Crystal City Divide MMO

Welcome to Crystal City Divide, a new MMORPG
by Vas'Drakken, set in an alternate universe where
you have transported there by playing a new
MMORPG Crystal City Divide.

This is a behind the scenes look at the game.

The map above is of the Tors Dominion
controlled by Emily Usher mòr Caolánvein.

You start in the tutorial area where start with the
character customization. Next you fight a trainer
to learn what weapons you are good with. Once
done with that you move to the next area. This
next section is you learn to fly or fall to the earth.
If you learn to fly you move to the area to learn
magic, if you fall the earth, you start the game
sooner and can learn magic later on. In the game
once you get through the tutorial areas you are in
an open world either starting in a flagged zone if
you took the beta surveys, or in a random Domain.

We start with the sorter to the right. This is to
decide how much hand holding is needed.
Everyone starts in the tutorial area to start the
game. Where you start after that is figured out
by the chart at the right.

This is to sort veteran MMO players from gamers who
have never played an MMO, from players who might
need even more hand holding. Each Domain has zones
in it that players can create houses in slots that are laid
out already. Houses cost for the lot, a building permit,
the cost of the materials if you craft the components or
turnkey designs that can be bought off the Market Board
or from vendors, last a ninety-day tax, so that people
don't leave behind houses when they leave the game.
You pay up to year with in-game currency for the tax.
But since these houses are not instanced but out in the
open world, we need a way to recover the lots if people
get tired of the game and move on.

So say you have never played an MMO, you
need to get familiar with the UI (user interface),
picking up quests and targeting monsters with
out a thousand other players killing them before
you can even figure out how to target them.

We have 1200 domains at launch with a frontier
zone and adventure zones. Different domains
will have smaller zones with more of them or
larger zone with less of them so you can start in
different domains based on if you completed the
back ground story survey. No where you start
you can always walk to another Domain and play
there. Every player when they sign up for an
account is asked if they want to pick a starting
color swatch and if they want to fill out a back
ground story survey. The back ground survey
lets them pick a melee main hand which they
can change in the tutorial, if they want bigger
combat zones with fewer of them or more
diverse smaller ones. They also chose if they
want to work for a guild, order, or particular
Lord or Lady. There will series of choices on each
screen which narrows down where they are
starting.

Basically if your very new to MMO you start in
frontier zone with a very single player like game
until you rank up to up to 2B at which point you
are given a quest to visit adventure zone. Which
is where the second group starts. The adventure
zone changes every two weeks kicking everyone
out to the social zone arch they entered from.
They can chose to leave by any of the arches in
the adventure zone sooner. Once players gain
enough silver to afford an apartment which is
one time purchase you can only have one
apartment at a time, if you decide to get one in
a different location you can sell the old one.
You only get the quest one time. Once you have
an apartment or land you can teleport to the
sign post outside the property. Once you have
an apartment or lot you get a quest to visit the
mayor of the player city or NPC town for some
apartments, to start the Main Story Questline.

If the player has played MMO before and they
did not complete a back ground survey, they
are given a choice of a starting option which they
can pick random start and they start in the
starting area based on that choice. Once the
Event they joined has completed they are given
a quest to buy a house in a player city. Once
they do it triggers the Main Story Questline.

If they did complete a survey, they start in a
player city in a domain based on their choices.
They will go through a cut screen of joining their
guild/order or swearing to serve their Lord/Lady.
This will give them their first MSQ or Main Story
Questline. This will also give them enough silver
to purchase an apartment or basic lot.

Players who have participated in the alpha and
beta tests will keep their social rank but have to
start the adventure rank from 0D, and part of
that was filling out the survey. They will start in
the domain they gained faction rank with, unless
they decide to start with the same account but
with a fresh start. The only thing kept from the
beta is social rank, faction standing, and court
positions as we want some of those to be in the
game at launch and the only way to do this is to
get players who don't get banned for cheating
in the beta to keep those positions they earned
while testing the game. Also most domains will
NOT be player controlled. So in the beta survey
you can chose if you want to be in a player
controlled domain or not. So no matter where
you start you may encounter domains with
players choosing certain options and others
where the options were set by a developer.

Note alpha and beta players will not have access to the
Main Story Quest.

