Topic: Possible MMORPG project

I've been thinking of starting my own MMORPG some day.  As some of you may know, I've had two unsuccessful attempts at making an MMORPG so far.  First one was to be with 3D graphics, but finally died due to a chronic lack of graphics designer and the evolution of my programming skills over the two and half years.  Second one was to utilize ASCII graphics and be playable over telnet, but we started designing the ruleset from the wrong end.  Again my coding skills have evolved so much that this code is practically unusable.

To avoid past mistakes, this time I want to get some kind of complete picture of what the game is going to be like before I even start, as well as have people who are capable of doing the graphics and sounds, should such things be needed.  The focus of the game would be in role playing, not combat (although combat will be included too for completeness of the world).  There are some preliminary thoughts of rules at http://tdb.fi/~tdb/rpgrules.txt.  Anything and everything is open to discussion, but I reserve the final say on the final rules.  There is no world concept yet, and the style of graphics is undecided as well.

NOTE: At best, it will probably be a year or so before I start writing any code.  At worst, I might never start.  So do not ask anything about schedule, and don't be disappointed if you never get to play this game.

NOTE 2: I tend to update my rules document when I post new thoughts here, so be sure to check it again every now and then.

Last edited by tdb (2007-07-07 17:41:15)

Re: Possible MMORPG project

I'm definitely interested in this project. Just took a quick glance at the rules and it's looking very very good imo. Few things I would like to discuss about but nothing major. I have studied sound engineering a few years back and I can produce "studio quality" music and currently I'm studying software engineering at Savonia Univerisity of Technology (Savonia-amk, tietotekniikan insinööri, erikoistun ohjelmointiin [to be more specific]). There is also a very dedicated WoW fan/player in my group and he also seems to be a pretty talented artist. I'm not sure if he is any good with computer graphics but I've seen some of his drawings and they're pretty good.

The thing I'd like to see in an mmorpg is the sense that the world is HUGE. Like if you would go from town to town walking it could take days or even weeks (ingame of course) to get there. I know it is an issue related to the fact that the game should be enjoyable but if you take the medieval times for example, not that many people travelled half the world. It was the rich who could afford to travel at all.

Also another thing would be some sorts of mutating diseases. What I've been thinking related to this which I will explain very simply is that there would be x amount of effects on a disease. Then the disease and/or effects would have a mutation factor, infecting factor, incubation time and the possibility that the disease remains hidden. Lets say your char gets infected with disease A which is a common flu. As effects it has fever and cough. During the incubation time he also gets infected with a more serious virus B. The it would be possible for these two diseases to mutate together to form a disease C with effects from A and B. Of course it would require a lot more complex system than that and the possibility to do research on the diseases too. And that would depend a lot on the world concept of course.

Also one thing has troubled me in most fantasy settings and its the "racism" in almost everyone. One original idea could be that if there are different races to play, the world would be divided into different "countries" like the real world instead of just different races fighting each others. In my opinion that would make a bit more sense than the usual "every orc is a spawn of evil and cannot be nothing but evil" setting. And it would bring diversity to the game. Of course there could be areas that are more populated with a certain race depending on the type of vegetation for example.

Have you given any thought on the world concept at all? Fantasy, sci-fi? There's a lot I'd like to discuss about this matter. And I'm too tired to write more now. Maybe some tomorrow.

Re: Possible MMORPG project

And tdb, Sandling suggested you check out polycount.com for gfx people.. The sites I was thinking about were all danish sites it turns out.

Re: Possible MMORPG project

Sekra wrote:

I'm definitely interested in this project. Just took a quick glance at the rules and it's looking very very good imo. Few things I would like to discuss about but nothing major. I have studied sound engineering a few years back and I can produce "studio quality" music and currently I'm studying software engineering at Savonia Univerisity of Technology (Savonia-amk, tietotekniikan insinööri, erikoistun ohjelmointiin [to be more specific]). There is also a very dedicated WoW fan/player in my group and he also seems to be a pretty talented artist. I'm not sure if he is any good with computer graphics but I've seen some of his drawings and they're pretty good.

Excellent, so that would be the sound effects problem solved then, I hope.  If your friend can do 3D graphics and you're still in touch when I get around to starting this project, that would be great.  I could use help with programming as well, if you can get your skills good enough by that time.

Sekra wrote:

The thing I'd like to see in an mmorpg is the sense that the world is HUGE. Like if you would go from town to town walking it could take days or even weeks (ingame of course) to get there. I know it is an issue related to the fact that the game should be enjoyable but if you take the medieval times for example, not that many people travelled half the world. It was the rich who could afford to travel at all.

This is one of my goals.  It was incorporated in the "sense of distance" sentence in the World section of the rules.  There would be magical means of fast transportation, but it would be expensive.  Possibly some sort of "airbus" service with flying creatures as well, we'll see.

I also intend to have a random detail generator, so the world designers won't need to spend hours to plant trees in a huge forest.

Sekra wrote:

Also another thing would be some sorts of mutating diseases. What I've been thinking related to this which I will explain very simply is that there would be x amount of effects on a disease. Then the disease and/or effects would have a mutation factor, infecting factor, incubation time and the possibility that the disease remains hidden. Lets say your char gets infected with disease A which is a common flu. As effects it has fever and cough. During the incubation time he also gets infected with a more serious virus B. The it would be possible for these two diseases to mutate together to form a disease C with effects from A and B. Of course it would require a lot more complex system than that and the possibility to do research on the diseases too. And that would depend a lot on the world concept of course.

