Server Proposal: 004 Waterdeep (Redux)

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boombrakh
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Server Proposal: 004 Waterdeep (Redux)

Post by boombrakh »

Waterdeep

Across Faerûn, the name “Waterdeep” evokes feelings of wonder, awe, and envy. Although it is not the largest city in the Realms, the City of Splendors is undoubtedly the most famous and most cosmopolitan metropolis on the continent of Faerûn. Having grown rich on a steady diet of trade and industry, this crossroads city combines the best aspects of many cultures into a marvelous shining jewel. Waterdeep’s cultural patrimony is all of Faerûn, and its inhabitants are much richer for it.

The City of Splendors lies in the shadow of Mount Waterdeep on the shore of the best natural harbor along the Sword Coast. Undermountain, the greatest dungeon in all Faerûn, lies beneath the city’s streets and sewers, and the untamed hinterlands of the Sword Coast beckon to those daring enough to seek their fortune.

I would like to make this wonderful location of intrigue, politics and guild conflict as well as exciting adventure available for all the players of ALFA. This server would act as a counterweight to the other servers which has large rural areas, wheras Waterdeep would only streach so far as the outer city walls. The Waterdeep I propose would be a strick urban setting, focusing of adventure therein.

The Team

Aside from myself as the coordinator and HDM for this project, I have recruited talented people to help build this server. In charge of the surface exteriors is mr_duncan and he is doing a great job with it so far. I have recruited outside talent to help implement all the wierd new ideas we have for the city as a lead scripter for the team. When it comes to building interiors, I have recieved several PM's from members of the community who have expressed a real desire to build interiors and I have started to allocate different areas between then. Aside from that, I plan on being very open with the construction of the server and keep a good dialogue with those who has experience with building before.

I also already have a respectable number of people who has shown a strong interest in being a DM on Waterdeep and i've made sure that they are covering as many of the time zones as possible.

Focus

As I mentioned above, Waterdeep will be an urban setting. The focus here is to create a place for those players who enjoy creating characters who enjoy staying in the cities, while at the same time offer a great way for adventures. Running under the streets of Waterdeep will be the sewers, which will offer up the occasional challenge for the young plumber. The server borders will be the outer walls of the city. There will however, to a lesser extent, exist a travel map to give the illusion of a world outside the walls and the DM's the ability to introduce small areas outside the walls for single quests.

I will also try to get a hold of Faeryl since she has been given the oppertunity to create Skullport, which I feel should be a part of the Waterdeep server. I dont know if this is a part of the Skullport server or not, but I would also like to include Undermountain as a great place for exploration and adventuring. It is a very iconic location that has a lot of connections to Waterdeep.

The DMs of Waterdeep will be those that focus on intrigue. I don't believe Waterdeep to be a server where you spend your time walking around killing kobolds and raiding Orc encampments. It is more in the lines of uncovering assassination plots or arresting the noble who is dabbling with dark arts and striking deals demons. Perhaps it is coordinating a new thieves guild or outmaneuver the rivaling guild. Regardless, the server has a lot of potential and my own personal focus for when I will DM will be to create stories where the PC's grow and develop their characters.

Areas

Waterdeep consists of eight Wards, each with the possibility for great gameplay in itself depending on personal taste. The six recognized wards of Waterdeep are Castle Ward, Dock Ward, North Ward, Sea Ward, Southern Ward, and Trades Ward. The City of the Dead is nearly a seventh ward unto itself, and Deepwater Harbor and the surrounding islands form an informal eighth ward. This, together with the sewers and Undermountain will give anyone more than they could want.

