Argyle Online Interview
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The world of Argyle is a truly unique world, complete with custom content, background, and players, and even has a rich, lush history to accompany it. It has also been a relatively under the radar' server, garnering only a handful of dedicated players and staff, all of which work hard to maintain the strong ethics and style that Argyle wishes to present to the community. We recently had the opportunity to speak with the Lead Developer for Argyle Online, Xyx, who is quickly becoming deeply involved in Argyle, along with the Silver Oaks Studio team and other builders. Here's what he had to say:GB: First, tell us about yourself and your staff.
Xyx: You know the drill, Aegis. All Argyle Online DM's and builders come directly from the player base or Silver Oak Studios. They are motivated people, dedicated to upholding the Argyle concept. For details, see http://www.lonerhino.com/argyle/manifestos/ Pick from that what you need.
(ed. At the time of this interview, I was told that Heed was no longer actively involved in the Argyle Online project.)
GB: What is Argyle's purpose and goals for a server?
Xyx: To be as close to the Pen & Paper version of Argyle as possible. A big table where DMs and players come and go to play D&D in the land of Argyle, as it were.
GB: What sort of content does Argyle boast over other servers?
Xyx: The unique stuff is mostly scripting, invisible to players. Most of the visual stuff has been borrowed from others, but we pride ourselves in the unique way we've woven it together and our attention to detail in doing so.
The module's areas can be roughly divided into two categories. On one side we have the regular persistent world part where PCs socialize, shop and fight spawned creatures. On the other side we have generic quest areas. These areas are specially designed to function as building blocks in DM led quests. We have, for example, an area consisting entirely of dungeon rooms and corridors. A DM taking players on a dungeon romp could link various rooms and corridors together (by jumping players around) to create a unique dungeon every time. Although Unidan and its surroundings are small, you could travel far and wide on your quests.
GB: What is Argyle's current area of progression?
Xyx: We work on it constantly and try to update weekly. Most of our updates consist of upgrades to various existing matters. Since we emphasize quality and detail over numbers and size, we don't often add entire new areas.
GB: What are some plans that the lead staff of Argyle Online have in regardes to future development?
Xyx: Short term additions include respawning treasure in containers that can be bashed open Diablo style, a number of visual tile set, creature skin and placeable upgrades and a new inventory/chat driven store interface.
GB: Argyle boasts a huge amount of lore and history, promising a rich and in-depth background. How exactly is this incorporated into Argyle Online?
Xyx: Anything published by Silver Oak Studios is absorbed by our staff. We then try to exemplify that in the module and educate our players on it. We expect our players to be aware of at least the basics of Argyle culture.
