Posted by WALSH on September 18, 2000 at 13:47:28:
In Reply to: Some random thoughts on Nyathl Ikalith posted by Nepenthe(IMM) on September 18, 2000 at 00:42:12:
> Let me start by saying that the quote in the scary opening note is there because it was one of several things that inspired me to start writing the area as well as a goal I kept in mind throughout the process. It is an allusion, partly in homage to the area that contains it. It is not a clue on how to find the Silent Tower. > Now that that's out of the way. . . > This is a relatively big area. In all ways, it is larger than all I have previously written, combined. > It is also an area that is incredibly heavy on special coding (primarily mine). When I explore areas, I like to be surprised. Not "oops there was a deathtrap there and I forgot to look" surprised or "damn, these aggressive mobs just smoked me in one round" surprised, but the "I've never seen anything like that before" or the "I didn't know they could even do that" surprise. > To me, these little "wow" moments are what put some of the magic back into a game and a world that is supposed to be both wonderous and fantastic -- but that we all too often (I admit, I'm as guilty as anyone) find ourselves trying to reduce to game mechanics or tactics. > If you participated in a quest I ran and were hit by a spell you'd never seen before, now you know why it was created. Not to kill players (power word kill does that pretty well from high-level mobs) but in hopes of bringing back that sense of wonder that, I think, we all had back before we really knew what we were doing or could find our guilds from Market Square. > I'm asking everyone who should visit the area to bear that ideal in mind and try to respect it and exercise some common sense. I'm not going to come burn your house down if you give someone a hint on one of the many (and very different!) ways to find the area. I think we've all had a friend or two at some point who would (intentionally or not) wreck the endings of movies/books/tv shows for other people who hadn't seen/read them yet. I'm asking you to not be that guy. If you don't feel you can handle that, or abide fairly by the other interesting restrictions the area places on those who venture within, I'd like to politely ask you to just not go. There are plenty of areas in CF, and this isn't the best of them. Some of the puzzles don't lend themselves to rewrites or redesigns easily if at all. > > That's it for now. I hope some of you get to visit the Area That Would Not Get Finished and like what you see. Have fun.
> While I'm on my soapbox, I'd like to thank all of the many imms who at some point volunteered or were roped into helping me out with one or more sessions of the Longest Area-Opening Quest Ever Devised. A special thank-you to Shokai for being one of those people with such regularity that I think he shares the credit or blame for the L.A.O.Q.E.D. Another special thank-you to Zulghinlour, but if I told you why it would ruin a surprise. :P Finally, a thank you to everyone who participated in the L.A.O.Q.E.D. and made me feel like you were having fun, as well as everyone who's been understanding so far as I work the kinks out of the automated parts of NI.