Castle Ward:
Spoiler:
Castle Ward lies in the heart of Waterdeep, wrapping around the eastern slopes of Mount Waterdeep. This ward is home to the city’s administrative buildings and buildings of state. The ward’s most prominent landmarks include Ahghairon’s Tower, Blackstaff Tower, Castle Waterdeep, Piergeiron’s Palace, the Market, and Mirt’s Mansion.
Dock Ward:
Spoiler:
Waterdeep’s most notorious and colorful ward is also the oldest. Traveler’s tales portray it as a lawless, brawling place of drunks, smugglers, roaming monsters, and fell magic, which is not all that far from the truth. The bustling harbor scene and its attendant activities dominate this ward.
North Ward:
Spoiler:
Waterdeep’s quietest ward is also one of its wealthiest. North Ward is home to most of the middle class and lesser noble families. This ward has few notable landmarks other than the Cliffwatch, and it all but shuts down at dusk. This placid reputation belies the intrigues and scheming that goes on behind closed doors, and the volumes of smuggled goods that lie in cellars beneath the city streets.
Sea Ward:
Spoiler:
Waterdeep’s wealthiest ward is notable for the many-spired, grand homes of the nobility, the gleaming edifices of the city’s leading temples, and the imposing towers of the city’s premier wizards. Other notable landmarks include the Field of Triumph, the lush Heroes’ Garden, and the Sea’s Edge Beach.
Southern Ward:
Spoiler:
Once known as Temple Ward, Southern Ward lies in the southeastern corner of Waterdeep, bounded by Trades Ward to the north and Dock Ward to the west. "Caravan City", as this oft-forgotten ward is sometimes known, is a homely, friendly, busy, and largely poor area of Waterdeep. Notable landmarks of Southern Ward include Caravan Court, the Adventurer's Quarter, and Waymoot.
Trades Ward:
Spoiler:
Trades Ward lies in the eastern half of Waterdeep, encircling the western and southern walls of the City of the Dead. Given over almost entirely to commerce, Trades Ward lacks the feeling of community found in the more residential wards, but retains the hustle and bustle of a marketplace throughout the day and night. Notable landmarks of Trades Ward include the Court of the White Bull, the Plinth, and Virgin’s Square.
City of the Dead:
Spoiler:
This walled enclosure on the eastern edge of Trades Ward is the general cemetery for the City of Splendors, and its size nearly makes it a ward in and of itself. Many citizens visit the City of the Dead’s parklike green lawns and white marble tombs during the day, for it is one of the few places dominated by greenery that the citizens of Waterdeep can share within the city walls. A Watch contingent keeps the cemetery peaceful, and various members of the Guild of Chandlers and Lamplighters keep torches lit around and inside a number of the tombs. The grounds are off-limits after dusk, and the gates are locked. Nevertheless, many individuals still hold clandestine meetings at night in the City of the Dead, despite the slight risk of undead escaping from a warded tomb to prowl the sprawling cemetery.

Although it has only been in its current form since the Year of the Riven Skull (1250 DR), the area has served as the city burial ground for centuries. The cemetery ran out of room in the Year of the Stranger (1064 DR), prompting the city to build a low wall around it and replace the individual graves with magic tombs linked by portals (constructed primarily by the mage Anacaster) to infinite demiplanes. Two years later, the high number of undead prompted the Lords to erect higher, defensible walls around the cemetery and to lock and ward the magic tombs. There have been few incidents since.
Deepwater Harbor:
Spoiler:
The naturally sheltered, deepwater basin that gives Waterdeep both its name and its wealth is a bustling place. Its chill waters are kept fairly clean by the diligent work of the Guild of Watermen and the merfolk of Tharqualnaar. The mariners of the Guard control access to the harbor above the waves, using the retractable chain-nets and walls of the defensible harbor to bar entrance or exit by particular ships.

Deepwater Harbor is divided into two smaller harbors—the Great Harbor, through which commerce and transportation flows, and the Naval Harbor, restricted for the use of the navy. Two major islands, Stormhaven and Deepwater, enclose the harbor. Notable landmarks include Boatscrape Cove, where ships are beached to be cleaned of barnacles and worse; Deepwater Beach, where mermaids often come to sun and flirt with the guards; the Sea Stacks, sharp rocks that deter the close approach of sailing ships; and Umberlee’s Cache, the subsea depression that leads to flooded caverns in the depths.

