Wren666
12-22-2010, 01:21 AM
At first this was going to be a thread asking about whether there's any public database that lets you search for items by their properties, i.e. look up "adamantine" and see all the pieces of named gear which have that property and where to find them.
(EDIT: It turns out that there is one at ItemWiki.CubicleNinja.com (http://itemwiki.cubicleninja.com))
Then I thought, why not have something like that (but better) inside the game itself?
As I've come to find out recently, the world of Eberron has tons of interesting lore that's barely touched upon in the game or presented in a conveniently browsable manner, and that's kind of a shame for an RPG, whether or not its an MMO.
If you've played Dragon Age, you'll be familiar with its Codex, or the Civilization series with their Civilopedia, both of which list all the units and items to be found in those games, along with other lore miscellanea wrapped up in some juicy prose in the case of DA.
Why not have something like that in DDO?
Either make it an always-accessible UI element like the DDO Store, or a less-convenient virtual library integrated into the game world itself, like maybe a non-quest entrance into the Fallowcrest Library in the Harbor.
They could also make it more like Dragon Age where you would start out with a mostly blank Codex but could find pages inside random quests which would add new entries, and maybe once you find enough pages, your Intelligence- or Wisdom-based Skills might even increase by 1. :)
Best of all, it should have a list of all or almost all of the unique items in the game, and let you search through them by looking for specific properties, such as "Healing Lore" to see where the Scepter of Healing and the Girdle of Faith were to be found.
Here's some ideas on how it could be made an active, dynamic element of the gameplay itself:
Bestiary
When you kill a new monster type or sub-type for the first time, it will add a new, sparse entry to your Eberronopedia.
Once you kill 100, 250, 500, 1000, and so on, of that mob [sub]type, further details would be added to its entry, such as hitpoints, specific vulnerabilities or immunities, and other statistics. The accuracy of the information on those stats will increase the more you've killed.
The kills from any single specific quest will only count for once, on any difficulty; i.e. you won't be able to repeatedly farm Kobold Assault to gain maximum Kobold lore.
Maybe, once you've achieved Expertise (meaning you've learned all their exact stats after killing thousands of em) on a specific [sub]type, you could even get an extra +1 to attacks or Saves against that type, OR maybe you could turn that knowledge in to a special kind of Collector, and gain some goodies from them as a reward. For example if you were an Expert on Kobolds (looks good on résumés) you might get a choice of Kobold Bane weaponry. You'd lose these bonuses after a True Reincarnation.
The Bestiary should be account-wide - the knowledge you've earned will be accessible by all of your characters, but not the bonuses (if any) of course.
Rumors of Legendary Artifacts
Each time you turn in Collectibles, you'll have a chance of learning something about a random named item. The more you learn about the same item, the more details will be added to its entry in your Eberronopedia, up to and including the quests and chests in which that item may be found.
This'll make turn-in runs slightly more interesting (and rewarding) and the entries will make up for the lack of any detailed item description lore found in other D&D CRPGs like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights.
This section will be character-specific; the knowledge earned by a single character will be accessible from that character only.
The Backstory
Every time you complete a quest and receive your reward, new entries will be added to or updated in your Eberronopedia about the NPCs, factions, and locations that were involved in that quest. For example, if I do some quests from the Sharn Syndicate series, I'd gradually learn more about the city of Sharn, the Coin Lords of Stormreach and etcetera.
This section will be account-wide and mostly for flavor only; none of the knowledge gained should influence gameplay, except for maybe some very subtle hints on how to handle certain enemies and so on.
but most importantly of all: some nice hand-drawn artwork already! PLEASE!
Vote/sign if you support :)
(EDIT: It turns out that there is one at ItemWiki.CubicleNinja.com (http://itemwiki.cubicleninja.com))
Then I thought, why not have something like that (but better) inside the game itself?
As I've come to find out recently, the world of Eberron has tons of interesting lore that's barely touched upon in the game or presented in a conveniently browsable manner, and that's kind of a shame for an RPG, whether or not its an MMO.
If you've played Dragon Age, you'll be familiar with its Codex, or the Civilization series with their Civilopedia, both of which list all the units and items to be found in those games, along with other lore miscellanea wrapped up in some juicy prose in the case of DA.
Why not have something like that in DDO?
Either make it an always-accessible UI element like the DDO Store, or a less-convenient virtual library integrated into the game world itself, like maybe a non-quest entrance into the Fallowcrest Library in the Harbor.
They could also make it more like Dragon Age where you would start out with a mostly blank Codex but could find pages inside random quests which would add new entries, and maybe once you find enough pages, your Intelligence- or Wisdom-based Skills might even increase by 1. :)
Best of all, it should have a list of all or almost all of the unique items in the game, and let you search through them by looking for specific properties, such as "Healing Lore" to see where the Scepter of Healing and the Girdle of Faith were to be found.
Here's some ideas on how it could be made an active, dynamic element of the gameplay itself:
Bestiary
When you kill a new monster type or sub-type for the first time, it will add a new, sparse entry to your Eberronopedia.
Once you kill 100, 250, 500, 1000, and so on, of that mob [sub]type, further details would be added to its entry, such as hitpoints, specific vulnerabilities or immunities, and other statistics. The accuracy of the information on those stats will increase the more you've killed.
The kills from any single specific quest will only count for once, on any difficulty; i.e. you won't be able to repeatedly farm Kobold Assault to gain maximum Kobold lore.
Maybe, once you've achieved Expertise (meaning you've learned all their exact stats after killing thousands of em) on a specific [sub]type, you could even get an extra +1 to attacks or Saves against that type, OR maybe you could turn that knowledge in to a special kind of Collector, and gain some goodies from them as a reward. For example if you were an Expert on Kobolds (looks good on résumés) you might get a choice of Kobold Bane weaponry. You'd lose these bonuses after a True Reincarnation.
The Bestiary should be account-wide - the knowledge you've earned will be accessible by all of your characters, but not the bonuses (if any) of course.
Rumors of Legendary Artifacts
Each time you turn in Collectibles, you'll have a chance of learning something about a random named item. The more you learn about the same item, the more details will be added to its entry in your Eberronopedia, up to and including the quests and chests in which that item may be found.
This'll make turn-in runs slightly more interesting (and rewarding) and the entries will make up for the lack of any detailed item description lore found in other D&D CRPGs like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights.
This section will be character-specific; the knowledge earned by a single character will be accessible from that character only.
The Backstory
Every time you complete a quest and receive your reward, new entries will be added to or updated in your Eberronopedia about the NPCs, factions, and locations that were involved in that quest. For example, if I do some quests from the Sharn Syndicate series, I'd gradually learn more about the city of Sharn, the Coin Lords of Stormreach and etcetera.
This section will be account-wide and mostly for flavor only; none of the knowledge gained should influence gameplay, except for maybe some very subtle hints on how to handle certain enemies and so on.
but most importantly of all: some nice hand-drawn artwork already! PLEASE!
Vote/sign if you support :)