Partially Used: A new place to start.

Howdy, y'all!

I've been thinking for awhile, this is a thought that has been brewing for some time ... does anyone feel that the Astral Conjunction is slightly out of place with the rest of the world? I know that it is a convenient starting point, having everyone go through the same portal and what-not, but it just seems out of place. Instead of an empty room floating in the middle of nowhere, it could be an exact copy of the 2nd floor of the SDI ... I say copy because it could have the necessary anvils, tools and triggers, and when the PC exited to the SDI ground floor, when they went back through the door, they would be in the normal SDI second floor hall.

Unless, of course, the Astral Conjunction is more firmly grounded in the structure of the world.

What say ye?

I like the Astral Conjuntion, as it can be a safe place to reform after a crash or reset; have been know to talk to others there for a while.

However, if it could be made possible, some alternative secondary locations besides the Sleeping Dragon might help variety.

I've met up with others there, too ... I'm just not sure that I feel all that connected to the place, as far as its fit with the gameworld, that's all.

I consider the Astral Conjunction more of an OOC area...not part of the gameworld, more as an area from which you start off.

Are you suggesting an entire "new" start location.. or more of a graphical overhaul of the AC to make it mimic the top floor of the SDI ?.. for all intents and purposes it would remain an OOC area until you "walked downstairs"... .. the return door taking you to the "normal top floor of the SDI" .... ??

So it would be more like the Astral SDI ?

Yeah, Rusty, you got it ... that's more or less what I was thinking.

i like the idea of the astral conjunction because for me it clearly conveys the idea of an ooc area [we're not 'in the world' yet].

otoh, i think a new 'in-world' starting position for certain subraces [such as goblin kin, demonspawn, and drow -- ESPECIALLY drow] would be a good idea, for a couple of reasons. first, it seems strange that drow or goblin kin would consistently appear in the vale ; a cave complex or some part of the underdark seems more logical. i used to play on a pw where the drow start area was in a drow city in the underdark [in a bar -- of course... ].
secondly, from a practical standpoint, that would mitigate certain difficulties, at least immediately after start, such as the sun... this way, drow characters would be able to do a bit of adventuring right off the bat, rather than have to wait until sundown if it's day when they start.

this could also include any of the underdark subraces that aren't scripted, such as svirfneblin and duergar. [i.e., the player enters that info in the subrace field, even though there aren't any leto changes to be made.]

Some intriguing ideas, titus!

I totally agree with what titus has said here, and persistent spawn points is something I have thought about ever since I got to Aenea.

The last NWN1 PW I played, Thain, had the ability to start at various anchor spawn points that were persistent over resets. These points were marked by a spot that highlighted blue by the cursor/tab, telling you 'click here to set your spawn point'. I loved this system, as there were many of these spawn points-- in caves, in the underdark, out in the woods, in old ruins and towers, in thieves' hideouts, in each inn room, in your own private lair... and so one could actually feel like you woke up in the place you set up camp for the previous night. Evil characters and those characters that shun others could go for as long as they wanted without having to come to some popular place to respawn. Rangers and Druids that would hardly ever have reason to come into town and would normally camp out in the wilds could stay out in the woods for weeks.

Here, it's a bit immersion-breaking to have to run out of the Dragon Inn, run to the Elf's Grove, put on my Binding Boots, portal to where I was, and then convince myself that my character has been at that place overnight or for days. It's going to be even more immersion-breaking when I start a new wizard character I have planned, that is supposed to be very antisocial and would never stay at an Inn or even walk casually around a town. I really feel for you vampires, drow, and monsters who feel so incredibly strange walking through the Dragon Inn like you've spent the night in a regular room like an average person. If a kind player hadn't gifted me some Binding Boots, it would be even a whole lot worse getting back to where my character 'spent the night'-- and I don't know where anyone can just pick up these essential exploration resumers. (And if one could just make the Binding Boots work from the Astral Junction, that would actually be the total solution to make this custom persistent spawn point feature happen.)