Interesting idea.  I added a short section on diseases to the rules.  I have to discard the "crossbreeding" idea on the grounds of not being biologically sound and likely to sooner or later resulting in a "mega-disease" with all possible effects, which could not evolve any further.  I will see if I can think up some sort of mutation system though.

Sekra wrote:

Also one thing has troubled me in most fantasy settings and its the "racism" in almost everyone. One original idea could be that if there are different races to play, the world would be divided into different "countries" like the real world instead of just different races fighting each others. In my opinion that would make a bit more sense than the usual "every orc is a spawn of evil and cannot be nothing but evil" setting. And it would bring diversity to the game. Of course there could be areas that are more populated with a certain race depending on the type of vegetation for example.

Have you given any thought on the world concept at all? Fantasy, sci-fi? There's a lot I'd like to discuss about this matter. And I'm too tired to write more now. Maybe some tomorrow.

It will be fantasy (as indicated by the presence of magic), but not more than that.  My imagination is seriously lacking when it comes to designing a world.  I will start to see patterns everywhere and try to systematically avoid them, which will result in its own sort of pattern.

Kryigerofe suggested a settler concept where the players would set out to inhabit a new continent.  This would be good to explain the appearance of new players (new settlers arrive on ships) and it would be easy to keep the number of NPCs relatively low.  On the other hand, it pretty much disallows any sort of pre-existing countries and nations.

If you have your own world concept, do tell.  I don't necessarily use any single world concept verbatim, but possibly use elements from multiple ones.  The settler concept could be combined with an "old world" for example, with a distance too huge for even the most powerful magic, so it would take players a week of realtime to travel between the two...

Darkhawk wrote:

And tdb, Sandling suggested you check out polycount.com for gfx people.. The sites I was thinking about were all danish sites it turns out.

Thanks, that looks like it could be of some use.  I'll see about making a post there when I know I'll start the project.

Re: Possible MMORPG project

To up the chances for this project to survive, I suggest you/we/whatever start small. Pick a simple yet complete concept and find the most important mechanics to implement that. When that core works you can add more stuff.

tdb wrote:

Kryigerofe suggested a settler concept where the players would set out to inhabit a new continent.  This would be good to explain the appearance of new players (new settlers arrive on ships) and it would be easy to keep the number of NPCs relatively low.  On the other hand, it pretty much disallows any sort of pre-existing countries and nations.

Check out Saga of Vinland for a more detailed description of one possible fantasy settler concept. That was meant to be a NWN2 world, though - your project doesn't have the downside that it has to look medieval. We could even make it the settlement of Americas (read Orson Scott Card if you think that rules out magic and fantasy).

It's true this concept would rule out big and finished nations in which PCs can belong. It doesn't rule out:
a) NPC nations such as Native Americans
b) different settler nations such as the English, the French, the Dutch, the Spanish...

tdb wrote:

If you have your own world concept, do tell.  I don't necessarily use any single world concept verbatim, but possibly use elements from multiple ones.  The settler concept could be combined with an "old world" for example, with a distance too huge for even the most powerful magic, so it would take players a week of realtime to travel between the two...

I suffer from the all-or-nothing disease. I believe the game's core concept should be compact and complete, and everything else should either support it or be moved to a different game.

Here are a few comments on your rules:

tdb wrote:

No numeric values visible for players, unless they can be measured in-game
(1 kg chunk of metal etc).

Would you be using adjectives instead or completely hiding the numerical mechanics from the players, letting them estimate their skills based on their prior performance? The latter might actually be interesting and even bring some sort of realism.

tdb wrote:

Weather that actually affects the game mechanics.

This would be relevant if the game is focused on, say, farming, very tactical combat or... maybe sailing. If it's there only to add a -1 to the arrow rolls in the regular D&D style combat, then it's not worth implementing IMO.

tdb wrote:

Cycle of day and night, compressed to 2 hours.

Pretty standard, I suppose, though as far as I know people (even roleplayers) hardly ever care about the time of day when they decide what they do. It also results in conversations lasting for several days in a row.

tdb wrote:

Sense of distance, no instant traveling between remote cities via conventional
means.

I'd like this. Though there should be some ways to make travelling interesting so people won't just log off (or multitask if that's not possible) while doing it. Maybe some random encounters (other than random attacking monsters) and definately the ability to talk with your group.

tdb wrote:

Possible to buy a private apartment or house.  Others can't get in without
invitation.

Ruling out thievery? A good call if that's not the focus, since I understand thievery can cause a lot of OOC trouble.

tdb wrote:

Need to camp / get a room at an inn / go to your apartment to log out.  Camp is possible to spot with high enough skill, but is untouchable.

Automatic camping on client disconnect? Are there uncampable places?

tdb wrote:

Base physical abilities: strength, stamina, agility, dexterity

Base mental abilities: intelligence, memory, wisdom, perception

Vast amount of skills, grouped in a tree.  Possible to get a quick glance at
a group of skills as whole, or a detailed view of the individual skills.

