From Ashes to Embers
Feature
Written by chail3y
Edited by MakkChi
Feature
Written by chail3y
Edited by MakkChi
Welcome back to the Daily Diviner! For today’s feature article, I will be covering two events that go hand in hand: Root of the Problem and Rise from Ashes! On January 30th at 12pm PST, a Live Event was held, which led to the Phoenix Base event’s release! There was a lot of behind the scenes work on both of these events and they have truly been a huge step for the Roleplay team. However, as the team grows, the story brews darker.
Over the past few weeks, there has been tension growing among the various allegiances and clubs. The world itself is becoming more dangerous, and the magical community is becoming more hostile. Many of the groups are gearing up for a potential war. The Phoenixes face repeated attacks on their Refuge, a new Dark Lord has risen in the Dark Followers, Vampires and Werewolves are taking sides, and the Aurorlocks are trying to maintain peace. Now looking specifically at the Phoenixes, they recently obtained files from the Aurorlocks about former Ministry Official Shakti Bhardwaj, as they believe there is more to the story than meets the eye. They have also been hard at work building and are now moving into the newly built Phoenix Base.
During the live event, Root of the Problem, the Dark Followers attacked the brand new Phoenix Base by utilizing a series of tunnels underneath the base that lead to the prisons. Once the phoenixes discovered that the Dark Followers were indeed going through with their plan, they took position to defend their new home. They used tools such as potions, Peruvian Darkness Powder, and creatures called Homunculi to slow the intruders. The Dark Followers continued to preserve and dodge traps while the Phoenixes tried to stop them. When they finally broke through to the cells, they were greeted with empty cells, which is not what they were looking for. Due to the false report, the Dark Followers were led to believe that the Phoenixes had some of their own in custody. After the shocking surprise of nothing in the cells, a duel broke out between both sides’ leaders. This event tragically resulted in Andreu, the Phoenix Flamekeeper, falling into a coma. He was struck by a spell cast by the Dark Lord, Noah Pendragon.
Now from a more technical point of view, this event was pretty unique. The Roleplay team found new ways to utilize the server’s tech to create a parallel running activity. This had the two allegiances actively working against each other. The Phoenixes were crafting and collecting items to set off traps that the Dark Followers then had to dodge as they ran through obstacles and parkour. Because this had never been done before on Potterworld, I reached out to some people who greatly influenced the process. To give some insight into the event’s creation, I brought in the Roleplay Lead, NSgaming, and the High Seer leading the project, Scientin! Here is what they have to say:
In terms of the live event, we knew going in that this was going to be right after the Dark Duel, so we wanted to make sure we had a different type of event, we wanted it to be more interactive, like the Aurorlock base event at the end of Chapter One. Thanks to Joshios, we had a lot of new tech to play with, and I think it led to us creating something really really unique and really cool that ties into our story so far, and all I can say for now is that Andreu going into a coma could likely have major ramifications down the line in terms of where our story is headed. - NSgaming
Going into this project, we wanted to try something very new with the gameplay for this live event. In the past even if we had multiple sides you could choose, you were still completing the same gameplay on either side. This is our first time doing a live event where the side you choose has a significant effect on the gameplay you encounter, and I think that's really exciting! It's been amazing leading this project and going through the process of brainstorming and designing tech, and I can't wait to see what the players think! - Scientin
Now, moving forward, a gameplay event was released shortly after the conclusion of the live event. Rise from Ashes is set right after the Phoenixes have moved into their newly built base. Players are invited to travel from the Roleplay Hub to explore the new base and interact with members of the Phoenixes who are completing various tasks. These include researching threats, moving into the new base, as well as preparing potions for battle. On top of this, players are also encouraged to find several hidden secrets that allow them to learn more about the new base, family history, and also several hints of what's to come.
Quite a few things went into this event, and many teams were involved. One of our largest out of department requests was the beautiful new base itself! When you first arrive, it is easy to realize this is not your average base. There are greenhouses and a dueling arena, and various landscape features scattered across the ground; however, there are three gigantic trees in the center. With the brooms around the base of the tree, players can travel to the Phoenixes’ primary residence. Detailed buildings and secrets fill these branches. The decision to place the houses in the trees was intentional, so make sure to look out for clues about the history as you explore.
The builders worked very hard on this request. It was a very challenging build that made them genuinely think about many different things while constructing it. I decided to ask two members of the team to tell us about their experience. Shira (0ceqn) is the Lead Architect who was in charge of the project, and Belle (trashdotcom) is an Architect who put in many hours of work and dedication into this project.
