It keeps getting better and better for Nuada, doesn’t it? Just when things seem to be going his way, he finds out that everything he thinks he had accomplished is nothing more than an illusion. Even worse, his beloved city is in ruins, and his people have been scattered throughout the lands. To heap even more failure upon him, Bres has absconded to parts unknown with the treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann. And if that isn’t enough, his arm and sword were not what they appeared to be; they were actually killing him by drawing life force from his body.
How would you react if everything you thought was true turned out to be lies? If you saw that you have failed not once but twice as a leader? It would be too much to bear for most people, but for Nuada, well, you’ll just have to read this story to find out.
After we posted Part IV, our Founders did their usual thorough data-mining of it for gameplay hints. Some of the key things I want to talk about today are getting drops from creatures, the use of life force to power spells, bound souls to items/intelligent items, and the role illusion could play in Camelot Unchained.
As I’ve said from the beginning of our Kickstarter, we have no plans to add PvE drops/raiding to our game. However, some items that crafters will need will, of necessity, come from the harvesting/skinning of creatures. This is an old MUD mechanic that has been also used in MMORPGs. Our crafters will be able to raise, kill and harvest/skin creatures in the world. Non-crafters will also have the same ability, but to a lesser extent.
None of these creatures will drop items (no plate drops from hummingbirds), and the damage you do while killing them will reduce the value/amount of materials you may obtain. Thus, as a crafter, you might want to think twice about having your friends cast powerful spells to kill the cows.
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In terms of life force-powered spells, sure, you might be able to tap some of your own in an emergency, but it won’t regenerate as quickly and it can’t be healed through magical means. I think this fits in nicely with our concept of making a lot of things in the game, such as a death curse, involve trade-offs.
As to whole bound souls/intelligent items stuff, it’s no secret I’ve been a huge fan of Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion series, but my personal favorite are his Elric books. So, the idea of having intelligent/bound items, like Stormbringer, is one that we plan on exploring here.
Finally, we would love to look into using Illusion to an extent that hasn’t been done before. Will we be able to do it? It won’t be easy because the use of illusion does take some control away from the player, but it is something that we have talked about at the studio. It is definitely an area we want to explore over the next two years.
Now, it’s time for Part V of the story. This episode is much like a middle volume in a trilogy. So don’t expect a lot of action. Nuada has a lot to learn and make up for, doesn’t he?
