Post by mhaimes on Oct 27, 2010 0:43:18 GMT
I've always found myself going from one server to the next because of a lack of depth in any one server. I would find myself marking all the locations of "rare mounts" that appear once daily and routinely go to them to collect loooooots of them and sell them. There was nothing else on that server since pk wasn't available and doesn't really interest me (it's just macroing quick attack keys faster then the other guy...)
On another server, I bred animals to level 9 in order to sell the level 10 children that they made so long as the level was the max level. I sold hell cats. Dominating monsters as you use your bandade macro was fun but, again, you reach a barrier when this is all there is...a bunch of characters with exactly 5 maxed out pets fighting the same bosses. There was no variety.
So, although I'm not a programmer, I decided to make a list of things that make games interesting. I could only make 8 questions but perhaps from them we could get some sort of idea of what could be aimed for.
Gaining Skill to Take Longer
In a few months everyone has 100 in everything they want. Scientifically calculated to use exactly how much they need. We are done with training PERMANENTLY. Everyone is the same level and if you aren't you macro (which, lets be honest, is just using a program to repeat the same highly boring task). If there is something you want to macro then the game has already failed.
Imagine a server where it could take a year before you get 100 skill.
Pick Locks into houses
With this would come traps that the owner could set up but it enables burglering. If there are no guards, imagine how fun it would be to patrol, catch real criminals or worse...if there are a group of robbers who target certain areas we could wait for them and follow them back to their hide out, then plunder HORDES of treasure (like when a dragon is killed in mythical tales). This kind of loot could bring power to guilds able to stand up to them, gold enough to provide more guards, more traps, a safer land. And you could really, and literally, have full blown wars. Or, we can have Blessed items that no one can steal, characters that get to hide EVERYTHING of value in a bank that no one can target. Is this a dangerous proposal? Maybe, but I don't think you play games to learn 1800's crop growing history of Ohio.
Advanced Classes to be researched
After heavy leveling or finding some rare secret, an option could become available that lets you focus your character on something more. Example:
Deep in a new dungeon, thought to be only a cave, an adventurer finds a magic book for necromancy and is propted to whether he wants to read it or not. After clicking yes, gets the option to study necromancy from the book which reveals different locations/people that might be able to help him. He even has a spell and it's his first and it never seems to raise. It has been stuck at 23.7 its the ability to control very weak skeletons which he can set up to guard certain locations and doors. They don't want to listen when he says attack though and it's frustrating.
Adding depth to the learning process of a character can help make a character matter. There really could be only one book at that location, not just some respawning processs for being a necromancer that is thrown on the forums. Not just a mechanical boring preprogrammed route that all could learn. Suppose this person found this necromancy book. Chances are he would tell everyone he thought he could trust. Can you think of something that would be more immortalizing then discovering this? His life would be in danger, especially if you could break into houses...two weeks later three characters appear to have found swords that seem to use the skill tracking in order to point them to where the book is. The owners must be found or the necromancer's guild could be in jeopardy!
New spells
Someone has cast a firewall which completely destroys anything that runs through it. There is no way to run through fire unless it is quickly on horseback. But the spell ice field is different. When cast over the firefield, the fire vanishes. And anyone caught in the ice field is trapped until someone casts firefield. They might only be able to last 5 minutes until becoming a frozen corpse, only lootable once the ice melts.
One hit kill weapons
Someone with a halberd is completely stealth and swings his Halberd at the throat of an opponent with no gorget. He is good enough that he can hit the persons neck.
Usually, in video games, that person wont die because that isn't "fun" for the victim. Instead, there is this length process of swining back and forth that ensues. But then, why even have detect hidden? Which brings introduces the next part.
Permanent death
This brings drama. alot of drama, remember back when you played on the original server? When you died it was the worst thing in the world and PKing really had meaning and thrill. What happened? Blessed weapons, banks, and accumulated weath made it a sport. It's still fun but today it is as if you went from elephant hunting to fox hunting.
We wanted to avoid pain, to make it more friendly but remember the 1800's crop building mentioned earlier? True adventure, true power, comes with TRUE, meaningful, painful, great, fun, risk.
When your friend DIED that would be TERRIBLE. After using forensic evaluation you would dedicate your life to hunting them down. Bounty hunting would be an art. Spying would exist. What wouldn't you pay to know where he lives, where he frequents?
You visit his gravesite because he was wealthy enough to afford one in town. His stone reads "Because I was Brave, I really lived." The grave gets covered with sticks that spawn but the grave keeper gets paid for keeping the town graveyard clean.
Advanced races to be researched
The humanoid races (orc, gargoyle, elf, vampire) could be attained through completing certain things in game. Of course, and necessarily, certain races are harder to become, or understand, then others.
Last journal entry reads: after completing a ritual it said (to follow the theme of the necromancer, as mentioned) that I had a 30% chance of becoming a lich, a creature that could place it's soul in an object in order to attain immortality. I would live forever so long as no one attacked the jar (on a tangent this sounds like voldemort from harry potter hehe). I had a 70% chance of failure but i could find nothing to improve my chances. If I fail I will become a Green Slime. Besides sliding under doors, and the ability to, basically, go anywhere I think it will be advantageous to be a blob. Weapons would do little but would i keep my magical abilities?
He failed and became a blob. His new skills, among others, include suffication, weaken weapon, and paralyze. He stays exactly ontop of the opponent which turns green and his life is slowely drained for suffication. Weaken weapon turns the weapon green and makes it hit as weak as a dagger would. And paralyze causes the legs of his opponent to turn green, signifying that slime has covered them...etc.