I had lots of fun working on the Phoenix base! The people I worked with are all amazing and extremely hard working individuals and it was wonderful to share ideas and build with them. Some parts of the building process were a bit more challenging to me, like getting the shape of the trees right. But attempting new building techniques, while also learning from one another was my favorite part. I think we did a good job, and it was really cool to see it all coming together. - Oceqn
The Phoenix Base is one of my favourite projects that I've worked on. Although it took a long time, it was all worth it in the end because we were all super happy with the results. But the most rewarding part of building isn't to see a vision become a reality, it's about how much the players enjoy it. Watching the community explore and have fun during the event is what makes all the hard work worth it in the end. And I have a feeling people will like this one as much as I enjoyed working with the team on it! - trashdotcom
With such an exciting base, the Roleplay team knew they wanted to do something extra special. They chose to follow the usual roleplay standards with hidden NPCs and interactions that the community loves. Scattered throughout the base, there are 30 interactions and 15 NPC's for players to discover. These foreshadow future events in roleplay and teach you more about the Lord of the Phoenix and his inner circle. Some of these interactions and NPC's correlate with each other and tell miniature stories or give hints towards one. There is a reward for finding the interactions and one for finding the NPCs. Also, in this event, another huge step for roleplay was made by adding quests!
There are 6 quests that can be played through and are marked with the New Quest hologram underneath them. The quests are rbout the Lord of the Phoenixes, Joshua Pendragon, and some of the trusted phoenixes, as well as the basic daily stuff they do. Once again, I spoke with NSgaming, the Lead Seer, to explain how this project came to be.
The Phoenix Gameplay event I think has been our most ambitious, but also challenging project to date. We knew going in, we wanted to reveal the new base for the Phoenixes, but what we ended up with is something that's so much more than that. This is sort of an inflection point in terms of our story for Chapter 2, and the gameplay event allows us to expand and further the story in ways that we really haven't seen before. This was our first foray as a team into quest tech and quest design, and I'm really proud of what everyone has done. It was certainly challenging, but we managed to get it done and produce some really interesting quests that allow you to learn more about specific characters' backstories and who they are. - NSgaming
I had the opportunity to watch the Roleplay team grow first hand because I was the High Seer who led this project. With the help of so many people we were able to bring this event to the community and I am extremely proud of the team and what we accomplished. This was a challenging project for many reasons, and one of our setbacks regarded tech. Without the support of the tech training team, we would not have successfully finished the tech. Lauren (Miss_Strudel) worked very closely with several Seers on training and this is what she has to say.
The seers are such a creative and story-driven team and it’s very rewarding to help some of the newer members learn Potterworld’s tech and be able to turn these stories into gameplay! - Miss_Strudel
As I mentioned earlier, many people were involved in the creation of both of these events. While we pushed the barriers with tech, we also utilized the magic systems in new ways. I asked two very influential members of the staff team who helped with this to share their experiences.
Working on magic for the Phoenix Base gameplay and live event was a wonderful experience! I'm very interested in roleplay, and the fact that I was able to contribute to something so unique was an incredible experience. - Joshios
The phoenix base live event was a really interesting project to work on from a magic standpoint because what the Seer team did was very unique, and we had to come up with new ways of doing things that we hadn't done before. We also had a lot of help from one of our Unspeakables, Joshios, who did a fantastic job with some of the traps. - apaulled
These events were huge projects for Roleplay, and we could not have done it without some very key people. Several teams were involved, including the Seer Team, Build Team, Tech Training Team, Curse Breakers, Arithmancers, Groundskeepers, and Poltergeists.
I would also like to give a special thank you to the following people for both their above and beyond contributions to the events and their quotes about their experiences!
Shira - 0ceqn - Build Project Lead
Belle - trashdotcom - Large Build Contribution
Lauren - Miss_Strudel - Tech Training
Joshua - Joshios - Magic Contributions
Paul - appalled - Magic Contributions
Joshua - Scientin - Live Event Project Lead
Noah - NSgaming - Lead Seer
Thank you for taking the time to read this article, and I hope you enjoyed it. Don’t forget, Rise from Ashes is available till February 12th, so make sure to check out the event and watch out for what might come next. I hope that this article could give everyone a little more insight into both of these events. Both what the events were about, but also what it took to put them on. This was Chailey reporting for the Daily Diviner, and I hope you enjoy the rest of this issue!