http://www.zalanthas.org/blogs/brideofson/archives/001413.html

Dear Domino,

Will you please give a basic rundown of the commonly known worldwide animals and plants, at least so far as they're decided upon thus far? Failing that, can you tell us which flora and fauna will likely make the transition to 2.arm from 1.arm, and give us a couple new highlights?

Tisiphone

Domino says:

This is a project that Vanth and I started to tear through a few months ago, but we put it on hold until the areas themselves are built. I'd estimate it as about 50% done, and I'm looking forward to a time when I can pick it back up.

Almost all of the herbs and plants that currently exist will be making the transition to Armageddon 2.0, with some alterations to the names and properties of some of them so that we can do away with any IP infringements. Most if not all of them will be fleshed out in regards to possible uses and the folklore surrounding them, and it's likely that they won't act the same way they did in Armageddon 1.0. There are literally hundreds of herb and plant items, and many more will be added as we make sure that each herb has a plant, and vice versa. I would also like to ensure that every plant has a way for PCs to reproduce it, whether by taking a cutting of it, planting seeds, or for the more exotic varieties, something else entirely. Purely "decorative" plant objects should be a thing of the past.

Since literacy will be far more common in Armageddon 2.0, I'm hoping to create IC documentation for players to pursue ingame. The most commonly well-known plants will probably be listed in the OOC documentation, but I want to include some extras for those who want to study the subject ICly, while leaving plenty of room for experimentation and further learning. Imagine reading some bit of folklore about a rare herb that only grows in the high mountains and is sacred to the fuzzy-wuzzies, then sending out an expedition to discover it and experiment with its properties, eventually finding out through trial and error that it's the only known cure to the deadly kankblotch plague - then writing your findings in a book and selling it, forever immortalized as the one who made the discovery. That kind of thing is what I want to make possible.

The same goes for animals, to a large extent. Just as the herbs, all of them have their own separate wiki page with a list of fields to fill out, detailing their habits and habitat. The most common ones will get a blurb in the OOC documentation, and the more detailed folklore and habits should be discoverable IC. I'm not alone in wanting to ensure that each animal type has a place in the overall food chain, and that the food chains for each areas make sense and can be observed and reported by PCs in the game.

More of the animals in 2.0 had to be dropped due to IP conflicts, but there is a slew of new ones, including a few rare creatures that existed in Armageddon 1.0's database but weren't brought into common play for one reason or another. Mounts in particular I'm really looking forward to fleshing out, as we have a host of new types, each of which will be ideal for certain situations and poor choices for others. There will be no "super-mount" like the kank was (may they rest in peace), but there will probably be a couple "average" mounts that can handle most terrain types and situations - just not as well as another more specialized mount might.