New playerworld project, interest check/help request/brainstorming

[Billy_Barnes]

I recently began playing Graal again after a hiatus of a couple years, and have decided I would like to begin my own playerworld project. I began work on an overworld and have come up with various different ideas for the overall gameplay and setting of the world, as well as a few more specific aspects. Before I make the financial commitment, I would like to see how receptive the community is to the ideas I have come up with, brainstorm with others and expand on the ideas I already have, and hopefully gain some development help. So, here goes!

The world will be set in around the late medieval era, with some typical fantasy elements found in many RPGs, such as magic, monsters, and enchanted weapons and armor. I will break down my ideas for each aspect of the game in a sort of list/outline form, so (hopefully) it is a little easier to follow.

Overworld/Key Gameplay- I plan to have a very large overworld, and I know that this can lead to many issues such as the majority of the levels being empty, or “wasted space” due to a low player count, or in some cases even with a high player count. I want to combat this by having a large quantity of quests available, ranging from short and easy for beginners to long and complex for the more experienced players, with fresh new quests being released on a steady basis so that you don’t have veteran players with nothing else to do but sit around and PK in the main level. I also plan to have the overworld laid out with one, or possibly two major cities and one largely developed island, with only a handful of towns and outposts on the remaining continents. This will leave large quantities of undeveloped wilderness (though it will be highly populated by monsters and full of quest areas) which will facilitate my main focus for gameplay on this world.

Colonization- One of the biggest things I want to accomplish with this world that I have yet to come across is to add something of a strategy aspect, giving players the ability to work together to venture out and colonize the wilderness that will be readily at hand. In order to accomplish this, players will have to band together, perhaps by purchasing or simply putting together a colony charter and then conquering the necessary lands from NPC natives, and then gather up the necessary resources to build and sustain a colony such as wood, stone, food, metals, and gold to purchase anything they cannot get from the land. Different areas open for colonization will be ripe in certain resources (i.e. rich in farmland or fish, good amounts of wood, but little mining available for metals) which will cause a need to trade with other colonies or NPC or player-run shops in the capital city or cities.

To start up a colony initially players will have to build a “main” building of some sort, such as a town hall or gathering area, as well as housing and begin to gather resources. To keep colonies from having to be micromanaged, NPCs can also be utilized to continue gathering resources as well as to defend a colony in the event few or no members of the colony or kingdom are online. These NPC colonists will need to be fed and housed, and can be managed via some sort of “Colony Control Panel” accessible by the leader and his key officers at the Town Hall. Soldiers can be equipped with weapons and armor purchased in the capital cities or from other player-colonies, or with equipment created in the colony itself. These NPC soldiers and colonists will have skill levels that can be increased the longer they are kept alive, as well as through training. As the colony grows and more buildings are constructed, the NPCs can also be improved by using better equipment, and perhaps research.

As these colonies grow in strength and resources, they can expand and construct other colonies and form large kingdoms, which I hope will lead to alliances and kingdom wars. Using NPC soldiers for defense, I hope to prevent one colony easily being overrun or destroyed due to a lopsided membership or number of online players. Alliances, trade, and the construction and improvement of forts and outposts in key strategic points will be key to surviving and winning these kingdom wars. If a player does not want to get involved with a kingdom, whether it is because they feel they are new and don’t feel welcome, or they simply don’t like being involved with other players, they can still work hard and become powerful merchants by using the capital city and main resource island to open up a shop and improving their resource gathering and crafting skills, or by becoming a powerful trainer in a certain skill set (such as magic, ranged attacks, melee combat, blacksmithing, etc.) and bestowing these skills on other players and their NPCs for a price. For those not interested in large Player v. Player battles, there will also be a large arena available in the capital city where players can test their combat skills in a number of different scenarios, including Player v. Player spars, Player vs. NPC quests and events, and Arena quests.

This more or less sums up the overall view of what I wish to accomplish, and even though it may already be too late I do not want to drown everyone in text, so I will post more in depth descriptions about things such as what I want to do with the crafting system, how I want levels and experience to work, and other things in follow-up posts. As soon as I can get the time (hopefully this weekend) also start up a website, perhaps a Wiki, where I can post updates and an entire design plan for this world.