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More lore in game

Discussion in 'Wishlist Requests' started by Nick, Sep 27, 2020.

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  1. Nick

    Nick Avatar

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    Wish atos and gang would consider getting a part time writer to get more lore in game.

    Could pay a bit to a budding writer to explore novia and write a series of short stories about the land.

    So many adv scenes with no background story. Kinda wasteful.
     
  2. Barugon

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    Yes please.
     
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  3. Violet Ronso

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    For me its the Towns as well, so many cloned NPC's who's only purpose is to act as a decoration or a vendor, but they don't have backstories or stuff like that. They should focus on one scene/town at a time, and give it life. They did an awesome job at making scenes LOOK good, but apart from the Outskirts, I feel like most zones have poor lore in them.
     
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  4. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    I wish this game had more lore, it is sadly lacking in many areas. :(
     
  5. Nick

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    @Elgarion, are there any plans to get someone to write more lore for the various adventure scenes?

    If not, is it possible to invite players to write? We have poets and musicians playing the game, surely there're talented writers around too.
     
  6. Time Lord

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    I'm all for wanting more and more and more, and even more SOTA but...

    With a plethora so vast that it's now avalanched into our bank accounts in the form of "Fine Oak Bookshelves"...

    Wouldn't such "books of lore" just get lost within such vast "Fine Oak Bookshelves Collection"?

    We need to HIRE "a single writer" to write even more lore?

    "Official Lore or Governing Lore" I know is what this thread is asking for, yet why not write your own from the discovery of what all you see that is needing it, using the wonder that you/we have?

    Needing more "hints" is another motive that comes to mind in such a request...
    Within such a request, are we not seeking the assassin of "wonder'?

    "Wonder" is one of the most powerful forces within our game.

    I'm sure this will be a very unpopular opinion and even more justification for Time Lord bashing, but...
    I was just wondering... o_O~Time Lord~
     
  7. Violet Ronso

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    The thing for me at least here is that the game doesn't necessarily lack lore, there are tons of it in books scattered all around the world, what is actually lacking is the "In your Face" kind of lore, the one where you come to an NPC and he has his own little backstory, like the alchemists daughter who keeps running off and stealing flowers, or the blacksmith's son that is now gone to become an apprentice to the blacksmith in Owl's head, and when you head to Owl's Head the apprentice there talks about his dad. That is the kind of lore I want personally, lore that will get me attached to a town and it's residents. The problem here is that if it isn't an NPC that participates in a quest, it is probably just a blank NPC in that case. For me, towns are mere locations to find trainers (which I haven't looked for in a while now), or locations with some vendors that like to pay more, but apart from that, I can hardly remember what is special about the towns in this game.

    I'll admit, I am not one to pay attention that much usually, but after doing some quests in BDO and running around, you see a clear theme in every town, you get to speak with their rulers and help them out, and get attached to some NPC's or actual locations because of whatever is special in that town, NPC's all have affinities with other NPC's, they have stories, and there are hundreds if not more quests in each town that makes you learn these NPC's. When you talk to these NPC's, they have things to tell you, jokes, stories, anything that makes them feel alive, and even though many look alike, they still each and everyone of them have something special for them, that is what the game needs, to make its towns feel alive. I should go visit Tanglemire to see if its something that is changing with EP2, but EP1 towns & NPCs are just too bland.
     
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  8. Time Lord

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    ~Extremely well said and I for one am in total agreement in that!~
    [​IMG]

    @Nick , when reading your request in desire, I can't help but to think about how Ultima Online approached this subject in the form of their initial ingame books, which enriched it's own "lore within that game's wonder".

    My own views on Lore and "The Atmosphere of Lore":

    http://oev.hilands.com/library-books.html


    There was nothing definitive within any of those books, yet they did offer the opportunity for players to expand their role play or engage their own individual interpretation and personifications into the stories. The more defined any "official cannon of lore" gets, the more restrictive and stagnate it then becomes.

