Final Edge - Coming whenever it's done™

[Secrets]

Final Edge is a server I have started working on recently Its name is appropriate, it's the last server I will be trying that breaks the 'norm' of EverQuest.


What is Final Edge?
Final Edge is my vision of what EverQuest should've been.
Imagine Minecraft meets Project 1999. Where the environment is as dangerous as the NPCs, but just as plentiful in its resources.

This will be a server where tradeskills are no longer just a side quest; they are part of progression. You'll mine the ore, smith the ingots and make the armor. You'll plant a tree, watch it grow, and harvest the benefits of having done so. I want to make the game feel like something new that no one has experienced in EQEmulator before.
Creatures will be a bit more deadly, however, they won't be the only way to progress. You'll gain loot and experience as per normal. But that's not the only way to earn loot and experience. You'll be able to progress your character by crafting. There will be a viable alternative to having to grind mobs. If you want to grind NPCs, by all means, do so. There will be benefits of having a crafter in the group though...

The one thing that was added to EverQuest that was never expanded on in games like WoW was meaningful crowd control and utility.
Games like SWG had done the idea of 'dancers' that can inspire your group. Imagine if you could use the same concept as SWG with bard spells, but instead of a bard class, all of the crafters would help a group of players in some way. They could create catapults that rain hell on their enemies. Carpenters, with their knowledge of nature, could plant a tree item that turns into a swarm pet factory when dropped on the ground. Essentially, the crafters in Final Edge will become just as viable as other combantants due to their machines and utilities of war. Oh, I forgot to mention...

There's going to be a classless, open-ended character progression system. You'll be able to find spells that drop in the game off of the higher-end creatures. Not everyone will be a fire-wielding wizard to begin with... that right will have to be earned through trials and ancient knowledge found within the world. Yes, this means spell scrolls will essentially become consumables casted from the inventory/charm slots. You won't be able to just cast spells willy-nilly. Nor will gear be given out for free. At least, not meaningful gear.
These are just some of the areas I will be touching on initially.

Final Edge will be in development for as long as it needs to be. I work on this on my own time.
For the development process, I will be using original EverQuest content (spawns/quests) that is heavily modified to support the aforementioned systems. Eventually, I plan on replacing it slowly with new areas as time goes on.
I will be streaming development at times, so keep an eye out for updates regarding that.

Side note, It's been years since I have made a server. I have spent all of that time honing the toolset available to server operators. It's time to actually put those tools I have helped make with friends over the years to use.

You're welcome to post any comments, praises or criticism in this thread.

-S

[zeldik]

Sounds interesting just dont keep too many Secrets!

[Secrets]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-SaXInCmS8

A video of a rudimentary tree system in action.

[knowom]

It sounds pretty cool and positive if you can pull it all off I'd be impressed. Honestly in terms of idea's this sounds in some ways most similar to my own for a custom project. I kind of was going towards a classless system with my illusion race spells and worn masks actually. I like the twist on creating a niche and emphasis on utilizing crafting skill within a group rather than just being a pure crafting element. Most closely reminds me UO, but from what I've read SWG had plenty of similarities to UO they were both sandbox games.

[Secrets]

Trees moved to the DB. The way I look at it is if I make them modular enough, I can do more than just trees with the code.

[knowom]

This project looks promising to me judging from your ambitions. You've certainly got a good game plan in mind in the direction your looking to head in. Yeah you defiantly could a lot of stuff with that tree code. It reminds me a spell I wanted to try and create. Start with growth or shrink on cast have a set duration with a buff built into it base stat, haste, ac, rune, damage shield, ect... then when it fades have it perform a grow or shrink so you revert to normal size. If you can make that script grow in one direction then revert back in the opposite it would be perfect for incremental buff stages that gradually change over time and return to normal. Would be great for weapon proc illusion spell that overwrite other illusion buffs that has built in buff that grows over time then shrinks and returns back to normal eventually.