Waterdeep’s sewers empty into the harbor at places covered with extremely large and strong gratings, regularly patrolled by bands of merfolk. The merfolk use catch-nets on poles to scoop and gather the debris into large tow-globes for transport far out to sea. The harbor’s rocky, sloping bottom is thinly covered with mud, especially at the southern end of the harbor. It is kept free of plants and litter by the merfolk. Due to the cleanliness of the harbor and the undersea lighthouse known as Deepwater Beacon, there are no penalties to Spot checks beneath the harbor’s surface.
Undermountain:
Spoiler:
The great dungeon of Undermountain, also known as the Halls of the Mad Mage, is a vast subterranean complex carved into the roots of Mount Waterdeep and the great plateau on which the City of Splendors sits. Although Undermountain extends underneath the entire city and even beneath the sea floor to the west, the bulk of the dungeon lies beneath Mount Waterdeep (hence the name), as well as the western reaches of Castle Ward and Dock Ward.
The vision: A living and breathing city

The vision here is to create a city bursting with life where you could almost hear the pulse of the city if you stopped and listened. We want to present to the players, a unique and exciting experience, regardless of where you go. We want them to feel that they really are in one fo the greatest cities of Faerûn. We have recognized a problem with keeping players active within ALFA and that is that they become bored. We live in a MMO era where instant gratification is the goal. The idea here is to keep players entertained enough to be online long enough to actually meet eachother and do something, even if that is just sit around at the Dripping Dagger talking. The city will be burstling with static quests for players to be entertained by all day long and we will create them in a way so that they become varied and fun to do, over and over again. Almost every locale needs either something done, or is involved in something someone else needs done. The static quests will include all of ALFAs ACR-supported quests, such as exploration & scouting, errands, escorts, bounties and patrol/reconnaissance as well as several new ideas that will need some discussions before being implemented.

Faction/Reputation system

When we have such a vast amount of statics it is important not to upset the balance of ALFA when it comes to at what rate players have their characters advance in levels and wealth. That is why we've come up with a great system to deal with the fact that players will be free to "farm" statics without putting them ahead of the rest of the class.

All statics are divided into two categories. The first is the basic "I do you a favor, you pay me" which yields an instant reward upon delivery. A typical such static quest would be the classical FedEx-quests. The character doesn't invest very much in those type of tasks other than time and legwork. The second though, is of another nature. They are statics that build faction/reputation rather than reward. This opens up several new oppertunities, both for the player and for the DMs.

Let's use the City Watch as an example of this. The PC has spent a vast amount of time doing statics for the City Watch as he sees himself as a person who sympathizes with them and tries to help out. He doesn't get any money for the work done, seeing as they normally don't hire "mercenaries" to do their job for them. But they do appreciate a good citizen helping out now and then.
After some time, the PC has built up quite the reputation and might be introduced to new dialogue options or even the oppertunity to become an honorary Watchman and be given Faction Armor which will make NPC's react accordingly when worn. Along with this, the PC has racked up quite a bit of Faction/Reputation "points" and this works like a currency of sorts which you can use to influence events with a DM (or in certain scripted situations).
Let's say that during a DM event, one of PC's friends has been taken into custody and will be put on trial for murder. Now, the other PC might or might not be innocent, but regardless, the PC wants to free his friend and goes to talk to the captain in charge. The DM inspects the PC's current faction/reputation value and decides that the PC is trusted enough to have his friend placed in his custody and/or set free due to "lacking evidence" or some other reason that seems appropriate for the situation. The DM then proceeds to decrease an arbitrary value from the PC's pool

Another example is something I believe will be of great value is doing the same thing for a certain temple. Let's say that the PC has been working tirelessly for the temple of the deity he worships. He has become one of the temples most valued associate/servant and the NPC's often mentions him to eachother when other PC's pass by. He has the unfortunate luck of rolling a bad fort save or two and dies to a static monster spawn. He wasn't rich in life but he had a few friends. The sad part though, is that they can't really afford to raise him from the dead either. Instead of just looting his poor corpse and dragging it to the temple he worships, they bring him to the priests who (scripted) immediately recognize who it is and asks the PC's friends if they want him brought back from the dead. This will then of course also mean that the faction/reputation pool will decrease.