The important thing to remember is we want the game to be fun so options will mostly impact trade, in some domains it will be cheaper to buy and sell stuff. The thing to remember it is will most likely be cheaper in player controlled domains that the taxes are cheaper.

As in NPC controlled Domains the tax starts as any transactions in copper no tax. Silver 10% tax. Gold 20% tax. Platinum 40% tax.

100 copper = 1 silver
1,000 silver = 1 gold
10,000 gold = 1 platinum

Demesnes may have different taxes than the Domain which controls taxes on purchases that happen between domains. So if you buy an item that is for sale in that demesnes then you pay
the taxes for the demesnes only, if you buy something in a different domain you pay the domain tax rate you are in. Player cities exist
inside player demesnes which answer to a demesnes Lord or Lady.

Each Demesnes Lord/Lady has three sub ranks Viscount > Earl / Count > Marquess

Each Domain has ten player demesnes, 22 social demesnes and each demesnes has four cities in it. So, 1200 Domains mean 12,000 player demesnes with four cities with 96 lots on each one for 4,608,000 lot for player homes. If we get that many players, we will have an expansion with more domains. Player lots having a ninety-day tax with losing the property if you have not paid the tax in 180 days. The idea is you can change where you live if you decide you don't like it by selling it back for the value or defaulting on the taxes and losing the value. Player's cities which consist of 96 homes two apartment buildings and municipal buildings the mayor can live in the upper floors. We will have warehouses where players can store materials and items. warehouses are rented from the city in 90-day increments which if you can't pay at the end of the 90 days your goods go up for auction to pay for the rental. The Market boards in NPC towns are placed based on design of the town, in the player cities they will be spaced around town and inside the municipal building. Player pays their fees at their address signpost so that the fees can be linked to the lot item in code. Once a player has a lot they can teleport to the address signpost.

There will not be guild houses in the player cities but guild offices in the NPC towns and the player cities, where you can go in a accept quests off the quest board from what ever guilds you are part of. There will be a vendor to see tabards and shields with guild logos. Guilds have faction rank with every domain they are active in.

As far as server go we are looking at login servers in Norway; Japan; North Carolina, USA; Los Angeles, USA; London, UK; Zurich, Switzerland;
Sydney, Australia; Bangkok, Thailand; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; São Paulo, Brazil; Taipei, Taiwan. One of the deciding factors is in what countries we can sell the game on steam.

Where the login server gives your character a local ping while the data stays on the main game servers, so your instance of the adventure zone you are in is loaded on the login server the data it is based on stays on the world server. This way people can play all over the world together while still having a ping that works. The world servers likely will be in Iceland or North Carolina USA.

In the third book you go to another world which would still be on the world server. The Japanese server likely will require an address in Japan.

The world server will be made up of 1200 Domain servers with the world server having 100 tutorial servers that you start in, each server will transitions seamless to the next one. The login servers will hold the character in between servers. This way the server you are loading into is the login server and it is only loading resources as needed. Things that need to interact with the world server like buying land will have a five minute verification period in case two or more people try to buy the land at the same time. Since the login servers will be in Vas'Drakken property we will use the time stamps of the login servers to see who was first.

At launch we are looking at loading most players into 200 of the 1200 domains, and it takes about 8 hours of walking to cross each domain. Once you complete a certain quest you unlock mounts that cuts the time down to 4 hours at 200% speed and 2 hours at flying speed. This does not take into account that in many Domains there is not a straight path across the domain but one that follows the terrain. So you may be days away from playing with friends so we will have a teleport to friends that works once a month which teleports you to the Domain Arch in the Captain Demesnes of the Domain. We want players to get out and explore but MMOs are a social experiment and that means playing with friends. Note this does not work if you have not completed the tutorial.
The shops in the capital sell item unlocks for glamor but only if you have completed the Main Story Quest up to buying an apartment or lot.

We are also going to have one character per account as the two main reasons people need alts is one space, we have ware houses you can rent for in game currency; and two to try out all the job or classes, well you can learn any abilities on the same character even if you can only
have so many active abilities on your ability bar.

The player city below is an early concept and does not include the castle which one of the four cities will have for the Demesnes Lord or Lady. These will be designed to fit the culture of the Domain it is part of. The lots will allow any of the set pieces that go together in any player city as glamor is the end game.

