area & location names

Dabe : Since I have things to publish about various regions, but have been held back by the naming issue, I will rudely intercede here by posting what I currently have for placeholder names, in my own notes. Areas are easy to imagine along certain geographic features, so setting boundaries has a subtle guide in place. Perhaps we could have an image such as the one below, to help us make some sense of what it is we're naming. I would have posted all of this sooner, but I've been too busy trying to get ready to move, to sit around on IRC to discuss much about names and didn't want to start making articles for places without them. - 22:41, 4 March 2007 (CET)

Each dot represents one of the crystals.

I agree with most of those. I still think Kazeii sounds better than Kah-eh-zay, but maybe (maybe) that's just me. :P Also, I think you're letting the Greeks influence you far too much. For instance, the repeated instances of "ae." Yes, some names will sound Greek-like, but we want a mish-mash of cultures. Also, Arh-gah-eh-oos sounds funny to me. It's also difficult to pronounce. Perhaps Argeas would fit better? (Arh-geh-ahs) Tonori, Gispaa (possibly Gispa'a), and Keshlam all check out, according to me.

---- Pauan 02:29, 5 March 2007 (CET)

pending

Dabe: The following set of names goes with the image of boundaries above. I have info for each of these locations, if we use them. That includes ideas for quests, etc. If this general layout is accepted, I will probably submit my new game mechanics proposal shortly afterward.

Ancea, the ocean empire: this can refer to everything under water, with the likely inclusion of the islands in the western region.

• Nerena, the capital: specific homeland to the Tritan, though they might generally consider all of the ocean their home.

Argaeus, the central continent: the place that we've sort of made ideal to be set as the starting continent. Each distinct race can be found here. This place will be like our racial playerset test-area. Once the playerset for a race is finished, we can begin planning their homeland and surrounding area.

• the trade/capital city: this is currently nameless and is the best candidate for a new starting location, if we want to start in a city.
• Sonbral, the desert state:This area was once a lush jungle, but after an increase in ground temperature following an eruption to the so
• Zartam, the woodland state

Gasaro, the southern wilderness

• Issa, homeland of the ..uhh, "fungus-' or 'plant-people". (the swampy area in west)
• ?(instead of centralizing the Talpan in to a homeland in this region, I think we should have them all over the world, in decentralized tunnels; they like isolation and so, might not have any form of racially-oriented government, as others seem to.

Kaezei, the northern frontier

• Gloriana (a mysterious fortress-city made of ice, in the far north.)

Keshlam, the floating islands

• Nidostahn, the Sparron homeland
• Tempus, a place often referred to as 'lower Keshlam' because it is technically owned by that government, though its people seek independence. Tempus is quickly becoming the technological hub of the world. (the 'light/electric/lightning' race can be from this place.)

Tonori, the desert kingdom: I think this is the one area we can be pretty certain about, without much question.

• Gispaa, the Ifriton homeland
• Tulimshar, the capital: the concepts originally laid out for this place have been fairly easy to adapt to the new setting, without really losing any of its intrigue.

about the map

(any general comments or complaints about the map should go here)

Possible changes

Dabe: I think the eastern continent should be detached from the southern continent. It would cut the south off a bit more; we are going to have to leave some chunks of space open for a few reasons. 1. as people gradually reach higher levels, we will need to have places for them to go. 2. it should seem reasonable, that after the disaster with the gods, many areas would seem cut off from society.

I think it's easy to get overly-complicated with matters such as these and I fear that we will be doing just that, if we fill the entire world with cities and kingdoms, etc.. There needs to be some area for expansion and exploration, or it's prone to boredom and stagnation. Besides, we should strive to have large open spaces available, so that we have room to change things around and develop.

We need to know how the character score system will be handled, so that area "difficulty" can be properly regulated. We can't hope to figure out where everything will be, if we don't know how they will interact with eachother in the game. (obvious stuff, like "what level are the monsters in this area?" .. things you can't begin answer now.)

I disagree. Why? Very simple: there are far easier ways to detach a continent than to physically split it apart. High level monsters, dangerous terrain, hostile natives... Right now the map looks half-way-realistic, and by cutting it off we might ruin that effect. If you look at some of the older maps, they had very distinctly cut-out continents. Didn't look realistic or good at all. I prefer that we keep the continent as one large one, and use other elements (such as powerful monsters/terrain) to keep players away. If we split it apart, it would cause other problems too. Besides, the players won't be starting out in the large southern continent, ne? So in other words: It will take a long time for them to even REACH there, let alone explore the entire thing. Thus, if we add monsters/terrain/natives, it would further deter the too-low-level players. No need to physically split it apart. Oh, and by the way, the whole difficulty thing will be made up as we go along. Most certainly by lots of tweaking.

---- Pauan 02:29, 5 March 2007 (CET)

Possible map layers

Layers drawn on the map to display information.

• Finer Grid? - I would like to request that we prep for mapping by adding another level of depth to the map. It would be nice to have an idea how many tiles we can fit in each area. When trying to place villages, towns, cities, castles, geographic features, etc.. it becomes a problem not having that sort of information.

Rotonen and I already discussed this. There isn't really a NEED for a finer grid, but yes it would be nice. However, it would be difficult going past the letter Z... Right now all we have to do is set up a quadrant as a certain amount of tiles, say, 1,000, then tile them in regions. Not hard to do at all. Thus, a finer grid would be nice, but it isn't really necessary.

---- Pauan 02:29, 5 March 2007 (CET)

• Underwater - the Tritan should feel comfortable considering all of the ocean floor, as their territory. Who is going to stop them? The question is, even though it's all under their jurisdiction, does that mean that it's all populated? Hell no. There should only be one major city under water. If we want to add an opposing underwater race later, fine.. but I'd like to consider it all one region for now.

• Underground - the same sort of applies for the Talpan, though they shouldn't have much of a government. There should be tunnels scattered around the world.

• Above the Clouds - Mostly for our floating islands. The tallest peak in the world should also be visible.

I do not have a clue how this kind of layering will be handled, or if the coordinates will actually mean anything substantial.

I'm sure I can handle that Dave. :)

---- Pauan 02:29, 5 March 2007 (CET)