Dragon Lair Update

[David Bowman]

Yes, we are still working on Dragon Lairs.

There are currently 9 test Dragon Lair plots in the world. They are not reachable by players. It is currently possible for Dragons (only) to purchase them and for the owner of the plot to plan out an elaborate system of corridors and chambers.

Lair plots will generally be 120 meters by 120 meters. The 'tiering' of plots (and the pricing) will be based on the depth of the possible Lair. Final prices have not been set, but we intend to lower Empire pricing across the board for all plots.

Corridors and chambers come in increments of 24 meters. Higher tier corridors and chambers require the use of higher tier shaping materials and some of the larger chambers are only possible through the use of higher tier materials. Dragons use magic and machines to sculpt essence, stone, gems and metal into shapes that are then applied by the skilled Lairshaper to complete the planned corridors and chambers. Lairshaping is both a skill and a new school.

There are currently 137 different corridors and chambers being implemented for the release of Dragon Lairs. This will require a yet-to-be determined but sizable download. Most competing products would charge for this, but we want this to go out to our players as part of our ongoing commitment. We will go back to retail with an expanision pack in the future, but not yet. We will continue to add other racial structures/systems based off of the Dragon Lair technology after we have delivered the ARoP and Lairs.

Thank you for your interest, passion and patience.

David Bowman

[Levity]

*bounces, bounces, and bounces some more* This is great! Hal was relaying some of your IRC comments but nothing this substantive.

Question, if this hits Blight on Tuesday, will it be one week or two weeks -- or longer -- before it is likely to hit live? I have a dragon friend who will be away from computers starting Tues and going to the middle of August and so the timing /does/ matter.

I understand that it is all guesswork and no promises are made as to when this will all happen. Just curious as to the projected time window from Blight release to live.

Myrthwynn is /so/ going out of character to be helpful and crafty and help build as many lairs as possible *grins*

-Levity Merrel
-Myrthwynn Elendion, 46/41/Flying

[imported_Denrath]

*Drools*

That is some of the info I was waiting for. Looks awesome, I cant wait for these to come out.

[Vlisson]