The swarm pet thing could be very modular as well. I'd contemplated using the PoK book portal in front of one of those portals as a spawner like the one Feerrott making it so you destroy the book to close the portal spawning so to speak. Inspired by Stargate Atlantic of course, but it would be neat to do. Using swarm pets spawned by the PoK book NPC race ID would be pretty perfect for that without having to over complicate it. Same PoK thing could be done around wiz spires and dru circles as well. or even in reverse. You could have the portal something you destroy and have it drop a item you hand to the PoK book object to spawn a different portal.

You got a lot of creative ideas and plans in mind. I'd suggest starting off with just Faydwer or Odus because it'll be less involved starting off when you get to zone customizing. I have a lot of plans for stuff I want to customize and to get done, but it's so much more time consuming without a active team of developers working together. My development skills and knowledge are a bit limited as well so I kind of have to pick and choose and experiment a bit and work towards piecing together different aspects of my overall goals and directions. I'm trying to create a lot of custom stuff while being very modular in mind so I can later tweak it in different ways.

[ChaosSlayerZ]

Very intriguing!

I have a question, which..not directly related, but still.
I followed your video on YouTube, and found some others made by you which shows replica of QHills in some other game engine. Whats that? is that playable? Multi-user playable?
Would be awesome if we could replicate classical EQ zones into that engine!

[rhyotte]

Very cool!

At one point you were "tinkering" with a linux Client right?

[Secrets]

Originally Posted by ChaosSlayerZ

Very intriguing!

I have a question, which..not directly related, but still.
I followed your video on YouTube, and found some others made by you which shows replica of QHills in some other game engine. Whats that? is that playable? Multi-user playable?
Would be awesome if we could replicate classical EQ zones into that engine!

Was something I was experimenting with in the RaiderZ engine. Didn't actually finish it to a playable state, but recorded it just for fun.

At one point you were "tinkering" with a linux Client right?

No, I was not doing that at any point. Idea sounds cool though.

Originally Posted by knowom

You got a lot of creative ideas and plans in mind. I'd suggest starting off with just Faydwer or Odus because it'll be less involved starting off when you get to zone customizing. I have a lot of plans for stuff I want to customize and to get done, but it's so much more time consuming without a active team of developers working together. My development skills and knowledge are a bit limited as well so I kind of have to pick and choose and experiment a bit and work towards piecing together different aspects of my overall goals and directions. I'm trying to create a lot of custom stuff while being very modular in mind so I can later tweak it in different ways.

Will restrict content to Antonica initially when/if I do testing. I'm going to try and keep development as open as possible without compromising the integrity of the server.

I have the code (and a folder inside the codebase w/ scripts) that I am planning on keeping available for download on Github so anyone can make a copy of my server sans the content. That way if I make a decision down the road that is unfavorable or unwanted, someone can make their own paradise instead of being forced to continue on one server. I think that's the way to go for making a server. That also ensures that the server will never 'die' like many other servers tend to do.

[rhyotte]

My comments were pretty sparse... I have been pondering what to say...

-- I have kicked the Minecraft meets EQ idea around with a cousin of mine! To add to what you are saying.... http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/
(a)... Literally making traps and mega constructions are one of the funnest things in Dwarf Fortress! So when you say The Enviroment is Dangerous... I am So There!

-- Extreme Crafting!! WOW! Yes, Yes, YES!

_***_ Some of the big things I pondered was:

-- Extended Antonica: using the Drakkin additions such as Valdeholm

-- Vellious: The whole Dragons Vs. Giants story line was a really cool concept that seemingly got dropped way too early...! The Dragons had a pretty good amount of content areas, but the Giants had decidedly less. Hence my idea to use Valdeholm...

-- Kunark ... So many COOL places!

-- The Original Planes + Some of the later planes... : Plane of Hate, Plane of Fear...
-^-: Perhaps some of the planes off of Plane of Tranquility? They would have to be heavily modded of course. The point of using them would literally be to extend "Original EverQuest: Antonica extended, Kunark, Vellious"
(a) ... For Instance: Kunark could be extended by adding a 'zone-up' to Plane of Torment etc... Some of those 'advanced' planes could be scattered around various places to greatly extend and Further Advance *OLD* quest lines that were never really finished. Then some new ones could be seeded in holistically. Oh, Tower of Frozen Shadow, and Sol Ro Tower... so many possibilities here!

