General notes on my building strategy for Waterdeep
Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 10:35 pm
First let me say you're all amazing players. Getting to RP with you all is really the reward for all the hard work and it is awesome to see you all are enjoying time on the server. I know it can be frustrating running into spawns and other unintended problems while playing, part of which I'm to blame for not being more clear on my strategy. Thus I thought I should lay it out here more clearly in a sort of "mission statement" if you will. Here are my general principles that I go by when deciding where to dedicate my toolset time:
1) The best static content is repeatable, not one shot. This is a much better return on investment in terms of my time and your time. A one shot "go-fer" quest will perhaps entertain you for 10 minutes, but trying to tackle the dungeon boss can entertain you for countless sessions. This is why fixes for static "go-fers" has been slow, I'm instead spending my time trying to make larger more fun things.
2) Quests (both DM'd and Static) should be built with everyone in mind, not just a subset of players. This is widely applicable in so many ways and is a real guiding light for me. I want to make sure that it isn't just tanks plowing through everything and that my rogues, wizards, bards, druids, etc have a role to play. Statics will include stuff tailored to force inclusion of support chars (like DR on the Rat Boss). This will become increasingly evident in 3.0 in that some areas will require presence of support chars to even gain entry. I DM in much the same way, so that "dump stat" may become more relevant than you think. If CHA was your dump-stat, expect NPCs to outright ignore you and gravitate towards those with high CHA. Likewise if you want static content reviewed/fixed that only benefit a subset of players expect it to be low priority.
3) Attempt to concentrate the players we have left into a central hub area. I think you all already know this to a large extent, which is to say that the Adventurer's quarter is my hub and I'm building out content from there. In order to maximize mixing of players I need to concentrate the area. That is to say that the further the content from this area that it is the lower the priority for my toolset time. This also extends to the DM wand, in that logistically it is much better for me to try and push disparate factions together (evil, good, etc) to fight a common foe than it is for me to DM two different groups at a time. If you want to splinter off from the group in a DM session, realize I can only be with one group at a time and it may not be you.
4) Build versatile systems that can allow for flexibility in world behavior. A lot of my recent work has been on systems that I can (hopefully) deploy server wide to speed up my process in the future. Things like re-spawning loot containers and workable AI are overhead, but in the end will allow me to build things faster long term. The cost now is higher but long term as I tackle more areas/dungeons/etc it will speed me up. It does however appear in the short term that things aren't getting done, so hopefully this helps understand why I care a lot about that loot in Blackwell and why I upped those rewards so high to encourage you guys to go.
Hope this helps give you an idea of how I operate to keep your frustration level low. We've done a lot of amazing work and I think you'll be pleased with the 3.0 release! We will grow more from there!
1) The best static content is repeatable, not one shot. This is a much better return on investment in terms of my time and your time. A one shot "go-fer" quest will perhaps entertain you for 10 minutes, but trying to tackle the dungeon boss can entertain you for countless sessions. This is why fixes for static "go-fers" has been slow, I'm instead spending my time trying to make larger more fun things.
2) Quests (both DM'd and Static) should be built with everyone in mind, not just a subset of players. This is widely applicable in so many ways and is a real guiding light for me. I want to make sure that it isn't just tanks plowing through everything and that my rogues, wizards, bards, druids, etc have a role to play. Statics will include stuff tailored to force inclusion of support chars (like DR on the Rat Boss). This will become increasingly evident in 3.0 in that some areas will require presence of support chars to even gain entry. I DM in much the same way, so that "dump stat" may become more relevant than you think. If CHA was your dump-stat, expect NPCs to outright ignore you and gravitate towards those with high CHA. Likewise if you want static content reviewed/fixed that only benefit a subset of players expect it to be low priority.
3) Attempt to concentrate the players we have left into a central hub area. I think you all already know this to a large extent, which is to say that the Adventurer's quarter is my hub and I'm building out content from there. In order to maximize mixing of players I need to concentrate the area. That is to say that the further the content from this area that it is the lower the priority for my toolset time. This also extends to the DM wand, in that logistically it is much better for me to try and push disparate factions together (evil, good, etc) to fight a common foe than it is for me to DM two different groups at a time. If you want to splinter off from the group in a DM session, realize I can only be with one group at a time and it may not be you.
4) Build versatile systems that can allow for flexibility in world behavior. A lot of my recent work has been on systems that I can (hopefully) deploy server wide to speed up my process in the future. Things like re-spawning loot containers and workable AI are overhead, but in the end will allow me to build things faster long term. The cost now is higher but long term as I tackle more areas/dungeons/etc it will speed me up. It does however appear in the short term that things aren't getting done, so hopefully this helps understand why I care a lot about that loot in Blackwell and why I upped those rewards so high to encourage you guys to go.
Hope this helps give you an idea of how I operate to keep your frustration level low. We've done a lot of amazing work and I think you'll be pleased with the 3.0 release! We will grow more from there!