Skills benefit from each other.

Vast amount of skills suggest a vast amount of game-mechanics to make those skills useful. I'd rather have the exact amount of skills needed for the game mechanics in place. (And the exact amount of game mechanics to implement the core concept.)

tdb wrote:

Improve skills by training.  Possible to teach skills to others up to 80% of
own skill.

Would training be time-based (Seed/EVE) or would you have to stand around beating some dummy? The same about teaching: would you have to stand around doing some repeated teaching actions or would you just set some sort of a teacher/student relationship and have it take effect over time?

What would be the most efficient way to train skills? I hope it's not killing huge amounts of animals/bandits/monsters. Personally I like time-based systems, because they don't cause such huge caps between the skills of the more regular and less regular players.

tdb wrote:

Degradation when not used for a long time: down to 1/2 of highest value.
Relearn at triple speed.

Please use this only if skill training is also time-based. Grind-based skill learning combined to time-based skill degradation is like two punches in the face of the less regular player.

tdb wrote:

Appraising: weapon, armor, jewelry

Relevant if trading varieties of different items is central to the game concept.

tdb wrote:

Different types of magic: runic, spiritual, elemental

Here, I believe, you're designing the world from the wrong end again. First decide what the world is all about, and only then think about what magics (if any) fit in there.

That said, some sort of a ritualistic magic system might be great for RP...

tdb wrote:

*** Items

Work quality, material quality.

Item durability

*** Crafting

Crafting items takes time.

Quality of tools affects work quality to some extent.

May be rushed for up to 1/3 time reduction, with a proportional penalty to
resulting item work quality.

Items are assembled from components (axe = handle + head + some string).  Some
can be disassembled, with possible loss of some components (string has to be
cut). 

Some materials can be recycled.  Metals can be molten down to bigger chunks.
Wood can only be reused for smaller items.  Material quality decreases slightly
when recycled.

Possible to increase material quality by refining.  This also decreases the
amount of the material.

Metals can be combined to form alloys.

Possible to make a poor item out of excellent material through shoddy
workmanship but not the other way around.

Great ideas for a game with a strong crafting focus.

tdb wrote:

*** Injuries

Six body parts (for humans): torso, head, hands, legs

Types of damage: cut, pierce, bruise, burn, freeze, poison

Severity from scratch to fatal.  Existing injuries may make new ones worse.

Pain from serious injuries will cause temporary penalties or even fainting.

Poison afects whole body, others local.

*** Armor

Reduces the severity of inflicted wounds.

Possible to wear multiple sets of armor or clothing at once.

Great ideas for a game with strong combat focus (or other ways to get injuries fairly regularly).

tdb wrote:

*** Food and rest

Not sleeping or eating results in weakness, grogginess and general reduction in
performance.

May fall asleep after 3 days of not sleeping.

Sleeping takes time, no "I'm well rested after sitting here for 10 seconds"
crap.

Lasting effects from malnourishment after 3 days (will go away after eating
properly for a few days), death after 3 weeks.

Physical fitness affects endurance.  Different activities affect needs.

Great ideas for a game focusing on everyday life or the fight for survival in harsh conditions.

tdb wrote:

Unaware of surroundings while sleeping, but may wake up to noise.

And what would the player get to do while sleeping? Stare at the empty screen, in case of the random wolf attack?

What about letting people roleplay their going to sleep/waking up during this mandatory resting time, but skipping the actual sleeping part?

tdb wrote:

*** Diseases

Can catch epidemic diseases through various means: food & water, prolonged
proximity to an ill person, inflammation of wounds, poisons

Probability to get same disease again is low after getting well (depends on
disease), increases slowly over time.

Great ideas for a game focusing on everyday fight for survival/life in a hospital.

tdb wrote:

*** Death

Death is permanent by default, the dead character can't just resurrect himself.

Resurrection is possibly, but sufficiently rare that players need to think
thrice bfore doing anything foolhardy.

Reduction of physical abilities on resurrection, amount depends on time spent
dead.

Permadeath needs to be handled very carefully, due to the great possibility of frustration -> players quitting. Some possible ways to handle it:
a) The game/world is all about death, for example a realistic war story. The players will know this when they enter and thus accept death more readily (at least in my theory).
b) You can always avoid death 100%. Risking your life might get you greater rewards but is never required to get ahead in the game.
c) You can never die of lag/disconnect/bugs. This applies even when using a, b or both.
d) Let the player keep all/some of the advancement of the character, giving bonuses to the next character. The next character can be a heir or something but that's not necessary.

tdb wrote:

*** Communication

Only "vicinity" channel (including whisper and shout) available without spells.

Magically enhanced items allow communication over long distance.

I'd add an OOC channels (public and private) where people can arrange "chance" meeting and such. Otherwise people will just move such communications to IRC.

Re: Possible MMORPG project

Here is a link for a gallery of pictures from the guy in my class. http://dragonmonk.deviantart.com/gallery/

Re: Possible MMORPG project

I'd like to note that the current list of possible rules is more or less a list of (somewhat processed) thoughts I've had.  Not all may be implemented to begin with and some may be dropped or significantly altered during testing.  It's still more like a notepad than the beginning of an actual rulebook.

