New playerworld project, interest check/help request/brainstorming

Billy_Barnes · #1 11-11-2010, 05:36 AM

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.

scooter123 · #2 11-11-2010, 10:00 PM

Sounds pretty good to me I want to hear more.

DrakilorP2P · #3 11-12-2010, 01:33 AM

I think it could work, but the project seems too big so it runs the risk of never being completed.

Billy_Barnes · #4 11-12-2010, 02:44 AM

Economy/Crafting System Another of my goals for this world will be to have a very in depth crafting system and economy with a broad range of options to keep players interested and not go stale. I want to avoid the typical mine rocks, sell rocks to NPC, save up money that you can’t really spend on anything trend that you see in many games and other playerworlds. Another thing I would like to avoid is having the entire economy flooded by gold so that it no longer has any worth. I want to attempt to control the economy by keeping the amount of gold attainable from NPC shops limited, with more emphasis on creating and selling goods to other players and colonies. If a player wants to become a successful merchant, it will have to be accomplished by creating and selling their goods to other players.

As far as the crafting system is concerned, I want to provide players with a broad range of skills to improve and goods to create. Many of these skills will be intertwined, for instance to create a sword a player would need to utilize Woodcutting to obtain wood for the hilt, Mining to obtain the necessary metals, Blacksmithing to smelt and refine the metals and combine the materials to make a finished sword. If a player lacked the necessary skills, they could also obviously buy some or all of the finished goods from another player, such as a Blacksmith purchasing wood from a lumberjack and ore from a miner in order to keep his store stocked with raw materials. An unfinished list of some of the crafting skills I would like to include follows, with a brief description for each.

Farming- Farming is one of the key skills necessary to gain food, and would govern a players ability to successfully plant seeds, tend and harvest crops, and raise livestock.
Fishing- Fishing is another key skill a player can utilize to gain food, a higher fishing skill would enable a player to catch a bigger variety of fish and use a wider array of nets, rods, and other fishing tools.
Cooking- Although crops freshly harvested out of the ground are enough to feed NPC colonists and soldiers, and can provide a player with a small amount of sustenance, the Cooking skill allows a player to create complex dishes that can heal more and even boost certain stats.
Mining- Mining will enable a player to extract metal ores and, at higher levels, precious gems and crystals from the ground.
Blacksmithing- The Blacksmithing skill allows a player to take raw ore and smelt it, and then combine the refined ores with other raw materials to create finished products such as weapons, armor, and tools. It will also govern a player's ability to repair damaged items.
Woodcutting- The Woodcutting skill dictates what different types of wood a player can cut down, and how quickly they can do so. Higher quality wood can obviously be used to create higher quality, and thus more valuable, goods.
Construction- Using the Construction skill a player can build various different structures including Houses, Town Halls, Walls, as well as boats.
Alchemy- The Alchemy skill allows a player to combine different ingredients found throughout the world, from common food items and other plants to much rarer substances, to create potions that can heal players or fortify their skills.
Fletching- The Fletching skill will enable a player to create ranged weapons like bows and crossbows, along with the ammunition that goes with each weapon.
Enchanting- A player will be able to use the Enchanting skill to imbue or enchant weapons, armor, and other items with either magical crystals that can be mined, or captured Elemental essence from certain monsters. They will also be able to create magical Staffs necessary to cast some spells.
Weaving- Weaving will allow a player to take raw materials such as wool collected from animals and turn it into cloaks, robes, cloth armor, and other types of special clothing.

These are some of the basic crafting skills I would like to include. A player can improve and level up a skill by completing tasks associating with that skill, as a reward for certain quests, or by seeking out and training under a Master Trainer. Basic raw materials and finished goods will be able to be sold to a handful of NPC stores for small amounts of gold, enough for a player to establish a solid business, but to truly become a successful merchant a player will have to sell to other players. My hope is that with a wide variety of crafting skills, raw materials, and goods available players will be able to work together to supply each other, start up businesses, and barter. (Such as a Lumber supply company providing a group of shipbuilders with a high Construction skill with the necessary lumber, or a Blacksmith trading farming tools to a Farmer in exchange for food)

If anyone has any suggestions for skills that should be added, or ones from the list that should be removed, I am very open to input.

MattKan · #5 11-12-2010, 03:02 AM

If you can pull this through, it will be (in my opinion) the best server Graal has ever had. Good luck!

Billy_Barnes · #6 11-12-2010, 04:23 AM

I know that this is a very ambitious project, but I am more than willing to stay motivated and see it through. What I will (obviously) need is an equally motivated, dedicated, and talented staff to work alongside me. One thing I plan to do to prevent it from stalling out is to focus more on the actual gameplay and less on being flashy. I feel like any playerworld could design a beautiful new tileset and new bodies, or fill an overworld with flashy, highly detailed levels, but I want the development focus for this world to be scripting all the necessary systems and providing players with a multitude of quests from the start, as well as a steady stream of new quests being released after it goes online.

For this reason, I will mostly be needing scripting help, followed by a handful of graphic artists to create the weapons, monsters, and other things needed to run the systems. I want the levels to look nice, and to have a nice, full overworld, but I do not intend to waste precious time or manpower on designing overly elaborate and impractical levels.

I will continue to post more of the ideas that I have for this world, as well as work on putting together a Development website. If anyone is interested in helping out with this project, you can contact me via forum PM or email me at [email protected].

As always, any ideas, suggestions, comments, or criticism are welcome. I'm not looking to take sole credit for this project, but rather provide a large fun world for players to play on with an active community that won't go stale. Any contributions that anyone wants to make, large or small, are more than welcome!