system overhaul - something will have to be done about characters.

However, I would like to see as much of the worlds fame and history to be maintained as possible, so I have decided on what I believe to be a very reasonable compromise:

Shortly before we put UTT2 online, I will make an announcement offering 2 options:

1. We will wipe your login account off the server vault entirely.

OR

2. By sending me an e-mail with your login name and characters you wish to keep, I will save these character files and place them on the new server vault.

However, if you chose to do this, you MUST turn in all of your gold and items for the character/s you wish to save. On the launch of UTT2, you will be given an appropriate amount of gold for your character level.

More specific details on how this will work will be released nearer the time, but this is the genrral idea of how it will work. So famous characters can remain if they wish. Though personally if it were me, i'd want to try out all the new content with a new character, but still, its entirely up to you - there is a choice for everyone in this matter.

[Druin]

I got so worried about losing the only char. I'd ever made that is even near 40th level I've already emailed.....think that's a bit premature? :)

D

[DM_Kev]

Far too early as nothing is final yet. Also we will later need to check your characters are compatible with some of the changes we are making, especially to classes.

[Owl-Free]

How much gold will a well-off player have with the new server? I find this quite interesting.

[DM_Kev]

Thats a tough one to answer right now im afraid. I should be able to give a clearer picture nearer the time.

However, the buy/sell markings for merchants is considerably lower than before, and the max bu price at any merchant is now going to be 15,000 gold pieces, though considering the power level of items, this is an appropriate cap.

Looking at a few merchants ive already setup with this system, a +3 weapon costs about 15,000 gp. +3 weapons will be rather good under our new system, so a 'well off' character can hope to be able to afford one.

The again, its very hard to determine how a character aquires their gold. But I do intend to get the economy under a reasonable control so theres not excessive amounts of gold floating about.

[Owl-Free]

Indeed...most interesting piece on there is "MERP UK's own item crafting system!" I am eager to see what will happen here!

[SPM]

Honestly, if i'm allowed to keep my shifters level i'd be happy to give up all gold and equipment come UTT2. And woot, really looking forward to it too!!!!

[DM_Kev]

Shifters and druids will definately be compatible; in fact, those classes are going to made even more desirable and supported, due to the high amount of reference shifting/nature has in the texts.

[DM_Kev]

Here are the details of this new game system that I keep referring to. This concerns NPCs and the new itemset and the general guidelines we are using to maintain flexibility in the gameworld. Most of this has been quite heavily tested already, and some of these setups have already begun to show enourmous potential.

Some of these features are very significant, but have a very good reason for doing so, and in their introduction, appropriate ammendments will be made to the world to support them as necessary.

This new game system is all about flexibility. A simple, yet flexible item system setup allows for more features to be employed in quests for example, such as tricks and traps, or for special objects to be used by NPCs, such as grenades, which right now, have NO effect whatsoever on most characters. This new system means more varied activities for characters, instead of one pure monster basher after another.

And for this, a role playing game, I strongly feel, (and evident through testing), the new system here makes the ROLES of characters in a party much more clear. Anyway, here's the setup being used. It probably wont change much from this, if at all:


Weapons
- Maximum Enhancement bonus of +5 (VERY rare)

- Maximum Attack Bonus of +5

- Maximum 1 damage type bonus per weapon

- Damage type bonus variable on size of weapon; Large max 2d6, medium max D10, Small Max d6. Arrows/bolts/bullets/shuriken/darts and throwing axes count as small.


Items in general
- Max AC bonus property on any item of +7 (VERY rare)

- No damage resistances

- Max saving throw bonus on any item of +5

- Max stat bonus on any item of +8

- No permanent haste (introduction of items allowing haste to be cast. Also a more noticeable transport system will be added for appropriate regions where transportation could have been possible.)

- No permanent true seeing


Thats all i'll detail for now, but all the above there is very much decided upon and is now being built in line with. I know some will be thinking 'no dr, thats crazy', or 'no haste! what are you playing at!' - remember;

1. New creatures; every single creature in UTT2 is new and has been built in line with this system. The only creatures with DR are those that should have it as a creature property. E.g. A Cold drake will be immune to cold, a Balrog will be immune to fire.

2. Haste is no longer permanent, boo hoo, but there are more merits to this when you sit and think about it. Too many of us are often in too much of a hurry, so that slows us down a bit. Next it introduces more tactics - when should you use your cast haste item? It encourages spell casters to again, be smarter with their spells and perhaps take a larger role in supporting the Party...mass haste anyone? :) Again, this is applied to NPCs, though a select few tough nuts will have it permanent, just to be sure they perform as we want them to every time.

One big plus of non permanent haste is that 'fast' characters can be more noticeable. Monks obviously, but the barbarian fast movement bonus will be able to show more easily now.

Im very excited about this new system and with just adding the bree lands to UTT2 earlier, I can see its enormous potential already.

[ghost81]

All sounds good to me. Especially the no DR, for two reasons - One - the whole world is balanced to this so doesn't matter, Two - it will make those character classes/feats that give dr all the more special, as they should be.