The glamor system in game works by applying cloth including leather gear over cloth gear; mail including plate gear over mail,
social gear over social gear, and weapons over weapons of the same type. The animation uses the new gear. It is not about the
class fantasy as there are no classes or jobs only power level and abilities. We do have light and heavy gear which means if it is
bulky cloth gear the global cool down will be slowed by second just as if it was heavy mail gear. The idea is players want cool
looking gear and they want to show what they have done. So defeating monster camps in the adventure zone will reward cool
looking gear with stats that unlocks that item in the glamor wardrobe once worn. Since you will be playing with others in your region loot will be for anyone that scores a hit on the monster, once the monster is beaten. This way fighting monsters will drop
loot but the really cool looking gear will be from Boss monsters in the camps, and even better loot is from laires. Monster laires
are instances inside the adventure zone for a single party or raid group and loot is need greed or pass. There are dragon laires in the adventure zone which will drop the best loot. Laires do not change from week to week until beaten at which point it will still be possible to challenge them until the two week reset, when monsters will take over camps and new monsters camps will spawn.

So you will be able to buy Domain specific gear from NPC vendors for less accented pieces and level specific gear so if random is against you, you can buy gear to keep adventuring and gear that changes the look but the best gear both in looks and stats will drop from Laires. We will have gearsets to allow you to change from social clothing to adventuring gear with a press of a UI button but you have to have the items in inventory. Since you can sling magic and a sword with the same gear, there will be gear with magic stats as well as physical stats on it. Boss loot will be based on the abilities used in the fight, regular monsters will be random stats. Boss and Laire loot will bound to character. Random dropped gear will be the majority of what ends up on the market boards. Quest loot will a mix of char bound and tradable. People want to know who completed that crazy quest but the basic sword you get from farmer joe for killing giant ants anyone can trade for.

Gear quality is
Common - white: will always be tradable even if equipped and used.
Uncommon - green: these will always be tradable until equipped and used. Most player crafted gear.
Rare - light blue: these become player bound when received. Mostly from Boss drops.
Epic - purple: these become player bound and can only be sold to vendor once equipped. Best player crafted gear.
Legendary - orange: these become player bound when received. Laire loot.
Artifact - gold: these are sets of gear that can not be equipped until you have the whole set. They can be traded until
equipped. Some are quest rewards, some are boss drops, some are chests that spawn in the adventure
zone.
Mythic - dark blue: these are from questlines from reaching high adventure rank or high society rank. These are player
bound when received. They can ranged from weapons to social cloths to adventure gear.

The dye system having been built from the ground up. Gear starts with the primary zone which is the majority of the item. The
secondary zone is the contrasting material. Third zone is the trim, ie the buttons, cuff links, piping, zippers etc... Fourth zone is contrasting trim. Fifth zone is accessories. Sixth zone is contrasting accessories. Seventh zone is for undyeable zones. Eighth
zone is for weathering salt stains on leather boots repaired damage etc...

In the glamor wardrobe you will see the item and a 3D version of your character, with slots for chest, tabard/cloak, gloves, head, legs, feet. Once you select the slot the panel at the right will show what pieces you have for that slot. Once selected on the left drop down boxes will show up with all eight zones. In each drop down box are materials you have earned or bought that work with that piece of gear.

Cloth items will unlock cloth and leather materials which can be used for the primary or the secondary zones. Trim and contrasting trim are metallic materials. Accessories are things like knives, lapel pins, guild badges, pocket squares, and shoe laces. They will dye based on the items. Undyeable areas are where the artist wanted a third color of fabric or wooden buttons. The eighth zone will have decals for that particular item.

Mail items will unlock metallic materials for the primary and secondary zones. Trim and contrasting trim will be leather and fabric materials for laces and metallic materials for buckles and buttons. Accessories will work like cloth items. Undyeable zones will be for areas that have a specific material like a alligator leather vest over the mail ie things that make the item stand out. The eighty zone will work like with cloth items specific decals for that item.

Social gear will largely be limited sets of materials that look similar to the way the gear looks like if the legs item is puff and slash breeches with a black leather primary zone and blue velvet secondary zone, then black fabric would work for the primary zone, and a contrasting color of fabric for the secondary zone. If it has silver piping as a trim, than brass or gold would also work for the trim. If the colors are set because it is say an order outfit, then only the materials can change but the colors have to stay the same.