Now, the idea behind this is to give the players who seek the instant gratification something to work for, while at the same time keep them invested for the long run. The players get rewarded for their work, they keep staying online and the chance of a meeting between players increase. This also keeps players entertained while at the same time not giving them a way to quickly earn a lot of experience points and/or gold.
One could say that it gives the PC a sort of "currency" only usable within the faction that he got it from. This is a system I personally, and those who I've spoken to about this, feel would be a great addition to ALFA in general and a fitting system in a guild-based city such as Waterdeep.

"Global" events DMCT

Another idea i'm toying around with is the "Dungeon Master Control Tower" or DMCT for short, which is a place where the DMs can initiate server-wide events at the literal push of a button. You want a war between rival gangs in the Dock wards? Head on over to the Gang-War Button (trademark pending) and choose your factions. You want the North Ward sealed off due to a demon infestation from a botched portal opening? Why not pull that lever over there? Now, let's say you dont want to unleash hell on earth and you just want to celebrate one of the many festivals available, then that should also be possible at the click of a button.

This idea is just in the concept stages at this point, but it is a tool to give the DMs the ability to add to the feeling the players get that this is not just a Persistant World server, but a living, changing Persistant World server.

Living history

One thing that I want to see is that players who play characters with roots in Waterdeep can send in their history and at the next update have their own family as NPC's in Waterdeep. This invests the player in his character and it gives the DM's something to toy around with. It is a lot more fun to have the PC's younger brother or sister dangling in a rope above a vat of molten iron, rather than to have some random NPC hostage. This is all about developing the characters and giving them a great memory.

PC housing

Aren't you tired of always being homeless or having to stay at an Inn? Well, now you can get yourself your own apartment in the City of Splendor. Just be careful not to forget to pay the rent as the landlords are pretty quick with changing the locks and you might lose all your belongings as he sells them to cover the rent you owe him. I want to give PC's a "home". Somewhere that they can bring other PC's and have meetings or whatever else that they feel they want to do.

Character progression oppertunities

I believe that Waterdeep would be a great place for a number of available Prestige Classes as well. Among them, from the top of my head, I can see the following having a natural place in Waterdeep.

Arcane Trickster, Assassin, Divine Champion, Duelist, Harper Agent, Invisible Blade, Red Wizard of Thay, Sacred Fist, Warpriest, and Weapon Master.








Authors note: I would like to thank Sandermann for the wonderful template provided through his application to build the Northern Underdark. Without it, I am sure it would have been a lot more disorienting to read.

Wow, that was quite the chunk of text. I guess that'll do as my official proposal to have Waterdeep built for this community. And remember, if you want to be a part of this, just send me a PM and we'll see about making that happen. I am really looking forward to this and I hope others are as well. Now, if I only had edit permissions to this thread, that would be great. *nudges Hialmar*
pragmatic (adj.)
The opposite of idealistic is pragmatic, a word that describes a philosophy of "doing what works best."
From Greek pragma "deed," the word has historically described philosophers and politicians who were
concerned more with real-world application of ideas than with abstract notions. A pragmatic person
is sensible, grounded, and practical.
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CloudDancing
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Re: Server Proposal: 004 Waterdeep (Redux)

Post by CloudDancing »

Living history

One thing that I want to see is that players who play characters with roots in Waterdeep can send in their history and at the next update have their own family as NPC's in Waterdeep. This invests the player in his character and it gives the DM's something to toy around with. It is a lot more fun to have the PC's younger brother or sister dangling in a rope above a vat of molten iron, rather than to have some random NPC hostage. This is all about developing the characters and giving them a great memory.

PC housing

Aren't you tired of always being homeless or having to stay at an Inn? Well, now you can get yourself your own apartment in the City of Splendor. Just be careful not to forget to pay the rent as the landlords are pretty quick with changing the locks and you might lose all your belongings as he sells them to cover the rent you owe him. I want to give PC's a "home". Somewhere that they can bring other PC's and have meetings or whatever else that they feel they want to do
.

