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daiqua_mods) wrote2019-02-25 02:23 pm
daiqua_mods) wrote2019-02-25 02:23 pm
MMO OVERVIEW
◆ equipment ◆ combat ◆ ◆ professions ◆ data bugs ◆ tutorial ◆ |
Welcome to Daiqua! In this state-of-the-art MMO, you can enter a land of magic, monsters, and swords bigger than you are! Choose a Point Focus to decide your Classes, and enjoy the freedom of adapting your character to whatever situation in which they find themselves. Add a Profession or two, and improve your character outside of combat. Join a guild for social activities, and even invite them to your custom playerhome!
Best of all, Daiqua utilizes the immersive headset, allowing you to virtually place yourself within the system. Whatever brand you use, you can enjoy the experience of practically living in your character's shoes, interacting with countless other players and a rich variety of NPCs.
...at least, that's how the majority of players play. You, my friend, have found yourself placed within the very system itself, with no option to simply log out. For all intents and purposes, Daiqua is real; you can touch the dirt, you can (and, well, generally need to) eat and drink, and...you can bleed. However, you can also open up a User Interface with the swipe of a hand (or limb, or other focus of 'intent') to view your stats and alter your equipment, and ultimately shape yourself as a gamer would their character.
But in order to survive - in order to thrive - you need to understand the world in which you've woken up.
WORLD
Daiqua is set in on a continent whose technology is somewhere between Industrial and Renaissance, with occasional sections that regress to more primitive technology. While humans are the only playable race, it offers a variety of Bloodlines, said to be rooted in the Gods themselves. While Bloodlines may mix, only one becomes prominent at a time, manifesting itself as a set of small wings on one's back. For this, the PCs are known as Wingblooded.
The continent itself has been cut off from the rest of the world for approximately two hundred years, due to magical storms present in its surrounding waters. The only contact they've had are invading barbarians, who by now have (mostly) integrated themselves within their societies.
Nonetheless, not all is at peace; there are constant skirmishes along the border settlements, and in the neutral lands, monsters run rampant without an established group to control their numbers. Slowly, more and more pressure has built up among the countries, and war is rumored to be brewing sooner than later. The question is, can you prevent it from happening?
For more in-depth information on the world's locations and cultures, please click here.
BASIC MECHANICS
Alphabetical order. Please feel free to ask if you are looking for a term that is missing.
BLOODLINEThe primary factor in your character's natural strengths and weaknesses. It is important to note this does not mean a character with a magically-focused Bloodline can't choose a physical Class, and vice versa; it only offers a set of bonuses towards one quadrant or another.
For more in-depth information on Bloodlines, please click here.
CLASSEssentially, your character's role in combat; it defines the set of skills and equipment a character may have access to. While a character has access to only two Classes to begin with, as they level up, they will eventually qualify for secondary Classes with improved skills and bonuses.
For more in-depth information on Classes, please click here.
CLASS QUADRANTThe group of Classes that lie along a particular quadrant of the Class spectrum; either Offensive-Magical, Offensive-Physical, Defensive-Magical, or Defensive/-Physical. A character will have access to all Classes in all of their accessible quadrants, assuming they meet the prerequisites.
DUNGEONA separate instance through which players can explore, fight enemies, and find loot. Each dungeon is randomized through procedural generation, which means it is never the same twice (unless they are built from the same seed, over which players have no control). Dungeons may have similar qualities - eg, find three key shards to unlock a door, press all the tab buttons, or even similar layouts for specific rooms - but they are ultimately different for each (group of) player(s).
Most dungeons have some sort of 'boss' encounter in the end, such as a stronger-than-average enemy, guarding a final treasure chest.
EXPERIENCEA measure which shows how much you have mastered a particular aspect of your character. There are three forms of experience;In combat, you'll generally gain only CE. PE tends to only be gained while practicing Profession Skills. OOCly, only Total (Class) Experience will be dictated; we handwave Profession Experience, and allow you to use your judgement with which Class was utilized more often and how much you have practiced your profession.
