Internet Archive Circa June 1998: Future Plans

From:  http://web.archive.org/web/19980630164919/http://www.shareplay.com/futureplans.htm :



                                                                 Future Plans

Panumbra will never have a final version! And YOU have a word in what will get in to later versions.  We’ll put in things players ask us to, if we can.  Of course, we are game players as well, so we already have some ideas we want to see in the game...  here are a few to show where we’d like to go next:

	Guilds - groups of players with common interests.  Joining guilds will have certain advantages, starting from training in skills, to use of guild facilities and guild items.   We regard guilds as very important and want to implement them very soon!
	Quests - clearly, a true RPG cannot do without quests for very long.  And we want our game to be as close to a real RPG as possible!
	Aging - your character will get older with time, which is good for a while (you get more mature), but after a certain age it gets harder to keep a character in action.  Aging will help add balance to the game, by making powerful old characters less powerful, and will make training new characters more logical and desirable.  It will also encourage people to make new characters, and keep the world fresh.
	Monster movement - right now, similar monsters tend to always appear in the same place, but that doesn’t have to be true.  We can, and will, have them wander around, and even fight each other when there aren’t any other targets.
	Improved monster AI - that never hurts, the monsters that is.  Smarter monsters should act smart.
	More movement types - besides walking and teleportation, we want to crawl, climb, jump, swim, fly, meld with earth, float, sail, and so on.  This will become more important when the world is a bigger and more varied place.
	Stealing - players of other fantasy RPGs undoubtedly miss the thief-type characters.   No longer- we will add a steal skill to put them in.  Also, because monsters will ALSO be able to steal, we’ll add some skills to help prevent theft.  This will add a whole new level of play to getting and keeping items and treasure.
	Wild Zones - bloodthirsty players can kill each other in restricted areas where the Forbidding is weak!  They can also work together against each other, summon up monsters against each other, steal from each other, and so on...
	Banks - to leave your items and treasure safely, and to give you loans.  Tired of losing stuff when you die? Store it in a bank, and it’ll be waiting for you when you get back.
	Several planes of existence - we already have Life and Afterlife.  We want to have alternate planes of existence and the ability to shift between them.  Want to know where that Earth Elemental came from?  Follow him home.  Want to visit the Immortals in their own home?  You can, if you dare...
	Political institutions - kings are a very important component of kingdoms, and nations are always ruled by somebody.  This should be a part of the game world.
	Changing the world - building and destroying world elements is something we have always intended to add.  After the first full release, it’s got high priority.   Build your own homes, shops, or even cities, or destroy your enemies’.   If you’re tired of going around that thicket of trees you can cut them down.   This is an important kind of interaction in any world, so it should be a part of ours.