Kryigerof wrote:

Here are a few comments on your rules:

tdb wrote:

No numeric values visible for players, unless they can be measured in-game
(1 kg chunk of metal etc).

Would you be using adjectives instead or completely hiding the numerical mechanics from the players, letting them estimate their skills based on their prior performance? The latter might actually be interesting and even bring some sort of realism.

I've been thinking of adjectives so far.  I might go for not showing any indication of skill at all.  Time will tell.

Kryigerof wrote:
tdb wrote:

Weather that actually affects the game mechanics.

This would be relevant if the game is focused on, say, farming, very tactical combat or... maybe sailing. If it's there only to add a -1 to the arrow rolls in the regular D&D style combat, then it's not worth implementing IMO.

It would also be relevant to metallic armor and weapons rusting in rain if not cared for properly.  Also getting frostbite / sunburn if not dressed properly.  (Finally an RPG where you can't go around all year in your chainmail bikini!)  Naturally there will be combat effects as well, from various kinds of weather.

Kryigerof wrote:
tdb wrote:

Cycle of day and night, compressed to 2 hours.

Pretty standard, I suppose, though as far as I know people (even roleplayers) hardly ever care about the time of day when they decide what they do. It also results in conversations lasting for several days in a row.

In most games the cycle is purely visual.  I intend to have it affect your ability to see and the activity of animals and NPCs.

Kryigerof wrote:
tdb wrote:

Sense of distance, no instant traveling between remote cities via conventional
means.

I'd like this. Though there should be some ways to make travelling interesting so people won't just log off (or multitask if that's not possible) while doing it. Maybe some random encounters (other than random attacking monsters) and definately the ability to talk with your group.

Talking with your group will definitely be possible.  Meaningful random encounters will need some GM power to at least set them up, but they would be nice too.

Kryigerof wrote:
tdb wrote:

Possible to buy a private apartment or house.  Others can't get in without
invitation.

Ruling out thievery? A good call if that's not the focus, since I understand thievery can cause a lot of OOC trouble.

Ruling out unnecessary frustration of players when a local thieves' guild decides to plunder everyones' prized possessions during night just for the fun of it.  If I could control the type of players that get in the game, I'd leave PvP thievery an open option as well.  But in an open-for-everyone MMORPG there just has to be some limitations on PvP actions.

I might add an option to make your apartment vulnerable if you're ready to deal with the consequences.  Maybe roleplayer cities where this will be mandatory.

Kryigerof wrote:
tdb wrote:

Need to camp / get a room at an inn / go to your apartment to log out.  Camp is possible to spot with high enough skill, but is untouchable.

Automatic camping on client disconnect? Are there uncampable places?

On link death there would be some rudimentary logic on what to do - if near enough to an apartment or a paid-for inn room, the character would automatically go there.  If in the wilderness, he would camp.  Uncampable places could exist if they logically fit there, haunted ruins or some such.

Kryigerof wrote:
tdb wrote:

Base physical abilities: strength, stamina, agility, dexterity

Base mental abilities: intelligence, memory, wisdom, perception

Vast amount of skills, grouped in a tree.  Possible to get a quick glance at
a group of skills as whole, or a detailed view of the individual skills.

Skills benefit from each other.

Vast amount of skills suggest a vast amount of game-mechanics to make those skills useful. I'd rather have the exact amount of skills needed for the game mechanics in place. (And the exact amount of game mechanics to implement the core concept.)

It basically means that there's no need to try and force different actions under the same skill.  Some skills are also quite closely related - for example, there would be separate skills for forging swords, hammers, axes and so on.  Since they don't differ by much, they get significant bonuses for each other.  If you know how to make a sword, there's a good chance you can make an axe too, even if you've never made an axe before (assuming you know what an axe is like).  When a new skill is added to the "weaponsmithing" group, it would get an automatic base value according to the other skills in the same group.

Kryigerof wrote:
tdb wrote:

Improve skills by training.  Possible to teach skills to others up to 80% of
own skill.

Would training be time-based (Seed/EVE) or would you have to stand around beating some dummy? The same about teaching: would you have to stand around doing some repeated teaching actions or would you just set some sort of a teacher/student relationship and have it take effect over time?

What would be the most efficient way to train skills? I hope it's not killing huge amounts of animals/bandits/monsters. Personally I like time-based systems, because they don't cause such huge caps between the skills of the more regular and less regular players.

Possibly both.  Since this is not a sci-fi environment, it doesn't make sense to learn about building houses while you cook.  So to learn from a master cook, you would need to stay in the same room as the master and observe and listen to him cooking.  If both master and student(s) are players, they are free to talk and possibly do a limited number of other things (depending on skill being trained).  Or log off and let the characters train for the day (in a safe place).  The balance in training speed needs to be found through trial and error.

As for the most efficient way, this is a learn-by-doing system.  I'll try to make sure you can't get to be a master cook by baking bread for three months - you'll have to make a wide variety of different recipes.

Kryigerof wrote:
tdb wrote:

Degradation when not used for a long time: down to 1/2 of highest value.
Relearn at triple speed.

Please use this only if skill training is also time-based. Grind-based skill learning combined to time-based skill degradation is like two punches in the face of the less regular player.