I don't know how difficult it would be to implement this scripting in Aenea, but this feature is the one thing I've always wanted most for Aenea since I got here, that when one stepped out of the Astral Plane "dreamstate" area, one would spawn/"wake up" at the anchor point that had previously been chosen. One could still start the game in the Astral Junction, in fact it would be even more IC relevant because it would be like one had been dreaming in the Astral Plane, and then woke up wherever one had bed down the previous night. This is how I think of our Astral Junction even now, that it's the dreamstate area-- after all, that is what Astral Plane commonly means, doesn't it, the plane where one's consciousness goes when one sleeps and dreams or Astral 'travels'. With the new tileset of dreamy space, it seems even more like that was always the meaning and intent of the area.

A new character would still start out at the Inn, that works because it's perfectly IC for the magically-induced planar rift that sucks people in from across the planes to be naturally focused to deposit them into that area.

This feature of persistent spawn points would probably involve a rehaul of some scripts, but would make this world so much more awesome. Thain has a downloadable module for personal use, which I do believe has some of these binding points. I've noticed the spawn point 'item' in the custom items list when I've opened that module in the Toolset. So an experienced scipter could look it over and see how it's been done there. If anyone needs help finding this module, please don't hesitate to contact me.

P.S. - The more I think about it, just making another portal for the Binding Boots, inside the Astral Junction, would totally seem to be the quick way to have one's custom persistent spawn point to 'wake up' at!

If it could be done, I would like to see any reappearing character after start be able to appear at any altar of their chosen deity. Thus Druids and Rangers could start far away, or as remotely as the current altars appear in Aenea. And the worshippers of the god of Travel would have several options; rather poetic, too.

Working out a system now for some alternative starting points. As of the latest reset, the binding boots of bela...something will draw a wearer to their bound location when exiting the Astral Conjunction like normal (walking into the large swirling green-yellow portal).

I'm going to be adding several small stone circles throughout the lands that will act as bind points for anyone that steps into them. They won't be blatantly obvious, but will be around for those that explore. Gotta do a little testing to make sure the code works before spreading them to multiple locations.

There will be a limit of one bind point at a time. Step in one, and that one get's set as the bind point for that character. No widgets to activate or target (not even a single extra script added to the module, woven into existing ones). This lasts until either a) another such circle is stepped in or b) said PC uses a new VC command (;;option clearbind). The VC command and stepping into a proper circle will have no effect on the binding boots. Another VC command (;;info bind) should give the name of the area of the last bind point your character stepped into).

See. Sometimes suggestions (or parts of them) do get used.

Sounds very promising! Thanks!

AAAAAWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSOOOOOMMMMMMEEEE!!!!!!

Thank you ! Thank you thank you thank you thank you !!!!

*Gratefully hugs everyone in the room and excitedly throws out cookies like frisbees to everyone*

The Astral Conjunction exit with the Boots on might need a bit of tweaking, as I wasn't able to exit.

I logged into the Conjuction, then put my Binding Boots on. As I ran into the swirling funnel, my character was brought to a halt, as a rune circle appeared at the rear of the vortex. But through many tries, the rune circle vanished before my character could get past the blocking to get there. After a few tricky manoeuvres I managed to get my character into the back area at the apex of the vortex and activate the rune circle and be in the circle at the same time, but still no transport.

I finally removed the Binding Boots and exited in the usual manner to the Inn. Went to the Elf's Grove and used the Binding Boots in the usual manner and it took me back to my expected bindpoint.

I'll re-anchor the Binding Boots and try again after the next restart, just in case your changes reset something in the server with the Binding Boots and that might be the issue.

It's been another reset and still unable to exit the Astral Conjunction if my character is wearing the Binding Boots. The rune circle appears, but even finagling my character inside the circle doesn't activate any transport. Have to remove the Boots and exit to the Inn.

