Ok, here comes the latest brainchild from Agrafes' chamber of horrors:
Random Sites!If you think back to the SoZ campaign that shipped with that expansion you hopefully remember that every now and then you could stumble across goodies and hidden locations on the overland map. I've always wanted that on our map as well, but the OC system is not really random, it relies on a big data file and lots of premade small encounters. This system is not really suitable for a PW where you have all sorts of PC levels and capabilities. You'd also know the various encounters by heart after a few runs and things will get boring quick.
Once this system is in place sites will appear randomly all over the map - or rather, first they will not appear but remain hidden until someone stumbles across them. This can happen literally - if you get close enough to a site it will appear - or it can happen due to the skills of your character. Whenever you approach a hidden site on the map the game will roll a Search skill check for you (without telling it to you though) and if you beat the DC of the site - voila. Once a site has been discovered it is there for everyone to see - sadly this cannot be changed without jumping through a lot of hoops.
The actual location of the sites is random, but there is some thought behind it. The likelyhood of an orc camp is smaller in the vicinity of cities like Phlan, but since things are random it IS very possible that a site spawns directly on the road to Phlan.
Right now we do NOT have any "goody" spawns, and there are no wandering monsters on the OLM as well. Both are planned though.
There are different kind of sites, you'll get a basic idea from the model they use. For instance a crypt will most likely lead to an underground area full of undead, a tower will lead to a built area that contains humans or even magical creatures and so on. Right now we're a bit short on decent looking areas since I lost the temporary module with some more prepared areas so you'll see the same one a lot, but our builders are hard at work expanding this pool. In some cases you'll encounter sites that will say "This has already been plundered" - this is an indication that something went wrong with the area selection.
Anyway, once you click on a random site placeable a conversation will start. You have the chance to examine it closer once. This will run another Search check (there might be some Spot mixed in, I am not sure right now as it's been a while since I wrote the check) and give you some information of the form "This site 'Random Site: Crypt' which is occupied by vermin that will be easy to fight". Depending on your skills and the roll there ill be a part missing from this. I might expand this later.
You can also ignore the site. I wonder why you clicked on it in the first place then
.
The most important thing of course is entering the site. For you not much changes, you enter a site like any other. For the server this means a lot of work: it picks an area from a pool, links it, marks it as used and prepares the area. In fact it is even possible to have several copies of the same area around, so you can have as many caves active as the server memory can hold. Thank goodness we upgraded it to 4 GB
Some areas might have multiple entrances, you'll be sent to a random one. You can use any exit and end up on the world map where you left it. This by the way also fixed a bug with the OLM cities, so you should be able to use them all again without risking to be stranded there.
The areas themselves do not use fixed encounters, they use the spawn system Sceer dubbed "ARSES" (
Agrafes' Random Spawn Encounter System or so, I'd have to dig up the logs). It spawns random creatures based on the level of the PC entering the trigger and actually levels them up and down. In theory it would be possible to enter a Cave and meet a Ancient Black Dragon with a L1 character. Said dragon would then have been leveled down to 1 too, but since that process cannot take away most of the feats and stats the dragon would still be very deadly - and thus I have taken steps to prevent that.
This levelling up and down is
not overly reliable and thus you should be very careful in these areas. I am also not sure how balanced the spawn are right now. Thus I strongly advise to go exploring with a decent party and at least one potion of invisibility quickslotted. I have tested this system with all types of characters but focussed around L3-5. Be careful if your character is much higher - I did not encounter anything out of the ordinary even with a L15, but a) I could only test with a solo adventurer and b) the system IS totally random so some bugs might only appear when the system is used a lot.
The monsters should also give less XP than comparable ones as the levelling process is pretty stupid and does not produce challenging foes - it simply pushes up their stats a bit.
Currently the treasures are extremely light in the sites. We have decided to start low and expand it over time as that is easier than taking the stuff away we already handed out. I also forgot to fill some treasure prototypes into all of the areas - sorry
. Treasures are random too and if you encounter something once there's no guarantee that it will be always there - quite on the contrary.
If you do not enter a site it will vanish after roughly half an hour. The first PC that entered it will get a warning 15 and 5 minutes before the site actually disappears. This is not to be treated as IC, it's simply an OOC courtesy so you can judge if it's still worth collecting a party or not. You CAN extend that time by entering the site again, this will reset the timer to half an hour again (although I think this will not refresh the warnings, I'll need to check that). A site will never despawn while there is a PC in it. It might despawn while a PC is logged out in it though and logging back in could have some bad consequences. So if you can leave random sites before you log out.
In the beginning the random sites are disabled by default, and a DM has to toggle them on in the DM Area.This is to ensure that there is someone nearby to help you if something bad happens. However sites that have already spawned will remain even if a DM disables the spawning again. And we're still operating under the principle that we will not reimburse any losses unless they have been caused by a bug and we've directly witnessed it. So don't rush into the sites with a "If I die a DM will help me out" - the DMs are there in case the return transitions fail and such.
Overall this is a still-growing system, so check it out but stay alert. And report the bugs you
will find
. But all in all - get a party together and kill some bad guys.
As a side note it should be possible to rest on the OLM by buying Trail Gear (this creates a small camp once you press "R"est, but I forgot to flag the OLM as restable and also did not add the Trail Gear to any merchant. D'oh.
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