DM Team Updates

[Phantom Lamb]

Hey folks,


I want to keep our community abreast of some major updates coming down the pipe from the DM team. This is mostly DM work, not dev work, although their help in the appropriate areas has been INVALUABLE.

• Combining Factions
  One of the difficulties we've had is herding people into factions. There are too many factions and too few people in them, on-line at the same time.
  
  As such, we are going to combine some of our factions into "archtypes." Very soon, the Legion will absorb the Hands of Mundus and the Red Blades. The Triumvirate will absorb the Temple of Helm. And the Cartel will absorb the Eboncoin.
  
  Don't worry, these organizations will still exist in-game. Their motivations are generally going to be the same as the parent organization though. This will allow more players to work with a greater number of allies. Additionally, it's less factions for us to maintain, which lets our team service you better.
  
  Soon, the factions will share the same RepID number, so you can share each other's faction stores. Additionally, you'll be welcome in their existing headquarters. And finally, you will share a private faction forum.

• Faction Treasury Vouchers
  This has been a pet project of mine. It's a long way off from automation, but I wanted to get the idea out in the community.
  
  Many times, I've been approached by players to use faction resources to hire someone, purchase mundane goods, etc. This can be time consuming for DM's.
  
  As members of a faction, you should have access to a bit of the treasury. You should, as a representative of the Temple of Helm, for example, be able to use a certain amount of gold from their treasury to purchase blankets for the poor. Cartel members should be able to use their treasury to hire an assassin from our player base. In the past, these jobs have been paid out of private pockets. We want to change that, to increase the value of joining a faction.
  
  Soon, we'll be giving out treasury vouchers. These vouchers will represent "value," but the player will decide what that value is. There are limits to what can be purchased, and the vouchers can't be used for personal gain. They will allow players to run their own private quests with greater resources.

• Major Plot Quest
  Some time over the next week or so, we'll be having a major event on Sundren. Stay active, and stay tuned...

Now, that's what we have in store for you guys. Here's what we need from the community:

• Faction Membership
  If you are in a faction, make sure you have posted your response on the appropriate faction roster in the private faction forum.
  
  If you don't have access to the faction forum, send me a private message immediately.

• Treasury Voucher Brainstorming
  We have a pretty good model for this, I think. You'll get X gold value in vouchers, on a monthly basis, where X depends on your reputation score.
  
  Players will be able to trade these vouchers to other players or redeem them with a DM. They cannot be traded to someone within the same faction as you for a job (you'd do the job simply because it helps your own faction). Players who receive these vouchers should treat them as gold, and can seek out a DM later to trade the voucher in for actual money.
  
  I want to hear some ideas of what things you'd take from the treasury of your faction. Gold is easy. But maybe you want to purchase 500 GP worth of grain to distribute to farmers. Maybe you want to buy 2,000 GP worth of poison. Some things will simply be off-limits. Your brainstorming will help us figure out what is in and what is out.
  
  Also, think of ways you could possibly exploit this system. DM's will need to be involved in voucher redemption, so we will validate the stories and jobs to be sure no one is overpaying.

[Lanemeyer]

I am not going to work or even sleep next week...

hehe, I wish :P

[Product of Void]

oh? purchases....hehe I know what Ashinet would buy *evil grin*

[CorneliusVonRichten]

Nice, I'm looking forward to see things coming into motion

[Phantom Lamb]

It's not what you would buy. Remember these treasury vouchers are not for personal gain.

What they are for, is so you can run your own quests through the resources of a faction you belong to. Do you think the Black Hand would approve having a Triumvirate member murdered or framed? Hire someone to do it without using your own funds!

As a member of a faction, you'd have access to some of its resources to do things like this. These vouchers let you make hires and other faction-related purchases without just giving you plain old gold (too easy to exploit).

[greypawn]

Looks good. I like that the factions are going to get combined. Makes sense seeing the size of the community. Now I just have to join one.

[Kaeldorn]

Would it be possible to pile up vouchers with those of other characters for some kind of joint effort? Cybil had a charity idea that Yashia would be more than willing to lend a hand with although it probably won't be possible to realize for quite some time. Since it would require a residence somewhere (not for themselves, mind you). That would include various steps like having someone find a good location, making legal arrangements, paying for the land/structure, hiring people to have it built/rebuilt to suit the needs, people to guard the place because it's likely not going to be in the most peaceful of neighbourhoods, etc.