[SPM]

Actually everything i heard so far sounds really great!!! Nice going guys!!!

[Druin]

Do you plan on having an exhaustive transport system, otherwise simply running between bree and theoden's hall will take an entire night? (more noticable transport doesn't necissarily equal exhaustive, plus if gold's hard to come by, will you charge for transport, or will the poor schmuks have to hoof it).

Also, do you have an idea which classes you're going to carry forward yet?

[Druin]

One concern whilst I think of it:

With the 'dumbing down' of weapons and gold, does that mean everything will be dialed down? Specifically, is the tone of the server to now be a hardcore PnP type server (slow lvladvancing?) or will xp and tres. still be relatively commonplace?

[DM_Kev]

With the 'dumbing down' of weapons and gold, does that mean everything will be dialed down? Specifically, is the tone of the server to now be a hardcore PnP type server (slow lvladvancing?) or will xp and tres. still be relatively commonplace?

XP settings are going to stay the same, and the general process of aquiring it will remain the same, although we are going to introduce more means for those characters not intended for all out fighting to advance; characters skilled in using diplomacy and the like.

Treasure will obviously be reduced, as the economy is now tighter, we have to reduce rewards too.

Do you plan on having an exhaustive transport system, otherwise simply running between bree and theoden's hall will take an entire night? (more noticable transport doesn't necissarily equal exhaustive, plus if gold's hard to come by, will you charge for transport, or will the poor schmuks have to hoof it).

Transport will be, as I stated, "for appropriate regions where transportation could have been possible". So there will not be an exhaustive system. Transport will obviously require payment, no service is free. When I say appopriate regions, im referring to whether or not it wouldh ave been possible to get transport from one place to another; theres only certain places ships could go, for example.

Sure its going to take longer to travel around in general, but hey, thats realism and higher realism within fantasy constraints is what we are also trying to achieve. If people are not rushing around so much, they may have more time to stop for other people too. Theres far to many characters wizzing around completely blanking off other players and even npcs.

Also, do you have an idea which classes you're going to carry forward yet?

Pretty much all of them, though RDD may be shown the door. Nothing decided yet.

[Druin]

sounds good, thks for the prompt reply

[Coldbayne]

With shifting and druids having their support / use within the game enhanced, I think it worth clarifying that will the shifter forms will also become middle earth specific rather than the current D&D forms. eg will lose risen lord form for something else appropriate (but notably missing damage resistance)

[DM_Kev]

Im sure we can look more closely at shifter forms.

[aramuth]

Improve this mod. All i have to say is wow.This is a great mod and im looking forward to seeing what you guys do.

[aramuth]

I see Druids are being looked at.Since my main character is a druid let me give my 2 cents worth or should i say 2 problems with the class.
#1)Alternate form AC.
My AC when in humanoid form is 63.When shapechanged via
shapechange spell,wild shape ability or elemental form my
average AC is 33-35.(Since im lvl 27 and still getting hit often
with an AC of 63 by the epic foes i fight you can imagine how
often i get beat down with an AC of 33-35.)
#2 Animal companions and summoned creature ACs.
My animal comapnion and summoned creature were great
having at the lower levels but now with an AC of 15 -16 they
are all but useless at epic lvls.

Perhaps letting characters keep their same ACs when shapechanged would work and setting animal comapnions ACs based on their lvl would suffice.

[aramuth]

continued...
Now im not a Dm or scripter so i dont know what can be done about these points ive brought up(So just bare with me).Anyway thats my view of the class.

Thanks for your time.

[SPM]

If your a druid (or sever shifter forms) shapechange can be a complete death sentence. I agree, Aramuth. Shifters have enough shaps to keep them busy (just ignore the unusable/death sentance ones) but druids have no such luck.

[SPM]

Actually i think druid shapes should get the same ac that a shifter would get in an animal type shape. Only armor/helm/weapon and shield count. Would make the druid shape much better, but they wouldn't get (all) items available to them. All items is a shifter thing (even then, only in certain forms).

[DM_Kev]

The greatest thing about NWN, that makes the game so underrated amongst a lot of people is that fact that in most cases, you can modify whatever you want, if you know what you are doing/how to do it.

Druid forms/summons abilities can be modified if needed and I think will be to an extent. We do need to do some play testing with druids under this new system, but my own estimate looking at the way things are now is that;

- Druid/shifter abilities will already be more effective all the way up to epic levels - Ac is now lower, no more DR and damage bonuses are lower. All of this plays into the hands of those summoning creatures or shifting into them.

The problem could well still remain in epic levels - the creatures just do not seem to continue scaling up with the character - We will look into this.

[Visardi]

It would be great if those palemaster summons could be looked at too, they are very weak.
At the moment palemaster class is only used for that crit immunity instead of actually playing necromancer.
It would be very cool to have several undead summons that could actually do something instead of being hacked down in the first round.

