Which areas need work?

[Lathlain]

One of the most important decisions to make here is where to start and how to go about doing it.

While there may be little things that need fixing, patching up and/or completely remaking all over the place in FK, it's far easier to apply by going through the areas one by one, checking them thoroughly and making changes before moving on to the next. So don't worry if you've got a list of things to fix that's as long as your arm - we'll get to tick them all off eventually!

So that said - where needs it most?

From my personal observations I'd suggest firstly looking at (in no particular order):
Waterdeep
Waterdeep sewers
Faerdale
Zhentil Keep

Does anyone have any thoughts on these, or any suggestions as to where else needs work first of all? We're looking for places that need the most work to start with really, just to give us all something to get our teeth into.

[Nearraba]

I think Waterdeep and it's sewers could be a great place to start, as they are one of the most active places. =) Maybe, a little bit of updating some of the room descriptions. Adding a splash of color highlights, in both places, and prehaps giving more mobs greet progs and descriptions?

I would also suggest that, The Keep and Silverymoon might also be a good place to start. Adding new and appealing details to these places might even make them a more lively city. - Also with these cities, we could update the room descriptions, add coloring, check items, add new mob greeting progs and descriptions.

Looking forward to everyone else's ideas! =D

[Gwain]

The Abbey of the Tombstone Bell needs work done to fix spelling errors and grammar errors.

On a selfish note I'd like to fix some of the grammar and spelling I used in Gwain's dwelling.

[Elke]

I'm not sure how feasible it is, but possibly the deserts.

[Larethiel]

WD, certainly. There has, long ago, been a project of Dalvyn's, that aimed to revamp the Waterdeep descriptions. It was done to a handful of inns and buildings but never finished for real

Is general landscape an option as suggested with deserts by Elke? I find that the descriptions of landscape areas tend to be rather...dull

[Lathlain]

The generic landscape descriptions would be lovely to change, I agree, though I don't know entirely how easy/feasible it will be at this stage. Hold those thoughts, and I'll get back to you In the meantime, we're likely going to be looking at an individual area - quite probably Waterdeep - for starters.

And yes - for those of you who remember, this is a revival of Dalvyn's former project - but hopefully on a larger scale and a longer basis!

I will hold off for a little longer before making any announcements on where to start (there appears to be an account issue preventing some people seeing this forum who should) though if you'd like to start making notes of some of those rooms/streets/general areas that you'd like to work on, it'll save time down the line.

[Gwain]

The last time the project in Waterdeep was in session I focused on inns and taverns (got about 20 done) I'd love to go back and finish the leftovers. I used Volo's Guide to Waterdeep.

[Moloch]

Skullport as a whole could use quite a bit of work. I'd love to take this on if noone has a problem with it.

[Briek]

Sourcebooks for revamp:

Cormyr- Volo's guide to Cormyr, Cormyr
Silverymoon- The Silver Marches
Waterdeep- More on Lands of Intriege, Volo's guide to Waterdeep, City of Splendors; Waterdeep
Tethyr & Amn- Lands of Intriege
Rashemen, Thay, Thesk- Unapproachable East
Zhentil Keep- Mysteries of the Moonsea (for lack of having a better one or seen a better one right now)
Underdark regions- The Underdark

[Elke]

I could live with the general area descriptions being samey if it wasn't for the massive assumptions made in the desert description. You might not be wearing 'many layers'. In fact, if you are in the desert you might have chosen to take -off- most of those layers...Maybe someone stole all your clothes and dumped you in the middle of it to find your way out before you ran out of water? And what if it's night-time and the temperature may have ended up sub-zero? Would you then be sweating?

I would happily clone a different desert description over and over for the most part to represent vast, endless sands. Just not that one.

*cough*

/rant

I'd happily work on the Waterdeep descriptions though!

[Skeas]

Tethir/Tethyr/Wild Elf lands need doing- They're all the same description for the most part and they use "you" in it.. Not sure about the priority level here.

I'm not really a self-motivator, Lathlain. If you'd like to assign me something to do, I would really appreciate a push in the right direction. I'm not sure if everyone is picking their own mission or if you're handing them out like Christmas cards, but I'd like mine in card-form if that's okay

[Lathlain]

Okay - here's how things are looking. It's all a bit of a learning process for all of us of course, so there's plenty of room for system refinement along the way!

The general infrastructure of Waterdeep is going to be our first target. I'm going to go around the city and pick it into segments, ward by ward, street by street, and let you choose what you'd like to work with (one bit per person at a time, and then you can move on to the next). I'd like the descriptions for each segment (with colour codes please!) - though the question is whether people would be happier recording their descriptions in this forum for implementation, or whether you'd rather email them directly to me. Any thoughts on that, guys?

