To be honest, when it comes down to it, I would love the game to have no teleporters, no Rez, and for a top end character to not have much more HP then a newbie player ?the top end guy is only better at avoiding damage?

But that is not how this will be.

To put into perspective, think of your selves as walking everywhere. (in real life).

Now think that you had a back pack that let you hold up to 90 pounds of crap and not affect you much.

Now, some friends of yours call you (send a tell) saying that they are getting together in a few minutes to go to the water park for some fun (dungeon for pillaging)  the water park is 20 miles away (realistic distance in PS).

Now, you have a choice?walk/jog that distance. And it will take about 3-6 hours, and by the time you get there?your friends are already tired and going home to sleep.

Now also introduce the fact that there are things ?on your way to the water park? that are trying to kill you?and many of them can, at will.

So as you are almost there?you get teleported back to your starting point ?you got killed? so it might take you 10 or 15 trips?or you have to tag on with a group of people all going in the same direction, for protection,  and just waiting on that to happen may take a while, not to mention the security is not guaranteed.

In essence, do the ?no teleport people?  really want to play for hours, just to get to the place you want to play?

This is very hard for those who have not played MMORPGS for a while, to understand, but for people who enjoy getting to play with real life friends (or groups that speak the same real life language) we need some rapid transit. In essence I am of the feeling that major point (until you get into high end stuff) in the game should be accessible in 30 minutes. It might mean 4 or 5 transfers, but it should be there. And at worst 45 minutes.

For the high end stuff?I think societal evolution should be in play. You want to be able to get there fast?pay for a teleporter, or a guild office with a teleporter in that location. Guild members and allies use it for free, others for a fee, and enemies or allies of enemies don?t use it at all. Guilds set the fee.

Of course they would need to pay for upkeep, and pay for every new place that can go to it or from it?but clever planers will know how to get to where it best fills their needs.

And in such a way, guilds can have large fortifications in really remote areas, and still be able to get to the main cities with little difficulty?.

Now constructing that fort in the middle of nowhere is another matter completely.

If disbanded you remain there untill you leave. All together. If you logg off there is the more interesting question.

What if you as a group logg off just before you complete the task you are there for, and then log right back on???

Does each person get all the loot for the quest :-)?.ummmm NO! but if they accomplish it they get their share.

As far as different locations for instanced stuff. Consider Dungeons a generic term for isolated area of high adventure value.

When I have a bit more time, I?ll look more deeply at your rules and speak on them a bit at your forum if I see it as appropriate.

The only thing I am saying as far as rules changing is more about the medium you have to work in.

Never Winter Nights is a great example in changing 3rd ED D&D rules to fit the game.

As far as research, I would recommend ATM one of the two major fantasy MMORPGS EQ and or DAOC, then Toon Town, and possibly   Star wars galaxies. But in reality the major thing is to play one of the fantasy ones to a point of competence with the character. And that takes time. The key is to play one of these as a player, (to gain that player perspective) this is getting harder and harder for me since I started on this project.

But one you play one to competency, you can see the differences between others and the reasons for some things.

Shadow Bane is a great example of great ideas going to hell. (though I hear it has improved somewhat).

I almost have to say that I can?t stand these games anymore?but they draw me in for a few weeks or so?and then I wonder why I am playing.

I have a broad paper and pencil background?much tweaking rules, never making my own 100% but you would have to say that by the end of some of the tweaks they where mostly mine.

Shadow run is really my true love in role playing, but it has major flaws (troll being able to swallow a grenade and survive for one, shurikens and grenades costing the same for another) but it is a great world, and an action/result system that fits perfectly in the genre.

The only major published system I think fits it?s genre better was/is Earthdawn but by the time I was playing that I was really sick of fantasy and shadowrun overshadowed it so to speak.

But the thing I don?t think I will be able to stress enough is getting good art direction and capable artists willing to take direction and work for free is possibly the hardest thing. In art I speak both 2D and 3D but in writing as well.

