Technical Information

1) When one fights, does one click on the opponent and get some commands?

Shailejron answers:

That's correct. You target an opponent in battle and from that point on you can apply skills like shield punch, kicking, trip etc.

2) Can one reverse an attack? (i.e. grab a punch and toss the attacker)

Yes, if you had such a skill.

3) How smart are the NPCs?

DrCBVI answers:

Depending on the job (Shop-keep, commoner, lazy do-nothing-er ;) ) they will have different commands and levels of AI (A shop keep would need to have more coding etc. to be able to sell items that a commoner would need just to talk)

4) Will this be compatible with mac?

Shailejron answers:

Yes!

5) Will it be compatible with the Microsoft XP?

Shailejron answers:

Yes!

6) How complex will the animations be?

Shailejron answers:

We have an advanced animation engine that can easily be updated with new motions. Persons playing instruments will most likely be in, but like you point out there is no way we can cover it all. Luckily most things can be described in text and players will have the option of emotes.

7) Will there be any/much music in the game?

Shailejron answers:

Tildruin will most likely be released with minimalistic sound and music, but more will be added in updates. Luckily things can only get better.

8) Will the in game months travel at the same as the real world, as in, if you sit in Tildruin for 365 real days with all the seasons pass or will the game seasons pass quicker/slower etc.

Shailejron answers:

Time in Tildruin will pass much faster than in the real world. We will experiment with different time settings, but at the moment we are discussing approx 1 RL (real life) hour = 1 game day. This may sound very fast, but you have to consider situations like gardening and waiting for a shops to open.

9) Will the seasons effect day and night like they do in rl, winter = shorter days etc.?

Shailejron answers:

Yes!

10) If the language system will work the way I think it will, will a typo cause difficulty or does the language just go by letters so if you said 'teh' instead of 'the' in Elven it will display that when you learn the language?

Shailejron answers:

Typos will not create difficulty, because each latin character does not have a corresponding elven character. This will prevent players from bypassing the system and creating lookup tables.

11) If you are learning, say, Dwarven, but only know a little bit will only certain words or letters be translated and the rest remains in Dwarven?

Shailejron answers:

That is exactly how it will work.

12) Will we have to type in everything; in the screenshots it shows the player writing 'Kick creature' will we have to do this or will there be short-cuts? Also how would typo-ing affect it I assume if you type 'Kcik Cerature' it would come back with some error, correct?

Shailejron answers:

Correct!

You can choose between typing commands or using point-and-click. You will also have the options of defining your own short-cuts (macros) and pre-typed commands (aliases).

13) When the game is up can we suggest ideas for new necklaces etc.?

Shailejron answers:

Absolutely, we will invite talented players to help us expand the world through the use of our online editor.

14) When crafting an item will there be a list of things you can make or can you type what you make (also leading to new items)?

Shailejron answers:

There will be a list of items you can make and there will be plenty of quests to learn how to craft new types of items. You will be able to customize your items by selecting materials and enhancing them with trades like heraldry and runes.

15) Will armour and weapons the character wears and wields be shown on his image?

Shailejron answers:

Yes, the visual appearance will change as she wears/wields weapon and armour.

We have implemented 3D model theory on a 2D engine, so we can use many limb combinations to create a diversity of animations.

16) How will height in Tildruin be handled? I assume if you entered a building and go up a flight of stairs and will appear on the next floor, but in, say, a forest if you were attacking from a higher vantage point would the arrow, say, appear from off-screen (above/other direction) and hit it?

Shailejron answers:

Characters will not be able to attack other beings from higher vantage points until we solve all "twink"/abuse factors involved.

17) Do you have any idea yet, of about when we should expect the beginning of alpha-testing, and if there will be a limit to the number of testers?

Shailejron answers:

Alpha testing is planned for Q3-Q4 2002. We will most likely have a closed alpha for a limited number of testers. Once the testing begins we will test and tweak one system at a time. Examples of systems would be: crafting, combat, religion and organizations.

18) Have you decided whether Tildruin will require downloadable client software, or if it can be played directly from your browser?

Shailejron answers:

We are developing two clients: one downloadable and one browser version. The downloadable client will obviously contain much more graphics and detail. The browser version will be excellent for trying the game and playing on vacation. ;)

We also have very vague plans for a text-based client (with rogue-like graphics) that can run on slower machines.

19) How much (roughly) will this take to download?

Shailejron answers:

I'm sorry, but that is impossible to say at this stage, but it will most likely stay below 50 MB.

20) Will new resources be downloaded automatically once the user enters the game, or we'll have to download them manually?

Shailejron answers:

We haven't spent any time developing automatic patching. It is a fantastic idea, very workable and definitely worth looking into once we have a working version.

21) In the map (http://www.tildruin.com/world_map.asp?a=3&b=4&c=2) it shows Tildruin and the ocean of perennity, is there anything over said ocean or is it planned as the current end point of the world?

Shailejron answers:

The world will expand in all directions, but we cannot expand beyond the ocean until we implement ships. (This is planned, but not for the initial release)

22) Will you be able to see things like heavy cloud on the ground? (will the area would become darker if it was heavy, but if it was just a few stray clouds would you see their shadows?)