Weapons will consist of zone one the primary zone and zone two the contrasting secondary zone, trim and contrasting trim,
Makers mark, contrasting markers mark, undyable area and last particle zone. The primary zone is the largest texture on a sword it is the blade on a staff it is the wood or metal part. Secondary zone is contrasting color many weapons will not have anything here. On flails the spikes would be the secondary color. On katanas the harmon would be the secondary color. Trim on a sword would be the hilt color, contrasting trim would be the leather hilt wrapping. Makers mark will not appear on all items. Last particle would be anything like a flame effect or lighting, depending on how the emitters end up working in engine will decide if they can be changed after creation.

Next we have housing, player cities are a driving force as glamor is the true end game. We want everything from a one room wooden shack to mansion with instanced rooms that can be used as a guild hall. Basically you can have one apartment, one player lot, one warehouse, and one castle. The apartment is quest everyone is going to get every time you enter a new domain if you don't have an apartment yet. The player lot once you have earned your first gold coin the quest to buy a player lot triggers, the warehouse you can rent from the town hall, and the castle you unlock by earning your first Demesnes. Not everyone will have all of them but I have a feeling most players will have an apartment and player lot with something on it. So since basically
instead of being able to dye the materials you will have a drop down of compatible materials for the building blocks.

Last we have mounts, where the saddle with have a fabric primary and secondary zones, metallic trim and contrasting trim for buckles and piping, accessories and contrasting accessories for the items attached to the saddle, undyeable areas, and weathering areas.

The main story quest is going to be two parts a local Domain quest which leads to the society ranks and an over arching story that
is going to take inspiration from the books. The MSQ requires certain levels to continue. Meaning you don't unlock the next part of the story until you make Solider or Hedge Mage at level 21. At level 41 when you make Sargent or Magi the next quest line unlocks. Note you gain experience as a 0D (level 0 to 20), 1C (level 21 to 40), 2B (level 41 to 60), 3A (level 61 to 80), 4S (level 81 to 99); be it as a mage or solider type. level 99 is the current level cap. To progress from rank 0D to 1C you will have to complete a questline, while you are on that questline you will not gain any experience. Every rank has quest line to get to the next rank they are like mini level caps.

Experience can be gained by questing every quest in the Domain has a variant quest depending on what adventure rank you are so quests will always be hard at the bottom of a rank and easier at the top of the rank. It can also be gained by slaying monsters of the same adventure rank as you. Adventure zones Arches have color code to what rank the monsters will be inside. Rank Zero zones will have white arches. Rank one zones will have green arches. Rank two will have blue arches. Rank three will have red arches. Rank four will have black arches. Last experience can be gained by making money every silver gained market board sale will give one experience point. You get the experience points when you collect your sale money and items.

This is the society and adventure ranks.

Note that adventure ranks go up every twenty levels.
The society ranks go up based on your society rank
quests. In game you are always sworn to something unless you are a foreigner or criminal. PVP outside the
contested areas is not possible so you only get wanted status from getting caught stealing or murdering NPCs in the adventure zones. Note many of the NPCs are high level out side towns and villages and plot NPCs are invincible. Once flagged as a criminal you con red to everyone and guards will kos (kill on sight) players can attack red players outside the contested zones as being flagged means you goofed big.

Every player starts as a Foreigner, meaning they have
no faction standing with the Domain they are in.

To become a citizen, you simply have to buy an apartment or player owned lot in a player city. Note there are apartment buildings in the NPC towns as well as two in Player Cities.

To become a Burgess you have to own a player lot or warehouse. You can decide you have not decided where to buy your player house and still gain the rank of Burgess by renting a warehouse. Note once rank is
gained you do not lose it if you no longer have the property.

To become a sir you have to complete a quest for one of the orders, guilds or nobility in the domain you want faction points with. Player nobility will have the ability to place quest NPC in their castles. Guilds can be player run where the player takes control from an NPC in a special quest.

To become an Esquire you have to complete a questline with an existing Knight or Dame. This may take a long time to complete.

To become an Ambassador you have to complete three questlines, one for a guild, one for an order and one for the Domini.

