UD

[Gxtun]

After playing so many years on the surface, I have devoted some time to exploring the UD with a drow. Surprise Surprise, there are many areas that I have never explored properly. The drow cities themselves are huge and expansive. There are places I have not explored once in 10 years. How can this be? Nordock keeps impressing me. Is there a map of the underdark? Can someone PM it to me? Its just so exciting!

[Richard_Uther]

I don't have a map. but MAB might... and he's coming back next week or the other. Which means the Grimstone Clan will be back. That puts your Drow in this situation... how to put it... deep in crap.

[raradra]

Half the fun of the game is exploration. Why not make your own map?

[Valikar]

You should check out the lowerdark then. The underdark isn't the lowest you can get. /shameless plug

[Richard_Uther]

I've seen the lower dark and it's rubbish. (I'm just kidding, I was one of the first to play test that thing and it's freaking awesome)

[Gxtun]

More thoughts

The lowerdark has a great risk/reward not to mention vast. The best part is that you can play a drow and never have the need to see the surface. I think i surfaced once in the valley of darkness. and said "meh" and headed back to the underdark.
I'm not sure why Kabu is neutral for a drow. All the other towns are "hostile".

[Richard_Uther]

As far as I know, and if I'm wrong someone can correct me, Kabu was added, the same as Mulrok so those subraces could have the chance to trade and interact with with other people. Drow and Duergar were implemented quite late, I don't know who was in development back then, but it was probably the easiest solution. We had changes in Nordock 2 for both islands, but that was because we started the server from scratch. I personally think it works. Both Uther brothers, Richard and Caleb had made their shady deals in both islands. You always need to have places where everyone can play together.

[Richard_Uther]

Gxtun. Just to be clear on what I'm saying: When te UD was added, it wasn't that vast. When MAB and I started our player group of Duergars it wasn't vast enough. There was a lot of stuff that you needed to go to the surface to get. Now you can play without seeing the light of the day, but having a few neutral areas is a good thing.

[Gxtun]

Absolutely, Drow & NPC interactions is a good thing. Just thinking that Kabu has that story line, "we saved the town from the evil thing". and now hey, there a bunch of drow running around. I just expected to be hunted down in Kabu.
And I'm glad I'm not. By the way, Mulrock is a great place to meet and exchange along with the Mulrock Market Place.

Well, the polish of Nordock has been earned with many years of work. I certainly appreciate that!

[Richard_Uther]

The problem is that it kept changing hands over the years. Someone designs an area, puts an NPC telling a story, someone else comes later and goes "This area is boring, lets throw a trigger in there and spawn whatever to make it fun".

To make my point, it happened to us in the Nordock 2 project. When Radiohodet was the lead we managed to have around 15 areas done without including interiors. Radio quits for wathever reason he had, so I took over as the lead. We started from scratch. We had to. Just a new spawning system meant either redoing everything or break something. And that was just on 15 areas. Imagine fixing Nordock. It's a massive ammount of work and only two people have access to the module itself. Make up a story yourself. "they are the remaining forces" or whatever. That would be my advice.