Degradation would be sufficiently slow that you would not notice it for the skills that you use at least semi-regularly.  It's intended to encourage skill specialization and discourage every player trying to do everything by himself.

Kryigerof wrote:
tdb wrote:

Different types of magic: runic, spiritual, elemental

Here, I believe, you're designing the world from the wrong end again. First decide what the world is all about, and only then think about what magics (if any) fit in there.

That said, some sort of a ritualistic magic system might be great for RP...

See comment at top of this post.

Kryigerof wrote:
tdb wrote:

Unaware of surroundings while sleeping, but may wake up to noise.

And what would the player get to do while sleeping? Stare at the empty screen, in case of the random wolf attack?

What about letting people roleplay their going to sleep/waking up during this mandatory resting time, but skipping the actual sleeping part?

The amount of required sleep will be sufficiently small that it's bearable.  Besides, it's healthy for the player to take a break too.  There could be an audible alarm on a random attack (possibly a short while before it) so the player can go to read a book / surf the web and still get back to the game in time to react.

Skipping the actual sleeping would lead to major temporal inconsistencies in a MMO environment.  To a bystander, it would still seem that the character went into his room weary and came back two minutes later well-rested.

Kryigerof wrote:
tdb wrote:

*** Death

Death is permanent by default, the dead character can't just resurrect himself.

Resurrection is possibly, but sufficiently rare that players need to think
thrice bfore doing anything foolhardy.

Reduction of physical abilities on resurrection, amount depends on time spent
dead.

Permadeath needs to be handled very carefully, due to the great possibility of frustration -> players quitting. Some possible ways to handle it:
a) The game/world is all about death, for example a realistic war story. The players will know this when they enter and thus accept death more readily (at least in my theory).
b) You can always avoid death 100%. Risking your life might get you greater rewards but is never required to get ahead in the game.
c) You can never die of lag/disconnect/bugs. This applies even when using a, b or both.
d) Let the player keep all/some of the advancement of the character, giving bonuses to the next character. The next character can be a heir or something but that's not necessary.

By saying "always avoid death 100%" I assume you mean the game (or rather GMs) should give give choices in the plot that allow players to choose an easier path, and not that players should always be able to get alive from every situation they got themselves into.

Getting forward in life means different risks for different people.  I might have a one in ten thousand chance of getting into a car accident during my daily trip to work - a fireman might have a one in then chance of getting injured during a difficult rescue mission.  In a "free" MMO world, what actually is getting forward?  A mercenary's life has considerably more risks than a cook's.

I agree though, that too easy permadeath (or too easy death at all, for that matter) is going to cause frustration.  Whatever I finally decide on this though, I want to discourage players from just trying things to see if they're too strong, or engaging some boss a dozen times until the dice finally roll in their favor.

Kryigerof wrote:
tdb wrote:

*** Communication

Only "vicinity" channel (including whisper and shout) available without spells.

Magically enhanced items allow communication over long distance.

I'd add an OOC channels (public and private) where people can arrange "chance" meeting and such. Otherwise people will just move such communications to IRC.

That has the problem of players using it for actual IC communication.  Of course, so does IRC.  This again is an issue of not being able to control the players' actions.  I will think about whether or not to include an OOC channel.

Re: Possible MMORPG project

Sekra, it's worth making a note that as good as this guy's drawings are, computer graphics are an almost entirely different skill set. Modelling is a world onto itself, but if he's any good at painting he could function as a decent texture artist.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q125/coarsesand/graffisigtransparent.png

Re: Possible MMORPG project

Indeed.  I can do meshes to some extent (although not very high quality ones, especially of living beings), but I totally suck at making textures.  I'd prefer a more skilled modeler though.

Re: Possible MMORPG project

if you manage to make a design doc and maybe an actual client and server up recruting talented gfx artists wont be a problem in my experince. www.gamedev.net got a part of their forums dedicated to recruting teams, however they are very sceptical towards mmo's simply becuase so many start making one without realiseing the amount of work required so it is kinda required that you got something to show before anyone will even consider to help you wink

Re: Possible MMORPG project

I have some thoughts..

day/night cycle = 24 hours. As Kryigerof says, it's strange being able have a conversation lasting DAYS. Destroys immersion that the time shifts constantly, and there are some more benefits to this too, namely in regards to travelling. If you worry about players never playing when it is day (or night for that matter), due to the 24 hour schedule, keep in mind that it might only be night for 8 hours, and you can always make time zones and let players from differring time zones start out in similar timezones ingame.

And in regards to travelling.. I very much also prefer a world where travel takes time and effort. LOTS of time and effort. If players started out in the same place, or in 2-3 different places and spread from there, then it's ok that going on foot from settlement a to settlement b might take 10 hours in game = 10 hours in real time. You would never travel to a settlement that far away on foot unless you had a reason in any case. You=the typical fantasy peasant.

This is how it was in the middle-ages. Royal couriers and possibly others could get from a to b somewhat faster by utilizing a series of stables, riding a horse hard for some hours (top speed 50-60 km/h, but a horse can only maintain that for a short while), then changing to a fresh one and continuing. With that tactic and good roads, you could cover the distance from a to b in perhaps half an hour instead of 10 hours, i.e.