Peerage (Baron > Viscount > Earl / Count > Marquess > Duke)

To become a Lord/Lady Valent you have to complete a special questline as either a sir or esquire. This can be done in an allied Domain.
A Lord or Lady Valent is comparable to a Baron and the first rank of nobility.

To become a Banner Lord/Lady you have to complete a special questline as a Lord/Lady Valent from the Domain or a Banner Lord/Lady from an allied Domain.
A Banner Lord or Lady is comparable to a Viscount and the second rank of nobility.

To become a Demesnes you have to complete a special questline as a Banner Lord of that domain. This is the first position of some power in the game. It also requires and open position ie one held by an NPC. This also includes the Player Demesnes where the player cities are.
The Demesnes has three sub ranks:
Rank One - Earl
0 silver to 1,000 silver a month
Rank Two - Count
1 gold to 1,000 gold a month
Rank Three - Marquess
1,000 gold to 10,000 gold a month

This is based on vendor sales and Market Board sales.

To become a Dux you have to become a Demesnes and there has to be an open position ie the Dux are held by NPC. There are 32 demesnes that are controlled by four Dux. Every year the questline to become a Dux opens up and you have one month to complete the quest. Once the questline closes out and the Dux are chosen the Dux with the lowest tax rate picks one Demesnes and then the next with the lowest rate that is left and so on until you start with the lowest who has already chosen one and around until all 32 are chosen.

If you have not logged in and checked on on the alliance board in 90 days you will be replaced with an NPC Noble and your rank is dropped to Lord/Lady Valent.

The social rank system is based on quests and at later stages control of the market boards taxes and NPC vendor prices. To become a Throne, you have to have become Duke in one of the Domains, and a Banner Lord in the Domain you wish to become a Throne in. To become a Dominion over a Domain you have to have been a Throne of Commerce, a Throne of Battle, or a Throne of Order. There can be many Thrones as they control certain aspects of a Domain from Knight Orders and Church Orders, to the Throne of Battle who declares war over the conflict region, to the Throne of Commerce so sets up trade deals. A domain can always overrule any orders a Throne makes by breaking the Throne of their power. The dominion only controls alliances which orders are allowed to have power in a domain. This allows up to add or remove orders at a later point.

The actual method to become a Domini/Dominia will be revealed at a later point. There will be 1200 Domains at launch and some will be NPC control only to allow for Domains that are not in conflict with anyone.

So quests in the Domain are of one of these archtypes.
Monster Invasions - where monsters spawn at a border and attack in waves burning NPC buildings until defended against or
the fail condition happens and a Monster Camp happens.
Monster Camp - where a monster camp loads over a NPC town or POI (place of interest), basically a world boss spawns and
players in that domain load into their login server instances and fight against monsters in the Domain area
these are rare as it requires the entire domain to be instanced on the login servers. Once beaten loot for
that event drops for all players that scored a hit on any of the invading monsters and special loot for those
who scored a hit on the world boss. Note the world bosses are different depending on which instance you are
in. players from any domain can join in simply by traveling through their local domain arch and selecting call
to arms option even if they have not been to that domain before.
Fetch quest - where the player has to fetch a certain amount of a specific item. Wither they buy it or craft it does not matter.
Kill quest - where the player has to kill a set number of certain type of monster in the adventure zone.
Diplomat - where the player has to go to foreign Domain and try and solve a conflict with reason. Can be completed by killing
one of the major NPC to have the other side win.
Trade Deal - where the player has to do favors or spend money to get a foreign NPC to set trade values more favorable to the
players Domain. Note this impacts the cost of NPC items and the Market Board tax rate.
Order Quest - where the player is trying to gain membership or rank within an Order or Guild. This unlocks faction standings.
Judgement - where the player has to decide who is guilty, and requires either guesswork or inspecting items and NPC
statements. The player can always chose both are wrong and get an alternative reward.
Main Story Questline - where the player has to work their way up the Society Ranks. These quests lines can be any combination
or other archtypes and some require making hard choices about wither to favor one order or guild over
another.

These are players and NPCs of Note they show up the story what of a soul.

https://www.amazon.com/What-soul-Crystal-City-Divide-ebook/dp/B07JPLP1W6