- Class Experience (CE) is gained through both combat and skill usage, and decides what skills you have access to. It is also a prerequisite of gaining secondary Classes, though it has no impact on professions.
- Profession Experience (PE) is gained through noncombat skill usage. This will grant you additional noncombat skills, as well as increase the quality of your found and/or made items.
All that said, your Total Experience also dictates a few landmarks, as shown below;
150 EXP; Access to in-game message boards.
600 EXP; Access to playerhomes.
1200 EXP; Access to Professions, ability to found a Guild.
5000 EXP; Aesthetic equipment slots unlocked.
Note that, ICly, the experience mechanic has an additional layer of complexity; every character has an experience 'pool', represented in the UI by a slowly filling meter. Once that meter is filled (about 1-2h of gaining experience of any type - it all goes in the same pool), any additional experience gained will be lost. This mechanic is meant to force characters to actually take breaks; while native players may cope with this by simply logging off, others (including the characters in-game) will need to somehow rest to actually absorb the experience in to their character. Rest boosts increase the speed in which this experience is absorbed.
GAMEMASTEROne of Daiqua's in-game staff, taking on the appearance of hooded, large-winged figures to differentiate themselves from the rest of the playerbase. Conditionally summonable through the report form, their focus is the maintenance of the game - such as exterminating data bugs or field-testing new abilities.
GUILDA player-run organization. Guilds can have a variety of focuses; social, leveling, dungeon crawling, etc. While a guild costs in-game money (no microtransactions here!) as well as 1200 Total Experience to found, this grants access to - assuming there are enough members - perks such as guildchat, guildhalls, and guild bank/storage. Guildmembers may also set their playerhomes in the same 'neighborhood' as the guild, allowing them to easily visit each other's.
LEVELA measure which marks milestones in the progression of your character. There are two forms of levels;
- Class Level (CL) is progressed through CE.
- Profession Level (PL) is progressed through PE.
On an OOC standpoint, we only ask that you monitor Class Level and Total Experience (which, seeing as we don't monitor Profession Experience, refers specifically to Class).
Note that you are required to have CL 20 in a single class to unlock any related second-tier classes. This is about 2100 experience.
NPCShort for Non-Player-Character. Daiqua prides itself on the realism of its NPCs, with a wide variety of scripts for each - including questgivers. However, PCs will notice that they eventually repeat dialogue, and only have so many responses to their questions.
PARTYA group of players sharing experience and loot. Up to 4 players may be in a party at once.
PLAYERHOMEAccessible upon 600 Total Experience. A playerhome is a small area reserved for a player to decorate and improve as they will. It can be upgraded to offer more rooms, storage, and perks such as a rested experience boost or Profession-focused workrooms.
Playerhomes are loosely grouped in to 'neighborhoods', though they are accessible anywhere from the city in which they are located. An item may be obtained that allows instant teleportation for a player and/or a specified group. Players in guilds may set their playerhomes in the same neighboorhood, allowing for easy visitation. A bit more information is available here..
POINT FOCUSChosen from Offensive, Defensive, Magical, or Physical. The Point Focus of a character dictates what Class Quadrants (and therefore, Classes) they will have access to for the rest of the game, and cannot be changed.
QUESTA mission found in the wild or given by an NPC. Quests offer rewards, and may advance your place in the MMO storyline. On an OOC level, quest ideas can be submitted by players [LINK COMING SOON]; more detail on them is available here.
RESPAWNDeath mechanic. When your character falls in battle or otherwise from reaching 0 HP, they immediately teleport back to their last rest spot (eg - playerhome, inn, guildhall, etc) and may continue playing. Repeated deaths in a short period of time may result in respawning with a stat-based and/or experience penalty, but you will never lose a level because of such.
STATSShort for Statistics. Measures that affect your character's interaction with the world.
- Strength - Determines physical power.
- Dexterity - Affects speed of attack.
- Agility - Affects ability to dodge physical attacks.
- Constitution - Determines HP and physical damage resistance.
- Wisdom - Determines magical power.
- Intuition - Affects speed of casting.
