A Land Far Away

Alright,

some information about the potential Aria move that we will hopefully update with some frequency:

Outlook

Aria has been in alpha for several years. We expect that a move to live is at least a year away still. Updates about the timetable will happen as we get them (Foam is frequently liaising with their team). ALFA hopes to get a first server ready 6-12 months after the official live date; a transition team will handle the process.

DMA, IA and TA issues

DMA, with input from the community, is trying to assemble a build team for ALFA's initial server. The goal is to have a concerted effort to have our live day within a reasonable frame of Aria's launch, with a consolidation of talent. Admin think it is a good idea to start with a well-built, polished server as a group effort for an area everybody can kind of live with. Once this is finished, teams can then split up and build the areas they fancy afterwards - of course, all depends on volunteer buy-in and interest.

The new core rules are going to be developed along with the building effort as the eventual capabilities of Aria become more apparent. As usual, we are going for a compromise between PnP faithfulness and CRPG/persistant world playability. Standards will be updated accordingly as the game engine and doable edition of DnD become clear. What is clear so far is that the new vault system will be centralised (no necessity for portalling file transfers).

LA and PA issues

We believe ALFA's rules and charter are broad enough not to be tied to any single gaming platform, so we think there is no need for charter amendments. Player status will remain the same - all current ALFA members will be future Aria-ALFA members, and all future Aria-ALFA members will become ALFA members per our usual systems. LA & PA will work to ensure that community input is reflected in the design decisions of the build and tech team and help communicate where this is not fully possible, and try to keep everybody updated on the process.

Expectation Management

While there is an active and ongoing dialogue between us and Aria, a move to the system is by no means guaranteed, and certainly not right around the corner. It may still fall apart entirely, and if it does not, we are looking at a timeframe of years rather than months at this point. This is not meant to curb enthusiasm, but to give a somewhat realistic notion of where we are (certainly not at a point where we can carve up the pie, the pie is not near being baked yet; in fact we still do not even have all the ingredients we need to start baking).

That said, a fresh start with a new gaming system we can shape and mould is an exciting prospect. If you wish to channel your enthusiasm into an increased likelihood of that happening and are not involved yet, please contact IA Foambats4all and DMA Shad0wfax to see where you could best help out.

We also have an Aria section on the board, which might see expansion as things take shape: http://www.alandfaraway.info/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=407

And here's the link to the official Legends of Aria site: https://www.legendsofaria.com/

cool

I am in beta 1 closed testing for this. I will let you know how it is, post screen shots, etc. There are several videos out for game play. Basically is top down like Ultima and NWN1, however, I will see how the camera angles work.

Graphics are much improved over NWN1, a little cartoonish, but not state of the art like many games coming out now. They are somewhat better than NWN2, But I think most of us here are more interested in the story and game play than the graphics.

I will keep you posted as I play and hopefully have access to the shard toolset. Everything will be wiped after beta.

2 hours of play, first impressions.

So the world is nice, playing style is similar to NWN1. You have an initial top down screen and you can zoom in and rotate. Standard movement keys for right-left-forward-back or right mouse click point and move. When you select certain keys windows pop up, such as M for map and C for the character which also displays inventory. The inventory screen is still under development and there was no 'body' map for equipped items. Hopefully in the next few updates this will be fleshed out. I will post screen shots shortly. I tried chase cam for a bit but it kept zooming out.

Just FYI if you go to the site and check forums the developers are very aware of the NWN1/2 interest and will be working with DnD Next OGL for shards(mods). However, feats may not be allowed and the DnD mods won't be FR. We may have to add these ourselves or look to other shards for source code. So, that means the version most likely is going to be DnD Next, or 5th edition.

So, when I created my first character, only male human so far as it is still beta. I was given options for body type, hair type, and hair color. Pretty generic, and I am hoping there will be more customization in the future, but I was never a fan of over customization, especially for facial features (like narrow eyes, big mouth, long nose). You can't change skin color and the heads are limited.

Character: https://imgur.com/8WUULOA

One concern I have thus far is there is no mention of races. I am hoping they include shorter body versions, maybe under body type for dwarves and halflings. So shorter thicker body type for dwarves, and thin short for halflings. Perhaps the DnD Next OGL will address this. Or perhaps in a next version of the game there will be more heads, such as elven heads.

Combat was straight forward, click and fight. Hostile targets are red. There is supposed to be factions so that should work well with ALFA. When you die you are a ghost and you can see everyone but I don't they can see you. There are shrines for resurrection, so the DnD OGL will probably give some options. Oh, horses are a thing and built into the game. Not sure how they work in combat. You can also tame animals for animal companions. Haven't tried it much, but a big boost for rangers and druids.

Houses cut away when you approach, I am hoping this isn't the case for all houses, especially locked ones. The houses look nice and you can purchase your own. Hopefully they don't cut away when you are home alone with your loved one, or we may get to witness the love life of a Wild Wombat.

So, shards or mods can be single or in clusters. The cluster concept suits ALFA pretty well. However if other shards are using the same end OGL perhaps alliances with other FR shards might be an option. We might want to pursue this with other groups.

That's all for now. I will post pics soon. Let me know your feedback if members here are still interested in this game. If not, FYI there are still a couple thousand players in the NWN1 realm and we can look forward to the enhanced version coming up.

I just want to give a big Thank you! to everyone putting in hours and thinking about the future of my little playground here at ALFA

Some screen shots:

The first is a walled town entrance, this would awesome for a nice mid-sized town.

https://imgur.com/qRGTiwf

The next is a view of the character windows:

https://imgur.com/er7tWFD

So, the inventory window is on the right. The items are kind of jumbled right now, but you can drag the items to and from the paper doll in the center. The window to your left is your stats. Note that the bottom of that window are 6 main stats, the iconic DnD stats, though higher values and different names. Below are skills, easily tranlated to DnD 5e skills, and Trained Abilities (feats ?) and Disciplines (classes ?).

I tried the character creation again, it is still buggy, not unexpected, but I did skin color changes, and a female body. When you pick a trade, you get a hat associated with that trade, ie a mage gets Gandalf's hat. I hope they change that for more customization.