So you could have a lot of exploration taking place in a small area, slowly spreading outwards. And you could have PC's and NPC's establishing ways of faster transport gradually with this, centering a lot of story on that aspect, and watching how humanity spreads slowly. Or if you have a fully fledged fantasy world with towns and countries, you can still use this real time way of checking distance. But keep in mind that there is no reason to flesh out the entire world, or make the entire world inhabited. That's a very huge tasks too in any case, but especially so if you use real world time and distances.

But if you want travel to feel like travel, and distances to feel like distances, I think this would be a neat and realistic way to do it. You just need to keep the story and plot focus on the fact that most action will take place surrounding a settlement at first, and then spread from there. I also am a big fan of not being able to go anywhere instantly.

Permadeath is fine, with some ways out:

1. You can get raised for free during your first week of playing by asking a GM (unless you've been a fool on purpose)

2. Gods can decide to send you back if they think you are useful to them or if your friends perform certain hefty rituals, promises, killings, etc. in return for letting you live again.

So basically, you will die permanently after that first week if you die, unless you've done a lot of RP directly and indirectly. And any death of an important person would then spark stories and efforts to resurrect him, which the GM's can use for great tales and plots smile

As for skills, I'm greatly in favor of a skill system like EVE and Seed, where you are constantly learning. However, this should be RP'ed. I.e. if you run around all day drinking in the tavern, and then suddenly gain 10 in 'Hunting', it just doesn't make any sense. There are easy ways around that, but then it's not time-based anymore but based on how much you practice/use those skills. So maybe it is a matter of trusting the RP'er to RP the things he is training. Like we do in StSC.

Re: Possible MMORPG project

tdb wrote:

I'd like to note that the current list of possible rules is more or less a list of (somewhat processed) thoughts I've had.  Not all may be implemented to begin with and some may be dropped or significantly altered during testing.  It's still more like a notepad than the beginning of an actual rulebook.

True. I just wanted to bring up concept-driven design (and repeatedly refer to it to the point of annoyance) because I feel too many new game developers start by coming up with a variety of different things and try to squeeze them into their game without stopping to think what it is exactly they want to achieve. This was very much the case with our previous project (we were talking about how to best model armor types while we were still deciding about the game world). Even though I myself found the "describe your concept with one or two sentences" exersize in Multimedia Writing difficult and frustrating, it was definately worth doing. But true, it's worth scetching and brainstorming before you make this concept.

tdb wrote:

It would also be relevant to metallic armor and weapons rusting in rain if not cared for properly.  Also getting frostbite / sunburn if not dressed properly.  (Finally an RPG where you can't go around all year in your chainmail bikini!)  Naturally there will be combat effects as well, from various kinds of weather.

Makes sense, but if the effects are only a few here and there, it's worth considering if it's worth it to make a weather model.

tdb wrote:

In most games the cycle is purely visual.  I intend to have it affect your ability to see and the activity of animals and NPCs.

This would help the problem somewhat, true.

tdb wrote:

Talking with your group will definitely be possible.  Meaningful random encounters will need some GM power to at least set them up, but they would be nice too.

Unless travelling is really a very rare event, the GMs will never have the resources to make every trip interesting. It'd have to be generated in some repeated way.

tdb wrote:

On link death there would be some rudimentary logic on what to do - if near enough to an apartment or a paid-for inn room, the character would automatically go there.  If in the wilderness, he would camp.  Uncampable places could exist if they logically fit there, haunted ruins or some such.

This will not work well with permadeath. Even if this rudimentary logic always manages to find the safest possible action to take (which running all the way through a dungeon alone won't be), the player will still call it "death due to disconnect" if the character dies. (Of course, any way of handling combat that prevents cowardly logouts will be problematic in this way. It's permadeath that makes this a major issue.)

tdb wrote:

Possibly both.  Since this is not a sci-fi environment, it doesn't make sense to learn about building houses while you cook.

I usually consider time-based training just an abstraction of what the character has been learning lately. It doesn't have to match exactly what happens in-game to still make enough sense.

tdb wrote:

Degradation would be sufficiently slow that you would not notice it for the skills that you use at least semi-regularly.  It's intended to encourage skill specialization and discourage every player trying to do everything by himself.

You might not notice it but the effect will still be there and it will take away just as much of your work, whether you use it semi-regularly or not (assuming degradation/day is the same no matter what you do).

tdb wrote:

By saying "always avoid death 100%" I assume you mean the game (or rather GMs) should give give choices in the plot that allow players to choose an easier path, and not that players should always be able to get alive from every situation they got themselves into.

Getting forward in life means different risks for different people.  I might have a one in ten thousand chance of getting into a car accident during my daily trip to work - a fireman might have a one in then chance of getting injured during a difficult rescue mission.  In a "free" MMO world, what actually is getting forward?  A mercenary's life has considerably more risks than a cook's.

I mean if they never make the conscius choice to add risk to their game, they should be in no danger, ever. And they should still be able to have a full experience. Taking a risky job can be considered such a choice, but there should be enough variety of jobs with no danger.