thanks to Zippo

<LO|InGame> Evenign David
<David-Lairs> Hello
<Solitaire> Late evening?
<David-Lairs> 8:00 and I'm just getting through my 11:00 am schedule... heh
<Solitaire> Oh, about normal then, eh?
<David-Lairs> yep
<David-Lairs> I talk too much
<LO|InGame> Nice - thanks for the post
<Solitaire> Most players might wish you talked a little more. ;) And thanks for the update.
<David-Lairs> If I talked more, nothing would get done :-)
<David-Lairs> that's not really true, since the team does a great deal
<David-Lairs> it's just that there is so much to do everyday
<David-Lairs> mind a little spam?
<LO|InGame> Go for it
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Consigner
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Crystal
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Essence Shaping
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Fountain
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Gemworking
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Hall
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Hoard
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Lair
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Lavapool
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Metalworking
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Pawnbroker
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Pool
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Shrine
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Silo
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Stoneworking
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Chamber ? Waterfall
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Corridor ? Bend
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Corridor ? Corkscrew
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Corridor ? Slope
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Corridor ? Straight
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Corridor ? T-Intersection
<David-Lairs> Lair T1 Corridor ? X-Intersection
<Plink> Are you still at work David?
<LO|InGame> THat looks nice
<David-Lairs> Yep, of course.
<David-Lairs> The day is young... I'm not, but it is
<Solitaire> David, how many more issues do you have to take care of before you can start making some test plots available to Blight?
<Steelclaw> psst: do some character copies first ;)
<Entilzah> Might want to sneak a new screenshot into the gallery at http://community.istaria.com/defaul...=gallery&gal=10 when no-one is looking, whet folks' appetites even more! ;)
<David-Lairs> just doing a little Lair data entry tonight... got a Fileplanet promotion to finish, and a German fansite interview... working on it..
<David-Lairs> Solitaire: I'm planning on the first ones being done tomorrow (which makes it likely it will be Friday), the next delta is Monday night, so Blight on Tuesday I would guess GUESS guess.
<Plink> Wow...
<Entilzah> ETAs. Evil things. :P
<Akhorishaan> yup
<Solitaire> Heh. Will be nice to see when they make it when they are ready for it.
<David-Lairs> I'll mark the first plots not for sale, but players can start getting a look at the locations this way
<Plink> Need to make a dragon on Blight and start raising money.... :p
<Solitaire> Curious about something, though. The t1 lair components, are they going to be hatchling sized?
<David-Lairs> no, minimum size is 24 m cubed
<David-Lairs> Fits an Ancient...
<David-Lairs> Juveniles can fit of course as well
<Solitaire> Ok. Thats good cause would probably have a lot of griping about not being able to fit by those of us who will be working on raising the school.
<Solitaire> How about deleting a lair component, will it just vanish? Would be interesting if we could "deconstruct" it by filling it in.
<Plink> Better get Plink to raising more money....
<Entilzah> A small query about the lowering of plot prices across the board, has any thought been given to how those changes would affect someone who sold their plot back to the CM? In particular, I am referring to a loss of coin over what they might have originally paid.
<David-Lairs> No, Lairs are an Adult/Ancient 'elder' concept... Juveniles fit, but it isn't designed for them.
<David-Lairs> Entilzah: that would result, yes... same as if land prices declined here. But resale of popular plots is usually player to player, not player to Empire.
<Entilzah> Ok, that's perfectly reasonable. Thankyou.
<David-Lairs> And players can set whatever price they would like... but I want plots to become more desirable and also more accessible for non-hardcore players.
<LO|InGame> Good to hear
<Entilzah> The majority of those with very expensive plots at present would most likely have won them at merge auctions, so in some respects there will be no loss of coin for the majority of people who might choose to sell their plot and move on.
<David-Lairs> There will probably be some selling as dragon players rid themselves of biped plots and move to lairs.
<Entilzah> BTW, I wouldn't mind some dragon neighbours on Shepherd's Island, those tall cliffs look like an ideal home. ;)
<David-Lairs> Entilzah: did you ever notice the gaps on Shepherd's Mountain... where there are no biped plots?
<Entilzah> I have to confess that I tend not to explore the island much since the merge occured. It is more a storage depot with my plot there since there is little else on the island except plots. I will definitely be keeping an eye open from now on though. ;)
<David-Lairs> The cliffs stretch a bit too steeply to allow graceful placement of Lair plots near the top, but there are reserved chuncks of land lower that were intended for this.
<Entilzah> Ah, forward planning. Good, good. That's what we all like to hear.
<LO|InGame> Any decision on adding lairs to existing guild communities?
<David-Lairs> There are some guild communities that are well suited to that, and others that aren't. Where possible, I will add to guild communities and other existing settlements.
<Plink> Tokoz wants one near Chiconis or Istaria's Union, or Heather... He's not too picky.... :p :p :p
<Entilzah> LOL.
<David-Lairs> realize of course that 120 meters by 120 meters is huge
<Plink> You mean like 120 cubed?
<Entilzah> The additional size compared to biped plots sounds like an excellent reward for dragons who have patiently waited for lairs.
<Steelclaw> will there be lairs near dralk and chiconis?
<Hal`cyon> Blaarg, missed a good conversation
<Entilzah> Having said that, the size of the sections that will make up a lair no doubt warrant the large sizes.
<Steelclaw> (well.. in, too)
<Solitaire> David, how visible will the lair be from ground level?
<David-Lairs> Plink: 120m x 120m x (up to 240m)
<Solitaire> And will there be possible decorations like trees and stuffs?
<David-Lairs> Solitaire: depends on the entrance. There are five entrance styles (for different environments)... they tend to blend with the local conditions. Some will be inaccessible unless you can fly, others will be located at or near sea level with easy juvenile/biped entrance.
<David-Lairs> There are aesthetic chambers, but no surface construction at this time.
<LO|InGame> Surface decorations can be added later
<Solitaire> Ok. On the maybe someday list. I'd like to see them cause I'd rather partially hide the entrance. ;)
<David-Lairs> Solitaire: in many cases, I will be making it difficult to see the entrances using Trees/boulders.
<Steelclaw> do you have a list of locations yet?
<David-Lairs> haven't put them in yet
<David-Lairs> start tomorrow (maybe friday)
<Steelclaw> or possible locations? (like shepherd's island that you were talking about earlier)
<David-Lairs> Everywhere from LA to the Frontier. From Genevia to beyond The Rift of Trandalar.
<LO|InGame> Woot
<Steelclaw> cool!
<David-Lairs> Dralk and Chiconis of course.
<David-Lairs> Dragon tutorial, RoP, ARoP, Lairs... you guys better start telling people to play Dragons :-P
<Steelclaw> hm.. hey, will there be any on skalkaar? ;)
<David-Lairs> No, not on the Training islands or tutorials.
<Steelclaw> aw
<Steelclaw> any idea on the prices?
<Hal`cyon> Any dragon that whines in the next 3 months deserves to be slapped now.
<David-Lairs> Skalkaar would be a problem anyway, there would be flooding... you'd drown all the time.
<Solitaire> David, did you have any free time to make up an animation for the laircrafting instead of the "digging" animation we use for everything?
<David-Lairs> I'm actually not kidding... the ocean is still there, underneath the island.
<Hal`cyon> Of course.
<David-Lairs> Solitaire: It's on the list, will see when we get it in...
<Steelclaw> bah :p so its geologically inaccurate? :p
<Solitaire> Thanks.
<Hal`cyon> Artist time is a bit bleh.
<David-Lairs> Steelclaw: nope... subterranean oceans occur... don't you read Verne?
<Hal`cyon> If you're at sea level in Horizons, you're in the sea.
<Plink> Swythe on Order's been doing some work dragon animations.
<Hal`cyon> And David: Get some sleep yourself. :-P
<Steelclaw> though islands dont tend to 'float' on the ocean -- especially the kind with volcanoes

