Talk:Amber

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Just noting Amber hasn't been coded yet. Only added a) due to my own love for the material and b) well amberites do come from there :)


There's a lot that will have to be done in order for Amber to be coded into the game as an accessible place. The physical location itself won't be difficult, but it's all the bells and whistle which make it interesting that will take time to code. The castle itself may take a little while, but the pattern at the bottom will take a while, especially since every amberite PC will want to walk the pattern and be something special. The Sea of Rebma isn't difficult, but the reflected pattern will pose an issue, especially if once an amberite finds he cannot walk the real pattern, they will be looking for the stairs into the water. The forest could probably be coded in one night--coding Julian will take some time, especially if you include his mount and his hounds. It will also probably be necessary to code in a means of traversing the shades in order to even get to Amber, and to do so in a manner consistent enough with the series. One of the things I would definitely be looking forward to is the trump deck, and that is a major undertaking in and of itself. If we get those few hurdles out of the way, the rest of Amber should be relatively easy. All that aside, it would be nice to one day see Amber and all of its offshoots, as well as the full Courts of Chaos. Given the scope of such a project, some concessions must be made. We can either a.) wait patiently while it all gets coded properly and can be released all at once, b.) accept smaller strides towards the end goal (Outsiders update, the second pattern found in one of the outer planes, the ability to traverse shades but not reach Amber yet, shadow creatures that make their appearance in the Prime...just little things added at once that will eventually be drawn into the final project), c.) keep badgering in hopes that some uberdev will be sick of it enough to actually make the project (which runs the risk of an uberdev outright refusing to do it), d.) exercise patience and subtlety to keep the project on the radar without being obnoxious about it. My preference is a combination of b and d, where the overall project is still churning on a back burner somewhere, but we start seeing things like a wandslinger vigil assaulted by an unnamed amberite with a pack of shadow hounds, or discovering that the chaos knight that we are accustomed to in the Exoma has been recently changed so that it is a chaosborn that is actually in the Chaos Knight guild. And looking over some of the changes of late, it seems Chaos may have a thing or two up his sleeve. The new limb changes would make it much easier to have a dynamically shifting guild much like the ChaosMorphs. --Bladestorm 13:29, 6 August 2008 (EDT)

I agree b and d, badgering isn't my style, though I think it's abundantly clear I have a passion for Zelazny's work. It's nice to see so many others (including yourself and Chaos) enjoy it too. Personally I'm in no rush to see it up and running, but after 15 years of seeing future guilds: Princes of Amber on the help guilds... I don't mind poking here occasionally. I can see a lot of problems in coding the bells and whistles. I mean other than planewalking and being pretty good with their stats, what special powers to amberites actually have? Their main ability at shifting shadow would actually be tough to code. Trump deck, I can at least visualize how that would be enabled, and man... Benedict should be the most difficult character in the game. :) --Aedhan 15:39, 6 August 2008 (EDT) (first comment also by me, forgot to sign).

Coding up an entire plane can be quite an undertaking, though it can be done. A few things need to be establish first, and the rest of it can fall into place. Planes do not fall into the same specification as Regions, so one of the factors involved is how big to make the plane. Starting a new plane, though, doesn't have as many complications as I came across coding up the first few pieces of the Prime plane, namely that there are no internal projects that have to be linked to it. Compared to Avalon, how big is Amber? What terrains will be encountered? What lifeforms are indigenous to Amber that are not found elsewhere? What lifeforms are found in Amber that are also found in another shade somewhere? Who are the major personalities that will need to be included? Are there any special armour, weapons, or items? What is there to eat? Are there any specific materials found in this plane and nowhere else? Are there any special atmospheric effects? How does one access this plane/how is access to the plane barred? What audience would this plane be geared towards? Once it is released, what kind of players are going to be using this plane as their hunting zones? What guilds/associations are to be added into this project? What future projects need to be accounted for when initially setting this up? What creatures are Rangers going to try to take as familiars, and how will this affect the balance of other ranger familiars? What guilds will find this plane beneficial, and which will find it adversarial (some may be blatantly obvious, but all guilds must be considered)?

Just a few ideas to think about while other projects are getting finished up, and to keep the ideas fresh. --Bladestorm 12:52, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

Amber. Even the name strikes some deep longing deep inside. Eternal city, the one true world. Etc etc. Actually in terms of 'canon' areas, Amber itself isn't actually clear defined outside the city. I have a map sitting on my hard drive for the city and there's a visual guide I may have as well in electronic format for the castle, though badly written (even if sanctioned by Zelazny, it isn't his work, just a 'cash in' and a bad one). In terms of areas. Castle, City, Forest of Arden, Lighthouse at Cabra, Rebma, Tir na nogth. The enviroment is similiar to Avalon, but with a more sunshiney feel to it. In terms of people, it actually depends on time-setting. I know Chaos was originally intent on an Oberon being King timeframe, though I think in terms of PCs being Princes, a third-generation post-Pattern War makes more sense to me, though Gav's background is easily adapted so that he could fit in either (another son of Oberon). My own write-up for Princes actually just made them a powerful faculty rather than a guild.--Aedhan 22:03, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

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