The problem, usually, is that to get XP you have to constantly do dangerous things. Well, you can always keep doing things below your level and gain XP much slower, but still there's always the chance you run into that wolf with the adjective before its name that you can't yet handle. The chance of running into this "dire bastardly badass wolf" is usually way greater than the chance of getting into said car accident, which is why most games need stupid resurrection systems just to keep their players from giving up the game.

tdb wrote:

I agree though, that too easy permadeath (or too easy death at all, for that matter) is going to cause frustration.  Whatever I finally decide on this though, I want to discourage players from just trying things to see if they're too strong, or engaging some boss a dozen times until the dice finally roll in their favor.

The problem often is that if you don't have a great OOC knowledge of, say, the different monster types, it's often difficult to assess, without trial and error, if you're high-level enough to kill the wolf with the bigger adjective than the ones you killed before. In real-life it's difficult too, but at least you have a life-long experience of living in the world to help you. (And if you do die you won't be able to complain to the developers about it. Unless God exists, in which case His life probably sucks.)

Re: Possible MMORPG project

I agree with Darkhawk in some way that the day cycle should be longer than 2 hrs.. at least 6hrs or so imo..

Re: Possible MMORPG project

A 6 hour day/night cycle would put a full in-game day on the higher side of a single play session. Two hours lets someone get online and see a whole day pass in a reasonable amount of time for a casual player. It also cuts an 8-hour in game sleeping period down to forty minutes, which is enough for people to go eat dinner after having played for three in-game days (6 hours). So there are practical reasons for the day cycle to be 2 hours.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q125/coarsesand/graffisigtransparent.png

Re: Possible MMORPG project

I think it is pretty important to step back and take a look at what the focus and vision of your project is going to be, before adding or removing ideas such as how long should a day last, what about permadeath and travel, etc. tdb. You have to ask yourself who your target audience will be and what the focus of the game will be. And then proceed to add elements in accordance with that. Trying to make a game for everyone fails for almost all MMO companies, not to speak of hobbyists. Also, the game gains a much stronger and clearer appeal to the target audience if the focus is clear. It's also more fun to make for the developer.

So I think you should take some days and weeks to think about focus and audience before thinking about the things that come after. Let me illustrate:

1. Resurrection vs. permadeath. Casual MMO crowd vs. older more experienced players looking for something different.

2. Focus on combat/combat/no combat. Casual MMO crowd vs.. the same if you will

3. Extensive Skills/Grind or not so many skills/no grind = Focus on mechanics or story/interaction.

4. Easy travel or making the players life difficult = standard MMO fare vs. smaller, more tenacious audience.

And so on, just to show you. These decisions are at the core of the direction you'll need to take. If you have a good and clear idea of this before tackling the other things, it'll result in much, much effort saved along the way, less work wasted and a higher chance of success.

Now, most audiences are heterogenous to some extent. i.e. they enjoy elements from other audiences too, or accept them. But there can be said to be three 'core' audiences, grossly generalizing:

- The standard MMO'er. Focus on combat, levelling, quests, pvp, pve, accepts grind. Wants good gfx and good 'standard' MMO gameplay. Wants to play a game to relax, doesn't want to take things too seriously. OOC'ers, but can RP 'light' or casual when they think it's fun or to be a part of a RP group.

- The puzzle-solver/dedicated grinder/mechanics-nerd. Enjoys the challenge of working with and against the game, enjoys crafting, will grind a lot, will stick with the game because of its mechanics or puzzles. Likes exploring both rules and geography. OOC, most of this type of gamer think RP'ers are aliens from another dimension. They cannot fathom them.

- The RP'er. Focus on being able to change things, on interacting with other RP'ers, on the stories being good and the world feeling 'believable'. Values GM's running NPC's and plots. Doesn't usually like grinding and doesn't care too much about mechanics or levels. Wants a game that feels 'real' and wants to be able to not hear (or see for that matter wink) OOC'ers.

Trying to satisfy all groups will be a lesson in frustation, AND you have to be realistic about this project I think. You have to, before brainstorming too much, have clear-cut borders and a vision, and eliminate as much work and design as possible, while still retaining that vision. Otherwise the work will overwhelm you and the game will lack focus/vision. One cannot just make a game and dump all the things they see as cool into it as if it was one large basket. I'm repeating my point though wink And I don't say this to be the partypooper or to be critical, I just think it is of the highest importance to have this level nailed down first before making of systems/mechanics/the world.

Re: Possible MMORPG project

Darkhawk wrote:

Trying to satisfy all groups will be a lesson in frustation, AND you have to be realistic about this project I think. You have to, before brainstorming too much, have clear-cut borders and a vision, and eliminate as much work and design as possible, while still retaining that vision. Otherwise the work will overwhelm you and the game will lack focus/vision. One cannot just make a game and dump all the things they see as cool into it as if it was one large basket. I'm repeating my point though wink And I don't say this to be the partypooper or to be critical, I just think it is of the highest importance to have this level nailed down first before making of systems/mechanics/the world.

A very good point. The other thing to bear in mind is that, whilst a game may be aimed at one group, it will have people from another who wander in on occasion. They probably won't stay, but they might cause problems while they're around. Not just as annoying OOCers, but because of the unique mechanics this MMORPG might include.

The big one will be permadeath. If the project has it (and it seems to be leaning that way), then every so often a random griefer will enter the game, and kill one or more players before moving on. There will have to be some means of dealing with this, or people WILL get annoyed and move on.