Making dialog for ten thousand NPC most of will never be used by more then one percent of the players is not incredible fun.

Plus everyone wants to do the ?cool stuff? and no one wants to do the crap jobs.

I am as guilty of it as the next guy.

Through your past good work, you have a following that would give you a head start on many things, but the devil is always in the details. You have many of those fleshed out, the coders will come I am sure, and they won?t need to be incredibly innovative?though the better they are the better the result. But because you can step up on our shoulders and we have ironed a lot out, you would just need to add your rules and art into the mix. Since our wonderful coding team has jumped the many hurdles in getting it to a point of stable playability.


In reality I am quite hopeful that you go for it, you defiantly have the perseverance.

Out of all the posters that have said they would like to make their own game, yours has rung as the most probable of meeting that goal.

I?m quite sure you would be a very welcome addition to our team as well?(I must ask) but lack of creative liberty might be an issue you would rather avoid since you have plans to do your own similar project.


time for sleep :-)

I think I have the recollection of playing this at some time in the past?(I think at a con in San Francisco?but I could be wrong)

LoreWeaver the game and amount of material you have (not to mentions it?s quality) is truly impressive.

What I hope to give as a general outline is some of the many things you need to consider as you go forward in this rout. And hopefully assist you in managing your time so as to have the best possible outcome.

First I will say that MMORPGs take time and a lot of effort, as I assume you already imagine. Using it to the best possible outcome is important.

Art; (3d and textures) will probably be the hardest part to get done. There are many things to do. In a way you are lucky as you will be able to concentrate on these facets more so then Rules and engine coding.

Data; in a paper and pencil game the GM can make many assumptions or generalizations that speed up game play. In a MMOG that is not a possibility, every building, wall, cliff?. Must have a stated (difficulty to climb number) this can change in various effects?but it has to be inputted.

Your Level system does not appear to conflict too much with our ?non-level system?  but you will have to figure how to account for luck in a game like this, specially given it?s real time  aspect.
One idea I have out of the blue (as I am writing this) is for luck to add benefits for a short amount of time each game day based on level/amount of luck. This refreshes at a certain amount per day, but does so in real time (not at a given moment) so when a player feels he needs all the bonuses he/she can get, they would press the luck button and it would take off ?luck time? as they it goes. And if they use half, then in half a day (game time) they would regain their lost luck time.

I am not saying that you should use the above example only that you may have to change the way things are done to retain aspects of your game.

Another thing you may need to consider is the amount of true combat time. In most MMOGs characters are in combat a lot, and since combat is played out a lot faster then in paper and pencil games (huge raids taking 8 hours that would take months to play out in a paper and pencil game) you exp and general progression system would need to be examined and somehow elongated.

The bonuses for a new level in skill may have to be increased, so players feel they have improved from level/skill 5 to skill 6.

One way to do this and maintain the system as you have it is to simply increase the number of levels or skills. Say from 15 to 150 or 1500. but at the same time you must maintain some sense of progression, specially at the lower end.

Filling up the world.
In paper and pencil games we have a huge city filled with all kinds of things, but we only annotate the VIP?s for the story, in MMOGs it is general that everyone has some function. And filling that in is a huge chore.
You might want to start with small steps. One starting rural town and the outlying adventuring area. One or two races, all the classes for them and levels 1-15.

That would give you a very starting point to get feedback and learn what changes to the initial concept have to change.

Amount of players; in a game like these 100-100,000 players in one location makes things very different then a paper and pencil game where adventurers/ hero?s are uncommon. In MMORPGs hero?s are a dime a dozen and ?dungeons? don?t get raided by groups of 5-20, they get pillaged by hoards of hundreds. How that is dealt with would need to be decided.

Death?is a major transitioning issue in these games, and how it should be dealt with.

Player Vs player interaction. While it is noble to say that all players can interact with other players as they would in real life, the majority of instances it would be the equivalent of having players in D&D that are level 1 doing combat with people that are lv 20 threats.