The ability to create pits
Please watch Jack ass 3D to understand the significance of a pit. They take a long time to dig and prepare but they are very hard to find without detect hidden.
On another server, I bred animals to level 9 in order to sell the level 10 children that they made so long as the level was the max level. I sold hell cats. Dominating monsters as you use your bandade macro was fun but, again, you reach a barrier when this is all there is...a bunch of characters with exactly 5 maxed out pets fighting the same bosses. There was no variety.
So, although I'm not a programmer, I decided to make a list of things that make games interesting. I could only make 8 questions but perhaps from them we could get some sort of idea of what could be aimed for.
Gaining Skill to Take Longer
In a few months everyone has 100 in everything they want. Scientifically calculated to use exactly how much they need. We are done with training PERMANENTLY. Everyone is the same level and if you aren't you macro (which, lets be honest, is just using a program to repeat the same highly boring task). If there is something you want to macro then the game has already failed.
Imagine a server where it could take a year before you get 100 skill.
Pick Locks into houses
With this would come traps that the owner could set up but it enables burglering. If there are no guards, imagine how fun it would be to patrol, catch real criminals or worse...if there are a group of robbers who target certain areas we could wait for them and follow them back to their hide out, then plunder HORDES of treasure (like when a dragon is killed in mythical tales). This kind of loot could bring power to guilds able to stand up to them, gold enough to provide more guards, more traps, a safer land. And you could really, and literally, have full blown wars. Or, we can have Blessed items that no one can steal, characters that get to hide EVERYTHING of value in a bank that no one can target. Is this a dangerous proposal? Maybe, but I don't think you play games to learn 1800's crop growing history of Ohio.
Advanced Classes to be researched
After heavy leveling or finding some rare secret, an option could become available that lets you focus your character on something more. Example:
Deep in a new dungeon, thought to be only a cave, an adventurer finds a magic book for necromancy and is propted to whether he wants to read it or not. After clicking yes, gets the option to study necromancy from the book which reveals different locations/people that might be able to help him. He even has a spell and it's his first and it never seems to raise. It has been stuck at 23.7 its the ability to control very weak skeletons which he can set up to guard certain locations and doors. They don't want to listen when he says attack though and it's frustrating.
Adding depth to the learning process of a character can help make a character matter. There really could be only one book at that location, not just some respawning processs for being a necromancer that is thrown on the forums. Not just a mechanical boring preprogrammed route that all could learn. Suppose this person found this necromancy book. Chances are he would tell everyone he thought he could trust. Can you think of something that would be more immortalizing then discovering this? His life would be in danger, especially if you could break into houses...two weeks later three characters appear to have found swords that seem to use the skill tracking in order to point them to where the book is. The owners must be found or the necromancer's guild could be in jeopardy!
New spells
Someone has cast a firewall which completely destroys anything that runs through it. There is no way to run through fire unless it is quickly on horseback. But the spell ice field is different. When cast over the firefield, the fire vanishes. And anyone caught in the ice field is trapped until someone casts firefield. They might only be able to last 5 minutes until becoming a frozen corpse, only lootable once the ice melts.
One hit kill weapons
Someone with a halberd is completely stealth and swings his Halberd at the throat of an opponent with no gorget. He is good enough that he can hit the persons neck.
Usually, in video games, that person wont die because that isn't "fun" for the victim. Instead, there is this length process of swining back and forth that ensues. But then, why even have detect hidden? Which brings introduces the next part.
Permanent death
This brings drama. alot of drama, remember back when you played on the original server? When you died it was the worst thing in the world and PKing really had meaning and thrill. What happened? Blessed weapons, banks, and accumulated weath made it a sport. It's still fun but today it is as if you went from elephant hunting to fox hunting.
We wanted to avoid pain, to make it more friendly but remember the 1800's crop building mentioned earlier? True adventure, true power, comes with TRUE, meaningful, painful, great, fun, risk.
When your friend DIED that would be TERRIBLE. After using forensic evaluation you would dedicate your life to hunting them down. Bounty hunting would be an art. Spying would exist. What wouldn't you pay to know where he lives, where he frequents?
You visit his gravesite because he was wealthy enough to afford one in town. His stone reads "Because I was Brave, I really lived." The grave gets covered with sticks that spawn but the grave keeper gets paid for keeping the town graveyard clean.
Advanced races to be researched
The humanoid races (orc, gargoyle, elf, vampire) could be attained through completing certain things in game. Of course, and necessarily, certain races are harder to become, or understand, then others.
Last journal entry reads: after completing a ritual it said (to follow the theme of the necromancer, as mentioned) that I had a 30% chance of becoming a lich, a creature that could place it's soul in an object in order to attain immortality. I would live forever so long as no one attacked the jar (on a tangent this sounds like voldemort from harry potter hehe). I had a 70% chance of failure but i could find nothing to improve my chances. If I fail I will become a Green Slime. Besides sliding under doors, and the ability to, basically, go anywhere I think it will be advantageous to be a blob. Weapons would do little but would i keep my magical abilities?
He failed and became a blob. His new skills, among others, include suffication, weaken weapon, and paralyze. He stays exactly ontop of the opponent which turns green and his life is slowely drained for suffication. Weaken weapon turns the weapon green and makes it hit as weak as a dagger would. And paralyze causes the legs of his opponent to turn green, signifying that slime has covered them...etc.
The ability to create pits
Please watch Jack ass 3D to understand the significance of a pit. They take a long time to dig and prepare but they are very hard to find without detect hidden.