If the law enforcement decides on something that the Triumvirate doesn't agree with for ethical reasons, they could organize a protest march or some equally non-violent effort to change the city's mind. Maybe call for trade boycots against the Thayans because of 'the nature of their work' and the suffering caused through it.


Legion could maybe pay vouchers to have increased patrols/security in some area? Or to arm a militia, hire mercenaries or support a conscription project. Maybe pay a watch detective to assist with mysteries/unsolved criminal cases.

[Phantom Lamb]

All possible

What I want to avoid is single players accumulating too many vouchers though.

Let's say Cybil, by rank, gets $3000 in vouchers per month. If she doesn't use them, she might accumulate $18,000 in half a year. The vouchers are meant to represent how much "pull" you have in your faction. The vouchers probably shouldn't be cummulative. Hopefully we can come up with a system that ensures you can't EXCEED X vouchers.

Example:
Cybil is 3rd rank. She gets 3,000 in vouchers for January. She uses them all.
In February, she gets 3,000 more.

In February, Cybil doesn't do much. She only spends 1,000.
When March comes around, she gets back up to 3,000 vouchers, not 5,000. Her "pull" and influence in the faction didn't increase, so she wouldn't be trusted with higher fund amounts.

Hopefully, permanent chests will be examined by whatever script (*begs*) we can draw up to automate this process. Again, full automation is a long way off, since we have so many other plans and projects for our devs that supercede this.

[Product of Void]

I would just like a few triggers placed in a certian area to randomly spawn traps is all. *evil grin*

[greypawn]

As far as Vouchers go, I play a Kelemvorite so things I'd want would be... a gravedigging shovel, to invest in an necromancy awareness program at the university, help pass more laws against certain necromancy practices, open a charity for those who can't afford proper burial, help invest into building a local cemetery, help fund protection of cemeteries from evil spirits, help support the "Most Solemn Order of the Silent Shroud" (An organization of gravediggers, embalmers, and other cemetary workers and crafters. Those of this order identify each other with a series of secret signs. Their task is to keep the church informed of undead sightings and gravesite desecrations.), organize undead hunts, pay sell swords to hunt the undead....

Should we just be brainstorming ideas that would be generic to the faction?

[CorneliusVonRichten]

Hmmm... the potential. Magical training for the Blades(NPC's) or pay for better armor and weapons for the NPCs.
Protecting our HQs with magical barriers against intruders etc.

Lovely.

[joker]

Is the Veritas going to be joining forces with any other Faction?

Could you use the vouchers to pay people attack Legion Patrols and such?

[Urithrand]

The Veritas is not undergoing any changes at this time. The vouchers can be used for acts like this, but bear this in mind:

Using "faction funding" for an act means that it is effectively an act by the faction itself, not just you. Your faction may be very upset if it became common knowledge that their money had paid for a thug to attack random Legion patrols. This same line of thinking applies to all factions and all actions pertaining to the vouchers. Bear in mind that this funding is coming directly from your faction.

Edit: Please excuse the shameless overuse of the word "faction" in that statement.

[Rhifox]

Treasury Voucher Brainstorming

[...]

• I want to hear some ideas of what things you'd take from the treasury of your faction. Gold is easy. But maybe you want to purchase 500 GP worth of grain to distribute to farmers. Maybe you want to buy 2,000 GP worth of poison. Some things will simply be off-limits. Your brainstorming will help us figure out what is in and what is out.
  
  Also, think of ways you could possibly exploit this system. DM's will need to be involved in voucher redemption, so we will validate the stories and jobs to be sure no one is overpaying.

For Red Wizard faction, possibly 'crafting manhours' (in other words, getting an NPC Red Wizard to craft an item in case the player doesn't possess the appropriate Item Creation Feat). That would require the player to still acquire the items themselves, but allow them to make things without having to take every single crafting feat.

Another possibility would be Circle Magic spells for particular tasks (for the purpose of strong divinations or powerful teleportation/explosive spells)--these would be things that aren't possible with NWN's current spell list.

Another possibility could be funding into other organizations or individuals--both obvious and hidden investments. Investing into one of the criminal factions for regular intelligence of other factions, for instance.

[Urithrand]

I personally would not like this idea because we are trying to avoid too many crafted items appearing on Sundren. The level of magic items has exploded over the last few months, and the idea of the new crafting system is to greatly decerease the presence and level of magic items. Using a faction voucher to bypass the system is working against this aim.