Argyle Online status

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 1:26 pm

I thought I'd give you the heads-up on the Blades' future.

I am now Argyle Online development leader, which means I try to give direction and focus to the Argyle Online team. As a result, I am exceedingly busy with world building and trying to direct the efforts of the other builders.

What's up with the Test Server?
We have reconsidered the idea of the Test Server as a temporary solution until Soberdan comes out. Soberdan has been taking waaay too long to wait for on some half-baked Test Server on which most of the areas were designed in less than an hour. Instead of calling it the Test Server and focussing our efforts on Soberdan, we've converted the module into Unidan (named after its creator

, a place that has actually been given a place on the Argyle map, not too far from Soberdan) and focus our efforts there.

So you just renamed the thing to Unidan? Big deal.
We're still working hard on improving Unidan, and it is updated weekly. We want to touch up Unidan until we cannot improve on it anymore without adding new areas. When that happens, Argyle Online will officially go "live". We hope that, by that time, we will already have most of the building blocks and the needed experience to produce a decent Soberdan in only a fraction of the time it would otherwise have taken.

So it's still half-baked?
Not anymore. We've been replacing or upgrading the old Test Server areas one by one. The place looks very different now. The new areas have been designed with great effort and care, and no longer look like the empty cookie-cutter corridors and fields of the basic tilesets. We've also reached a level of play balance at which we feel we no longer need to wipe characters anymore.

So I can finally play my favourite character without fear of losing it?
One thing has not changed, nor will it ever. Argyle is an unforgiving place where you either have to avoid combat or band together with other adventurers if you wish to survive. Argyle is and always will be fundamentally different from the typical Diabloesque Hack & Slash Forgotten Realms world. We believe low difficulty and quick advancement promote individualistic play in online games, and emphasise the acquisition of power. We aim for a Pen & Paper-like experience where people pay attention to their characters, those of others and the interaction between them.

What's some of the new cool stuff?

Beautiful, lush areas. Rolling hills, swamps, alleys, extra greenery.
Pets more in accordance with core rules. Cats and dogs for familiars rather than panthers and wolves, bear and wolf cub animal companions at level 1.
Lootable corpses, plus you get told what other people pick up now.
Slightly more lifelike creature AI. Creatures are on equal footing with PCs now where perception range and movement speed are concerned, and they wander around.
We disabled the display of difficulty ratings. This has made players more careful and diplomatic when dealing with others.

How about some screenies?

What is still missing?
Quests, mostly. While we have a couple of "fulltime" DMs, most DMs have to invest time in world building. If they didn't, we'd be stuck in Unidan forever. As a result, we do not have as many special DM-led events as we'd like. Of course, besides that I still have some half a dozen pages with scribbled notes about visual and non-visual stuff I'd like to include or tweak.

So what about the Blades?
The Blades haven't made it into Argyle yet. There are too many fundamental things we have to take care of before we can invest time in peripheral things like player guilds. The Blades, however, are still on the list, and will be fully supported when their time comes. We just have to get some other things out of the way first.

See you in Argyle!

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 6:04 pm

And lets get more people on the server! Its rare now that more then 8 people are online...the more the merrier. And don't get discouraged if you lose characters, or you can't level...

I've had about 25 characters, only two that made it to level 2, and they died the day after.

Come on out to Unidan.

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 6:24 pm

I, personally, I have been playing on the server, because it's the only thing that makes NWN somewhat decent (still opposed to what Bioware did, and the fact they used a shoddy engine). though, I might be absent for a bit, because I'm sick of being PK'ed for lousy, superficial reasons.

But, the server is worthwhile.

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Sat Mar 15, 2003 8:32 am

Sooo... Any Blades left here that didn't already hop over to the Argyle forums? If not, I'll quit posting here.

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Sat Mar 15, 2003 10:54 am

I dunno. I think they're all AWOL... This place hasn't had activity for sometime, and might've been givin up for dead, considering how picky you've become about the project

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » Sun Mar 16, 2003 8:34 pm

I wouldn't be too surprised if the idea of this guild is abandoned.

smass · Post by **smass** » Mon Mar 17, 2003 8:08 am

Hey Xyx - I play AO often as "masseste" and have a blade char all ready to go.

That being said - I think we have lost a lot of momentum here - I spend a lot of time on the ruminations board - and I understand that you will be adding more support for factions and such in the near future with your updates.

My question is - how long before we can expect to be able to get a guild started on AO? I know you taters and acsended folks have been working feverishly - but the long wait has, I am sure, caused many potential members and players to lose interest and go somewhere else to play (my own two cents is thats why AO is so barren of players these days as well)

You have created the best hard core rules world out there - but I think most folks believe that Unidan is just a test server - and they may have found other places to play - We need to get the word out that AO is or will be officially running - then maybe folks will be interested in the blades once again. The average gamers attention span cannot be measured in months....

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Mon Mar 17, 2003 5:45 pm

Smass, you're no regular, you're a true veteran already.

ETA on the guild(s) is tricky. We can't really work any harder than we do already (in fact, I don't think we've ever worked harder than the last month), but true guilds (NPCs, guild house and all that) might still be months off. It sucks to be telling that, let me tell you, but I can at least honestly say it'll be done when it's done.

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Mon Mar 17, 2003 5:58 pm

Originally posted by Xyx
Smass, you're no regular, you're a true veteran already.

ETA on the guild(s) is tricky. We can't really work any harder than we do already (in fact, I don't think we've ever worked harder than the last month), but true guilds (NPCs, guild house and all that) might still be months off. It sucks to be telling that, let me tell you, but I can at least honestly say it'll be done when it's done.

Well, I wouldn't be surprised that the push BotB once had will be gone by then. It was partly the fault of the ones who wanted to start it, by starting it as early as they did. Waiting over a year for a guild to be created is somewhat silly.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Tue Mar 18, 2003 12:10 am

I also doubted many had the expectations as to how long it actually would take to get a "live" version of AO up and running.
A test server went "active" about 7 months ago - BoTB idea was formed about a year before this. I know (could imagine) how hard it would be to invent a world, but I doubt most have thought it would take so long before first parts of AO would be implemented. I've not followed AO much as of late, so don't really know the current state of servers and the likes.

Another problem is this, partly my own fault I fear (as being a sort of a defacto primus motor at that time), is the commuity here didn't seem to get active in RPing modules together with other BoTB members.

But know I'm still around here and the day AO goes "real online" I will proberly start up a char on AO, with my supposed BoTB intention and I will see if NwN can capture me once more.

But as the situation is atm, my enthusiasme for NwN is currently at a stand still - I'm gaming heavyly in mmorpgs atm, and now awaiting EVE and SW:G to come into open beta to try them out.

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Wed Mar 19, 2003 6:26 pm

My guess would be that we all had dreams of how easy it would be to whip up a decent world with the Toolset. BioWare would deliver the blocks and the tools, and we'd go to work for a few months at most.

Not so. BioWare delivered only half the blocks, and many are the wrong shape. We could have compromised and settled for a lower quality but larger world, but I'm an all-or-nothing guy where the quality of my (co-)creations is concerned.