Ramana Jala wrote:It's been another reset and still unable to exit the Astral Conjunction if my character is wearing the Binding Boots. The rune circle appears, but even finagling my character inside the circle doesn't activate any transport. Have to remove the Boots and exit to the Inn.

You may wish to repost this in the Bug sectiom; might get quicker attn.

Today I logged in and tried the Binding Boots, and went straight out the Astral portal and ended up where I wanted to be, so it seems fixed, thank you!

Yippee, this is soooo great, I love this! Thank you again!

Now I just have to figure out where I can find these Boots for my new wizard character, so she can lurk evilly out of the way in some tower or somewhere.

I couldn't avoid stepping into the circle of stones in Calinth --about twenty times, as it's on a route behind the cliff that I run to entrap orcs, and it covers nearly the entire walkable passage right there. May I suggest it be moved slightly to that nearby corner where the stockade wall meets the east edge of the area, or even to the inside corner of that hill right there, where it would still be relatively out of sight, yet could be put a bit more out of the way so one can make a deliberate choice to walk into it rather than an inadvertent one (and potentially reset someone's bindpoint when they wanted to keep another one)?

So I tested out the ;;infobind and ;;clearbind, and they both seem to be working, by the info registered in the combat log window.

Now, if I have such a bindpoint active, does this mean that I'll go to that location if after a reset I exit the Astral Conjunction (without my Binding Boots on)? No other vc commands necessary?

And what if I have my Binding Boots on, does their location override the location of the stone circle bindpoint?

Thanks a bunch!

Ramana Jala wrote:I couldn't avoid stepping into the circle of stones in Calinth --about twenty times, as it's on a route behind the cliff that I run to entrap orcs, and it covers nearly the entire walkable passage right there. May I suggest it be moved slightly to that nearby corner where the stockade wall meets the east edge of the area, or even to the inside corner of that hill right there, where it would still be relatively out of sight, yet could be put a bit more out of the way so one can make a deliberate choice to walk into it rather than an inadvertent one (and potentially reset someone's bindpoint when they wanted to keep another one)?

I can move that circle, yes.

Now, if I have such a bindpoint active, does this mean that I'll go to that location if after a reset I exit the Astral Conjunction (without my Binding Boots on)? No other vc commands necessary?

Correct.

And what if I have my Binding Boots on, does their location override the location of the stone circle bindpoint?

The boots override the bind point from a circle if worn into the portal.

Oh, one more question! If I decide I'd rather end up at the SDI, can I use the ;;clearbind command inside the Astral Junction, before stepping through the transition?

This system rocks, it's all and more that I had hoped for! I'm so glad this wasn't a huge long difficult scripts job for you. And having two compatible systems, the Stone Circles and the Boots, gives a huge lot of flexibility with the two choices. For my Boots, I'll put my characters' bedroom/camp/lair, and for the Stone Circles, be able to return to a locale.

Now where can new characters run across a set of those Boots...?

Thw winged lass in Mountainholm is usually a good source of apparel for my characters , though I cannot recall seeing this exact pair appearing anywhere with regularity.

Ramana Jala wrote:Oh, one more question! If I decide I'd rather end up at the SDI, can I use the ;;clearbind command inside the Astral Junction, before stepping through the transition?

Yes. Except the VC command is ";;option clearbind". No need for bug reports of ";;clearbind" doesn't work.

I'm going to be adding a mention of the bind points and the associated VC commands to the website soon (just grabbed a screenshot of one this morning).

Excellent! Thank you!

Sounds enticing! May be time to find another pair of boots ...

May I suggest that if used successfully for a time, that the Boots effect get added to the Player Reward Voucher lists for possible purchase? This should aid variety of footwear seen in the Vale. Thanks!

A fine suggestion by our Elhanan! I can see the value of this, just like the Hat of Disguise function added to a helm - and I must say, the variety would be welcome, as I'm tired of sole properties on boots ...

Binding Boots of Bellaruskima functionality added to list for custom item vouchers.