[SPM]

I've read a few places about the AC and damage a shifter gets and some preceptions some people have with them. When dealing with the shifter clas i just beg you to be very carefull. =) It's an almost completely melee class without the attack bonus or HP's that warriors enjoy. So some of the monster abilities and high AC are neccessary for survival. Hehe.. but i definatley trust you guys, so i'm sure you know that already. =)

[Visardi]

I dont think the problem is with the shifter class but the druid´s animal and elemental shapes, they are pretty weak.
On the other hand druis has good arsenal of spells and can get dragon form in high levels so that evens things out.

Shifters arent the simplest class to play but they can manage well enough as they are, they just need some thinking and changing of tactics to be effective.
By the way shifters can get very high AC in certain shapes.

[SPM]

O i agree :) My iron golom shape gives me 67 AC! Now that's not bad... to offset that (so it is balanced with other classes), his poison breath is useless (which is fine, still fun for show :) hehe).. and has low HP (considering a shifter needs to put almost all this stat bonuses and epic feats into only wisdom. It's a damn fun class to play though! I love them!

[aramuth]

Me again.

You all have made some good points.I just wanted to point out I think the forms are powerful enough as far as abilities go,except for AC.I can use Earth Elemental form(love that 1) and clean house in many cases.God help me if I use it against something that is my equal though.(It becomes beat down the druid day.)
And not having access to items is as it should be .That should stay a shifter thing.To up any of the forms abilites (besides AC) would make them almost god like and unfair to the other classes.

Thanks for your time.

[DM_Kev]

Before we decide on anything, we really need to test druids/shifters out under the new system.

I'll let you all know how they fare when I get round to it.

[Aden Valliano]

because i can't physically be active, this is kinda worrying for me, as i actually can't log on, but i've spent so many hours getting Kail to where he is now i don't want to lose it all. it took me pretty much all summer to reach lvl 28, and i was really hoping to hit 40, but failed.


i may have missed this, and to this i apologise but:

if some item sets are carried over to the new module, and our character posseses one of those items, why can we not keep it?

afterall, a lvl 28 char is going to be pretty damn stupid if he's going round in basic armour and weapons, even if he is monetary reimbersed for his loss...
just curious about this, i realise that you want to make a fresh start, and maybe some players feel the same, but for those of us that want to keep our chars, is it not possible to keep items and money, OR to have them exchanged for a new world equivalent?

sorry is this has been asked/answerred before.

[DM_Kev]

The offer I made is quite fair and realistic to both players and staff. Can you possibly imagine myself or any of the dms re-equipping 150+ active accounts? I think not. That is individual players and does not include their extra chars either.

You may want equivalent items back for all your hard work, but remember that the processes by which you get those items is now changed. Im sure the people spending their precious time building new content for you would like to see people experience the new aspects of the game.

Please read up on things and think more carefully before looking at the words 'vault' and 'wipe' and panicing.

[Aden Valliano]

i realise what your saying, i'm just giving my opinion, which is, if oyu are going to allow the "famous names" to transfer across, it is going to look slightly strange if we have the world renowned ragebow with a really poor bow, and so on...

[Fasin]

With the changes imminent, it would be pretty inappropriate to be ported across with the overpowered weapons some of us have at the moment. Actually, I wouldnt be surprised if Kail has a much better chance of greatness in the new mod, with DR removed, damage, AB and AC toned down... I wouldnt worry mate.

If Kev makes special arrangements for one character, it would be kind of unfair if the same wasnt done for all... :)

[DM_Kev]

So you consider a character to be famous just because of the equipment they are wearing?

From conversations with players so far, quite a few of those with famous characters want to restart them uder the new game system. Some want to do this to experience the new content or to better build their character inline with the middle earth theme.

Also remember that RDD is going to be disabled, so that might rule a few out.

Anyway; we have given at least 3 months notice of the release of UTT2. Its not as though the rug will be pulled from under your feet. If you really cant be bothered to level up again, fine, email me and if your character is compatible with our system, we will save it for you and give you some starting gold - thats it.

I recommend starting over myself as you are missing out on a lot of great new content and revisions by the dev team and the players. UTT2 is all about more, so what better way than to see your character return true to the gameworld.

Anyway, better to look to the positives of what UTT2 is all about and get behind the development and the people working hard on it. Before I am forced to get Avalyn to rant.

[DM_Kev]

Another note - You clearly have not read any of the information.

We cant transfer over items because we have a 100% new itemset and item system setup.

Look at the details we listed and you will see why.

[Avalyn]

*grabs two bags of gold and a potion of Aulës Hammering Brew*

With this ale and these bags of gold, I will have enough for everyone.

*gets thirsty and drinks the ale, then goes down to the cracked Anvil and uses the gold to buy more ale*

ah....well. thats going to be a problem.
No gold for you then.

[ghost81]

I must say I'm looking forward to restarting Lolinus again, I had thought about keeping him as is - he's fairly well knwon now, and it might seem odd him being down to lower levels, but he's always been my main character and I want to experience the new and improved world with him. (Well that and I want to be a Dwarven Axemaster).

[Argon Balros]

i'm gonna carry my character over and look forward to crafting his own new equipment