Dawn of Steam Wiki – Faction Preview
Dawn of Steam is set in a Victorian steampunk world with three dominant factions fighting for control of the land and resources. Each factions has its own unique flavor.
The Julians are your standard steampunk factions. They are a mixture of Full Metal Alchemist, Fable, Hayao Miyazaki, and Jules Verne (hence the name). They live Victorian-style cities where steam power and technology dominates.
The Julians are split up into multiple social classes. The rich live a lavish and decadent lifestyle and are often arrogant and care little for the suffering of the poor. The middle class is filled with the intellectuals of society. The scientists, machinists, and tinkerers fill the middle class. They are often personally contracted out by upper class nobles for work. The lowest class is the poor which is mostly mercenaries, manual laborers and vagabonds. Overall, the Julians are a very industrial society that tends to consume without giving much back. The governmental style is a monarchy with a parliament-like advisory council.
For combat, the Julians use guns, machines and robots as well as advanced mechanical melee weapons. They have lost their connection to the planet and use alchemical practices to make up for that loss.
The Organics are a more primal and nature oriented faction. They are of a more fantasy style. The Organics are attune with the planet and harness its power to fight off its enemies. They are mostly druidic and shamanistic in style, constantly in contact with the spirits of the planet and the animals that inhabit it. Other Organics focus on using the elemental forces of the world to cause destruction of their enemies.
The Organics believe in the equality and sanctity of all life so long as you are respectful of the planet. They see the outsiders as people who just lost their way at best, and an infection to the planet at worse.
For combat, the Organics use standard fantasy weapons, spirit weapons, animal companions, and standard fantasy elemental magics.
The Synthetics are the result of a Julian disaster. One of the largest Julian cities was one day wiped from the planet due to the accidental detonation of an immensely powerful, and extremely experimental bomb. The explosion wiped out the nearby forests filled with some Organic settlements as well. The event killed thousands and everyone else was mutated. Not only that, but the explosion was so powerful that it opened a void to another world filled with strange beasts and demonic aberrations. The corruption of the Void and the beasts from within poured into the area of the cataclysm. The Void imbued the Synthetics, as they called themselves, with dark powers.
Now outcasts from their respective factions of the Julians and Organics, these Synthetics seek to claim vengeance upon their former comrades and make everyone Synthetic. They are the "evil" faction of the game.
For combat, the Synthetics call upon the dark power of the Void. They use demonic weaponry, necromancy, dark magic and have control of void aberrations and other strange beasts.
Dawn of Steam Wiki – Introduction
Months ago, I was working on a series of blog posts outlining all the features I would like to have within a dream MMO. Dreaming is nice, but it is easy to talk about a lot of interesting design choices without looking at the full picture of how they integrate into the game and the impact they have on the rest of the system.
So after talking to Rynala a month or so ago about this MMO idea I had, I decided I would make it my pet project to actually write up full design proposals for the game. I have quite a few blog post outlines but a lot of them need further thought development.
I have started a wiki at http://dawnofsteam.wikia.com/ to serve as the living design document for the game. This is not ever going to be a real game, but it is instead a chance for me to be creative and pretend to be a designer and developer for while. I am using a wiki as my design document so that I can easily reference other aspects of the game and make sweeping changes when needed. If there is one thing we all know about MMOs, it is that visions change.
I will post articles from the Wiki here initially though the pots here will be used as just a start on that topic. As different aspects of the game develop, all the articles will increase in length and complexity. Anyway, my first post will be following this one and will be a bit about the world, the factions, and the lore since I always enjoy developing stories first and then working off that.
I hope you all enjoy it.
LotRO Deal
Just a heads up that Turbine still has the deal on for purchasing Lord of the Rings online for the anniversary price of $10. That is $10 for the original game AND the expansion or just the expansion if you already have a copy of the original game.
Being that the Mines of Moria expansion only came out about six months ago, this is an AMAZING deal. For $20, I was able to pick up Mines of Moria for myself and the complete package for Rynala.
It has been about a year since the last played LotRO and I stopped playing not because of the grind, but because I did not have any friends that I knew in game. If I recall correctly, I was able to get a captain character to level 27 or so before I quit. I enjoyed captains all except for the fact that I could not heal myself.
We will probably start playing together this weekend and so I am going to roll a new character and play along side Rynala the whole way through. Now, when I last played Minstrels were the only pure healer in game, with captains and loremasters have a few, but not very good, healing abilities.
I read that in Mines of Moria, they introduced the Runekeeper class that is another healer. How do those compare to minstrels for healing. What are the difference in style between them and which one is the overall best in pure healing?