What Is Carpe Noctem?

Carpe Noctem is a Medieval third person low-fantasy online game set in Scotland in the year 1308. The core game-loop is modeled after the "dungeon" extraction system similar to games such as Escape from Tarkov or Dark and Darker. In Carpe Noctem, what common folk thought was real (both physically and spiritually) IS REAL in our game. 1307 was a pivotal year in history as it was the year that King Phillip the IV of France outlawed and arrested the Knights Templar, accusing them of worshipping Baphomet. It is also the year that Robert the Bruce rebelled against King Edward of England and then lost a major battle and fled into hiding in the Isles of western Scotland to rebuild his army. Carpe Noctem has elements of both the Scottish War for Independence as well as the Spiritual Warfare of the Knights Templars vs. Demonic forces. Further detail on these concepts on the Gameplay Systems and Lore pages of this website. The combat style of Carpe Noctem is third person with an emphasis on realism, similar to games such as Chivalry and Mordhau. 

After the Prologue/Tutorial, the player creates their character and then starts on an Island off the western coast of Scotland. You find out that there are old ruins deep in the Black Cuillien Mountains nearby, where it is rumored that an old pagan cult lives. You are tasked by the Priest of the Village Glenbrittle, to find a stolen relic from the church. This begins your RPG questline which has instanced level elements to it. Aside from the RPG elements discussed further on this website, this initial quest/dialogue is to introduce you to the dungeon concept. Before diving into the dungeon, it is important to understand the core gameplay loop. 

Phase 1, THE VILLAGE: The village environment offers an area that players can engage in dialogue with Village NPCs, other players, as well as harvesting/gathering/crafting on the Island in a non-combative/threatening environment. This includes mini-games such as various gambling, social interactions at the taverns, combative arenas, tournaments, etc.. This concept of a village environment without combat encourages players to gear up, socialize, craft, gather, and let their guard down in a relaxed environment before going into a high stakes intense environment.

Phase 2, THE DUNGEON: Once a player and/or their party, have suited up in armor, weapons, potions etc.. they will que up for adventure in the dungeon with other teams.  The Dungeons in Carpe Noctem are randomly procedurally generated and completely destructible. This creates a new and exciting experience every time a player enters the dungeon. Once inside the dungeon, the player & their team will encounter monsters and kill and loot those monsters. The player will also encounter random traps, as well as treasure that is in randomly generated boxes/chests/jars etc.. Every item the player loots in the dungeon goes into the player’s inventory. On PVP servers, the player will also encounter other players in the dungeon environment which they can kill and loot. On PVE servers, the dungeon environments will only load with one team, so no other player encounters will occur. Inventory will be based off of weight with a limit to that carry weight. Any items looted in the dungeon will be dropped at death, regardless if it's PVE or PVP.  Items the player brings with them that are equipped and in the "death item" bag have a different drop system which is discussed further under Gameplay Systems. 

The main exit to the dungeon will be killing the “boss” of the dungeon. That exit will allow an entire team (or more) to exit before closing. Idea on exits is to generally provide for 1 or 2 less exits than there are players entering when its a full que. This concept works well in many competitive systems such as the TV series Squid Games. Exiting the dungeon allows players to extract loot to be brought back to the village and now the player has finished the full gameplay loop of the game.

Phase 3, PLAYER/MONARCH ISLAND: Every player will have their own “island”. A player’s island is an instanced level. The player and anyone that they invite will be allowed to enter the island level. On that level, the player will start with a small mud hut for item storage and eventually build that island up into a small “kingdom”. More information about this is on the gameplay systems page. There is also more information about the “Clan/Monarchy” system. The top of a Clan will be the Monarch and their name will be the guild title for all players in the Clan. Players will swear fealty to one another in a chain.