- Discipline - Affects ability to avoid magical attacks.
- Resolve - Determines MP and magical damage resistance.
EQUIPMENT
Equipment is gear such as armor, relics, or weapons. Some equipment becomes 'bound' to a player upon equipping, and cannot be later dropped or traded, only discarded; most can be given away at will. Generally, equipment offers some sort of stat bonus when worn, with higher-leveled equipment offering better bonuses.
The equipment slots are as follows:
Primary Hand ◆ Off-Hand ◆ Head ◆ Chest ◆ Gloves ◆ Cloak ◆ Belt ◆ Legs ◆ Boots ◆ Relic 1 ◆ Relic 2
The rarity scale is as follows;
Common Uncommon Rare Epic Legendary Artifact White Green Blue Purple Red Orange
Some items may have a Grey color, which implies they're 'trash'.
Weapons and armor are further grouped in to categories; for weapons, these are Light, Medium, Heavy, and Magic. Armor is grouped in to Light, Medium, and Heavy. Specific classes have access to specific categories as shown here, but examples of the equipment you may find in each category are listed below (not comprehensive):
Light Armor: Tend to be cloth. Robes, Padded.
Medium Armor: Tend to be leather. Reinforced, Cyclas, Gambeson.
Heavy Armor: Tend to be metal. Plate, Chain, Ring.
Light Weapons: Tend to be lightweight or small. Quarterstaffs, Daggers, Slings.
Medium Weapons: Tend to be middle-ground. Swords, Axes, Maces, Bows.
Heavy Weapons: Tend to be large and unwieldy. Polearms, Greatswords, Greataxes, Crossbows.
Magic Weapons: Are not used directly for combat, but to enhance spells. Gemstones, Wands, Scepters.
The ability to have a visual set of equipment - for aesthetic purposes only - unlocks at 5000 total experience. The equipment must still be able to be worn by your current class.
It is important to note that each class you unlock has its own set of equipment, which includes aesthetic if applicable; when you switch your class, you automatically switch to the other set of equipment.
COMBAT
Combat in Daiqua is relatively straightforwards. It is initiated by simply performing an offensive action towards a mob (or PVP-flagged player); at this point, so long as the parties involved stay within a certain range, the combat will continue. Players (and mobs) can try to escape by exiting this range; if the other pursues and is able to maintain the proximity, then combat continues. Otherwise, fleeing will end combat, leaving parties alone to regenerate health. While health regenerates slowly at first, the longer parties are out of combat, the faster it will replenish.
While in combat, characters can utilize a standard attack with their weapon, or make use of their various skills and magic. Each of these has a cooldown, and all but the standard attack use one of two forms of charge (Magic Points [aka MP] or Tech Points [aka TP]). They can vary on their range as well, either requiring the character to be right next to an enemy or to be within a certain range - in the case of the latter, it is made clear via a subtle color circle on the ground that only the character can see.
In the case of a single character defeating a single mob, they have exclusive rights to the corpse and loot. In the case of a group kill, it is first come first served except for rarer items; these are 'rolled' for, if more than one character attempts to claim it. If a character attacks a mob and another joins in the fray without joining a group, the character that struck first gets rights to the corpse and loot.
PROFESSIONS
Professions are a grouping of noncombat skills that assist in the progression of a character, or acquisition of gold. A player may only choose two Professions, and these are semi-permanently locked; unlike Classes, they may not be easily changed. To switch out a Profession, a fee is paid, and all knowledge of the traded-out Profession is lost - if it is traded back in, then it must be relearned from PL0. However, Professions are only unlocked at 1200 Total Experience, and as such a player a has time to decide which to take.
Daiqua's current professions include:
- Alchemy - Creates potions.
◆ Potions focus on healing and buffs.- Arcana - Creates magical weapons.
◆ Magical weapons are not weapons per se, so much as items which improve spells when equipped.- Armoring - Creates heavy armor (metal-based).
◆ See the classes page for which classes can equip what equipment.- Carpentering - Creates playerhome and guildhall furniture.