Role playing aspect. How is role playing enforced or simulated. (think about this one, and I would love to hear if you get a good short answer to this, but in reality any answer I would like to hear.)    

Making all the character choices ?cool? is important. It is as important as making it fun. Since people wish to be ?cool? in they alternate life.

In your game you use a D30 for rolls, or about a 3.5% change of any set result. With computers you can make this a d1000000000000 or in our case a roll of 0.000000000000001 ? 2
(don?t count the zeros I didn?t get it exact, but it is about 1^-15). This in our case ?PS? is applied to a large number of predefined variables and with the roll, be it opposed or static comes to a yes or no answer. Actually it is a no or yes/by how much answer.

So as you can see, you have things to think about.

Once you have made choices?test out your concepts and try to prove it out or not using some code or excel or some other chance analysis tool. And figure if your things are in the right scope for your hopes.

Magic is also hard, things will have to be added and taken out of your spells, because of subtleties and or lack of technologies, or likelihood of abuse. For example a mass charm spell, would be greatly annoying to players if the entire war band is finally organized and put together ( a week of planning and 3 hours behind schedule) and the dark wizard in the tower blows them all off in 30 seconds with one spell.


There are about 1000 other things to think about, but I hope this little list is of help to you, and if you need anything (minor) that I might be able to help in, I?d be happy to.

Oh, one other note, starting to seriously plan now, but not start for a year from now (just to say) is not a terrible thing if you have a good and defined concept that would reduce a lot of trial and error.

I trust that you have played EQ, DAOC, SWG, UO, and any other of the slew of MMORPGs if not?dedicate about 2-3 months of your life to ?research?.

It is important to learn not only to know what you dislike about them, but why some work, why others don?t, and how things should work out?UI, what info the players should have, (most games give all info of the ?magic? weapons) yet most planned not to do so, that often gets tossed in alpha or beta testing. As such it makes a ?detect magical function? spell useless.

Ok?I am done for now?.hope it helps a bit.

The movie is simply a fun action flick, it is ok for people who are into the ?everyone is cool in this movie? crowd, and not so great for the people really into vampires and werewolves.  

I don?t think this was really a thinking movie, it was not deep at all. It was a simple action flick with a supernatural genre.

Not the matrix or Lord of the rings, but worth a matinee if you are into action and cool people.


The single best thing about the movie I have to say is, at least it was not a martial arts vampire movie?it was a brawling vampire/werewolf movie.

Lots of stupid stuff in it, guns that shoot and shoot and shoot, but only need reloading at opportune times, nice subtle CGI except for the werewolves. And a the ending could have been much better, but it was not terrible and I did not feel cheated.

I would say it would have been an excellent straight to DVD movie, but as a major movie it was fair/poor. Better overall then ?once upon a time in Mexico? but had no great parts as Mexico had.

This does raise a great issue, do we want ways for the guild to usurp power from their leaders? And if so how?  Democracy is not the only way, in fact we could have the leaders select their way of ruling. If a dictatorship, perhaps they can pick the method of removal?first a vote, then a challenge of some type, then something else?or it might have to be a 75% vote from the officers in the guild?

anyway are there any thoughts on this?

In the far off future there are plans that the NPC?s will be little different then the players, in said case they will go up in power as players do. But I don?t expect to see that happen anytime soon, in fact I think we will be in release before that happens in my opinion, other devs differ.

For the near future, not at all. For the mid future, you will have to earn more exp to gain skills, in essence it will take you about 20x more exp to get 10 skills up to 100 as it would 5...while people may see faults with this and how some have heard it will work, it will work well, the issue is some of us have thoughts of adding a very specialized field after a certain point so as you become really good, you can really micromanage what it is that you do.

This would alow you to still noticeably progress, but with big limitations.

So to answer your question/statement. No you will be able to master everything, and I would love to see guilds create champions for themselves...the entire guild takes time and effort to make one character really really huge, the character is on 24/7/356... at least this way we will know when we need to add stuff for the high end players :-) and no, we will not keep up, but we might be closer then many games have been.