-- Perhaps "holistically re-vamp" the entire 'world-set'. Example Given: Anyone remember the ancient class quests such as Warrior: Centaur Crafted? That is just one example of course. Point being, what if it were re-visited in a way that added in Evolving Item status to it? The reason? Perhaps each evolution would add a combination of Stats, Adds, and *Aug Slots*. The aug slots could be a specific way to add in Crafting, and Questing to these old armor sets.
(a) ... To extend this line of thought: How about the same extension treatment for Thurgadin, Kael Drakkel, and Skyshrine quest armors? Some of these old quests were really good!

-- Deities? Could true Deity action be added in?
(a) ... Armor sets that either originate Via Deity, or armors such as the Thurgadin, Kael Drakkel, and Skyshrine armors could add a Deity_Slot? Perhaps on the final evolution of the armor one of the slots would be for a Deity_Aug. This would Push the player to Decide on a Path.
(b) ... Spell Lines that are Deity specific per class? Have a Grey_Core of spells that are common, then perhaps Dragon_Core / Giant_Core, then Deity_Core. This way the level of customization Life Path Choices really adds up!


I will leave off here for now... I hope I have not stepped in-it! Your server ideas are really exciting!

Gary

[vishnu]

kudos, sounds like a very cool concept. You need some hosting for your project?

[Secrets]

Originally Posted by vishnu

kudos, sounds like a very cool concept. You need some hosting for your project?

I may hit you up with that offer. If you're interested in the development process, we can talk about that too. I saw your post on Rerolled about making a FOHEmu, it would be rather cool to combine efforts and make a modernized EverQuest.



Also, I figured out what I wanted to do with the tree system content wise: Two things!

The first will be a tree fruit harvesting system. You will go up to a tree, click it, select harvest and you will be able to harvest your tree for fruit. These fruits will have different effects depending on the tree grown.

You will also get a bit of experience equal to killing a blue con every time you harvest a fruit from your tree.

Here's an example of the trees I have made so far:
* Minor Health Tree - Grows Minor Health Fruit (1-10) every harvest. Right click for minor healing which heals you for 1 point of damage when consumed per tick for 60 ticks.
* Minor Clarity Tree - Grows Minor Clarity Fruit (1-10) every harvest. Right click for 'Minor Breeze' which restores your mana pool by 1 mana every tick for 60 ticks.
* Minor Blessing Tree - Grows Minor Blessing Fruit (1) every harvest. Right click for 'Liquid Courage', which gives a Level * 5 Max HP buff for 30 minutes. This HP buff stacks with all other HP buffs.
* Minor Destructive Grapevine - Grows Minor Destructive Grape (1) every harvest. Right click for 'Liquid Destruction', which gives a Level * 2 Damage Bonus to Melee, Spell and DoT damage. DoT damage modifier divided by 6.

In addition to all of that, the trees can be chopped down to make basic wooden augmentations. These augmentations fit in the 'Carpentry' Augmentation Slot (Type 4) and provide worn/proc effects for your weapons based on the tree you have cut down. In example, a Minor Health Tree results in a +HPRegen augmentation for your weapon. Making these augmentations through tradeskills gives experience for your character, the trivial displayed on the tradeskill UI window is relevant to your character's actual level. There are no 'skills' or 'tradeskill exp' for making these augmentations, and the fail chance is based on your level. The materials get more expensive in higher tiers, in both time and money spent.

These augs are kept simple as to not imbalance gameplay or have a 'defacto' aug that everyone goes for. All 'Carpentry Type 4' augs will have a flat bonus to having the slot filled (+Damage), and a minor effect associated with it, such as +mana regen, +hp regen, +hp, or +mana.

[Astal]

YOU still workin on this, the idea is awesome, if you get the catapaults and stuff working id def be interested in using this in my server or playing your server, great ideas man