Destructable enviorment?

[cynthrax]

Those of us that have played UO know that you go and chop at a tree for some wood. And after you take all the wood that tree can give you, the tree still remains...

Will that be the case here? Will chopping down the tree end up in removing that tree in the game?

Also, in the FAQ's it talks about how orcs might end up making a city if left alone long enough... Would burning houses and that sort of thing be able to happen?

In addition to the previous bit... If a raid is made on a castle, would that castle be shown as being in ruins after the raid is successful? If so, it could be interesting to see ghosts start to haunt the crumbling halls.

One last thing... What are the thoughts on the decay of items on the ground/player built things if left alone?

[Kintoun]

This has been discussed. It's pretty much given that everyone wants to see this type of alterable landscape in place. However due to internet lag this would be close to impossible. So right now the top "unique" lag monster which we want is tatooes.

[Xylenix]

Speaking of tattoos: Will it be possible to have your character build a shop or a buisness of some kind for the purpose of making money? Say I wanted to build a tattoo parlour, would I be able to design the tattoos I'd be giving people?? Just a thought~

[BelDragos]

The discussion decided that the best way to reduce the lag to a minimum would be to have a selection of tattoos. That way your computer wouldn't have to download the particular design everytime you could view it. The same reason there will not be any skins. Rich and Rolfe said there will not be any Homer Simpsons running about.

[Xylenix]

Yea, but what about the whole shop bit? Will PCs be able to build and run/own shops??

[fredrick]

I've been away from the message board for quite a while (I thought the site went down for good), but I remember this question being raised quite a while ago when I was still active. I searched the message boards, and the only reference I found was actually the same message I remember... which covered some of the details of player-owned property.
Of course, lag is a HUGE issue with this one, and I'm not sure what discussion has followed along the same line since this, but last I heard, there was definite thought toward allowing player-owned shops.
Then again, based on the previous post, it seems this was likely primarily ruled out (possibly with exceptions?) due to lag.

Here's a previous discussion of like issues. (Dated from 2000)

Guild etc. post (http://www.arcanity.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=137&highlight=shop+and+player)

[Kymeri mac An Iolar]

No, it wasn't ruled out, the devs talked about limiting player owned building that they build themselves. There was talk however about allowing players to rent or buy dwellings from towns and such. Like being able to buy a guildhall. Players would be able to build their own, but it would be very expensive and they spot they pick would have to be pre-approved before building on the site would begin.

[cynthrax]

I believe that tatooes can be easily put in...

First off you would need either a character model that could be seperated out into different body structures (ie torso, head, arms, legs...). Then for each tatoo you would just need to create an image of each body part (5 tatoos and above listed body parts would mean that you would have 20 body images to create).

Chances are that this info would never be transmitted however because of armour being worn...

Another idea for dealing with tatoos is to make them like armour files. Just like in Everquest when you put new armour on, it shows on your character. A tatoo would just be a permanent armour image on your body however it would allow another image to be stacked on it.

[fredrick]

The programming aspect of Tatoos does not appear to be a problem... the problem is lag.
If users could create their own tatoos, each player would have to download the user's image either A) before connecting, or B) before seeing the other player. (Probably B, because A could get unreasonable if a player's logged off, then logs on)
What I believe the current game plan is is that the designers will provide a selection of tatoos, and you can pick/choose from those for your character. Then they should be able to get away with something like a 32 bit transmition of a tattoo code, along with a body location code.

Of course, for those out there who are good artists (this completely and absolutely excludes me), it would be really cool to be able to have custom tattoos dynamicaly created. This could probably be workable in an elective sort of way such that the tattoo is not apparent in most cases, however, you can 'view' another character in a manner which reveals their tattoo to you.
Then you could download the image at a time when you can afford the lag.

OK, I'm off to pretend like I'm working some more. (Naa boss.. this is code.. honest it is! The pretty blue background is just part of my text editor!)

-- Fredrick

[BelDragos]

They mentioned if they were to include tattoos it would be with a dropdown menu of a select few preprogramed.

[Kadafu]

The original poster's last line mentioned one of the things I don't understand about EQ.

How are items on the ground being handled? I know they can't sit there for a "realisitic" decay time due to lag concerns. EQ's blink and it's gone thing is absurd though, maybe wandering thingumys pick them up **and it is possible, if you kill that thingumy to retrieve whatever it was on the ground**.

[Kintoun]

Hey ya I would like this idea. However it would require more programming and processing power on the server side....

For instance instead of decaying items the closest NPC walks by and picks it up (as in Kadafu's idea. Nice name btw).

Hmm however I think I prefer the poof dissappear idea. Just one of the cases where fun takes presidence over reality.

Here's a possible comprimise tho... howabout the said item dissapates into the sky in a small shower of sparks. This would be the gods reclaiming the lost item and placing it as matter elsewhere in the world. Or doing whatever else with the taken matter/item.

[BelDragos]

You just want more treasure brother....

But seriously, I like the shower of sparks rising to the heavens idea for items dissapearing.