◆ These include chairs, tables, chests, decorations, etc.- Enchanting - Improves player-made armor and weapons.
◆ Bonuses can be added or improved, but the latter has a chance of reducing the weapon's stats instead.- Foraging - Acquires raw plant resources. These can be used by other professions to create their items.
◆ Foraged resources tend to be used mostly by Alchemy, Arcana, Carpentering, and Tailoring.- Jeweler - Create rings, amulets, and other jewelry.
◆ Jewerlry fills the 'relic' slot.- Leatherworking - Creates medium armor (leather-based).
◆ See the classes page for which classes can equip what equipment.- Mining - Acquires raw metal resources. These can be used by other professions to create their items.
◆ Mined resources tend to be used by Armoring, Enchanting, Jeweler, and Weaponsmithing.- Skinning - Acquires skins and other body parts from monsters. These can be used by other professions to create their items.
◆ Skinned resources tend to be used by Alchemy, Carpentering, Enchanting, Leatherworking, and Tailoring.- Tailoring - Creates light armor (clothing-based) and bags.
◆ See the classes page for which classes can equip what equipment. Bags can be worn by any class, limit 5. Better bags offer more inventory slots.- Weaponsmithing - Creates light, medium, and heavy weapons.
◆ See the classes page for which classes can equip what equipment.
DATA B̴UG҉̺S
"If you encounter what you believe to be a bug, please immediately report it to the staff and remove yourself from the area. Daiqua does not take responsibility for data corruption that may occur by abusing or exploiting glitches, and will not restore any lost equipment or levels..."
Bugs can take many forms, and be encountered in a variety of ways. Anything from attempting to break the system by glitching through an area, to randomly encountering an altered enemy, to attempting to insert malicious code through a PM is possible. Bug encounters are fairly rare, unless deliberately triggered.
While the Daiqua staff is ICly upfront about the danger and consequences about encountering bugs to the MMO at large, for PCs, these are far more precarious. Simply interacting with them is capable of corrupting your data, which can only be restored through long periods of rest in a safe area, or through GM intervention. Your stats can experience sudden highs and lows; you may find yourself unable to move properly, you may feel terribly ill and be unable to so much as walk. At worst?
Death by a bug is permanent. Your character has been completely corrupted, and respawn or reloading is not possible. Please keep this in mind whenever you encounter a bug.
TUTORIAL
While all PCs go through a tutorial, for the non-native characters, theirs has an additional...level.
Each character awakens at the God's Graveyard. This is a misty, dreamlike plane; there are no features as far as the eye can see, no source of light. Their voice echoes, the wind chills, and ultimately, it is an empty and lonely place.
Sooner or later, they will become aware of a small light in the corner of their vision; reaching for it, or otherwise putting forth the intent, pulls up the User Interface for the very first time. Not only does this have a representation of themselves pictured within it, it has their location name, and a number of other menu options...most of which are grayed out. Indeed, only the two parts named 'BLOODLINE' and 'POINT FOCUS' seem to be accessible.
Reaching for 'BLOODLINE' pulls up four symbols - 🜃 🜁 🜂 🜄. Selecting one chooses your Bloodline, permanently.
Reaching for 'POINT FOCUS' pulls up four more symbols - ⬖ ⬗ ⬘ ⬙. Selecting one chooses your Point Focus, also permanently.
There is no information or description given for any of these symbols, though some may find they are inherently drawn towards one or another. (Translation; there is no OOC randomization, you may pick what you'd like). But once they are chosen, the mist will begin to lighten, and they will enter the 'standard' tutorial -awakening on a boat, they will have a chance to interact with a handful of NPCs in this solo instance and learn the basics of the game.
The tutorial is designed that a class change will need to happen at least once, as well as a handful of small combats that will teach game mechanics. By the time they arrive at their destination (manually chosen from a list of three), they are intended to know the general sense of how to maneuver and interact; unless they have accomplished the basics, whether through learning or chance, they will not be able to complete said tutorial.
But once they do, they will be let off at their previously chosen destination, and allowed to access the game at large.