Delicious tidbits about the upcoming Tomb Kings Live Event!  More information is promised in the April Newsletter, so stay tuned!

The Necropolis desert is a massive non-instanced zone with several different remote, hidden areas.  New types of Public Quests and Lairs can be found throughout, each of which have wholly different game-play mechanic and feel, very much like different stages in an action RPG.  And worry not, these Public Quests don’t ever boot the solo player out.  They are always solo-friendly (that is until the other realm invades), but that’s not to say there aren’t heroes and lords throughout for warband groups to enjoy.  Every monster throughout the Necropolis desert has a chance to drop tokens, with which there is a lot of new phat gear and crafting materials to purchase.

See the full diary after the jump.

Dev Diary - The Land of the Dead

Today, Gabe Amatangelo, Senior Designer, Dungeons & Encounters Lead gives us a candid look at the inspirations behind, and creation of, the upcoming live expansion The Land of the Dead. Read on for a glimpse at what lies in store!

It all Begins with an Idea

Everyone on the Dungeons and Encounters team remembers fondly the dungeon crawls in DAoC and UO – the face-offs, the race, the thrill of the tension when deciding whether or not to kill the monster that drops the loot first and then the enemy player, or vice versa.  We’ve wanted to work on an RvR-enabled dungeon for some time.  The go-ahead in September shortly after launch was music to our ears.  I quickly started drafting up the high-level designs.

Like Darkness Falls, we wanted dungeon access to be determined by RvR; however, Warhammer Online’s campaign system is unique.  Sorting out the best way to incorporate the dungeon access control mechanism into it required careful design and deliberation, throughout which we wanted to ensure both realms had equal opportunity at the dungeon, that control shifted often (but not too often!), and that neither realm would ever get ‘shut out.’  After considering everything from Keep control to entirely new control points in open RvR lakes, we came full circle to the crux of the campaign system – Zone Control and open RvR player kills.  And so the Expedition Resource system was born!

Inspiration and Planning

Next up was deciding on a theme.  Greg Grimsby and I entertained several settings for the dungeon, anything from Skavenblight to Mordheim.  Both of us agreed, though, we were looking to explore a wholly new environment.  We wanted to create an area unlike anything else in the Warhammer Online world - one that could offer us fresh visual and game-play opportunities.  And there it was: the glow of its golden-hued laminated cover pierced through stacks of reference material.  It was the Tomb King’s army book.  The Vulture God taunted us with the mockeries of life in his army.  I was enamored by the treasures to be found throughout Nehekara and the Mesopotamian/Egyptian structures in which they laid. 

Thoughts of true action-RPG experiences crept in my mind.  Visions of the Temple of Doom, Zelda, and God of War flashed through.  Questionable levers, treasure that looks too good to be true, collapsing floors, swinging pendulums, spitting darts, (much) larger than life boss fights – I wanted it all.  And, oh, what an environment it would make to RvR in.

At first, I felt guilty for such blasphemous thinking in an MMO, but then I decided to indulge.  Why not?  I asked myself.  Surely it can be done.  Is it that no other MMO has had the jibblies?  Perhaps, but I know that we do.  I mean, we give players the ability to kick each other there.

Setting Plans in Motion

The council of raiding experts, artists, and technicians was promptly summoned.  Together we debated the hows, whats, whys, whens, pros, and cons.  Once everyone was in a comfortable spot, there was a moment of Zen.  Everyone around the room had that content grin, the one you get after winning your first 1-versus-1 with an alt. in open RVR.  This is it.  It’s the beginning of the kinds of dungeon experiences the MMO masses have been asking for.

One nagging unresolved concern was the instance portions of the dungeon.  There could only be one safe spot in the Land of the Dead, the zone-in point.  It was, after all, an RvR dungeon.  We couldn’t let players hide out inside of instances.

That evening I was hanging outside of a city raid zone in portal while my guild was getting situated.  An enemy player came whizzing by, making a break for it into the city instance through our side.  Naturally he didn’t make it, but what if he had, I thought.  That’s when the blatantly obvious hit.  We’re going to let players chase each other into dungeon instances. 

The next day the council reconvened and everyone was on-board.  Now, I promised the Jeffs to hold off on the details until next month’s newsletter so I will, but suffice it to say the concern was resolved and we were ready to move forward to iterate on the system.

Inspired by the theme, each of the designers' and artists' areas of the dungeon began to take shape, first on paper, then to graybox and proxy character models to textured and final models, now to polish.  The Land of the Dead comes in two parts: The Necropolis and The Tomb of the Vulture Lord.

The Dream Comes to Fruition

The Necropolis desert is a massive non-instanced zone with several different remote, hidden areas.  New types of Public Quests and Lairs can be found throughout, each of which have wholly different game-play mechanic and feel, very much like different stages in an action RPG.  And worry not, these Public Quests don’t ever boot the solo player out.  They are always solo-friendly (that is until the other realm invades), but that’s not to say there aren’t heroes and lords throughout for warband groups to enjoy.  Every monster throughout the Necropolis desert has a chance to drop tokens, with which there is a lot of new phat gear and crafting materials to purchase.

The Tomb of the Vulture Lord is a large instanced dungeon with several boss fights that are a mix of console-style and MMO elitist, if you will.  Action-RPG elements are throughout the dungeon with traps, puzzles, and boss fight mechanics.  Including a surprise genre first ‘encore’ encounter, but that’s all I’m going to say about that, for now.
 
We are all super excited about the Land of the Dead, and cannot wait until everyone plays this summer, including us! ;) Be sure to check out the April Newsletter for more info!

Gabe Amatangelo
Senior Designer, Dungeons & Encounters Lead