Underlight | City of Dreams

It sounds like from the previous two polls that the idea is to start the game with some houses from lyra-ul and some houses from SoT already opened? Is this the best option though?

I imagined "Clash of Dreams" being more that both the characters from lyra-ul and the characters from SoT suddenly found themselves in a brand new city and would have to open the houses themselves. This would present some interesting conflict of HC and The Coven both fighting over the Evernight house. And AoE and the Conservatory waging non-violent protest or whatever over the same house.

However people might also like to hit the ground running with houses already established with their characters entering the city already belonging to their previous house. The main problem this presents is which houses are chosen and what about the characters who are in a house that isn't chosen?

MacEros wrote:
I imagined "Clash of Dreams" being more that both the characters from lyra-ul and the characters from SoT suddenly found themselves in a brand new city and would have to open the houses themselves. This would present some interesting conflict of HC and The Coven both fighting over the Evernight house. And AoE and the Conservatory waging non-violent protest or whatever over the same house.

I really like this idea. I agree it would make things very interesting.

The main problem this presents is which houses are chosen and what about the characters who are in a house that isn't chosen?

In my opinion this problem is going to be present in either case. We are, unfortunately, looking at a population that will likely only support 2 maybe 3 ACTIVE houses.

I love the IDEA of letting the 'cream of the crop' rise to the top and beat out the others for the rights to the Strongholds. It would be epic.

However, as Raven points out, we must be realistic...that will not be nearly as epic if there are 2-3 people for each faction. With a rather small player-base, we foresee only 2-3 Houses being feasible. We would, of course, love to be wrong and have the opportunity to support many more factions with healthy populations, but we would prefer to err on the side of caution.

Edit: This does not mean, however, that we will definitely be pre-selecting which 2-3 those Houses will be. But it also doesn't mean we won't. And it doesn't not mean that we WILL not maybe not select or will.

I'll echo the statements of my fellow Koi. We've been discussing the logistics of houses in-game for some time. Houses/factions/guilds are critical in-game as a primary source of on-going conflict. With the size of the playerbase as it stands, it's going to be difficult to support two primary houses. A third house is quite possible - but we'll be monitoring the interest within the community before we go beyond those primary figures.

The polls was designed as a tool to gain feedback from the players and not indicative of the team's final decision. We do value the input and feedback from our players. Without the players, we would not have much of a game after all.

I get that the player base may only support 2 houses, three at most. I think that would just make the conflict that much more interesting. Members from four, five, maybe more former factions required to come together and agree on a basic set of beliefs.

Set a player requirement to open a house. Put that number where we need to be to have viable houses. First group to hit the minimum gets to open whichever house they choose.

Maybe even have a minimum requirement to keep a house open, to prevent a faction splitting of and trying to open another house and diluting the membership too far.

There are a lot of interesting things you could do and keep the houses at a viable number to keep things interesting.

For the houses that are not open, will they still be accessible? I think the lands leading up to those houses ought to be. I could see leaving them accessible as a reminder of the City's former glory. But, I'm thinking about my limited experience with SoT: Usually I hung around threshold or went to a house facade and looked around. I couldn't find anyone online the few times I logged in. With a smaller player base, you don't want it to be too hard for any new players to find other players.

With that in mind, perhaps the extra plains could carry dreamers closer to the houses that are actually open until hopefully some day more can open?

I would really like to hear everyone's thoughts.

Not sure how this will work, but if two dreams are clashing... you may take from one set and players will be not so happy. For instance.. you had crested members from Lambent, Illapse, Umbric and Evernight. There were four houses open. someone is losing crest. I think starting the houses from scratch and allowing the players to find a medium is going to be more logical. This will stop the feeling of being singled out.

In this environment players from the modern city are going to be asked to step back and challenge their thinking. open their views to the unawakened souls or is the older players going to be asked to step forward and realize we can manufacture renewable energy from the fonts ? till that stability is settled, it is going to be madness. Someone will have to sacrifice. The "shut the fudge up" and play our way isn't going to work. We still have to learn to respect each other as dreamers making the best of a situation the city catastrophically was tossed into, when these two environments clash.

The funny part is, reading the old beliefs.. I see similarities.. Dreamwalkers and Dreamers of Light.. both believed in the unawakened. Scryers of Truth and the Keepers of Shadows.. both believed in seeking the truth, no matter what consequences were found in seeking that truth. House of Calenture and The Coven.. are not so far off base as city protectors and elitist.

It makes sense to me that those leaders will find more alliances adapting between the boundaries of old and new. The energy concept made people work harder to keep their house open. That was dreamer created, it didn't violate the old Dreamers of Light RP that souls were in the mares dropping. it does show that the newer generation of city dwellers, found a solution to create resources to drive their mental arts. I liked the feature, but its not a deal breaker if it does not show up. The whole idea is to adapt to these major culture clashes. If we merge the cities, some old and some new will have to be part of it so one culture or another do not get completely obliterated. Our past brang forth our future.

I agree there is more opportunity for resentment if you assign up front which houses will open. People will feel like they never had an opportunity to fight for the house they believe in. Some may want to carry forward their beliefs, but in a different house. Players should have the opportunity to select the beliefs they want in the house they choose.

It It might lead to more initial conflict and could even get ugly at times. But the process would give players more of a voice and an opportunity to reconcile their beliefs with the new reality. Plus, this IS a CLASH of dreams. That clash should be part of the launch and allowed to play through to resolution.

Since the idea of Clash of Dreams was initiated, I have imagined the start roleplay of everyone being thrown into a dream where noone knows what has happened, and need to figure it out. They will meet old friends, old enemies, and whole sets of beliefs/cultures they never encountered before. The whole figuring out where to go from here, who to call friend and enemy, and how new houses are constructed, is a perfect starting point.

Ultimately, the players themselves need to realize that all their old versions of beliefs will not be tended to. The players need to realize that this time their characters can't be as stubborn as to say their version of illuminated/freesoul/wahtever dreaming is the only rightful one, and go with their small band of friends trying to open closed houses into eternity. The game has no room for that many versions of each faith.

I hope that an influx of new players comes, I really do. But until it does, our OOC knowledge of the player base size sadly needs to dictacte some of our characters actions. If not, the city will not be much other than small bands of stubborn old geezers