Another would be the puzzle-solver or level-grinder types that Darkhawk mentioned. A non-RPer could enter the game, spot the weak points in the system, and gain a very powerful character compared to RPers whilst refusing to RP.

I'm undecided about permadeath- perhaps your character has to be in-game for at least a month before any kills become permanent? But I offer the following suggestion for the skill-grinding problem, which I stole from Aracum (recently started replaying after finding it in at the back of a drawer).

Give each character various "Attributes" that are ground with XP like any other MMORPG. Then have "Skill Grades"- Beginner, Competent, Master, and so on. The skill grades are what give you the in-game effects, but the attributes qualify you for them. However, once qualify for a grade, you must find someone to train you in it. This means that a non=RPer will grind a character to maximum very rapidly, then find out that to actually get any benefit they have to actually INTERACT with people IN CHARACTER. At this point, they either give up and quit the game or learn to RP.

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Re: Possible MMORPG project

Kryigerof wrote:

Makes sense, but if the effects are only a few here and there, it's worth considering if it's worth it to make a weather model.

Even a simple weather system with few effects will make the world feel more real and give role players something to talk about in a tavern.

Kryigerof wrote:

Unless travelling is really a very rare event, the GMs will never have the resources to make every trip interesting. It'd have to be generated in some repeated way.

There would of course be random bandit attacks and such.  By "meaningful" I meant something that actually ties into the story of the game, and that's something that can't really be done randomly.  I plan on making GM tools that can be used to pre-script events that will be triggered by certain player actions, such as traveling on some road.

Kryigerof wrote:

This will not work well with permadeath. Even if this rudimentary logic always manages to find the safest possible action to take (which running all the way through a dungeon alone won't be), the player will still call it "death due to disconnect" if the character dies. (Of course, any way of handling combat that prevents cowardly logouts will be problematic in this way. It's permadeath that makes this a major issue.)

This is especially hard since some forms of disconnection are not possible to detect instantly.  If a router in between dies, it can take 10 minutes before the TCP session timeouts and the server sees a disconnection.  Active pinging of clients will help this somewhat, but due to possible lag the disconnect timeout still has to be on the order of a minute.

This question clearly calls for some more thought and possibly testing.

Kryigerof wrote:

You might not notice it but the effect will still be there and it will take away just as much of your work, whether you use it semi-regularly or not (assuming degradation/day is the same no matter what you do).

What if the degradation effect wouldn't even start until you haven't used the skill for a week?

Kryigerof wrote:

I mean if they never make the conscius choice to add risk to their game, they should be in no danger, ever. And they should still be able to have a full experience. Taking a risky job can be considered such a choice, but there should be enough variety of jobs with no danger.

The problem, usually, is that to get XP you have to constantly do dangerous things. Well, you can always keep doing things below your level and gain XP much slower, but still there's always the chance you run into that wolf with the adjective before its name that you can't yet handle. The chance of running into this "dire bastardly badass wolf" is usually way greater than the chance of getting into said car accident, which is why most games need stupid resurrection systems just to keep their players from giving up the game.

My plan is to drop the concept of abstract experience points completely.  If you want to learn fighting, you'll have to fight.  There will be mentors who allow you to do this safely, however to be the champion you'll have to do some real fighting too.  You also can't reach grandmaster level by only fighting goblins, since once you learn all their tricks, there's nothing more to learn.  I don't know how well this works out since I haven't really played a game with such a system (I should try though), but we'll see.

Kryigerof wrote:

The problem often is that if you don't have a great OOC knowledge of, say, the different monster types, it's often difficult to assess, without trial and error, if you're high-level enough to kill the wolf with the bigger adjective than the ones you killed before. In real-life it's difficult too, but at least you have a life-long experience of living in the world to help you. (And if you do die you won't be able to complain to the developers about it. Unless God exists, in which case His life probably sucks.)

There can be in-game sources of such knowledge, such as libraries or mercenary veterans.

And then some comments to what others have said:

The day cycle has to be considerably shorter than 24 hours in order for players being able to fully experience the game with the character class they have chosen.  We can't restrict playing a thief to those that can stay awake through the night.  If we consider that an average working person has maybe 6 to 8 hours to play per day if he's dedicated, a day cycle of 2 to 4 hours becomes very reasonable.

As for the target group, it has to be something I belong in.  I'm not a hardcore role player, but I dislike the repetitiveness and implausibility of standard MMORPGs.  I want to create something that feels like it's alive and where your actions have a meaning.  There probably will be some randomly-generated reptitive content where it fits (playing a smith's apprentice and he gives you tasks to do).  I try to avoid exploitable mechanics and any undisputable best items that you get by killing the same dragon 10 times in a row.  I also try to avoid a situation where there'll be absolutely nothing to do because all GMs are sleeping.  So the game will be geared towards role playing, but not at the far end of the axis.

Tantavalist's idea of a skill system sounds interesting.  I'll see if I can utilize that somehow.  I still don't like abstract XP though.  Maybe you could train to high levels all by yourself, but doing it that way would be slow (since you'll make much more mistakes).  Utilizing the help of a master and, with some skills, also a library, you could considerable speed up your training.

I'll be leaving to a diving camp early tomorrow, so I won't be able to respond for a few days.