On Setting and Player Purpose..

[Khaspir]

I've been thinking of something ....
We know where novus comes from ... but I am wondering where it is going ... A key element to making this game real and immersive to the players is the storyline. This question is more important to me than exactly how the combat system will work, or how will I get resurrected, or what (if anything) will I find on my corpse? Indeed, some of these questions might be best answered by taking a look at one key question:

How do the players fit into the storyline?

Do we as players have any impact on events in the world, or do we just run around and bash baddies (and coincidentally each other) as events transpire around us?
Can we become the great heros and dark lords, the leaders that future generations will read about and hear stories of? Or we merely read of them, and wish that someday someone could read of us?

One advantage to restricting players to one world is that that world can be updated to reflect major (and minor but significant) player events. There is a potential for great PC leaders to arise, and world shaking events to be driven entirely by player action.
One of my biggest issues with the current MMORPGs out there is that it feels as though we as players are only there to battle the baddies.. We are not part of major events of the world, and that feeling (for me, at any rate) tends to make me feel as though my actions DO NOT matter in the overall scheme of things.
I personally think it would be really cool for a 'mysterious threat of invasion' to actually have an in game consequence - and for towns to actually be taken over by dread forces from the west, or to be heroically saved by FooBar the Great - and if it is saved, I'd like to hear the townsfolk talking about FooBar for days afterwards..
Anyhow, that's how I feel about it.. Any other thoughts?

Khaspir

Seeker of the One Light

[Deafsong]

I agree that being able to be a world leader or a legendary hero would be great. It would be awesome to go down in some world hisotry, or hear other people talk about your character's deeds. But The problem with huge games like this that try to create whole, working worlds is that everyone wants to be the center of attention and unlike Table top RPGs like D&D where it's just you and the DM and the 4 people your playing with against a world of half-wits, this is a world populated with thousands of PCs all capable of being a Legendary hero or world leader. It is a huge problem for the Designers to accomidate all of us in our desire to be famous and have a lasting and huge impact on the world. Don't get me wrong, It would be awesome if they can figure out a way for it to be possible, and then this little birdie will shut up and just play the game, but I think it is more up to us as players to make Heroes, work together so that everyone has their 15 minutes, or their Legendary quest, and let the designers set it up so that it's possible.

[Lordosis]

Believe me, I know where you are coming from. And since I'm the lead programmer for Arcanity, what I think counts a lot!! I honestly have a lot of fun at lower levels just bashin' baddies, but at higher levels, I don't think a game should just make the baddies correspondingly bigger and let the game continue as-is. At higher levels (well, at lower levels to a limited extent) there will be much more to worry about than just finding the next bigger moster to whack.

If you're a warrior, you might want to buy a keep give ruling a try. It won't be easy, you'll need to have massive amounts of physcial resources, and a correspondingly high level of contacts or political clout just to build a keep. Once you have the keep, don't think you can just sit back and collect tribute. You have to provide incentives for villagers and merchants to set up camp around your keep, if you wish to benefit from them. You'll also want to think about hiring a small army to protect your new keep when you can't watch it yourself. But big deal, you say, now you're just a small time land owner! And you'd be right if you said that! After all that work and money, you're still just an average keep owner. If you want to become the thing of legends you still have a long ways to go and many obstacles to overcome.

Perhaps the quickest (quick being a relative term) route to fame in Arcanity is to become a deity. I don't know how much I'm supposed to leak here, but as we've said before, gods and deities aren't invincible when visiting Novus. Deities are never invincible, in fact. They are, however, incredibly powerful when on their home plane of existence, since they can draw upon power residing throughout the plane. It is possible to actually BECOME a deity if you manage to kill one, although it's not an easy job even if you can get it :). But rest assured, your name would be well known for quite a while if you pulled it off.

Deafsong has a point, too, though. Every player can't be a hero, unless it is only for a short period of time. Everyone that puts their mind to it will have a chance at their 15 minutes of fame in Arcanity, and the possibility exists for much more than that. It's all up to the player. Of course, it goes without saying that no matter how many opportunities we, the developers, provide the players, it's still up to the players to help make Arcanity an enjoyable experience.

[Scrote]

- Every player can't be a hero -

Is this necessarily true? I think since people have such different ideas of what they want to do it might not be as difficult as it seems. For example: some people like to kill dragons, others like to kill giants, others like to PK, others anti-PK, some enjoy politics, others enjoy intrigue, some prefer questing, and yet others like wizardry, while some others enjoy thieving, others like to build up economically and some others like to just bash monsters endlessly ad nauseum.

It really might not be too difficult to accomodate all these players and within each 'sphere' of enjoyment allow the possibility for the existence of a handful of heros (the best thieves, the best mages, the best dragon-slayers, the best merchants, etc).

The one factor which I feel is important here is that players should have to work hard to maintain their status and that it should be such a desireable goal for other players to achieve that they are all constantly trying to chip away at the heros position in an attempt to attain it for themselves. This way you have a rotating roster of heros in the different spheres of enjoyment and the game isn't dominated by any one group.

Sort of like that fatboy UT (or was it Quake?) mod where the more kills you get the bigger your character becomes, making him easier to hit.

S'right,
Scrote

[Stafir]

Hi, its me again :).

Well I think a good point on this is made. Its very hard to make every character feel like they are a hero.


However, is it that hard to make them feel like they did contribute something to the world? The idea of a keep shows what I mean. You make that keep, you have the guards, you have people around you. What if it becomes a town people visit often?


More or less, you need to provide something to let the player know that they did 'something' or were a part of something great.


A good idea might be to think up 1 time quests, that take days to work out. Start up wars between differing factions. And since I'm thinking of these wars at the moment...Ok nother idea from the game I'm bringing up coming up here.


On the wars bit, one of my ideas is to make the deity's staff members. But there are no rules for what you can/can't do. If they want to tweak a personal char, they should feel free to. Hate someone? Go ahead and fry the lil critters. This also relies on staff members being good friends and being able to keep ingame conflicts from ruining that friendship. Why? Simple, to keep their powers, the deity's MUST have people worship/sactifice to them. Therefore, they would be fighting over each other to get more followers. And if one is a jerk...and everybody stops their worship..powerless deity.

Basically..deity's might go at war with each other..rewarding followers who help support the cause. But thats just me :).


Anywho, just try to do things that include the player. Heck might want to consider having two sides of players actually fight against each other..or fight to reach a goal. Whichever side wins...the world somehow changes to reflect the side that won..though that should be rare.


Just me ideas.


Stafir