<Steelclaw> david: will it be (eventually) possible for owners of adjacent lairs to join them?
<Guaran> maybe just join by doorway nothing more
<David-Lairs> Steelclaw: I tried to get Tango to do it, but it would have delayed things too much. I'm not going to put in any conjoining ones this round, maybe someday in the future though (pony list)

[HAG]

Hey - one thing that bothers me. Will the old rule "One Account - One Plot" also go for Biped-Plots and Lairs? [:O]

(Some1 who catches up DB in IRC, pls pester him with this)

IF so, i will need another account to buy a proper lair for my draggie ... [;)]

[Dragonboy]

Yes, we are still working on Dragon Lairs.

There are currently 9 test Dragon Lair plots in the world. They are not reachable by players. It is currently possible for Dragons (only) to purchase them and for the owner of the plot to plan out an elaborate system of corridors and chambers.

Lair plots will generally be 120 meters by 120 meters. The 'tiering' of plots (and the pricing) will be based on the depth of the possible Lair. Final prices have not been set, but we intend to lower Empire pricing across the board for all plots.

Corridors and chambers come in increments of 24 meters. Higher tier corridors and chambers require the use of higher tier shaping materials and some of the larger chambers are only possible through the use of higher tier materials. Dragons use magic and machines to sculpt essence, stone, gems and metal into shapes that are then applied by the skilled Lairshaper to complete the planned corridors and chambers. Lairshaping is both a skill and a new school.

There are currently 137 different corridors and chambers being implemented for the release of Dragon Lairs. This will require a yet-to-be determined but sizable download. Most competing products would charge for this, but we want this to go out to our players as part of our ongoing commitment. We will go back to retail with an expanision pack in the future, but not yet. We will continue to add other racial structures/systems based off of the Dragon Lair technology after we have delivered the ARoP and Lairs.

Thank you for your interest, passion and patience.

David Bowman

Very nice David and thanks for the post, but I was wondering about 1 thing.

You say that Lairshaping is both a skill and a new school, but is this going to be the beginning for dragon multi-classing or will it merge with our existing Crafting school?

[Vlisson]

Very nice David and thanks for the post, but I was wondering about 1 thing.

You say that Lairshaping is both a skill and a new school, but is this going to be the beginning for dragon multi-classing or will it merge with our existing Crafting school?

its a new school for dragons, the only multiclassing possible for us

and this new school gets this new skill

hmpf only bad that we get this school after the changing of mithril ^^

else we could use this like the biped to real fast lvl

[imported_Denrath]

Hey - one thing that bothers me. Will the old rule "One Account - One Plot" also go for Biped-Plots and Lairs? [img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-3.gif[/img]

(Some1 who catches up DB in IRC, pls pester him with this)

IF so, i will need another account to buy a proper lair for my draggie ... [img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-5.gif[/img]

I would assume so. If they allowed 1 plot and 1 lair, then that would be kind of an advantage for people who had a dragon and a biped. At that point, there would be no reason not to allow 2 plots, or even 2 lairs on a single account. That is why I got another subscription.

