Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

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Aria/Shards?

Yes, I'd be interested in moving to that.
20
69%
Yes, and I'd be interested in building and/or developing for it.
7
24%
No
2
7%
 
Total votes: 29

FoamBats4All
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Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by FoamBats4All »

So, Legends of Aria (previously Shards Online) just published their final alpha build. We have people out there making clusters and shards (think central servers/rulesets/character collections and servers that share them). I think if ALFA is going to move to a new platform for ALFA3, Aria/Shards remains our best bet.

The question is, do we have the support to make the venture worthwhile? We're getting to the point where I think we'll seriously want to start getting into the details and start work soon. Do we have the interest in moving to a new game? Do we have enough developers/builders to make it worthwhile? I don't really see it worth-while unless we can unify NWN1/NWN2 players/developers instead of fragmenting into 3 systems.

So what do people think?
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Arianna
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Re: Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by Arianna »

I don't know enough about it to vote one way or another . . .


Can we regulate who can or cannot join our severs?

Would our servers be regulated by the Shards engine creators?

Can we do the Forgotten Realms or will copyright laws get in our way?

How easy/difficult is it to build in? Is there a lot of Versatility?

What scripting language does it use?

Are there ALOT of creature models ?

Can you interact with your environment? Sitting on chairs etc?

Will this work for a Persistent World ?

Is there a limit to the number of players that can be on the server at one time?
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Re: Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by Rumple C »

If it is viable, sure. There is no long term future in NWN1 or 2.
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Re: Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by FoamBats4All »

Arianna wrote:Can we regulate who can or cannot join our severs?
Yes. Clusters (collections of shards) can whitelist/blacklist users.
Arianna wrote:Would our servers be regulated by the Shards engine creators?
Arianna wrote:Can we do the Forgotten Realms or will copyright laws get in our way?
We look to be able to do whatever we want, within reason. Hosting of the cluster (think central PW data/vault) is done through them. If we're making child molestation servers they'll probably boot us. If they get a Cease & Desist from Wizards of the Coast, we're probably screwed. But, as far as I can tell, we won't be the only D&D/FR server being attempted, and the Legends of Aria folk aren't upset about that sort of thing.
Arianna wrote:How easy/difficult is it to build in? Is there a lot of Versatility?
Arianna wrote:What scripting language does it use?
Arianna wrote:Are there ALOT of creature models ?
It's built on Unity, which there is a ton of information out there for. The scripting language is Lua, which is also really easy and versatile to work with. Given that, it's probably easy to extend to what we need. Similarly, there are a lot of utilities out there for Unity, and a lot of models for free/to purchase. We'd be moving away from proprietary formats and more to what are becoming industry standards. Hell, Lua has been in games for decades. Even the Baldur's Gate games used it.
Arianna wrote:Can you interact with your environment? Sitting on chairs etc?
Yup.
Arianna wrote:Will this work for a Persistent World ?
It's designed specifically for persistent worlds. Building your own house and such are part of their central cluster. We'd have more tools to help us with PW data, rather than tacking it onto games like NWN1/NWN2 after the fact.
Arianna wrote:Is there a limit to the number of players that can be on the server at one time?
Their server has a limit of 100 players, but I don't think there's a real limit.
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Re: Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by Ithildur »

It sounds like a better fit straight out of the box for what we try to do than NWN2 ever was... nwn2 wasn't really designed with PWs in mind.

So yes, sounds intriguing.
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Re: Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by Cast_No_Shadow »

In your expert opinions (if you have them) how easy and quick is it to get up an MVP? Something close enough to satisfy players/DMs without being perfect?
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Re: Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by Arianna »

Cast_No_Shadow wrote:In your expert opinions (if you have them) how easy and quick is it to get up an MVP? Something close enough to satisfy players/DMs without being perfect?
Well if we chose to put up a world with this I would Hope that we would not do a sloppy job of it in favor of speed, I would want to see it done right the first time, with all the proper classes / races /spells and ACR type stuff in place. If you give something and then later have to take it away because it is broke or OP . . . players complain
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Re: Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by Rumple C »

I'm curious what the reasons are for the person who objected in moving platforms.

The real potential benefit I see is evolving and rejuvenating the player base, rather than slowly dying of attrition?
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Re: Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by Rick7475 »

I will have to do some research on the engine, but having built an entire NWN1 server and half of a NWN2 server, I am tentatively in. The question is, what area of FR are we going to do? I would like to see WD, but that is a pretty large server to start with. I think we should put out some suggestions for a smallish area with a lot of variety. Maybe even one we haven't done before, and then if people come on board, go for the bigger servers.

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Re: Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by Galadorn »

The Dales?
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Re: Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by Arianna »

sembia
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Re: Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by FoamBats4All »

Cast_No_Shadow wrote:In your expert opinions (if you have them) how easy and quick is it to get up an MVP? Something close enough to satisfy players/DMs without being perfect?
I don't have an expert opinion. It'll take work, I know that much. I just haven't made a cluster before. I've asked around their Discord some and it all seems possible, though.
Arianna wrote:Well if we chose to put up a world with this I would Hope that we would not do a sloppy job of it in favor of speed, I would want to see it done right the first time, with all the proper classes / races /spells and ACR type stuff in place. If you give something and then later have to take it away because it is broke or OP . . . players complain
Inclined to agree.
Rumple C wrote:I'm curious what the reasons are for the person who objected in moving platforms.

The real potential benefit I see is evolving and rejuvenating the player base, rather than slowly dying of attrition?
We could stick on NWN2 forever, but I don't think that will be all that great. Likely to run out of players eventually. NWN1/NWN2 isn't get any new ones.
Rick7475 wrote:I will have to do some research on the engine, but having built an entire NWN1 server and half of a NWN2 server, I am tentatively in. The question is, what area of FR are we going to do? I would like to see WD, but that is a pretty large server to start with. I think we should put out some suggestions for a smallish area with a lot of variety. Maybe even one we haven't done before, and then if people come on board, go for the bigger servers.

I am prone to Winterkeep myself.
Would be a pleasure to work with you, I'm sure. I don't have a huge investment in where we build. I imagine I'll be more on the IA/ACR side than the world building side. Waterdeep sounds great to me, but something new could be interesting. We already see Waterdeep in NWN1 and a few areas of it in NWN2.
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Re: Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by Rick7475 »

With Waterdeep, we are running out of resources in the NWN1 module that we are currently using. I would be curious about how much we could build with a custom server.
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Re: Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by shad0wfax »

Building Waterdeep alone is a monumental undertaking and it's been done before in NWN1 and bits and pieces of it are in NWN2 on MS.

I think that it would be good to get away from The Sword Coast and to avoid The Dalelands.

For example, I'd love to see the eastern Sea of Fallen Stars as a central starting place. We could start a shard with something neat like The Vast and Impiltur, then add in Damara, Narfell, The Great Dale, Thesk, Aglarond, Thay, and Rashemen as time/resources/player base allows.

It avoids all of the Sword Coast (three NWN2 servers on it at present, 4 total in the past) and The Dalelands (2 NWN2 servers on it in the past) and it looks at a rather rich part of the Forgotten Realms world in terms of novels and lore, while still allowing some creativity.
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Re: Legends of Aria/Shards Online Post-Alpha

Post by shad0wfax »

Actually, we could avoid major city building and pick a kingdom with just one or two big cities and then plenty of wilderness to explore around it.

Vaasa, Damara, Narfell, Unther, and The Shaar are all great candidates for that. (Rashemen is another great one, but it's more challenging due to the social structure of Rashemen.)

I'd love to do a Narfell/Damara/Vaasa setup.
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