We have planned for two classes of NPC in Emerald Kingdom. The first class of NPC will be nearly the standard variety of a Non Player Character. As I said yesterday, NPC’s need to evolve. So when I say nearly the standard, I mean just that. These are NPC’s which will help populate the starter towns, and be there for interaction. They will differ in that they will not simply be Quest Vending Machines. When they do deal out quests, how and when they do so will be vastly different.

The other class of NPC will be the Sprites, not to be confused with sprites. Note the capitalization. In the Emerald Kingdom, Sprites refer to a race of people.  The Sprites, from a story standpoint, are the result of some pretty violent evolutionary changes. Getting back to the point however, Sprites will be an integral part of what I discussed yesterday: linear story and quest lines. Sprites and Sprite politics will be areas in and of themselves available to explore. How Sprites relate to the players, and the regular people NPC’s will be one of the big parts of Emerald Kingdom. In keeping with our view of choice, it will be your choice to get involved or to not get involved. There will be plenty of other things to do, see, and be a part of.  There will also be other quests and missions to perform.

One part of Sprite life however, will be unavoidable. Marks. Sprites are classified, at least for us on a development standpoint as positive and negative. They each have their own mark. Kerix is responsible for the Mark of Greed. Beatrice gives out the Mark of Mind. Cries gives out the Mark of Grief. Each of these marks are given out based on the things you do within the world. When you receive a Mark, it affects your character stats and attributes. However, there is a kicker here: whether those changes are for good or for bad, will be for you the player to decide. While negative Sprites may be evil, or not very good…their Mark may have specific benefits to you. Some Sprites may be positive, upbeat, non bad and completely good. But if you are a part of the spy class, you may not want Marcia Proba’s Mark of Justice. Of course, certain types of Marks will be system related. The aforementioned Mark of Grief will be doled out by Cries. She will give it to people who have been caught griefing other players.

The Mark system will be fairly dynamic. Ultimately, it will be very intimately enmeshed with the skill and attribute system. We will be talking about skills and attributes in another post. But, one thing I would like to relay here is: there will be no need to have character “rebirth” or stat “resets”. Attributes will be non numerical, and be changeable over time. The Mark system will work hand in glove with this system. It will allow for new ways of customizing your character.

In closing, we think dynamic questing and dynamic attributes and customization with Sprites and Marks is going to be something you, the player will absolutely love. We here at Double Cluepon really cannot wait to try it.