Very astute to include this in your plan because it what players have been asking for since forever I think.
*The ability to make an IMPACT on the world the inhabit, change the very landscape (political and geographic.)
*The feeling they have a place in this "world" and a background that connects them to their sense of place.

As per Waterdeep (above all the other server projects in motion) it is a well needed connection point between our server system as it is. You have my support.
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boombrakh
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Re: Server Proposal: 004 Waterdeep (Redux)

Post by boombrakh »

So, 46 days has passed and not a single word has been passed on this. I've held up the steam for as long as I could, but somewhere along the road, you need to know what is going on. I've worked overtime trying to keep the interested parties enthusiastic about Waterdeep, especially since we've received so many comments in PMs on the chat about it. People really wanted to see this happen.

Sadly though, I am almost alone now on this project. This isn't because of a lack of interested people who want to work on it, but more a result of the inability to make a decision about the proposal. Like I mentioned before, 46 days has passed and no word on if we could even begin to build this for ALFA. It baffles me how anything can be so inefficient as to let six and a half week pass without saying yes or no. Hell, I didn't even receive a "not now, please come back in half a year".

Being stuck in limbo isn't as fun as all the kids say it is. I know this, my team know this, and now hopefully the people "deciding" things in ALFA knows this. The Waterdeep project is officially over. I am really sorry for this and I am sorry I let all those who were looking forward to this down. We'll see what happens in the future, I am still trying to be proactive and creative in a community I love.

And as a final tip for the future to those who sit on the "power" around here; Make a decision for once. If you can't make up your mind Curmudgeon, then let Veilan do it for you, or Vendrin, or AcadiusLost, or Hialmar.. Just make sure that something gets done around here. Stagnation is never a good thing. Don't let bureaucracy get in the way of creativity.

boom out.
pragmatic (adj.)
The opposite of idealistic is pragmatic, a word that describes a philosophy of "doing what works best."
From Greek pragma "deed," the word has historically described philosophers and politicians who were
concerned more with real-world application of ideas than with abstract notions. A pragmatic person
is sensible, grounded, and practical.
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Re: Server Proposal: 004 Waterdeep (Redux)

Post by Veilan »

I'm rather sorry to hear this (especially since I was personally quite interested in a Waterdeep incarnation for ALFA 2). I regret that you only contacted me a couple days ago about this, and that thus I could not help produce results timely enough to keep your team from dissolving.

It is disheartening to read that you and your team have lost the faith and motivation to build this.

Thanks for the effort,
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hollyfant
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Re: Server Proposal: 004 Waterdeep (Redux)

Post by hollyfant »

Seriously? There were people who didn't know Waterdeep was being build? That's a bit hard to believe. What's the process for getting servers okayed anyway?

The Admins seem to be awfully inactive of late. I'm sure that's just my perception, but still...
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Re: Server Proposal: 004 Waterdeep (Redux)

Post by Veilan »

hollyfant wrote:Seriously? There were people who didn't know Waterdeep was being build?
Out of curiousity, who said they didn't know Waterdeep was being built?
hollyfant wrote:The Admins seem to be awfully inactive of late.
The problem is that to fix a problem, there needs to be knowledge of its existence. Approval of servers falls to the DMA, and boom sadly only told me a couple of days ago that he was not in fact in talks with the DMA due to Curm supposedly not responding. I prodded Curm about that (who was at the time occupied with WHL's progress and training Donrath and teric), but apparently too late. While it is regrettable that there has obviously some sort of miscommunication / lack of communication between Curm and boom, I can only hope that in the future people will not hesitate to contact the Lead Admin - who's able to oversee the other Administrator's - timely.

If you have a problem with any of the Admin, come to me. I am reasonably convinced I could have delivered results in a timely fashion from there. What I do not consider my job is to micromanage each other Admin's domain, though.

Cheers,
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