[imported_Denrath]

its a new school for dragons, the only multiclassing possible for us

and this new school gets this new skill

hmpf only bad that we get this school after the changing of mithril ^^

else we could use this like the biped to real fast lvl

Who's to say we couldnt just do it with Marble? If we could do it with Mithril, I would assume we could do it with marble since we do work all the non organic resources.

[Vlisson]

sure we can do it with marble but mithril is easier, good plots on our server around the spot!

at marble its not as easy :(

and if they give us lairs they will change the anvils back to non-scaleforges :(

[imported_Denrath]

and if they give us lairs they will change the anvils back to non-scaleforges [img]/Web/emoticons/emotion-6.gif[/img]

Not necessarily. If they put lairs near all the metals, then yes, and it would make sense. But if they cant put lairs around the various metal fields, then they would probably keep it how it is.

At least, that is what would make sense to me [:)]

[oluviel]

Thank you for your interest, passion and patience.

Interest yes, passion of course, butpatience is a stretch. I'm like a baby gorilla gimmi, gimmi, gimmi, wha, wha, wha.

Is there any hidden info on stat gains per lvl in there? I want some 10 str per lvl or something =p


Good job dev team.

[dorrin]

my questions....

are those of us who haven't bought a biped plot since release because we have been faithfully waiting for lairs going to be rewarded with some sort of preference in an auctioning situation (if that's how they're given out initially)

what will the spacing be like in relation to the land around them? sounds like some lair plots will be crowded in with other plots.... how about lairs with none others for quite a distance for those who consider dragons to be quite solitary (or just plain don't want neighbors ;) )?

[Antonath]

There are currently 137 different corridors and chambers being implemented for the release of Dragon Lairs. This will require a yet-to-be determined but sizable download. Most competing products would charge for this, but we want this to go out to our players as part of our ongoing commitment.

*coughs* Given that this was supposed to be part of the game at release, I think charging would result in uproar (roar being the operative word).

That said, I'm really looking forward to this. I guess it's time to start saving cash again. That and find the perfect spot for a lair...

Few questions:

1) How soon can we have a map showing where lairs will be situated (even if it's just areas, not individual lair-plots). As I recall, the bipeds got one when their plots changed, and it'd save us all a lot of wing-work.

2) Will the more experienced Dragons start with higher lair-crafting skills? I hope so, otherwise the tier 1 locations will be flooded with Dragons grinding their lair-crafting skills [:S]

Antonath

[Varangaard]

Thanks for the update David! Lots of exciting stuff for lairs coming up. And since it sounds we're going to have lots of lair plots, I'm again getting my hopes up that, maybe I will be able to get a lair after all.

2) Will the more experienced Dragons start with higher lair-crafting skills? I hope so, otherwise the tier 1 locations will be flooded with Dragons grinding their lair-crafting skills [img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-7.gif[/img]

How that would happen? More experienced dragons will go straight to mith/marble/shining and grind their levels up there. If dragon multiclassing is anything like bipeds' we get to use existing skills and abilities in laircrafter school.

[imported_asteral]

Hrm is the lairshaping class going to be just one single class? Or will you have like Essence shapers, or Stone shapers ect. ect.... Basically the bipedal eqivelant of Mason, carpenter, enchanter ect..?

[Vlisson]

Hrm is the lairshaping class going to be just one single class? Or will you have like Essence shapers, or Stone shapers ect. ect.... Basically the bipedal eqivelant of Mason, carpenter, enchanter ect..?

hmm this would be frustrating

dragons are loner and i dont want to ask other dragons for help on my lair! i hope its only 1 school or maybe 2

[Death-knell]

Well theres one thing you have to remember. In HZ Dragons are not the same as fantasy literature paints them. We have 2 large communities and if dragons and bipeds can work together why not dragons with each other?

David,
I see you have a rough time table on lair testing, not that I'm going to hold you to it. My question is on lairshaping. Could we please get it in advance so we can start practicing forms? What machines will be required?

[Nisse]

*snakes nose in for quick ninja-post* This is just too cool for me not to say anything over.

[Alladania]

Dang it! I'm going to have to add another key then or Inex will never let me hear the end of it. [<:o)][G][:O]