Other sections are going to include the city's NPCs (names, 'long' names and descriptions) , objects of all sorts (names, 'long' names and descriptions), quest text (which is going to be trickier to test. I'd like this done on the test port where possible - we'll discuss this at the time) and basic 'text' programs (such as the changing of the guard echo, the aerial movements, NPC greetings and so on).

Anyway. I'll list all of these fields hopefully later on today, and I'll let you pick which you'd like to work on. This also means you can work at your own rate - remembering of course that you're all volunteers here. I won't impose mandatory work-loads on you!

Lastly - I know a lot of you are eager to move on to specific areas and nail pet peeves firmly on the head. I am too, I promise you This first step is going to be a controlled operation centralising specifically on Waterdeep initially, so so we can work out the quirks of the system and find out revamping feet together as a team. We'll get there! Honest!

[Elke]

I'd go for posting our updates in the forum, so that we can see what other people are doing and make suggestions and also be able to have each other proof-read etc.

[Lirith]

I'm not sure if posting everything in the forum will get a little lengthy in the long-run, and having more than one or two people doing a final proof-read is a little bit of a waste of resources.
Perhaps if a separate topic was created for each segment, then we could decide who will check each one, and it will take some of the burden off Lathlain.
I'm indifferent to whether everything is posted in forums or in PMs though, I really don't mind which way we do it.

[Alaudrien]

I think bits and pieces of Tantras could use some reworking. I know the temple of Sune has some room exit bugs and could use a bit fleshing out and redoing. Hmm I think some of the little towns could be fleshed out and added some new things to them to. Maybe even some of the temples in waterdeep could be expanded that only have one or two rooms to them. Tymora Ilmater etc..

[Larethiel]

Perhaps a topic for every category, as suggested.

F.e. one for...

Inns/Taverns
Temples
Shops
Stables
Streets (splittable in Northward/Southward/Dockward/etc.)
City of the Dead
Populance (wandering Merchants, Youths,Wealthy Waterdhevians,)
Soldiers and Watch-employees
Animals (rats/things in the sewers)

etc.

[Dalvyn]

The general infrastructure of Waterdeep is going to be our first target. I'm going to go around the city and pick it into segments, ward by ward, street by street, and let you choose what you'd like to work with (one bit per person at a time, and then you can move on to the next). I'd like the descriptions for each segment (with colour codes please!) - though the question is whether people would be happier recording their descriptions in this forum for implementation, or whether you'd rather email them directly to me. Any thoughts on that, guys?

How you organize the work is up to you (i.e., you can assign wards/streets/room types to different people as you want). I'd advise you to make them keep a text copy of all the room descriptions in a text file (as well as a copy on the forum if you want), then we can set up a date and time for people to log in on the test port so I can set them with the ability to edit room descriptions and have them commit the new descriptions from their text files to the area directly. If descriptions are already written in a text file and proofread, it's just a matter of copy/pasting them into the game, which should be fast enough.

Other sections are going to include the city's NPCs (names, 'long' names and descriptions) , objects of all sorts (names, 'long' names and descriptions), quest text (which is going to be trickier to test.

All those things are much trickier to edit, and I would need to be convinced those are needed first. Well, I'm sure that things could be improved, but I'm not sure that the effort/gain ratio is good enough; just like I am sure that some specific things would need to be fixed, but I'm not sure that they would require an effort/organization as massive as room descriptions.

Re : Waterdeep sewers
My project about this area was to simply remove it and replace it with a brand new and specific sewer area (which might include connections to the wilderness around Waterdeep and perhaps to Undermountain [ever played Eye of the Beholder I in the sewers under Waterdeep?] Anyway, the current sewers are a generic area that I would happily replace with something new (i.e., a whole new area for which a builder would apply and follow the normal procedure).

[Dalvyn]

P.S. The same thing could be done for wilderness area (i.e., get the room descriptions ready then copy/paste on the test port during a specially set session).

[Alaudrien]

Eye of the beholder was awesome! Didn't the sewer systems in there have three layers and they tossed in other goodies as you go down? I think that would be pretty awesome. Then you got orcs and other baddies who have to walk through the city sneaking through to get to um. Same could be said for thieves getting around and the hidden temples we have in WD ..didn't in the book City of Wonders one of the beast gods with mongrel men have a scret temple in the sewers?

[Lathlain]

All those things are much trickier to edit, and I would need to be convinced those are needed first.

Fair call! Would you like the focus on items and NPCs removed for now then, in favour of looking specifically at room descriptions? If so - I'm sorry to the people who've already got started on those - it sounds like I had the wrong end of the stick.