Quest/Reputation Progress?

[Vichtor]

In the update-before-last it was mentioned that the reputation system was in phase 1 testing.

This is something I'm eagerly anticipating...any chance we can get a sneak-peek at the progress on it and the questing system (assumed to be tied together in some way)?

I hunger for information!

[Saulus]

Reputations is more or less working, but right now you can only gain reputation from DMs as quests aren't implemented yet.

When the quest system is finished, fundamentally how things will work is there will be generic quests, and then faction specific quests. With faction specific quests you will gain reputation with that faction as well as XP/gold/item rewards. The higher your rep, the higher your rank. Every time you reach a particular amount of rep with a given faction your rank will increase.

When you have higher ranks it means NPCs of that faction will treat you differently, different dialog, attitudes, and you will also have access to different stores from that faction, or even the same store from a particular NPC, but now you notice he offers different items. More rare items. In fact ascending the rank of a faction in Sundren will be one of the only real ways to attain high level magic items other than DM events. (Rare loot drops will be powerful, but still not as abundant). You will only be allowed to join one faction at a time for numerous reasons. You can always leave a faction and join another, but keep in mind they might not always be happy about you abandoning them should you decide to rejoin.

All in all the entire system will be Sundren's biggest feature and to my knowledge nothing of this scale and depth has been done in the NWN series. It's taken us a year so far, and we're getting closer and closer to starting our implementation of this full system.

It will take us time to make a lot of quests, and bring all these factions to life. This is why Sundren is still a beta, what you guys have been playing on for almost a year is still our work in progress development module basically.

I can't say when we will be done, as on a PW you are never truly finished, but there will be a point when all our major systems are complete and we focus then purely on content, and expansion of the world... that's where everything becomes formulaic because we've already went through all the woes of designing it before.

[Vichtor]

Well....I like the furtherment of the depth. Also glad to hear the Reputation is working as intended. That's great.

I suppose now we just wait for tidbits about questing....which, I agree, seems to be the most in-depth thing attempted on any PW when combined whith the faction.

If I can get by with one more question: Are the effects of Reputation (the mentioned shops and ranks, for example) implemented since the DMs can issue Reputation, or is all implementation being reserved until the entire system is complete?

[Saulus]

It'll get there eventually.

[Rhifox]

You will only be allowed to join one faction at a time for numerous reasons. You can always leave a faction and join another, but keep in mind they might not always be happy about you abandoning them should you decide to rejoin.

What if we're already in multiple factions? Will we have to leave one?

[Saulus]

Certain factions will be considered sub factions and not a world-faction. Case in point the Thayans are more of a sub faction when compared to the Sundren Militia, the Dark Advent, etc. They are still a minority faction (at least in terms of IN Sundren, not outside of it).

[Rhifox]

Okie.

[Blue_Wyrm]

Another question; will you try to prevent the resale of reputation-restricted item between players? Do you consider scripting in some form of Soul-binding to avoid a single character having major items of very different factions? There could be in-character reasons to do this, but it could cause imbalance in the gameplay, in my opinion.

[Saulus]

I'm sure most factions wouldn't appreciate people selling their gear to others. I think that would be more of a DM-handled thing.