Shailejron answers:

Cloud coverage will graphically be displayed on the ground to those it concerns, namely those working specifically with summoning weather. This is one of the cases where the game server will filter levels of detail for you.

23) Will the levels of detail be automatically filtered based on your character traits or will the users also be able to manually change filter settings for their character at will through user configurable parameters?

Shailejron answers:

Unfortunately there is no general answer to this question. Some settings can be toggled by the player. Others will not be available
because he/she lacks sufficient skills/abilities to detect given information or simply because the information is irrelevant to the character.

24) How much detail will a player be able to put in a created character? (ex: when selecting their height, it affects how they look in-game)

Sorshepsut answers:

Your graphical representation will display your characters skin and hair color, as well as what type of clothing and equipment she is wearing. More detailed features may be described by yourself in text.

25) Will characters be deleted for inactivity?

Shailejron answers:

Only trial/guest characters will be deleted after months of inactivity. A trial or guest character is a character that obviously is not in use, because it has made little to none progress in a large amount of time.

26) Where will the players start?

Shailejron answers:

Initially all races will begin in Tildruin, but later on players will have the option of starting at other locations.

27) In the screenshots all the characters had he same length of vision, will this always be so?

Shailejron answers:

the length of the vision will be the same for all races. However different races
will have different abilities to perceive beings within that area. Factors that can
affect the perception of beings within the vision are: weather, supernatural affects
and sneak.

Beings will also have smell and sound radius. These will in some cases exceed
the length of the vision. The capabilities to perceive sound smell will also
differ between races.

28) Before the game is released, are we going to be able to try out the editor?

Shailejron answers:

Players will be able to try the editor in Beta. First-hand knowledge about the game is required to make a well balanced area. (An area can be as small as a room.)

29) How will looking at characters work? When you look at someone, will you just see a long text description of what they have, or will a paper-doll window pop up allowing you to click on an individual item?

Shailejron answers:

Most online graphical rpg:s do not allow you to have very extensive look descriptions on characters. You see a graphical representation of the character, but the look command is not very useful in determining what exactly is worn. The reason for this is the overhead bandwidth for transferring this additional data.

In Tildruin you will be able to see a list of items worn by a character (which is more than you can do in most graphical online rpgs), but we have not yet decided about a graphical list.

Why haven't we decided yet? We are focusing heavily on the functional aspects of the game. The textual interface is being developed first, because this proves to be the most economical use of time: text is very easy to change when developing and tuning. This is also logical when you realize that the graphical interface is most of the time an extension of the text based interface.

30) How big will the web-browser client be to download?

Shailejron answers:

The web-based client will be 1 MB. The size of the downloadable client has not yet been determined.

31) Are the shadows parts of pre-rendered objects' sprites or being rendered independently?

Shailejron answers:

They are rendered independently, so that they can be turned off.

32) Will the shadows change depending on daytime?

Shailejron answers:

We tried this out, but at some points the shadows obscured things when they were in the foreground. The system does however allow us to implement shadow movement if we decide to revaluate things.

33) Will there be a demo?

Shailejron answers:

We have decided to focus on developing the game. Making smaller demos and samples takes more time than anyone can imagine. There will be some new screenshots showing off some neat stuff before the end of the summer.

34) How will you know what the weather is like?

Shailejron answers:

The rich weather descriptions will be displayed in text, using the "look weather"
command.

35) Is the camera stationary or will it move with your character?

Dytalorien answers, confirmed by Ilshadjiir:

I'm only guessing but I think that the camera would have to move along with your character. That is, your character will always remain in the middle.

36) Are you able to choose your character's age when you first create the character?

Shailejron answers:

There have been some requests for determining your characters starting age and we are considering it. This would of course imply that you will get less playing time with your character before he/she dies of old age.

37) How young does a character normally start out?

Shailejron answers:

The different races mature at different ages and its a correct assumption that humans start at the age of 18. I'll make sure we discuss the option of starting at a few years younger as well.

38) When your character ages, is it according to playing time, or does time pass when you're not playing as well?

Shailejron answers:

Your character ages even when you're not playing, so if you start off young you'll have to adapt your roleplaying to the aging process. There will be medications with varying potency that will prolong your lifespan, as well as extremely difficult quests for rejuvenation.

39) So, if a character goes on a trip , for instance, his/her character will be like 3months older that the last time I played?

Shailejron answers:

Yes, that's correct.

40) So seeing this math shouldn't the game days last longer?

Shailejron answers:

All of this will be balanced during testing. The time frame is not set in stone.

41) Is there a limit to what you can carry? Will having better strength allow you to carry more items?

Shailejron answers:

That's correct. Your characters strength affects how much weight he/she can carry and wear. There are also differences between the races. A troll can carry much more heavier armour than for instance a halfling.

42) Would carrying more weight slow us down, or effect our stats in anyway?

Shailejron answers:

Yes. Your character can be overburdened to the point where he/she cannot move at all.

43) How many people are you going to accept for the alpha test?

Shailejron answers:

We will be starting off with a small group, but our intent is to keep increasing the testing group until everyone in the forums has had a chance to apply. Exactly how many are added at a time will be decided from phase to phase.

44) when we log off what will happen to our characters?

Shailejron answers:

The safest way to log off would be to camp or take in at an inn.