    Tools both Ultima Online and SOTA offer;

    • UO = Bartenders
    • SOTA = NPC Conversationalists
    • UO = Troubadours and Game-Masters
    • SOTA = Potion of Temporary GM Powers,
    As I see it, there are 3 powers within our game's development which are unequal to each other:
    • Adventuring
    • Crafting
    • Role Play
    "In that exact order of power and influence within our player desires leading to production".
    • The top adventurers always want more adventurer content regardless of lore cannon, which often times cheapens the lore because the new hunting dungeon was much more important than any lore content. (Lord British's Castle is a perfect example of this).

    • Crafting influence has market power driving it's production and since profit and loss are at stake in any changes, then any changes must conform to existing manufacturing content, thus it's driving development power is that of a solid and stubborn impossibility to change. It's lore must strive to explain how such impossible recipes came into being (even though all we old ones know that most came from expedient cheap cuteness as placeholders that remained so long they became crafting lore cannon with no reasons for their coming into being).

    • Role Play having the least amount of production driving power always succumbs to Adventurer's drive to end-game skipping over it's ability to make our world forever more alive. The concept of "forever" doesn't survive the powerful game adventurer's wish to conquer and move on. Thus for the pure adventurer in SOTA, they always end up all in a room, scene, instance, area or dungeon with themselves waiting for something to spawn so they can all kill it. It's this "top of the skills end all be all envelope" which always results in bad reviews by many of those types of players, due to there's no end-game and no "end all be all". So we are left with the motive which springs from Role Play, which is crafted from Lore.
    The world must seem alive, not stagnate and mechanical...
    I've seen some GREAT mini-quest creators within a few of our SOTA players. "Could we pay such players in a competition with COTO?"

    I am very much hoping that when SOTA's NPC Conversationalists, Potion of Temporary GM Powers and possibly Elrond's spawning idea https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/pay-to-spawn-creatures-in-pots.164628/ will help unlock our player's inspirations and abilities to create quest so they may more learn to craft such things much better than any "hired writer" may be able to come up with, so that we players could then place our own scripted responses into our community NPCs, "yet even then have them subject to change" from time to time so as to not become stagnate and set into cannon.

    Lore Cannon will always seek to kill Wonder and "some things more".

    Remember this?
    Once Upon A Time Lord…

    By Gabriel Nightshadow and Time Lord

    Parts 1 through 3 staring the voices of most all of the Portalarium Development Team as well as a cast of many players in our game o_O...
    http://thecaverns.net/Podcasts/once...ated-by-lord-baldrith-amber-raine-as-chariya/
    http://thecaverns.net/Podcasts/once...ated-by-lord-baldrith-amber-raine-as-chariya/
    http://thecaverns.net/Podcasts/once...ated-by-lord-baldrith-amber-raine-as-chariya/
    This was all about my character along with many other players, yet even this is not SOTA Cannon of Lore, instead, it was what fiction in the form of what players could come up with while skirting what actual SOTA Lore there is.

    The above is why I think we should have "COTO Reward" through seasonal player quest creator contest, so that our local NPCs could come more alive for us, instead of seeking some "end-game in constrictive official SOTA lore".

    SOTA Stories and Lore are quickly forgotten, thus the only way to keep our game living, is to have a living wonder where such stories as described above can be formed from, and a way we players could possibly gain access for our quest works to be presented throughout our in game NPCs.

    Those are my thoughts... for us to gain access through contest to our NPCs, through learning what's possible in using our Conversationalists and Potions of GM Powers.

    I want to preserve wonder, because you can imagine what could happen if such a story as "Once Upon a Time Lord" became Official SOTA Lore Cannon :D
    "That would be end-game for sure!" :cool:
    ~TimeLord~:pLOL!
     
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  9. Violet Ronso

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    Due to a bug where people managed to get the new T15 Lich spawner to work on a Lot instead of a Dungeon, Elgarion did mention this morning that this could mean theres potential for Elrond's idea, so yes, players are slowly getting all the tools needed to do things like this, I'm especially thinking about Xee who seems to have a big project planned with his new town.
     
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  10. Cora Cuz'avich

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    And some of them aren't even another variation of "The _____ and the _____!"
     
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