IDEAS FOR RYZOM

there are 5 cities in each of the 4 old starter islands, thus there would be 20 new cities total.

at the launch of the "upper branches" all cities would be occupied by bandits (bandits are the only homins left in the upper branches at launch because they are ruthless and would survive by any means needed). after a short time (3 months after launch) there could be a special event to rid the bandits from the cities. there could be an event for each city in each land. 5 cities per land, each city could be a 2 day (48 real life hours) long event, with 5 days (120 hours real time) between each city being liberated from bandit rule. (these bandits would show no mercy to any homins, regardless of alignment or civ, thus even marauders could enjoy the events.)

new, permanent, one time titles (much like kami champion and karavan champion titles are) could also be made as a reward for these events; for example if a homin works on any one event for the required amount of time they would receive the title of "jungle/lakes/desert/forest liberator". (as the land where the event took place would dictate which was awarded of course) if a player helps with all 5 cities in a land they would receive the title of "master jungle/lakes/desert/forest liberator". if a player helps with 1 to 4 cities in each land (like guardian titles the requirement would be to have one title for each land) they would receive the title "atys liberator". if a player was to help with all 5 cities in all 4 lands, they would receive the title "master atys liberator" (again like the guardian titles the requirement would be to have all 4 master liberator titles). to obtain a title a player would have to log at least 2 hours of play time in the event area (as each city will be the site of an event for a full 48 hour real time period this will offer everyone on the server a chance to meet the participation requirement)

this part of the upper branches idea would allow for a long-term ongoing chain of events that would last roughly 20 weeks (about 5 months) upon the liberation of a city ranger guards would appear there to protect all homins (rangers are neutral guards, they will not attack anyone regardless of factions, religion, or fame) these ranger guards would allow the marauders to interact with future npc's that would appear in the upper branches. these new lands are not under government rule, nor are the cities. only the rangers protect all homins, and the rangers answer to no government. they would be truly free lands for all homins, a safe-haven of sorts to all homins of all faiths and beliefs.

as there is sections that describe new NPC's in these lands, the back story for them would be that they went deep into hiding with-in the cities. as there would be no access to apartments, guild hall buildings, or any other "below ground" structures (as it would seam is where the guild halls and apartments are located after all why else would we call the access to these locations elevators?). because these npc's went into hiding they would have found a way to disable access to their hiding places, and lived on massive stores of everything needed to survive for a long long time, and perhaps they would have at times risked coming out to seek needed supplies under the cover of darkness. as these are a later addition to the upper branches lands there is still time for the creation of a story they could tell about their history while in hiding. (perhaps only a few of the one's that went into hiding survived the long timeless wait underground.)

As far as apartments in the cities on the Bark are concerned, the Tryker ones are clearly underwater, and the Zorai ones are somewhere else. I always figured that the Matis ones were up in the trunks, and the Fyros ones in Thesos are in the big building, the ones in Dyron are underground and the ones in Pyr, well, could be either.

The main question is...who built the cities/towns/whatever? Bandits? What are the bandits raiding? Bandits are a disease of society, not independent. If gangs of thugs are camping in the wilderness they aren't bandits, they're just surviving.

This is a strong argument against using the old starter islands . Another is that the starter islands (if I have been told correctly) had environments like the actual lands, so the Fyros one had cliffs and the tryker one had cliffs and lakes, etc.. This is not consistent with the environment of the Canopy. If there were cliff-like structures up there, we could see them. (A solution to *that* argument is that the new new lands are recently discovered "islands", not the Canopy.)

This is so. Those who came from the old starter islands could also only move into the countries of their own race and religion from there on, into a somewhat familiar environment, which made the trecks into other countries quite wonderous, dangerous and enchanting in a way. However, it would clearly be impossible to adapt them for upper branches environments (and it would be disenchanting if life up there would be just a blueprint of life below).

With due respect to the huge effort and thought you gave this project, Talkirc: four new lands, 20 (!) new cities? Those upper branch world obviously would be bigger than down on the bark, with more towns. Do you really think you could populate all this? Wouldn't there be an enormous danger to simply "dry out" what's on the bark by moving all neutrals up the branches and leave an in places deserted bark down there? I doubt you could triple the players by this concept, but even if you could double them, it would not be enough to populate this concept, I fear.

thanks for the thoughs, it's very much open to far more building, and in reply to you bittty, wait and read my stories i've written, those will explain your questions, this is the ideas, NOT the roleplay. the roleplay will FOLLOW these posts after 2 weeks time. don't rush for a spoiler you won't get. focus on the ideas, not the roleplay, that will come soon enough.