The Journal of Karn: Early Development

Well I finally got some time to do a bit of real work on my own little mapping project, and I decided I'd put up a bit of info to see if I'm on the right track :). TJoK is a RPG-style map with a few elements to set it apart from all the other RPGs currently out there. The map is 384 x 384 and this may seem like a weird size, but it's actually exactly 4 times the size of the largest 'legal' map. I choose not to take on a 480 x 480 map for fears of going insane during it's creation.

The map will feature several tilesets that I've created/modified/mixed around to allow a great deal of unique locations when exploring the map. There will also be a few new models/skins for heroes and monsters thanks to my very limited knowledge of editing mdx's :). Two examples are the apothecary; a master of medicines and powerful potions that can both harm and heal, and the bard; the jocular man who can charm wild beasts to do his bidding or to raise the spirits of his travelling companions to give them an edge in battle. 95% of spells will be completely new with icons, with a number of them relying on triggers to enhance the effects. Many new and unique items (with new icons, ofcourse:)) will also find their way into whatever brave adventurer seeks them out.

Players will go through 3 class tiers; beginning the game as a novice. A novice has no class-specific abilities and is more or less the 'introduction' class. Eventually you'll be able to advance a tier and choose a 1st level class (examples are the aforementioned apothecary and bard). The final tier is the 2nd lvl of your chosen profession, where in addition to being more powerful stats-wise you will have either completely new abilities or more powerful versions of your 1st class ones (like having a level 4, 5, 6 storm bolt). The leveling system is fairly standard outside of Warcraft 3, but I haven't really seen it done properly in a War3 map as yet. Furthermore I'm working on a system to allow dual-class characters, each with certain advantages and penalties.

Following the storyline itself is very flexible in relation to what you have to do. The main quest while being a significant part of successfully completing the game, does not directly impose itself on the rest of the 'world'. I've wracked my brains for weeks coming up with dozens of side-quests and sub plots that players indulge in to advance to the final showdown. The best part about it all is that the quests are actually worthwhile, not simply 'go kill some big guy'.

Now, at this point you're probably thinking, "What the hell? No one is going to want to go through such a huge damn map, you're insane!" (I know I did :)). That's why I'm implementing an option for the host to determine how long they want the game to be, via the amount of quests they have to do to finish. As a crude example, a long game might involve the players having to get the 3 crystals of blargtopia, travel through the sewers of evilness to retrieve the staff of boundless wisdom, then return to the castle of helmut people to fight the boss. In comparison, should the host choose to set a short game, then they would only have to get the 3 crystals of blargtopia and return the the castle. I'm hoping this will at least allow a wider audience to enjoy the game rather then just those who have inifinite time up their hands (although I'm hoping that infinite time isn't necessary to complete the game:)).

Well I hope you enjoyed reading my informal little introduction to TJoK and I'd be thoroughly thrilled for any comments/constructive criticisms in mind. I'll post more information in this thread as time and development progresses. Thankyou for taking an interest (or at least skipping to read this part :)). And, as a reward for clicking on my topic, you get a free screenshot from the town in which you first begin what is hopefully an epic journey, Dawnhurst :ggani:. (I promise there'll be much more interesting screenshots in the near future :))



~kharma

Wow, lots of liberty for the player. I look forward to see your map!

wow, reading that post was like deja vue, sorta. A lotta things reminded me of *my* map that I've been working on (in concept anyway). I haven't done any plot yet, but the idea was to make a DnD map where the character classes actually resemble DnD ones.

I had a very similar 3 tier class system worked out where you start out as a novice and then you can advance up to an archetypal class:
(warrior, rogue, cleric, wild mage, and mage). After you become a powerful archetype you get to choose a prestige class.

Warrior --> Fighter or Barbarian
Rogue --> Guild Thief or Assassin
Cleric --> Paladin or Druid
Wild Mage --> Bard or Sorcerer
Mage --> White Wizard or Black Wizard

I have all the abilities worked out re spell editting but haven't actually done or tested them yet.

a lot of this stuff will be very similar to DnD and a lot of it will only be sorta similar. I wanted to save doing a lot of this for the expansion set so that i have all the base spells to work from, but a lot of planning and terraining could mean that it'd come quickly after the expansion.

I've been talking a lot about me, but let me say about your map:
It sounds totally kick ***. If you need any help just let me know, I'd love to work on an awesome project like that.

rock on kharma

if you need any help, ideas or tester -> feel free to PM me :-)