Last year, it was been determined by the Grand Master and his advisers that the meaning and purpose behind Dark Jedi Orders and Dark Brotherhood Force powers were no longer reflective of the Dark Brotherhood's present state. Orders and Powers existed primarily in name only, had obsolete fictional backgrounds and offered no additional benefits to the Dark Brotherhood membership.

The diverse interests of members often mean that many of them play outside the traditional roles of their Order and Class. Our old system of Force Powers and Orders limited a member to the exact same build as every other person who held the same rank. So, Sarin and his team embarked to create a new system to correct those problems.

The Grand Master further realized that Orders and Class based Force Powers were too ingrained into the Brotherhood's ethos to be done away with entirely, so he decided to update them by adding Order Disciplines. By enhancing their fictional roles, allowing members the freedom to select their Character’s path, and creating our new Force Powers, the Brotherhood leaders hope to offer a deeper experience of play.

Today, after a healthy delay caused by some SQL injectors, the fruits of Sarin’s labor and leadership are realized with the release of new character sheets. This is the first of many steps in the Dark Brotherhood's goal of giving our members a more unique experience. These changes will serve to modify our DB persona to better integrate with the many additional improvements ahead.

The character sheets are based on some complex table structures and code that allow for complete customization of our force powers system. Included is the ability to make any character trait or power a prerequisite for another, or link certain traits to ranks or positions. The system allows for unlimited expansion and customization. For instance, we can now link a specific power to those 20 Dark Crosses you’ve been hoarding. We can easily add clan powers to the mix. We can easily add new fields for customization.

Outside of the customization, the character sheets offer a new way to track characters. Rather than each member having one character sheet, the new system limits the member to one active sheet, but unlimited archived sheets. Now, when you start an ACC match in January, you can change your character sheet in February, but retain the January edition to finish out that battle. Five years from now, you can look back and see what powers you had and what your progression was.

There is a lot more hidden away in the code that you will figure out. It’s a powerful program. That, and it’s dead sexy like Jac.

That’s not to say it’s perfect. There are a lot of bugs left. We’ve identified a lot already, including the lousy log-out bug that randomly sends people to the login page. If you notice a bug, please report it here.

As started above, these sheets bring two major facets to the DB. Here’s an overview:

Disciplines : Each Order has three "Classes," known as Disciplines. They consist of two unique paths and a very general "warrior" path that is common to all three. This was done because the warrior concept has a very strong inherent connection to Dark Jedi that is present in every Order. We have looked at the things that characterize a given Order, in addition to a warrior class, and selected the most interesting aspects to offer the member variety, rewards, and fictional depth reflecting their choices.

Force Powers : Each member of the Dark Brotherhood has been awarded a set number of points based on their current rank to "purchase" Force Powers. Force Powers grow increasingly more powerful and are categorized in five "Rites". The Rites consist of First Rite (Initiate-Acolyte), Second Rite (Protector to Dark Jedi Knight), Third Rite (EQ1 to EQ4), Mastery (Dark Adept to Dark Prophet), and Grand Mastery. We have placed powers in tiered relationship system and have also created an additional system for Order Force Powers. Please play around with your new character sheet to see the various ways you can make your DB persona as unique as possible.

More information in the form of written documents on both the force powers and the discipline system will be linked later in the weekend.

Also, there is some new stuff from Muz: several new sabers and robes that you can select that are based on what order you belong to. Clicking around in the robe and saber selectors will show you what you can get there. These are available for people from the rank of DJK up. There's also some new warbanner options coming available very soon. Watch for a report from Muz for more details.

To get started on your character sheet, go to the administration menu and find the new link to it. It’s bolded so you can find it.

Please note that these sheets are not linked to or integrated into the ACC yet. That will occur next week. For now we are ironing out bugs and letting the first batch go through the approval process.

We are always open to suggestions. Please send any you have to myself, Orv and Karel.

As a final note on the new release, I just want to make sure that credit on this is given where credit is due. The Force Power overhaul was of Sarin’s making. He pushed the reforms through, without which, I would have just coded the same old crap. Sarin, Raken, Muz, Kir, Halc and everyone else that worked on the Force Powers and Discipline system deserve a ton of credit for this.

Special thanks also go out to Orv and Karel who have been quite instrumental in ironing out bugs in this. Further, thank you to all of you who helped with the beta testing, with a special shout out to Benevolent and Kaek who stood out as the most thorough. Shinies for all!

And as my parting note, this is my last project that I am undertaking as Seneschal. I sent Sarin and Muz my letter of resignation two days ago, explaining that it is time for someone to seriously take over my role in guiding the direction of the site. I’ve made my recommendation, and Sarin, I’m sure will make an announcement to that effect soon. My retirement will be effective as soon as we get the ACC up and running on the character sheets.

I have enjoyed my time as Seneschal, but as I explained when I first took the job, it was not something I really wanted in the first place. When I retired to Taldryan, I had intended to stay, but when the DB called I came running. I want to go back because, well, I’m a bit burnt out. Too many late nights of cleaning SQL Injected code got to me, and the delays that my new RL job and the injectors caused on this project have really killed my drive. I think I’m ready for some more fun; I see my out and I’m taking it.

That doesn’t mean I’m really going to stop coding. I think it just means that I’m going to code what I want to code instead of coding what I have to. I’m going to continue hosting the site and contributing in any way I can. I’m still going to push through my amazing ideas, but I’ll do so from the Old Folks Home.

Thank you all for your patience over the last year and for supporting me throughout. I hope that you like the Character Sheets. I consider this “going out with a bang.”

Again, please use the forum link above to submit bugs. Make sure they go to me, Orv and Karel if you submit anything by e-mail – I am going to be gone most of the weekend, but they can fix stuff while I’m gone.

Enjoy!

Truly,
Jac Cotelin