So, Who Are These Titans Anyway?
Posted by Izanagi on December 15 2015 17:25:00
For a while now we have heard the echoing footsteps of the coming of Titans, but what does this all mean? Should we run for the hills and hide our children, or should we celebrate and throw them a big party?
Izanagi answers neither of these questions - but hopefully addresses some other rather more useful ones which have surfaced from the community. Inquiring minds want to know and answers are forthcoming.
Read more to find out... more.
Extended News
Various people have asked: "What is Titan?"
From a thematic point of view, the theory of a level of being beyond Lord or even Legend has long been theorised. At long last a group of Lords were able to attain enough enlightenment to make the transition in their beings to assume the mantle of Titan themselves and they discover that they were in fact not the first at all... but rather others came before them. The evidence is clear in what they left behind them. But millennia have passed and the world was young when the first Titans vanished. Where did they come from and what happened to them? Only the newest Titans will be in a position to find answer these questions.
Kickball asked: "Can we get a short description of the design concept behind it?"
Titan is the newest, highest tier of play for Avatar. It will be player vs mob and is intended to be a much tougher experience than previous tiers. Titans will also have the ability to affect both themselves and the wider community though differing methods. Titan play is intended to be aimed at groups of 3-6, similar to Hero, but duo and solo options should be possible too.
Boss asked: "What are the requirements to become a Titan?"
Titan will be accessed directly from Lord. Level 300 is currently being considered for the minimum level needed to become a Titan. For those who wish to be true fae or demons, it would probably be a good idea to do those quests before becoming a Titan. Likewise, if an alt is destined to become a Legend, then it would probably be a good idea to ensure that they troika before they become a Titan. In addition, a short quest will be needed to completed as part of the becoming process, the interactive outcome of which will have an affect on the starting Titan.
Troz asked: "Where is the bridge from Legend to Titan?"
There is not one. Titan will accessed directly from Lord. There is no requirement to Legend in order to Titan. There will be a connection between Legend and Titan from a thematic point of view relating to the Objects of Power and Aspects.
Figglewump asked: "Will there be a pfile split?"
No. Any Lord becoming a Titan will leave the Lord tier behind, for that alt anyway.
Moiraine asked: "Will there be a limit of one Titan per player?"
No. However, it is anticipated that Titan play will be intensive and hard enough that players will probably not want to divide their time between two different alts at Titan. On the other hand, this sort of thing is always really driven by the player base - so some players may want multiple Titan alts.
Zarf asked: "Is the tier level known for Titan?"
Initially Titan will be level 500. There will be 15 further sub-tiers of Titan which will range upwards into the 700's. Titan areas will also come in different level ranges, grouped into five types named after the perfect gemstones, Amethyst being the initial grouping and Diamond being the final grouping. Currently typing AREA TITANS will show you the three Titan areas live in the game, but only because that command shows all non-standard areas. In the future the command logic will show only the Titan areas.
Moiraine asked: "Will Titans be able to descend and if so what effect will that have on any 999 Lords who became Titans?"
I believe that there will be a descend option for Titans to return to Lord, if they should so wish. This will probably take the Titan back to Lord 1 and be rerolled in a similar way in which Lords descending to Heroes are treated. This may be subject to change. The stats of a Lord will have some effect on the stats of a Titan, but to a far lesser degree than Hero stats have on Lord morphs. It is very likely there will not be a significant difference between a Lord 300 becoming a Titan and Lord 999 becoming a Titan in terms of Titan stats. On the other hand, when not in a Titan area, Titans will become automatically shadowed and their stats should be those of their pre-Titan Lord.
There is no plan to have any kind of Titan remort race or class. The only reason to become a Titan is to experience Titan play, not as a route to another character.
Moiraine asked: "Are there any contingency plans to address the possibility that Lord will lose some of its players making runs across time zones difficult?"
Not really, no. There is the possibility that shadowed Titans might be able to participate in Lord runs as if they were actual Lords, but without gaining XP. Titans should need far smaller groups than Lord, so it remains to be seen exactly how the dynamic will affect the player distribution. It may be that in the same way players switch between Hero and Lord depending on what is happening online at any given time, this trend will remain steady with Titan. This is the kind of thing which players will largely determine themselves.
Yugglemimp asks: "What special new powers will Titans get?"
Currently, I am not sure what if any new class skills are planned for Titan. The designers are looking at the code for Titans in general and how they generally will interact before adding further class specific refinements. All Titans will have access to a couple of special customizable options to affect their individual characters, closely connected with Aspects.
Qismat asked: "What do Titans eat?"
Goblins.
Actually, in a sense, Titans will eat crystals. Some Titanic mobs will have special crystals which are aspected in one or even more ways. These crystals can be used by the Titans to enhance their powers - the more powerful the Titan, the more enhancements they can handle at once. This atunement process will consume the crystal and so in a sense, Titans will eat crystals.
Riktibix asked: "Will Titans get a whole new set of cool gear?"
Yes, they will. It will be very cool. There will be boots and everything. Getting it off the mobs might be tricky, but there will be a wide range of gear available on all sorts of mobs. Tougher mobs will generally hold better gear and more of it. There will less focus on 'gear mobs' though.
Lolligagger asked: "Why are there only three Titan areas?"
More will be added and more are currently being worked on. Additional Titan areas will go in as Titans explore and get to grips with the current areas. We have some fun ideas - hopefully. The new areas promise to be some of the freshest, most dynamic and challenging areas in the game to date. As we get a better grip ourselves of what Titan actually means in practice over theory, then it will be easier to build additional areas. Further, some areas are designed to change over time both in temporary and in permanent ways based on player interaction.
Sicmenow asked: "So when is Titan going to be live anyway?"
I really am not sure. Fight code is a one of the major things which needs to be sorted out and it is has not yet been properly tested. Once that is done, we should hopefully see things go live not long after that. Coding and development is continuing to happen on other parts in the mean time. Given the proximity of Christmas and New Year, I seriously doubt we will see this until 2016. While I would like to be more specific than that, I do not want to give an exact date and then have it fail to be met due to a RL bottleneck or some other set back. What I can say is that Titan has been being worked on for well over a year now and we are very close to the point where it will open for players.
Humblefrux asked: "Is what you are telling us 100% true here?"
All information is 100% true according to my understanding. My caveats are however that various different tasks have been shared out between the Imm team who have been and are continuing to work on Titan and I am not a coder, so I may have made a mistake or had to be a bit vaguer than I would like in places. Also, there is always the 'subject to change' warning. We are currently still in development, so there may be some final changes to the details. There could also be some changes after Titan is live as well as feedback comes in and we understand a lot more about it.
Yickityspigglethorpe asked: "Were all of these questions posed by players or did you actually make some of them up yourself?"
I made up some of them. It is a bit difficult to ask questions about something you are not sure what it really is. It is generally the nature of things that the more you know about something, the more questions you can ask. Hopefully the additional questions are helpful and will allow further questions to be asked. If there are further questions, they can be mailed directly to me, noted to me on board 2, or even added as comments here. I will do another Q&A in the New Year.
Izanagi.