Underdark PCs

[Wynna]

How many of you plan on playing an Underdark PC in the first months (estimate) of Live? How many of those would be satisfied with a very limited area in which to play UD for those (estimated) few months?

We are trying to allocate precious size and building resources to 003. Every kilobyte counts. We currently have NOT allotted any UD areas, but by sacrificing elsewhere, we might be able to, to give a limited scope for UD RP until a UD server can get up. It is unknown at this time just how long that will be. Please note, this would not, at this time, connect to the surface. Please note also that this will sacrifice surface areas. If there are enough PCs who WILL play a UD PC and do not mind sacrificing scope, please indicate below in this very simple poll. There are only two options because only if there are enough people who fulfill both criteria would this be feasible.

Thank you.

[Wynna]

Edited the second choice to include "...or will not play a UD PC at all." It doesn't change the choices, just covers more bases and only one person had voted at the time. If that changed that person's vote, please PM me.

[Mikayla]

Adding "or will not play an UD PC at all" will necessarily weight this poll heavily towards the second answer as the majority of ALFA's players will not and do not play UD races. In short, by adding that phrase, you've expanded the scope of the poll from an inquiry about what the UD community wants, to a survey of the whole. Which is fine, but it virtually guarantees the second choice will heavily outweigh the first.

[AcadiusLost]

This certainly isn't a "majority wins" poll, by any means- more a way of trying to gauge interest in building an initial playable area for UD PCs to "tide them over" until larger/more developed areas become available with Skullport. I'd read the second option more along the lines of "..or not play an UD PC at all (on The Silver Marches, in the early days of Live)". I also don't see a compelling reason the hypothetical UD PC area would need to be completely, permanently separate from the surface- so long as the connection between the two is hidden and dangerous enough (to both prospective sorts of travellers) to keep wholesale raids in either direction an unlikely / rare occurance.

Especially given the long road to their second class level, I'd expect there would be considerable interest among prospective LA-race players in getting a place to play (without being attacked/killed on sight) from day one of Live- though it's been suggested that a limited/small/interim place to play would be treating LA-race players unfairly or otherwise not be welcomed. Hence the idea of a poll, to see how many might avail themselves of such an area, were it to be built and added to 003 in time for Live.

[Wynna]

What AL said. It's positive responders to the first question that count. The second question is more to give an idea of how many people in total answer and is more an overall demographic question.

[Holy_Rage]

I am 100% sure I will roll an UD PC at April 15th. If we can have a small area to RP amongst us at the beginning, then that would be excellent. I sincerely hope the NWN2 building team will consider this. No need for anything elaborate or flashy: I presume a small UD outpost with a couple areas around it (which could lead to the surface) would suffice for early Live days. Then again, if it is too taxing on 003 as a whole and ALFA ressources... I cannot evaluate that so I will follow whatever decision is taken on this.

[Rusty]

It's my, rather tedious, duty to point out that, as of now, we currently do not have:

a single server in Beta Two
complete interiors on our single Beta One server
complete stores on our single Beta One server
any significant balance review completed
any standards documentation
a working loot system
an implemented XP system
any testing of spell fixes
a fixed animal companion system
a single trained NWN2 DM
any building plan for adding such an area
any canon basis for such an area
any DMs lined up for such an area

So, please be aware that attempting to add even this limited content at the very last minute is almost inevitably going to compromise not only our proposed Live date, but also the overall quality of our Live incarnation.

Thank you.

[Rusty]

Oh, and also:

we haven't done much in the way of stress-testing of the module at its current size
we haven't seen the performance consequences of adding in an upgraded travel map

Thanks again.
R.

[JaydeMoon]

Dude... you're TOTALLY wrong! There's canon basis! What, are you trying to say there's no underdark beneath the Silver Marches!!! That's ridiculous!!!

The other 14 of his points are, of course valid, but we got to focus on the important stuff!

[AcadiusLost]

I think it's pretty clear there is a lot to be done before Live, no questions there. Not sure I see what bearing that has on the poll, though. The performance hit from an area or three is negligible, and the member volunteering to potentially build such a thing isn't going to be taking time away from any of the listed tasks, as far as I know.

I'd recommend organizing thoughts on checklists for Live elsewhere, though- an UD poll thread isn't the most productive place to conduct this sort of debate.

[Rick7475]

It's my, rather tedious, duty to point out that, as of now, we currently do not have:

a single server in Beta Two
complete interiors on our single Beta One server
complete stores on our single Beta One server
any significant balance review completed
any standards documentation
a working loot system
an implemented XP system
any testing of spell fixes
a fixed animal companion system
a single trained NWN2 DM
any building plan for adding such an area
any canon basis for such an area
any DMs lined up for such an area

So, please be aware that attempting to add even this limited content at the very last minute is almost inevitably going to compromise not only our proposed Live date, but also the overall quality of our Live incarnation.

Thank you.

Just to put the list in perspective, we also had none of that when the first NWN1 servers went live.

[Rotku]

Didn't you know that going Live without such things is a sure enough herald that the world will end? It has been foretold. You obviously arne't up to date with the lates prophesies.

[Holy_Rage]

To my eyes, above all ALFA is top notch quality. If our builders' team thinks that it will make ALFA systems and quality bleed as a whole, or if they can assure us that ALFA can handle it without any trouble, that's the main question.

I sure want to play my duergar as crazy in a comfy UD area and all, but if the builders say that this will reduce ALFA quality, I'd rather wait it out.

[Runestaff]

Every kilobyte counts. We currently have NOT allotted any UD areas, but by sacrificing elsewhere, we might be able to, to give a limited scope for UD RP until a UD server can get up.

I don't know the state of our hosting resources, but instead of turning this into a zero sum game, why not just place these potential UD areas on a separate host? It would be a shame to see some of the current TSM areas get yanked.

If obtaining another host is an issue, perhaps consider moving the UD area to the OAS, which presumably isn't under as much of a resource crunch as TSM.

[AcadiusLost]

Every kilobyte counts. We currently have NOT allotted any UD areas, but by sacrificing elsewhere, we might be able to, to give a limited scope for UD RP until a UD server can get up.

I don't know the state of our hosting resources, but instead of turning this into a zero sum game, why not just place these potential UD areas on a separate host? It would be a shame to see some of the current TSM areas get yanked.

If obtaining another host is an issue, perhaps consider moving the UD area to the OAS, which presumably isn't under as much of a resource crunch as TSM.

The "precious kilobytes" concern is a comparatively minor one- an underdark area could be made entirely using interior tiled areas, which are fairly negligible for burden on the module. While we can expect the server will need to grow over time as more areas are fleshed out, such an area could be switched to another module later (once more than one server is Live).

The OAS2 is needed for Admissions purposes, and is not intended as a place for Live play- it does not have the same haks as the rest of ALFA, and will not connect to the same database and character vault. As such, it's not really an option to use it as a home for UD-race characters early on in the community.